Chapter 14
Jones pulled up at the horse riding stable where the kids had been going for horse riding therapy since Sally had gotten sick.
They loved the place and piled out of the car almost before he came to a stop.
“Well, I guess this is going to be one of those times we’re running to catch up to them.” He laughed as Amy and he got out of the car and hurried up to the children.
Summer Lubbock, who owned and operated the ranch, and did the therapy sessions, was waiting for the kids.
“You all are right on time, as you always are,” she said, smiling as they came to her and then looking over their heads at Amy and Jones.
She could tell by the looks on their faces that things had not gone well, and she told the kids that they could pet the goats in the pen that was right in front while she walked over to talk to them.
This was not unusual. Often they spoke with Summer before she worked with the kids so she had an idea what was going on in their lives.
“What happened?” she asked without even greeting them.
“Sally passed away last night,” Amy said, her voice pitched low, even as she watched for any indication in the children that they could hear them.
They were all looking at the goats that were heavy with the babies that would be born in the spring .
“No. That’s terrible,” she said, and then she said, “Is Gilbert okay?”
Amy kind of thought that Summer would have been good for Gilbert. They had known each other in high school, and Summer had a bit of a crush on him, she thought. But nothing ever came of it, of course, and now, Summer was most likely asking out of concern.
“He seemed okay last night and this morning, and we saw him for half an hour or so after he and Mom got home from making the funeral arrangements. It’s going to be Friday,” she said, just in case Summer wanted to go.
“Thanks for letting me know. I have enough time that I can rearrange my schedule. Is it in the afternoon?”
“Five in the evening. The viewing is before that for two hours. He didn’t want to do a viewing, but being how young she was, the funeral director recommended it, saying that there would be a lot of people who would want to see her. I guess I can understand that. Also, it’s going to be at our church, not the funeral home.”
“All right. Thanks for the info, I’ll pass it along to anyone who asks and plan to be there myself. How are the kids doing?” she asked, turning around to look at them. Lucas stood by himself, with his hands in his pockets, staring at the goats but not as into it as the two younger ones.
“It seems to hit them in waves. Sometimes they’re doing fine, then Marissa especially will start crying for no reason. Robert will say, ‘why can’t my mom come home?’”
Amy nodded at Jones’s description. Then she added, “And then other times you think from the way he’s acting that he didn’t even know that he had a mom. It’s just hard.”
“Lucas kinda has withdrawn in himself, although Judd has been working some to get him to do some things.”
“I think that’s the best thing to do,” Summer said as she glanced at Jones. “I think Lucas is probably at the hardest age. The other two will take it hard and fast, and then I think they’ll bounce back, at least outwardly, while he’ll just slowly chew on it. I could be wrong,” she said, glancing back over at the kids.
“Yeah. Well, we’ll just keep doing what we can,” Amy said, glad for Jones’s comforting strength beside her.
“All right. I’m ready to get started, thanks for the info,” she said, and she moved off, her cowboy boots bringing up little puffs of dust on the ground as she walked. Her arms seemed to move stiffly at her sides, probably because of the sadness and pain she felt for the children.
“She’s so good with them,” Jones said as she bent down to talk to the children, and all of their faces turned up to her, smiling and eager.
They went into the barn together, where Amy knew that she would have horses saddled and waiting. Her helpers would help the children get on, and then they’d go out into the arena.
Jones and she moved over to the fence. It was chilly, and she held out her hands. “Gloves,” she said, showing him so he could see and be proud of her for wearing them.
“I don’t recognize those. I bet your sister Terry grabbed you as you were walking out the door and probably made you put them on.”
“I’m still wearing them,” she said, amazed at how well he knew her, knew her family, knew everything about her. She loved it, loved that he wasn’t just interested, or casually knowledgeable about what was going on her life, but knew every detail.
“How did things go with visitation?” she asked.
“It went well. Robert had one meltdown, thankfully as we were walking back to the car, and I think it was because the little kid’s mom had hugged him and told him how cute his cookie was, and it made Robert think about his own mom? I’m not sure. Lucas didn’t have a whole lot to say, and Marissa cried occasionally, but never loud. ”
“Yeah. Those loud cries are kind of hard.” For everyone, including Marissa.
“It seems like it went okay, although... I don’t know if we’re doing the right thing.”
“What else can we do? Keep them all in the house, and make them sit around and think about it?”
“Yeah. I guess put that way, I’d definitely rather be out doing something, and they seem happy now.” Which was true, as all three of the kids came out riding on horses, while Summer was on her own horse, giving instructions.
Summer had a lot of rescue horses, although many of her rescues were Gypsy Vanner mares, who were too old to have babies or hadn’t been trained when they were younger. She’d work with them, and the thing about her horses was they were beautiful, so the kids loved riding them. They also had a lot of hair in their manes and tails, and the kids enjoyed brushing and grooming them as well.
A lot of times, Summer started with that, but as their mother had gotten progressively worse, they spent more time riding.
“This always helps the kids. I know when they come home from this, it always seems to soothe their souls somehow.”
