As she stepped toward the mirror, she noticed the light blue hue lining the left side of her jaw where her father had struck her. That explained the look of sympathy she got from Dylan while in the kitchen moments earlier. Oh, how she hated that look from people. She'd seen it more times than she could count—every time someone referenced her father.
She slid into the only pair of dress pants she packed, and a light pink sweater, then she combed out her hair. Makeup helped to camouflage the bruise. Hopefully, nobody at church would notice.
Dylan was herding his brothers away from the table when she entered the kitchen. They all climbed into his truck and headed for town.
She followed the Jacobs clan through the large front doors of the church, and down the long aisle. She felt like the entire congregation’s eyes were on her, sure they all knew by now what had happened at the bar the night before.
They filed into a pew, nearly filling the entire row. Dylan sat at the end of the pew on the center aisle, Luke sat between her and Dylan. Braden was on the opposite side of her, then Nate and Aric.
The morning sun shone through the beautiful stained glass windows, and when coupled with the wind whipping around the trees lining the building, the branches shook, causing a colorful kaleidoscope effect on the walls of the church. It was breathtakingly beautiful. As she had hoped, it felt good to be in church.
The pastor’s sermon was focused on forgiveness. How appropriate for her today, though she’d already forgiven her father for accidently hitting her last night. She knew he didn’t know who he was swinging at when he struck her. The apology in his eyes had said it all. Deep down she knew he loved her, but alcohol was a demon to him.
After the service, the boys went to the Sunday school rooms. She looked at Dylan. “So what do we do, just wait.”
He smiled sheepishly. “Sometimes I use this hour to run errands.”
“What do you do the other times?”
“Come with me, I’ll show you.”
They climbed into his truck and he drove to the truck stop up the hill from the church. “I get breakfast. This is the one meal a week where I eat in peace. I don’t have to yell at anyone to stop fighting at the table, I don’t have to listen to anyone whine that they don’t like what I made. It’s just quiet.”
Uh-oh, now she was invading his private time, and she knew from her experience with him and his family over the past couple weeks that private time was not something he got often.
He turned, slid out of the truck, hustled around to her side, and pulled the door open. She didn’t move.
He pulled a frown. “Something wrong? Don’t you want to eat?”
“Yes, but I feel bad about invading your private time.”
He chuckled. “As long as you can promise me that I won’t have to yell at you to stop arguing with the neighboring table we should be good to go.”
She couldn’t help but laugh. “I promise.”
Dylan ordered the Hungry Man special—three pancakes as large as the plate, two eggs, breakfast potatoes, and three sausage links. If nothing else lately, she did learn a lot about the amount of food it took to fill up a man his size, not to mention his growing brothers.
She assumed Dylan to be about six-foot-two, maybe three. He was thick through the shoulders, slim at the waist, and she guessed he had some pretty powerful thighs lying under his khakis. Her cheeks heated at the thought.
His strong-looking jaw stopped chewing and his dark brown gaze zoned in on her. “Are you all right?”
“Fine, why?”
“You kind of have a weird look on your face.”
“I was just thinking about what happened last night. I’m really sorry I ruined your date.”
He smiled. “You didn’t ruin anything.”
Sure I didn’t.
“So, what are your plans after graduation?” he asked before forking another bite of eggs.
“I’ve been accepted at the University of Green Bay, into the accounting program.”
“That’s great, I didn’t know.”
She shrugged. “My grades were pretty good so I received nearly enough scholarship money for the first year.”
“What are you going to do for the rest?”
“I was hoping to get a job this summer.”
“You could work more hours for me once school is out. Between the herd and the fieldwork, I could use more help with the house and the boys. I could offer you a little farm work as well. In addition to the couple of full-time staff, I employ some part-timers.”
“I don’t know much about farming.”
“Neither did I at one time.”
They finished their breakfast and returned to the church to pick up the boys before heading over to the nursing home to visit their grandfather. She followed the boys into the private room where an older gentleman sat in a wheelchair next to the bed. He was watching TV and turned his head toward them as they walked through the doorway.
Dylan reached down and touched the old man’s arm. “Hi Grandpa, how are you today?”
His grandfather offered a lopsided grin, gave a slight nod with a blink, and grunted lightly.
With assistance from Aric, Luke perched on his grandfather’s lap. The old man slowly moved one arm, half wrapping it around the boy, while the other arm stayed stationary off to the side on his lap.
The gentleman’s gaze zoned in on her, and Dylan motioned for her to step forward. “Grandpa, I’d like you to meet Marissa Geyer. Marissa, this is our Grandpa Jacobs.”
The man kept up with the lopsided smile and grunted again.
She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. It seemed like the right thing to do. “It’s nice to meet you, sir.”
His crooked smile reached his eyes. She glanced at Dylan, catching his grateful smile.
The boys took turns telling their grandfather about their busy weeks. After an hour, Dylan instructed her and the boys to load up in his truck and added that he’d catch up with them in a minute.
Once in the truck, Luke realized he’d forgotten the toy tractor he tended to carry around with him. He’d set it on the bedside table when he climbed up on his grandfather’s lap.
