Texas Homecoming

by Carolyn Brown

  “Thank you,” Stevie said. “We’re almost home, and as soon as we change, we’re going back to town. Hopefully the electricity will be turned off, and we can get inside.”

  “You’ll need rubber boots. I’ve got extras that I’ll bring along,” Mia said. “See you in a little while at your house. Dad does know where you live, right?”

  “I’m sure he does, but it’s about a block from the school. If you get to the house before I do, you’ll probably see the vehicles from the city because they’ll be pumping out as much water as they can,” Stevie told her, “and thank you again.”

  “Hey, you don’t have to keep thanking me,” Mia said. “That’s what family is for, and just like Maggie adopted Dixie, we’ve adopted you.”

  “You are awesome, girl.” Stevie tried to smile, but it didn’t happen.

  “I heard her,” Cody said, “and she’s right.”

  “Does that make you my brother?” Stevie asked.

  “I hope to hell not.” Cody turned in to the lane leading up to the house.

  An hour later, three vehicles were lined up in the driveway at Stevie’s house. The city guys were there pumping the water out into the ditch that ran along the front of the place. The electric and gas people had come out, shut off the utilities, and gone on to the next house with problems. When as much water as they could get out was gone, Stevie put on a pair of Mia’s rubber boots and led the way inside. The sopping wet carpet squished with every step, and Stevie wanted to cry when she saw the condition of the sofa, the chairs, and the tables in the living room and kitchen.

  “Let’s go to your bedroom first,” Mia suggested. “If your clothes are hung up, I bet they’re just fine. I’ll load them in the SUV. If they’re wet, then we can put them in garbage bags and start laundry when we get home.”

  Glad that Mia had the foresight to think about where to start, Stevie just nodded and headed down the short hallway to her room. The bedspread had soaked up water from the floor and was wet all the way to the mattress. She opened the bottom dresser drawer to find wet pajama bottoms that already had black mold on them. When she pulled the next one up open, everything was fine in it.

  Mia threw open the closet doors and squealed. “The boxes on the floor are soaked, but your shoes and boots up on the shelf are good and so are your clothes. I’m going to take them to the SUV on the hangers.”

  Stevie went back to the kitchen and got a plastic garbage bag to use for all the things in her dresser drawers. Her suitcases were stored on the floor of her closet, so they would be ruined.

  “The pipes under the sink burst,” Cody yelled from the bathroom, “and the supply line to the toilet.”

  “The ones under the kitchen sink did the same,” Jesse called out.

  Stevie stopped in the hallway and stared at a picture of her and her mother hanging on the wall. “Oh, Mama, what do I do?”

  Cody came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. “I’ll go to the grocery store and get some cardboard boxes to pack up all these pictures in. Even though everything on the floor is probably ruined, you’ll have some keepsakes left.”

  Stevie turned around and laid her head on Cody’s shoulders. “That’s the most important things, right?”

  “Yes, they are,” Mia said as she passed them with a load of clothing in her arms. “All this other stuff can be replaced, but pictures and memories can’t.” She didn’t stop but kept moving toward the open door. Every footstep made a sucking noise when she picked up her feet from the drenched carpet.

  “My advice is that you shouldn’t move anything but Stevie’s personal things out today,” Jesse suggested. “The insurance adjustor should see things as they are. You can come back after he’s been here to take down pictures and think about the stuff in the kitchen cabinets, and such.”

  Stevie wanted to argue with him, but common sense said he was right. By Monday, maybe things would be dried out enough that she could make better decisions about the rest of her things. “Okay,” she agreed, “I’m sorry you’ve brought so many vehicles. My clothing can probably all be loaded into the SUV. What about the rest of my vet stuff in the garage?”

  “I checked out there,” Jesse said. “It’s backed up to the kitchen so the water from the pipes seeped through the wall, and whatever is on the floor is wet. The water didn’t get up into the car or on the shelves where you keep supplies. Maybe you could just take what you have to have, like any medicines or that kind of thing.”

  “Want me to go out and start your mother’s car for you?” Cody asked.

  “Yes, please,” Stevie said. “Keys are on the rack by the garage door. If it starts, I’ll drive it out to the ranch.”

  She turned around and went to her room again, and started tossing all the dry things from her dresser and chest of drawers into one of the big garbage bags. “I’m a lucky woman to even have a place to go,” she muttered, “so why…”

  “Because this is your home,” Mia said as she breezed into the room. “I’d be sad if this happened to the ranch house. It would even upset me if it happened to the bunkhouse or the empty place sitting over on the other property that Poppa owns.”

  “What other place?” Stevie asked.

  “When my grandparents, Mama’s parents, sold their ranch and moved out to the Panhandle, they sold their ranch to Poppa. It’s got a house on it that hasn’t been lived in in a long time,” Mia explained.

  Stevie made a mental note to herself to ask Sonny if he would rent that house if she had to tear down her family home. Then she said, “Your dad and Cody think it would be best if we just take my personal things until after the insurance adjuster looks at the place.”

  “I don’t know anything about all that stuff,” Mia said, “but if Daddy says that’s the smart thing to do, I’d trust him.”

