Apple Orchard Bride

by Jessica Keller

  * * *

  Toby had watched the back of Jenna’s head all during the church service. She and her dad had taken their own car, leaving without him and Kasey. The new young pastor, Jacob Song, gave an impassioned talk, but Toby was having a hard time concentrating.

  After church she avoided him by sequestering herself in a large group of her friends. Toby would have had to burst through their linked arms and interrupt their conversation in order to get to her.

  The thought had crossed his mind. More than once.

  Claire Atwood held out her hand, eyeing the ladybug backpack he held. “I’m assuming that’s Kasey’s stuff?”

  “Yeah.” He looked away from Jenna and focused on the redhead glaring at him. “Thanks for taking her this afternoon. She’s been looking forward to it.”

  “I’ll get them both out of kids’ club, and we’ll head to lunch from here.” She slung the loop of the backpack over her shoulder. “My son, Alex, is her biggest fan. He talks more around her than anyone else. We like Kasey a lot.”

  “Kasey’s fortunate to have a friend like him,” Toby responded to Claire, but his gaze trailed back to Jenna.

  Arms crossed, Claire leaned back to block his view. “Please tell me you’re aware that she’s in love with you. That once-in-a-lifetime, every-inch-of-her-heart-is-mapped-with-your-image kind of love, right?”

  Toby jerked his attention back. Mr. Crest had commiserated with him over the free church coffee a couple minutes ago. During the course of their conversation, he’d told Toby that Jenna had been with Claire when they couldn’t find her yesterday. Apparently Claire hadn’t been rooting for Team Toby when she was offering advice to Jenna last night. Maybe she’d changed her mind? Whatever the reason, there was no need to play dumb with her.

  “If you’re talking about Jenna, I think you’re probably mistaken. She was very clear about what she thinks of me last night.”

  “Try this thought on for size for me—you have to love someone greatly to inspire spitting-nails-strength anger. Your emotional pool is only as deep as how you feel about that person to begin with.”

  He shook his head. Claire hadn’t been there. Hadn’t heard what Jenna said. “I told her I loved her last night, and she brushed it off.”

  “If she believes all her dreams have been crushed under the very boots of the man she feels like she can’t live without—trust me...” Claire broke eye contact to fiddle with her bracelets. “When you’re feeling that level of pain, anything’s bound to come out of your mouth. From our talk last night, it’s clear she thinks you hung the moon. Give her time.”

  After hugging Kasey goodbye and waving to Pastor Song and his wife as he passed them on the way out, Toby went in search of Mr. Crest and Jenna. Her car was still in the church parking lot, and he wanted to catch them before he left to meet his old friends for lunch. He finally spotted them heading down the ramp on the side of the church.

  Gray clouds piled on top of each other in the sky. Deep rumbles echoed across Lake Michigan.

  He jogged to catch up and met them as she was unlocking her passenger door. “Here, let me help.” He reached to assist Mr. Crest out of his chair and into the seat. They always used the nonmotorized chair for church, since it was smaller and folded into Jenna’s trunk easily.

  Jenna used her body to block him. “We don’t need your help.”

  He scrubbed his hand over his head. “So we’re back to this?”

  “If you mean back to being professional, like an employee and employer should be? Then yes. We are.” She wedged her hands under her dad’s armpits. “Come on, Dad.”

  “Jenna.” Mr. Crest’s tone held a warning. She assisted him into the car and closed the passenger door.

  Toby grabbed the wheelchair, folded it and hauled it to the back of the car before she could protest. She stomped after him and held open the trunk. Light, chilled rain hit his neck, his face.

  He made no motion to put the wheelchair in. “We’re not done talking. You don’t have to hear me out now, but at some point you’ll have to. You can’t avoid me forever.”

  Moisture in the air made her curly hair even curlier, a little wild. Her eyes had a glazed-over appearance to them, as if she was looking past him. Through him. The beacon of light he’d always relied upon had been snuffed out. Was there any hope for them to save their friendship? Her silence made his heart stall.

  He cleared his throat. “I won’t be back at the orchard until later because I’m meeting Chad and Nick for lunch before they have to head to the airport.”

  “Well, have fun. You always did enjoy your time with them more than anyone else.” She swiped the rain off her forehead.

  “Cut me a break here, Jenna. It’s not like that.”

  “Are you going to put Dad’s chair in the trunk or should I? It’s raining.”

  He lifted the chair into the trunk. “This is my last chance to talk to those guys. To make any sort of impact and—”

  “And it’s really none of my concern.” She slammed the trunk closed and quickly rounded the car. Within seconds, she was backing it out of its space and leaving him alone in the parking lot, standing in a downpour.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Jenna leaned over the steering wheel, trying to focus on the road through the downpour. Her wipers screeched on every drag.

  When she snapped at Toby in the parking lot, he had looked like he might cry. Tiredness carved lines under his eyes, and his shoulders were sagging. In all the years she’d known him, she’d never seen him standing by like that—completely dejected.

  But it was only because his lies had come to light. That had to be it. The other option was too much to hope for—that he really did love her and she was wrong. So terribly, unpardonably wrong about him.

