Love Finds You in Sunflower, Kansas

by Pamela Tracy

  Annie knew that, and after just six days she had only one thing to say about Joe Kelly and his wanting to spend time with her.

  “Thank You, God.”

  * * * * *

  The church was about the same size as the one Annie had attended in Tucson, only here in Bonner Springs it was surrounded by lush green grass instead of rock.

  Annie followed her mother, Margaret, and Max through the entrance and into the foyer. People of all sizes, shapes, and ages gathered, all talking excitedly and seemingly glad to be at church.

  Annie shared that feeling.

  Max immediately started an awkward move-the-crutch, shake-a-hand, move-the-crutch-again path through his throng of friends, who treated Willa like they’d known her all her life.

  It wasn’t hard to feel accepted. The minute Max and Mom finished their greetings, people turned to Annie. For the next five minutes, she heard how nice she looked, how lucky she was to have a momma like Willa, and the question, “Where’s Joe?”

  “Thank you. Yes, I do look like Mom. I’m not sure where Joe is. I’m sure he’ll be here.”

  All she knew was that he’d been more than tired last night and left right after eating. Annie spent her time on the laptop googling the Jack and Janice Morning Show. There were all kinds of photos of Janice, some professional and some candid. Annie had zoomed in, studied the jewelry Janice wore, and made notes. By the time she finished, Annie figured out that Janice loved the color red. This meant Annie would be looking at spiny oyster, possibly some rhodochrosite, or maybe even red jasper. Janice was also more into display than subtlety, so Annie needed to go big.

  After three hours, she had an idea about what Janice really wanted and what she could create to show her. She’d draw on the plane, sketches that would turn into Janice’s dream jewelry.

  Annie had spent most of the night tossing and turning, thinking about the sketches. That explained why she was so tired at church.

  The last person to shake her hand with his calloused work-roughened one was Cliff Whittaker. “Did Joe tell you about the pigs?”

  “He did.”

  “Sure was a shame to lose half. But the ones alive are prime. I hear you’re leaving today. I told Joe to bring you by first. Mona’s already planning on you staying for lunch.”

  “He mentioned that. I’m not sure we came up with any definite plans.”

  “You ever see a baby pig?”

  “I’ve been to the state fair a time or two.”

  “In Arizona, right?”

  “Of course.”

  Cliff pshawed. “Them pigs are runts.”

  Annie laughed. “I believe you.”

  “I’ll remind Joe,” Cliff said as he walked off.

  The adult Bible school class was in the main auditorium. Just as the lesson began, Joe slipped in and sat beside Annie.

  “You were almost late,” Annie whispered.

  “I had things to do,” he whispered back. “And I’m never late for church unless it’s an emergency.”

  For the next forty-five minutes, the Sunday school teacher spoke about “Why Come to Services?” Then there was a ten-minute break for people to go gather kids from Sunday school and also for those who didn’t come to Sunday school to arrive and find a place to sit.

  Annie took the opportunity to run to the restroom. There were five women already there. They each agreed that she looked like her mother, was lucky to have Willa as a mother, and wanted to know what she thought of Joe.

  They didn’t really give her time to say what she thought. Instead they told her what they thought. It all boiled down to whoever finally caught him—and many had tried—would be a very lucky gal.

  Annie went back to her seat feeling somewhat torn. If this were Arizona and Joe was a Casa Grande or Tucson veterinarian, she’d feel very lucky.

  Her mother leaned over. “We’re invited to the Whittakers’ for lunch, too. I can hardly wait to see their place. Max has told me all about it. And Mona Whittaker is a painter. You didn’t tell me.”

  “She paints sunflowers. You saw the blue ones I brought home.”

  “But you didn’t tell me who made them.”

  A low murmur went through the auditorium. Annie’s eyes followed the wave. In the back of the church, Kyle followed his parents to a pew.

  Joe leaned over and whispered to his dad, “You see Missy or Marlee?”

  “Missy’s in the back. I didn’t see Marlee.”

  “If Missy’s here, then we have some hope that everything will work out. Right, Dad?”

