16
Drew stood up straight and pressed his hips forward, trying to stretch the ache out of his spine.
December wasn’t supposed to be a manual labor month; it was supposed to be a sit-on-your-butt month, but Grandpa had decided to clear a field before the ground got hard, and since Grandpa was the boss, he got what he wanted.
“Looks like this section is almost done! Another few loads should do it!” Grandpa called down from the driver’s seat of the farm’s only backhoe.
Yeah, easy for you to say, Drew thought. He turned his tired eyes toward the half-buried rocks scattered around his feet and leaned heavily on the pickaxe in his hand. He felt like one of the seven dwarves.
After clearing the area where he stood, he finally made it to the top of the rise, and his phone buzzed in the pocket of his mud-covered jeans.
He pulled it out with a gloved hand and peered at the screen; he had one new voicemail from an unknown local number.
Odd. He must have been working in a dead zone.
He glanced around to be sure nobody needed him at that particular moment and clicked on the message before holding the phone to his ear.
A woman’s smooth voice poured out of the speaker.
“Hello, Mr. Tanner? This is Charlotte Haverty from Belle Haven Jewelry. Your special order is still here waiting, and we have a seven-day policy for items held on deposit. Please plan to pick it up today and pay the remainder of your balance; we are open until five o’clock.
Thank you, and we look forward to serving you in our store. ”
Drew growled in frustration. Savannah’s necklace! He’d meant to get it when the store called last week, but time had gotten away from him. He glanced at his watch, which told him it was already after four. Shoot! It would be a close shave.
“Hey, Dad?” he shouted, waving his arms as he jogged toward where his father and uncle were tackling an especially stubborn tree stump. “I’ve got to go into Willow Creek. I’m sorry; it’s really important, and the store closes in forty-five minutes.”
His father wiped the back of his arm across his forehead and regarded his son with surprise. “You’re asking to leave early?”
Drew bounced anxiously on the balls of his feet. He hated bailing on work—it gave him an itchy feeling in the pit of his stomach—but this was an unusual occasion. “Yeah, I’ve got to pick up a—”
But Drew’s father turned to his brother with pinched brows. “Logan, has Drew ever asked to leave work early before?” he asked loudly.
“I don’t think so, Rob.”
“Is he sick?”
“Dad, I really have to go. It’s for Savannah. I’ll be back in the—”
“Ah, yeah, he is sick,” Uncle Logan said with a half grin. “That explains it.”
Drew rolled his eyes, finally realizing he was being teased.
He turned on his heel and hurried toward the edge of the field where he and the others had left their vehicles.
Jonah had ridden in with him, but he’d just have to find somebody else to drive him home.
Drew cranked his ignition and backed out onto the highway as quickly as he could.
Thankfully, they’d been working a field that was closer to town than to his house, so that took ten minutes off the trip, but it would still be a wonder if he made it in time.
There were twelve minutes to spare when Drew strode through the front door of Belle Haven Jewelry in Willow Creek. The shop was empty, save for an older woman behind one sparkling counter. She glanced at Drew over the top of her wire-rimmed glasses as he approached.
“Can I help you, sir?” she asked.
Her tone instantly put Drew on alert—something about it was slightly acidic, like she had better things to do than ask the question in the first place.
He drew in a slow breath and squared his shoulders. “Yes, ma’am. I’m Andrew Tanner, I have an order waiting?”
The woman barely moved as her disdainful gaze slid from Drew’s face to his shoes and back up again.
It was only in that moment that he realized how he must look; he was sweaty, dirty and probably had debris in his hair.
He automatically raised a hand and swept it back over his head.
But that definitely hadn’t been the best move.
Now there was plant matter on the counter.
The woman’s attention shifted from his person to the mess he was making, and Drew felt embarrassment burn into the tips of his ears.
She cleared her throat. “An order here?” she asked icily.
Drew glanced around the store, as if he could somehow be in the wrong place, but he knew he wasn’t. “Yes?” he said. Unfortunately, it sounded more like a question than an answer.
The woman raised her chin, clearly unconvinced. “Let me look,” she replied. She slowly pulled a large book from below the counter and opened it before sliding her finger down the list of orders.
