by Arlene James
Sure of the rightness of his plan, he drove straight to the corporate office of Paxit Distributing on the northern outskirts of the DFW Metroplex, where the owner and CEO, Comer Paxton, received him into his Spartan office with obvious dread and resignation. The fellow fully expected Tyler to cancel his contract, which had been Tyler’s intention in the beginning. Now he had a better plan.
In a matter of a few hours, they hammered out a deal for Aldrich & Associates to buy Paxit Distributing and hire Paxton himself to run it. That would keep Paxit operational, allow it to settle the fines levied by the government, avoid any major rupture in the lines of supply and give Aldrich & Associates greater control over its own fate.
Getting the Aldrich board to sign off might take some doing, but Tyler knew it would work out when Comer Paxton gripped his hands together, bowed his head over them and exclaimed, “This is the answer to my prayers!”
“Funny you should say that,” Tyler told him, smiling. “It’s the answer to my prayers, too.”
Over the next short while, he watched Comer Paxton come alive. Worry and defeat seemed to fall away; hope blossomed in the man’s eyes. Corresponding gladness welled in Tyler. The sheer pleasure of finding a solution that protected this man’s life’s work and benefited everyone in the mix came as a surprise.
So this, Tyler thought, heading toward his own corporate offices, is joy. Funny that he should find it in the midst of dejection. He pushed that thought away, concentrating on business.
It did not, as Tyler had predicted, go smoothly with the board. Cassandra made an impassioned argument for Spencer-Hatten, and Shasta railed about the amount of money involved, but the numbers proved that Tyler’s plan would not only guarantee an uninterrupted chain of supply, it would ultimately lead to substantial savings and growth.
Ty tried to listen to every side of every point of the debate, exercising patience he hadn’t known he possessed. The arguing and the posturing endemic to his family continued as expected, but in the end even Cassandra voted in favor of Tyler’s proposal, proof to his mind that Charlotte and the rest of the Jefford family were keeping him in their prayers.
Over that next weekend, thoughts of Charlotte and the others came to him constantly, and every time they did, he remembered the prayer that he had “caught” from Holt at the prayer meeting.
Lord, make me a man You are proud to call Your own.
He went to church on Sunday, realizing that being a man to make God proud required more than intention on his part. He couldn’t just sit around waiting for God to create something in him that he did not actively pursue for himself. For the first time he became more than a mere observer. He really participated in the worship. He talked over things with God, too.
Still, something was missing. He kept thinking about that word grace. He mulled over the idea of talking to the pastor of his church about it, but he didn’t even know how to broach the subject. If he could just talk to Hap then this confusion would leave him, but talking to Hap meant talking to Charlotte or, even worse, not talking to her, not seeing her. But wasn’t that the case now?
He wondered if melancholy could kill a man.
Charlotte heard the creak of the screen door and quickly gulped back her tears, knowing that the night and the still, chilly air would amplify the smallest sound, even a sniff. Her brother’s footsteps—she’d know them anywhere—scraped against the pavement as he walked toward his truck, but then they shifted, and she knew she’d been found out.
She should have gone to bed. She’d meant to as soon as she’d told Hap and Holt that was where she was headed. Instead, she’d found herself sitting alone on the patio, steeped in self-pity. Grateful for the darkness of the shadow that sheltered her face from the stark revelation of the light at her back, she sat up a little straighter.
“What’re you doing out here?” Holt asked, his shadow falling long and lean across the paving stones.
She tried to sound as if she hadn’t been crying. “Just enjoying the peace and quiet.”
Holt’s shadow brought its hands to its hips. “You been crying over him.”
“Him?” Her head bowed beneath the weight of pretense.
“What is it about Tyler Aldrich that’s done this to you?” Holt demanded.
“I don’t know,” she answered softly, her voice wobbling.
“Well, it’s not his money,” Holt grumbled, “but just what it is I can’t figure out.”
She laughed mirthlessly, dashing tears from her eyes, and tried not to mentally run down a long list of what she liked about Tyler. “Actually, I’d like him a lot better without all that money.”
Holt’s feet scraped on the paving. “No, you wouldn’t. It would just make it easier.”
She shook her head, swallowing. “It’s more than that. It’s everything that goes with it.”
“That could change,” Holt said after a moment.
She dared not even contemplate the possibility. Instead, she calmed herself with the cold, hard truth. “I don’t see how.”
“You don’t have to,” Holt said harshly. Then his voice softened, though not without a touch of regret. “You ought to know that by now. We’ll pray on it. All right?”
Stepping forward, he laid his big, work-roughened hand on her shoulder. Smiling, Charlotte trapped it against her cheek.
“All right.”
On the second Wednesday evening in November, almost three weeks since he’d left Eden, Tyler stood looking out over the city at the distinctive Dallas skyline. He felt the emptiness of the apartment at his back. Sumptuous and far larger than a single man required, the Turtle Creek penthouse provided him with an upscale address, convenience and privacy, but in that moment he’d have gladly traded this place for a shabby little room with the furniture bolted to the wall, so long as that room was at the Heavenly Arms Motel.
