The Loyal One

by Shelley Shepard Gray

  Which had been in the hearing of Harley.

  Who had not been pleased. Not at all.

  If they were going to work together on this house then they were going to have to clear the air. No, if she was going to be able to trust him with the secrets behind the walls, they were going to need to get in a better place. Ignoring their past problems wasn’t an option.

  “Harley, I think we should sit down on the front porch and talk about everything before we go inside.”

  His hands, which had been flipping pages in his notebook, froze. “Say again?”

  She was kind of irritated that he was going to play opossum. Hardening her voice, she said, “I’ve thought a lot about it and I think the only way we are going to be able to work well together is for us to talk about things once and for all.”

  His expression darkened. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

  She felt like rolling her eyes. “Of course you do. I’m talking about what happened three years ago.”

  “With Melody.”

  “Jah.” Who else would she have been talking about? Three years ago, he and Melody had been together constantly. Harley had even looked smitten, which she’d always thought was entertaining, given the fact that Harley was never one to show much emotion about anything.

  But then, just when they’d all been expecting Harley and Melody to announce a wedding date, he’d instead shared that they’d broken up. Harley had never given a reason, but she’d always thought it had something to do with her big mouth.

  He sighed. “Are you playing a game with me? I thought you needed your house remodeled. I thought that was why you asked me over here. I know that was the reason I came.”

  In other words, he wouldn’t have come for any other reason. “Harley, of course I really need your help. This haus is . . .” It was a mess. It was an albatross around her neck. It was her only inheritance and everything she’d yearned to walk away from. Finding her voice again, she said, “I mean, it needs to be remodeled in order for me to make it into a bed-and-breakfast.”

  His gaze softened. “You are finally going to make that dream real?”

  He’d remembered. He’d remembered the time the eight of them had been lying on their backs on the grass in the Warners’ yard and they’d each shared their dreams for the future. Marie had wanted to be a movie star, Will had something about being bigger than his brothers, and Harley had admitted he’d wanted to raise goats. She’d gathered her courage and whispered that one day she wanted to own a bed-and-breakfast. “I really am. Mei mamm gave the house to me.”

  “Truly? That’s wonderful.”

  She nodded. “Mamm said she’d only been biding her time until my brother Caleb built his haus down in Kentucky. Caleb didn’t want to live here.”

  “What about June?”

  “You know she jumped the fence as soon as she could.” Even now, almost eleven years later, Katie felt her sister’s absence. “We see her at Christmas.” Sometimes. If June didn’t have anything else going on and felt she could handle coming back.

  “So you got the house.”

  “Jah. I got the house.” The gift had truly been a double-edged sword. She’d gotten to keep her dreams, but in order to have that dream, she was going to have to deal with everything that her mother and siblings were running away from.

  Harley’s posture relaxed. “I’m happy for ya.”

  “Danke.” She tried to smile, hoping to cover up her unease. “So, may we talk for a moment? I really do think we need to finally discuss what happened with you and me and Melody.”

  The warmth that had momentarily filled his dark green eyes vanished as his expression became hard again. “I don’t agree. As far as I’m concerned, what happened between me and Melody ain’t none of your concern. Ever.”

  Maybe Katie should have backed off or even apologized for bringing up his old sweetheart in the first place. It was obvious Melody was still a sore subject. But . . . so much had happened between them all lately. Logan and Tricia had recently gotten engaged. John B. and Marie had finally admitted their love for each other and were now a real couple.

  And just as important, they’d all been learning to live with the loss of Andy Warner.

  That, at the very least, had shown her that holding on to old hurts and imagined slights did no one any good. Surely he felt the same way? “Harley, I don’t want to argue, but—”

  “I don’t want to argue, either. But just because I don’t want to argue, it doesn’t mean I want to rehash all of our problems.” Sounding like his father, he said, “I do not.”

  All of their problems? They had more than one? “All right, Harley. I hear you loud and clear.”

  “Now, do you want me to work on this house or not?”

  Did she want to finally make this place into something she was proud of? Have it help her become someone she could be proud of?

  Katie turned and looked at it. So almost good on the outside. So completely wrecked on the inside. Much of how she felt about herself these days.

  “Jah, Harley, I want your help. I want to hire you to remodel this house.”

  “Gut. Then let’s go inside. I want to see what it looks like.”

  “All right.” After taking three steps, she paused with her hand on the door. “Um, I feel that I should warn you that it’s not pretty inside.”

  Instead of replying in a patient way that she knew he would’ve done with Marie, Harley clenched his jaw. “It doesn’t need to be pretty, Katie. All I care about is that it’s a job. You do have money to pay me, don’t you?”

  “Yes. I do have that.”

  “Then stop stalling.”

  “Fine.” Opening the front door, she led him inside.

  Harley might only need time and money to get this job done. She, on the other hand, was going to need every bit of patience and forbearance she possessed. It was going to be a long couple of weeks.

  TWO

  “I didn’t think Mr. Schlabach allowed kids on his property,” Tricia said. “Did he used to?”

