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Eyes on the Prize

Page 23

by Sunni Jeffers


  “You just tell your grandmother you finished the race a winner,” Carrie said.

  Jane wanted to hug Carrie, but she wasn’t sure if she had the right, after the unkind, unfair thoughts she’d had.

  “Carrie, how about coming back to the inn for lunch after this is over? I owe you a meal.”

  “You don’t have to do that, Jane.”

  “Oh yes, I do. And I’d be delighted. Please?”

  Carrie tilted her head and looked at Jane. “All right. I’d like that. Right now I’d better see how our volunteers are doing.”

  “Okay. See you later.” Jane turned and saw Louise and Alice standing on the sidelines. They were smiling, but Louise had tears in her eyes.

  “Congratulations, little sister,” Louise said. “You finished ahead of Carrie by a toe.”

  “I … I did?”

  Alice burst out laughing. “I’ve never seen anyone finish a race quite like that.”

  Jane grinned. “Pretty classy, huh?” Thinking how they must have looked, Jane laughed. “I don’t know about you, but I need a cold drink and a warm shower. Then I might be ready to face the world again.”

  The three sisters made their way through the crowd and on to Grace Chapel Inn. Jane left Louise and Alice relaxing on the porch, while she went upstairs to shower.

  “I have an apology for you,” Jane told Carrie as they sat with Louise and Alice on the front porch, eating chicken-and-pesto paninis and Waldorf salad. “I wanted nothing more than to come in ahead of you today. I’ve always been jealous of you, since high school, when I never could beat you in a race.”

  Carrie looked startled. “Seriously? But you had so much going for you. You were pretty and talented and lived in this beautiful house. I wished I could paint like you. I knew someday your art would hang in a museum. Me? All I could do was run and that didn’t come naturally. That’s why I did a victory dance, just for crossing the finish line.”

  “But you were always first. I thought you were conceited.”

  Carrie laughed. “Me? Of what? I barely made it through school with a C average. I never dated. No one ever asked me to the prom or even to a football game.” She reached over and put her hand on Jane’s arm. “I’m sorry, but it’s nice to know someone thought I could do something well.”

  “That, you could. And I learned something today about winning. You said it. Sometimes losing is winning. It’s like the Bible says. ‘Many who are first will be last.’”

  “‘And many who are last will be first.’ Matthew 19:30. That verse always gives me hope,” Carrie said.

  “Winning doesn’t always mean coming in first,” Louise said.

  “Although in your case, you did,” Alice said. “Louise won first prize for the largest pumpkin at the Baskenburg Giant Pumpkin Weigh-off last weekend,” she explained to Carrie.

  “Really? How big was it?”

  “Just over one thousand forty pounds.”

  “Wow. I can’t even imagine how big that is.”

  “But it’s a fluke,” Louise admitted. “That’s a case of the first shall be last, because I don’t have a green thumb. I can’t grow weeds. Jane is the gardener.”

  “No matter. You won and we have the trophy to prove it,” Jane said. She stood. “I have something for you. I realized it’s for you when I came around the corner and saw you leaning over Tory. I’ll be right back.”

  Jane ran up to her room, grabbed a large, flat paper sack from her closet and hurried back to the porch. “Phew! I think I’m done running for today,” she said, sitting down across from Carrie. She slipped a canvas out of the sack and handed it to Carrie.

  “Oh Jane, I can’t accept this. It’s beautiful.”

  “I painted it for you. I just didn’t know it at the time. I was sitting at Fairy Pond, enjoying the solitude and beauty and peace, when a runner came by. It was as if the Lord said, ‘Here, paint this for someone special.’ I didn’t know what He had in mind until today. It’s for you.”

  Carrie’s eyes grew luminous. “I can’t tell you how much this means to me. My last year here was difficult for a lot of reasons. My mother was sick. She died a week before graduation. My dad took it hard. Then we moved and I never came back. I needed to come back to make peace. If it weren’t for you and Tory, I still might not have found that peace. Thank you. I will cherish this.”

  “I hope this was the first annual Acorn Hill Harvest 10K Run. Next year, I’ll give you a real race.”

  Carrie smiled. “Okay, you’re on.”

  “Yoo-hoo. Where are you?” a voice called from the hall.

  “Out here, Aunt Ethel,” Alice called back.

  Lloyd and Ethel came out to the porch.

  “We used the back door. I couldn’t wait to tell you,” Ethel said, holding up a piece of paper. “Jane, you raised more pledges than anyone else. Nine hundred and fifty dollars.” She handed Jane the certificate.

  “But Aunt Ethel, this should have your name on it. You raised most of the money for me.”

  “Some of it,” Ethel said. “I was happy to help.”

  Jane looked at Carrie and grinned. “See, I can’t lose with a team like this.”

  “And that fact is a blessing for our organization,” Carrie said.

  “Acorn Hill is the big winner, with all the visitors in town,” Lloyd said, ever the concerned mayor with an eye to the town’s welfare. “Yes indeed, a win-win situation, all the way around.”

  About the Author

  Sunni Jeffers lives in northeast Washington. She and her husband live on a farm with an aging Scottish Highlander cow and an elderly Arabian racehorse. Sunni has won the Romance Writers of America Golden Heart, American Christian Writers Book of the Year and the Colorado Romance Writer’s Award of Excellence.

  Tales from Grace Chapel Inn

  Back Home Again

  by Melody Carlson

  Recipes & Wooden Spoons

  by Judy Baer

  Hidden History

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  Ready to Wed

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  The Price of Fame

  by Carolyne Aarsen

  We Have This Moment

  by Diann Hunt

  The Way We Were

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  The Spirit of the Season

  by Dana Corbit

  The Start of Something Big

  by Sunni Jeffers

  Spring Is in the Air

  by Jane Orcutt

  Home for the Holidays

  by Rebecca Kelly

  Once you visit the charming village of Acorn Hill, you’ll never want to leave. Here, the three Howard sisters reunite after their father’s death and turn the family home into a bed-and-breakfast. They rekindle old memories, rediscover the bonds of sisterhood, revel in the blessings of friendship and meet many fascinating guests along the way.

 

 

 


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