  “I’m praying for it.”

  The main sermon was from Matthew 13: the sower. Just down from Annie, Max turned the pages of a well-worn Bible. Occasionally he wrote something down in a blue spiral notebook. Next to him, Mom had her Bible. It was newer, and Annie remembered Cathy urging them just three Christmases ago to chip in for it. Cathy realized before her sisters that the term “large print” meant something to their mother.

  Annie might have chipped in for the Bible, but today was the first time she’d really looked at it.

  She hadn’t even packed her own.

  Twenty minutes later, Annie knew that when it came to church, she had become the one who’d fallen on thorny ground. She also knew when it came to love, she was the one without roots.

  And at the moment, all she could think about was Margaret’s Scripture, about how to change. Unfortunately, there just wasn’t time to dwell on what could be.

  After the last “amen” and as the auditorium emptied, Annie found herself drawn once again to two words that tumbled through her mind when she attempted to pray: please and help.

  *****

  Joe parked his truck in front of Cliff’s house. Annie was behind him in her rental. His dad and Willa were behind her. They were already running late, thanks to every single member of the church wanting to talk to his dad and the Jamison ladies. Add to that Annie’s need to stop by Margaret’s and gather her belongings, and Joe doubted that he’d have a moment alone with her.

  He should have offered to take her to the airport. He could drive her rental. But then, how would he get back? It made no sense to ask his father to come fetch him. Although Dad would have volunteered eagerly.

  Annie stopped her vehicle and stepped out. Immediately, three of Cliff’s grandchildren surrounded her. As Joe moved to join her, Jacko at his heels, he heard the youngest one ask, “Where’s your kitten?”

  “Right now Boots is with Miss Margaret. She’s going to watch him until I can take him home.”

  “Where’s home?”

  “Arizona.”

  “Where’s that?”

  Joe left her to fend for herself—Jacko, the traitor, stayed with her—and went looking for Cliff. He found him in the barn, looking at his gilts. He pointed to one old girl. “She’s due anytime. I worried about her the whole time I was at church, prayed really. God hears prayers about pigs. I wonder if yesterday was a fluke or if I’ll lose more.”

  “I don’t know,” Joe said honestly. “I thought about it all night, and the only suggestion I have is they need to be restricted.”

  “Easier said than done,” Cliff responded. “These mobile pork chops are masters of escape.”

  “Well, I think probably your gilts got into something they shouldn’t have.”

  “Then why didn’t all the piglets die?”

  “I’m thinking the weak ones died and the strong ones lived.”

  “I guess I’ll get me some of these hog panels I’ve been reading about. They’re expensive, but losing ten piglets is expensive, too.” Cliff looked sheepish. “Plus, the grandchildren cried. Can’t have that.”

  Annie came into the pen, stepping carefully even though she had long ago exchanged the sandals she arrived in for tennis shoes.

  “Can I touch one?”

  “Yes, but just for a moment. They get cold away from their mamas. Let me fetch one,” Cliff offered gallantly, beating Joe.

  Joe checked out the remaining gilts
, all the while keeping an eye on Annie. He could hear her talking to Cliff, commenting on the fact the piglets’ eyes were open, remarking how round their stomachs were.

  After a moment, Annie was ready to return the piglet to its mama, and they all headed for the house. Inside, Willa and his dad were looking at photograph albums.

  “You’re in quite a few of them,” Willa said to Joe.

  “Preachers’ kids do a lot of visiting.”

  “Oh,” said Cliff, “and it couldn’t possibly be that you were over here every weekend wanting to ride the horses.”

  Cliff turned to Annie. “He started helping my boys after school. They hated grooming the horses and giving them indoor showers. Not Joe. He liked everything.”

  “Especially my cooking,” Mona hollered from the kitchen.

  Joe wound up in the same spot, Annie next to him, but the best news was that the extra chairs Mona had put around the table meant close quarters. Having Annie so close was bliss and torture. She would be gone in just an hour.

  Love at first sight wasn’t working out as well for Joe as it had for his father.

  “So,” Cliff said. “Kyle Hicks is back in town. Think he’ll stay?”