Drew shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other, then he glanced at a clock on the wall behind the counter. Nine minutes now.
You are the customer! he reminded himself sternly. She is here to serve you.
“Charlotte left a message that it’s ready, and I need to pick it up today,” he said, trying to prove his case. “A necklace. I special ordered the birthstone.”
A door opened in the mirrored wall behind the saleslady, and a man who looked like store security stepped out of a back room. Drew blinked at him in surprise. Had she summoned this man somehow? Had she felt a need for protection?
“Tanner?” the woman asked without looking up.
“Yes, ma’am,” Drew replied, doing his best to focus on her and not on her bodyguard. “Andrew. I have a partial balance remaining.”
She made a noise that sounded as if she had her doubts and kept searching the entries in her book. Finally, she stopped on a line where he could read his name upside down, as clear as day. “Andrew Tanner?” she asked again.
“Yes, ma’am,” Drew answered. His rib cage squeezed tighter, even as he tried to keep his voice steady. Why was this so hard? The woman who’d helped him place his order had been lovely.
The lady behind the counter, who still hadn’t introduced herself, finally met his eye. “ID?”
Drew pulled his wallet from his back pocket and slid his driver’s license from behind its plastic window before handing it to her.
His attention jumped to the clock again.
Five minutes until closing. Would they ask him to leave then, or did it count that he’d entered the building before five?
He could feel himself starting to panic.
Breathe, a voice said. Don’t act nervous or they’re going to think you have a reason to be nervous.
“I can pay for the rest,” he added needlessly.
The woman pursed her lips and muttered something that sounded an awful lot like “right under the wire.” She held his ID up, as if comparing his face to the photo side by side, and then finally handed it back to him.
“Just a moment,” she said, and she went to a case on the right-hand wall, unlocked it with a key from around her wrist and pulled out a flat jewelry box.
Drew breathed a sigh of relief and pulled out his debit card. They were almost done.
Minutes later, at 5:02 p.m. exactly, he stepped onto the store’s front stoop with a silver gift bag clutched in his hand.
The lock on the shop’s door slid home the moment it shut behind him, only intensifying the uncomfortable feeling that had taken up residence in the center of his chest. He felt like a criminal—like he hadn’t just bought an expensive piece of jewelry with money he’d worked hard to earn.
It was a less-than feeling—a feeling he knew well. A feeling he couldn’t seem to outgrow.
Drew was freezing. He really should go inside and get warm, but somehow the icy blackness of the night was numbing the ache behind his breastbone.
He propped one foot against the bottom of the split-rail fence and leaned his forearms on the top, staring out at the emptiness of what had been a thriving bean field a few months before.
The sound of a car rolling down his driveway made him jump, and Ryker growled near his feet.
He looked over his shoulder and analyzed the shape of the vehicle as it came closer—a truck, not a car, and too small to be Jonah’s; maybe it was his dad coming to find out why he’d left work before dark.
He turned his back to the house and hoped whoever it was wouldn’t find him.
Moments later, the swish of boots in the dying grass dashed his hopes.
“You know, I built a perfectly good house not twenty yards from here, boy,” Grandpa said dryly. “Is there something wrong with it?”
Drew huffed out a humorless laugh. “The house is fine, Grandpa,” he muttered, not turning to look at his visitor.
Grandpa Tanner leaned against the fence a foot or two away, mirroring his grandson’s position. “Well, it looks like the North Pole threw up on it,” he added.
Drew felt one side of his mouth lift despite his mood. The old man wasn’t wrong; there were now holly wreaths on both front windows in addition to the icicle lights hanging from the eaves. Savannah couldn’t seem to stop.
“It looks good, though,” Grandpa rasped. “Looks like a woman’s been here—like back when your grandmother made this place a home.”
There was a long, quiet pause when Drew didn’t answer, and his grandfather didn’t force the conversation, for which Drew was grateful.
An owl called mournfully from the tree line opposite them, and something small scurried in the dry leaves around the base of the fence posts.
Ryker lifted his head curiously, the ID tags on his collar jingling, before resting his head back down at Drew’s feet.
Finally, Drew thought the weight of the silence might press him into the ground and keep him there forever if he didn’t break it. “Grandpa?” he asked, still looking out over the dark landscape.
