Page 52 of Below the Far Horizon
“Some things just are meant to be,” Don said, clamping a hand on Trevor’s shoulder and squeezing, before he walked out of the woodshed.
Twenty-Four
“Ihope you don’t mind, but it’s been a huge day, and I think I am going to head upstairs and go to bed,” Gita said.
Grace and Stacy still sat in the living room. Grace stayed, mostly to be polite and not go to bed before their “guest.” Not that Stacy was a guest. Still, she didn’t know why Stacy was staying so long, but she didn’t want to be rude.
But now that her mother was heading to bed, surely Stacy would head out too. After all, she had at least an hour drive to get home.
“It was so good to see you today, Mom. And I’m thrilled about Don. Sorry it took me a little bit to get my equilibrium back. It’s…weird to see you with someone that’s not Dad. But it’s thrilling to see you so happy.” She stood up and went over and gave her mom a hug.
Even though Grace lived there and saw her mom every day, she stood up and went over to hug her mother as well. She supposed one of the things that she had learned was that a person never knew when the last time was the last time. She didn’t want to not show love to her mother just because she assumed there would be another day.
Why couldn’t she have applied that to Trevor? She should have said everything that she needed to say while they were under the kayak. Better yet, she should have said it before she left the picnic area. Sheshould have admitted that she was scared, that she was afraid and uncertain, and not made it sound like she didn’t want to have anything to do with him, ever. She wished she hadn’t been terrible. No wonder Trevor hadn’t come today.
Their mother left, and Stacy turned to Grace. “I wanted to talk to you a little bit privately.”
“Oh. Okay,” she said. She could just imagine that Stacy had all kinds of criticisms and suggestions and things that Grace had not been doing correctly. In fact, if Stacy knew that she’d allowed her mother to get in a kayak, Stacy was probably going to flip her brisket.
“Do you mind if we sit down for a little bit? I know it’s late, and I don’t want to keep you up but… You don’t have a job to go to in the morning.”
Just a week ago, she might have thought that her sister was saying that to be mean. But she could hear the tenderness in her voice, and a little bit of uncertainty, like she didn’t want to rub in anything that was hurtful. She appreciated the consideration.
“Of course you can sit down. You can stay as long as you like. What did you want to tell me?” she asked as she seated herself on the couch while Stacy perched on a chair.
“First of all, I wanted to tell you what a great job you’ve been doing with Mom. She is not in any pain, and she said her physical therapist was surprised and impressed at how well she was doing. I knew that Mom was determined to do as well as she could, but it seemed like progress had been slow while I was here. But she’s just seemed to flourish under your care.”
Grace knew she was supposed to say something, but she was having trouble wrapping her mind around the fact that Stacy had just given her a compliment. And not just a run-of-the-mill, casual compliment, but a really big, huge, nice compliment.
“Thanks. I…read a book that talked about how important it was for seniors to be active, and so whatever the physical therapist cleared her to do, we’ve been trying to make sure that she did, not that I am trying to exhaust her every day, but… She just loves being out, and this is a good time of year. It probably wouldn’t have been successful if it were winter.”
“Winters here can be brutal, that’s for sure,” Stacy said, shivering as though the memories were that close, and they were. Really.
“I agree,” Grace said, wondering if that’s all Stacy wanted to talk about.
She had tried to reach out to her friends, and they didn’t answer, but her sisters were right in front of her. She had tried to keep that in mind all day as they interacted. So the Lord hadn’t opened the doors for her to reach out to Lauren and Claire, but Stacy and Jill had been right in front of her. She didn’t think God could make it any more clear that he wanted her to start with her family.
That thought made her focus on Stacy even more. She saw that Stacy’s fingers were twisting, and it seemed like Stacy might have been a little bit nervous.
“Is everything okay?” she asked.
“It’s fine.”
Stacy was there without her husband. Although she had said that her kids had soccer games and her husband was going to the games while Stacy came to see her family. There really wasn’t anything weird about that, unless there was.
“I guess I wanted to ask how Trevor was. I know it’s not my business,” she said, moving her hands so that they were open and flat. Like she didn’t have any ulterior motives. “I just always thought that the two of you were so good together, and every time I thought about you, I was sad it didn’t work out. I always got the impression that he would take you back at any time, not to lay the blame on you. I just wondered if you’d reconnected with him since you’ve been back.”
Grace didn’t say anything for a moment, mostly because she wasn’t sure what to say. After all, she had connected with Trevor, and she’d managed to screw it up a second time.
Then she remembered what she had been thinking about her sisters. She wanted to have a close relationship with them, and here was Stacy, reaching out, trying to help, or at least caring about her enough to ask.
Why couldn’t she tell her what her issue was?
She briefly explained that she and Trevor had met and then decided that they would try to pretend to be together so that they could trick their parents into spending more time together, which had beensuccessful apparently, but she ended with what she had done after they were kayaking, although she did not mention the kiss. That felt…too private.
“Well, as you can see, I’m back to my old tricks. Doing stupid stuff that drives him away.”
“Then stop it, and go after him. You know he wants you.”