  “I hope so,” Joe’s father replied.

  “I take it you two ladies didn’t find the coins.”

  “No,” Willa said. “We’ve searched the house top to bottom.”

  Joe’s father beamed. “It’s cleaner than it’s ever been.”

  “You giving up?” Mona asked. She was sitting next to Willa.

  “No,” he answered, “just no longer in a hurry.”

  “Seems odd that you never found them,” Cliff said.

  “I always said someone from off the streets came in and took them.”

  “That makes no sense. If someone came off the streets, you’d have fed them and converted them,” Cliff pointed out.

  “If only it were that easy.”

  “Did you put the rest of the Stellas in a safety deposit box like I suggested?”

  “I did. But I took them out yesterday.”

  Joe looked from his dad to Cliff. They’d had this conversation a dozen times, minus the clean house portion. The Stellas had caused so many problems. At least most people blamed the Stellas, that is. Joe now knew the bigger picture.

  Max continued, “I took them out because of something Joe said at dinner Friday night. He was talking about my great-grandfather’s land, how it might be to live out there and start a large animal operation, complete with a mobile unit.”

  “That would be great,” Cliff said, and his two sons nodded.

  “Dad, it was just talk, for the future.”

  “This is your future. I’m giving you the Stellas. I suggest you sell them. Start your dream. I lived mine. I wouldn’t change even one thing, especially the last few weeks with Willa and Annie here. Friday night was the first time you forgot about the past, what you owe, and what’s in your way, and really told me your dream. You’ve worked hard. Make it come true.”

  “Dad, use the money and take Willa on an extreme honeymoon or something.”

  “Been there, done that,” Willa said. “I have all the T-shirts I need. Besides, I have to help take care of Annie’s kitten. Having a vet in the family is more important than a honeymoon.”

  “Honeymoon?” Cliff said.

  “Honeymoon!” the rest of the Whittakers echoed.

  “We haven’t even talked about a honeymoon.” Joe’s father suddenly looked willing to investigate the possibility.

  “Our honeymoon will be in Arizona when we go retrieve my belongings.”

  For a moment the conversation changed to the upcoming wedding. Then Mona, the voice of reason, asked, “How many Stellas you got?”

  “Enough to start Joe’s dream, whether it be a stationary or mobile clinic,” Max said. “If Joe wants something bad enough, he knows how to go get it.”

  Annie smiled. “I can hardly wait to see this all happen. It gives me reason to come back often.”

  Joe didn’t want that. He didn’t want her to come back often. He wanted her to stay.

  * * * * *

  It felt like leaving the Waltons, only with no John Boy. Even as they were getting into Max’s car to head back to Bonner Springs, Annie’s mother and Max gave Annie a bunch of last-minute directions. “Tell Cathy she can live in the house rent-free for the summer if she doesn’t go to summer school. Tell her to find a job. I don’t want to put the house on the market while Tucson is in such a real estate slump.”

  Max added his few. “Pack up and send the rest of your mom’s paint supplies if you can’t bring them on the plane next week. She’s excited to start. Oh, and send a few of her completed paintings. I’ll hang them in the living room.”

  Joe merely smiled and gave her a hug.

  It didn’t really feel like a hug. It felt like so much more. Annie allowed herself to get lost in it for just a moment, but she had a plane to catch and couldn’t let the touch of this man distract her.

  He’s just a guy I met on vacation, she told herself. Only she hadn’t been on vacation, and now—thanks to Mom and Max getting married—he’d be something more.

  He sure felt like something more.

  And then she thought she heard a whisper: “Don’t go.”

  But she wasn’t sure, and she pushed her way out of his arms before he could say it again, say it louder, and maybe change her mind.

  She didn’t want to go.

  She had to.

  Janice and her very publicized wedding could be her big break.

  She headed for her car, keeping her gaze on the driver’s side door, the steering wheel, and her luggage in the back. The tears pooling in her eyes were just happiness for her mother. Yes, that was it. Annie knew exactly where her jewelry was packed. She needed to concentrate on that. If all went well, between the online store and what she’d made here in Bonner Springs, she could convince Janice that Jamison Jewelry was the right choice for wedding party gifts.

