Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
“Congratulations, you just bought yourself a house,” Jane said as she held the key across the table and dangled it in front of Gilbert.
Gilbert slowly held his hand out, and the key, cold and hard, dropped into it.
This was Summer’s key. The woman his children loved, who had done so much for them with her horses and her generous spirit and the love and patience and kindness that she had shown to them.
He hadn’t really grasped it until he had seen her at work.
She was loving and patient but also encouraged and exhorted his children to do better, to be better, to think for themselves, to have confidence in their ability.
He saw now why his mother and sisters had raved about her.
She was most definitely the reason that his children were doing so well.
Except, in the last few days, since they’d said goodbye, his kids had been quiet and subdued, and if he had to use a word to describe them, he would use depressed. They seemed like they were depressed.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t sure what to do about it.
She said she’d already sold her horses, and she had plans to move somewhere else, and it wasn’t like he could…
do what? Buy her horses back? He didn’t have the money for that.
And it wasn’t like he could offer to live somewhere else so she could stay on the farm. He couldn’t do that either.
He didn’t see any solutions, and honestly, he thought that maybe this was just one of those hard things people had to get through.
It was easier to do when someone had a therapist like Summer, but what Summer had taught his children should serve them well now. Plus, school was gearing up, and they had activities that should be taking their attention. Like the Thanksgiving parade that was happening at the end of next week.
Except, the idea of a parade had made Larissa cry when she’d asked if she would be able to ride a horse in it, and he reminded her that Summer had sold her horses, and Summer wasn’t on the farm anymore.
Yeah, that had gone over well. Not.
“Thanks a lot,” he told Jane, looking at the key in his hand.
“I talked to Frederick, Summer’s realtor, and he said that the house was empty, anything that was left was yours to do whatever you wanted to with, and Summer planned to be gone from the premises last night. So, it’s all yours, and you can move in whatever you want.”
“Sounds good. It was nice doing business with you.”
“It was wonderful to do business with you as well. If you’re ever in the market for real estate, please keep me in mind,” Jane said, and Gilbert figured that she probably was pretty happy, since she made a nice, tidy sum and all she’d had to do was show the house one time.
He walked out of the real estate office, strangely sad rather than jubilant that he’d been able to turn his business around, along with his life, and provide a farm and place to live with his children. A new beginning if one would.
Instead, he thought about Summer, the horses, and how depressed his children had been. And wished that there had been a way to save all of that. It seemed sad that someone who had done so much good had lost everything.
He tried to remind himself that she had the money from the sale of the farm, and it wasn’t like she was destitute. She would land on her feet and do something else, just as he had when his wife died. Sometimes a person just had to carry on, even though they didn’t want to.
He drove home, trying to think about the excitement of moving into a new home and not about the status of the prior owner. Somehow, when he had sold the house that he and Desire had lived in together, it hadn’t been nearly this hard.
He walked in. All the kids sat at the table with his mother, schoolbooks open, or in Robert’s case, he sat with a reading book in his hand.
“How do you guys feel about going to see our new house?”
“Yay!” Larissa said, jumping up. “Maybe she left the horses there after all!” She grinned. “Maybe Miss Summer will be hiding upstairs in the loft.”
That reminded Gilbert that there was a loft apartment above the stables. He’d never gone out to see it.
He had already been sold on the place and hadn’t needed to. Maybe he’d go up and check it out, although he highly doubted that Summer would be hiding in it.
“All right, let’s go. Mom, if you want to come along and check it out, you can.”
“How about I drive separately, because I might not want to stay as long as you guys do.”
“That’s just fine. Come anytime. You’re welcome to our new home. I have to get a duplicate key made.” He held up the key that dangled from his hand. He hadn’t noticed when Jane had handed it to him, but it was on a keychain with a horse attached to it as a little charm.
It was cute and suited someone who had done horse therapy for a living.
It didn’t take long to get the kids in the car and drive to their new farm.
Somehow it wasn’t quite as victorious a feeling as he had thought it would be to pull into the drive. Their own farm, but the kids were strangely silent as they pulled into the house.
“I came in here once to go to the bathroom,” Larissa said softly.
“I thought there was a bathroom in the barn?”
“We went in and got a drink too. We didn’t stay in long, but her kitchen was really nice. She had plants in it, and Grandma would like it.”
“I thought so too when I saw it,” he said, trying to force some happiness into his voice.
As they walked around the house, his mom really did ooh and aah over the kitchen, but the plants were gone.
The library still held some books, but most of those were gone as well.
All of the little touches that he had noticed when he had gone through had disappeared, even the beds were stripped of the bedding, although the beds themselves were still there.
