“Follow with me in Second Timothy 3:16, and listen to what these words say. ‘All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable . . .”
Kimberly found the verse then glanced up to listen. Her eyes widened. The man behind the pulpit appeared to be less than four feet tall. In fact, she’d never seen such a short pulpit.
“Momma.” Jamie’s loud whisper reminded her to stop staring.
“Shhh.” She patted his leg.
“But Momma. Why’s that man so short?”
Gran snickered and leaned toward them. “He’s in a wheelchair. I’ll introduce you later.”
Kimberly soon forgot the minister, as she absorbed his words of exhortation. His message pricked her heart when he explained the Bible had been given for the edifying of the saints, for the building of the church. For her comfort and growth in Christ. Her lifeline to the One who loved her the most. When was the last time she’d read from her Bible other than during a church service? She shifted on the soft cushion.
“Second Timothy 2:15 tells us to ‘Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.’” The minister held his Bible high so everyone could see it. “Here’s our textbook, folks. Spend time in God’s word studying what He has to say to us.”
Kimberly’s resolve grew as he continued. She determined to read her Bible more often. For the past six months, she’d barely had time to find her way through the mess of her life, but that period of her life had come to an end. She’d escaped her past with God’s loving hand guiding her. Even her grandfather’s rejection could well be a blessing. Once she found the courage to talk with Travis and Jamie, she could start over.
When the organist brought forth the introductory chords, the congregation stood for the final song and prayer. Kimberly took Jamie’s hand and followed Gran, as they made their way to the back of the church.
At the back door, a crowd had gathered around the man in the wheel chair. He looked to be about Travis’s age and had a ready smile. He must be well liked. Finally it was their turn. Gran stepped forward to shake his hand. “Pastor McMilin, I’d like you to meet some special people.” She pulled Jamie to her and smiled at Kimberly. “This is Kimberly Burris and her son Jamie. They’re staying at the ranch with me because Travis thinks I’m too old and decrepit to take care of myself.”
The pastor laughed. “Ah, you’ve moved to the country, have you?” He turned to Jamie. “I sure am glad you came to visit us, Jamie.”
Jamie leaned against Gran and grinned. When the pastor held his hand out, Jamie hesitated only a moment before shaking with him.
He patted Jamie’s shoulder and smiled up at Kimberly. “I’m so glad you’re taking care of this woman. Travis is right, you know. She can be a handful.” His eyes sparkled, and his smile proved he was teasing Gran.
Kimberly grinned. “You may be right, but I’ve already become attached to her.”
An expression of approval moved through his eyes. “I hear you. Say, I’m sure glad you came today. Don’t be a stranger.”
“I won’t. I plan to attend church as often as I can while I’m here. I appreciate your sermon this morning. I needed it.” Kimberly shook hands with him and liked his firm grip.
A pretty young woman with dark hair and friendly brown eyes stepped behind the wheelchair and touched Pastor McMilin’s shoulder. “I’m sorry I’m just getting here. I was detained and now almost everyone’s gone. Hi, I’m Ella McMilin, the pastor’s wife.”
She gave Kimberly and Jamie a warm smile as they were introduced. Gran shook her hand. “I’m planning to bring Kimberly to our next women’s meeting.”
“That’s wonderful.” Ella smiled at Kimberly. “I know you’ll enjoy the fellowship.”
“I’m sure I will.” Kimberly moved toward the door as an older couple stepped into their place. Gran and Jamie followed her.
Kimberly lifted her face toward the warm sunshine as they walked to her van. From the corner of her eye, she saw Jason and Elliott drive away in Elliott’s truck and breathed a sigh of relief.
“I’m glad you haven’t left yet.” Beth caught up to them and took a couple of deep breaths while she held Lee’s arm. Her hand rested on her bulging stomach. “I’ll be so glad when this baby is born. I used to run everywhere I went. Now I can barely waddle.”
“How long do you have?” Kimberly leaned against the front fender of her van.
Gran waited with Jamie.
“One more month. And I can’t wait.” Beth laughed. “The good thing is, I’ll have some time home with the baby before school starts this fall.”
