“There were deer on the road.” Sierra managed to get the words out. “Mom said the woman swerved to avoid them and ran right into Dad’s truck.”
“So it wasn’t exactly his fault.” That was a relief, anyway. Jo patted Sierra’s back. “I’m glad he’ll be okay.”
“But I need to see him.” Sierra pulled out of Claire’s arms.
Claire nodded. “I’ll go pack a bag for both of us. Do you want to come, too, Jo? Or stay home alone? If you need something, you could call Nemeseks.”
Like that would happen. “I’ll stay here.” She stood in the middle of the living room while Sierra and Claire rushed around. In just a few minutes, the VW’s taillights disappeared down the drive.
Jo headed down the hall and into the bedroom. Threw herself down across her bed and prayed for Tim Riehl and the family, for the unknown woman’s family. For Zach. For herself.
**
Zach faced his mother over cups of Earl Grey at the kitchen table. Dad, loaded up on painkillers, was already asleep on the twin bed Zach had set up in the corner of the living room.
“How’d it go with Jo?”
Zach sighed. “Not very good. She doesn’t believe me.”
“She told you that?” Mom had a sip of tea.
“As good as.” Zach twisted his mug around on the table. “Mom, I’m sorry. I’ve made a huge mess of stuff over the past couple of years. I don’t know where I went so wrong.”
She clasped his hand across the table. “By ignoring God?”
Zach thought back. Why had he quit going to church and hanging out with the gang from the college-and-careers group? It’d seemed so reasonable at the time. He’d been busy, tired. Just needed to get a bit of extra sleep Sunday mornings. To finish his homework Friday nights. To hit the library during the prayer group that met Tuesday noon.
It wasn’t that he’d stopped believing. He’d just sort of let his faith slide into a back corner of his life. He could retrieve it any time with no consequences. He hadn’t become evil.
Right. Look where that had gotten him. Flirting with disaster.
He met his mother’s gaze. “That was the start, for sure.”
“You don’t need me to tell you that God is waiting for you to offer your life back to Him, do you?”
He shook his head. “I’ve already started. I didn’t know how far I’d drifted until Yvette called me.”
“You had a near miss.”
“Not that easy.” He whooshed his breath out. “If I don’t ‘own up’ to the baby, she’ll terminate.”
“She can’t hold you responsible.”
Zach lifted a shoulder. “It feels like she can.”
“Son.” Mom waited until he finally met her gaze. “You know I’m not for abortion. No doubt about it. But if you’re not responsible for this pregnancy, then going along with her isn’t the right thing to do, either.”
“I know, but…”
“There isn’t a but.”
He stared at her. “I’ll be responsible for the death of an innocent child.”
“No, son. Yvette is the one making this choice. Not you. What does she expect you to do?”
“She wants…” Zach scowled, thinking hard, as his words trailed off. Yvette hadn’t said she’d changed her mind about marrying him. Not that the offer was still on. Had she been looking for money? That seemed silly. Jeff Hammond had more cash than a hundred Zachary Nemeseks, and it was highly unlikely he’d turn a pregnant daughter out onto the streets. “I don’t know what she wants.”
Mom nodded slowly. “Call her bluff.”
He already had, just by walking away. But the sensation she wasn’t done with him lingered. Mom was right, though. He couldn’t take responsibility for Yvette’s choices—past or future.
“So, about Jo.” Mom’s eyes gleamed.
The phone on the kitchen wall rang shrilly.
Zach lunged, hoping to catch it before it went off a second time. Dad needed his rest. “Hello?”
“Zachary?”
“Speaking.” He glanced at his mom and shrugged. Didn’t know who it was.
“It’s Pastor Ron.” The man hesitated. “I have some bad news for you.”
Zach frowned. “Hi, Pastor. What’s that?”
“Can you come over to Gabe’s apartment? He needs you.”
Had Bethany lost the baby? What irony, after Yvette’s flippant talk. But how could he help Gabe with that? He cleared his throat. “Can you tell me what happened?”
“There’s been a terrible accident.” The older man’s voice caught. “Beth…Bethany…her car…she’s dead.”
