Heart of Hope

by Shanna Hatfield

  Clay slapped him good-naturedly on the back as they walked out of the bedroom. “Maybe you just need to turn on the full force of your powers of persuasion.” Clay waggled his eyebrows suggestively and grinned.

  “Maybe,” Josh agreed with a laugh. “Maybe I do.”

  When Jenna got past her fear of all things rural, she learned to appreciate time spent with Josh’s family. She watched as Josh’s dad, Clay’s parents, Clay’s Aunt Maggie, Uncle Tom, and cousin Jake walked inside the house, bringing smiles and laughter. Laken, her husband, Tyler, and their two kids along with numerous friends and neighbors converged at the Matthews’ home all bearing plates of food and some bringing gifts for the girls. It seemed like half the Tenacity community dropped by at some point during the evening.

  Bobbi and Steve, Clay’s parents, were giddy with joy at officially becoming grandparents. Clay was their only child and since Callan was unable to have children, they’d given up hope of ever having grandchildren. They insisted the girls call them, “Grammy and Gramps.”

  Jenna loved being around this family, filled with people who were so genuine, honest, and kind. She sat back and smiled as Clay carried his two girls around. Audrey hung on his back while Emma wiggled in his arms.

  Truthfully, it was a miracle to see him walk.

  Two years ago, they had all been out at Bobbi and Steve’s ranch working cattle when a pen full of cows stampeded and Clay suffered severe injuries. He’d been so badly hurt, they weren’t sure he would make it. After two weeks in a coma, he spent months in therapy. A hoof-shaped scar on his head and a plate in his leg were the only visible reminders of the accident.

  Jenna breathed another prayer of thanks for Clay’s continued health and that Josh wasn’t injured since he was in the pen with Clay when it happened.

  The accident seemed to change both Callan and Clay. They lived each day with a deep and underlying sense of gratitude. Maybe that was why they both seemed to love their new roles as parents.

  Having known Clay for quite a few years, Jenna would never have pictured him as such a doting father.

  Clay was a huge man, barrel-chested, and taller even than Josh, with thick muscled arms and legs. Despite his intimidating size, he possessed a deep dimpled grin, warm blue eyes, and one of the biggest hearts she’d ever encountered. The fact that his sun rose and set with his wife just endeared him even more to those who knew and loved them.

  From what Jenna understood, he was an excellent teacher in his position as dean of the agricultural department at the community college. She knew from personal experience he was a big tease, but also compassionate. It was no wonder he had turned out to be an excellent father.

  Callan was motherhood personified. She seemed to love everything about being a mother. Once she quit her job as the creative director at the local convention center last year and focused only on her event planning business, she had much more time to devote to the girls and fully embrace the role of parenting. She was a natural at nurturing and encouraging with just the right amount of discipline.

  Reflective, Jenna sighed, knowing she would make a miserable parent. The thought of being stuck at home with little people demanding her attention made her chest tighten and stomach ache. She knew, to the very depths of her being, that she was just not motherhood material.

  As much as Josh wanted a family, children were the one thing she refused to give him. She had career goals and raising babies didn’t fit into her carefully structured plans.

  Forcibly shifting her thoughts away from babies and parenthood, Jenna rejoined the conversation around her.

  On the drive home from the party, she and Josh shared conversations from the party, news they heard, and discussed how much they enjoyed the evening.

  “Did you save me a piece of chocolate cake?” Josh asked, concerned it may have been all gone.

  “You already had a piece, you oinker,” Jenna teased. When Josh looked truly stricken at the thought of not getting another piece, she relieved his misery. “Yes, I saved a piece for you. Good grief, Buck. Its only cake.”

  Grabbing Jenna’s hand and kissing it in gratitude, Josh smiled at her. “It isn’t just cake. It’s your chocolate cake and I absolutely need another piece.”

  “What am I going to do with you?” Jenna laughed at the boyish grin on his face.

  Josh’s voice grew husky and he placed a moist kiss to her palm. “I have a few ideas.”

