Worth a Thousand Words

by Stacy Adams

  Indigo smiled halfheartedly. “It is hard, but what would be harder would be to lose my sister-friend over something that neither of us can change. Just be real with me from now on, Shel. And find the courage to be real with yourself.”

  Shelby looked at her young neighbors again and saw two little girls, about three, pause to hug each other. She smiled and a tear slid down her cheek. “Dreams don’t necessarily die, do they? They just come in packages that God knows are a better fit for us than we could have designed.”

  She motioned for Indigo to join her again at the computer. “Come on. Let’s decide on these dresses so we can outline a plan for the rest of the wedding.”

  When Shelby was seated again, she pulled an envelope from a drawer in the computer armoire and placed it on Indigo’s lap. Indigo frowned when she opened it.

  Shelby raised her hand to halt Indigo’s protest. “You might want to give me that wedding dress, but I asked my mother to write a check to your parents, since they were picking up the tab. I’ll be honored to wear the dress that you picked out and have it altered to fit me. You just help me plan my special day and be there to share it with me and Hunt. That will be gift enough.”

  52

  Indigo loved back-to-school shopping, even if she were a grown woman well beyond the crayon-and-glue-stick stage.

  In her case, she was shopping for bed linens, towels, and curtains for her New York apartment. Yasmin had recently returned from modeling camp, feeling like a fashion and design connoisseur, and had come along to offer advice. Somehow, though, she had quickly escaped to the shoe department, to hunt for one more pair of sandals to be ready for ninth grade.

  Indigo spotted the two cute kids as she strolled through the section for bedroom comforters and accessories. They were about five or six and had to be fraternal twins, because although one was a boy and the other was a girl, they were each other’s spitting image. They tumbled into a floor-model beanbag and tickled each other incessantly, growing louder by the second.

  Indigo was startled when Max Shepherd came into view. He rounded the corner and playfully scooped the two children up by their collars. She watched from a few feet away, amused by his attempt to be stern.

  “Didn’t I tell you two to stay where I could see you? I guess there will be no movie and popcorn today.”

  “We’re sorry, we’re sorry!” the kids pleaded with puppy dog eyes.

  Indigo giggled. Had they been in her care, she would have melted.

  Max turned in her direction and did a double take.

  “Hey, you,” he said. “How long have you been standing there?”

  Indigo approached him and accepted his hug.

  “Long enough to see you manhandling these two sweet children,” she teased.

  Max threw back his head and laughed. Indigo noticed every inflection.

  “Believe me, Fric and Frac here deserve it. These are my little cousins Katerri and Joseph.”

  Indigo extended her hand to each of them, and they shook it.

  “You’re pretty,” Katerri said.“Are you Cousin Max’s girlfriend?”

  Indigo blushed. Before she could respond, Max replied.

  “Not yet, little nosey rosey. Not yet.” He smiled.

  Indigo raised an eyebrow. Max turned to the kids and stooped to make eye contact.

  “You have my permission to play on the beanbag for two more minutes, got it? Just two. Then we have to go.” He stood and faced Indigo. “So how you been?”

  Indigo shrugged. “I can’t complain. You?”

  He hesitated and Indigo could tell that he knew.

  “News travels fast in Jubilant. I’m sorry about your broken engagement,” Max said.

  Indigo folded her arms. “Based on what you just told your cousins, you don’t seem too sorry.”

  Max looked down and then straight into her eyes. “Truthfully, I guess I’m not. I’m more sorry for Brian than anything. You’re something special. I’ve realized that in the short time I’ve known you.”

  Indigo wanted to roll her eyes at his come-on line, but didn’t, out of respect for the fact that they were photography colleagues. Maybe he really meant it, but right now she was jaded on anything that resembled smooth talk.

  “I’m not looking to date anyone right now, Max,” she said. “I’m leaving for New York soon and I just want some time to myself.”

  His curly hair bobbed as he nodded.

  “Understood. I’ll be around whenever you’re in town,” he said. “And I’ll be in New York, speaking at SVA in about a month, about the transition from student to owning my own photography business. If you’re up to it, maybe I can take you out for coffee or something then.”

  This guy was persistent. He was handsome too, Indigo admitted. But if Brian had taught her nothing else, she had learned that checking out the inside was more important than focusing on the packaging.

  “We’ll see,” she told Max. “Look me up when you get to town, okay?”

  She walked away to find Yasmin, but not before noting that funny feeling in her heart that seemed to surface whenever she was in his presence.

  Something about him was magnetic, but she had to be careful. There was too much at stake to get caught up in the wrong game.

  To top it all off, he seemed to be a mind reader.

  “Just so you know,” Max called after her, “I don’t pick up girls at the mall all the time. You happen to make me do strange things, Indigo Burns.”

  She waved to him without turning around and kept walking, but inside, she was smiling. Max might not be “the one,” but he was a signpost that someday soon she was going to learn to love again.

  53

  Nizhoni became an official part of the Burns family when she showed up at the family cookout and ate a plate of chitlins with Indigo’s dad.

  Indigo loved her father, but she wasn’t going to eat pig intestines for anyone.