He wondered if she hadn’t been able to afford to hire movers to move the beds, but more likely, she didn’t have any place to put them, unless she wanted to rent a storage unit, which he would bet that she didn’t want to pay the expense.
Plus, what would a single woman with no children need with six beds?
She hadn’t mentioned that she was going to leave them, but he should thank her, because now he didn’t have to buy them.
He just needed to procure bedding.
“Are you okay?” His mom had come up to him, and he hadn’t even heard her. He tried not to startle too badly.
“Yeah. Why?” Vaguely he was aware that his children ran around trying to figure out which bedrooms they wanted, although Lucas seemed almost as disinterested as he did.
Lucas was the one who struggled most with the loss of his horse, which was somewhat surprising considering how much Larissa had loved hers.
“I know. You just seem…sad. Are you thinking about Desire?”
“No. Not at all.” It had been a while since he had thought about her with anything other than a passing question in his mind as to whether or not he would have been divorced at this time if she were still alive and hadn’t had cancer.
He didn’t really miss her. They had not exactly reconciled but had managed to find a truce, but then she’d been diagnosed, and he wasn’t sure whether she would keep her word.
After all, she’d broken it once already.
“All right. I just think this would be a happier time, and you almost seem… I don’t know, like you’re not really happy that you guys finally have a house together.
You know you don’t have to move out if you don’t want to,” she said, and he wanted to reassure her that it was perfectly fine, although maybe if she had said that a month ago, he might have decided to stay.
No, a month ago he was determined to buy this farm, but now, he almost wondered if it might have been wiser for him to somehow help Summer keep it, rather than thinking he was helping her by buying it.
It was too late.
“No. I’m excited. I’m happy there’s beds here because we can sleep here tonight if we want to.”
“You know you’re still welcome for Sunday lunch,” his mom said with a smile.
“I know. We’ll be there after church for sure.”
“And don’t forget, Terry and Judd usually take your kids in, so they’ll need to pick them up here. You’re going to need to let them know that they need to stop by with the horse and wagon.”
“Are they doing that again already?”
“They are. They would have started last week, but one of the horses needed a shoe.”
“I see. I’ll text him right now.” He pulled his phone out while his mom said, “I’m going to head out. I know Isadora’s children are going to be going down for naps soon, and I usually try to give her a hand.”
“All right. You know you’re welcome to come here anytime you want to to get away from all the noise and hubbub if you need to. And to use my awesome kitchen.”
His mom smiled and looked around once more as they reached the bottom of the stairs. “It’s a beautiful house. And the kitchen really is awesome. Larissa is going to enjoy it.”
“I know she will. And if you hear that anyone has any horses for sale, I’m in the market for a couple of good, calm horses for the kids.”
“I’ll keep an ear out,” his mom said, then she waved and headed out the door.
He felt strangely lonely after she left.
The house was so big, and… He hadn’t really felt alone, not even after Desire died.
He’d always been with his family, his sisters and their husbands coming in and out at his mom’s house, as well as his brothers, and there was just always something going on.
Of course, he was spending so much time rebuilding his business too, and now… He felt lonely.
“Can I have the bedroom with the blue walls?” Robert asked as he came running downstairs.
“You sure can,” he said. “As long as no one else wants it. If someone else does, we’ll have to flip for it or something.”
“We’re all going to get different rooms. So, are we allowed to pick what we want?”
“Yeah. I want the one at the end of the hall. Is that one open?”
“Why do you want one? It doesn’t have a bathroom with it?” Lucas asked Robert.
“If you have a room with a bathroom, you know you’re going to have to clean it, right?”
“Okay. I know how to clean bathrooms. Grandma taught me.”
Another thing he should thank his mom for. He nodded, and then the kids went tearing back upstairs. He was going to have to go to the store and grab linens, and he probably ought to try to figure out what size the beds were. But first, he wandered into the kitchen.
It looked a lot more dreary without the plants. Maybe he’d have to try to find some, although he’d never been very good at keeping anything alive. Not like Summer obviously was. Maybe he could ask her what kind of plants grew well there, but… Where would he ever find her to ask?
Lord? Did I get ahead of You somehow? Is this really what I was supposed to do?
He knew now was not the time to start questioning it. He should have asked for God’s direction back when he was buying the farm, but he’d been so sure everything was falling into place that it hadn’t really occurred to him to check and make sure that God was in it.
Not that he would have been able to tell if He wasn’t. It just seemed so perfect, it almost had to come from the Lord.
The feeling would pass, and he would settle down and be content here, as would his children. He was sure of it.