  Her cheeks tingled with heat while her stomach fluttered so she decided to change the subject.

  “It was nice to see Jake,” she said of Clay’s younger cousin. Jake, also an only child, worked to finish classes at Portland State University and would soon graduate with a degree in biology. He came home most weekends to work with the herd of registered quarter horses he raised and help on his parent’s small farm. When he had time, he also helped on Steve and Bobbi’s sprawling ranch.

  “He said he has two more weeks until graduation then he’ll be home for the summer or at least until he finds a job.” Josh let Jenna change the subject to Jake because it was a topic he wanted to discuss. “We’re really going to need a hired hand this summer and I was thinking about offering the job to Jake. What do you think? If he wanted, he could live in the Harold house or he could drive out from Maggie and Tom’s place.”

  “I think that’s a great idea,” Jenna smiled at Josh. She wasn’t going to be much help to her husband on the farm all summer with her hectic travel schedule. She’d worried how he would handle all the work by himself. A hired hand for the summer months made perfect sense. They both liked Jake. From experience, they knew he was honest and a hard worker.

  “Why don’t you call him tomorrow and see if he’d be interested. If he wants to live in the house, we could fix it up a little. I’m sure it’s been overrun with rodents and creepy crawlies.”

  As Jenna said the last words, she shuddered. Mice, snakes, and spiders were things she would never become accustomed to or even accept as part of rural life. Josh worked hard to make sure their house and outbuildings remained rodent and reptile free, but he couldn’t control their presence in the yard.

  Whenever Jenna came across a snake, Josh was convinced anyone residing on that end of the county knew about it from her frantic screaming.

  The first time she’d screamed like the world was about to come to an abrupt and surprising end, Josh had been working in the shop on a piece of equipment. He dropped the heavy piece of metal and narrowly missed maiming his foot as he ran full-tilt toward the house to see what horrendous tragedy had befallen his wife.

  Winded and afraid of what he would find when he arrived in the yard, he discovered Jenna standing on the porch steps, clutching a shovel and jabbing it in the direction of a flowerbed. He thought maybe there was a nest of rattlesnakes coiled up there for all her pointing and gasping, but upon investigation, he found one tiny little garter snake.

  After that, he didn’t get quite as excited when he heard her scream. He always ran to the rescue, just not as fast and furiously as he did that first time.

  “Great. I’ll give Jake a call tomorrow. I’d ask him after church, but I somehow doubt we’ll see him there.” Josh gave Jenna a knowing look. Jake’s flagrant disregard for his Christian upbringing was a source of great contention within his family. He was a good kid, polite, responsible, and thoughtful, but he refused to attend church with his parents and was often seen hanging out with a crowd of questionable reputations.

  Josh remembered what it was like to be twenty-one, popular with the girls, and have the world by a string. He couldn’t say he blamed Jake one bit. Then again, he wouldn’t trade his current life for anything.

  Jenna was perfect for him and he absolutely loved the life they built together.

  Chapter Three

  A quick call to Jake the next day confirmed he not only would enjoy working for them for the summer, but would also take them up on the offer of a place to live.

  Jake hesitated to live with his parents, bu
t he didn’t have too many choices. He planned to continue paying rent for the apartment he shared with three other guys in Portland, and that left him with limited funds for summer housing.

  Callan and the girls arrived early the next Saturday to help spruce up the Harold house. Jenna loaded her vacuum and a variety of cleaning supplies as well as rags and garbage bags into the trunk of her car. She drove down the road to the house, fully engaged in the chatter of Audrey and Emma from the back seat.

  As they parked in front of the house, Jenna realized she and Josh should have done a better job of maintaining the place. The yard was overgrown and weeds grew everywhere. They removed the cleaning supplies out of the trunk and trudged to the front door, brushing at the cobwebs that seemed to be everywhere.

  When Jenna opened the door, a blast of smelly, hot air greeted them. Jenna gave Callan a dismayed look. “This may be worse than I expected.”

