“Abby.” Reggie pulled back and looked her in the eyes again. “Stop listening to those voices in your head—they’re not telling you the truth. They’re just doubts and fears, and they’re liars. They want you to believe the worst about yourself, but you deserve so much more than that. You deserve a chance to put your family back together.”
He was right. She deserved this chance. She had to believe that or she’d go back to bed and forget this whole stupid idea. Who leaves on trips at six in the morning, anyway?
“Are you ready?”
Oh, it was so tempting to tell him no. She knew he’d understand. But she wouldn’t understand. She’d wonder for the rest of her life why she’d chickened out. Or they could try again in a month, or two months . . .
“I’m ready,” she said.
“Did you go to the bathroom? I have it on good authority that if you go to the bathroom before you leave, it saves time and frust-er-ation.”
He gave her such a serious look, she couldn’t help but laugh. “Yes, I’ve gone to the bathroom.”
“Good. So have I. Let’s go.”
As it turned out, he’d loaded his car up with snacks too. Abby laughed when she saw everything he’d brought. “This is crazy,” she said. “Between the two of us, there’s enough food here for eight people.”
“I believe in being prepared.”
Chapter Thirteen
Reggie smiled. Abby was leaning over the seat, reaching into the back, contorting herself in the strangest way possible, and he had to know what was going on.
“I don’t think that’s how you’re supposed to wear your seatbelt,” he said. “I think you’re supposed to be seated. Like, in the chair.”
She turned around and slid back into place. “But I have to tell you about my system.”
“Your system?”
“Yes. It will make our road trip experience much more pleasant. I’ve divided the backseat up into six sections. Imagine, if you will, that it’s laid out in a grid, with the back left corner being for beverages, the front left corner for salty snacks—because salt and beverages should be near each other—and the entire center section, front and back, being for chocolate. The back right corner is for baked goods, some with chocolate and some without, so we’ve created a kind of Venn diagram there, and the right front section is for gummies. Now, I haven’t done all that yet because you asked me to turn around, but now that I’ve explained myself, I can get back to work.”
Reggie didn’t say anything. He just flipped on his blinker, pulled off the road, and brought the car to a stop. Then he turned to her and held out his arms. “Come here.”
She unhooked her seatbelt and scooted into the hug he was offering. “I finally understand why you work at the UPS Store,” he said into her hair.
“What? Why were you wondering that?”
“Well, here you are, this amazing free spirit, and yet you wear a uniform every day and live by certain rules, and I just figured it out. You like the rules because they give you a foundation. Something to cling to while you’re being that free spirit.”
She pulled back a little and looked at him. “Go on,” she said, her tone genuinely curious.
“Take this snack arranging project, for instance.” He nodded toward the backseat. “You’re heading off into the unknown, but having the snacks organized comforts you. It’s something you can count on when everything else is in chaos. When you can reach in the back left corner and get a donut, you’ll know that everything’s all right.”
“Back right corner,” she replied. “The back left is for drinks.”
He laughed. “You’re right,” he said, kissing her forehead. “And I understand your need to do that. But let’s do it right now, while we’re pulled over, so you’re not doing something dangerous while we’re driving.”
She looked up into his eyes. “You’re the best extremely new boyfriend I’ve ever had, Reggie,” she said.
“Thank you. I’ll take that as the compliment it is.”
And he had to admit, when she was done arranging the snacks to her satisfaction, it was very nice indeed.
***
They reached Casper at eight o’clock that evening. They’d driven straight through, only stopping to gas up and use the bathroom. Abby was so full of chips and Swedish fish, she was a little sick, but that could also have been because she was terrified.
“Here’s the address,” Reggie said, pulling the car up in front of a small yellow house with a white picket fence. “Does it look familiar?”
Abby nodded. It did look familiar. She remembered Thanksgiving in that house, eating turkey and pink salad, but not wanting to touch the green bean casserole because it looked like green worms floating in white stuff. She remembered rolling out sugar cookies on the counter. She remembered hanging ornaments on the tree. It was easy to forget her father sulking in the corner, watching all that with a sullen look on his face—she concentrated on the joy. “Let’s go,” she said, opening her door before Reggie even had a chance to unhook his seatbelt.
When she climbed the steps and raised her hand to knock, she almost changed her mind. There were too many emotions flooding her all at once, too much to deal with. But she focused on those memories, on the poinsettia in the middle of the dining room table and singing carols before Christmas dinner, and she knocked.
The door opened, and all the air was forced out of her lungs in a whoosh that felt like it would knock her backwards. There she was. There was her grandma, looking at her through the screen door. Her hair was a little more gray. Her face was a little more lined. But there was no question about it—this was Lila.
And Abby couldn’t speak.
Instead, she held up her book.
“May I help you?” Lila asked. She looked from Abby’s face to the book, and then her hand flew to her heart.
“Oh!” she gasped, fumbling for the latch and throwing the door open. “Abby . . . Abby, is it you?”
Abby still couldn’t speak. Instead, she just nodded, and her grandmother grabbed her and pulled her in for a hug so tight, if she hadn’t already been breathless, that would have done it.
