Chapter 16
Garnet was good.
Not just good, he was an amazing pastor. An amazing preacher. Outstanding at opening up the word of God and applying it, speaking in such a way that she could apply it to her life easily.
Mertie wasn’t sure she had ever heard anyone better.
In fact, she knew she hadn’t. The wisdom and depth to Garnet’s sermon, while still being simple enough to be easily understood and interesting enough to keep her attention for the entire forty minutes that he spoke, amazed her, astounded her, and stirred something in her that made her want to be closer to him.
When he had gone up to the altar by himself, it had taken her all of half a second to know that she wanted to join him there. Whether it was because the sermon had stirred her soul so much, or whether she just wanted to somehow show him by her presence that he changed her life in the last forty minutes, she wasn’t sure.
He hadn’t preached anything profound, just that as Christians they should continue to grow.
As she stood from the altar and moved back toward her seat, carefully avoiding looking at Garnet, because it wasn’t an appropriate time for her to speak to him, her eyes met the eyes of someone in the back. Someone she hadn’t seen around town, and someone who...just seemed to be searching.
So, after the congregation was dismissed, and Garnet moved to the back to greet people, Mertie hurried from her seat and walked around to the back corner, where she had seen the girl, young lady, looking at her.
She caught her just as she was getting out of her pew and stuck her hand out.
“I’m Mertie Jardine.” That’s all she said, hoping that the girl wouldn’t walk away from her.
She was older than Mertie had first thought. Maybe mid twenties. She looked at Mertie’s hand for a full three seconds before her own came out.
“I’m Becky,” she said softly.
Her hand was callused and rough, the hand of someone who worked manual labor for a living, but her grip was strong and her eyes met Mertie’s as they shook. She didn’t give a last name.
“I’m new here in town, so I don’t know everyone, but I haven’t seen you before,” Mertie said, not bothering to explain that she had grown up in town, left, and was now back hoping to clean out her parents’ house and sell it.
“I grew up...in Strawberry Sands,” Becky said with an odd pause, like she, too, was leaving out a lot of her life story.
“That’s not far from here. Did you just move up the beach a little?” Mertie said, wondering how she could bring the conversation around to anything that might be helpful to Becky. She seemed like a lost soul.
“No. I...moved away for a while.”
“Found a better job somewhere else?” Mertie prompted, knowing that one of her strengths was typically having the right words, being able to put people at ease and talk to them in a way that related to them.
“No. I needed to get away for a while.”
“Broken heart?” Mertie said gently, instinctively feeling like this was the problem.
“I suppose you could say that.”
“But you just can’t stay away from Lake Michigan?”
Mertie almost said that as a statement. She could feel the call of the lake too. There was just something about it that drew her. Maybe it was the way she felt every time she looked at it, like God was so big, so amazing, it just reminded her of the power and glory and might of the Lord. She never felt like she worshiped God like she did when she was beside the lake.
“I suppose.” Becky didn’t say anything more, and Mertie didn’t push her.
“Are you settling down here?” she asked easily.
“I think so. There’s a small property for sale just up the beach, and it has a horse stable and some pasture.”
“Oh. You’re a horse lover,” Mertie said, seeing the spark in Becky’s eyes when she talked about horses.
“I am. I didn’t realize it until I was almost a teenager, but yeah. Horses speak to my soul, they point me to God. They remind me of how much our Creator loves us, that He would make something so beautiful and then allow us to take care of it.” She looked down and shuffled her feet a bit. “I suppose I’d forgotten that.”
“We humans have a tendency to forget. Even things that are right in front of us, things that we think we’ll never forget, we’re just...prone to wander.”
She could say that in her own life. That she forgot that people were the most important thing, and not her career, people like...Dabney. And like Garnet. And even Becky. Mertie couldn’t deny that she felt a strong pull toward the girl, all the while there was a voice in the back of her mind saying that it didn’t matter how many millions of people she reached, if she neglected the people she loved.
She heard some whispers about the new preacher and the fact that he had a daughter and no wife. Apparently Garnet had not told them she was adopted, and people were whispering, wondering what his marital status was and where Dabney had come from.
Or maybe Garnet had told people, but the gossip hadn’t made its way around. She wasn’t sure.
“I’d love to see you again. I’ll be here for a while. In fact, I’m thinking about staying,” she said, surprised as the words came out of her mouth. The idea of staying was...new.
