Chapter 8
“You look just fine. And Wesley is going to like you no matter how you look,” Gram said as she stuck her head in the bathroom where Birdie fussed with her hair.
“Gram. It’s not about Wesley. I just don’t want anyone to recognize me. Wednesday night, it was kind of dim and dark, but it’s going to be broad daylight today, and I’d prefer to keep the town in the dark about my identity. If I want to have peace and quiet this summer, I’ve got to.” That was mostly the truth, although Gram was pretty much right. She did want Wesley to see her, and like what he saw.
She glared at her stupid short hair. What had possessed her to cut it?
It was a rhetorical question, because she knew the answer and knew she had had a choice. She fussed with it just a little bit more and then grabbed the hairspray and closed her eyes, putting a cloud of vapor around her head.
It was going to have to do. Hopefully she fixed it in such a way that her identity was safely hidden. Plus, she had a rather large pair of glasses that she was going to wear as well. They had regular lenses in them and were totally for show or, rather, camouflage.
She had a couple of ideas about what Wesley’s identity might be. She knew that he was a well-known figure as well. Maybe that’s why he was so considerate about her and her preference to not have her identity known. Who better to understand than someone who was going through it themselves, right ?
There was an actor who looked very similar to him, but she’d been trying for several days to think of his name and couldn’t.
But as they got in their rented Ferrari, and she backed out of the drive, she tried to put thoughts of Wesley out of her mind and instead focus on her gram.
“Gram, you know how when we go to church, and you have a tendency to sign up for everything?”
“Not everything,” she said. “I never signed up to play the piano.”
“That’s because you can’t,” Birdie said, holding on to her patience admirably, if she did say so herself. “You have a tendency to sign up for everything but playing the piano,” she started again.
“I want to serve the Lord. I want to do everything I can to help out, and I enjoy it.”
“But we’re not going to be here for very long, and you’re already busy, and I’m supposed to be here to rest, not to run here and there and everywhere for church.”
“I’m not signing you up, I’m signing me up.” Her gram looked across the seat at her. “But if you want me to sign you up, I can.”
“No!”
“Birdie. I raised you to be a servant. Just because you’re a big, international—”
“I can be a servant.” She took a breath. “You can sign me up for one thing, if you promise to limit yourself to two things.”
“What about five things? You know how small churches are. They always have more jobs than they have people to fill them. And then they end up just throwing those jobs by the wayside because nobody wants to do them.”
“Maybe they won’t have a sign-up sheet for any jobs, and then you won’t feel the need to sign up for anything.”
“All you have to do is ask the pastor if he has any jobs for someone who’s going to be around for a couple of months, and he can pull jobs out of his back pocket like you would not believe.”
Birdie felt her forehead thumping. “Gram. Please.”
“I know you’re trying to rest, Birdie, and I’m here to help you. I promise that I will not miss cooking any meals for you, not even one. So I will not sign up for anything that will take me away from cooking breakfast, lunch, and supper, or at least having them ready for you to eat. ”
“Gram,” she said wearily. Knowing she was fighting a lost cause. Serving made her gram happy. And she understood that. It made her happy to do things for other people too. To watch them smile, to know that she was a part of it, but they weren’t going to be here that long. And she didn’t want the church to depend on them, first of all, and secondly, she wanted to be able to take it easy.
“We can rest in heaven. The Bible says work for the night is coming.”
“Isn’t that a hymn?” Birdie said, wrinkling up her nose.
“I’m pretty sure it’s a hymn and Bible verse. But you can look it up if you’re not sure.”
Birdie let it go. Her gram could quote circles around her from the Bible and the hymnbook.
She enjoyed driving the Ferrari. She’d never driven anything quite so nice. It purred under her hands and was so responsive she almost overcorrected as she got out on the main street of town. It was just a short trip up the street to the church, and she felt like she hadn’t driven it nearly enough. Maybe she could take a ride later.
“Just, Gram. Please, give us a week or two to settle in before you start volunteering for everything.”
“I told you. I’m not going to volunteer for everything.” Her gram nodded her head. And then she sighed, looking over at Birdie with an expression that Birdie could hardly deny. “I’m just used to being busy. I need to be busy. And there’s no water aerobics here, no spinning classes, no Rotary club, no bridge with my friends, no community walks, no volunteering at the local Salvation Army, no doing my Meals on Wheels, and that’s just the stuff I do on Mondays.”
“I know, Gram. It’s a small town.”
“I know. I just want to be a blessing.”
“All right. You be a blessing.” Maybe she’d have to rent a house that was separate from her gram. But she knew she never would. Her gram wasn’t going to invite people over to the house. She was just going to be busy going to and fro, doing as much as she could.
She pulled into a spot in the church after waiting for a family to walk across the parking lot, and she cut the motor. She and Gram got out, and she smiled again at the car. She didn’t think she’d want to own one, but it was fun to drive one for a little bit.
