Raising Attabury: A Contemporary Christian Epic-Novel (The Grace Series Book 5)

by Stallings, Staci

  “And because of that I got to talk with Luke,” Eric said, “and what he said made a lot of sense.”

  Dani laughed out loud, nearly too loud for the sleeping-in-the-back Jaden. “That’s exactly what I was going to say about Sage. It’s almost like… It’s almost like…”

  “We were… supposed to be there?” he finished, and she grinned and nodded before squinting into the thought.

  “Is that like weird or something?”

  He joined her laugh. “Oh, hon, I think I left weird way back there in January at least.”

  The breath she let out was one of relief. “It’s crazy, you know? My whole life I thought I was supposed to know right where I was going and how to get there. I thought if I didn’t, that meant I was an epic failure or something.” Reaching over, she put her hand on his. “But I’m kind of liking just taking this trip and seeing what happens. It’s kind of nice not to have to be in control of everything all the time.”

  Leaning over, he managed to brush his lips on hers. “Well, it looks good on you.”

  She grinned before letting out a long exhale of surrender. “Any idea where we go from here?”

  “Wherever God has in mind.”

  Chapter 27

  The next morning Eric had breakfast frying before Greg got to the kitchen.

  “That sure does smell good,” Greg said, and he looked over at the sizzling bacon as he poured himself some coffee.

  “That’s good ‘cause I think I made way too much.”

  “Eh. Can’t ever have too much bacon.”

  Eric grinned. “Smart man.”

  At the pastor’s an hour later Eric got a cup of coffee and went to join the others. Sitting in the chair, he listened as Caleb and Derek caught up though it became clear rather quickly just how stressed Derek was.

  “You wouldn’t believe it,” Derek said. “It is literally one thing after another. They ordered the wrong color tile for the bathroom floor. The shower tile is gray, the floor tile is tan and brown. Tan and brown! Who does that? Then the cabinets were measured wrong, so they’re like five inches too short.”

  “So the countertop isn’t right,” Caleb said.

  “Exactly. That put us another couple of days behind. Then it rained of all things… in Phoenix. Rain? Seriously? That’s just not even fair.”

  “Did you at least have it all dried in?”

  “I’ll give you three guesses, and the first two don’t count.” Derek shook his head. “Oh, Father, forgive me for ever complaining about Alex and his crew. Who knew there could be ones out there that are worse?”

  “And I’m sure Jaycee being gone isn’t helping things at all,” Luke said, joining in.

  Derek put up his hands. “I had no idea. Seriously. I didn’t. I thought…” He spun his hands. “…what does it matter who runs the schedule? Right? It’s a schedule. How hard can that be? Let’s just say I had no idea. Twice I’ve gotten to an airport with no way to get to the next job.” He held up two fingers. “Twice. In less than a month! In fact, I had Jaycee call and make sure the car would be there this last weekend because who knows with these people?”

  “Well, it’s a good thing that things are moving along well here,” Luke said. “I went out the other day to see Attabuary. Wait ‘til you see it. You won’t recognize the place.”

  “Good thing,” Derek said, “because one more thing to deal with, and I might give up completely.”

  Dani and Emily were enjoying a quiet morning when a knock sounded on Emily’s backdoor.

  “Anybody home?” Rachel called, and Emily called a ‘welcome’ and ‘come in’ back. With only that, Rachel came into the little kitchen. “Oh, good. You’re up.”

  “What’s up?” Dani asked in concern.

  “Nothing. I was just hoping we could get a little done on finishing that armoire before we go over to meet with Derek and Caleb to finalize all of the designs if you’re up for it.”

  “Oh.” Dani looked down at the dishes on the table and back to the hallway where Jaden was still asleep.

  However, Emily waved at them. “Go on. No worries. I’ll feed Jaden when she gets up. I can take her over to Sage’s or we can just hang out. She’s quite the kid.”

  “You sure you don’t mind?”