  Cody appeared at the door with a grin on his face. “The car started right up. That’s the good news.”

  “And the bad?” she asked.

  “Whatever was on the floor of the garage will probably have to be thrown away.” The smile faded. “I hope it wasn’t anything super important.”

  “Probably Christmas decorations.” A wave of sadness swept over Stevie. She wished that she had put up a tree this past holiday. Maybe some of what was in the boxes would have been saved if they’d been on the tree instead of packed away.

  “If we all take a load, we should be able to get the rest of this pretty quick,” Mia said.

  Cody and Jesse went to the closet, and each gathered up an armload of clothing. Mia reached up and took down as many shoe boxes as she could carry. Stevie threw the garbage bag full of things over her shoulder and took them out to her mother’s car. Once she had put it in the back seat, she crawled in beside the bag and just sat there.

  In a few minutes, Cody got in beside her, draped an arm around her, and pulled her closer to him. “I promise all our dates won’t end like this one.”

  “If the second one does, there won’t be a third,” she said.

  It’s time to move on and make a fresh start. You’ve been looking for closure, and here it is, the voice in her head said. The boxes that she had kept all her journals and keepsakes in were soaked, and everything was completely ruined.

  Back at the bunkhouse, she sat down on the edge of the bed and stared at the closed closet door. Cody had moved everything he owned out to the storage room in the main part of the house. Jesse had found a spare chest of drawers in storage and put it in there for Cody’s personal things. Next week, they would rescue the rest of what was salvageable from the house and store it in the barn.

  But right then, the entire impact of losing her home hit her.

  “It would have been better if a tornado had simply taken it all in one fell swoop instead of having to face the destruction a flood can do to a house,” she muttered.

  Cody crossed the room and sat down beside her. “The insurance adjustor will be there tomorrow, and we can go back through the place again, once everything is
dried out, and see if there’s anything else worth saving. At least your mother’s car started up, and you’ve got something to drive until Monday when the guy comes to fix your van.”

  “And we can save my vet supplies that are on shelves in the garage.” She tried to hang on to a few positive ideas. “A lot of the things I use often are stashed in the van, so that’s a good thing. I’ve got a roof over my head, friends who care about me, my clothing was all undamaged except for one drawer full of pajamas. My mother’s voice popped into my head and told me that it was all just stuff. So why do I feel like I just fell into a black hole?”

  “In the past few months, you’ve started a private vet practice. You’ve lost your last parent. You’ve been stranded in a winter storm with a baby alpaca and your archenemy. Now your house might not be worth saving,” Cody answered. “That’s enough to put a person without your strength over the edge.”

  “I don’t feel so strong right now,” Stevie said. “I’m grateful for everything, but inside, I’m a mess, Cody.”

  “Let’s go up to the ranch house for supper. You need to be around people and family,” Cody told her.

  Stevie wanted to curl up on the bed, put a pillow over her head, and think about nothing, but after all the Ryan family had done for her, she couldn’t do that. She nodded and stood up. “You are right. Maybe playing with little Sam and Taylor might make me realize that, like Mama said, it’s just stuff.”

  Cody took her by the hand and led her to the living room, where he helped her into her coat. “I’ve lived among folks who had so little that I can agree with your mother.”

  Stevie just gave him a brief nod. They walked up the path to the house hand in hand, and just that small gesture made her feel better. Pearl must have been watching for them out the kitchen window because she met Stevie in the middle of the kitchen floor with outstretched arms.

  “I’m so sorry about this,” Pearl said as she hugged her, “but know that you are welcome here for as long as you want to stay. Sonny says we’ll clear out the tack room and you can use it for your vet clinic.”

  “That’s right,” Sonny said from his place at the table. “We can put locks on both doors so the insurance people won’t fuss at us over the drugs you need to keep handy, and you can keep your van parked in the barn so it will be ready to go when you need it.”

  “And for all that and for room and board, I want to pay you what’s fair,” Stevie said.

  To her surprise Sonny nodded without an argument. “I’ve been thinking about that. How about you do whatever vet business we need done for free while you live on the ranch? But only your time is free. Whatever you have to use in the way of medicine or vaccinations will be billed to the ranch.”

  “That’s a pretty good deal.” Mia brought in one of the twins. “Can we add that I get to assist you with whatever that is?”

  “Yes, you can, and thank you, Sonny,” Stevie said. “That’s a very generous deal.”

  “On whose end?” Cody chuckled. “Dad might figure out a way to keep you here through calving season and the spring vaccinations.”

  “If I can’t, I bet Mia or Addy can help me out.” Sonny laughed out loud.

  “I won’t let you down, Poppa,” Mia giggled.

  “And you can depend on me,” Addy added as she put the second twin in a high chair.

  Fate had to be playing out a hand, Stevie thought, and wondered what she would be dealt next. She glanced over at Cody to see him grinning so big she hoped that, whichever way the cards fell, things didn’t get awkward between them.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The church parking lot was sparsely occupied that Sunday morning when the Ryan family arrived in three vehicles. Stevie had ridden with Cody, and even though he had said they would be going shopping for a new truck next week, she kind of hated to give up the old work truck with the wide bench seat.