Ty laid his forehead against the cool plate-glass window and spoke to God. “Help me here. I’m trying. I thought I knew what I was supposed to do, but now I’m just not sure.”
He knew what he wanted to do. He wanted to go back to Eden and see Charlotte and Hap and Holt and Ryan, Grover and Teddy and Justus, too. Answers could be found there, he felt sure, but complications waited there, too.
“My feelings for Charlotte haven’t gone away,” he told God, “and it seems foolish to put myself into a situation where I can’t expect anything but rejection and disappointment.”
Leaving before had inflicted what had felt like a mortal wound, and it still ached. He suspected it always would. Lifting a hand, he pressed it against the center of his chest. His heart beat solidly against his palm, echoing into the hollowness inside him. Suddenly he knew that he didn’t have anything to lose and everything to gain by returning to Eden.
Maybe he and Charlotte were not meant to be together, but the Jefford family had come into his life for a reason, and that reason had not yet been fully accomplished. Maybe his feelings for Charlotte were the price he paid for the work that God wanted to do in his life, and maybe he’d only now really opened himself up to what God wanted to do for him.
He took a deep breath and lifted his face to the night sky. Ambient light and pollution hid the stars, but that did not block the line of communication.
“All right,” he said. “I’ll go back if that’s what You want. If it’s not, well, I’m sure You can find a way to make that clear to me.”
For some time, he stood there, feeling small but peaceful.
Strange how he found the most peace in those moments when he felt the least like himself, the least like the Tyler Aldrich of old. That Tyler was someone “important.” This Tyler, the one he’d started to think of as the real Tyler, was just another soul in the great universe that he’d recently heard described as God’s footstool.
The thought humbled him, but maybe that needed to happen. He certainly liked this newly humbled Tyler better than the old “important” Tyler. No doubt God liked him better, too, but Ty suspected that he had a way to go
before either he or God could actually be proud of him.
He left from the office on the following Friday morning. This time he let everyone know where he could be reached and when he’d be back. Cassandra followed him out, making snide remarks and probing for information and weak spots.
“You’re actually going back to Podunksville?” she demanded, on the way to the elevator.
“The name of the town is Eden, Oklahoma.”
“You’re blowing off work again to play country bumpkin.”
Ty smiled. “Guess I just have the soul of a small-town boy.”
“It’s that woman,” she declared, folding her arms.
The elevator door slid open just then, and Tyler stepped inside, saying nothing. He pressed the button for the first sublevel where he and a few others parked. At the last moment, Cassandra slid into the elevator car with him.
“She’s no one,” Cassandra said tartly.
Tyler clamped his teeth against an angry retort. He had to swallow before he could point out, “You don’t even know her.”
“I know her type.”
“You think you know her type.”
“You’re an Aldrich!” Cassandra exclaimed. The elevator set down just as Cassandra stomped her foot. “You just like being a big fish in a small pond,” she accused, trailing him as he walked out into the parking basement. “You throw your money around, and they fawn and fall all over you, don’t they?”
The very idea amused him because it couldn’t have been further from the truth. “These people are my friends, Cassandra,” he said, moving toward the car and unlocking it remotely.
“Oh, please. Friends are of your own class.”
He paused in the act of opening the driver’s door and turned on her. “Class? Class? What is this, the 1800s?”
“You know what I mean!”
“Unfortunately, I do,” he said, yanking open the door and dropping down into the driver’s seat. “But let me tell you something. Not only are those people my friends, I am honored by them.”
He reflected bitterly that he’d hoped Cassandra might somehow become the kind of sister that Charlotte was to her brothers, then he realized suddenly that for that to happen, he first had to be the kind of brother that Holt and Ryan were. He tried to think how Holt or Ryan might take leave of their sister.
“See you on Monday,” he said stiffly, and then, almost against his will, he added, “By the way, I love you, even if you are a terrible snob.”
With that, he closed the door, started the engine and drove away, leaving her standing there with her mouth agape and a look of complete shock on her face.
He felt some surprise himself. He hadn’t planned to tell her that he loved her; he hadn’t even realized that he did until he’d said it. In fact, had anyone asked him if he loved his sister, he’d probably have responded with a lot of mumbo jumbo and qualifications meant to evade any real answer.
Perhaps it wouldn’t change anything, but he was glad that he’d said it. The very act of saying that he loved his sister had somehow freed him to do so. After all these years of fussing and fighting, he actually loved his big sister, and he intended to do a better job of it in the future.
He thought about that as he drove north, noting idly the changes in the landscape. With Thanksgiving almost upon them, the trees stood denuded. Even the dull, light brown grass had been swept clean of leaves by the swirling breeze that grew increasingly sharp the farther that he traveled. This time, though, he’d come prepared.
What he had not done was call ahead. It had never even occurred to him. Many times over these past weeks he’d reached for the telephone, hungry just for the sound of Charlotte’s voice, but then he’d told himself that it wouldn’t be fair to either of them. Oddly, though, when he’d made the decision to return to Eden, he’d never even thought of calling.
