She was quiet for a moment. “My dad and I haven’t always seen eye-to-eye,” she finally said. “We had a falling-out of sorts when I was eighteen. He did something. . . .” She didn’t finish. No point in weighing the conversation down with that. “Anyway, when the time came to make a decision about college, I needed to get away, to clear my head. I opted to come here to live with my grandmother. It opened a world of possibilities to me, and I’ve never been sorry.”
“How are things with your dad now?” Brandon asked.
“Oh. . .I don’t know,” she said with a sigh. “He’s just kind of. . .absent. Always has been. He has his priorities, and family is pretty far down on the list.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” His gaze shifted downward. “I lost my dad awhile back. It’s been really hard without him. I miss him so much.”
Ouch.
She drew in a deep breath. “I’m so sorry, Brandon. And I don’t mean to give you the wrong impression. I love my dad, and I’m working on the relationship with him. I just keep praying and trying.”
“That’s all the Lord would ask you to do,” he said.
“He’s not as bad as I’ve made him out to be, I guess,” she said. “And sometimes it’s hard to believe he’s Gran-Gran’s son. They’re so opposite.” Well, except for their love of the game. “She’s as soft as butter and loves me as I’ve never been loved before.”
“That’s one way to put it.” He grinned, then gave her a reflective look.
“What about you?” she asked. “You’re a self-proclaimed mama’s boy, right?”
His gaze shifted downward, and she had to wonder what was going through his mind.
Just then her cell phone rang, creating a distraction. She reached to open it, startled to hear Gran-Gran’s voice on the other end of the line.
“Bree, can you bring me my bathrobe? And my denture case. I had a doozy of a time finding my teeth this morning.”
Brianna chuckled. “Of course. Anything else?”
“Well, they’ve told me I can eat anything I like,” her grandmother said. “And I’m missing my Sunday morning feast, so bring some of those cinnamon rolls. And I want my own coffee. Can you bring me a thermos filled to the top?”
“As long as you’re sure the doctor won’t mind.”
“Oh, don’t worry about the doctor. He won’t mind, but even if he did, I’d tell you to bring it anyway.”
“Yes, but I wouldn’t—because I love you and care about your health.”
Gran-Gran sighed. “You’re a good girl, Bree.”
Brianna glanced across the table at Brandon, and he warmed her heart with his boyish grin.
“Is everything okay?” he asked.
“Yeah. She’s found her teeth and wants some cinnamon rolls.”
“Um, okay.” He laughed. “I guess that makes sense in the grand scheme of things. Is she anxious to see you?”
“More anxious to see you, I’d be willing to bet.”
His eyes twinkled. “Me?”
“Yeah. She’s a sucker for a Steelers’ fan.”
“Steelers’ fan?” He looked down at his T-shirt and realized it bore his new team’s logo. “Ah.”
“Just wait and see,” she said with a wink. “Just wait and see.”
TEN
Brandon looked across the hospital room at Abbey, who lay in the bed with a more-serious-than-usual look on her face.
“Everything okay?”
She glanced his way, her eyes filling with tears. At once he stood and joined her at the bedside. “Should I go and find Brianna?”
“No, I’m glad she’s stepped out for a minute. I don’t want her to see me like this.”
“I understand. Would you feel better if I left you alone for a few minutes?” He glanced down at his watch. Eleven forty five. He’d have to leave soon anyway.
“No, please don’t go. Pull your chair a little closer so we can chat.”
He did as instructed but was still a little startled when Abbey reached for his hand. He offered it willingly.
“Do you pray, Brandon?” she asked.
“I do. I’ve been praying for you. Just this morning, in fact.”
“Humph.” She shook her head. “I’m just fine. Might make more sense for you to pray for our political leaders or the situation in the Middle East.”
“Well, I do that, too.”
“I’ve walked with God a mighty long time,” she said with a sigh. “We’re like two old friends—God and me, sitting together on the couch, talking.”