  “Nee. He hated anyone coming on his land uninvited, which was why walking all the way over to the farm was our first really bad idea.”

  The muscles that were forming tight knots at the top of his shoulders were fitting symbols of how Harley felt around Katie: she was a pain in his neck.

  What was sad was that he knew better, too. She wasn’t a painful person. Most people he knew liked her a lot. And how could they not? Katie, with her light blond hair, blue eyes, and tiny frame reminded him often of a sprite, an opinionated, bright, tiny fairy in a children’s storybook.

  He’d always been drawn to her brightness but then had gotten stung by her sharp tongue. He’d learned to keep his distance. All that was why agreeing to consider this remodeling job had been a bad idea.

  No matter how he wished it was different, he was uncomfortable around Katie. Had been for years—even before her mouth had gotten him into trouble with Melody. She was forthright and honest and even blunt at times. She didn’t hold back and didn’t believe in secrets. And because of that, there was simply something about her that made him doubt just about everything he said or did.

  Harley didn’t appreciate that.

  So, out of a need for self-preservation, he’d begun to try avoiding her. It wasn’t a blatant thing, or even that he didn’t think she was a good person. It was more like their personalities didn’t mesh well.

  When they were with the rest of their friends, they got along fine. They kept their conversations light and didn’t spend too much time one-on-one.

  But when it was just the two of them? Well, it was like it had been today. They bickered and fussed at each other. Every conversation was exhausting.

  Then, too, he couldn’t pretend that she hadn’t embarrassed him in front of Melody. While Katie didn’t know that he and Melody had already been having problems, her announcement that none of the Eight liked the girl had ended things lightning fast.

  All of
that should have been enough of a reason for him to have refused the job.

  Now, as he followed her inside her home, Harley realized that there were about a hundred other reasons he should have said no.

  This house was a crowded, dark, mismatched mess.

  The musty smell caught him off guard, as well. So had the darkness. There was so much junk and debris in the hallway that it blocked several of the windows. “What happened in here?”

  “My mother.”

  Taken aback, he glanced at her, but she wasn’t looking at him. Instead, she was studiously watching a beetle march up the side of a cardboard box. He waited for her to kill it, but she didn’t move.

  Unable to take it anymore, he grabbed what looked to be an old magazine clipping, slipped it under the creature, and tossed both the paper and the bug out the door. Turning back to her again, he waved a hand around the room. “How?”

  Walking around a pair of chairs and an old table, all three piled high with papers and magazines, she glared at him. “You’re gonna have to be more specific, Harley. Are you wondering how it got so bad, how is it that I live here, or how come I have beetles in my home?”

  “All of it.” Realizing he was sounding disgusted (which he was) and judgmental (which he couldn’t help but be), Harley attempted to temper his reaction. “I don’t mean to be cruel, Katie, but the inside of your house is a surprise.”

  Her blue eyes sparkled like she’d found his comment amusing. “I bet. Um, let’s go into the kitchen, have some tea, and sit down.” Putting a hand on one hip, she murmured, “And before you ask, jah, the kitchen is safe and nee, it ain’t infested.”

  “Lead the way and I’ll follow.”

  Jaw tight, she turned and walked into the living room.

  He followed close behind. There was considerably more space in this room, but it still was claustrophobic. Stacks and stacks of clothes, books, quilts, and old blankets littered the floor and every available space. In the midst of it was a well-worn crooked path through it all. It reminded him of some mice he’d seen once at a science fair. The mice had had to make their way through the maze as quickly as possible. When he’d watched them perform, he hadn’t been all that impressed with either of the rodents. Now, he was starting to think he’d done those little guys a terrible disservice.

  The living room opened up into a small kitchen. It was surprisingly clean and orderly. From the looks of the shiny countertops and polished table, it was also where Katie spent much of her time. “This is nice.”

  Her laugh sounded like it was filled with hurt. “It’s not nice in here, but it’s a far cry better.” Filling up a kettle with water, she gestured to the two chairs next to the table. “Go sit down, Harley. I’ll be right there.”

  He sat and watched her work. He’d now remodeled six homes. In each of his previous jobs, he could hardly contain his excitement for the project and usually had so many ideas filling his head, he would constantly write them down.

  Not this time, however.

  All he could think was that Katie Steury, who was always so blunt and honest, had been carrying around her fair share of secrets.

  When she handed him a cup of tea, she sat down across from him. “I guess you’re shocked by how bad it all looks.”

  He considered being kinder but decided glossing over his thoughts wouldn’t do either of them any favors. “I am shocked. I had no idea your house was in this condition.”

  “It wasn’t anything I wanted to brag about.”

  Walking on eggshells, he asked, “Has it been this way for a long time?”

  She shrugged. “My mother always fought the idea of getting rid of anything. She has the hardest time even throwing out the old newspaper. But when my father was alive, he helped her with that.” She smiled grimly. “On her worst days, my father would encourage her to take a nap, and while she did, Caleb, June, and I would have to run around and discard things. When she woke up, she’d immediately search the house, looking for changes. It used to be a game for me, to get rid of things in such a way that she wouldn’t notice.”