“You and I both know there’s something about animals that calls to an inner part of us that is hard to ignore. I couldn’t even explain it if I tried.”
“Yeah. Animals do seem like they don’t judge us, you know? They love us unconditionally, no matter what. Of course, they expect us to feed them, but that’s not really something you think about when you’re a kid.”
“And occasionally they bite or scratch, but if you can explain it as them being scared or hurt, then you can typically let it go and love them for just what they are.”
They fell into silence and watched the happy smiles of the children as they rode the horses around the ring, their chests jutting out as Summer gave them a compliment or their faces moving in concentration as she gave them a suggestion to implement.
She seemed to know just when they could handle some helpful hints and just when they needed to be encouraged.
“It probably wouldn’t hurt Gilbert to have some therapy with her. I know she does adults too. Or maybe he could just ride with his kids,” Amy said thoughtfully.
“Are you matchmaking, or are you trying to help your brother?”
“Isn’t that one and the same?” she asked, looking up at him. Again, not amazed, but enjoying the fact that he knew her so well.
“I don’t know. You tell me.”
“Isn’t every human happier when they have someone beside them?”
“I don’t know about that. I think some people are just naturally loners.”
She thought about that. That seemed to be Roland, her brother. But he was more of an introvert. And Wilson was like that as well.
“Do you think men are more like that than women?” she asked.
“No. I think there are plenty of women who enjoy being alone.”
“I still think even if you’re an introvert, you still want to be married. You still want to have that mate beside you, someone who is with you when things go wrong and who celebrates with you when things go right.”
He put his hands on the fence and leaned on it while he didn’t take his eyes off the kids. “I think you’re probably right. Although I still think there are a few exceptions to the rule, introverts and extroverts both want to have that someone who loves them no matter what.”
“I agree. Although, come to think of it, maybe we do want that and it’s built into us, but we don’t realize that that’s God, you know? He loves us no matter what.”
“That’s deep. But I agree,” Jones said, sounding kind of surprised .
She was going to give him a hard time for not thinking that she could think deeply, but she knew better, and she wanted to talk about something else.
“Are you sure you’re okay with us doing the wedding with Terry and Judd?”
“Yeah. I said I was.”
“I wanted to make sure that you weren’t just saying it because you knew that that would be something that would be kinda special for me.”
“No. That’s fine. Although, I haven’t told my parents yet.”
“Maybe after this, we can take a drive down?” she suggested, knowing that he might not want to. Visiting his parents could be an exercise in feeling unloved and unwanted.
He’d mostly gotten over that through the years. It seemed the closer he got to her family, the more the betrayal of his family didn’t bother him.
“I think that’s a good idea,” he said, not really sounding like it was, more like sounding like he knew they had to.
“When are we going to announce it to your family?” he asked, probably thinking that maybe her family deserved to know before his.
“We’ll probably be getting together with everyone this evening, and Terry and Judd will probably tell everyone they’re getting married. I need to finalize that with Terry, but I figure that you and I could tell everyone tomorrow. That’s if Terry doesn’t tell anyone this evening. Because I want them to hear it from us.”
“We’ll be there this evening, so if the subject comes up, we can talk about it, but I agree, Terry and Judd should have their day, and you and I get tomorrow.”
“Yeah. Neither one of us are big divas. I know for sure that I don’t really care about having my own day or whatever, but I do care about my family knowing and about me telling them. I don’t think I’m keeping information from them. But I also want to be respectful of Gilbert.”
“Yeah. He had a pretty big loss, and it might be a big stretch to ask him and Isadora to be happy for both of you.”
She realized she hadn’t told him about Isadora, so she filled him in quickly.
He flattened his lips and shook his head. “I remember her fighting with your mom and your mom watching as she walked out of the house, determined to do things her own way, and your mom just collapsing in a chair and crying, and I thought at first that she was upset because Isadora wouldn’t listen and she was being disobedient, but I think she was crying because she could see all of this coming.”
“Yeah. I know that’s why. And I know Isadora knows that she should have listened, I think she probably knew it a long time ago, and has been regretting it ever since.”
“She will regret it the rest of her life.”
“But we can’t fix that, you know? I mean, we can’t go back and get her to listen. At the time, there just wasn’t anything you could say that would change her mind, and it makes me wonder if I’m ever like that?”
He grinned at her. “Sometimes you do kinda get the bit in your mouth and go running off thinking that you’ve got the next new greatest idea, and nothing anybody says is going to convince you that you’re wrong.”
“You could convince me,” she said, and she really felt confident about that, although she was kinda scared that she would become like Isadora and not listen to the people who were trying to help her, but instead go to her friends who would tell her what she wanted to hear.
Jones was a friend.
“You know, the story about Rehoboam in the Bible. Solomon’s son. And how when he took over from Solomon and he asked the elders what he should do, and then he asked his friends, and he ended up taking his friends’ advice. He was foolish.”
