By Summer's End (Christian Fiction) (19 page)

Holly felt a seething anger toward her
father.  She forced herself to breathe deeply, to tamp down the fury.  “God,
help me to forgive,” she prayed.  “Help me to help Brianna deal with the loss
of her parents…”

She felt a sense of peace descend over
her.  She knew she needed to retain calm—to never allow Brianna to detect her
anger toward her parents.  It was heartbreaking that Brianna had lost both
parents while young.  And although she had cried for them, she hadn’t cried
nearly as much as Holly would have expected.

She hoped against hope that having grown
up with an alcoholic father hadn’t done irreparable damage to Brianna.  The
girl was adept at hiding her emotions, and often seemed confused as to what the
appropriate response to a situation might be.  At times, she seemed older than
her years, at other times, much younger.

Holly sighed.  She yearned for sleep. 
Tomorrow would arrive soon enough and she needed the strength to face it head
on.

Ryan
drove toward Battle Ground, having spent most of the day in Vancouver
discussing the sale of his business to Drake and Bill.  He’d spent the better
part of the night struggling to make a decision.  He had finally decided that
Annabelle was right.  He was no longer interested in working for the family
business.  Simply walking in today had required a force of will on his part. 

Life was too short to spend it doing
something that left him feeling empty and unfulfilled.  He realized he wanted
more.  Unfortunately, he had no idea what that might be.

He passed through downtown Battle
Ground.  He spotted the daycare where Holly worked.   He wished he could stop
by and see her—talk about his day and the life-altering decision he’d just
made.  He wanted to share his hopes and dreams with her, to talk through the
other big decisions needing to be made.

He suddenly laughed out loud.  He was
being presumptuous.  They hardly knew one another, yet, he felt drawn to her. 
Being near her felt like … coming home.

Who was he?  Even he had to admit that
these feelings were foreign to him.  He’d never needed anyone before.  Sure, he
had a sister who loved him, but he’d always walled off his emotions, even from
her.  It was difficult being the only son of Baxter McGraw.  Expectations were
high, with no real payoff.  There had never been any pleasing his father.

Ryan had nearly reached Holly’s place. 
He spotted Brianna in the front yard, just as he was about to drive past.  He
swung the wheel and pulled down the drive.

It bothered him to see the young girl
out front alone.  He’d warned her before that it wasn’t safe for her to be by
herself.  They might live in the country, but bad things happened here too. 

He climbed out of the truck and crossed
the lawn.  Brianna was now standing beside the rocking chair she and Holly had
found at the side of the road.  She made a sweeping gesture.  “What do you
think?” she asked, smiling. 

“It looks great,” he said, assessing her
work.  She had sanded the chair and had applied a wood stain.  “You’ve done a
terrific job.”

She beamed under his praise.  “I made a
stencil of a rose and I’m going to put it here.”  She indicated the head rest
at the back of the chair.  “I’m going to use a darker stain with the stencil.” 
Her eyes widened hopefully.  “Will you help me position the stencil?  I want it
dead-center, and I’m afraid I’m going to bungle it.”

“Do you have a tape measure?” he asked.

She shook her read regretfully.  “No,
I’m afraid not.”

“I’ll be right back,” he said, and strode
toward his truck.  He returned with a tape measure.  “Show me exactly where you
want the stencil.”

She indicated the placement and he set
about measuring the distance from the top and both sides of the head rest. 
“This looks good,” he said finally.

“Thanks,” she said with a smile.  “Could
you hold the stencil for a sec?  I’m going to tape it.”

“Is the stain dry?”

“Yes.  It’s been dry for awhile.”

“Okay, let’s do it.”

He helped to stabilize the stencil,
while she carefully dabbed the darker stain into the cut-out parts.  When done,
she carefully peeled it away.  The darker rose design looked beautiful against
the lighter stain.

“Wow, that looks great,” Ryan said.  “You
said you made that stencil yourself?”

She nodded.  “I did.”  She shuffled
awkwardly.  “I’ve always liked to draw.”

“A horsewoman
and
an artist,” he
said, with admiration in his voice.

“I’m no artist,” she said, and watched
him hopefully.  “Ryan, do you think you could help me get the chair into the
house when it dries?  I want to surprise Holly with it.  I hope she likes it.”

