September Love Read online

  She had finished the beds and had read Adam one story when the door chimes sounded from downstairs. Over Adam’s loud objections she hurried down to answer. She hoped it was the pastor. It was.

  “Come in,” she said, her heart aching for him. She wished Doug would come back. “Let’s go in here.” She led the way into the living room.

  “What’s up?” he asked, taking the chair she indicated. “Your message sounded urgent.”

  “Well, it was. We’ve got a crisis here, I’m sorry to say.” She paused because Adam came wandering into the room, looked around vaguely and wandered out again. He was probably missing Kayla. She felt a sudden rush of anger against Kayla.

  “What’s wrong, Beth? Tell me.” Pastor Cooper’s eyes held deep concern.

  “It’s Kayla,” she said. “She’s left. I mean, she’s actually gone. Moved out.”

  “But Adam—”

  Beth shrugged hopelessly. “She’s left Adam with us. She told us to take care of him. Here.” Beth took Kayla’s note out of her pocket and handed it to him.

  He bowed his head over it, and she wondered briefly if he felt like crying. She certainly did. Kayla’s life was such a wasteland. He got up and walked to the window, turning his back while he read the note. She couldn’t see his face. It was several moments before he turned to face her.

  “Well, that’s that,” he said, his voice sounding bleak. “I guess I’ve made a real fool of myself. I should have known better— I’m not a child. I’ve worked with addicted people before—long enough to know they…aren’t responsible. They can’t be expected to be.”

  Beth looked at him with compassion. What high hopes had he had for pretty, flaky Kayla? How much did he really care for her? How big a price was he going to pay for feeling attracted to such a lost soul? Well, they would all pay a price for Kayla—in questions, in concerns, in worries that came in the middle of the night.

  Where is Kayla now? What is she doing? Is she all right, Lord? Kayla is out there somewhere, drifting. Help her, please. Please. Beth felt a moment of shocked surprise. She was actually praying for Kayla!

  “I’m sorry,” Beth said. “I’m so sorry.”

  He gave her a small smile. “I’m sorry, too,” he said, coming to her to hand back the note before he sat down. “What are you and Doug going to do?”

  “I…I’m not sure. I’m…frightened.” She stopped. She hadn’t intended to say that. Then she rushed on. “I don’t understand Doug. He’s so…quiet about it. I know he’s upset, but…”

  “But what?”

  “I don’t know. I can’t put my finger on it. Of course we’re going to take care of Adam. What else can we do? I just can’t see not taking care of him. Who else is there, now that Kayla’s gone? And it won’t be easy. There are complications already. The worker from the Children’s Protective Services was here. She’s doubtful that they would even let Adam stay here—in the middle of a thriving B and B. Then, what if Doug and I do start raising Adam and, maybe ten years from now, Kayla decides to make another try at motherhood and wants Adam back? How would Adam be affected by that? He’s had enough instability already in his short life.”

  “Well, my advice is to do it legally. You and Doug protect yourselves as much as you can,” Pastor Cooper said. “You and Doug should apply for legal guardianship immediately. Kayla…with her problems, could well change her mind again and come back. You’re right about that, and the courts would back her up.”

  “Doug mentioned that possibility,” Beth said miserably.

  “Is Doug going to do that? Did he say?”

  “I don’t know. I can’t seem to reach him. He’s gone all quiet.”

  “See if you can press the point,” the pastor said. “The fact that Kayla left Adam of her own volition, and she herself told you to take care of him, might give you some leverage in court. And if you think it would help if I talked to Doug, I’ll be glad to. If you can’t talk him around, let me know, and I’ll back you up. You do need to get this settled as firmly as you can, for Adam’s sake.”

  “I know,” Beth said, feeling a wave of gratitude. This man was, as Cyrus had said, “sound.” Despite whatever disappointment he might be feeling because Kayla had flitted in and out of his life, he was putting all that aside to help if he could. She reached out and touched him briefly. For an instant, they clasped hands. My friend, Beth thought.

  He had to leave before Doug returned, and Beth waited for Doug. She used the time to read another story to Adam, which at least made him happy. Doug still hadn’t returned by the time she put Adam down for his nap after lunch.

