The Promise of Palm Grove

by Shelley Shepard Gray

  The moment she reached their side, Mattie spoke. “Well, do you feel better now that you’ve gotten that out of your system?”

  She did, but she wasn’t so eager to share that. She was also getting a little tired of her two best friends in the world treating her like she was a disobedient child. “You don’t need to be so judgmental, Mattie.”

  “You’re chatting with men while being engaged to my bruder, Leona.”

  This was true.

  But it was also true that she wasn’t so sure being engaged to Edmund was the right thing for her. Not if she was so eager to go to the beach with Zack.

  Not if she was willing to risk everything to go to the beach with Zack.

  Therefore, she steeled herself, then did what she needed to do. “I’m going to Siesta Key with Zack tomorrow. Would you both like to join us?”

  As their expressions turned livid, Leona did the only thing she could. She resigned herself to the drama that was about to ensue.

  Chapter 8

  Four hours had passed since Marvin’s sisters had entered the Orange Blossom Inn and rattled Beverly’s carefully controlled life.

  Now, as stars slowly dotted the evening sky, the three of them were once again sitting together, chatting on the front porch, just as they had when back in Sugarcreek.

  They weren’t talking, however. Instead, each seemed lost in their thoughts, something that Beverly was grateful for since she couldn’t seem to do anything but relive Ida and Jean’s arrival.

  She’d been too shocked to do much but settle into autopilot at the time.

  Earlier, Beverly had gone from friendly and cordial to defensive and stiff the moment she’d spied Ida and Jean. And if her body language hadn’t given everyone in the room the warning that something was very wrong, Beverly was pretty sure her cool greeting had conveyed to one and all that some sort of trouble was about to ensue. And she wouldn’t have wanted to be a part of the conversation, either.

  In fact, the only people who hadn’t looked all that ill at ease were the two women who had caused her transformation. Instead, they’d merely smiled as if Beverly had greeted them like long-lost relatives, then carefully stowed their rolling suitcases against the wall.

  When they’d started walking around the gathering room, inspecting the many knickknacks and books that lined the shelves, Beverly had become flustered. She’d turned away and gone to the kitchen, supposedly to refill a pitcher of water, which made no sense, given the fact that everyone but Ida and Jean had left. But at least it gave her some much needed time to prepare herself to talk to the two women she’d once imagined would be her sisters-in-law.

  The sisters looked exactly the same as she remembered. Both were almost ten years older than Marvin. To Beverly’s best knowledge, neither of them had ever married, though she remembered Jean was being courted by a sheep farmer. Marvin had said that Ida was once courted, as a teenager, but the romance had never quite bloomed.

  Jean had always been a soft-spoken woman. She had a sweet, malleable personality, which matched the extra thirty or so pounds she carried on her delicate frame. Beverly wondered if she and that sheep farmer had ever married and if she was still as submissive to her sister’s wishes as she used to be. In all of her letter writing to her friends and family in Sugarcreek, Beverly had never felt brave enough to reclaim her friendship with the two women.

  And while some people made mention of Marvin’s family every now and then, most didn’t, no doubt out of consideration for Beverly.

  When Beverly had returned from the kitchen with the water pitcher, she’d watched from outside the doorway as Ida helped herself to a generous slice of lemon cake, and, having set it on a small side table, as she poured herself a steaming mug of tea and got some ready for Jean.

  Beverly had been unsure how to handle things. The cowardly part of her had wanted to act like the perfect hostess, invite them to sit down and begin chatting about nonsensical things. If she’d tried hard, Beverly was sure she could have pretended that they were merely long-lost acquaintances who wanted to do nothing more than catch up on trivial matters.

  Like talk about the weather, perhaps.

  But she’d realized, as she lurked outside the room, that something had happened in the three years since she’d last seen Marvin’s family. She’d become stronger. No longer was she going to be content to retreat inside herself.

  Now, hours later as the three of them were sitting on the front porch and quietly watching the stars, Beverly knew it was time to say something.