  Jenna stepped inside, followed by Callan. A bullsnake slithered across the front room floor in pursuit of a mouse and flicked his tongue at them in greeting.

  Both women screamed and hurriedly retraced their steps out the door. Outside, they continued screaming as shudders ran over them both.

  Since they didn’t know what had happened, Emma and Audrey began screaming, too. Callan picked up Emma and ran to the car while Jenna tugged Audrey along with her.

  Safe inside the car, Callan and Jenna eyed each other then started to giggle.

  “That was an interesting start to our cleaning,” Callan said with a smile. “I think we’re going to need some reinforcements before we can do anything in there.”

  Jenna pulled out her cell phone and called Josh. He’d gone over to help at the Matthews ranch that morning.

  “Hey, babe. You aren’t all done cleaning, are you?” he teased, knowing she, Callan, and the girls barely had time to get started.

  “Actually, we’ve got a problem and require your immediate assistance,” Jenna said, not giving away any details.

  “What kind of problem?” Josh sounded distracted.

  “A big enough problem the four of us are trapped in the car for reasons of personal safety.” Jenna glanced toward the door of the house, half-expecting the vermin to escape and swarm her car. She thought she saw something furry run outside and tamped down the urge to scream again. “Would you please get over here as quickly as possible and bring some weaponry with you?”

  “Are you joking with me, babe? We’re kind of in the middle of things and I can’t run over there to brush down a spider web for you,” Josh cautioned. His wife’s idea of a big problem and his were usually entirely different.

  “I assure you, we have already brushed down the cobwebs from the door and the problem isn’t something Callan and I can handle.” Irritated that Josh didn’t offer to run right over, she needed his support. If one of the men didn’t rapidly deal with the problem, her concern would move straight into a state of panic. “Josh, please. You have to come help us. Please?”

  She heard Josh say something muffled in the background then he returned. Relief washed over her at the sound of his pickup starting. “I’m on my way. Don’t move.”

  Certain she didn’t want to know how fast Josh drove, within ten minutes he pulled up behind her car. Both pickup doors opened and Clay got out along with Josh. They sauntered up on either side of the car and stuck their heads inside the open windows.

  “What’s got you four hiding out in the car?” Josh asked, winking at Audrey and Emma.

  “Uncle Josh, it was awful. It made us all scream!” Emma said before Audrey clapped her hand over her sister’s mouth.

  “Auntie Callan said to let them see for themselves, remember?” Audrey hissed at her little sister, known for having a big mouth.

  “I forgot. Sorry. Yep, go see for yourself. It’s scary!” Emma said, bouncing on her seat.

  “I’m sure it is terribly frightening.” Clay smirked as he stepped away from the car and followed Josh inside the house.

  The men were gone just a few minutes before they hustled out the door. Looks of horror filled their tanned faces, replacing the sarcastic smiles they’d sported as they entered the house.

  “Why didn’t you mention the infestation?” Josh asked, catching his breath. “There are nests upon nests in there.”

  “Nests?” both Jenna and Callan yelled, causing the girls to start screaming again.

  “We only saw one mouse being chased by a very large snake,” Callan said as Clay leaned against the car, appearing to need a moment to wrap his head around the state of disaster in the house.

  Clay looked across the top of the car at Josh. Since his brother-in-law owned the place, it was his duty to inform the women what they found in the house. When Josh continued staring at him, he nodded toward the women and gave the man a look that said he had to be the one to break the news.

  “Well, girls, it um… it appears that maybe we should not have left the house unattended for quite so long. There seems to be a few dozen mice in residence along with several snakes, three wasp nests, and I’m pretty sure we saw a bat in the bathroom.”

  Jenna and Callan both turned white and looked at each other.

  “Get a torch and let’s burn it to the ground,” Jenna said, meaning every word. There was no way she would set foot in the house. She sure didn’t know how anyone could live in it.

  “Now, babe, calm down. We can take care of the problem. It’s just going to take a little time. This is an older house, so we’ll have to clear it out, seal any cracks and holes, set traps and make sure they stay empty, and then you girls can clean. Plan on it being next weekend before you can get any work done here.”