  The beautiful house lay silent around her as she left the bed-sitter and shut the door quietly. She stood a moment in the hallway, looking around almost as if she were seeing it for the first time. More than thirty years of her life had been spent in this place. Slowly, savoring it, she stared up at the high ceilings, the richly polished wood of the banister. She reached out and stroked it. Then she started up the stairs to walk through the upstairs bedrooms and upper hallway. This house had been her friend for a long, long time. It had given her an ongoing interest in life as she had gone dutifully through the years of her marriage to kind, patient Ralph. It had been the gracious home into which their daughters could freely invite their friends as they grew from childhood to womanhood.

  Then she turned and came slowly downstairs again, straightening a picture here, adjusting a drapery there. She paced slowly through the large downstairs room. Home, she thought. Home. She had loved this grand old house and it seemed, in some odd way, that it had loved her back. It had helped fill the emptiness of her first marriage—life before Doug.

  She sat down in the living room, absently reaching over for her knitting, which she kept intending to work on but almost never did. It would be nice to have time to knit again. And suddenly, from nowhere, a line from Pastor Cooper’s Sunday sermon popped into her mind. “Please know that when God shuts one door, He opens another. You can count on that.” Now, here, at this moment in her life with Doug, was God shutting one door? And if so, what door would He open?

  She stared vacantly across the lovely room, her hands on the mass of bright knitting yarn in her lap. What was it that Cyrus had said that day in the hospital? Something about God giving her a special assignment. And she must give it her best shot. From somewhere in the bottom of her mind, Cyrus’s words echoed up. “Remember, Beth, your best shot.” She knew she was smiling, without really knowing why.

  She was still sitting there holding her knitting, gazing off into space, when Doug finally came back.

  “Well, I was right,” he said tiredly. “Kayla and Wanda took off together, and God help them. I also got the clear impression that the Hulls Senior are secretly more than relieved. However, their son John is devastated.”

  “I’m sorry for them. For Kayla. For Wanda. For all of them,” Beth said soberly.

  “Well, right now I’m sorry for us. For poor Adam.” Doug sat down heavily beside her. His big hands hung by his sides. His whole body seemed to sag.

  “Have you had any lunch?” she asked, putting the knitting back into the bag.

  “Lunch,” he said vaguely. “Uh, no, I guess not. I wanted to think, and I drove out to the end of that Burke-Gilman Trail and wandered along there for a while.”

  “Not all forty-nine miles of it, I hope,” Beth said, smiling. Somehow she couldn’t stop smiling.

  He smiled back. “No. Just until I kept getting in the way of the serious walkers—which I’m not—then I turned back. But I’m really not hungry right now.”

  “Tell me what you were thinking about.” She reached over and took one of his hands in hers, wanting to help him, to make things right again. And with God’s help, she knew she could.

  “What was I thinking about? Dear lady, I was thinking about what I’ve been thinking about for days. What I can’t get out of my mind. Alleged mind.”

  “And what would that be?” She felt in a kind of euphoria. All thin
gs are possible with God.

  “Us. You. Me. And, of course, us now includes Adam. What I’m trying to say in my awkward way is that I have no choice but to take on his care. No choice, Beth. Please understand that. I was never a real parent to Kayla. And I’ve got a second chance now. I can be a parent to Adam—and he needs it. He needs…he needs…everything. You’ve done your stint at parenting. And you did it nobly. You’ve got the B and B that you created yourself, and that you love.”

  “Yes,” she said dreamily. “I’ve really loved this. I did create it. And I do take satisfaction in that. I made a something where nothing was before. I guess I got a chance to do my ‘thing.”’

  “My point exactly, love. I can’t take that away from you. And, speaking with blunt honesty, keeping Adam here in a busy B and B just isn’t working out.”

  “I agree, Doug. And I doubt that the CPS will permit it. They’ll think Adam will be better off in foster care, so—”

  “Never!” Doug said. “Never. That little guy isn’t going to be bounced around from one foster home to another. I can’t let that happen, Beth. Please understand that.”

  “I do understand it. I wouldn’t permit it either,” Beth said. “Adam deserves a fair chance in life.”

