Page 51 of Silver Lining Love

“We have different crops, but our largest profit comes from grain and corn.”

As we approached my childhood home, Whitney leaned up closer to the windshield. “Holy sh—" She stopped herself. “—moly. It’s so…beautiful.”

The house looked pretty much the same as it had when I was growing up. It was a white farmhouse with a black shaker roof and a wraparound porch. My dad added string lights that lined the drive and also installed black fans on the porch, but those were really the only differences.

“It looks like a house in a movie or like it should be on the cover of Southern Living. Or like Joanna Gaines lives here.”

“Close. Dolly Briggs lives here,” I teased.

I was just pulling up and parking when the front screen door opened and the woman herself walked out waving.

“I gotta go potty!” Alice exclaimed.

I got out as my mom was walking down the porch steps. Before greeting her, I opened the back door and helped Alice down.“We have a bathroom emergency.”

“Let’s go!” My mom put her hand out and Alice ran toward her.

The duo rushed up the steps as Whitney got Benji out and Michael and I got the bags. Moose jumped out and took care of his bathroom needs on the grass before following us wagging his tail rapidly.

He’d only been to the farm once in the five years I’d had him when we road- tripped home for a wedding and he’d loved it. He could run free and there were so many animals here to be friends with. He’d had a little love affair with one of the chickens, Goldie Hen, which hadn’t gone over well with Kurt Clucksell.

When it was time for us to leave, he’d hidden behind the coop, trying to stay with his one true love. Unfortunately for him, he was a one-hundred-pound St. Bernard and was totally visible behind chicken wire. He’d been depressed for days after we got home. I’d felt so bad I almost sent him to live here, but then he snapped out of it and life went on. I wondered if he’d have another bout of depression again or if going home with the kids would help.

We were all walking up the steps when Michael stopped on the third step and looked up at the house. “You really grew up here?”

“Yep.”

“With JJ Briggs?” Awe tinted his voice.

I nodded. “He threw up after prom right where you’re standing.”

He looked down and a smile spread across his face. “Cool!”

I grinned. The kid really did have a serious case of hero worship for my brother. Since he found out about the trip, it was all Michael had talked about. I was glad he was excited to be here, even if it was only because of my pain-in-the-ass little brother.

By the time we made it inside, my mom and Alice were walking back down the hall from the bathroom. After a lot of hugs were exchanged, and my mom had hijacked Benji and was holding him in her arms, she announced, “Alice said that she wanted to meet the horses. Do I have any other takers?”

Michael and Whitney both threw their hands up as their faces lit up. It was adorable to see both of them so excited about something.

Moose barked, and my mom chuckled. “You can go see Goldie Hen. I told her you were coming.”

“Who’s Goldie Hen?” Michael asked.

“She’s a Plymouth Rock chicken who Moose was in a love triangle with the last time he was here,” my mom explained

“A love triangle?” Whitney repeated.

My mom led everyone out the back as she regaled the tale of Moose and Goldie Hen’s forbidden love and how Kurt Clucksell, the rooster, had not been happy about a new man moving in on his territory. I left the bags in the entryway, and as we walked through the house that I’d lived in for the first eighteen years of my life, I saw it through a completely different lens.

Sure, the house was noisy and crowded, and sometimes messy. But it had been filled with love, laughter, and fun. It was a place where I always felt secure and safe. There was always someone there if you needed them.

It was all the things I wanted for Michael, Alice, and Benji.

23

WHITNEY

“Life doesn’t have a remote. If you don’t like the channel, you have to get up and change it yourself.” ~ Gamma Mary

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