“She’s going to love it,” he assured
her.  “You two really have a knack for refurbishing furniture.”

She smiled.  “It’s really fun,” she
admitted.  “I’m kind of surprised myself that I enjoy fixing up old stuff,
rather than buying new.  Before, I always had the best of…”  Her words dwindled
off.  She might have had the best when it came to material things, but she
certainly hadn’t had the best of her parents.  Somewhere along the way, they
had lost themselves, and any real relationship with her.

Ryan watched her face.  It broke his
heart to see the sudden sadness in her eyes.  “Hey, are you okay?” he asked.

She sighed, but nodded.  “I’m fine. 
I’ve been thinking about my parents quite a bit lately.”

“I know you must miss them a lot.”

“That’s the thing,” she said sadly.  “I
can’t believe I’m about to say this, and I have to be an awful person to say
it, but…”

He nodded, prompting her to continue.

“Anyway, I think I miss the
idea
of my parents, rather than the
reality
of who they were, and really, who
they were with me.”

He furrowed his brow.  “What do you
mean?”

“I didn’t really know them.  I mean, I
lived with them, of course, but they sort of did their own thing.  They seemed
to care a lot about each other, and did a lot together, but they really didn’t
include me.”  She sighed.  “Alcohol seemed to be the core of their fun, so…  I
spent most of my time by myself.”  She gave a shrug.  “I guess I felt like that
was normal, because it was my normal.  Now…”

“Now, what, Brianna?”

She forced a smile.  “Now, I have a
sister who’s only twenty-eight, and she’s a better parent to me than they ever
were.  She’s only known me for a short time, really, but she puts my needs
above her own.  She wants the best for me, and is always trying to figure out
how to make that happen.”

“She’s a good person,” he said.  “She
loves you.”

“I know, and I’ll tell you what—I made
it hard for her in the beginning.  I wasn’t easy to love for most of the time
I’ve been with her, really,” she conceded.

He smiled.  “Well, you’re pretty
loveable now.”

“Thanks,” she said, shuffling her feet
and reddening at the compliment.  She gave him a tentative glance.  “I’ve
realized I’m never going to have a father again but…”

“Hey, that’s not true.  Someday, you’re going
to get married and hopefully your future husband will have a really nice
father.  He’ll be a father to you.  You mark my words.”

“I’ve never thought about that,” she
said, smiling softly.  “You’re right.  But…”

“What?” he asked, smiling indulgently.

“I was thinking it would be great to
have a big brother.  If Holly gets married, her husband would be my
brother-in-law.  That’s pretty close to a big brother, right.  I mean,
hopefully he would like me and all, and won’t mind having me around…”  She gave
a dismissive wave.  “I’m being stupid.”

“No, you’re not.”

“I am,” she sighed.  “Holly isn’t
getting married anytime soon anyway.  I’ll probably be an adult by the time she
gets married.”

“Oh,” he said, pretending a casual
interest, when in reality, his heart began pounding like a drum in overdrive. 
“She doesn’t want to get married, huh?”

Holly cocked her head in thought.  “I
think she would like to find a good guy, but she won’t ‘saddle’ anyone with her
problems.”  She emphasized the word saddle by doing air quotes with her
fingers.

“Holly has problems?” he asked lightly. 
“Really?  She seems so together.”

He felt some guilt for asking Brianna
questions about her sister.  He had no doubt she wouldn’t appreciate his
intrusive questioning.  He knew he wasn’t playing fair and was taking advantage
of Brianna’s naiveté.  But his motives were pure.  He cared.  A lot.

“Oh, she thinks she does,” Brianna said
with a roll of her eyes.  “She thinks she has so much baggage a guy wouldn’t
want her.”

“Baggage?”

“She has a lot of debt,” she told him.

He arched his brows.  “Really?”  He
grinned.  “Likes to use her credit cards, eh?”

“Oh, no!   Nothing like that.  I mean,
she has one credit card for emergencies or for necessities, but no, she’s not
big on credit cards.  In fact, I tried to tell her she should get a bunch and max
them out and then declare bankruptcy, but…”

“You did
what
?”

She winced.  “I know.  It was stupid of
me.  It’s just, that’s what my folks did, you know.  They’d buy all sorts of
stuff we couldn’t afford and then file for bankruptcy.  They always managed to
hang onto their stuff, but didn’t have to pay for it.  My dad thought he was
pretty smart, you know.”

