Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Monday morning, Gilbert found himself a little distracted as he got the kids off to school.
Normally he enjoyed the time in the morning where he chatted with the kids, put their lunches together, and made sure that they had everything that they needed.
He really did miss the time that he got to spend with his kids, and he was glad that they were back in the same house together.
Although, his mom made cooking breakfast at six o’clock in the morning look easy and fun, and it was anything but.
He burned a batch of pancakes and dropped a measuring cup on the floor, breaking it.
But the kitchen was gorgeous, and Summer was coming, and he was with his children, together, and even the little annoyances couldn’t dampen his anticipation of the coming day.
He and Summer were going to be fixing fence together, they were going to talk some more, and…
He wasn’t quite sure why he was so eagerly looking forward to that. But he was.
He stood at the door while his children trooped out to wait for the bus, then hung out by the window, watching until they got on.
They were old enough that they didn’t necessarily want him down there standing with them when the bus arrived.
But they weren’t old enough for him to totally forget about them as soon as they walked out the door.
Would they ever be that old? He really didn’t think so. He couldn’t imagine not caring about his kids or not wanting to see them. Maybe that was made sharper by all the time he missed with them while Desire was sick and then while he was rebuilding his business.
At the thought of his business, he walked into the library, which he’d been using as his office, and opened his laptop.
He was not looking forward to this Darla person coming, and Mrs. Tucker couldn’t have picked a worse time.
For the last almost year since his wife had passed away, and for almost four years before that, since he found the note where he realized she had been cheating on him, he hadn’t been the slightest bit interested in women or romance.
He’d put his best effort into continuing to have a good marriage, but inside he had been bitter and angry.
Being with Summer last week at the festival was the first time that he’d sat and talked to a woman and truly felt happy and understood. Like… Like there could be something more than just conversation.
And now, Mrs. Tucker had to go and put a wedge between them.
He blamed Mrs. Tucker, but it wasn’t her fault at all. It was his. He could have said no. He could have looked at Summer who was standing right there and said that he had someone else in mind, and he wanted to be able to give all his attention to them.
But he didn’t know how Summer felt, and he didn’t want to make her uncomfortable, if all she saw was an older man who was doing something nice for her and giving her a place to stay, helping her out. Maybe even she considered him a friend.
He cringed. He didn’t want to be friend zoned.
But he probably deserved it. Since he could have been a lot nicer to her, could have tried to look for ways to help her save her farm. It occurred to him that whoever was the Secret Saint around town was doing that very thing. Trying to help people, rather than bettering himself.
Not that there was anything at all wrong with bettering himself, but he couldn’t really pat himself on the back for doing a kindness to Summer when he could have done a lot better, if he had been willing to put himself last.
He’d have to think about that a little more, because would that have meant he wouldn’t have bought the farm after all?
And then, he felt a little God nudge. Maybe God was working this all out, and he didn’t need to beat himself up about it anymore.
Maybe everything was going according to the Lord’s plan.
That it was perfectly okay for him to buy a farm, and it was even better for him to lend a helping hand to someone, no matter how he did it.
He smiled, thinking about his Bible reading that morning and how much he appreciated just the short time he’d been back home, getting back into the Word.
For far too long, he’d been neglecting it and setting it aside, and he could already see benefits of the short weeks that he’d been spending with the Lord.
A calmness, a trust in God’s plan that hadn’t been there before, a knowledge that it was less about him and more about knowing that God would work everything out.
He had no sooner thought that than he saw Summer’s truck coming up the driveway.
He didn’t know where she had her horse trailer, because he hadn’t seen it along the street when he’d been walking with her, but it was hooked to her truck now as she came into view and pulled in at the barn.
She backed the trailer in and unhooked it.
And then she got back in her truck and drove to the house.
He should have been on his laptop, looking at his business, instead of watching Summer like some lovesick schoolboy dreaming out the school window.
She came to the back door, and he was there to meet her, opening it as she had her hand raised to knock.
“I’ve been watching for you,” he said, thinking that was a major understatement. He’d been standing at the window watching her every move.
“I’m sorry I’m a little late. It was busy at the shop this morning, and I threw on an apron and stood behind the counter for a bit to give Sunny a break.”
“She needs to hire someone.”
“She’s trying. She really is. She has someone starting tomorrow, but it’s just so tough. People either don’t want to work, or they can’t do something as simple as showing up to work on time, let alone actually being able to physically do the job.”
“I would think it wouldn’t be that hard to sell muffins and scones.”
“You wouldn’t think so, but you’d be surprised.
It’s tough, and I’m not sure what the solution is.
” She lifted her shoulder. Then she sighed.
“I know for me, it took a little bit of time for me to figure out how to make the different coffees. Since I don’t drink my coffee anything but black, it was kind of unfamiliar territory, but the directions are right there.
All you have to do is read them and follow them.
And that seems to be too hard for some people. ”
“Maybe it’s a reading problem?” he asked, only being half serious.
She recognized that right away and laughed. “You know what, it could possibly be. Maybe I should suggest to Sunny that she should have the directions on audio. Her employees would just have to push a button to have the directions read to them on how to make it.”
“Something tells me that the customer wouldn’t enjoy that experience quite as much.”
“It would ruin the suspense, right?”
