12. More Like Jesus
PASSION WITH KRISTIAN STANFILL
12
MORE LIKE JESUS
“What’s your tally at this week? Have ya done anything friendly?” Ginny asked, folding clothes and handing them over to Sadie as she packed.
“Low,” she grumbled. “Kota’s ahead. I cannot lose my car and my chance at an actual apartment for myself, Ginny. I need some ideas, ya know?”
Sadie clenched her teeth and put both hands on her hips, thinking through the last week. Since Dakota had come to her home and not kissed her, he’d definitely left her disoriented with some lingering and highly imaginative fantasies about doing just that. She needed an escape from those intrusive, and far too distracting, thoughts. To stay focused. She needed to win.
Sadie counted on her fingers. “I got the spare key to the apartment from your parents on my day off and cleaned it while he was at work. I bought him a new mug from the corner store.”
“The fried okra one?”
“Yup! Fixin’ Fried Okra.”
“Dang it. That’s good! He’s been wanting that one. Did he cry?”
“There was definite mist.” She folded her bathing suit and sandals. “And I also brought him flowers yesterday.”
“Peonies?” Ginny asked.
Sadie laughed. “Yeah, actually. I got ‘em from Caroline’s garden.”
“Dakota is a total peony dude. Good move.”
“Right?” Sadie agreed. “Anyways, he left another bouquet of sunflowers at Good Start, and he sent me a playlist called Sadie’s a Sunflower. I’ve been doing a pretty good job of not being overly charmed by it,” she fibbed, ferociously, “but either way, he’s still up on the tally.”
Ginny giggled and did a happy dance, jumping back and forth on her tiptoes and clapping her hands. “Right? You don’t care at all that you got a couple of giant romantic gestures from him. Sure…”
“Friendly gestures,” Sadie reminded her.
“Whatever… Tell me there’s love songs on this playlist… Oh, or boy bands! Please, please say there are boy bands.”
Sadie shook her head. She’d never tell Ginny the playlist or how many times she’d listened to it. Actually, her car had decided it’d apparently had enough and froze on a single song, The Safety Dance by Men With Hats.
She decided to throw her friend a tiny bone. “There’s a surprising amount of Bieber. Zero boy bands.”
Ginny pouted her lips and then tossed a striped, summer dress at her. “Bring this one. It looks so pretty on you.”
“I can’t believe I agreed to this. Do you think I’m crazy?” Sadie stuffed the dress into her already overfilled bag, unsure of what to bring on a Remillard family vacation. She’d likely need a full first aid kit for the Remillard siblings. And already had an entire bottle of antacids tucked safely in her suitcase, if she intended to be alone with Dakota for at least the five hours it would take them to drive to Perdido Key for the coffee supply and, then, the eight subsequent hours to reach Tybee Island where his family would be waiting.
“I think you’re crazy to attempt to drive across two states in your car.”
“She’ll do fine!” Sadie insisted. “And I honestly was bluffing. I didn’t think Kota would actually agree to it. Don’t you dare tell him, though. I don’t need one more thing for that man to drive me up the wall over.”
“Oh, the dramatics!” Ginny threw her hand over her face and fell across the mattress in Sadie’s room. Aside from boxes of clothes, it was the only remaining item not yet moved to a storage unit outside of town. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, time spent alone with Kota is time spent with a migraine and a hankerin’ for a root canal, but ya’d think with all the secret swoonin’ ya do over him, you’d at least take the opportunity to enjoy it.”
“Gin…” Sadie warned, tucking her favorite red Converse into the bag. “I do not swoon.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Ginny said, eyes closed and arm still draping over her face. “Stare, study, swoon. It’s all the same, Sadie Girl.”
Sadie’s mama, who’d spent the day ensuring they’d left nothing behind in the house, entered the room and made her way slowly to join Ginny. “Virginia, you know she won’t openly acknowledge how she feels about that boy. Especially after that Tanning fella messed with her head.”
“You know his name was Tanner, Mama.”
Her mom merely flitted her hand in Sadie’s direction, as if she couldn’t be bothered, then stretched it out to meet Ginny’s. “He could be the King of England, for all I care, and I still wouldn’t give a flip about his dang name. Not with how he treated my girl.”
Sadie smiled softly at her mama, feeling the familiar need to apologize, though she knew her mama wouldn’t hear it. Tanner hadn’t just hurt Sadie. His actions had affected their entire family. Truth that still felt hard to swallow, despite her parents’ encouragement.