  “You have wrapped yourself around my daddy’s heart, girl,” Indigo told her friend. “Welcome.”

  Nizhoni laughed. “Believe me, I’ve eaten odder things on an Indian reservation. Other than the smell, this isn’t bad. My dad won’t even eat them. I’ll have to let him know that I’m one up on him.”

  Indigo walked over to Aunt Melba, who stood on the backyard patio beaming like a proud mother.

  “Did you see that girl over there eating chitlins? Do you see her hair flowing down her back?”

  Indigo had noticed. There was no braid.

  “Working in your salon is doing her some good, huh?”

  Aunt Melba smiled. “Being around good people anywhere can do that to you, Indigo. You remember that when you get to New York. Don’t cast your lot with people who have nothing to show for themselves or no drive to work hard for something. They’ll only hold you back or hold you down. And I’m not just talking about material things. I’m talking dreams, ambitions, and opportunities. You cast your lot with other winners, like yourself, and you humbly serve the others in the hopes that some of them will get there.”

  Indigo tucked the advice in her mental memory bank. “How did you become so wise?”

  “Just listening to my mama and daddy, at first, and then adding in the ultimate source—the Word of God, baby,” Aunt Melba said. “It will never lead you wrong.”

  Indigo scanned the crowd and monitored the side gate as guests continued to arrive. He had promised he would come, but the cookout had been in full swing for two hours.

  “Who are you looking for?” Aunt Melba asked. “Brian?”

  Indigo shrugged. “Maybe.”

  “Did you invite him?”

  “Yes,” Indigo said. “He said he’d think about it.”

  Talking about him must have conjured him up, because minutes later, he came strolling into the backyard, accompanied by Shelby and Hunt.

  The three of them looked good, especially Brian.

  Indigo noticed some of the female friends of the family following him with their eyes. She watched as he s
urveyed the crowd, searching for her.

  When his eyes landed on her, she waved, and he came over to the patio.

  He hugged Indigo’s mom, Aunt Melba, and then Indigo. It wasn’t a lingering hug as usual, but it was sincere.

  Indigo felt as if the two of them were onstage. R&B singer Anthony Hamilton’s “The River” blared from the surround sound speakers as what seemed like everyone waited to see how they interacted.

  Indigo motioned for him to follow her inside.

  “Thanks for coming,” she said once they were alone. “I know you leave for flight school next week. Your parents let you out of their sight?”

  Brian chuckled. “Briefly,” he said. “When I said I was coming here, they were all for it. They haven’t given up hope.”

  Indigo smiled, surprised that the resentment that occasionally surfaced didn’t flare. What she felt instead was something special for him. Pity, she supposed, for the journey she knew he faced.

  “I’ll always love you, Indie,” he said softly. She saw in his eyes that he wanted to kiss her, so she let him. It was tender and sweet, but also bittersweet.

  She started to tell him the truth—that on the night he revealed his issues, she had been planning to break their engagement anyway. But looking at him now, and seeing that he was working so hard to be at peace with himself and with the fact that he had given her up, she decided that some personal truths didn’t need to be shared.

  Brian would face enough regrets, rejection, and loneliness in the days ahead; she didn’t have to crush him.

  “I’ll always love you too, Brian,” she said. “You take care of yourself.”

  They hugged and returned to the end-of-summer cookout.

  Brian wandered off to talk to her father and she resumed her position on the patio, where she had a full view of the entire backyard.

  Yasmin sat under a shade tree, making sure she didn’t get too much sun, in case Sasha called with a modeling job. She flipped through a portfolio of recent photos she had taken for various magazines, and her friends oohed and aahed.

  Rachelle approached Indigo and extended a soda. She followed Indigo’s gaze and shook her head.

  “You know that Taryn wants to model now, right?”

  Indigo laughed. “Never say never,” she told Rachelle. “Wouldn’t it be cool to have two supermodels in the family?”

  “Hmm,” Rachelle said and grabbed a cupcake from a tray that Aunt Melba was bringing outside for guests. “Too much pressure. I surely wouldn’t be eating like this.”

  Gabe walked up and hugged her from behind. “I like everything I see,” he said.

  Indigo frowned in mock disgust. “You guys are sickening.” She laughed.

  Indigo was preparing to walk away when Rachelle pulled her by the arm and leaned into her ear.

  “Don’t worry, Indie, your blessing is coming. You wait and see,” she said.

  Indigo smiled. “I know. God’s got it. He’ll send him my way when we’re ready for each other.”

  Indigo joined her father at the grill and watched him baste the ribs. She looked toward the fence again, wondering where her special guest was. Brian had shown up and that should be enough, but it wasn’t, no matter how much she wanted it to be.

  54

  He arrived on Sunday morning, about eighteen hours late.

  The doorbell rang as the Burnses were rushing through breakfast so they could make it to Sunday school.

  “I’ll get it,” Indigo said, not wanting to hope, but doing so anyway.

  She was rewarded.

  Reuben had come home.

  She wanted to ask him why he had missed the cookout and what had taken him so long to find the courage to return to Jubilant. But she didn’t.

  The fact that he was here was enough.

