by Dana Mentink
Stephanie put Panny on the grass, and the little dog tottered along for a few steps before she sat, nose deep in the turf. Sweetness joined her, and together they enjoyed the symphony of invisible fragrances, rubbing their chins on the carpet of grass.
Stephanie breathed in the scent of the trees. The morning temperature was giving way to a warm summer day. Sitting here in the mini orchard that had escaped the blitzkrieg, she could imagine what it must have been like when Dappled Acres was a thriving farm where Karen and Rhett found freedom from their mother’s abandonment and their father’s harsh rules.
But what about now? Would Rhett force Mr. Phipps to reverse the sale? And then what? Find another farm for Karen? Something in the bleak look on his face when he’d left made her doubt. How could he reconcile this setback with the plan he’d thought had been laid out by God? What happened when you marched forward, armed with the knowledge that God was on your side, only to fall squarely on your face?
Sweetness came over and offered his back for some scratching. She complied. How easy it is to make a dog happy, she thought. Is it because they don’t insist on making plans? They take life as it comes—the good, the bad, and everything in between. Her own plans had gotten muddled, for sure, but her goal was still intact, her dream just a few hundred miles away. Rhett’s was not even in one piece anymore.
“Stephanie,” Karen said suddenly. “Do you know how to hook up a trailer?”
“Not a clue. Why?”
“Rhett said there’s water and electricity to the house. I think I saw some extension cords in the trailer. I remember Uncle Mel used to connect the trailer up to the farmhouse sometimes when he would come for a long visit.”
“I’ll search it on YouTube,” Stephanie said. “But does this mean you and Rhett are going to stay here? In spite of the…er…damage?”
Karen smiled. “I can’t speak for Rhett, but I’m going to stay, at least for a while, and Panny and I will require air-conditioning. Are you in?”
Stephanie scooped up Panny and fell in step behind Karen. Determination must be a family trait, she decided. “I’m in,” she said. At least until it’s time for me to go.
He’d practiced what to say on the long ride back to Dappled Acres. Best to say it straight out. Karen would understand. How could she not see the truth written on every blackened twig and branch? His speech went out the window as he parked next to the trailer, which appeared to be hooked up via some extension cords to the old farmhouse.
Stephanie and Karen sat outside on lawn chairs, sketching something out on a piece of paper. With a sinking feeling, he joined them.
“What are you doing? Why did you two hook up the trailer?”
Stephanie arched an eyebrow. “You’re supposed to say, ‘Wow, that’s amazing how you made this all happen in my absence. Gee whiz, aren’t you both terribly clever?’ ”
He was not about to be charmed out of making the right decision. “We’re not staying here. We’ll pack up, and I’ll drop you and Sweetness at Agnes Wharton’s house just like I promised. Then Karen and I will head back to California.”
Karen’s lips thinned. “I see you’ve worked it all out. Does Karen get a vote in this, or is she to be carted around like the dogs?”
Rhett squared his shoulders. “This place is ruined.”
“Some of the trees survived,” she said. “There’s a section of fifty McIntosh trees in perfect condition.”
“Doesn’t matter. The rest of the orchard will have to be replanted, the house rebuilt. It will take years for it to become profitable, if ever.”
Karen waved a hand as if she were brushing away a fly. “What else have I got to do?”
He gaped at her. “You can’t do this. You’re not strong enough.”
“I am aware of that, brother. I will hire people, and no, you will not have to pay. I have some money stashed away, and there are such things as loans.”
“It’s not about the money—”
“I know, but I’ve never taken charity from you before, and I’m not going to start now. Though it will take time, I will buy the property from you.” She sat back, smiling.
Stephanie’s eyes were round. She looked as though she would like to be anywhere else. Rhett felt the same.
“The orchard,” he repeated slowly, “is ruined.”
Karen flapped a piece of paper at him. “But the land isn’t. We can revive it. Stephanie and I have been making a priority list. First off, we’ll need to do what we can for the McIntoshes. It’s too late for pruning, of course, but we can tidy them up. We’ll take out the dead trees a little at a time, and I’ll see if anything can be salvaged of the farmhouse. We have two chickens if I can catch them. There’s nothing better than eggs from free range chickens, don’t you think?”
Two sets of maddeningly determined female eyes regarded him. “This isn’t rational.”
“Nothing you’ve done recently has been rational, Rhett. You let God lead the way, remember?”
“But He isn’t leading the way,” Rhett spat, his anger boiling over. “Everything has turned to ashes sifting through my fingers. It was a mistake to leave my business, it was lunacy to think that Paulo…” He stopped and took a breath. “And it was a blunder to buy this place, the worst business decision I’ve ever made. The whole trailer trip has been one tremendous mess-up from start to finish.”
Karen folded her hands on her lap. “So was it a blunder for me to let you back in my life then? To forgive you for what you did to me and Paulo?”
He rubbed a hand across his face.
Her mouth quivered. “You and I, we’re siblings again. Was all of that just the by-product of a deal gone bad?”
Stephanie got up. “I’m just going to go into the trailer and fix a snack.”