The old man grunted from beside him.
“Did you ever want to give Grandma something . . . better?”
There was a pause.
“What do you mean, son?”
Drew scrubbed both hands across his face, fretting over exactly how to put his jumbled thoughts into words. “I mean, do you ever feel like there’s something more you should be doing with your life?”
Another silence. Another rustle in the grass.
“More than . . . what?” his grandfather asked.
“More than working hard? Providing for my family? Taking care of God’s creation?
Helping feed the American people?” He shrugged, a motion Drew heard because of the way his jacket scraped against itself when he moved.
“I don’t guess there’s much more a man can do than that. ”
Drew hung his head, looking down at where his hands were laced together. Now he felt ashamed for having asked the question, especially of the hardest working man he’d ever known.
“But I know why you’re asking,” Grandpa said softly, and Drew lifted his gaze and turned to look at the man beside him. The only light back here came from his bedroom window, which was lit from the inside, but in the dim glow, Drew could see that his grandfather’s expression held no reproach.
“You do?”
Grandpa nodded, turning his own gaze out across the field. “You’re wondering if this young lady of yours would ever want what you have to give her.”
Drew seemed to feel himself grow smaller inside his coat, like retreating inward would keep the other man from knowing just how right he was. But it turned out, Grandpa didn’t need confirmation. Instead, he pointed out over the fence into the darkness.
“Tell me what you see out there,” he said.
Drew squinted, but he couldn’t make out anything beyond where they stood. “It’s too dark, Grandpa.”
“I don’t mean with your eyes; I mean with your head. What do you know is out there?” the old man clarified.
Drew turned back toward where his grandfather pointed. “Well, there’s a stand of tulip poplars straight out that way,” he said, nodding off to the right. “Then, if you take the tractor around the bend, there’s another nineteen acres that slope down toward the ford in the creek bottoms.”
Grandpa nodded slowly, humming in affirmation. “And that way?” he asked, turning to point past the cabin and down the driveway toward the main road.
Drew closed his eyes and pictured the land. “The end of my driveway hits Mom and Dad’s, and across the lane we have sixty-three acres on this side of the road.”
“Level or sloped?”
“Mostly level.”
“All plowed?”
Drew shook his head, his eyes still closed. “No. There’s a pond and a grove of pecan trees on the back twenty.”
Grandpa didn’t say anything else, and Drew opened his eyes in confusion.
The older man was watching him kindly. “You know, son, sometimes people look down on men like you and me because we have dirt under our nails and manure on our boots, but what they don’t know is that we’re part of this land the way they won’t ever be.
We nourish it, talk to it, pray for it, coax life from it.
We work small miracles every day—miracles that help keep their families alive, whether they know it or not.
You know this land like the back of your hand—even in the dark.
You’re the fourth generation to fall so in love with it that you couldn’t bring yourself to leave, and your children will be the fifth.
That’s not a small life to offer, Andrew.
That’s a legacy the likes of which most families don’t understand—a legacy a smart woman would be glad to be part of. ”
Drew shivered slightly, but he didn’t feel the cold.
Instead, he felt the hot sun of a dozen summers as he drove the baler through a fresh hay field, heard the rumble of the combine and felt its vibrations in his bones.
Grandpa was right. He was part of this place; it breathed new life into him even as he compelled it to produce new life of its own, and he couldn’t imagine it any other way.
“Do you get what I’m telling you, boy?”
Drew nodded slowly. “You’re saying I have more to offer than just dirt.”
Grandpa chuckled under his breath. “Well, that’s one way to put it, yeah.”
Drew pushed himself off the fence and stood up straight before turning to look at the cabin. He could just see the edge of the twinkle lights from where he stood.
It had been a week since Savannah had told him she loved him, and he still hadn’t said it back.
He’d tried more than once, but every time he started to, his throat got dry and his chest got tight and her face started to blur in front of him.
So, instead, he’d spent time trying to show her what he couldn’t say out loud, and she seemed to understand.
At least, she wasn’t being weird about it as far as he could tell.
But would she be happy staying in a place like this forever when she could go anywhere and do anything?
He didn’t know yet. But, at some point, he was going to have to find out.