“Bethany?” Zach’s world reeled for the second time that day. Bethany’s laughing face and rounding belly floated through his memory. That was someone who deserved to be pregnant. Not Yvette. “That can’t be right.”
“Gabe has to drive to Wynnton to identify her body. He can’t do this alone, Zach.” The pastor choked on his words. “He needs his best friend. You.”
**
Zach pulled the Mustang into the parking lot of the Wynnton Hospital. A few vehicles dotted the space, well lit by streetlights.
Beside him, Gabe rubbed bloodshot eyes and stared through the windshield at the emergency room doors. His jaw twitched.
Zach put his hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Ready, man? I’ll come in with you if you want.”
A tear glistened on Gabe’s cheek as he slowly shook his head. “I can’t believe it.”
The drive to Wynnton had been quiet. Zach tried to break it a couple of times, but Gabe didn’t respond. Zach had failed his pal. He couldn’t begin to imagine what Gabe was going through.
“Hang on to God, man. I know it’s rough, but He’s got your back.” Rough? Who was he kidding? The kick he’d felt in his gut when Jo rejected him could only be a minor hiccup compared to losing a beloved wife of several years, a best chum since childhood. Bethany had been Zach’s friend, too. Had been. How did a guy start thinking of a friend in past tense?
“He’s got a strange way of showing it.” Gabe’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. He shot a look at Zach. “And since when did you start believing that?”
“I’ve been doing some thinking. I’m finding my way back.”
Gabe’s jaw twitched. “Yeah, that’s great, man.” He shoved the car door open with unnecessary force and climbed out. He leaned back in. “Nice that God loves you, cause He sure doesn’t love me.” The door slammed.
Zach’s mouth dropped open.
His best bud, shoulders drooping, hands shoved deep into his pockets, wove across the sidewalk to the hospital doors. They parted automatically, the garish light beaming all around him. Two women ran toward Gabe and embraced him, but he shook them off. The trio remained framed in the doorway.
Everyone here knew Bethany: nurses, doctors, lab techs, cleaning staff. She’d been working here, what, three years? Four? But they were Bethany’s friends, not Gabe’s. And even though Gabe clearly did not know it, he needed Zach at his side. The guy was hurting. He couldn’t have meant what he said.
Zach locked up the Mustang and followed Gabe into the building. He nodded at the two nurses. “I’m his best friend. Name’s Zachary.”
Gabe shifted away from him. Only slightly, but noticeably.
“Dr. Seeley said to call him when you got here.” The nurse’s lips trembled. “He’ll take you d-downstairs.”
Gabe nodded curtly.
Zach caught the young woman’s eyes. “Thanks.”
She cast a sidelong glance at Gabe and hurried behind a windowed wall, where she lifted a phone. Zach watched her lips move but couldn’t hear.
Gabe jammed his hands back in his jeans’ pockets and hunched over to the window.
Was the doc going to be long? Zach didn’t know how much of this he could handle. But it wasn’t about him. It was about Gabe. Gabe, who spurned Zach’s help. Who doubted God.
Well, Zach had doubted God aplenty, too, and for less reason. He leaned bac
k against the nearest wall and closed his eyes. God, Gabe doesn’t want to talk to You right now. He’s hurting. Man, Zach was, too. He blinked back hot tears. We like to think we’re in control, but I’m learning—the hard way—that’s not so. Please, God, comfort Gabe. He needs you so much.
The statue of Gabe stood at the window, and the nurses had retreated to the safety of their zone. Zach went back to the business of praying.
**
Jo blinked her eyes open against the early morning light streaming in the window. She must’ve fallen asleep at some point, but all she remembered was tossing and turning, her thoughts all a-jumble. Zach. Sierra’s dad’s accident. Zach. Yvette. Zach.
She’d almost blurted everything out to Sierra, almost asked her friend for advice. Would have, had the phone not rung. What would Sierra have told her?
Probably that she was pig-headed, and it might be true. At least that’s the conclusion she’d come to sometime in the wee hours. The accident—the death of some unknown woman—had taunted Jo. If it had been her life cut short, would her attitude and her posturing have been worth it? Maybe she’d been too hard on Zach. He’d tried to talk to her and she’d shut him down.