Now he wondered if she would want him to come. Others had said he’d always be welcome, but Charlotte had not. For all he knew, she might not even be there. He’d thought of her as tied to the motel, but nothing said she couldn’t leave for a few days. Maybe God didn’t intend for him to see her.
Gulping, Tyler promised himself that he would take whatever came. If it turned out that he could only spend time with Hap, then he’d spend time with Hap and gladly.
By the time he pulled up beneath the drive-through at the motel, he could barely wait to leap from the car, but he forced himself to walk sedately up the ramp and push through the door into the lobby. Hap met him in the middle of the floor, laughing and holding open his arms.
“Ty!”
They engaged in a warm hug punctuated with enthusiastic back pounding. “How are you?”
“Better just seeing you here,” Hap told him.
“You feeling okay? Arthritis bothering you?”
Hap waved that away. “How come you didn’t let us know you was coming? We’d have called out the troops to greet you.”
Ty just shrugged. “How is everyone?”
Hap grinned. “Everyone’s missed you,” he said slyly. “She’s in there laying the lunch table right now.”
Tyler looked to the apartment door. He hadn’t fooled Hap one bit, but he couldn’t have cared less. He smiled. “At least my timing’s good. I made it for lunch.”
“Go on,” Hap instructed with a jerk of his head.
Nodding his appreciation, Ty moved forward. His heart pounded harder with every step. He opened the door without knocking. Charlotte paused and looked up, the plate in her hand hovering over the table.
Tyler’s knees went weak; he wouldn’t have been surprised to find himself facedown on the rug the next moment. Instead, he somehow managed to step forward. She all but dropped the plate, and then she sat down hard in the chair she’d pulled out to give her access to the entire table.
Before he’d taken the next step Tyler knew that he needed this woman like he needed air and food and drink. He decided right then that he was going to have her in his life one way or another, even if it meant giving up everything in Dallas and staying here with her. First, though, he had to convince her that they belonged together.
From the look on her face, he figured he had reason to hope.
Charlotte laughed. Her heart had stopped when she’d looked up to find Ty standing there, but as he crossed the room her happiness bubbled over. Thrilled to the soles of her feet, she popped up again and went to meet him, mentally thanking God.
Over these past weeks, she’d wondered and pondered. Had she limited God by dismissing the possibility that He might mean for her and Ty to find a way to join their lives? It could only work, of course, if they were both totally open to God’s will. She’d been thinking, too, about Tyler’s understanding of that. She had, in fact, spent a good deal of time praying about it. Now, however, everything pretty much flew right out of her head.
She was so happy she hardly knew what to do with herself. Too happy. For once, she didn’t care.
“You’re here!”
He held her at arm’s length, grinning down at her. “And hungry. What’s for lunch?”
She laughed, blinking back the tears that burned behind her eyes. The past three weeks seemed like a moment to her now. Oddly, they’d felt like an eternity at the time.
“Homemade chicken noodle soup and crackers,” she told him.
“Sounds good. Can I help?”
“You’d better.” Beaming, she caught his hand and led him toward the kitchen, silently praying.
Thank You, Lord, but oh, what does this mean?
Something told her that only time would tell. God was in charge here. She would let things play out as He dictated and be glad that Tyler hadn’t forgotten them after all.
They spent an easy weekend, doing not much of anything. Holt and Hap went out for catfish that night, while Charlotte and Ty stayed in. Ryan joined them, having a rare Friday off during football season, for pizza that Ty had delivered all the way from Waurika.
Ty turned down the opportunity to
work off the extra calories with Ryan at the school gym the next morning. Instead he helped Charlotte finish her chores early so they could meander around the park, talking over the changes he’d made at the company and in dealing with his family.
She applauded his solution to the problem that had called him back to Dallas and tried to reinforce his instincts about dealing with his family by pointing out that no one could change anyone else, only oneself.
“You can’t control what they do or say, only how you react to it.”
“I hadn’t thought of it that way,” he admitted, “but it makes stellar sense.”
She ducked her head, pleased, and he slung an arm about her shoulders companionably. Excitement shimmered through her. How could it be possible, she wondered, to feel such exhilaration and such contentment in the very same moment? The feelings persisted all through the evening, which they spent with the family, talking and joking and playing dominoes with Hap and his friends.
They went to church together the next day, and she couldn’t help noticing how raptly Ty paid attention to everything that was said and done. After dinner, he had a long talk with Hap in the front room while she and Holt and Ryan cleaned up. Normally, she’d have left it to her brothers, but Ty had asked for this time alone with her grandfather.
Later, Ty suggested another walk, and they set off for the park once more, though evening had already settled in and he’d made it clear that he would be heading back to Dallas soon.
“Mind if I ask what you and Granddad were talking about?” she ventured when it became apparent that he wasn’t going to volunteer the information.
He tugged at his earlobe. “Ah, I just needed some things cleared up.”
“Was he able to do that for you?”
“Not sure yet.” Ty slanted a wry glance down at her. “I’ll let you know when I am.”