“I can see that.” He gave her hand a squeeze. “It shows that you spend time with Him.”
“I might be spending time with Him face-to-face soon,” she said softly.
Her words took him by surprise, but he tried not to over- react. Instead he opted for an easygoing approach. “Are you looking forward to that?”
“I’m looking forward to eternity,” she said with a smile. “When the time is right. Getting to see my husband, Norman, again. And Katie.”
“Katie?”
“My baby girl.” She reached up with her fingertips to brush away a loose tear from her lashes. “She passed away when she was only three. Nearly broke my heart in two.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
Abbey smiled. “Bree was the spitting image of Katie when she was little. And when I look at Bree. . .well, I kind of imagine that’s what Katie might’ve looked like if she’d lived to her twenties. But that’s not how things turned out.” Her voice softened. “Sometimes things don’t go the way you expect them to.”
“Right.” He couldn’t think of anything else to say. He wanted to tell her about his father, how he’d been snatched away too soon, but didn’t want to interrupt. This was her time.
“I have so many regrets.” Abbey’s eyes filled once again.
Brandon spoke with tenderness. “What kind of regrets?”
Her lip quivered, and she didn’t answer for a moment. “My oldest son—Bree’s father—we’ve never been very close. I wish I could change that.” Her revelation seemed to match Brianna’s earlier description of her “absent” father.
“Maybe he’ll come around,” Brandon encouraged. “Just keep praying.”
“He’s so much like his father that it hurts,” she said. “My husband, Norman, was distant, not around much. When he did come home, he seemed set on getting his own way most of the time.” She paused and shook her head. “Really all of the time. He didn’t like to take no for an answer. And when Glen came along I could see they were two peas in a pod, which made for a bit of head-butting when Glen reached his teens.”
“I’ll bet.”
“Glen wasn’t a bad boy. He worked extra-hard to please his father, but things became so strained between them that Glen went off and joined the military right out of high school.”
Brandon observed the pain in her eyes as she spoke.
“Being in the Marines was good for Glen,” Abbey continued. “But in some ways it only seemed to harden him more than before. When he came back, he and his father barely spoke. Glen married his wife, Mary, and took a coaching job at a high school in Southern California. We rarely saw him after that.”
“Then Brianna was born,” Brandon added.
“Yes, she was their firstborn.” Abbey’s face lit in a smile. “I flew out to L.A. to spend a week with Glen and Mary when Bree came. She was a precious little thing.” Abbey’s eyes clouded over. “But I could tell Glen wouldn’t make the best father, even then. He was so disconnected and”—she paused before she whispered the word—“uncaring. He wasn’t the sort to gather a child in his arms and kiss away the tears, if you know what I mean. He was always more interested in whatever team he happened to be coaching than in his own family. Broke my heart.”
Brandon had to stretch his imagination to understand a man like that. His own father had always bent over backward to show love and compassion, even when Brandon hadn’t deserved it. Why did Brianna, beautiful girl that she was, have to
grow up in a household with such a distant father? Some things just didn’t make sense.
“I guess Bree was in sixth grade, maybe seventh, when her little brother, Kyle, was born,” Abbey explained. “Kyle’s always had a heart of gold.”
“Ah.” Another interesting twist. If only his own brother had a heart of gold instead of a heart of stone, maybe they’d get along better, have an actual relationship instead of strained conversations.
Abbey paused, and her eyes filled with tears. “That next year, when Bree was just fourteen, something awful happened.” She shook her head. “One morning my husband, Norman, wouldn’t wake up. I tried and tried to wake him, but”—tears slipped down her wrinkled cheeks, and she didn’t even bother to brush them away—“there was nothing I could do.”
“I’m so sorry, Abbey,” Brandon said softly. He knew what it felt like to lose a loved one.
“Doctors said it was an aneurysm. He passed away in his sleep,” she whispered. “I guess I should be grateful he didn’t suffer. That would be the Christian thing, wouldn’t it? To be happy Norman was in the arms of his Maker, safe and sound? That he hadn’t struggled in his last few days, like so many?”
