“My neighbors told me the arson investigators were here this morning,” Tamsyn pointed to one of the destroyed houses. “They spent a lot of time over there.”
Heidi nodded. “This house is insured, right?”
“Yeah, we have some ultra expensive coverage because it’s a historic home.”
“Good for you. They’ll pay for the restoration down to the crown moldings.”
“The bad news is I lost a lot of things from my family,” Tamsyn said.
“And the good news?” Heidi asked.
“About a month ago, Brooks Renovations gave me a quote on how much it would cost to restore it.”
“How did you decide to do that? You didn’t tell me about it.”
“I’ve been so busy—Sorry. Besides, it was Ryan’s idea. He paid for the private appraisal because he wanted to be a part of the restoration. Only our relationship didn’t go that far, and that was the end of it.”
“God worked it all out, didn’t He?” Heidi asked. “Romans 8:28.”
“Ryan mentioned that verse too. I just don’t see how it applies here, though.”
Heidi smiled. “The way I see it, God knows the future. The appraisal helps your insurance claims.”
“Ah, yes.”
“And they took pictures.”
“Yes, they did. I thought it was odd, but Brooks Reno sent a professional antique appraiser, some friend of Brinley Brooks, and he took all sorts of photographs. In fact, I have DVD of the tour. He made a documentary of this house.”
“There you go. Romans 8:28,” Heidi reminded her.
“But Mom’s Bible is gone.” Tamsyn sobbed quietly.
Heidi hugged her. “We have Jesus in our hearts. He is the Word of God. We can find another Bible of the same period and era.”
“It won’t have Mom’s handwritten notes in it.”
“She is in heaven, and you’ll see her again. That’s more valuable.”
“I agree. Sorry I’m so silly.”
“No, no. You’re not. You’re grieving.”
“It’s just a house fire.” Tamsyn shrugged. “Dad’s alive. I’m alive. It is well with our souls.”
“When I said grieving, I meant you’re still grieving your mom,” Heidi explained.
“How can that be? She’s been gone eight years.” Actually, almost nine, give or take a few weeks.
“They say daughters sometimes grieve their moms for longer periods of time.”
Tamsyn couldn’t agree more. She blinked away sorrow of things gone and lost, of memories ebbing into the passage of time. Of Mom’s smiles, Mom’s touch, Mom’s hugs.
I so miss Mom’s hugs.
I miss her saying that she loves me.
And that everything is going to be okay in the Lord.
Another vehicle door slammed behind Tamsyn.
She heard footsteps coming up the brick path.
Familiar footsteps.
Chapter Nineteen
Ryan looked around the property. Wow. The damage was extensive. They’d have to rebuild the entire building from the foundation up. Those burned brick walls looked like they could collapse any day.
He watched as Pastor Flores and Heidi waved to him, then joined Tamsyn’s dad to scour the rubble, away from where Tamsyn was standing.
Tamsyn was looking directly at him.
“Why are you here?” She glared.
“Same reason you’re here.” Ryan didn’t step any closer. Not wanting to push Tamsyn away, he waited for her to make the first move. Sure, it had been only ten days since he last saw her, but it had felt like a lifetime.
Well, he had already made the first move by flying into Savannah and driving here to find her.
And he supposed Tamsyn’s dad had approved the move since he was the one who had replied to his text regarding their whereabouts. Ryan had a feeling that Jerome Pendegrast knew his daughter needed a friend—or someone more than a friend.
He stood there and waited for Tamsyn to say something else.
“I’ve lost the house.” Tamsyn’s voice was barely audible.
“Perhaps, in its original condition.” Ryan’s hands dug into his jean pockets. “We will rebuild.”
He realized he had said we, but he wasn’t going to retract it.
“It won’t be the same.” If there was a way to describe her voice as crestfallen, this was it.
“It will be a replica of the original.”
“It’s not the original.”
Ryan wasn’t sure how to counter that. “You and I are the originals. We’re undamaged. We’re still okay.”
“Are we? Are we not affected, forever changed by an event?”