  No longer could she hold her pain and insecurities tight to her chest, burying them while she pretended nothing bothered her. Since she’d been in Pinecraft, she’d begun to stand up for herself.

  They needed to see that she had become stronger.

  She also wanted to understand what had brought them all the way to her inn. Were they merely curious about how she was doing, or did they have news for her? She needed to know.

  After the three of them smiled at a father walking by with a very sleepy little girl in his arms, she broke their silence. “Ida, Jean, I’m sorry I’ve been so distant,” she began. “Seeing you both was quite a shock.”

  Ida, always the bolder sister, simply nodded. “Jah, I imagine it was.”

  Feeling their expectations, she struggled with the best way to begin. “So . . . I mean, so, you see . . .”

  “I just have to say that your baking is as gut as it ever was, Beverly,” Ida said. “I always told Marvin that I’d never met a better baker. Why, you could have opened your own shop in Sugarcreek. I’m sure of it.”

  “Maybe you could even open one here in Sarasota,” Jean said brightly. “I mean, if you don’t think it’s too late.”

  It was. It was too late for a lot of things, including this reunion. “Thank you for the compliments. I’m, uh, glad you liked the food”—she paused but at last blurted—“Listen, I’m sorry. I simply don’t understand why you two are here.”

  “I can see why you’d be thinking that. It has been a long time,” Jean replied.

  “Yes.”

  “We meant to come down soon after you moved here, Beverly. Years ago.”

  “Years ago?” Beverly was dumbfounded.

  “Oh, jah.” Ida nodded. “But then I slipped on some black ice and tore a ligament or some such in my knee.” Raising her foot, she looked at it. “I had to have surgery, you see.”

  “It was awful,” Jean added with a meaningful wave of her hand. Just as if they’d had coffee together last week.

  “I’m sorry . . .”

  “Then, last year, we were going to come down but my Jason got the stomach flu, and you know how that goes.”

  “Jason?”

  “Oh! You might not have heard. Me and Amos got married soon after you left,” Jean said with a smile in her voice. “Ten months after that we had Jason.”

  “Oh! Congratulations to you and Amos. And, uh, I’m sorry Jason got sick.”

  Jean shrugged. “He was soon fine, but his illness did ruin our plans. But that’s the Lord’s will, I suppose. Everything is out of our hands.”

  “That’s one of the reasons we didn’t warn you that we were coming,” Ida explained. “We didn’t want to have to explain if we had to cancel again.”

  Since Beverly hadn’t known they’d ever planned to visit her, she thought it was a moot point. But that said, she decided to get to the heart of the matter. If Marvin had taught her anything, it was that no good came from pushing things off or pretending they weren’t happening.

  And since her last question had set off a great many comments about the state of their lives—but nothing that provided any answers—she decided more bluntness was necessary.

  “I’m sorry, but I still don’t understand why you decided to pay me a visit.”

  Ida’s gray-blue eyes were guileless. “Why wouldn’t we want to see you?”

  “Because Marvin and I . . .” She couldn’t believe it, but her eyes filled with tears. Even after a
ll this time, his rejection hurt.

  “There was no Marvin and you anything, dear,” Jean said with a surprising bit of tenderness lacing her voice. “Marvin fell in love with Regina right under your nose, that’s what he did.”

  Well, she wouldn’t have put it quite that way, though she supposed her statement summed up what had happened.

  “Yes. Yes, that’s what he did.”

  Ida pursed her lips. “I hope you didn’t think we condoned such actions.”

  Beverly hadn’t thought that. But then, well, she hadn’t really thought about much beyond the pain she was feeling.

  “I didn’t know what to think,” Beverly at last admitted. “I guess I imagined that we wouldn’t have anything to say to each other.”

  Ida gave a little cluck of disapproval. “Really? I thought we always got along. I thought we were friends. Did you not feel that way?”