  Dad had been quiet for most of the ride home, but he finally sighed loudly. “What did Toby say?”

  “He said if you need him, he won’t be around until later.” Jenna slowed the car to a crawl around the sharp bend where their road wrapped away from Lake Michigan and took them toward the country. Even going ten miles an hour, one of her tires went into the dirt a little. “He’s going to go loser it up with his old pals.”

  Dad folded his hands in his lap. “I’ve always been so proud of you and the woman you are, but I can’t be right now.” He looked out the side window. “Not in this. You’re being incredibly unkind.”

  He didn’t get it. All he knew was the Toby from their childhood who smiled and was polite at their dinner table. Jenna hadn’t talked much about Toby the Troublemaker. “Dad, those guys were the people who used to get him to go out partying when he was a teenager. They used to sneak out to the beach to drink together. They’re the same ones who used to convince him to do so many dumb and bad things. So...sorry, but I’m not exactly going to do a backflip over him crawling back to them.”

  They bumped up the driveway, and she tossed her car into Park. “Let’s wait a bit to see if the rain lets up.”

  Dad rested his head back on his chair. “Do you know why that man is meeting up with his old friends?”

  Jenna glanced at his hands. They were shaky. She needed to set up another appointment for him soon. She yanked her keys from the ignition and dumped them into her purse. “Probably to catch a drink together and talk football.”

  “Wrong.” Dad angled in the chair to better see her. “He knows that neither of them have a relationship with Jesus, and this could be his only chance to ever speak to them about it. Toby set up the lunch last night so that he could tell them about what God has done in his life.”

  Jenna’s mouth felt dry. She licked her lips. “He...he told you that?”

  “There is nothing fake about Toby, so you go on and remove that lie from your head.” He set his fist down forcefully on the armrest. “That man knows exactly who he is a
nd what God wants him to do with his life. So much so that he’s willing to possibly make a fool out of himself to those two old friends today. He was willing to face your wrath over him going to this lunch because he’d rather please God than please you.” Dad wagged his finger at her. “Here’s my hard, loving truth for you. If there’s anyone who isn’t being honest with themselves here, it’s you, honeybee. Not Toby. That man is as honest as a summer day is long.”

  Jenna’s throat tightened. “Dad?” she squeaked out.

  “Hmm?”

  “I love him.”

  “I know that.”

  A shiver worked its way up Jenna’s spine. She wrapped her arms around herself. “I thought he didn’t care about me.”

  “And you need to get to the bottom of why you allowed yourself to believe that. Because that right there is the real issue.”

  Toby had accused her of something last night. You want to cling to being a victim more than you’re willing to see the truth about how I feel about you. If what Dad was saying was true—and Dad had zero reason to lie to her, so she knew it was true—then Toby was right. Jenna had chosen to be a victim in her life long before Ross. In high school, when people made fun of her, she had owned their teasing, deciding that they were right. She was weird and lacking and not enough. Someone like Toby could never love her.

  When she suffered, God had cared. He’d been with her. He’d wanted to hold her through it and heal her. But Jenna had shoved God away, clinging to the identity of being a victim. If she had allowed God’s love to shine into her heart, she couldn’t have held on to that any longer. She couldn’t have carried the past around as if it were her shield. She would have been required to lay that down and stride forward into the future without the protection of past judgments. She would have had to admit that she was broken and accept however God pieced her back together.

  Opening a wound to air always stung, but that was the way it healed, too.

  Did Toby really love her, scars and festering wounds and mess that she was? If he did, could she trust it, believing him without second-guessing whether or not she was worth loving? Because that’s where the real problem was, as Dad had pointed out. The issue wasn’t Toby. It was her ability to accept his love.

  “Anyone with eyes can tell that boy is crazy about you,” Dad said. “He’s toiled here all season without complaints, he spends every free minute with you, and when he can’t be with you, his eyes follow you or he’s talking about you. This house.” Dad pressed his hand against the window. The rain had lightened up enough to see outside. “He bartered for all the work to fix it by coaching the football team for free, and he made me agree to let him pay half of the expenses. He wanted to pay the full amount, but I told him I still had some pride left.”

  “All those hours coaching?” Jenna calculated the hours up in her head. Too many. “He’s doing that for free?”

  “He’s doing them for you. And that tree house. Do you know what that man had to do to build that?”

  “Daddy, I feel sick over all this.” She wiped at her tears. Mascara covered her fingertips. “What have I done?”

  “What’s done can’t be undone, but I have a feeling that Toby could be persuaded to forgive you. Of course, that’ll be after a kiss or two or seven.” He winked.

  Grateful for Dad’s attempt to lighten their heavy moment, she playfully swatted at his shoulder. “You’re incorrigible.”

  “I’m simply an old man who is happy to finally see his daughter deciding to walk in the freedom that comes when you finally open yourself up to love.”

  “Not yet. I still have to make things right with Toby.”

  “Wrong again, honeybee. Freedom comes from us choosing to love. Not from someone else’s acceptance of it.”

  Jenna helped her father out of the car, and once they were inside, she got started making them tacos for lunch. While the ground beef simmered, she sent Toby a text: You’re right. We need to talk. Looking forward to when you get home.

