Page 19 of Over the Verdant Hills
“That’s fine. Don’t tell me.” He paused. “I was just talking to my mom last night, and her MS is getting worse.”
“I didn’t realize your mom had MS.”
“She was diagnosed when I was still in high school. But there’s been a big change in what docs are able to do since then.”
“I’m so sorry. That must be really hard to have something that you know you’re never going to get rid of.”
“She has such a great attitude. She hardly ever gets down. Not being able to do things, to serve people, is probably the hardest thing for her.”
“I remember her as always being a mom who volunteered to help inclass.” That probably hadn’t helped make Josiah more likable in her eyes. After all, when kids were in school, their goal was to avoid parents, right? And if someone’s parents were in there all the time, especially if they acted like they liked their parents, as Josiah had seemed to, that kind of made him a pariah to the rest of the kids.
“Yeah. She loved that. I think she wished she would have had a whole pile more kids and become a teacher. That was just her jam—all those kids that needed help.”
“Her cookies were the best,” Claire said honestly. She still remembered Mrs. McMurtry’s cookies.
“She hasn’t made cookies in years. A lot of times, she doesn’t even cook a meal. Putting a sandwich together is too hard for her, although she was able to heat soup up for me the other day.”
“Wow. That must be really hard for you.”
“I’m just determined that I’m going to cherish every day with her.” He lifted his shoulder, leaning back on his haunches and putting his hands on his thighs. “There isn’t anything more you can do, especially with something like that.”
“Yeah. Well, that’s a good attitude. I suppose I was just thinking that sometimes things happen that we don’t like, and if we can’t change them, we have to learn to somehow accept them and live with them. That’s what I was thinking about when I came out—the fact that my kids have to go back to Boston for the summer to be with their dad and I don’t want them to.”
“Ouch.”
“I know. I’m supposed to let my husband know when the last day of school is so we can arrange a time to meet and exchange them. And then I’ll pick them up right before school starts. I wish I had a little bit of the summer to spend with them.”
“Why don’t you see if he’ll let you keep them for a week after they get out and bring them back a week before they go back? That way, you get two weeks, and he gets everything else.”
Claire stared at him. She had considered that. She’d also thought about asking for a week in July or something, since he got all the holidays during school, but that would mean a two-day trip out and a two-day trip back, and that would be most of theweek. She’d figured the kids probably wouldn’t want to spend that much time driving unless she could have them longer. Of course, she’d thought about flying, but that was expensive, and while the kids could fly by themselves, she didn’t really want to send them on a plane alone.
“I didn’t think about that. That makes me feel a little bit better. Like we have a little bit of time to decompress and then to gear back up before school starts, instead of getting them and giving them away as soon as school’s out, and getting them the day before they have to go back. I should ask about that.” She shook her head. Maybe she was just so gloom and doom that her brain just couldn’t come up with solutions. “Thanks.” She tilted her head.
“I think I’ve been smelling a lot of fresh bread in the house lately. I’ll accept your thanks in the form of a warm slice or two with melting butter.” He gave her a grin and then leaned back over the flower beds, adjusting the border that had slipped and was crooked.
“I have to think about that,” she said, knowing that she would give him as much fresh homemade bread as he wanted. “Are you going to be here for lunch?” He seemed to leave during lunchtime, and her grandma had said that he went home to eat with his mom a lot when he was around and close by and his dad wasn’t there.
“I will. Dad’s home, and he’ll be with Mom today. So I can skip lunch at home and eat fresh homemade bread with melted butter to my heart’s content.”
“All right. I just put dough back to rise, so unless I screwed up, you should have plenty of bread to eat to your heart’s content.”
He grinned at her but didn’t stop working. Just nodded his head.
She smiled and found herself still smiling after she had walked down the steps and started away from the house. Why did she feel lighter than she had in a long time? Was it just talking to Josiah? Or was it figuring out a solution to a problem that had been bothering her? Or not dreading talking to her husband so much? She was almost certain he would give her those two weeks, especially when she reminded him that he was getting Christmas break and Easter, and she would like to have the Fourth of July. But instead of making the kids do an extra trip, she would just take the extra time at the end of the year and the extra time at the beginning.
It was a perfect compromise.
She found herself humming a bit as she went down the steep hill to the lakeshore.
Was she really that happy? Had the short time she’d been at her grandma’s house really changed her outlook that much?
She knew it had. She’d fallen into a routine, one that she loved. Walking along the lake every morning, working on scraping the paint from the house after she got back, helping her grandma with anything that she needed, and spending time in the evening with her grandmother and kids in the living room, doing homework and reading books and doing family things. Sure, she missed the idea of having a husband and a dad for her children in the home, but she did really love how things had worked out.
Maybe she wasn’t completely happy, but she’d definitely taken steps in the right direction.
As she started along the beach, she saw two horses in the distance. That had to be Becky and Rodney, people who had moved into Raspberry Ridge and gotten married since she’d moved away.
She’d talked to them a little bit, but today they just rode by, waving from the top of their big Clydesdales. Apparently, they had carriage rides they rented out during the tourist season. They had a presence down the beach and got most of their business from there. But they were hopeful that Raspberry Ridge would start to see some of the overflow.
