A Wedding at the Orange Blossom Inn(4)
“He’s a pretty hefty hund. Ain’t so?”
“He’s chubby. Sometimes I think he needs to go on these pizza hunts,” she joked, “since they seem to be the only exercise he likes. In fact, he went fairly far today.”
“We’ll need to change that, I think.”
“We?” she asked as they walked down the street, her girls scampering in front of them.
Looking down at her, he smiled. “I have a feeling that between your three girls, my three boys, and one beagle with a penchant for pizza, we’re going to be seeing a lot more of each other.”
She thought that was a pretty cheeky thing to say. But, since he was carrying Frankie, she supposed he had that right. “We do have a lot in common, I suppose.”
“Yep. Not too many folks our age who have lost their spouses,” he said as they passed yet another home.
That had never been a club she would have imagined she’d belong to. “It’ll be nice to have more friends for the girls. That is, if you’re intending to stay in Pinecraft.”
“I bought the old Borntrager Organic Farm, just east of Sarasota.”
“You’re a farmer.”
He nodded. “Farmed all my life in Ohio. Now I’m looking forward to enjoying the Florida sunshine all year-round.” Turning, he gazed at her over Frankie’s head. “We’re here for good. And until this very moment, I wasn’t sure why the Lord had called us to move.”
“But now?”
He smiled at her before looking straight ahead again. “Now I’m coming to see that yet again, the Lord works in mysterious ways.”
He seemed to be thinking something he wasn’t ready to share and so she had no idea how to respond. Therefore, she decided to say nothing at all.
Chapter 2
The inn was dark and silent. Peaceful. Everywhere except in the attic room where Jay had been tossing and turning for the last thirty minutes. When he determined that sleep wasn’t going to come anytime soon, he went back downstairs to wait for Ben.
Being eighteen, Ben was certainly too old to ever attempt to keep tabs on. Why, when Jay had been Ben’s age, he’d been courting Evelyn in earnest. Looking back, he was thankful that both his and her parents had been so trusting. Though remembering what they’d done after they’d become engaged but before they’d actually said their vows, Jay was starting to think maybe they’d been a little too trusting. He’d certainly have something to say to Ben if he ever acted that way.
Of course, Jay realized, Ben’s life was currently far different than his own had been. He and Evelyn had been tightly nestled in Charm, Ohio, and surrounded by most of their family and friends. He’d grown up in the house both his parents and grandparents had lived in, farming land that earlier generations had cared for and prospered from.
From the time he’d been ten or eleven, Evelyn had been a part of his life, too. Because she’d been fragile and delicate, he’d looked out for her on the playground, in the classroom, and during Sunday singings. In return, she’d always gazed at him like he was the strongest, best man in the world.
With her, he had been.
After he and Evelyn had married, they’d had Ben right away, then set about living much the same life of their parents.
Well, almost. His mother had raised five kinner by being bossy and rather outspoken. Evelyn had needed Jay’s help disciplining the boys and managing the chickens and pigs. She’d had asthma and allergies and was often exhausted.
When she’d started complaining about pressure in her chest, they’d taken her in for an x-ray and discovered that she didn’t simply have pneumonia—but lung cancer.
One year later, she’d gone up to heaven.
That had been eighteen months ago, soon after his fortieth birthday. Jay had cried and grieved, tried to make sense of something that made no sense.
The only thing that gave him any semblance of peace was remembering his promises to her. Over and over he’d reassured her that they would still be married even when she was in heaven. That had comforted her. It had almost seemed as if she’d needed to know that he was going to be by her side in the afterlife.
His throat tightened.
He shook his head to clear it. It had become his habit of late to push the past from his mind because it was too painful to deal with. It was far better to concentrate on the here and now and their new life in Florida.
Six months after Evelyn’s death, he’d begun thinking about making a change. Everything on their farm had reminded him of Evelyn. Their friends and family couldn’t seem to talk about anything but his loss and how sorry they felt for the boys.