  “Mind. Pulease. That child is an angel. She can keep me company while I do the laundry. I love listening to all of her stories.”

  “Okay. If you’re sure you don’t mind.”

  “Go on already. You’re wasting good daylight.”

  “Okay, I have to share something with you all,” the pastor said when they had gotten around to the actual reason they were gathered. “Like most of the things in my life, I can’t really explain this, but I keep coming up on the word ‘vision.’ Not like eyesight exactly but like seeing into what’s not yet there. Like, ‘What’s your vision for your life?’”

  “Like your dream,” Luke said.

  “Kind of except maybe deeper than that.” The pastor fought to get the words right. “It’s like what’s your vision, what do you see, not that is, but more what could be. What do you want the world to look like, and what can you do to make it become that?”

  “Like impact,” Greg said. “What impact do you want to have?”

  “Calling,” Caleb offered. “What’s your calling?”

  “Right like that,” the pastor said. “Like where is God calling me to go? What is He calling me to do? What vision do I have that maybe I’m not pursuing?”

  Caleb sat forward. “Well, with everything going on with Attabury and the show, one of the things I’ve found is how hard it is to focus on my calling at home.”

  The others all nodded.

  “It’s so easy for me to get focused on what we’re doing tomorrow on the project.” He glanced back at Derek. “Who just quit and who we’re getting to replace that person. Lining up people to do the next part while we’re doing this part. Just keeping up with it all is a really big challenge, more than I thought it would be. And so, a lot of times I get home at night, and the night’s gone before I even think about asking Rachel how her day was or how the kids are. It’s not that I don’t want to. It’s more that my mind is so focused on what’s urgent and critical, I forget to think about what’s important.”

  “I hear you there,” Derek said, “except mine is kind of reversed. I’m so worried about Jaycee that trying to keep the jobs going is tough. I’m hanging drywall, and the whole time, I’m not thinking about how best to rock around a tricky window, I’m wondering if Sage has checked on Jaycee because I know Jaycee’s not calling to tell me she’s having a tough day. Sometimes that woman is too strong for her own good.”

  “Well, Sage has been there,” Luke said. “Trust me. She’s as worried as you are or more. That first week, I hardly ever saw her. With the boys in school and the girls and the house… Then the other night I just got home, and I got a call out on a fire. Not a big deal as those things go, but I had told her I’d be home to help with dinner, and then… I had to leave. I know a lot of things get dumped on her shoulders because of the other commitments I have.”

  “Wow,” Eric said. “I thought the craziness was just us. It’s been a lot better for me since Dani’s been home, but sometimes I feel like I’m in a washer on spin cycle. Her folks’ thing is a complete mess, and while she was gone, I was trying to at least help with that. Now that she’s back, I kind of got out of the loop on that deal. Last night all of a sudden she was all stressed out about it even though I hadn’t really thought about it for a week. I guess I’m seeing now that what I took for problems between us a lot of times was just her trying to deal with things I had no idea about. And we weren’t talking about anything, so I assumed everything with her was fine when it really wasn’t.”

  “It’s crazy how quick communication can go haywire,” Greg said. “Like the company dinner last night. We’d been planning on it for weeks, and on the way home, I thought I’d stop at one of our new projects because the guy we’ve got on
it is new and not real solid with things. Well, that stop ended up taking a lot longer than I thought it would, and I just kept thinking, ‘Five more minutes. I won’t be that late.’ Well, I ended up being that late, and Emily was about fit to be tied by the time I got home. Of course I had called her when I left, but still. And it’s such a high wire act all the time. I remember back when Jaycee was playing basketball. Every game was a stretch and a struggle… was I going, was I not, should they go without me, should they wait…” He shook his head. “Now, looking back on it, I realize that ten minutes at the office I tried to squeeze in was causing Emily to be a frazzled out mess.”

  “But the office is important too,” Eric said. “I can’t just ditch my job.”

