Page 212 of Share with Me

Chapter Sixty-Five

Ivan McMillan stood there. Just stood there.

He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The yard was immaculate. The grass cut, the bushes trimmed. The live oak trees with their Spanish moss hung lower and looked fuller in the afternoon sun.

And was it his imagination or had Grandma Yun’s house expanded?

The carport was gone, replaced by a two-car garage with carriage doors. The roofline extended all the way over two new windows above the garage. Ivan walked around the garage and came face to face with a garden that Grandma Yun had spoken about, but no one had the wherewithal to execute. Butterflies were everywhere on various bushes, and the air smelled of gardenias. He faced the back of the house. Walls of windows were everywhere overlooking the garden.

He wished Grandma Yun could see all this. Under the two o’clock afternoon sun, the entire property brightened in natural light on this sunny, rainless Thursday.

Too bad Grandma is not here to see this beauty.

Then again, heaven is even more exquisite.

Ivan heard a vehicle door slam and he made his way to the front of the house. Parked right behind the car he had borrowed from Matt was a big SUV. A well-dressed lady tumbled out of it.

“Hello! You must be Ivan McMillan. I’m Meg Zimmerman.” The rental manager with the name tag and a thick folder shook his hands. “Did you have any difficulty finding this place?”

“No. I used to live here.” Ivan followed her up the steps to the porch. The pine boards looked brand new. Stained and silent as he stepped on them.

She fixed them.

“No wonder the owner is letting you rent this place for dirt cheap.”

Dirt cheap.

Somehow those words didn’t sit well with Ivan. Maybe it was a mindset. He’d have to fix that sort of thinking. Pastor Gonzalez said on Sunday that his confidence needed to be in Christ and not in his circumstances.

When Meg opened the front door, Ivan didn’t hear a thing. The door no longer creaked. He followed her into the house.

And just stared.

The entire interior had been renovated, but every room was empty.

“Empty, this house rents for two thousand a month, but you can get it fully furnished for four if you like.”

“Who would rent it fully furnished?”

“Usually corporate executives on retreats or long-term vacationers. People come and go all the time.” The rental manager stepped farther into the house. “I can’t believe you’re getting this place for one-tenth the cost. Are you a family friend?”

“Something like that.” Technically he was only renting a room, but that was a joke. He’d get the whole house. The living room was bright and airy and overlooked the butterfly garden. He could envision Grandma Yun sitting in her rocker reading her Bible by the window.

Tears welled in his eyes, but he knew better than to weep over the past. Grandma Yun was with her Otto now in heaven, where the splendor and the glory of God were above and beyond anything they could ever have on earth.

And his grandparents were both well now. No walkers, no weak hearts, no titanium hips. Just pleasant days in the sunshine of God’s eternal and unlimited love.

Pleasant days.

Ivan’s thoughts went to his old studio downstairs. What had Brinley done to the basement space, he wondered? He’d have to find that out later as Meg led him to the kitchen.

The kitchen. Wow. Ivan couldn’t believe his eyes. The back wall had been pushed out and this was a huge kitchen with shiny appliances. Right in the middle of it was a kitchen island the size of a small car. He could envision a family utilizing this space.

A family?

Mine.

Would Brinley want to live here? He felt inadequate all of a sudden. Renting would have to do for now, but someday he wanted to own his own house. Sure, it was a steal at a couple of hundred dollars a month, but a warning niggled his mind. He would be renting from Brinley. He hated that dependency especially after what her brother had said to him. He hated owing anyone anything. Well, anyone but God.

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