  “Are you crazy?” Jenna got out of the car long enough to shake her finger under Josh’s nose. “You are completely insane if you think I will ever, in a million years, set foot in there again. I think that snake smiled at me!” She shuddered just remembering it and had to tamp down the urge to jump into Josh’s arms where she knew she’d be safe.

  “We can get it cleaned out and it will be fine. No problem,” Clay said, trying to reassure Jenna and Callan as well as himself. He wasn’t fond of snakes. When they came across the bat, he and Josh were both caught off guard. They nearly pushed each other down in their haste to get out of the house.

  Jenna pointed to her cleaning supplies and vacuum, and asked the men to load them in her trunk, which they did. She started her car and gave Josh a look of warning. “When you can promise me there isn’t one creepy anything left in that house, we’ll talk about coming back to clean it. Deal?”

  “Deal,” Josh said, hoping Clay would be game to help him. He sure didn’t want to tackle the job on his own. “Why don’t you girls do something fun today while Clay and I work on this project.”

  “That sounds like a great idea,” Callan said, waving a hand out the window at them. “We’ll see you boys later.”

  Jenna turned the car around and headed home.

  After the girls left, Josh and Clay drove into town and bought a dozen mousetraps of varying sizes and styles, a few gallons of bug spray along with bug bombs, and asked at the feed store for ideas on catching snakes and bats.

  While giving them odd looks, the old timers that tended to gather there on Saturdays were full of wisdom and offered no less than thirteen ways to catch snakes and remove bats. Josh settled on a dozen snake traps instead. He and Clay gathered up bags full of supplies and ventured back to the house, armed with their arsenal of weapons for the removal of rodents, bugs, and snakes.

  Cautiously stepping inside the house, the front room seemed still and quiet so they started setting out mousetraps. Two traps were the mouse hotel style that would hold several mice at once. They emptied those two traps numerous times throughout the day and each time they did, they both fought down the urge to be sick. An old metal burning barrel collected the contents they dumped out of the traps, and they set fire to it as they worked on the odious project.

  The snakes took a lot more
work to catch. By noon, they had evicted nine of them. Neither one of the men felt like they could eat anything, so they came up with a game plan to get rid of the wasp nests. Using a long rod and a gunnysack, they decided the fastest way to get the nests out of the house would be to knock the nests into the sack, twist it closed and haul it outside where they would douse the whole thing in a bucket of bug spray. Their plan was a success with the first nest. Clay had just knocked the second nest into the sack while Josh twisted it closed when the bat flapped out of the bathroom and flogged Josh’s ball cap-covered head. He dropped the sack in an attempt to shield himself from the bat and the wasps swarmed out.

  He and Clay ran pell-mell out into the yard and took refuge in the pickup. Once the wasps settled down, they returned inside. Clay used the rod to carry the sack outside and dunk the nest in a bucket of the bug spray. They quickly repeated the process with the third nest. When they finished, they could at least work without dodging wasps along with the snakes and mice.

  As they turned to check the mousetraps again, Josh and Clay watched in mesmerized revulsion as a snake slithered into the mouse hotel, stuck partway in the hole.

  “You better take that outside now.” Clay pushed Josh in the direction of the trap.

  “Me?” Josh stared at Clay as if he’d lost his mind. “You’re so much better at dumping that thing than I am. Why don’t you take it?”

  “I don’t think so, man. This is your place, your mess, and your snake-filled mouse trap.” Clay gave Josh another nudge.

  Josh ended up retrieving their wasp nest rod and scooting the trap outside. He couldn’t bring himself to look when he dumped the trap, knowing he wouldn’t want to see what came out of it.

  He started back inside, but Clay nearly bowled him over, flapping his arms around his head as the bat followed in hot pursuit. Josh ducked as the bat winged through the open door and flew off.

  “At least we don’t have to figure out a way to evict it now.” Josh glanced at Clay as he continued to brush a hand over his hat-covered head.