Page 73 of There I Find Rest

Heidi and Kristin had been in the diner, and they hadn’t just prayed, they’d gone to the hospital and asked him if they could meet her in the chapel. That turned into an hours-long conversation, and they ended up taking Kim out to eat.

Funny sometimes how friendship started, but Kristin felt like theirs was a solid one that would last for years. She could see them growing old together.

“I can’t wait to get home and have her life get back to normal. But is it crazy that I’m really enjoying this time in the hospital?”

“Yeah, that’s not normal,” Kristin said. She hated hospitals. She went to them when she had to, to visit and that type of thing, but the idea of herself being in a hospital was scary beyond words.

Maybe that was part of the reason she was currently eating a salad. It had less to do about staying healthy and more to do about a hospital phobia.

“You know, sometimes when you face your fears, you find out that they’re not as bad as what you thought they were all along.” Heidi shrugged. “Not that I know a whole lot about it, just... Maybe I know a little.”

Kristin sat up a little straighter in her chair, wondering if Heidi was going to tell them a little bit about her backstory. How she came to Strawberry Sands and came to own the bookstore.

But Heidi smiled and shrugged her shoulders again. “Hopefully she’ll get out in time for you to be able to enjoy summer. Summer on the beach is the best.” She grinned, and Kim and Kristin both agreed with her.

Nothing like walking barefoot on the beach, the wind blowing their hair, the sun shining down, and the sound of the waves, rhythmic and soothing.

“I’d be a lot more concerned if it wasn’t for Davis.”

“You know he’s head over heels for you,” Kristin said, holding a forkful of onions in the air.

“I think he likes me okay, but I think head over heels is a little bit strong.”

“Likes you okay?” Heidi said incredulously. “He’s taking care of everything while you’ve been in the hospital, washing your clothes, starting a stable business, and you should see him anytime Kathleen takes a turn for the worse, he’s in here looking haggard and worn. Like he’s concerned about both of you. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anyone as devoted as him, and you guys aren’t even married.”

Kim looked down at her food, pushing it around her plate with her fork. She sighed and looked at her friends. “I know he’s the real deal, but... You know how you’ve been through something once, and you put everything you had into it? How you just tried so hard, I mean, not tried to do something in your own power exactly, just knowing that marriage is hard, and you had to learn to forgive and let go and give up and learn to serve and to return unkindness with kindness and all that and you just try, putting everything you have into that one relationship and it doesn’t work out.”

She sighed again, a little softer, like she was tired, and then she said, “And you know how it just seems like so much work to do it again, and even though I know Davis is a good man, so much different than my first husband, I just... I guess I just lost my blinders or something. Or maybe I’m just tired. Or maybe I’m just... I don’t know. Maybe I’m scared. But I don’t think that’s it. I just don’t want to put all of that work into another relationship that...fails.”

She said the last word like she was looking for a different word but couldn’t think of one.

Even if that wasn’t the word she wanted, Kristen felt like she knew exactly what Kim was saying, but she hadn’t given up on love the way it seemed like Kim had.

“Maybe you need to just give yourself a little bit of time,” Heidi said. “I think you’ll come around. Although... I hate to see you give yourself too much time and have Davis leave.”

“Davis isn’t going anywhere. Davis thinks Kim is the sun, moon, and stars. And he’s the kind of guy who’s going to love her till she dies. You can take as long as you want to. Davis will be there when you figure yourself out.” Kristin was sure of what she was saying.

Kim looked at her thoughtfully. “I guess he will, won’t he?” She smiled a little. “And that right there should be all it takes for me to know that he would be worth my effort. Worth going down that road again for. Because he wouldn’t let me go. And he would do his very best to make sure our relationship works. He wouldn’t leave all of that up to me while he just cruised on my shoulders.”

“Exactly. You got that exactly right.” Heidi nodded, as though she were just as sure as Kristin was that Davis was a good man.

They finished their meals, and then Heidi and Kim went out to Heidi’s car while Kristin bid them good evening and started up the walk toward her house.

She’d inherited a big old house right on the main street of Strawberry Sands, and she hadn’t quite figured out what she was going to do with it. She needed to figure something out. Turn it into a bed-and-breakfast maybe. Or... Something. She wasn’t sure. But she needed to do something to start earning money.

Her phone rang as she stepped onto the wide front porch. It was beautiful with morning glory vines trailing up the trellis on one end while daylilies bloomed in profusion in the front. It was the kind of old house that would be in a 1950s sitcom with the woman in a white apron standing at the stove and her perfect children walking around while she kissed her husband who just came home from work.

It was the kind of house that Kristin never dreamed she would own.

She glanced at her phone, saw it was her grandmother, and slid to answer. “Hello?” she said.

“Krissy,” her grandmother said in a tone that was so familiar it made Kristin’s heart ache as her lips turned up in a smile.

“Gram. Are you still coming out to live with me?” Her parents had wanted to put her gram in a nursing home, but her gram was still spry, even though she was seventy-five years old. And she had absolutely no desire to be in a nursing home.

Her parents were insisting on it, but Kristin had intervened and said Gram could move in with her. After all, the house was big enough, and her gram could take care of herself. Her parents just didn’t want her living alone. Not at her age.

“Well, that’s what I was calling you about,” Gram said, and just the tone of her voice made Kristin pause with her hand on the doorknob.

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