  “Oh, jah. I mean, yes, I thought we were friends.” She bit her lip, tried to get herself to not say another word, but then went ahead and said it. “But you all seemed to get along just fine with Regina. I mean, I heard you did.”

  “We had no choice, dear,” Jean said. “Marvin married her.”

  “And Marvin is our baby brother,” Ida added.

  Looking pained, Jean continued. “However, we did tell Marvin that we were disappointed with his actions at the time. We told him quite forcefully, too.”

  “Not that it mattered,” Ida finished. “He always was a willful boy.”

  “He liked to be first in line—always,” Jean continued, then glanced at Beverly meaningfully, like Marvin’s selfish habits somehow correlated with why he’d practically left her at the altar.

  “I am sorry you’re still nursing old hurts, Beverly, but it has been three years,” Ida said as she leaned back a bit. “It’s time to move on.”

  “I have moved on. Obviously.” To prove her point, Beverly waved a hand around the porch. It was freshly painted, and surrounded by beautiful flowers. She’d made her Aunt Patty’s tired inn into a showplace.

  “Yes, you moved to Sarasota and took over this inn of your aunt’s,” Ida said, not sounding all that impressed. “Your mother told us all about that.”

  “It’s a great inn.”

  “It is beautiful, that is true. I love the orange trees dotting the front lawn,” Jean said. “I bet it smells heavenly come spring.”

  “It does. The orange blossoms are very pretty and do smell nice.”

  Ida crossed her legs. “It was kind of you to give us your bed.”

  “I want you both to be comfortable. Tomorrow, when I have a room available, I’ll help you get resituated.”

  “That’s mighty kind of you,” Ida said. “Where will you sleep tonight?”

  “There’s a small room near the kitchen with a pullout couch. I don’t rent it out much, but I’ll be fine in there.”

  If they could go to so much trouble to make sure she knew they hadn’t forgotten her, she could offer them her hospitality. Their slightly garrulous, very matter-of-fact ways stripped away a lot of the barriers she’d built around her heart . . . and those painful memories.

  They sat quietly for another few minutes, Ida gasping when she spied a shooting star.

  Smiling at Ida’s reaction, Beverly let herself relax. Perhaps this visit was going to go just fine.

  Then Jean coughed. “Beverly, dear, we should probably tell you something, in order to get everything out in the open, you know.”

  “Oh?”

  For the first time, Jean seemed uncomfortable. “Well, you might not have heard this, but Marvin and Regina are happy together. They have a little girl now, too.”

  They had a baby? A new flash of pain lit her heart, surprising her with its force. It seemed that every time she thought she was over Marvin and Regina’s love affair, she’d discover some new detail about their life and that pain would resurface just as if her heart had never healed.

  “I . . . I’m glad. Really glad,” she bit out. Then, before she said she was glad for a third time, she got to her feet. “Hey, how about you two relax here for a little bit? I should go inside and make sure none of the other guests need anything.”

  “All right, dear, take your time,” Ida said.

  Beverly was pretty sure Ida added something after that, but she’d already walked through the screen door. Thankfully.

  All she could think about at the moment was that Marvin and Regina were happy. And that they had a baby. They’d thrived in her absence.

  Until that moment, she’d begun to believe that she’d been thriving, too. But maybe she’d only been focusing on the inn. Maybe she’d forgotten that there was more to life than putting all her efforts into making a comfortable space for people to spend a few days of their time.

  And though she definitely did have some good friends here, she spent many more hours of the day simply chatting with strangers, never letting them get too close. Never letting herself get too involved.

  She’d especially never taken the time to return men’s smiles when she passed them on the sidewalk. She’d definitely never accepted any invitations to go to breakfast or lunch. Or for walks on the beach. Or to grab a cup of coffee.

  She’d been carefully, deliberately, keeping herself alone.

  Just so she wouldn’t get hurt again.

  It had taken a visit from Marvin’s sisters to shake her out of her self-imposed isolation. To make her realize that she didn’t have to be alone, and once more, she hadn’t ever had to be that way.