Jo stared at the ceiling.
She’d put on a porcupine’s armor, making sure no one could get close to her. How would she even know if Zach changed? He’d never get a chance to say so.
Life was grayer than it used to be. Not as black and white. But she’d been so busy trying to keep all the compartments in her life separate she hadn’t been watching for God’s leading. Maybe He was trying to tell her something. Maybe she ought to apologize to Zach. Let him explain. Then if he didn’t profess his undying love to her—and why would he?—she’d know she’d given him the opportunity. Maybe then she could move on.
Decision made, Jo rolled out of bed and shrugged on some clothes. Still too early to go next door. She took a bowl of granola out onto the front step.
Domino ducked under the barbed wire fence and careened up the trailer steps, practically wiggling right into Jo’s lap. He’d grown over the past few months and must be near his full size by now.
Jo burrowed her face into his silky hair and told him all about the mess with Zach, all the dreams and hopes that lay shattered, even the ones she’d had that didn’t include love. The June morning sparkled around her yet everything seemed drab.
“Heel, Domino. I’ll walk you home.” Handy to have an excuse, should the discussion not go so well. As Jo walked, she prayed, but her thoughts were so disjointed she could only hope God understood her better than she understood herself.
Rosemary sat in the wicker rocker on the veranda, hunched over her open Bible. She glanced up when the pup barked a greeting. “Domino! How…?” Her gaze flew to Jo’s face and she took a deep breath. “Jo. I’m sorry he keeps bothering you.” Dark circles hung under the older woman’s eyes, and her cheeks looked moist with tears.
“It’s okay, Rosemary.” Jo hesitated for an instant. “Are you all right?” She climbed up the few steps.
Rosemary managed a wan smile. “I’m okay, Jo. Hanging onto the fact that God is God and He’s in control. We’re not. I don’t know why we even try.”
“Is it Steve?” Or Zach. Was this about Yvette? Had he owned up?
“He’ll be fine. We did have some bad news last night, though.”
Bad news must have been roaming the neighborhood like a pack of wolves. “What happened?”
“You know Gabe and Bethany Rubachuk? From church?”
Jo nodded, relief flooding her that the problem wasn’t Zach. “Health food store.” Zach’s best friend.
Rosemary took a deep breath. “Bethany was killed in a head-on crash last night. Zach’s been gone all night with Gabe to identify her body.”
Jo’s brain garbled. “Bethany?” Oh, God, no! A head-on. What were the odds? “W-what kind of an accident?”
“She swerved to miss a deer and a semi-truck ran right over her little car. They say she probably didn’t even see it coming.”
Chapter 27
Zach huddled under his rain slicker, not that it did much good. He’d tracked Gabe this far and wasn’t giving up now. His buddy hadn’t been at church this morning, nor at the apartment or store—no surprise there—nor any other logical place Zach had been able to think of until…
The treehouse.
Why it had come to mind, he didn’t know, but when he’d followed the road on past his folks’ place, past the trailer, and around the corner, he’d been rewarded by a glimpse of Gabe’s beater car in amongst the trees.
Now Zach stood under the golden willow and peered up. The knotted rope was not dangling. So, that’s where Gabe was. “Rubachuk!”
Silence. Well, not really. Even here in the forest the rain beat on everything, including the platforms above Zach’s head.
“I know you’re up there, man. Drop the rope for me.”
He hadn’t been up that thing in years, but memories flooded back. All the times he and Gabe had hung out here. Young boys, reading comic books and eating candy bars. Teenagers, talking about girls. About Zach playing the field, and Gabe’s intense crush on Bethany.
“Go away, Nemesek. I don’t want to talk.”
Zach cocked his head. “Can I come up if I keep my trap shut?”
“Never happened yet.”
“I’ll do my best. I just want to be with you, man.”
A scrape on the wet planks above, then the knotted rope tumbled within reach. Zach took a deep breath, asked God to zip his mouth, and climbed up.
Gabe slumped against the trunk. The overhang of the upper deck and the long, drooping branches kept the rain from blasting him directly. At least he wore a jacket and wouldn’t catch his death of a cold. He made no move to acknowledge Zach’s presence.