“Depends on what the event is, Tam. When we were individually saved, we became new people in Christ. That’s more important than anything, right?”
New people in Christ. Ryan had memorized II Corinthians 5:17, but it wasn’t the time and place for him to recite it to Tamsyn. He decided to keep it in his heart for later.
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
“Yes.” Tamsyn nodded. “Salvation is the biggest event of my life.”
“So everything else pales in comparison. House fires, for example. Property damages, job losses, such things. Things.” Ryan paused to see if Tamsyn had anything else to add. When she didn’t, he continued. “And then there’s our event.”
“Our event?”
“When we met.”
“I let you go.”
“I’m still here, Tam. I’ll always be here for you.” Ryan stepped close enough to hold her hand. “We’ll walk down this path together. We’ll rebuild. Restore. Renovate. Reconstruct. Together.”
“It won’t be the same house.” Tamsyn sniffled.
“It’ll be better—because God is with us.”
“Mom used to say that everything is going to be okay in the Lord.”
“Wise words. God is all we need.” Ryan hugged Tamsyn tightly, praying in his heart that she wouldn’t turn him away again.
She didn’t. She stayed there in his arms.
They said nothing for a while until the afternoon July sun beat down on them, and Ryan began to sweat.
Tamsyn pulled back and wiped sweat off her cheeks. “Your sweat is all over my face.”
“It’s hot out here. Whose bright idea was it to come here after lunch on a hot July afternoon?”
“Me. I had to see the place.”
Ryan nodded. “Looks pretty bad. What are you going to do? Clean up?”
“Not yet. The insurance company is sending someone tomorrow when their office opens up. I asked my friend Sabine—she’s a real estate agent and property manager—and she said my insurer is pretty good about paying for replacement in kind and trying to get original fixtures.”
“That’s wonderful, but it’s going to be hard to find nineteenth century antiques like that massive fireplace.”
“Well, we have the entire house on DVD, thanks to you.” Tamsyn reached for Ryan’s cheek and kissed it lightly. “But I may not restore it exactly. I’ve never liked that awful fireplace. It came with the house. I think it’s time to find something period authentic, but perhaps more cheerful.”
Ryan laughed. “A cheerful Victorian home? Now that’s a contradiction.”
“Is it? You’d be surprised.” Tamsyn waved her arms around. “I think it’s time for a makeover. I never liked the yellow-and-brown exterior trim. I think I want teal and blue or something that reminds me of the ocean.”
“A teal Victorian. Whew. At least you didn’t say pink.”
Tamsyn spun around. “What’s wrong with pink?”
“I can’t imagine living in a pink—”
Tamsyn’s horrified look stopped Ryan. “You can’t move in with me.”
“I have the pass key.” Ryan dug into his pocket. A small box appeared in his hand. He dropped to his knees.
Tamsyn gasped.
He couldn�
�t get the box to open with his sweaty fingers. “They told me it wasn’t a puzzle box.”
Tamsyn chuckled as Ryan finally ripped the box apart at the hinges. A ring rolled out onto the grimy sidewalk. “Oops.”
Ryan retrieved it. Wiped the mud off the ring, making a couple of streaks on his jeans.
He had picked up the ring at Jared’s favorite jeweler in downtown Savannah after he left the airport no more than a couple of hours before. The jeweler wasn’t open on Independence Day, but a quick phone call from Jared made her wait for Ryan at the front door. She had on a sarong and a pair of flip flops, and her hair smelled of chlorine from a swimming pool, but it didn’t bother Ryan one bit as long as she sold him a ring today.
Ryan remembered Hiroki’s words.
Can’t fight love.
The diamond ring was a brand new design and yet it looked like an old marquis ring.
“Here’s my pass key to move in with you,” Ryan said, lifting up the ring toward Tamsyn. “Tamsyn Rosa Pendegrast, will you or will you not marry me? Please don’t turn me down a second time.”
“Did you say pass key? We can’t live together until we get married.”
“I’ll stay with your dad.” Ryan knew he had surprised Tamsyn when he saw her face. “Yes, I’m moving to Savannah.”
“Seriously?”