  She debated typing “I love you” but decided that was better kept until she could look him in the eye. After everything, he deserved to hear her say it for the first time.

  * * *

  Hours of checking her phone for a return message, and she’d taken to watching for his SUV out the front window. How long could a lunch be? Surely Chad and Nick’s planes would have left by now. The thunderstorm had raged again soon after she and Dad had sat down to lunch, so perhaps their flights had been delayed and Toby was making the most of his extra time.

  When her phone rang, she crossed the room in record time and scooped it up. “Hello?”

  “May I speak to Jenna Crest?” It was a female voice.

  “Speaking.”

  “Miss Crest, my name is Tonya. I’m a nurse at Saint Michael’s Hospital. A friend of yours has been in an accident—”

  “Is it Toby? Toby Holcomb?” Unable to stay standing, Jenna sank into her father’s favorite chair.

  “He gave us your name as his contact.”

  Jenna got the information from Tonya but didn’t waste time writing anything down. After she’d taken Dad to so many appointments there, every inch of the hospital was familiar to her. Dad was taking a nap in his room, but she shook his shoulder. “Toby’s hurt. I don’t know how bad. Dad... I haven’t told him I love him yet. He doesn’t know.”

  “Keep your head about you. It won’t do him any good if you get in an accident on the way there because you’re worked up. I’ll call Claire and see if they can keep Kasey overnight, so don’t you or Toby worry about that. I’ll be praying for both of you the whole time.”

  She pressed a kiss to his temple and headed out, praying in the car the entire drive over. After hastily pulling into a parking spot in the back of the lot, Jenna made a dash through the rain to the automatic doors and gave Toby’s name at the front desk. A few minutes later she was shown back to a curtained-off room in the immediate-care section.

  “You can go on in. He’s been asking for you,” the nurse said before heading off.

  A police officer spotted her before she could go in with Toby. He filled her in about the accident. “Do you know that blind curve near the lake? It happened there. The other driver was on a motorcycle in the rain. It sounds like he’d gone out for a ride after it stopped the first time and hadn’t expected it to start up again so soon. The motorcyclist took the turn too wide. He was traveling in the opposite direction and crossed head-on into Toby’s lane on the curve. It’s clear that Toby tried to swerve, which was what caused his vehicle to roll. There was nothing he could have done to prevent this. Between you and me, his truck came to rest less than a foot from going over the cliff there.”

  Jenna steadied herself by placing a hand on the wall. “The motorcyclist?”

  The officer looked away. “He didn’t make it.”

  Someone had died tonight. Toby could have easily died. She still didn’t know the extent of his injuries. “Was it someone I would know?”

  He sighed. “The new pastor. Jacob Song.”

  Jenna covered her mouth with her hand. “Oh, his poor wife.”

  “I haven’t let Toby know yet.”

  “I’ll tell him. Thank you for all you’ve done.”

  Jenna knocked on the edge of the wall before pulling back the curtain. The metal links hooked along the ceiling made a jangling sound as she entered.

  Toby was tucked beneath the white sheets of a rolling hospital bed. They’d stripped him of his shirt and put him in one of those huge, ill-fitting gowns that dipped on his shoulder. An IV beeped at the side of the bed. A deep blue color framed his left eye—it would be a full shiner tomorrow—and the patched-up gash near his temple might leave a scar. More bruises dotted what she could see of his shoulder, where his seat belt would have been, and his left arm was covered in wrapping.

&n
bsp; He glanced away from the movie he was watching, and a soft, sleepy smile crept onto his face. “You came.”

  “Of course I came.” She crossed to the bed, dropped her purse into the chair and eased to sit on the edge of the bed. He automatically placed his hand on her thigh, and she lightly took his face in her hands and pressed her lips to his. It wasn’t the first thing she had originally planned to do, but her emotions took over. Tonight another woman had lost the man she loved. At that thought, Jenna deepened their kiss.

  “I love you,” she whispered from an inch away. “I’ve been in love with you since we were thirteen years old swapping secrets in our old tree house.” Another kiss.

  “Jenna.” He breathed her name against her lips.

  She pulled away. “I probably shouldn’t have started by walking in here and immediately laying one on you.”

  “It wasn’t just one.” He smiled. “And I see no problem with what you did.”

  “How are you?” She ran her fingers down his chest, looking for injuries.

  “I was pinned in my truck on its side. There was glass everywhere. It wrapped around a tree on the cliffs there.”

  Those trees were the only things that had prevented his SUV from going over the cliff and plummeting down onto the beach. Toby would have never known she loved him. All because she’d chosen to believe lies instead of stopping and seeing the truth. Never again.

  She would find the right time to tell him that their pastor, Jacob Song, died in the accident, but not right now. She needed to know how badly hurt he was first, and she needed his forgiveness. Then they’d grieve for their pastor together.

  He lifted up his gauze-covered arm. “This one’s cut up pretty bad, and I have some bleeding on my side and the leg on that side, too. I’m waiting for them to take me to some scan or other to make sure my internals are good. They said a few of my ribs are busted. That’s what hurts the most.”