Brandon nodded but didn’t know what to say.
“I had to call Glen and tell him what had happened,” Abbey continued. “I knew he’d just been transferred to a new school that fall, a new team, and I didn’t know how he would respond. But I wasn’t prepared for him to say his team had made it to the play-offs, and he wouldn’t be able to come at all.”
“Oh, Abbey.” He gave her hand a squeeze.
“I—I—had to plan Norman’s funeral by myself. There was no one to help me. Just a couple of the ladies from my little church, God bless them, and Pastor Meyers, of course. At the last minute Bree showed up with her mother and Kyle. They were wonderful. But I missed my son. I needed my son.”
Whoa. What an opposite picture to what his mother had faced. People had swept in around her on every side.
Abbey gazed up into his eyes. “Then”—she started to smile— “a miracle happened.”
“A miracle?”
“Bree.” Her face came alive as she mentioned her granddaughter’s name. “I fell in love with her during that visit, and vice versa. I told her about the university here, and she agreed to look into it when the time came. All those years I prayed, and when she graduated from high school I got the word— she was coming to Pittsburgh! I can tell you there was never a happier day in my life than the day that beautiful girl came marching into my house.”
“I can imagine.” It all made sense now, why Brianna took such good care of her grandmother, and Abbey of her granddaughter. They had needed one another pretty desperately back then. And now.
“I felt bad for little Kyle back at home. I knew he’d probably not get much fathering. Still, there was little I could do but pray.” She shook her head. “But that’s a story for another day. I think I’ve worn out your ears already.”
“No, of course not. I wish I had time for more.”
Just then Brandon’s cell phone rang. He looked down at it, fear kicking in. So much for the No Cell Phones hospital policy. “I forgot to turn this off. Sorry.” He quickly shut it off.
“Didn’t you need to take that call?” Abbey asked.
He shrugged. “It was just my agent. I’ll call him back when I get to the car.”
“Your agent?”
“Yeah.” Brandon glanced down at his watch, startled to see the time: 12:20. “I hate to tell you this,” he said with a sigh.
“But I have to leave now. I wish I could wait till Brianna gets back, but I just can’t.”
“Are you going to turn into a pumpkin if you don’t leave by a certain time?” Abbey asked.
“I guess you could say that.” He stood and pushed his chair back to its original place near the window.
“Wait.” Abbey extended her hand. “I know you’re in a hurry, but do you have just a minute to pray with me before you go? I’d feel so much better if you would.”
“Of course.” He walked to the side of the bed and, with love framing every word, began to pray.
❧
Brianna stood at the door of the room, overhearing yet another conversation between her grandmother and Brandon. Funny, this one—the tail end of it anyway—seemed to be about her father.
Ironic, considering the fact that she’d spent the last fifteen minutes on the phone with him, begging him to come to Pittsburgh ahead of schedule. To see his mother right away.
He’d argued, of course. The start of the new season and all. Nothing unfamiliar about that story. But by the end of the call she’d convinced him at least to consider the possibility.
“ You don’t know how long she’ll be with us, Dad.”
Had she really said those words aloud?
Now, as she stood at the door of her grandmother’s room, eavesdropping, she saw the picture from Gran-Gran’s point of view. How sad she sounded and how much she needed and wanted her son to be a part of her life.
Determination took over, and Brianna settled the issue in her heart. If her father wouldn’t do the right thing, she would. His lack simply made her want to do more. She would pour out love and affection on Gran-Gran at every available opportunity. What was the old expression? “While it is yet today.”
Yes. While it was yet today, she would pour herself out on her grandmother’s behalf.
Even if it meant putting off things at work. She would call her boss and ask for vacation time for the next couple of weeks. Whatever it took to keep Gran-Gran’s spirits up.