  “Right,” Doug said. “It’s been going around and around in my head. I’ve realized almost from the beginning that we can’t keep him here and still run the business. I went down all the blind alleys. Should I hire a nanny to look after him until he’s ready for school? Then maybe I could send him to a good boarding school. Then I—”

  “But, Doug, that leaves out the most important ingredient in child raising—love. There has to be love first.”

  “Yeah, well, I guess I finally realized that. He has to be cared for by someone who loves him. So that means—”

  “I love him, too,” Beth said softly.

  Doug looked at her keenly. “Granted. And you’ve been great. You’ve given him most of the care he’s gotten here. I didn’t miss that, Beth. But with the business and all, how can—?” He stopped because she pressed his hand. He looked at her with a question in his troubled gaze.

  “Let me talk for a minute,” Beth said.

  A half smile tugged at his mouth. “Okay. You talk.”

  She lifted his hand to her lips and kissed it gently. “You missed what I said a moment ago. I said, ‘I got a chance to do my thing.’ Past tense, Doug. I did it. And I loved it. But I’ve decided it’s time to move on. And everything is falling into place for us. All the necessary pieces.”

  He looked at her. “What pieces are those?”

  She sat up a little straighter, releasing his hand. “You—if I know you as well as I think I do—were just about to go all noble and offer to take on Adam’s care by yourself. Make the big sacrifice, and take Adam away. Well, dear heart, it doesn’t need to be a sacrifice to anybody. It can be nothing but good. For all of us. First of all, we have as close as possible to a perfect marriage.”

  “Amen to that.”

  “Secondly, there is nothing more I can do with this business. And, frankly, I’m getting more and more tired of these frantic breakfast preparations in the dead of night when I should be in bed. Third, Katie needs her mother closer to her when she’s coping with a new baby and three other kids. Fourth, Katie hasn’t rented the little gray house. And fifth, I’ve had two firm offers to sell this place in the past couple of years. And I kept the names and phone numbers of the people who want to buy a thriving B and B.”

  “You’re kidding,” Doug started to laugh.

  “No, I’m not kidding. I’ve never been more serious in my life. I said it’s time to move on. And that’s the direction I want to go. I want to be a parent again. You’ll never believe this, but I want to see that Adam gets his fair start in life and do all the work that entails. I want to deal firmly with the temper tantrums when he gets his annual shots to keep him healthy. I want to help him with his homework. I want to deal with the PTA when the time comes. I can do it. Adam is smart, Doug. He just hadn’t had his chance yet. He’s going to need a lot of care to realize his potential. If my guess is right about that little brain of his, he’s going to end up a graduate student in some prestigious university somewhere, specializing in something that costs us a lot of money. We’re going to need money. And the B and B is a ready-made gold mine if we sell it.”

  “But you can’t sell this place. You love it. You’ve enjoyed it so much.”

  “Yes. Enjoyed. Past tense. But it has served its purpose. It’s time to move on. Now I want something else. You and Adam, Doug. You two are a package deal.” She was half laughing now. “We’ve got our work cut out for us. There’s so much to do in the next few months. It’s a whole new start for us. But we can make it work, Doug. I’ll call Katie about the little house. We can do whatever fixing up is necessary. I’ll list the B and B for sale and get in touch with those two couples who wanted to buy it last year. We can invest the money in some secure mutual funds for Adam’s future. We both have our pensions—more than enough for our needs. Don’t you see?”

  “But, Beth…are you sure about this?”

  “I’ve never been more sure about anything in my life before. It’s all coming together for us, and for Adam.”

  “Sell this place? You love this place! You know you do.”

  “But I love you and Adam more.” Cyrus, I’ll give it my best shot. “Don’t you see?”

  “Yes,” he said softly. “I see.”

  It was a magical moment.

  Suddenly Beth saw Adam in the doorway again. He came purposefully toward them. His little face wore its most serious expression. He slapped his storybook down on Beth’s knee.

  “Book,” he said firmly, and Doug’s laugh rang out.

  Oh, life was good. Very good indeed.

  ISBN: 978-1-4592-1058-5

  SEPTEMBER LOVE

  Copyright © 2003 by Virginia Myers

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