“RYUCP is expanding to the coast.”
“I thought you were proposing,” Tamsyn said.
“He was?” Jerome Pendegrast roared. “That’s some clumsy proposal. Did you even find the ring you dropped?”
Ryan turned toward him to respond, but clammed up when he saw the crowd around them. Not only was Jerome standing there, so were Pastor Flores and his wife, and a passel of neighborhood kids, one of them holding a basketball.
Ryan recognized three of the teens as the ones who had prevented Tamsyn from going back to her house the night before. They had probably saved her from being burned.
“Miss Tam,” one of the teens said. “Is this guy giving you any trouble?”
Tamsyn shook her head.
“You let us know and we’ll take care of him.”
“Thank you, Hector.” Tamsyn’s eyes didn’t leave Ryan.
Ryan thought she was positively smiling now.
“We want to be invited to the wedding,” Hector added.
Another kid chimed in. “So maybe you could tell him yes so we can get back to our game.”
“Let him speak,” Hector told his friend. “You can see he’s a bit slow.”
Ryan swallowed. All right. Take two. “Marry me, please?”
“Why?” Tamsyn asked.
“I love you, not because of our historical moments together, or the lovely tea we had on your back porch, or the little cruise on the riverboat, or the memorable walking tours… I love you for who you are in Christ, for your desire to please God even at your own expense, for letting God shape your life even when it’s difficult.” Ryan shuffled forward on his knees.
Tamsyn stepped forward to meet him. She held his face in her hands.
“I’m totally miserable without you, and every time I’m with you, I see and remember the grace and mercy of God toward us,” Ryan said. “I do love you. I love, love, love you.”
Tamsyn grinned. “You’re repeating yourself.”
“I’m repeating history.” Ryan was still on his knees. “Didn’t your grandfather propose to your grandmother in this house?”
“In the sitting room.”
“Close enough.”
Tamsyn laughed.
“We’ll rebuild this house for our children and their children,” Ryan said. “Something old, something new. Do you love me, Tamsyn?”
“Yes.”
“Marry me.” Please don’t say no.
“All right, I will.”
“The word is…?” He needed the confirmation.
“Yes, Ryan. I’ll marry you.”
Everyone cheered and clapped, Jerome the loudest of all.
Ryan slid the slightly muddy ring onto Tamsyn’s finger. He got to his feet. She was smiling broadly, tears in her eyes. Ryan wiped away the tears on her cheeks, smearing a bit of mud on her face.
Uh-oh.
He was trying to wipe off that mud streak from Tamsyn’s cheeks when a wad of tissue paper appeared in front of him. He took it from Heidi’s hand, nodding to her in appreciation.
His betrothed all cleaned up, Ryan caressed her lips with his thumb, and then with his own lips.
Chapter Twenty
Eleven months and a few days to spare.
That was how long it had taken Brooks Renovations to rebuild the destroyed Pendegrast residence and renovate it into the new Pendegrast-Ruttledge House.
Between Ryan and Tamsyn, they had scoured antique stores and online catalogs, commissioned pickers or crossed out wanted items, all in their attempt to refurnish the new home in the spirit of what had been, while still accommodating modern living and a bit of open floor design wherever possible.
Tamsyn was glad that she and Ryan had left at least half the house empty. Perhaps their honeymoon in the Cotswolds would yield some lovely things they could add to their collection.
And no, it wasn’t all old things. For Ryan’s sake, they had incorporated new things, like that Sub-Zero refrigerator they both wanted so they could store enough food for entertaining friends from church and work. And the must-have Wi-Fi on every floor in the entire house.
Something old, something new.
Just the way they wanted it.
In an hour, Lord willing, they would be out of this dining room and on their way to their new home. Until then, Tamsyn searched for her dad to be sure he was all right.
He found her first. His jacket was off, revealing a bright Hawaiian shirt.
That’s Dad.
“My lovely, lovely daughter. All grown up.” Dad hugged Tamsyn so tightly she thought he might rip up the handmade lace on the antique wedding gown.
But it held up.
Just like a lot of things in their lives.