  Getting a spot as part of their morning show would be more exposure than Annie had dreamed of.

  It was all she had worked toward for the last four years.

  She hadn’t dreamed of nor worked toward a boyfriend or marriage or kids.

  Of course, she hadn’t known Joe existed.

  Which is why she needed to drive away fast.

  It took an hour to get to the airport, check in her luggage, turn over the keys, and finish the paperwork on the rental. With a mere twenty minutes until her flight was called, Annie settled down in an uncomfortable black chair and took out her laptop. Maybe she could google and find a few testimonies about her jewelry and use them as a selling point. Maybe she could figure out which ones to pitch to Janice and why.

  Her cell sounded just as she was starting to shut everything down.

  “Honey,” her mother said, “is there any chance that Jacko got in the back of your rental car?”

  “No. He’d not only have crawled up to sit with me, but I’m sure he’d have been barking to get back to Joe. Why?”

  “When Joe went to leave the Whittakers’ place, he couldn’t find Jacko. They’ve searched everywhere on the farm. Right now, Joe, Cliff, and both of Cliff’s sons are out driving around looking. Max and I are headed out there, too. I’m just trying to think of someplace, anyplace, that Jacko could have gotten off to.”

  “Oh, wow. Joe loves that dog.”

  “Yes, and he’s worried that Jacko might have fallen in a hole or that a coyote or something got a hold of him.”

  “I didn’t even know that coyotes live in Kansas.”

  “They do.”

  Annie closed her eyes, picturing Jacko and Joe. He’d be frantic. “Oh, Mom. I hope everything turns out all right. Keep me posted.”

  Just as Annie turned off her cell, the overhead speaker announced her flight. Quickly, she put her laptop away and grabbed her carry-on.

  A line formed and Annie headed for its end. As people gathered behind her�
��jostling, talking, or just leaning against loved ones—she stepped to the side and let them pass.

  What was she doing?

  “You getting on?” It was a scraggly-haired boy in loose jeans and a T-shirt, carrying a skateboard.

  When she didn’t answer, he said, “Are you all right?”

  Her feet were glued to the floor. She wanted to move, wanted to get on the plane. She had plans, things to do, important things to do.

  The skateboarder waited. Annie looked at his shirt. It had Jesus on a skateboard, doing some kind of jump. The words underneath proclaimed, “Through Him I can do all things.”

  “I’m fine now. Thank you. I’ve decided not…” Her voice faltered. “I’ve decided not to leave.”

  She had something important to do.

  She turned, laptop and carry-on belongings bumping against her side, as she hurried back to the car rental kiosk.

  * * * * *

  Joe had been everywhere. He’d been over almost every acreage of Blue Sunflower Farm. When finally convinced that the Whittakers could handle that part of the search, he headed for his great-greatgrandfather’s place. That was within the distance Jacko would travel. Now he was driving aimlessly, stopping every once in a while to get out and shout Jacko’s name.

  Where to go? Where to go?

  Surely he wouldn’t lose his dog on the same day he’d lost Annie.

  He slowed the vehicle as a weathered orange and yellow sign came into view. The Sunflower Ordnance Plant. As a kid, he and Kyle had found a hole in the fence and explored the place. They’d barely scratched the surface it was so huge, but what they did see was run-down and fascinating, full of history and full of debris.

  Joe drove down one of the dirt roads, parked his car by an old white sign stating SPEED LIMIT 35, and exited.

  “Jacko! Where are you, boy? Jacko!”

  Only the wind gave any kind of answer. If Joe had been worried about Jacko falling down a hole or something, then the Sunflower Ordnance offered a wealth of opportunity.

  It wasn’t hard to get in. Joe merely climbed over a rickety fence and looked around. The trees were full of leaves. The fence went on for miles. There were water towers, four of them, and an old stone cottage to explore. Once Joe turned from the cottage, he headed toward what looked like bunkers. The way they were built made it look like their roofs were made of grass.