  She stood in the doorway and drank in an eyeful of him: tall, ebony, and handsome. The spitting image of their deceased father, whose pictures still graced Mama and Daddy’s walls.

  She hadn’t seen her brother since her graduation in May; he didn’t know she had been engaged and was newly single. Before that, she hadn’t seen him since her high school graduation.

  Something about being in Jubilant wounded his soul. In all of the counseling that she, Mama, and Daddy had undergone with Dr. Danvers to help Yasmin, they had come to understand that.

  Reuben was twelve when their parents were killed in the car crash. He remembered them more than Indigo or Yasmin and had experienced this major loss at a pivotal age. His life had been uprooted when everything in his world should have been steady and rock solid.

  Dr. Danvers warned them that he might never come home again, especially if the memories of what he’d lost suffocated him because he hadn’t dealt with them.

  This time, though, Reuben had found his way.

  In all practicality, she hadn’t done or said anything compelling to draw him here. Her email had been brief:

  The family cookout is in three weeks, on Saturday as usual. Would love to have you here with us.

  Indigo knew God had answered her prayers.

  She held open the door to let him enter and opened her arms wide. She hesitated to verbally welcome him home, lest that whole notion caused him to flee. She just wanted him to know that he was loved.

  Reuben scooped Indigo into his arms and gave her one of the bear hugs that had been a trademark of their childhood bond.

  “It’s wonderful to see you, big brother,” she said. “You’ve made my day.”

  Probably curious about who would be visiting at eight a.m., Mama and Daddy approached the front door.

  Mama took just a few steps and fell to her knees when she saw her son/grandson.

  “Thank you, Father!”

  Daddy stood beside her, trembling.

  Reuben approached him and hugged him. Their tender embrace lasted until a cry pierced the air. Reuben seemed to remember he wasn’t alone.

  “I brought you a surprise,” he told his parents. “Wait here.”

  Seconds later, Reuben ushered in a petite brown-skinned woman with locks that brushed her shoulders. She was carrying a baby dressed in blue.

  “This is my wife, Peyton.” Reuben beamed. “And this is our son, Charles David Burns. He’s six months old.”

  Indigo couldn’t hold back her tears when she saw that Daddy’s cheeks were wet. When he had composed himself, Daddy uttered the words Indigo had been afraid to: “Welcome home, Son. Welcome to you and to your beautiful family.”

  55

  Nothing would be the same after today.

  Indigo sat in Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston counting down the minutes until she boarded her flight to New York, to her new life. She couldn’t wait.

  So much had happened this summer that she was sure she would someday look back on this summer and believe it was all a dream. But it hadn’t been. She had grown up so much.

  She had learned that when life knocked you down, you’d better listen to your Daddy and pick yourself up. She meant both Daddies—her grandfather who had raised her as a daughter, and her heavenly Father, who still had so much to teach her.

  She sat here, convinced that when she boarded this flight, not only would she be headed toward a destiny crafted around photography and her growing achievements in the industry; she also would be expanding her world in ways that would resonate for eternity.

  Rachelle had driven her, Mama, and Daddy to the airport and had shared how her childhood best friend, Jillian, had been a professional photographer who traveled the world before losing a battle with cancer.

  “I eventually decided that the cancer didn’t win,” Rachelle told her. “Because Jillian still lives on through the great photos she took that are displayed in all parts of the world, and through the lives she touched with her friendship and love. She lives on through me, whenever I pull out my list of goals and remember how she inspired me to reclaim my life.

  “That’s the thing about this journey, Indigo. We have to remember that we’re only h
ere for a set period of time, and we don’t get to ‘do over’ some things. So it’s for our best to do them well the first time around. That’s a lesson I’ve learned the hard way and continue to learn, even now.

  “But you start thinking like that now, at your age, and when opportunities or obstacles present themselves, you’ll figure out a way to either overcome them or plow through them.”

  Indigo reflected on Rachelle’s advice and wished she could share it with Brian and Shelby. Both of them were on their way to their respective flight schools. She would see Shelby in six months, when she served as maid of honor in her best friend’s wedding.

  She wasn’t sure when she would cross paths with Brian again, but while she was thinking about it, she wanted to let him know she was in his corner.

  Hey, future Navy pilot, do your best. Give your all, & remember, u will succeed. Godspeed!

  Indigo sent the text and seconds later, received a reply.

  Godspeed, Indie. Always yours, B.

  He had attached a picture of a red rose.

  Always, indeed, she thought. Nothing would ever change that.

  Discussion Questions

  What was the overall theme of this book and how was this thread displayed in each major character’s life?

  What was Indigo’s truth, and why was it so hard for her to accept? What could have made it easier?

  Was Brian wise or foolish for trying to get help from Craig to figure out who he was?

  Were Rachelle and Gabe’s views about marriage accurate? Why or why not?

  Was Shelby right or wrong not to share what she knew with her friend? What would you have done?

  Why was Rachelle an important role model for Indigo as well as for Yasmin and her daughter, Taryn?

  Do you think Brian’s mother knew the particular issue he was struggling to resolve? If so, should she have confronted him?

  What did Yasmin’s illness reveal about the impact of family dynamics on a child’s life?