They laughed together, and then he said, “Do you want me to take you upstairs? I can show you which bedrooms we’ve chosen, and then you can decide what you want?”
“Sure. I’ll take whatever. I can carry a load of things up with me. I honestly just have pillows and some sheets, and I do have a stand that was my grandmother’s that I took with me as well.”
“I remember it. I missed it from the library. It was between the two chairs.”
“Yeah. I’m kinda surprised you noticed it.”
“I thought it was an antique, and it was pretty.”
She smiled, and he could tell that his words pleased her. He hadn’t realized it was her grandmother’s, but that made sense to him now.
“If you don’t mind, I think I’ll run out to the truck and grab something, and that will halve the time we have to spend carrying stuff in.”
“I appreciate it. Actually, you can carry the stand in if you’d like. It’s pretty, but it’s also very heavy.”
“Sure thing. It is in the back?”
“Yeah. Right up next to the cab so the trailer didn’t knock it over while I was driving.”
“I saw you brought it and unhooked it by the barn. Where’d you have it?”
“I parked it in the pool parking lot. It’s closed for the season, and Mrs. Tucker told me it was okay.”
“Mrs. Tucker has her fingers in everything,” he said, and then as he walked to the back of the truck and she opened the door to grab some things, he said, “I was flabbergasted yesterday in church when she asked me to show some stranger around town.”
Summer didn’t answer right away, and when she pulled back out of the truck, she had her hands full of several bags of clothes.
She closed the door with her arm and shrugged a shoulder.
“But it was nice of you to say yes. After all, Mrs. Tucker can be a little bit overbearing, but it takes people like her to keep the town running so well. If she wasn’t running around asking people to do things, our town wouldn’t have the good reputation that it has as being friendly and helpful, and goodness, the festival wouldn’t get done, and one or two people would end up doing everything and then burn out so fast it wouldn’t be funny. ”
They started walking toward the door, and she was right. That stand was extremely heavy.
“This thing looks like solid wood, but I think it might be filled with rocks.”
Her laugh rang out. “Right? I had to stop three times while I was carrying it out just to sit down and take a break. My goodness, it’s like carrying a little whale around.”
“I think a whale would be lighter,” he said, opening the door, and she caught it with her foot, holding it with her arm while he used both hands to carry the stand in.
“Thanks,” he said, liking the way they worked together. They…had the same vibes that they had had at the festival. Just an easygoing companionship between them that made him feel happy and satisfied.
He carried the stand through the kitchen, down the hall, and into the library, and when he came out, she was waiting at the bottom of the steps.
“You can go up,” he said.
“I didn’t want to look without you. It…feels familiar, but not. Does that make sense?”
“I suppose. It’s kind of got our stamp on it, and that probably feels weird.”
“It does.”
“I suppose it’s hard,” he said as he started slowly upstairs. He held his hand out for one of the bags, and she handed it over.
“Not really. I was talking to someone, and they said that I needed to focus on the good, and at first, I thought that was weird because what good is there? I left my home, right? And now I’m a stranger in a home that I used to own.”
“I’m sorry.”
She shook her head, then stuck her arm back underneath the bag.
“Don’t be. I promise. It’s okay. They pointed out that I don’t have any of the worries that I used to have and I get to live here worry free.
I pretty much have the best of both worlds.
And yeah, I can see some bad things about that, but it just seems silly to focus on the bad. ”
“That’s really wise.”
“Yeah. That’s what I thought. I was kind of embarrassed that I hadn’t thought about it myself.
Although, I do think sometimes we can take that to the other extreme and we can totally bury our heads in the sand and we just ignore the things that are wrong.
I don’t recommend that either. But in my case, I can’t do anything about it. ”
“I see what you’re saying. If we can change it, to ignore it is silly and foolish. Or if we should change it.”
“Exactly. Like something that’s dangerous, or if I want something and I need to work for it.
I can’t just sit around and think, oh, I’m just going to be happy that I don’t have it.
No. I can go work for this thing. So, you need a little bit of common sense, but in this case, there was absolutely nothing I could do.
I just needed to adjust my attitude so that I was happy instead of wallowing in self-pity. ”
“It’s too bad that more people don’t think like that.
I think we’d all be happier. But instead, we focus on the bad, on what we don’t have, on what wasn’t given to us, on how people didn’t treat us right, or on how we feel like we’re the victim.
You know, when you’re the victim, you become powerless.
I don’t understand why it’s so popular to pretend to be a victim anymore. ”
“That’s sad, in a way. A lot of people are being convinced that they’re victims, and that someone else needs to do something in order for them to be justified.
But in reality, you’re only as much of a victim as you allow yourself to be.
I mean, I could say I was a victim of my parents’ overspending, but in reality, I’d rather look at it like I was able to build my own life.
I was given the opportunity to learn how hard it is to make things work, how freeing it can be to let things go.
And now, I owe nothing, and I’m able to start building my life from the bottom up. It was actually a blessing.”
“If that’s how you choose to look at it.
Which I think is the smart way. But so many people choose to look at themselves as victims and reject the idea that they might be able to do something with what they’ve been given.
Instead, they’re looking around and demanding that they be compensated for the unfairness of society. ”
They had reached the top of the steps, and she looked around. “Which rooms are taken?”