“If the sale goes through, I’ll be here. And...it’s been a while since I’ve been to church. I need to come back. It will make my...parents happy.”
She stumbled over the word “parents,” like again, there was more to what she was saying than the words she put out in the air.
So true for a lot of things. People often didn’t say everything they thought. Usually there was more. Mertie had figured that out, and she had become somewhat good at drawing the information out of people. But she didn’t want to do that today with Becky. Part of drawing information out of people was knowing when to quit so that there was still an opening for the next time.
“I’ll see you around, Becky,” she said, thinking about putting her hand up for another handshake, but instead she put her arms out as though she was going to hug her, and Becky’s eyes widened before she submitted to Mertie’s embrace, even returning it.
Becky walked away, and Mertie followed her with her eyes, feeling her heart tugged toward the girl who just seemed to have a tragic air about her. She said a quick prayer, that God would draw her to Him, and He would heal her broken heart.
“Hey, I just want to make sure that you remembered that I’m going to Hobert’s to eat today. You’re welcome to come if you want to.”
Her sister, Amara, appeared at her side.
“Oh. Yes. Go right ahead. Have a great time. I’m going to stay home,” she said, not that she had any great plans, but she knew Hobert had a couple of late nights fishing this week, and Amara hadn’t seen him much. She didn’t want to be the third wheel, although Amara and Hobert had never made her feel that way.
“Are you sure?” Amara asked, looking deep into her eyes.
Hobert appeared at Amara’s elbow, slipping an arm around her and saying, “You’re welcome. Please don’t feel like you’re not.”
“I know I am,” Mertie said. But she also knew that they needed some time together. “Maybe we’ll have supper together sometime this week.”
“If I can get you to stop working long enough to eat,” Amara said, giving her another long look before she squeezed her arm, and the two of them walked off.
Mertie knew that she had a tendency to throw herself into things, giving her entire being to the work that was in front of her.
She thought that it was mostly a good thing, but sometimes she could get a little dogmatic about stuff. Like building her career. She had built it at the expense of everything else, even checking in with Garnet to see whether her daughter had been adopted or not. It hadn’t even occurred to her that he might adopt her himself. But now that she knew it, she just couldn’t go back to living the way she had. She wanted to be a part of her daughter’s life, and she knew that Garnet wanted that.
The problem was, the more she thought about it, the more she wanted to be a part of Garnet’s life too, and their relationship had never been that way. They had just been friends.
Still, she lingered in the church, straightening some hymn books and talking to a few folks while the sanctuary cleared out.
With the small congregation, it didn’t take terribly long, and soon Mertie found herself alone, standing in front of Garnet. She had paid attention to Dabney and knew that she had walked home with Garnet’s parents.
“That was an amazing sermon. Possibly the best sermon I’ve ever heard, and I’ve listened to more sermons than the average American,” she said, unable to not give him the compliment she felt he deserved.
His eyes opened, and so did his mouth, surprised at the words she spoke.
He had always been modest and humble, but he truly didn’t seem to know that his sermon was extraordinary, his wisdom unusual, and his ability to simplify things uncanny. Not to mention the fact that the entire thing had been interesting.
“Thanks.”
“It’s not easy to get people to sit for forty minutes and listen to something anymore. Especially to just one person, but you did it easily, at least it appeared to be with no effort. I was impressed,” she said, sincere.
“Thanks for coming today. And I know you didn’t come to the altar for me, but it definitely was encouragement to me, and I think that other people just needed to see someone go first.”
“You’re right, it really wasn’t for you, but it was because of you. I’m not kidding about how I felt about your sermon.”
He smiled, and she realized that they had shaken hands, and their joined hands were still between them.
She looked down, her first instinct to yank her hand back but then wondering why he hadn’t let go.
“Would you like to eat lunch with us? My parents are going to take a nap, but I promised Dabney we’d eat on the beach.”
“I don’t want to interfere with daddy-daughter time.”
“You’re the mom,” he said, softly. But the words pierced her conscience, and even though she’d been thinking about being a mom for a few days, they seemed to awaken something else in her.
The words seemed to settle between them, and she wasn’t sure whose turn it was to talk.
“I don’t want to force you, but you’re welcome to come.” He hesitated, then he looked over at the disappearing form of his daughter and parents. His mom on one side of his dad, his daughter on the other. Maybe there was a bit of pride in his gaze when he looked back at her.