  “True,” Greg said, “but sometimes we end up ditching our families instead.” He tipped his head and laced his fingers. “I don’t know the answer, but I will tell you from someone who has been where you guys are—the job is never going to love you and be there for you on a cold night like your family will, and once that family is gone, you never get that time back.”

  “Mind if I ask you a question?” Dani asked as Rachel worked staining all of the little swirls of wood on the front of the armoire.

  “Shoot.”

  The question had been whispering in her since she’d read about Benjamin in the diary. “If this is a bad question and you don’t want to answer…”

  Rachel laughed. “Uh-oh. This must be a doozy.”

  “I’m just wondering about… your first husband. I remember you talking about him one time, how you were married before.”

  The sigh was long. “I was. I was married before. He was military, got killed overseas.”

  “I’m so sorry. That must’ve been horrible.”

  “It was. I had just lost my dad to the wreck a few months before, and I was trying to help Mom recover. Nathan got deployed, and here I was with a little one, a house that was about to fall down around me, and Mom.” She shook her head. “Not sure how I made it through it to be honest.”

  “I can’t imagine. I’ve thought about it, you know, since we talked and everything. I’ve thought about what it would be like to lose Eric, what I’d do, who would even be there to help. It’s got to be so disorienting.”

  “That’s a good word for it. It’s like up is down and down is up, and when the ride finally stops, nothing looks the same as it did before.” Rachel shook her head and sighed.

  “Well, I hear you there, not on the husband thing, but that pretty much describes my whole life right now. I quit my job.”

  “I heard about that.”

  “Yeah. There were some things… going on that I really didn’t want to be a part of.”

  Rachel nodded, simply listening.

  “I… It’s so weird, you know? I always thought I must be doing something wrong.”

  “Wrong?”

  “Yeah. I’d looked around and everyone else’s life looked so perfect. I kept thinking, ‘What am I doing wrong? Why isn’t life working out for me like that?’ But this last little bit, I’ve really started to realize that it’s not just me. It’s not something I’m doing or not doing or should have done or didn’t do. It’s… life, and it’s tough for everybody. Everybody’s got something. Even those people that look like they have it all.” She thought about the diary. “Like Hazel.”

  “Hazel?”

  “Old Mrs. Attabury.” Dani smiled. “Did you know she wasn’t always old? She wasn’t. She was a young girl and then a young woman. She lost the love of her life in World War I, and then, she kind of decided just to make do. She was a mail order bride.”

  “Wow. Seriously?”

  “Yeah, and I don’t think Mr. Attabury was much of a catch. He clearly had a lot of issues, and his mother… Eek. Don’t even get me started on her. She sounded like a real peach.” The story fell darker in her mind. “And then there was an accident, real tragic. Mr. Attabury was driving, and it killed his mom and their little boy.”

  “Oh, man.” A deep shadow crossed Rachel’s face.

  “I know, right? And I think Mr. Attabury kind of became a real jerk after that. He pretty much left her at home while he went out and well… I don’t know. I think there were some shady things going on there too. The upshot is, she spent her whole life in that house, just lived out there while the world went on without her.”

  “I would go nuts.”

  “Me too, and in a way, I think she did. The last entry was just her writing forgive us our debts over and over again. It was almost like…” Dani stopped, thought, and dug into the thoughts. “It was almost like she was asking for forgiveness from… God? Maybe? Or… us? For the life she should’ve lived but didn’t?”

  “It’s so hard when you marry a guy who doesn’t realize you need your own life. I know Nathan was like that. At the time I thought if I could just get anybody to love me, that would be enough. But I see now that beyond the ‘I dos’ it’s so important to be on each other’s team, to be their cheerleader. I mean, I know Caleb is dealing with a lot right now, but he always manages to think about me too. Even if it’s just playing with the kids while I make supper or changing the oil in my car or picking up some things from the grocery store for my mom on his way home from work. They aren’t big things, but I think because Nathan didn’t do any of them, because he never really thought about me at all, I see and appreciate the things Caleb does try to do.”