Marissa eyed the upset little boy in the backseat. “I’ll go get it for you, Luke. Be right back.”
She slid out of the truck and hustled back into the building, pausing outside the doorway of Mr. Jacobs’s room at the sound of Dylan’s serious tone. Knowing she shouldn’t, she lingered to eavesdrop anyway, as she peeked into the room to see what was going on.
Dylan was on his knees in front of his grandfather’s wheelchair. “You have no idea how much I miss you and wish you could be at home with us.”
His grandfather nodded slowly.
Dylan lowered his head. “I feel like everything I do is wrong. I can’t keep the boys happy to save my life.”
The old man lifted his hand and clumsily touched the top of his grandson’s head. Dylan didn’t move. His grandfather grunted loudly, causing Dylan to lift his head to meet his grandfather's gaze. The old man touched Dylan's cheek and grunted at him in a tone that sounded reassuring.
Dylan raked his hand over his face. “You keep saying that, but I just don’t know if I should be the one…” His voice squeaked and his grandfather grunted again.
How on earth did Dylan understand what his grandpa was trying to tell him? They seemed to understand each other clearly through just their glances. And what was Dylan even talking about? He was wonderful with his brothers. Anyone with half a brain could see how much he loved his brothers and cared for them.
Dylan stood, leaned forward, and hugged his grandfather. It was the most caring display she’d ever seen by a man of Dylan’s age and stature, showing such affection to the sweet old man he loved.
After reaching for Luke’s tractor on the bedside table, Dylan stepped toward the doorway, paused and looked back at his grandpa. “I love you.”
Marissa spun around and hightailed it out of the building barely
making it into the truck before Dylan stepped out of the building. Her heart still thudded in her chest. The man walking toward the truck was as kind and caring as he was handsome, but she’d already figured that out.
Dylan parked in the garage attached to the house and the boys sprang from the truck nearly as fast as he cut the engine, except for Luke who slept in the center of the back bench seat. His oldest brother carried him and his tractor into the house. The young boy yawned and rubbed his eyes. Dylan set him on a kitchen chair as the others raided the fridge for lunch. The older boys quickly ate their sandwiches and then disappeared upstairs to change out of their Sunday clothes.
* * * *
Marissa stepped toward the built-in cabinet that lined the long kitchen wall separating the kitchen from the living room. The glass doors needed cleaning. It took her longer to get the big house spring-cleaned than she had anticipated, but now a few weeks into it, the cabinet was next on her list. The shelves were full of antique looking dinnerware, serving pieces, and family artwork. She wondered which pieces Dylan had made.
She glanced over her shoulder and looked at Dylan who was still sitting at the table with Luke. The young boy was almost done with his lunch. “This china set is beautiful.”
Reaching in, she snatched up one of the plates. The center of the plate was white. Pale green leaves lined the edge, and brilliant gold inlay bordered the rim.
The warmth of Dylan’s body seeped into her as he stepped to her side.
“Those were Grandma Jacobs’s. My mother loved to use them on holidays.” He spoke softly, sadness filling his gaze.
She remembered when his parents and grandma were killed in that horrific accident. They had been driving on an icy county road when a milk truck skidded out of control and hit them head on. It was said all three died at the scene, and the truck driver went without injury. She recalled the awful weeks that followed for Dylan’s brother, Cole. He was a senior at the time and she was a sophomore, and though she didn’t know him well it broke her heart every time she saw him walking aimlessly in the halls at school. At the time, Marissa knew there were younger boys, Aric, Braden, and Nate, she’d seen them on occasion but she didn’t really know them with them being in grade school. Then there was the toddler who was about three at the time. Lastly, there was Dylan. How awful it must have been for him to get that call while away at college. She supposed he kind of grew up overnight, becoming the responsible party at the drop of a hat.
Her tear dropped and hit the plate. She quickly swiped it away with her sleeve hoping he wouldn’t notice as he stared into the cabinet.
“What’s the matter?” he asked, his dark eyes filled with concern.
Her heart swelled, and then swelled even more when she recalled the conversation she overheard between him and his grandfather at the nursing home. He stared at her, waiting out her pause.
“It’s nothing.”
“There’s obviously something. What is it? Your dad?”
She shook her head. “I was just thinking about how terrible it must have been for you, all of you, to lose your parents and grandma the way you did. Especially for you, to have to take over here with both the parenting and the farm at such a young age yourself.”
* * * *
That certainly wasn’t what he had expected to hear from her. He would have thought she would have been trying to figure out what to do about her living arrangement. She had two weeks of school yet, then her class trip, and then college, but not until the end of August. As he told her earlier, she could stay as long as she wanted. Adding another person into the mix of chaos wouldn’t make a hill of beans difference. At any rate, he wasn’t quite sure how to respond to her. He didn’t like talking about what had happened to his parents, and how he’d come to be where he was today.
“You’re doing a wonderful job with your brothers, you know that, right? I can see how much they love you and look up to you.”
