Chapter 32
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
PHIL COLLINS, “AGAINST ALL ODDS”
My confidence waned. Everything Isaac brought out of me started to dissolve with each passing day. Had he cheated on me and ended it, I would have felt less pain than the uncertainty of abandonment.
“Sarah!” Eve and Gabby barreled down the porch stairs when I arrived for dinner Thursday night.
“Oof!” I laughed as they hugged me at the same time.
“Please say you’re staying,” Gabby begged, taking my hand and pulling me toward the house as Eve grabbed my empty backpack that I needed to refill.
“I’m staying for dinner,” I said.
“That’s not what I mean.” Gabby huffed.
“What’s it like living in a motel?” Eve asked as we stepped into the house.
“Sometimes it’s nice. But sometimes it’s lonely. ”
“Sweetie, I’m so glad you made it.” Mom wiped her hand on her pink apron before hugging me. “I made tuna noodle casserole, your favorite.”
“With extra potato chips?”
She laughed, releasing me. “Of course.”
I darted my gaze around the entry.
“He’s working,” Mom reassured me.
“Do you need help? If not, I’ll go pack up more of my stuff.”
Mom’s smile faded. “Gabby’s helping set the table. Do what you need.”
“Okay.” I headed up the stairs, and Eve followed me. “How much trouble did you get into for the tequila?” I asked, tossing the bag onto my bed.
“Enough.” She wrinkled her nose. “I'm grounded for a month, and I have to clean the wax off the church floor under the candelabras.”
I grinned, but it was bittersweet—a memory of Heather that I didn’t want to forget, even if it was a reminder that she was gone.
“But Dad said if I show I’m trustworthy, I’ll get your car.”
I grunted while shaking my head. “Save all the money you can. You’re going to need it when he kicks you out in a couple of years and gives that car to Gabby.” I riffled through my closet.
“What makes you think I’ll get kicked out?”
I laughed. “You’re sixteen, and you had a stash of alcohol in your room. You’ve already said you can’t wait to have sex. I was way more disciplined at your age.”
“You mean obedient?” She plopped onto my bed .
“I suppose I do.” I glanced over my shoulder, fighting the urge to react to her devilish grin.
“You look so sad.” Her smile melted into a frown.
I hugged several shirts and two pairs of jeans. “He left me,” I whispered.
“Isaac?”
I nodded.
“What do you mean? He broke up with you or left town?”
I set some old clothes on the bed along with the new ones from Isaac. “He bought me a new guitar. It’s beautiful. And he left a note with cash.” I wrinkled my nose. “A lot of cash. But that’s it. No one knows where he went. It felt like a goodbye. A ‘good luck,’ but goodbye.”
“Do you think he left you money because he knew Dad would kick you out?”
I shook my head. “That makes little sense. Nobody predicted that.”
“Well, he has to show back up. Right?”
“I don’t know.” I tucked the folded clothes into my bag.
“What are you going to do? How long can you live in a motel?”
“I don’t—” I choked, biting my lips together as tears burned my eyes.
“Sarah, he’ll come back.” Eve stood and hugged me.
I fell apart, fat tears falling down my face as my heart bled in her arms. “W-why did h-he leave m-me?” I cried.
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “But he has to come back. He loves you. He carried you out of a funeral. That’s the ending to all the great love stories.”
I laughed through my tears while releasing her and wiping my eyes. “I don’t know about that,” I sniffled. “But he’s a dream. And maybe that’s all he is.”
“Come on. Let’s eat. Gabby and I made an apple pie.”
“I like cherry,” I said, following her.
“Apple is the only real pie. It’s the American pie.”
Eve made me smile, and I needed to feel something akin to joy again.
We sat down to dinner, and Mom said a prayer as we held hands. She asked God to heal the relationship between me and my father. I wasn’t sure if she was talking to me or God.
“This looks amazing. Thanks, Mom,” I scooped up a generous serving of casserole.