“Dabney said that you would be good for me.”
Her brows went up. She couldn’t help it. “She did?” Astonishment clear in her words.
“She did. I was kind of surprised myself, but she said she thought you seem like the kind of person who could fix things, the kind of person I could talk to.”
“We always talked. Although, I think I did more talking than you did.”
“I didn’t tell her we used to be friends. Maybe that was why. We were compatible, even though most people wouldn’t look at us and think so.”
“I don’t know. Being that I’m a Christian writer and speaker and you’re a pastor, we probably have more in common than what we think. Our personalities are just a lot different.”
She never thought about their differences, never thought about why they might be friends, but he was right. Their similarities bound them together, while their differences enabled them to bolster each other’s weaknesses. The idea floated through her brain that they were absolutely perfect for each other.
“You can say no. It’s okay.”
It took her a moment to bring her mind back to what they were talking about.
“Lunch? I want to, I just don’t want you, or more especially Dabney, to resent me. I don’t want to interfere if this is something special for the two of you.”
“I wouldn’t ask you if I thought it was going to be a problem. Dabney likes you. She never said anything like that about any of the other women we talked about before.”
“You talked about women before?”
“She wants a mom. We talked about what kind of woman would make a good mom. You’ve garnered more compliments than any other woman we talked about. In fact, you’re the only one who garnered compliments. Usually she goes out of her way to make sure that I know that she’s happy with just a dad. But I know she’s not.”
His words were not intended to make Mertie feel bad, but they did. The reason she didn’t have a mom was because of Mertie. But if Mertie had kept her, she wouldn’t have had a dad.
“I’ll go. I don’t have a chair or anything like that.”
“We have a blanket that we usually use. It’s...casual.” His eyes seemed to hold more information than what he was saying.
She looked at his gaze, wondering what he was hinting at, if anything. Maybe he was just thinking about something else.
Finally, she said, “Is there something you’re not telling me?” She tilted her head, narrowing her eyes a bit as she tried to figure out what in the world he could be saying.
Then she realized his hand was still holding hers, and his thumb ran over the side of her hand.
She looked back down at their joined hands. They had definitely been joined way too long to be excused as anything other than...what? What could be the reason?
Why hadn’t she pulled her hand away? She wasn’t sure she could give a cognitive answer. Because she liked him holding it? Because it felt good and right for her hand to be in his? Because she was seeing him as something other than her childhood best friend?
“It’s okay to loosen up sometimes.” He grinned. “Part of what I love about you is how you’re always on top of things. You always seem to have everything under control, and you’re not afraid to dig in and fix what isn’t. But... When you let your hair down, that side of you that no one gets to see, I love that side too.”
His words sent a shiver down her torso and made her neck hairs prick.
There was a side of her that he loved? No, by his words, there were two sides that he loved.
“I’ve only been back in town for a few days, beyond that, it’s been more than a decade since we saw each other. You can’t possibly know what you love about me.” It was her best scholarly voice.
“Really?” he said simply. He didn’t argue with her, didn’t try to prove that he was right, just questioned her assertion, which of course made her question it too, because how could she tell him what he did or didn’t love? Obviously that was what he was saying, and he was correct.
She didn’t know. She did know she wasn’t the same person she was as a teenager, but she was very similar. All the tendencies that had been there when she was young, all the things she had wanted to do, were still right there, she was just a more mature version of herself, a few mistakes under her belt, but more successes as well. If she looked at success the way the world defined success. She found her definition seemed to be evolving.
“You want me to meet you on the beach?”
“You can come with me. We can walk there together. That would be more time together.”
It was like he wanted to spend time with her. Her heart did two extra hard thumps before it settled back down in her chest. Her fingers still buzzed. He wanted to spend time with her? That’s what it sounded like.
She tried to calm her racing thoughts and give a dignified nod.
She knew he had to be careful because he wasn’t going to be with anyone Dabney didn’t accept. He didn’t need to tell her that, she just knew it.
“I need to close the church up. They’ve given me the key for now.” He gave that grin that was boyish and self-deprecating and that made her heart do a slow flip.
“Small towns.”
Her smile matched his. She forgot about the charm of small towns. There was so much love and so much that made her wish that this was where her home was, rather than the big city, where she was never going to walk into a church one day and have them give her the key to the place, trusting her implicitly.
Raspberry Ridge was absolutely perfect.