“I love church, I love it,” Gram said, taking a hold of her elbow as she waited for her at the back of the car .
“I know you do. And I love it too.” She really did. She loved the singing, she loved being with other Christians, in a room full of people who believed the way she did. How often did that happen around the world? Never. She loved listening to the preaching, of seeing things in her life that she needed to work on, of being reminded that she needed to be close to Jesus, of being able to give and volunteer and just all the things that church represented, the things that she loved, and when she was on tour, they were all things that she couldn’t have.
“Oh, look, there’s Wes and Gramps,” Gram said, pointing to the back of the church where Wesley and his grandfather stood chatting with two men Birdie didn’t know.
She looked around, wondering if her good friend Olive had arrived. She hadn’t tried to call Olive, although she texted her and let her know that she arrived safely. Olive had just gotten married, and Birdie didn’t want to interrupt a honeymoon, if they took one. She hadn’t even asked.
“Wesley! Gramps! They came after all,” Gram said in a stage whisper to her as she hurried across the parking lot, deliberately missing the open doors and heading toward the two men.
Wesley looked up. A big smile spread across his face.
Gramps saw them at the same time and said something more to the men they were talking to before they started to walk toward Birdie and her gram.
They met on the walk beside the church, with Gram practically hugging Gramps. “I didn’t think you’d be here!”
“I could hardly not come, since the lady who cooks my food said I should.”
“You silly man,” Gram said, giving his arm a light tap and batting her eyes at him. Birdie tried to close her mouth. Her grandma never acted like that.
“Now, you have to make sure that you sign up for everything they offer you. If you say no one time, they might not ask again.” She had grabbed a hold of Gramps’s arm and started steering him toward the church. She looked over her shoulder, calling, “Wesley, dear. I’ll go ahead and sign you up for something. Birdie told me I could sign her up for one thing, and I assume you probably feel the same. Although, if you want more, I’m certainly happy to oblige.”
Wesley jerked his head without saying anything, because Gram had already hurried Gramps out of the way, and Birdie assumed he wasn’t sure his voice would carry that far.
“I’m sorry about that. ”
“Has she ever even gone to this church before?”
“Just Wednesday evening.”
“Wow. She could recruit people to wear bikinis in Antarctica, and I think they’d probably get some.”
“Yeah. By forcing them on them,” Birdie said, trying not to sound bitter. Her grandma had just railroaded Wesley into doing something that he might not have wanted to, and he didn’t even know what it was. “I’m sorry about that. I hope she doesn’t sign you up for anything terrible.”
“I’m a big believer in giving back to the community. I don’t mind doing something.”
“She might have you digging up the septic system. I actually did that once at our church. No one would sign up for it, so Gram signed me up.”
“Interesting.”
“Actually, it was good for me. I was in Africa on, well, just because, and they were having some trouble with their septic. I had experience in running a shovel anyway.”
“Nice. So you never know when the stuff that your gram gets you into is going to pay off? Is that the moral to the story?”
“I guess we’re trying to look on the bright side, right?”
“That’s always a good idea.”
“I can’t say I disagree with you, but... I warned you.”
“Noted,” he said as he turned and started slowly strolling beside her toward the church.
A family, with what looked like twin babies and four half-wild children, hurried into the church ahead of them.
“Six kids. Wow.”
“Yeah, that’s crazy.”
“You’re one of those millennials who don’t want children?”
“I guess I never really thought about it. I suppose it would depend on who the dad was. I don’t want to do that by myself for sure. But it looks like she has help.”
They had developed an easy camaraderie over the last three days from meeting every afternoon for a few hours. She had worked a little more on a couple of songs, but the song that was focused on peace and the feeling of being in the water and sand was her favorite.
She helped Wesley get a few more chapters in, and he seemed confident that he would be finishing the book well before he needed to. She had asked if he was going to let her know when the first chapter dropped, but he had just smiled at her, and she had remembered their agreement. Of course he couldn’t tell her when it dropped, or at least he couldn’t point her to it so she could read it, because then she would find out his identity.
“You know Gram invited us over for dinner after church, right?” Wesley said as they stepped inside the auditorium.
“I do. She had something in the crockpot, and it smelled delicious. I’m looking forward to it.”
“Can I ask you something?” He stopped when they reached the back of the sanctuary, and leaned down.
“Sure.”
“Do you mind us coming over so much?” He looked around, and then he said, “We’ve been there every day.”
“No. In fact, it’s kinda cozy. I don’t mind it, and I know Gram loves it.”
“All right. You’d tell me if there was a problem?”
“Probably,” she said, being perfectly honest. Sometimes it was just easier to swallow irritation than it was to tell someone that they irritated you. Most of the time, it didn’t really matter.
Wes gave her a long look, and then he said, “I’ll see you in a little bit.”