Kimberly looked from Beth to Lee. He grinned at her confusion. “She’s the first grade teacher here.” He let his gaze drop to Jamie. “I’ll bet you’re about the right age to be in my wife’s class. Are you going into first grade this year?”
Jamie shrank against Gran and nodded. She slipped her good arm around his shoulders and drew him close.
Beth turned her attention to Jamie. “That’s how I figured out your age so quickly. I’m used to being around kids just your size. I hope you’ll be in my class. There’s another first grade teacher here, so you might not be, but she’s awfully nice, too.” She laughed. “Almost as nice as I am.”
Jamie smiled at Beth and seemed to relax in Gran’s embrace. Kimberly wanted to stay. All at once she knew without a doubt she wanted to stay here in Bow Creek on Travis’s ranch. Jamie could go to a small school and a church with kids who’d become his friends. He could have a dog and kittens. And a great-grandmother to love him. Maybe even a father who wanted him. The air rushed from her lungs as her mental balloon burst. She was dreaming.
“Where’s your school?” Jamie straightened from Gran’s side.
“Just about three blocks from here.” Beth laughed. “Of course that could be said for almost everything in this town.”
Gran patted Jamie’s shoulder. “We could drive past if you like. I’ll even show you where I live when I’m not at the ranch. How would you like that?”
“Okay.” Jamie shrugged.
“Lee,” Gran looked up. “Why don’t you and Beth meet us at The Diner in thirty minutes? I’m treating Kimberly and Jamie to dinner today and I might spring for you two as well.”
“Sounds like a deal, only you’ll have to beat me to the cashier.” Lee grinned and took Beth’s hand. “We’ll run home and change first. Come on, honey, I’ll race you to the truck.”
“Yeah, and when I get there, you can lift us inside.” Beth waved over her shoulder as they walked off.
Gran pulled a cell phone from her purse and held it up with a grin. “I was just going to ask when they showed up if you’d like for me to call Travis and invite him to eat with us.”
Just the mention of his name sent Kimberly’s pulse soaring. “We’ve left him with nothing even to warm up. Certainly, go ahead and ask him.”
“All right, I will.” Gran punched a couple of buttons on her phone and held it to her ear while she walked around the van and got inside. Jamie climbed in back and buckled without being told while Kimberly slid behind the wheel.
Gran kept the conversation short and her brown eyes twinkled when she clicked off her phone. “He said he’d be there in half an hour. That’ll give us time to see the school and my house.”
“That sounds fine.” Kimberly tried to sound as if she didn’t care. When she saw the laughter in Gran’s eyes, she knew she’d failed.
Gran turned to look out the windshield as they pulled out of the parking lot. “Go straight here and turn right at the next intersection.”
Kimberly followed Gran’s directions to a row of small houses on a quiet street.
“Pull into the next drive on the right.” Gran turned to Jamie in the back. “Would you like to go inside?”
“Okay.”
Kimberly smiled at the lack of enthusiasm in his voice. Obviously attics and barn loft rooms held more excitement for her son than elderly
women’s homes.
Gran led the way. She walked inside and struggled with a window. “Make yourselves at home. I’ve been gone almost two weeks and it’s getting stuffy in here.”
“Let me help.” By the time Gran finished her left-handed struggle, Kimberly had the other windows open. “What about the back of the house?”
“If you don’t mind, I’ll let you get the ones in the back bedroom. That’ll create a cross breeze.” She held up her hand and grimaced. “My left hand is almost as useless as my right. Besides, I want to show Jamie something.”
“Okay.” The house was small with only four rooms and a bath. Kimberly went down a short hall past the bathroom to the back bedroom and soon had the windows raised.
Gran’s voice drifted toward her as Kimberly neared the living room. “Why don’t you pick the one you like the best? I started this collection almost fifty years ago and have so many I don’t need.”
“Gran?” Kimberly kept her question soft, unsure what Gran was offering Jamie. The little boy stood on a wooden desk chair they’d pulled in front of a curio cabinet. The glass doors were open and Gran stood beside him, her left arm around his waist to steady him.
Gran looked up, and a stubborn look flashed across her face. Her brows drew together. “Now, Kimberly, he didn’t ask for anything.”