  Dani swiped the stain on the back edge of the armoire. “I think that’s what I’m seeing now too with Eric. No, he doesn’t get everything right, and there are times I’m like, ‘Seriously?’ But he tries, you know? I mean, look at Attabury. He didn’t want to do that at all. He knew it was going to be a huge project and I don’t think he understood why it was so important to me to do it.” She laughed. “In fact, I think now that we’re here, I did it for one reason and God let me do it for another.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Well, in the diary, Hazel talks a lot about Olivia, my great grandmother. I never knew her, never really heard many stories about her other than what my mom said about how she worked out in that house for a horrible woman who barely paid her anything and made her life hell.”

  “Hazel?”

  Dani nodded. “And I hated her because of it.”

  “Hazel?”

  Again Dani nodded. “But now, reading about her life, about all the people she lost, about being trapped in that house with a husband who didn’t love her and no way to really be what she might have been. I don’t know. It’s changed me in ways I didn’t even know needed to be changed. Not to mention being here with all of you. It’s just… every time I come here, I feel… I don’t know. Free? I don’t look at life the same way as I did. Like I’ve always wanted to make a difference in the world, and I thought the being-a-lawyer thing would let me do that. But that didn’t turn out to be what I thought it would, and now, I guess I’m seeing how much difference you all make just by being… you.”

  “Okay?” Rachel didn’t sound at all sure that she understood.

  “Like I listened to quote while I was in Scotland by Martin Luther King Jr. It was about how one day he could imagine slave owner and former slaves sitting down to share a meal in harmony, and I thought about you guys, about how you just invited us in and made us feel so at home. It wasn’t a black and white thing. It was just being human thing.”

  “Well…”

  “No, that’s what I mean. I guess I just realized I’m living his dream. I’m living when he said people would be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. You guys, all of you, just embraced us without even a question. That’s what he was talking about, about not seeing skin color but about seeing each other as people with dreams and hopes and value. I so see that now. I see that that’s how I want to live too. I want to see people not for what car they drive or what kind of house they live in. I want to see them as the valuable person they are, and help them to realize that too. Like you did with me.�
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  Rachel let out a soft breath. “But you are valuable. Look at you. You’re a successful attorney. You get flown to Europe to make deals…”

  “But that’s not why you treated me like I was valuable. You didn’t know all of that at first. You didn’t require a resume and a list of references to decide my value and worth. You didn’t come to Raleigh and inspect our home or demand a run-down of where I’ve worked and what my bank account said. You just… loved me.”

  Looking up from the floor at her, Rachel’s eyes brimmed with tears. “It can be so simple, can’t it?”

  Dani’s gaze came down, and tears pooled in her own eyes. “It can.”

  It was after eleven when they all made it to Attabury, and rather than dive into the work at hand, they spent the first thirty minutes just walking from room-to-room oohing and aahing. The windows and view from every room were simply mesmerizing. The blend of old and new was awe inspiring. More than one person commented on the reclaimed and reworked woodwork that Rachel had given so much love and care to. Every doorway sparkled with her work and love.

  In fact, as Dani walked through the house, the thing that struck her the most was the amount of love that was woven into every detail of it. She shook her head at how they had all put their heart and soul into a project that she now realized was pretty much hopeless when they had started.

  “I’m jealous,” Derek said as they toured the upstairs. “This place is a mansion.”

  Dani laughed. “Who would’ve thought, right?”

  “Not me that’s for sure,” Derek said. “I remember when Caleb and I first went through this place. I thought you all had to be out of your minds.”

  “Can’t say I didn’t think that a time or two myself,” Caleb said. “Either you or me. I’m not sure which had to be crazier to take this on.”

  “But look at it now,” Jaycee said. “It’s stunning, and as great as it is now, just think what it’s going to be when it’s finished.”