“Hmmm,” he murmured.

“Yeah, but anyway, Holly told me that
any debt we incur we have to pay off.  She said we should never purchase
anything we can’t afford and that paying off our debt—heavy on the ‘our’—is our
responsibility.  She said it’s a matter of character.”

“Yes, I agree with her,” he said, as he
started off toward the porch.  He dropped down on the top step.

Brianna followed and joined him there. 
“Anyway, she’s stuck with a lot of debt and said she’d never marry a guy and
‘saddle’ him with it.”

“Sounds pretty noble.”

“Yeah, but Ryan, if a guy loves a woman
enough, wouldn’t he be willing to assume her debt.  I mean, if he
really
loved her.”

“I would think so,” he admitted.  “I
guess it would depend upon how she acquired the debt.  I mean, if a woman has a
stack of credit cards and maxes them out, and then marries a guy, and he pays
off the bills, only to have her do it again…”

“That would be bad,” Brianna
acknowledged.  “But it’s not like that with Holly.  The only reason she has any
debt is because when her mother got sick, the hospital wouldn’t treat her
unless someone promised to pay them for her treatment.  Her mom didn’t have
insurance, so Holly accepted responsibility for payment.”  She sat quietly for
a moment, as if pondering the implications of her sister’s sacrifice, but
perked up.  “She’s paid off a lot of it already.  She says she’ll probably be
out from under the debt in four years.  I think that’s what she said, but to do
that, we have to watch every penny.”  She smiled.  “It’s so great Uncle Ben
left us this place.  Since we don’t have to pay rent or a mortgage payment,
Holly has been able to put more money toward the debt than she had been able to
before.”

Ryan considered everything Brianna had
just told him.  Again, he felt guilt for prying into Holly’s personal business,
but courtesy of the teenager, he felt he knew Holly even better.  She was a person
of good, moral character.

“Oh, and Holly said she can’t marry a
man unless he’s a Christian.  That seems really important to her,” she said,
and then leapt from her seat.  “Hey, do you think you could help me carry the
chair in now.  If I’m not mistaken, it looks like rain clouds are heading our
way.”  She gestured off into the distance. 

Ryan followed her pointed finger and
spotted the heavy, dark clouds in the sky.  “You’re right.  Rain is coming.”

He rose from the porch and crossed the
lawn to the chair.  He carefully hefted it and carried it to the base of the
stairs.  “Will you get the door for me?” he asked.

She pulled open the door.  “Do you need
any help?”

“I’ve got it,” he said, and carefully
maneuvered through the doorway.  Inside, he asked, “Where to?”

She directed him into the great room. 
“There is fine,” she said.

He put the chair down and stood back to
admire it.  “It looks great,” he said.

She grinned.  “I’m just glad we’ll both
have a place to sit now.  Personally, I’ve always liked rocking chairs.”

“Me too.”

“Would you like a glass of water?” she
asked. 

“Sure,” he answered, and followed her
into the kitchen.  He sat down at the island. 

She reached for a glass from one of the
cabinets and was about to pull the watcher pitcher from the refrigerator when
she heard the sound of her cell phone’s ring tone.  She perked her ears.  “Oh,
shoot.  I left my phone in my room.  It might be Holly calling.  I’ll be right
back.”

Ryan settled comfortably on the stool. 
He glanced around.  Holly and Brianna had really made Ben’s place homey, by
adding a few touches.  Brightly colored seat cushions, colorful coffee mugs, a
vase with flowers…  All leant a charm to the space.

He leaned forward, bracing his elbows on
the island top.  Glancing left, he spotted a stack of mail. 
Don’t look
,
he chastened himself, but he couldn’t stop himself.  He moved his torso to the
left, glanced behind him to assure Brianna wasn’t coming, and quickly thumbed
through the mail.  He spotted what he was looking for—an envelope with the
return address of a medical facility.  He committed the name to memory and then
sat back as if he hadn’t moved a muscle.

“That was Holly,” she said, as she came
back into the kitchen.  “She’s going to be an hour late.  I guess one of the
kid’s mom called and said she’s been in a wreck—a fender bender, thankfully. 
Anyway, she’s going to stick around until the woman arrives.”