“No,” Karen said. “You’ve been in this from the beginning. Tell Rhett that he’s got to let go and trust God, just like he’s been trying to do.”
Rhett shook his head. “Don’t drag her into this.”
“Why not? She’s part of this journey you’ve been on.”
“She’s just here for the ride.”
Stephanie flinched. He’d hurt her. Well, why not? It was true that she was along purely for the transportation. Klein and the mythical Gregory needed a new agent, which was the only reason she was still on the ridiculous adventure. Agent Stephanie Pink would probably not ever breathe a word of the strange path she’d had to take to get her name on the office door. Or maybe she’d have a few good laughs remembering the lunatic guy she’d happened upon on her way to landing the deal that made her career.
A part of him deep down inside longed to be contradicted. In his fevered imagination he could almost hear her say it. You’re not crazy, Rhett. And you’re not just a man on a fruitless mission, a means to an end. You’re much more than that to me.
Her eyes searched his and, coward that he was, he looked away.
“This doesn’t involve me,” she said quietly. “I’ll go get that snack now.”
He watched her go, and his heart plummeted to his shoes.
Karen was staring at him when he ventured at look at her.
“Rhett, for a corporate genius, you are a real numbskull.”
He agreed inside, but he forced a strong tone. “You can’t stay here on this farm alone.”
“I’ll hire help,” her tone softened. “But I thought we were going to bring Dappled Acres back to life together.”
“There’s no life here to revive, sis,” he said softly. “This was a mistake, nothing more. You’re blinded by sentiment.”
“And you’re blinded by business.” She laughed. “So let’s be two blind numbskulls together and trust God to make it work out.”
“I can’t. I misheard God. This has been a monumental failure.”
“Oh, I think people can learn a lot about God through their failures.”
The conversation was going nowhere. He shoved a hand through his hair. “I got you back in spite of my idiocies, and for that
I’ll always be grateful, but this has been a losing proposition from the get-go. I was thinking it was part of that ‘plans to give you hope and a future’ thing from Jeremiah. I was wrong.”
“Rhett Franklin Hastings,” Karen said, eyes blazing. “You wouldn’t know what prosperity was if it marched up and bit you on the nose.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about this,” she waved an arm around. “The orchard, the trees that lived, Stephanie, all of it.”
“I don’t understand what you’re getting at.”
“No, you sure don’t, Rhett.” Throwing her notes on the ground, she snatched up her cane and stalked back into the trailer, slamming the door behind her.
Panny looked up from her blanket, and Sweetness sent a reproachful glance toward him.
“What do you know?” he snapped. “All you have in the world is a spatula.”
Twenty-One
Stephanie had gone out to the orchard to sit among the living trees with Sweetness while Panny enjoyed an afternoon nap with Karen. After checking for snakes, she sat on a fallen trunk and considered. She’d tried to place a call to Mr. Klein while back at the trailer, but in this otherworldly spot her phone wouldn’t acquire a signal. Fitting, it seemed to her. This little pocket of life seemed so far removed from everything practical. She had three books with her, Sea Comes Knocking, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and an odd little story about a woman who solved mysteries while tending a flock of seagulls, bought for a quarter at their last supply stop.
The sound of rustling leaves played the perfect counterpoint for reading. In her bookstore, she decided, there would be an area for kids to read with trees painted on the walls and a forest of bookshelves. And maybe big green pillows sewn to look like leaves where kids could get lost in a story as she and Ian had done so many times. She breathed in the sweet scent of growing fruit and the smell of musty pages as she opened Sea Comes Knocking.
I look with bewilderment at this rugged place where I am somehow rooted. I am not a country girl, I cry to the mountains. I was not made to grieve a dead child, I wail to the cloud-glazed sky. I do not want to love a man who cannot be free while wearing the fetters of civilization. I did not choose these things, I chant to the wind. I did not choose.
They were chosen for you, a flock of geese replies as they escape the coming winter.
Stephanie was only six pages away from the end of the book, and she didn’t have to continue. She knew the memoir ended with Agnes pregnant and Jedd gone, having left to work his fishing boat. The scene took place on the heels of an intense argument between the two. Agnes had not revealed her pregnancy to Jedd. He had not looked back as he’d left her. Had their marriage survived? Had the baby? It was the greatest mystery of the decade, and one she was about to solve as soon as she took possession of the second manuscript.
Sweetness noticed Rhett’s approach first, bounding to greet him and threatening to jump up and mark Rhett’s midriff with dusty paw prints. Rhett fended him off and sat down on a log opposite Stephanie.
“Okay if I join you?”
“It’s your orchard.”
He sighed. “That it is. Every blighted acre of it.” He plucked a strand of grass and twisted it between his fingers. He looked fatigued. Worry lines grooved into his forehead, and a five o’clock shadow darkened his chin. “I’ve called Bethany. She’s coming up tonight to stay with Karen for a few days so I’ll be able to drive you to Agnes Wharton’s place tomorrow. Is that too late?”
“You don’t have to do that. I’ll get a ride.”
“A deal’s a deal.”
She wondered why that phrase hurt. “Not everything in life is a deal, Rhett. You helped me. I will always appreciate that.”