“Hmm. I don’t even know if Isadora had heard that, and been able to apply it to herself, if she would have been able to make herself do right. She admitted that she knew that she was not making a wise decision, but she wanted to do it anyway.”
“You know what, I think there are a lot of people like that. Probably more than what we know. People who know that they’re sinning, and they do it anyway.”
“Yeah. I think it goes back to what Terry and I were talking about earlier today. It didn’t have anything to do with all the things that were going on. Maybe we just needed to distract ourselves, but we talked about how in society today, there aren’t any limitations. It used to be, you did something wrong, and people gathered round and told you about it. You felt ostracized, judged, ridiculed, and you might be fired from your job, lose friends, be excommunicated from the church. It kept people from doing wrong, and now, there’s nothing like that. In fact, if anyone does anything like that, they’re the ones who are ostracized because they’re not tolerant or whatever. There are no boundaries, no walls, we’ve broken those down, and people act proud about it, but I guess I don’t see it as a good thing.”
“Not unless you’re the one who’s done wrong and you want someone to hold your hand and tell you that it’s okay, you’re still wonderful and fine.”
“Yeah. Like we’re doing with Isadora. I love her, and I don’t think I could ostracize her in any way, but...”
“Maybe back when she had made those bad decisions. But she’d just have found new friends and gotten other people to tell her what she wanted to hear.”
“Yeah.” She paused. “You know with all this going on, I’m not sure that Gilbert has even thought about Christmas gifts for his kids.” The idea just came to her. It was less than two weeks before Christmas, and he didn’t have a whole lot of time.
“I heard that someone has that under control,” Jones said slowly.
“Oh, you have?” Amy asked, looking at her friend with new eyes. What did he know that she didn’t?
“Yeah. I heard from a little bird that the Secret Saint was going to be taking care of them.”
“Is that so?” Amy said, suspicion narrowing her eyes. “Does that mean you know who the Secret Saint is?”
“No,” Jones said slowly. “But I know someone who knows.”
“Well, that’s more than a lot of people know, including Terry, because she’s been asking in her column almost every day who the Secret Saint could possibly be and begging anyone who has any information to let her know.” Her sister Terry was in charge of the social media posts for the Secret Saint and the town of Mistletoe Meadows.
“Yeah.” Jones didn’t say anything more, and Amy got the feeling that he knew more than he was talking about, but she also knew that there was a huge amount of secrecy involving the Secret Saint. She should honor that and not try to get Jones to tell her everything he knew.
“All right. I’m not going to bug you about it, as long as you don’t tell anyone else any information. Because if you tell other people things you won’t tell me, you know I’m going to be really mad about that.”
“You’re so cute when you’re mad,” Jones said, ignoring everything she said.
“Jones Quebedeau. I mean it.”
He put his arm around her and pushed her head against his chest, ruffling her hair at the same time. “You might not know this, but I wouldn’t dream of telling someone else stuff that I don’t tell you. You’re the first one to hear everything that’s going on in my life. I don’t even have a sister to sit around chatting with and then text you about what we decided we want to do.”
“You said you didn’t mind!” she said, her words muffled by his chest, before she was able to pull herself away and look up into his smiling face.
“And I don’t. And I won’t tell anyone anything that I don’t tell you first, or I’ll at least text you immediately and tell you what I said. Deal?”
She appreciated that he took it seriously that she really did want to know who the Secret Saint was, but she didn’t want to make him tell her and break a confidence or get in trouble in any way.
“I talked to Wilson.”
“Are you serious? First of all, you told me you weren’t going to tell me, then you told me. That’s my brother?” Wilson was the Secret Saint?
“Yeah. But he’s not the actual Secret Saint. Wilson just said that the Secret Saint had contacted him and wanted to know if you could find out what exactly Gilbert’s kids might like for Christmas, since he was assuming that Gilbert was going to have trouble getting anything. So he asked if I could find out and then let him know so he could let the Secret Saint know.”
“Like playing telephone where all the information is scrambled up by the time it goes through too many people?”
“Yeah?”
“This feels like that. Marissa is going to ask for a doll, and she’s going to end up getting a truck or something.”
“Do they even make Tonka trucks anymore?”
“You are missing the point.” She rolled her eyes.
“No. I understand. But I know that I am not the best person to come up with a list of things for the kids, and I’m pretty sure that Wilson figured that I would talk to you about it. I think he was hoping that I wouldn’t tell you who he was, but you know better. ”
“Yeah. I’d like to give him a piece of my mind, except... I won’t, because I don’t want him to know you told me.”
“I appreciate it, although don’t lie. For goodness’ sake.”
“I won’t.”
The kids had turned their horses and were headed into the barn. There were still twenty minutes left of the session, and Amy figured that they’d be brushing them. Those beautiful long manes and tails could provide a lot of therapy.
“You want to go in and watch them?” Jones asked as he dropped his foot from the bottom rail where he had rested it and moved his forearms off the top, straightening out.
“Yeah. Then we’re going to your parents?”
“Yeah. I guess we’ll let them know what we’re doing. Although something tells me that they’re not going to care.”