Page 51 of Between the Shady Groves
“Ireally love this huge picture window right by the dining room table. The view is amazing.”
“When we remodeled the house back when I was a kid, Mom insisted on lots and lots of windows. The Michigan winters get dark and cold, and she wanted to let in as much light as possible. She never even put curtains on that window.”
Josiah spoke quietly from behind where Lauren and Cannon stood. He had immediately allowed them to take a look at the house, saying that he would love to have friends and neighbors buy it rather than anyone else.
His parents had already moved to New Mexico and were counting on him to sell it. He had put up a little homemade “for sale” sign before engaging a realtor, just because he was hoping that someone from town would see it and know someone who knew someone, or something along those lines. Apparently, his gamble had paid off, Lauren thought to herself, because she didn’t know about Cannon, but she was in love with it.
“I love how your mother has decorated things. She and I have a lot of the same tastes.” Maybe she would rip out all the old carpets and put down hardwood floors if they had the money to do that, butotherwise, she loved the clean white walls, the pops of color in the décor, and all of the beautiful, large, and open windows.
“My mom grew a lot of plants too. She took most of them with her, but there’s definitely enough light to do that if you want to.”
“I love plants. And there’s room in the back for a garden too.”
“Yeah. Once upon a time, Mom had that, but she hasn’t had that for years and years.”
“You look like you’re really enjoying this.” Cannon finally said something.
“What are you thinking?” she shot back, rather than answering his unspoken question. Yes, she was loving the house, but she didn’t want to get it if it wasn’t something that he wanted too.
He had been so sweet and kind and considerate of her over the last few weeks since he’d come to Raspberry Ridge. She wanted to return all of the goodwill that he had bestowed upon her.
She knew that he would say that her leaving him had been the best thing that could have happened, but she didn’t think it was right. Not even a little bit. In fact, she knew it had been wrong. She had no biblical leg to stand on, and even though God had used her sin and worked it out for their good, it might not have turned out that way. It might have ended in divorce and a broken family, which is not what God wanted. And her disobedience could have had terrible consequences. Thankfully, her husband had covered her sin with love. Just like it said in the Bible. Love covers a multitude of sins.
Instead of coming in, as he rightfully could have, and demanding that she go back, and not apologizing for anything, because neglecting her, not spending time with her, was no sin in the Bible. But her husband had chosen to be humble, had chosen to hear the cry of her heart, and had chosen to respond to it in a loving and Christian way. She figured she would probably adore him until the end of time, just because of that.
“I say if it makes you happy, it makes me happy too. I would be happy living in the shed behind the apartment building, if that’s where you wanted to live.”
She laughed. “Lacey would have to move over.”
Lacey hadn’t had the puppies yet, and she looked big enough to popany day, but she had discovered the bed in the kiddie pool that they’d made for her in the shed, and most mornings when Lauren went out, that’s where she found the dog, slowly getting up from where she’d spent the night in the kiddie pool.
“This is perfect. I love everything about it. I love the location, I love the fact that there are four bedrooms that we could fill with children eventually, and I love the tons of windows and even everything down to the nice big kitchen. It’s my dream home.” She lifted her shoulders. It even had a nice big porch with a swing on it, where they could sit and swing and watch the cars go by as their children played in the front yard with the big shade tree. Perfect for a tire swing, and there was even room for a swing set, unless they wanted to put that in the back and forget about the garden.
“All right then. Looks like we’ll be making you an offer. I felt your asking price was fair.”
“Mom and Dad wanted to price it below market value for a quick sale. We didn’t have an appraisal, so you can always do that just to make sure the pricing is in line, but we did some research and felt like we were priced about ten percent below what the actual value would be.”
“I agree. I actually did some research online before we came, and the price you quoted us is more than fair.” Cannon spoke, and then he looked at Lauren. “I think we’ll want to talk about it a little bit, just to make sure that we’re both really on the same page, but I’m pretty sure you can expect an offer from us.”
“That’s great. I’m not sure exactly how that process works, but we can figure it out. It can’t be that hard.”
“People buy and sell houses every day. And somehow they figure it out. I think we can too.”
Cannon held his hand out, and Josiah shook it as they grinned at each other.
Lauren smiled as she watched her husband. He could definitely figure it out. There wasn’t too much that he couldn’t figure out. She felt confident that everything would be fine. But she just wanted to take this moment to admire him a little, his confidence and his competence. And the knowledge that she was secure trusting in him. That he wouldn’t lead them wrong. That he might go in a bad direction, but that hewould listen to her if she said to him, “I don’t think this is a good idea.” Maybe he would eventually still continue to go in the direction that he felt was best, but the idea that he would stop and listen to her, consider her, and make sure that she knew that she was loved and cherished by him, made all the difference to her in the world.
She wasn’t sure what made the difference to him. Maybe it was just having her there. Knowing that she wanted him. That she wanted to be loved and cherished by him so much that she would disrupt a comfortable, financially secure life in order to have his attention and his love.
She hoped that was what he saw. It was what she wanted him to see. She didn’t want him to think that she was faithless and fickle and wanting to run from man to man, just to satisfy her ego or her psyche. And Cannon didn’t seem to think that at all. He looked at her and saw the very best. What more could a woman ask from her husband?
And what more could she do for him in return than the same? To look at him and see the very best? And to allow love to cover a multitude of sins.
As they walked out of the house, holding hands, which they had done everywhere they’d gone since that day on the beach, he looked down at her. “Is this truly what you want?”
“Yes. It’s a perfect house. In a perfect place, in the town I grew up in, and the town I would love to raise my children in, but more importantly to me, I want to know what you want. Because the most important thing to me is that you’re happy.”
She knew that was true now. It might not have been true a few months ago. Because when it came right down to it, she’d left because she wasn’t happy. Not because he wasn’t. He was fine. He was just perfect. But what had prompted her to leave their home, and leave her husband, had been selfishness and unhappiness on her part.