Just then the sound of Brandon’s voice raised in prayer distracted her. What a great guy he’d turned out to be—in no way like the man she’d first pictured. As she listened in, he prayed for Abbey’s healing and then started praying for her family—every member. Brianna wondered at the depth of his words. This was clearly a man familiar with spending time on his knees.
As he finished, she pushed open the door to the room and slipped inside. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt you,” she whispered.
“No, it’s okay.” He flashed her an inviting smile. “We were just wrapping up. I have to leave.”
“Do you?” She gave an exaggerated pout, and he laughed. “I do, but I’ll try to come back by later tonight, if you like.” “I like.” Gran-Gran smiled. “And while you’re at it, why don’t you stop off at the store and pick up a deck of cards so I can play solitaire?”
“I’m sure they sell cards in the gift shop,” Brianna said. She looked at Brandon. “So don’t you worry about that.”
“Well, I’m happy to do it,” he said. “But don’t count on solitaire. I’ll pick up a couple of decks, and we can play hearts. How does that sound?”
“Heavenly!”
Brianna chuckled. Gran-Gran had this guy eating out of her hand. Then again. . .she looked at Brandon. He didn’t seem to mind a bit. In fact, he appeared to want a reason to return.
He said his good-byes and slipped out of the room, leaving Brianna alone with her grandmother. She pulled a chair close to the bed and sat.
“I, uh. . .I heard what you said.”
“You did? Which part?”
“The part about Dad. All of it.”
“Ah.” Gran-Gran’s cheeks reddened. “I sure didn’t mean for you to hear all of that—an old woman rambling about her regrets.”
“But you were willing to tell Brandon.”
“That’s different.”
“Oh?”
“I guess I should have talked to you about all this stuff years ago,” Gran-Gran said with a shrug. “But I know you can’t control what your father does any more than I can. I just know”—her lip started to quiver—“that when you get to be my age, you wish you could do a few things over.”
Brianna tried to swallow the lump in her throat and nodded. She decided a change of subject was in order. “Well,” she said with a smile, “looks like you didn’t mind pouring out your heart to our h
andsome neighbor. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you have a crush on him.”
“What?” Her grandmother appeared stunned. “That’s just plain silly. But”—she gave Brianna an inquisitive look—“I wouldn’t say it’s out of the question for you to have a crush on him by now.”
“M–me? I hardly know the man.”
“But what you see you like, right?”
“Gran-Gran, don’t.”
Her grandmother leaned back and rested her head on the pillows. “I’m just saying, the Lord clearly brought him to Pittsburgh for a reason, and maybe that reason—at least in part—is you.”
Brianna stood and began to fuss with her grandmother’s covers, straightening them. “That’s just silly. I have no idea why he moved to Pittsburgh, but I’m sure it wasn’t to meet a woman. Likely it was business related.”
“Maybe. And I have some idea of what business he’s in, thanks to a little slip on his part today.” Her grandmother’s eyes glistened as they always did when she had a secret aching to be shared.
“Oh? What’s that?” Brianna asked.
“I think he’s an actor,” Gran-Gran said with a nod.
“An actor?”
“Yes. You said you overheard our conversation. Did you miss the part where he said his agent called?”
Brianna thought about that a moment. “Yeah, I heard. Guess it slipped right by me.” She paused to think about it. “But it doesn’t make sense. If he’s an actor, what’s he doing in Pittsburgh? Why isn’t he in L.A. or New York?”
“I don’t know, but I’m sure we’ll find out. Maybe he’s filming a movie here or something. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to find out it was something like that.” A few seconds later Gran-Gran’s eyelids fluttered shut, and Brianna realized the medication had kicked in.
“Pleasant dreams,” she whispered.
“Mm-hmm.”
Brianna walked over to the window and looked down onto the parking garage. Somewhere down there Brandon was getting into his car and heading off to. . .who knew where?
Red, White and Blue Weddings: Red Like Crimson, White as Snow, Out of the Blue Page 21