“Momma, come see all Gran’s horses. There’s a gazillion.” Jamie held one out toward Kimberly. “Look at this one. It gots a star on its forehead. That’s what this white patch is called.”
He turned the miniature horse in his hand, and Kimberly gasped. “Oh, Jamie, be careful. What if you dropped it and broke it?”
Jamie clutched it to his chest, but Gran laughed. “Then we’d have one less horse to dust. Don’t you worry about breaking one, Jamie. They aren’t that valuable. Do you like that one?”
“Uh huh. I like ’em all.” He placed it on the shelf and picked up another. “This one looks like a ghost horse. It’s all white. Can I have him?”
“You certainly can.”
“Thank you, Gran.” Jamie hugged her. “I love you.”
Gran returned the hug and brushed her fingers across her eyes. “I love you, too, sweetheart.”
Kimberly’s eyes felt moist as well when Jamie turned away with his prize held tight in his hand. Gran began closing the glass doors to the cabinet. “Are you two ready to eat? After we finish at The Diner, we can stop at the grocery store and pick up a few things. Kimberly, you probably need some supplies.”
Ideas for meals ran through Kimberly’s mind, and she nodded. “I would like to see what’s available. The men seem to eat a lot of sandwiches when they’re working. Maybe I can give them some variety.”
“I’m sure you can.” Gran opened the front door. “We’ll leave these windows open and stop back to shut them before we head to the ranch. Will that work for you, dear?”
Kimberly nodded. “That’ll be fine. Come on, Jamie.”
They headed toward the highway next but hadn’t gone far when Kimberly pointed out her window. “Oh look, Jamie. There’s a school. Is that the one he’ll be going to, Gran? I mean if we stay.” She shook her head. “Oh, what am I saying? We won’t be here this fall.”
How could she forget? They were only staying until roundup. She’d made the agreement with Brent, but only because that’s what Travis wanted. She didn’t know what she wanted.
Gran laughed. “That’s the school you’ll go to if you stay, Jamie.” She lifted her eyebrows. “Don’t be so positively negative, Kimberly. How do you know you won’t be here when school starts?”
“That’s the plan.” Kimberly tried to interject a lilt to her voice.
“Oh pooh on plans.” Gran waved her words aside. “My mother used to tell me, ‘There’s many a slip twixt the cup and the lip.’ You know, I believe some of those old sayings hold more truth than we can know.”
“Maybe.” Kimberly didn’t want to hear any more about something she wanted and couldn’t have. Travis didn’t want her any more than he wanted a city born son.
She glanced at Gran. “Where do I go from here?”
Chapter Eight
Travis watched from the barn until Kim and Gran left for church, then he saddled Midnight and, with Trixie following along, rode across the open pasture. He could see for miles to the horizon, but no matter how far he rode, he couldn’t shake the disappointed look in Gran’s eyes when he refused her invitation to church. He’d felt so torn, wanting to go with her and, at the same time, wanting to run the opposite direction. He chose the coward’s way and ran. Now his emotions boiled within him.
She didn’t understand how hard it was for him. How much he missed Steven and what seeing Tom at church did to him. Even knowing Jason went with Elliott today didn’t sway him. So what if Jason sat with Kim? What could they do in church? He couldn’t talk to her. Ask her for a date. Yeah, sure. He could and probably would. But why should Travis care? Kim meant nothing to him anymore.
She’d married the guy with money. That’s all he needed to know. She hadn’t wanted him back then, and she didn’t want him now. He might as well face the facts and learn to live with them just as he’d been doing. The same as he’d done when she told him she was going to marry the man her grandfather wanted for her.
He shut Kim out of his thoughts and let them drift from one thing to another. But if he wasn’t thinking of Kim and her son who reminded him so much of the son he’d lost, he always ended back at Tom McMilin. They’d been friends as teenagers when Tom and his older brother, Jack, hired on one summer to work for Travis’s grandfather. Travis hadn’t cared much for Jack, but he and Tom hit it off right away. Travis went back to high school at the end of each summer, and Jack only worked that one summer, but Tom stayed on through the winter working part time while he wasn’t in school. Said he liked being outdoors, and he especially liked working with the horses. He’d been Travis’s foreman when he took over the ranch. The job Tom had thought was so wonderful came to an end two years ago when he tried to save Steven’s life and ended up in the hospital. He hadn’t walked since.