She nodded and had to keep herself from watching him walk away.
“Birdie?” A voice whispered in her ear, and then an arm went around her.
“Olive!” She wrapped her arms around her friend whom she hadn’t seen in years and squeezed tight.
“Congratulations on your wedding!” she said, standing back to look at her friend who had changed a little, but not so much that she wouldn’t have recognized her.
Olive looked both ways before she said, “I almost didn’t recognize you. That’s a really good disguise.”
“I hope it’s enough to keep everyone else from recognizing me. I’m trying to lie low. I can’t do that if people are constantly trying to take pictures of me.” She kept her voice down so no one overheard their conversation.
“Well, it doesn’t help that I was just in Blueberry Beach this week, and there’s a huge billboard announcing your new album, with a big picture of you on it.”
“Oh no.” She knew that the advertising blitz was going out for the album she had dropped earlier in the year. There were new songs releasing, and the marketing company she had hired was doing a countrywide blitz on those .
“I can’t fix it now though.” It was too late to cancel it. The money had already gone out.
Plus, that was part of how she made her living, making money on her singles on various digital media channels. She didn’t exactly want to stop it. It would just be nice if they could have done that media blitz without her face. At least in Michigan.
“Well, it is what it is,” she said.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have given you the bad news. I don’t want to upset you or make you worry about it.”
“No. I’m fine. I can’t change it, and I do look a good bit different now.” Her hair was shorter and a different color, plus she wore glasses. When she looked in the mirror, she felt like she was looking at a completely new person.
“So I assumed I didn’t hear from you because you knew I had just gotten married, but we’re back from our short honeymoon trip, and I’d really like to get together sometime. Are you free at all?”
“Any morning this week. Unless Gram signs me up for something here at the church, which she’s been known to do.”
“I remember you talking about her. She seems like quite the personality.”
“She is,” Birdie said with affection.
“She’s not slowing down at all?”
“She’s well into her seventies, but no. She’s not slowing down at all. In fact, if anything, I think she’s busier now than she used to be.”
“Well, I guess that’s a good thing. People are staying alive and active well into their seventies and eighties now.”
“Yeah, it seems like when they hit eighty sometimes that’s like a marker, but maybe not. I guess everyone ages differently.”
“I think so. I’ve gotten to the point where I know I feel better if I exercise and eat right, I just can’t always make myself do it.” She rolled her eyes, and Birdie laughed, but she knew all too well how that was. With her job, she had to look good, since she was constantly in the public eye. It wasn’t always easy. And it certainly wasn’t pleasant.
“Oh. I better get going. My sister’s waving to me. Good to see you,” Olive said as she gave Birdie one more squeeze and then hurried away.
Birdie looked around for her gram and saw her talking to a group of people .
She wasn’t sure where she had picked out a seat, or even if she had, so she slipped into a pew near the back that wasn’t bursting at the seams. It seemed like everyone who could possibly live in Raspberry Ridge had come to hear the new pastor. Or maybe, he was just that good.
He was just that good, she decided to herself an hour later as the last hymn was sung and the pastor had dismissed the congregation. The sermon had been excellent, and the singing of the old hymns perfect. She remembered each one from childhood, and they all brought back good memories, as well as reminding her of what a good message they had.
She left with her heart full, and after shaking the pastor’s hand and thanking him for the good sermon, she walked slowly out into the sunshine, chatting with some ladies along the way, knowing that it would probably be a while before Gram got out. Birdie always liked to wait for her outside, in the summer anyway. After spending so much time inside, it was nice to go out and get warm.
She enjoyed the sunshine on her face and the light breeze, bracing and sweet.
“You spend a lot of time with your eyes closed and your face lifted to the lake. Is that like a meditation thing?”
She laughed at the voice in her ear. “I think everyone who lives by the lake is supposed to strike a pose like that at least six times a day. Have you gotten your quota in yet?”
She turned to Wesley and grinned at him. He was easy to talk to, and fun. And while she felt an underlying attraction, she knew that her schedule was not for the faint of heart, and if he was famous in his own right, it was almost guaranteed that they wouldn’t be compatible. Which was a shame, because she really did like him.
“So has anyone recognized you?” he asked, looking around and keeping his voice pitched low, which she appreciated.
“No,” she said under her breath. “You?” She couldn’t believe she was even asking.
“Not that I know of. Which is all well and good.” He looked around, and then with narrowed eyes, he said to her, “What about you? Have you figured it out yet?”
She knew immediately that he was asking if she had figured out who he was. “I actually have some ideas, but I haven’t thought about it too hard, because I don’t think I want to know.”
“Same and same,” he said with one side of his mouth curling up into a smile.
The moments ticked by as they stared at each other, Birdie barely registering that other churchgoers were walking around her, chatting and laughing.
It just seemed like a perfect day. One with no worries and no pressure.