Zach plopped down beside his buddy, drawing his knees up and wrapping his arms around them. He glanced sidelong at Gabe. What could he say that would make a difference? Anything? Right. He’d promised to keep quiet. That took the pressure off. Kind of.
Across the platform, the railing had splintered off where Jo crashed through in weather very like today’s. He should fix that. Zach grimaced. Or not. The tree house was on Green Acres property. By all rights, both he and Gabe were trespassing.
He could do it for Jo. He’d come in the roundabout way like he had today, and she’d never know he’d been there unless she wandered out by chance and caught him. Would she recognize the repair for what it was?
The thought stilled his heart. Time to admit something to himself, perhaps? He’d do it because he loved her. Because it might be one of the few things left that drew them together instead of wedged them apart. Because his life wasn’t complete without her.
He inhaled deeply of the sweet, damp, willow-laden air and blew it out again in a long breath. In and out again. Like a cleansing. Time to stop running from God, from the farm, from Jo. Time to change direction and run toward them. Were they connected? What if he committed to stay and she rejected him again? What if he was never good enough for her, never environmental enough? Never green enough?
Gabe’s voice interrupted his reverie. “I don’t suppose you can give me a good answer why God killed Bethany.” His voice broke. “And our baby.”
Please God. Give me words. But there didn’t seem to be an answer. “Not really.” Zach’s mind slid to Yvette’s pregnancy. Let it go, man. It’s not yours. You know it.
“I didn’t think so.” Gabe heaved a huge, shuddering sigh.
Zach had tried so hard to control his own life. What had it got him? Nothing but a false paternity suit and a lost job opportunity. It was time—past time—to let God have the reins.
Gabe’s voice broke through Zach’s thoughts. “I’ve spent my life serving God. But it’s not good enough. He’s thrown away my gift and trampled it in the mud.”
Zach had heard all the pat answers. People offered them to him and Mom when Dad contracted Guillain-Barré. But at least Dad lived. Zac
h opened his mouth, ready to repeat some of the wise axioms. Shut it again.
“What does God really want, anyway? He doesn’t care about us. We’re just game pieces on His stupid chessboard. ‘Oops, had to sacrifice a pawn. Too bad.’” Gabe rammed his fist on the wooden planks, causing the raindrops to splatter.
It sounded like there were a few holes in Gabe’s thought process, but Zach had nothing to plug them with. It wouldn’t accomplish anything to stick up for God. If God couldn’t prove Himself to Gabe—well, Gabe was right. God wasn’t worth serving.
Gabe’s elbow jabbed Zach in the ribs. “What, you’re not going to spout some nonsense to me about how she’s an angel in heaven, and God needed her more there than I needed her here?”
Zach met his buddy’s eyes and shook his head. For someone who’d demanded silence for his company, Gabe sure had a lot of questions.
“And don’t tell me I’m in some league with Job. That I’m important enough for Satan to test my faith. That’s garbage.”
Hadn’t even crossed Zach’s mind. Best not to remind Gabe that God had restored everything that had been taken from Job. A new family down the road would not be the same thing as having Bethany and their baby back.
“I hate the truck driver that killed her, you know that? If he hadn’t been there, Beth could have avoided the deer. And he’ll be fine. Just a few bumps and bruises.”
Zach hadn’t given much thought to the other guy in all the time he’d been focused on pulling Gabe through this. “I’m sure he’s really sorry.”
Gabe jerked away, shaking. “Big lot of good that will do. It won’t bring Bethany back.” His voice broke. “I never even got to meet my baby girl.”
Once again, Zach shoved thoughts of Yvette’s pregnancy out of his mind and pulled his focus back to Gabe.
“You’re not going to offer to take me down to the pub and drown my sorrows?”
That did it. “Gabe, I never turned into a drunk just because I quit going to church and reading my Bible. Sure, I’d have a few beers at a party, but that’s a long way from drowning in alcohol. If you’re going to push me for a reaction, stay above the belt.”
A Farm Fresh Romance Series 1-3 (A Farm Fresh Romance Box Set) Page 21