Sadie’s mom waved her hand in the air again. “Now, I won’t waste another second of our precious time discussin’ a man who doesn’t deserve it. Let’s discuss someone else entirely…” She smiled slyly and held her hand out for Ginny. “Virginia Maple, help an old broad get down there so I can join in on the girl talk.”
Sadie shook her head but smiled to herself. She loved the way her mama took right away to Ginny. Not unlike how Ginny’s parents had loved Sadie. Like some of the other older ladies in town, her mama insisted on calling Ginny by her proper name. And when she found out her middle name was Maple, she’d swooned herself over such a fine Southern name.
“Ya know, Mom,” Sadie said, pointing an accusatory finger at Ginny, “Ginny’s quite taken with someone in town. She was the conduit to that whole public indecency thing… with a man named Danger. Maybe y’all could girl talk about that and leave my personal life out of things.”
Her mama raised an eyebrow, and Ginny threw a single pillow at Sadie but didn’t deny it. She’d confided in Sadie just as Sadie had in her, but they both knew Sadie’s mama was a safe space for them. “It’s true… you weasel. Kind of anyway. Danger is actually named Daniel. Found that out when he signed his citation,” she sneered, but shrugged. “And, as far as the other one… It’s not gonna happen with… well, you know who. He doesn’t see me that way. Refuses to see me that way.”
“He threw a tantrum in the middle of Main Street and took off half his clothes like a caveman. I think he sees ya, Gin.”
“Well, he sounds like a real dummy if he can’t recognize what a catch you are, Virginia.” Sadie’s mama nudged Ginny. “Maybe ya should kiss him just to be sure, though. I keep tellin’ Sadie the same ‘bout that brother of yours, but she won’t have it. Give him a good smack on the lips, I say. No warning. Just, BOOM, kiss that boy straight on the mouth and see what he does with that!”
Ginny erupted in giggles, until Sadie’s mom began describing what she declared were the better qualities of Dakota. “I tell ya what, that Dakota Remillard is a looker. Sadie certainly wasn’t lyin’ to herself about that. All playful and charmin’ but not in a conniving way like that snake, Travis… bless his heart.
“You can tell a lot about a man in the way he accepts hospitality, ya know. And Dakota ate up all those biscuits without battin’ an eye. Just went about it, makin’ conversation and patiently waitin’ on what he came for all along… And when he said, she’s important, with them hazel eyes borin’ into my Edward… Hoo-wee! I ‘bout swooned myself. I don’t know how she’s held it together for so long.”
“He’s a stickler about music lyrics and he definitely farts in his sleep, so ya know… he can be a less than fragrant, prickly pear at times too,” Ginny reminded them. “Just in case y’all need some perspective.”
Sadie gave up on packing and threw herself on the bed, laying her head on her mother’s lap and closing her eyes as her mama stroked along her brow, just as she’d always done when Sadie was sick, or sad, or during those long months of confusion and tears. Her mama always seemed to know exactly what she needed.
She spoke softly to her now. “I think this trip will be good for ya, my girl.”
Sadie hummed, trusting her mama had more to say. She felt Ginny wiggle in beside her then take her hand in hers. A sister offering support.
She sometimes wondered what it would have been like to have known Ginny, Caroline, and Georgia better during that time in her life when she’d felt so alone. What if she’d been honest with all of them, right away, rather than hiding away pieces of herself as a means of protection.
“I think,” her mama continued, “you’re gonna see that Dakota Remillard—trusting Dakota—is not so scary as you might believe. That maybe… just maybe… the Lord placed you in each other’s lives right now. In this place. For a purpose. Bigger and better than any you could have dreamed up for yourself.”
Those words, so similar to her own prayers, struck Sadie deep in her gut. In the place where her heart and head seemed to be at an impasse.
“And if you’d surrender that piece of yourself to Him, to the Lord…” her mama continued and drew out a low whistle. “Well, the sky’s the limit on what two ridiculously stubborn, creative, intelligent, playful people—what you and Dakota—might do together.”
“I am scared,” Sadie whispered, vulnerability catching in her throat. Ginny gave her hand a squeeze. “I trust the Lord. I really do. But I’m still so afraid of what could happen. I feel stuck.”
Her mama leaned low, pressing shaky, soft lips to Sadie’s brow. “I know you are. Watch and pray, dear, and never get tired of tryin’.”
Sadie smiled, and curled into her mother’s warmth. “Little Women… Thanks, Mama.”
“Always, my girl. Watch and pray,” she repeated. “And maybe have some fun doin’ it.”
So Sadie decided she would.