“I’m sure you’re tired of McDonald's.” She eyed me with a hint of disapproval as if I had much of a choice.
“Have you heard from any of my grandparents?” I asked, making small talk.
“Your dad’s parents are planning a visit next month. And my mom has eye surgery next week, so your sisters and I are driving to Tulsa for a few days to help my dad take care of things.”
“Tulsa’s on the list,” Gabby said.
“What list?” Mom asked after serving herself and setting the spoon on the edge of the casserole dish.
“The list I found on Sarah’s floor when you made me vacuum her room.”
Everyone looked at me, but I did not know what she was talking about.
Gabby sighed. “I set it on your desk.” She pushed back in her chair. “I’ll go get it.”
“I think you should come to church this weekend,” Mom mumbled, wiping her mouth .
“Because Dad can’t yell at me in front of the congregation?”
“So he can see you’re making an effort,” she mumbled.
“What about him? Doesn’t he have to make an effort?”
“I think it would have a more significant effect if he saw you taking the first step.”
I didn’t feel that forgiving yet.
“Here,” Gabby said, setting the list on the table beside me before plopping back down in her chair.
It was a list of dates and locations in Isaac’s handwriting.
Mom craned her neck to look at it. “That Tulsa address is for the fairgrounds.”
Rodeos.
Violet was right. Isaac was traveling to rodeos, and he didn’t abandon me. He left me with a list to find him and money to get there.
“It must have fallen out of the guitar case, and I didn’t see it,” I whispered.
“What?” Mom asked.
I shook my head. “Nothing.”
“What is it? Whose handwriting is that? It’s not yours,” she prodded.
My gaze lifted to Eve’s wide eyes and parted lips. Then I refocused on the dates. Springfield was in two days, and it was only a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Devil’s Head.
With a shrug, I eyed my mom. “I won’t be at church this weekend.”
She stared at the note again and closed her eyes in realization. “Isaac,” she whispered.
“I love him.”
“Until you get pregnant or worse.” Pain lined her face.
I slowly shook my head. “I’d still love him. ”
“Even if he breaks your heart?”
I folded the piece of paper. “Heartbreak is unavoidable if you let yourself fall in love.”
Friday morning, I tracked down Wesley. He was feeding the sheep, sweat already dripping from his forehead as he glanced up at me.
“Hey,” I smiled. “I have a big favor to ask.” I wasn’t happy with him, but he’d been nice to me, so I didn’t have it in me to hate him completely.
“Anything.” He tossed a bucket of feed into the bin.
On one hand, it was awful and gross that Brenda had a relationship with someone so much older than her. But when I looked at Wesley, it was easy to see what Isaac would look like one day—a handsome man with broad shoulders, a strong jaw, thick hair, and intense eyes. And he was kind, even if Violet might not have found his affair so kind.
“I love your son.”
He glanced up at me again, brushing off his gloves and tugging at the fingers to remove them. “Need I ask which one?”
“The one that’s going to be in Springfield at the rodeo tomorrow, and I want to go see him. But I don’t have a car.”
Wesley nodded several times. “I see. So you want to take the truck I loaned you to Springfield?”
“Yeah,” I said softly, wrinkling my nose.
“When will you be back? You have work on Monday.”
I thought about lying, but I couldn’t handle any more lies. “I don’t know when I’ll be back.”
He lifted an eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest. “ So you want to borrow my truck for an undetermined amount of time while leaving my farm stand unattended, so you can chase after a boy and his horse?”
Biting my thumbnail, I nodded.
Maybe I should have told one more lie. Did it matter at that point?
“Do your parents know?”
“My mom does.”
“And she’s okay with it?”
“Mr. Cory, I’m eighteen. My parents kicked me out of the house. I think your permission is the only one I need since I do, in fact, need to borrow your truck.”
After a few seconds, he stepped past me to the water spigot. “If anyone asks, I only gave you permission to use it until Sunday.”
I grinned.