“Are you going to be okay for about four days?” Tamsyn asked between tears.
“Hey, don’t worry about me. I’ll be busy giving tours. I’m not sure if I’m going to get any down time in four days.”
Tamsyn nodded. Yes, it was the right move to ask Dad to cover for her at the office of Tamsyn Tours. He wasn’t going to do any walking tours due to his bad knees, but he could talk up a storm in those trolley tours.
Speaking of trolleys, she hoped their ride was on time.
It wasn’t that she wasn’t enjoying the reception. She had been on her toes in these four-inch heels long enough. She wished she had just worn flip-flops like some of her friends had done at their beach weddings.
But she had chosen to have her wedding here on the Caleigh Pendegrast Riverboat in honor of Mom.
She will always be in my heart.
“I wish Mom were here,” she said.
“Me too, Tam. Me too. But she’s in heaven, and they’re having a feast bigger than this. Some day we’re going to go up there and party with her!”
Tamsyn laughed. “We will, Dad!”
“We will what?” Ryan came from behind Tamsyn and squeezed her waist.
“Party, son. What else?” Dad toasted his new bridegroom again, and waved to someone across the dining room. “Oh, I must go say hello to Gladys. Her husband, my Sunday School teacher, just passed. She’ll need some support.”
And Dad was off.
“You think your dad will date again?” Ryan asked as he locked his fingers in Tamsyn’s, his wedding band pressing against her right fingers.
“Maybe. I hope so.”
Tamsyn glanced down at her left hand, at her rings. She remembered that smoldering day when Ryan proposed to her amidst the ruins of her beloved home, how it had felt so right that it couldn’t be wrong.
Like phoenixes, out of the ashes, a new day arose.
And yet, it wasn’t mythology that sealed the moment for h
er. It was more than that.
Beyond houses and properties and things, beyond memories and legacies and ideas, Tamsyn had the certainty that, in Christ, everything would be all right, regardless of what happened in her life and the lives of the Pendegrast family members—including Mom’s cancer and death, Dad’s widowhood, and Tamsyn’s loss of the family home.
We will rebuild.
Those were Ryan’s words that day he had proposed to her.
“What did you think of my mother?” Ryan whispered in her ear. He looked in the general direction of the crowd where everyone seemed to be eating giant pieces of the wedding cake that Piper’s pastry chef had baked for them.
“She’s lovely. I’ve promised to have tea with her and to go shopping with your grandmother when we’re in the Cotswolds next week.”
“And to meet all my relatives.”
Tamsyn smiled. “I’ve always wanted to visit the English countryside.”
Ryan’s iPhone pinged. “Our ride is here. Let’s go home, Mrs. Ruttledge.”
Let’s go home, Mrs. Ruttledge.
Ryan pulled her hand and they wove through the crowd. Everyone went outside the dining room, across the deck, down to the riverfront, and then up a ramp toward the awaiting Tamsyn Trolley parked on River Street, decked out in lace.
Tamsyn hugged Ryan’s mom, then her relatives and friends. She found Piper Peyton at the end of the line nearest the trolley. Her bridesmaid was pretty in pink, but she was sobbing for some reason.
“Here’s what you told me to hold for you,” Piper said.
“Thank you.” Tamsyn didn’t want to leave the gift from Ryan’s mom with the rest of the wedding presents. Her new mother-in-law had brought it all the way from England, and Tamsyn wanted to see what was in it as soon as possible.
She had put Dad in charge of keeping the rest of the wedding gifts until after the honeymoon. It was easy; he would just ask his riverboat stewards to stash them in an empty cabin until Tamsyn picked them up after their trip to England.
Near the trolley, Ryan shook Hiroki Yamada’s hand. The best man beamed with joy, and then signed to Piper.
Oh boy. Tamsyn rolled her eyes. Hiroki had just asked Piper out on a date, and what did she say? She said yes.
Sigh!
Tamsyn boarded the trolley with Ryan, and blew a kiss to Dad, who was standing next to a demure Gladys.
Love Blossoms: 7 Spring-Fresh Christian Romances Page 45