Travis scarcely noticed the feel of Midnight’s movement under him as they covered the ground with Trixie keeping pace beside them. Midnight ran for what seemed like hours while Travis’s thoughts raced through the years. He became suspended in time. Alone in a place with no one who cared, and that pretty well summed up his life. Not that he didn’t deserve it.
He should never have married Rosalyn. In the five years of their marriage, he’d grown to care for her, but he’d never really loved her. Not the way a man should love his wife. The feeling was mutual no doubt. She hated the ranch. Wanted to move back to California. That’s where she’d gone after Steven died. And never came back.
His phone rang, putting an end to thoughts that only brought more pain than he could handle. He slowed Midnight to a walk while he answered.
Gran’s cheerful voice seemed out of place in contrast to his dark mood. “We’re eating at The Diner, Travis. Why don’t you come and join us?”
He wasn’t hungry. Probably couldn’t eat if he tried, but he didn’t want her to know that. “I’ve got Midnight out, Gran.”
“Beth and Lee will be there. When’s the last time you visited with them?” She acted as if she hadn’t heard his excuse. He thought of Beth who was a distant cousin but one he’d grown close to over the years of their childhood. He and Beth had played as kids all those summers ago. She’d grown into a sweet young lady and married a good guy.
Travis sighed. “Give me at least a half hour.”
“That’ll be fine. I’m going to show Jamie and Kimberly the school here and my house first anyway. See you later.”
“All right, Gran.” He turned Midnight around to walk in the general direction of the house, while his mood returned to the darkness that had surrounded him during his ride. Lee and Beth were expecting their first child. They’d already announced they were having a boy. Travis loved Beth as if she were his sister, and
he wouldn’t do anything to cause her pain. Still seeing her so happy reminded him of all he’d lost. With Steven and Rosalyn gone, he had no one to call his own. No one except Gran.
He tried to shake the melancholy mood that had taken control of him and couldn’t. Everything pressed against him. Kim showing up with her son who should have been his. Beth so happy with her expected son. Gran pressuring him to attend church. Sundays were always hard for him because of church—and Tom—but today seemed especially dark. Maybe because of Kim going to church with Gran when he should have gone. His mind whirled with memories. Tom, Kim, Steven, and Rosalyn. They filled his mind as a kaleidoscope with faces that continually turned, so he couldn’t focus on any one of them. He’d hurt all four of them.
Kim was engaged to be married to another man even before he’d felt the first stirring of what he believed was true love. Maybe she’d gotten over the ache of their separation, but he never would. Maybe she’d learned to love her husband, but somehow, he didn’t think so. Not the way she’d loved him.
And what of Tom? Although he’d lived through the accident, the active life he loved was over in a matter of minutes.
He thought of his son then. Steven died before he’d had a chance to experience life. His death had taken so much from him. And Rosalyn. He should never have married her. She’d been unhappy for so long and was gone too soon after Steven’s death. Guilt gnawed at Travis. The two people closest to him gone within weeks of each other. Why had Steven and Rosalyn died? Why hadn’t he been the one to go?
His heart twisted with pain as it did every time he thought of Steven. Only this time he held the hurt close as if it were an enemy he couldn’t give up. He slumped in the saddle, relaxing the reins, his gaze lifting to the sky. His whisper carried his hurt. “Why, God?”
Midnight slowed, and Trixie did, too, but Travis scarcely noticed. He bowed his head and for the first time since it happened, allowed the pain to sweep over him. He held the hurt of his life inside never letting anyone see. Never sharing with anyone, least of all with God. God had taken little Steven. He could’ve saved him, but He hadn’t done a thing. Just let the horse kick a defenseless little boy. Tom had tried. Travis gave him credit. Tom had tried to save Steven and got a broken back and a severed spinal cord for his efforts.
A New Life Page 7