A lump the size of a golf ball formed in his throat. His comfort level plummeted to an all-time low. He wasn’t good at talking about this kind of stuff with near-strangers. His grandfather, yes, others, no. He had always been close to his grandparents but he’d become especially close to his grandfather after the accident. He would never in a million years forget the sadness in his grandpa’s voice when he called him at school to tell him of the accident. Dylan's whole world crumbled down in that split second. His pounding pulse echoed so loudly in his ears he couldn’t hear, he couldn’t breathe, and he was sure his thudding heart would crack his chest cavity. When he finally regained some of his senses he still didn’t know what to say or do.
He drove home and he and his grandfather took care of the funeral arrangements, and then worked to come up with a game plan for the farm business and the boys. His grandfather insisted he return to school where he was set to graduate in May. In the meantime, his grandpa would tend to the children, and stay on at the farm to help Dylan when he returned. It seemed like a reasonable plan. Not that long ago his grandfather still owned the farm, and then worked for his dad and mom after they purchased the farm from him and his grandma.
Dylan returned in May to find that his grandfather had things on the home front, and farm, running like a fine oiled machine. All was going well until about two weeks later when his grandfather suffered a stroke that landed him in the nursing home. So there Dylan sat with five younger brothers to care for by himself, as well as the family farm.
Marissa touched his arm, knocking him out of his reverie. Thank goodness, it was an unpleasant one anyhow. The sympathy in her gaze was heart-wrenching. Here she stood before him, feeling sorry for him, when she herself had suffered the loss of her mother at a young age, and ended up in the care of a man who thought more about the whiskey bottle than his own daughter. Though he knew she meant well, he despised that look of sympathy he received all too often since his parents passed.
Unfortunately for him, she seemed unable to leave the silence alone, and he was unable to walk away from her and the conversation.
“Not everybody would do what you are doing, make the sacrifices you’re making.”
“That’s not true. Family takes care of family, that’s just the way it is.”
He needed out of this uncomfortable conversation. “How’s your jaw?” His question reverberated in his head. Real nice, Dylan, asking her how her jaw was, bringing back the memory of her father punching her. Idiot.
She placed her tiny hand on her cheek. “It’s a little sore, but it'll be fine.”
Her teary eyes contradicted the strength in her tone.
“You’re welcome to stay here as long as you like, I could use the help, and you could earn money for school.”
She nodded. “I need to pick up some things from home.”
“I’ll drive you over.” Now that he’d seen firsthand how her dad could be, he couldn’t very well let her go alone, and seeing it was after noon it wouldn’t surprise him if her father had already started drinking. In fact, if the rumors were true, her dad probably never stopped drinking.
The night before, her dad seemed fine with her leaving. He hoped his attitude hadn’t changed any overnight. “Marissa, how do you think your dad’s going to feel about this?”
She shrugged. “I’m eighteen, graduating in two weeks, he can hardly stop me.” Her wounded gaze swung to the floor. “He probably won’t notice, anyhow.”
That had to be the saddest thing he’d ever heard. Her family life was at the opposite end of the spectrum from his, hers so empty, and his bursting at the seams.
Chapter Six
Marissa watched through the kitchen window as Cole pulled into the driveway and parked his forest green Subaru just outside the second garage stall door. Nate and Luke raced to him. The tall man scooped Luke up, tossed him over his shoulder, and bounced him up and down before returning him to the ground. He gave Nate a quick hug before reaching into the backseat of his car to pull out a large duffle bag, which he immediately handed to Nate. The nine-
year-old slung the bag over his shoulder and walked lopsided toward the house.
“I see he’s finally here,” Dylan commented as he leaned over the sink and looked out the kitchen window as well.
His shoulder brushed against hers, and the heat of his body nearly melted her. She didn’t have much experience with men and it was showing. Over the past couple months, she’d sent out every vibe possible to get his attention, short of stripping naked in front of him, and he hadn’t a clue. He still looked at her like she was some sort of helpless wounded duck.
Aric and Braden eagerly bounded into the kitchen as Cole, Nate, and Luke entered from outside. Cole stepped toward them and hugged them both before zoning in on Dylan. He nodded at his older brother. "Hey."
“Glad you could make it home for the weekend. I’m surprised you could get off work at the gallery for the holiday weekend.”
“I worked Memorial Day weekend and I’m scheduled for Labor Day weekend, so they gave me off for the Fourth.”
Marissa watched the two men as they eyed each other for a moment. Though they both had the same dark mesmerizing eyes, many of their other features were different. Cole was nearly the same height as Dylan, but his build was lankier. He had higher cheekbones and a thin face, whereas Dylan’s was more filled out with a strong, square jaw. They both had the same thick, wavy hair but Dylan’s was trimmed short, and Cole’s flowed over his shoulders, and down his back.
Cole shifted his gaze to her. “Hey, Marissa, how’s it going?”
She smiled. “Good.”
He winked at her. “Have you whipped these boys into shape yet?”
“I’m working on it.”
“I’ve heard you’ve been doing a pretty good job.” He swung his gaze between all his brothers. “And with this group I can’t imagine it’s been easy.”
A tinge of nervousness crept through her. Who had he been talking to? Or was he just kidding? She could never tell with this group.
Cole looked at Nate. “Why don’t you go throw my bag in my room and then we can all catch up over lunch.”
Family Forever Page 4