Lila sobbed for several minutes, stroking Abby’s hair, saying “Thank you, God” over and over again. Abby clung to her, and they rocked back and forth until they both lost their strength and had to sit down.
“I’m so sorry, young man,” Lila said at last, wiping tears from under her eyes. “Please, come in.”
Reggie smiled and moved from the spot he’d taken by the front door.
“Abby. Oh, Abby.” Lila looked at her like she’d never seen anything so amazing. “I can’t believe it. You’re really here.”
“I really am. And I guess I could have come sooner, but I was scared to go looking.” Abby clasped her grandmother’s hand. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have waited so long.”
“Whenever destiny delivers you someplace, that’s the right time to be there,” Lila said, squeezing Abby’s hand in return. “I want to hear all about you—every single thing you’ve done since the moment you left. Don’t leave anything out.”
“That’s going to take a long time,” Abby said with a laugh.
“Well, I don’t know about you, but I won’t be getting any sleep tonight. What better way to spend the time than catching up? And then we can all pass out around dawn and sleep the day away. I have a few spare bedrooms to throw your way.”
“That sounds wonderful,” Abby said. She glanced over at Reggie. “I don’t meant to be rude—Grandma, this is Reggie.”
He stepped forward and clasped Lila’s hand.
“And just what are you to my granddaughter, young man?” she asked him, a twinkle in her eye.
“Right now, we’re good friends who kiss sometimes,” he replied, giving her a grin. “And after that, who knows? We’ve just started this journey, and we’ll see where it leads us.”
“I like you already, young man. Now, can I get either of you something to eat?”
�
��If you don’t mind, I’d love to head straight to bed,” Reggie replied. “Which room would you like me to take?”
Lila directed him to the first room at the top of the stairs. He grabbed their bags from the car and disappeared, and Lila turned back to Abby with a grin.
“All right, now that we’ve gotten the menfolk out of the way, we can really talk.”
Abby smiled, her heart so full, she thought her chest would ache for days because of it. “I’m more than happy to talk your ears off for hours, Grandma,” she said. “But I have to know something.” She held up her book. “Reggie found this for me through a used bookstore. It’s my original book—see? You signed it for me. How is this possible? I thought my father burned everything that night.”
“Oh, my.” Lila stared at her signature inside the book for a long minute, then sat back and closed her eyes. “I can’t believe it.”
“What, Grandma? What is it?”
Lila opened her eyes again and wiped them, as they were wet with fresh tears. “The night you left, the night your father died . . . so much was happening. I got a call from the police that they’d found your father’s body on the couch in the apartment. I drove over there as fast as I could, and the landlord was there already, yelling about how much rent he was owed and how he was going to sell everything in the place to try to make up for his losses. I looked around and I saw that you and your mother was gone, and I was so glad that you’d escaped. I knew I would miss you forever, but at least you wouldn’t be living with him anymore.”
Abby squeezed her grandmother’s hand, and Lila continued. “Then I saw your book on top of the stove, and I saw all the ashes in the oven. It looked like your book was about to be tossed in the oven too, but was left behind for some reason. I wondered why you hadn’t taken it with you, and I decided I’d do what I could to keep it safe for you. I tried to take it home with me, but the landlord wouldn’t let me. He said it belonged to him as payment for all the damage to the apartment, but when I offered to buy it from him, he wouldn’t let me do that, either. He was just being hateful.”
“You tried to save it for me?” Abby repeated.
“I did. But he took it and everything else and sold it all to junk dealers and secondhand shops. I’m surprised they even took that little book—it wasn’t worth anything.”
“It was worth a great deal to me,” Abby said. “I cried myself to sleep every night for months because I missed it so much.”
“Oh, honey, I’m sorry.” Lila patted her hand. “I wish I could go back in time and change things, but I honestly don’t know what I could have done differently. I taught your father right from wrong, and then it was up to him to decide how to live it. I couldn’t make him behave—deciding to behave is what makes a man. But if I could have spared you anything, any hurt or any sadness, I would have done it in a heartbeat.”
“I know, Grandma. I know you would.”
Lila smiled, then said, “All right. Enough of this sadness. Tell me all about your life, every wonderful thing.”
“All right, I will. And I’m glad you’re already planning to stay up all night because I’ve got lots of stories, including one about Bigfoot.”
Chapter Fourteen
Abby was nowhere in sight when Reggie came downstairs the next morning, but Lila was sitting at the table with a cup of chamomile tea, and she beckoned him to join her.
“We went to bed around four, but I was so excited, I just popped right back up again,” she said with a smile. “I’m hoping this tea will calm me so I can get a nap.”
He took a sip from his cup. “This is really good.”
“Thank you. I put the teabags in the water myself.”
He chuckled. “I can see where Abby gets her sense of humor.”
“No, she wasn’t around me enough to get much of anything. All the credit for that girl goes to her mother. I’ve never seen a woman so determined to do right by her child. The only thing that kept her from leaving sooner was her love for my son.”