  “Penny for your thoughts.” Cody parked between Addy’s and his mother’s SUVs.

  “They’re not worth that much.” Stevie smoothed the front of her knee-length dark green skirt. “I was thinking about Tex not being able to ride in the front seat with us when you get a new truck. These days they all come with consoles and bucket seats.”

  “And here I was hoping you were thinking about sharing a hymn book with me,” he teased.

  “Do you know what that means to the old folks?” Stevie asked.

  “Oh, yeah!” he said. “What do you say…love? Shall we make this a date even though we can’t go out to dinner and for a long drive on dirt roads?”

  “Why not?” She shrugged. “If this is a date, then we’ll get to that fourth one faster, and we can get a Sonic burger.”

  As usual, Cody got out of the truck and rounded the front end to open the door for her. That morning, he wore starched and creased jeans and a plaid shirt with a Western-cut suede jacket over it. His black cowboy boots had been shined and his hat dusted off. He wouldn’t be anyone’s stereotypical idea of a doctor, but most people would think he was a rancher.

  He ushered her across the lot with his hand on her lower back, and the whole family followed Pearl and Sonny down the center aisle. When they were about halfway to the third pew where the Ryan family always sat together, a young man stood and motioned toward Mia.

  She peeled off to the right and sat down with Beau Martin—or that’s who Stevie assumed he was since that’s who would be coming to dinner with her after the services. He had auburn hair and a round face covered with freckles.

  Pearl and Sonny sat down, and Addy and Jesse made their way to the middle of the row, leaving the last two places empty for Stevie and Cody. Stevie glanced across the aisle at the pew where she and her mother used to sit every Sunday morning. Nowadays, a middle-aged couple had taken up residence over there with their four daughters ranging in age from about ten to maybe sixteen.

  The lady who played the piano hit a couple of chords, and everyone began to reach for the hymnals in the pockets on the backs of the pews in front of them. As luck would have it, there were only three hymnals: one for Pearl and Sonny to share, a second one for Addy and Jesse, and the one that Cody handed to her.

  “Guess this means we’re the topic of the gossip vine this week,” he whispered.

  “Or maybe folks are more interested in Mia and Beau than they are in us,” she told him.

  “Double their rumor pleasure,” Cody said.

  The man who led the singing at the church stepped up behind the lectern and said, “Good morning, everyone. It’s good to see that some of you have braved the weather and come on out to services this morning. Will you all please turn to number two hundred forty-seven? We’ll sing together ‘When We All Get to Heaven.’”

  Cody had a wonderful singing voice, but what Stevie loved most was the way her insides warmed with the touch of his fingertips against hers as they shared the hymnal.

  When they finished the song, the song leader said, “And now Betsy and Justine are going to do a special song for Betsy’s parents and Justine’s grandparents this morning. Sharon and Thomas Walters were married fifty years this past week, and they weren’t able to have much of a celebration what with the blizzard that we had, so they are singing this song for them today.”

  Justine and her mother, Betsy, made their way from the back of the church. They both picked up a handheld microphone from the top of the piano, and Betsy said, “This is the song that Daddy sings to Mama, so we thought it would be appropriate for their fiftieth anniversary.”

  “Happy Anniversary, Granny and Gramps.” Justine waved toward the second pew. “I love you both and appreciate all the support you’ve given me through the years.”

  Betsy nodded at the pianist and she began to play “I Want to Stroll Over Heaven with You.”

  Stevie recognized the melody long before Betsy began singing the first words that asked the King for one more blessing—he wanted to stroll over heaven with the love of his life.

  She only meant to peek at Cody’s expression,
but he was looking right at her, and they locked gazes. Was he wondering if heaven was big enough for the two of them, like she was? Or was he thinking of something altogether different? Everything around them suddenly seemed to disappear, and they were the only two people on earth. The moment couldn’t have lasted more than a split second, and then Stevie blinked, faced forward, and focused on Betsy and Justine.

  Stevie did the math in her head, starting with the year that Betsy had graduated from high school, and figuring out that she was in her early forties. The woman was only a few years older than Stevie and already a grandmother. That little bit of revelation set Stevie’s biological clock to ticking so loudly that she could hardly hear the last of the song they were singing. Even if she had a child in the next couple of years, she most likely wouldn’t be a grandmother until she was in her sixties.

  I never got to be one, her mother said very loudly in her head.

  Stevie came back to the present with a little jerk when the preacher cleared his throat. Cody touched her on the arm and asked, “Are you cold? Do you need my jacket?”

  “No, I’m fine,” she said. “I was just woolgathering and you startled me.”

  “Been there,” Cody said, “done that many times in church.”

  The preacher said something about his sermon being about the fruits of the spirit from Galatians, but that was the last thing that Stevie heard. She went right back into her woolgathering and thought about all that had happened since her first tire went flat. In less than two weeks, she had gone from sitting on the back pew in church all alone because she couldn’t bear to sit where she and her mother had sat, to sharing space with the Ryan family. If someone had told her the last Sunday she was here that she would be sitting with Cody the next time she attended services, she would have told them what they were full of—and it would not have been the fruits of the spirit.