  “It sounds difficult.” Which was a giant understatement.

  “It was. When I was little, all I would understand was that our father was in a panic and that I was supposed to take things and hide them away and pretend I didn’t.” She shrugged. “As you can imagine, it was all so confusing. Caleb would always worry that we’d either pick up too much or too little or put things in the wrong container. Then, when my mamm would come downstairs, she’d act like she was fine, but there was always a sense of panic on her face. Even when I was just five or six, I knew that she didn’t like our father getting rid of anything.” She grimaced. “If she had to deal with everything when he wasn’t around, she would get really angry at us.” After a pause, she murmured, “Especially June.”

  “I’m sorry, Katie.”

  Looking embarrassed, she stopped to take a sip of tea. “I grew up never knowing what to do with anything. One parent would tell me that the pile of books on the floor needed to be dusted and shelved or donated and then the other parent would yell if I moved them an inch.”

  “I can’t imagine all of that. Katie, I knew your parents. They were nice people.”

  “They were, and my mother still is. She’s always been kind and loving. This wasn’t a house of horrors or anything. My mother just had a bad problem. An illness, really. When my father passed away, her condition kind of steamrolled into something much worse. All of us kids realized that our mamm had been leaning on our father to keep her functioning. After he died, we didn’t know who to lean on.”

  “I’m guessing June, since she was the oldest.”

  “We tried to. But then June left almost two years after Daed died,” Katie said with a sigh. “June was eighteen then. Caleb was sixteen, and I had just turned thirteen.”

  “I’m sorry she left you.”

  Looking vulnerable, Katie said, “Me, too.” After a second, she seemed to pull herself together. “June’s leaving was difficult, but I knew even back then that Mamm’s problem wasn’t the only reason she took off. She never really got along with either of our parents—it was almost like she couldn’t help but question everything they did. Because of that, they questioned everything she did right back. One day June’d had enough.”

  “That had to be hard.” He remembered when her sister had left, but had he ever actually worried about how Katie had been dealing with the loss? He didn’t think so.

  What did that say about him? Had he really been that selfish?

  Oblivious to his self-recriminations, Katie continued. “It was hard to see her go, but I’ve tried to come to terms with it. She just wanted something different from living in a run-down haus in the country, you know?”

  Not knowing what to say, Harley nodded. “And Caleb?”

  “He got married to Vanessa and bought some good farmland in central Kentucky. Now they have two babies and need help. For some reason, being around the bopplis helps our mother. She loves fussing over them. They built a little two-room house on their property for her and she just moved out there. So far, it’s working.”

  “Which means you got to have your dream.”

  Katie smiled, suddenly brightening up the conversation. “I did. At first, I felt guilty about getting the house, but Caleb convinced me that turning this house into something beautiful would be good for all of us. I sold off some of our land to pay for the remodeling, and now I’m ready to start up the business.”

  “I canna believe they left this all for you to deal with.” That was an understatement. Though his father had never been especially open or affectionate, Harley had never gotten the feeling that the man wouldn’t have dropped everything if he’d been in trouble. And his mamm? Well, she’d been strict but had often gone out of her way to do something sweet for him, like surprise him with peach ice cream on his birthday.

  “Don’t fret, Harley,” Katie said, bringing his mind back to the present. “Jah, this haus is in poor s
hape, but I told Caleb I could handle it.”

  “And so he let you.” Harley had always thought her brother was a bit spoiled and lazy. It seemed he’d been right.

  “Nee, don’t be like that.” Leaning back in her chair, she gestured around the room. “All in all, the mess is a small price to pay to have the means to dream. Ain’t so?”

  Having the means to dream. The words struck a chord with him, reminding him of the sacrifices he had made when he’d first begun his remodeling and construction business. They also signified that maybe he and Katie weren’t all that different after all.

  Or, at the very least, they had something in common. “Jah,” he said as he stood up. “Well, let’s see the rest of this house. It’s looking like you and I are going to have a lot to do.”

  Her eyes lit up. “You’re going to do it? You’re going to accept the job?”

  He leaned down a few inches so he could look directly into her eyes. “Of course I will. I would never refuse to help out one of the Eight. You know that.”

  For a second, she paused, maybe wishing that he had told her something else? But then she stood up as well. “Let’s get started with the tour then. But watch your step, okay? The halls and stairs are narrow and crowded.”

  “I’ll make sure to follow wherever you go, Katie.”

  She smiled before turning and leading him out of the kitchen. As he followed her slim frame clad in a bright purple dress, Harley paid little attention to where he was going and more on her. Katie Steury. So tiny and slim, but with the temperament of a stubborn, braying goat. Bleating loudly to be heard, getting into trouble more often than not . . . and as loyal and steadfast as anyone he’d ever met.

  Over the last couple of years he’d seemed to have forgotten that. Thinking about so much in his life that he took for granted, it occurred to him that he’d forgotten a lot of things of late.

  “Careful of the fourth step,” Katie called out as they climbed the stairs to the second floor. “It squeaks something awful.”