She looked down into her cup as though trying to read the leaves, even though her cup wasn’t empty and it was the wrong kind of tea. “You’ll understand this someday, but when you have a child, you want them to have the very best of everything in life. You want them to be happy, and you want them to be loved. When Abby’s mother came along and she loved my son the way she did, I thought that he’d finally catch a glimmer of what life was all about and he’d change his attitude. But it didn’t work that way, and I guess I’ll always be left to wonder what I could have done differently as a parent.”
“I overheard you telling Abby something about choices,” Reggie said. “You’d taught him all you could, and then he had to make choices.”
“Oh, I say lots of really intelligent things when I’m trying to convince someone else,” Lila said with a rueful laugh. “It’s convincing myself that’s the hard part.” She took another sip of her tea, then sat back and regarded him. “You’re a pretty quiet sort of fellow, Reggie Armstrong. Tell me about yourself.”
He shrugged. Nothing like being put in the hot seat. “I work at River’s End Ranch—I take people on hikes and do other things as part of the outdoors staff. I find and sell rare used books online, which is how I ended up finding Abby’s book. And I call my mother every Sunday night and I’m a pizza addict. I’m not sure what else you’d like to know, but I’ll answer any questions.”
“I enjoy a good pizza myself from time to time.” Lila poured herself another cup of tea, and Reggie could tell that she was just creating a little mental space for herself before she spoke again. “I don’t know what your beliefs are, Reggie, but I’m going to tell you something, and you can take it for what it’s worth. I watched the landlord carry Abby’s book away in a box, and as he did, I said a little prayer in my heart that somehow, it would find its way back to her. For all I knew, he was going to throw everything in a dumpster, but if there was any chance, any chance at all, I had to ask for it. And the fact that you were able to find it . . . That wasn’t a coincidence, Reggie. The things we blame on happenstance? They aren’t. I said a prayer, that prayer was answered, and now my girl is back in my life.”
Reggie swallowed a few times to get rid of the lump in his throat. He reached out, touched her hand where it lay on the table, and said, “I believe you.” He couldn’t think of any other explanation—there just wasn’t one.
They sat in silence for a moment, then Lila wiped her eyes. “Oh, my. So many tears in the last twelve hours. I’m going to get dehydrated just from crying alone.” She sniffed, then smiled. “This ranch of yours sounds like a magical place. I think Abby spent a solid hour just telling me about it and all the people there.”
“It’s my favorite place in the world,” Reggie said. “This is going to sound crazy, but when you drive up to it, it’s almost like you’re entering another world where people are a little kinder and the air is a little fresher and the food even tastes better than it does anywhere else. You should come for a visit. You could even come home with us now, if you wanted. We’d have to rearrange some snacks, but I think Abby would be all right with that.”
“That’s just it,” Lila said. “The reason why I popped back out of bed this morning when I should have been sleeping. I’m an impulsive woman. I don’t believe in spending hours on a decision that in reality should only take me ninety seconds, and as I was settling in to sleep, the thought came to me that I should move to Idaho.”
“Abby will be thrilled.”
Lila held up a hand. “This has to be a secret for just now. I might be impulsive, but I also know that you can’t relocate ten seconds after deciding it. I need to look into selling my house and whatnot, and I don’t want to be putting any pressure on Abby or ideas into her head until I’m sure what’s what. And being impulsive, I might just as impulsively change my mind back again. But I wanted to run the idea past you to see if you thought it had merit.”
Reggie nodded, liking this woman more by the minute. “I appre
ciate that you don’t want to put pressure on Abby. You haven’t seen each other for years, and this has got to be overwhelming for both of you.”
“I can’t even explain what it was like to open the door and see her standing there.” Lila’s face took on a faraway quality. “It was like being given a second chance just when you’d started to think it wasn’t possible anymore. So many nights I’ve dreamed of seeing her again, and the funny thing is, whenever I’ve dreamed about her as an adult, she always looks much the same as she does now.”
“You were ready for her long before she ever got here,” Reggie replied.
“I’ve been ready for her since the moment she left. She’s part of my heart. In fact, that’s why I’ve never moved—I’ve always hoped that she’d come back to find me. Her or her mother.” Lila paused again. “I don’t know if she’s mentioned this to you and maybe I’m jumping the gun and should just be keeping my elderly mouth shut, but she asked me if I’d come south with the two of you to see her mother.”
“I think that would be a great idea,” Reggie replied. “And I hope you never do shut your elderly mouth.”
“Oh, you say that now, but give it time.” Lila stood up. “I think my tea is kicking in. I’m off to bed. Help yourself to whatever you can find in the kitchen.”
Reggie was hungry for some real food after a whole day of Pringles and Twizzlers, but he didn’t get up right away. Instead, he thought over what Lila had said. He thought she’d be happy in Idaho—the scenery around the ranch was enough to fill anyone’s contentment cup for a lifetime. But it had to be the right thing for her, and it had to be the right thing for Abby. They couldn’t resume the same relationship they’d had twenty years ago, when Abby was just barely more than a toddler—they needed to create a new relationship, one where they were both adults. It was wise for Lila to wait.
And wise for him to see if he could find some breakfast.
Delivering Destiny (River's End Ranch Book 23) Page 7