He looked as though he wanted to say something, but he remained silent, staring off into the blackened trees behind them. “I see all this ruin, but I still can’t believe it.”
Sweetness alerted on some sound they couldn’t hear and trotted into the long grass, leaving the circle of life for the dead zone.
She stood. “Come here for a minute,” she said, walking to him.
He stood. “What?”
“You’re looking at the wrong thing.” Taking his arm she turned him in the direction of the McIntosh trees. “See? If you look this way, you can see what was spared, the life that’s still here.” She didn’t know why, but she felt a deep urgency to make him understand. “It’s what your sister sees.”
He stared at the green oasis, the rays of sunlight playing across his face. “It’s not enough.”
“Maybe you’re counting it wrong. This journey you’ve been on was enough to bring you and your sister together. This place is enough to give her purpose and passion. Maybe it could be enough for you too.”
His gaze fastened on hers. “Life isn’t like your novels, Stephanie. Reality is much uglier.”
“That’s why people love novels. Fiction tosses up the truth about life that we’re too blind or preoccupied to see.”
He rubbed his eyes. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”
“Story of my life. Nothing ever is.”
He reached out a hand and smoothed her hair, trailing his fingers along her cheek. Her body responded to his touch, and she put her hand over his, cradling his palm to her cheek.
“Why do you mix me up inside?” he murmured.
“Part of my charm, I guess.”
“You know, Spencer was an idiot to let you go.”
It was the kindest thing anyone had ever said to her.
He put his mouth to her forehead, and she stayed breathlessly still as he traced his lips along her cheek and temple. She tipped her chin, and he kissed her, a tender, sweet connection that made her heart swell.
What was he doing? Why was she enjoying it? She wanted to pull away but found that she couldn’t.
He leaned his cheek against hers and let out a deep breath before straightening. “Someday you’ll find someone who will love you properly.”
And just like that, the wild feelings inside her stilled.
He kept hold of her hand, though, and together they watched a sparrow land on a branch, snatching up an insect from the roughened bark before taking flight again.
“Karen thinks Dappled Acres can be saved,” Stephanie said, still feeling the tingles from his touch, the sadness that it was fleeting.
“She’s wrong.”
“What if she’s not? We talked it over, Rhett. She has some really good ideas. They are practical and not merely pie-in-the-sky.”
He released her hand and took a step back. “Please don’t encourage Karen in this.”
“Why not? I care about her.”
“I do too. That’s why I’m going to get her to leave this place.”
“But it’s her dream—”
“Don’t talk to me about dreams!”
“Dreams are all your sister has.”
“Then she needs to wise up. Dreaming is impractical and confusing, and pretty soon you can’t tell which ones are the ones God wants you to have or the ones you come up with on your own.”
“You’re upset because you didn’t know about the condition of the orchard.”
“No, I’m upset because you’re a hypocrite.”
She jerked, a hot spot igniting inside. “That’s meaner than usual. How so?”
“You still insist that your dream is to be a literary agent and run a high-powered business in New York City. You think that’s what God wants for you?”
“That’s what I want for me.”
“Your skill set doesn’t match your desire.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re about as far removed from a high-powered businessperson as anyone could be.”
“I am not!”
“You put smiley emoticons on all your texts and e-mails.”
“That’s called being friendly, not your area of expertise.”
“You organize y
our life with sticky notes, and you are not clear on the bottom line.”
“I’m an out-of-the-box thinker.”
“You eat bologna and cheese.”
“So I’m not a food snob. Who cares?”
“You don’t read the highbrow books you’re supposed to like. Instead, you read romance novels and fiction with sea monsters on the covers.”
She folded her arms and glared at him. “At least I read.”
“And you love books more than business, and you love your brother so much you’ve convinced yourself his plan has to be yours.”
She struggled for breath. “You don’t know anything about it.”
He would not let her look away. “And you’re too stubborn or too scared to admit that you’re living your whole life to make your brother’s plan come to fruition.”
She was shaking now. “Stop it, Rhett! Don’t try to ruin my plan just because yours didn’t work out.”
“And you’re leaving. After tomorrow, we’re not a part of your life anymore, right? You’re off to become Agent Pink.”
“That’s right,” she said, voice breaking. “That was the whole point of riding with you, remember? Just along for the ride.”
“Yeah. I remember,” he said, voice suddenly weary and soft. “So do me a favor, and don’t give my sister any of your advice.”
She met his gaze and saw her own troubled expression mirrored in his eyes. “I’m sorry your plans didn’t work out, Rhett. I really am.”
She felt him staring at her as she left. Mercifully, the tears did not come until after she’d left him behind in the unexpected pocket of green.
He was up before the sun with Sweetness by his side. Later on he and Stephanie and Sweetness would start the long drive to Agnes Wharton’s, and part of him didn’t want to head out on the last leg of their journey. He’d been cruel, though he didn’t understand why. What did it matter to him if she ran after the agent’s job? Her life, not his. Just along for the ride. Still, he didn’t want their last shared miles to be thick with anger and hurt. He would figure out what to say to make it right. She’d taught him a few things about being kind.