  It was definitely time to stop living in what could have been and start making plans for herself. Maybe, just maybe, it was time to remind herself that she wasn’t old.

  That she certainly wasn’t too old to one day fall in love again.

  Chapter 9

  Leona was having trouble keeping up with her two best friends. She had a very good idea that it was because they were currently acting nothing like her two best friends.

  “Come on,” she called out from behind them as they practically race-walked down the sidewalk like they were about to enter the next Pinecraft 5K. “You shouldn’t be so mad at me.”

  “You made a date with a man who is not my brother, Leona,” Mattie said over her shoulder. “Of course I’m going to be mad at you.” Of course, she said this loud enough for several people around them to overhear.

  Which made Leona mad enough to finally catch up and grab Mattie’s arm. “Slow down, wouldja? Please? I’ll be happy to talk with you both about why I said yes to Zack.”

  Sara looked pointedly at her over her shoulder. “Do you really think that you could have a gut reason, Leona?”

  She did. Well, she thought she did. But that didn’t mean Sara and Mattie were going to see things that way. “I think I have a real gut reason. I do. But I’m not gonna try to explain myself while running down the sidewalk.”

  Mattie glared. “Does it really matter where we talk?” She yanked at her arm, and looked ready to charge ahead.

  “I think so. This is important to me.”

  Sara looked her way again. However, this time her expression was more sympathetic. “You’re right, Leona,” she said slowly. “There is a time and place for everything, and it certainly isn’t out here in front of the rest of the world.” She tempered her speed a bit.

  “Danke,” Leona said under her breath. “So can we please go sit down somewhere and talk?”

  Sara looked around, and then pointed to a pair of benches right outside the front of the Palm Grove Mennonite Church. “Let’s go sit down over there.”

  “In front of the church where she met him?” Mattie asked, drawing out the last like it was an awful curse word.

  “Oh, stop, Mattie,” Sara said. “We need to talk, and this is as good a place as any. It’s not like it’s the church’s fault.”

  Leona hid her smile, but, secretly, she felt like raising her hand in triumph. There weren’t too many people who could stand up to Mattie’s strong personality, but Sara had
no problem meeting Mattie word for word, time and again.

  When they sat down—Mattie and Sara side by side, Leona on the bench right across—Leona tried to think of the right way to describe everything that had been slowly building up inside her for months, but she knew there wasn’t any graceful way to admit how she’d been feeling. Worse, she knew what she was about to tell them might very well end their friendship.

  “I don’t know where to start,” she finally said.

  “Just start in the middle,” Mattie said in typically Mattie fashion. “No matter what you say, we’re going to talk about it for hours.”

  Sara’s lips twitched. “At least that long. Maybe even a couple of days.”

  Mattie’s eyes lit up in amusement. “That’s what we do, jah? We analyze everything that happens to us so many different ways, we’re all sick of the topic by the time we’re done.”

  And then, to Leona’s amazement, she smiled.

  That smile was everything Leona needed. She stopped worrying about the perfect way to explain herself.

  “About five months ago, I was walking with Edmund after work,” she said slowly, remembering that afternoon in startling clarity. “It was the end of September and tons of tourists were on the streets. You know how that goes.”

  “Fall foliage.” Sara nodded.

  “Anyway, we were walking. I was tired from working at the fabric store, and Edmund was tired from working in the fields. There were tons of cars around us. Buggies, too. And bicycles. It was really crowded.” Her voice got softer as she remembered everything she’d been feeling.

  She’d been so hopeful for their future. So grateful that she wasn’t going to have to worry anymore about finding the perfect man.

  Looking at her intently, Maddie nodded. “And?”

  Leona took a deep breath. “Anyway, we were stopped at an intersection, waiting for the traffic to clear so we could cross . . . when all of a sudden a stray dog trotted down the sidewalk and looked about to dart out onto the street. It was a little thing. Anyone could tell it was a young dog, not a little puppy, but nowhere near full grown.”