“I would have tried to help her back then if I’d have known what happened, when she first lost her sight.” He thought about her shoving away from him a moment ago. “I wish she’d let me help her now.”
“I’ve been praying for Georgiana to find what she needs. She needs a friend, someone she can trust who can help her overcome the pain of her past. I honestly think you’re the answer to my prayers. Don’t give up on her, Landon.”
“I won’t.” In fact, he would make sure Georgiana found a reason to live again. And if he had his way, a reason to love again.
Chapter Five
“Casey called me on my way home from the plant and said he’s having dinner with Nadia’s family. They wanted to do something special for him before he leaves Monday.” John exited the house to find Landon grilling steaks on the back deck. “Hard to believe he’s heading to college in just two days.”
“Wish I’d have gotten a little more time with him before he leaves.” Landon hadn’t seen Casey at all today. His youngest brother had already headed out by the time he got back from Georgie’s place this morning. Then Landon had kept himself occupied with work around the farm and with finalizing his plans for John throughout the day. Plus he’d gone to the feed store. If Casey had made a reappearance, he missed it. But Landon had wanted—needed—to stay busy. Anything to keep his mind off this morning’s visit with Georgiana. All he wanted to do was go back over there and be with her, but he knew that wasn’t what was best. He needed to give her time and perhaps give Eden time to talk to her and convince her to give Landon a chance to help her through her troubles. He planned to wait it out today, see Eden tomorrow at church and figure out where to go from here. In the meantime, he’d spend the evening catching up with his brother and eventually tell John what he’d done for him this afternoon.
“Well, I’ve got a pretty strong feeling Casey is gonna be coming home from school fairly often, not so much to see the two of us, but definitely to see Nadia,” John said with a grin.
“You know, I bet you’re right.” Landon kept his tone normal and made certain his worry for Georgiana didn’t show through.
John checked the abundance of meat on the grill. “Have mercy, how many people are you feeding? Did you invite Georgiana?”
“No, the visit this morning didn’t go as well as I’d hoped.” He could tell his brother that much.
“She and Pete are divorced though, right?”
“Yeah.”
“He jumped ship when she lost her sight, huh?”
“Looks that way.”
“Sounds like he’s still the same ol’ Pete we knew in high school. Only wants something if it’s perfect.”
Landon nodded. Pete was their quarterback on the football team, and most of the school, and the town, thought he was downright amazing. But Landon and John had never been fooled. He was conceited, loved to party and was the most materialistic individual Landon had ever met. And he’d snowed Georgiana long enough for her to believe he’d really changed.
“Maybe Georgiana’s still in shock from dealing with him. Probably needs a little time before talking to another member of the opposite sex, even if it’s friendship.” John shrugged. “That could be it. She’d have reason to be gun-shy if Pete did a number on her emotions.”
“I’m going to try to talk to her again,” Landon said. “Just giving her a little time first.”
John nodded his head toward the meat. “So, if you didn’t invite Georgiana—and a small army—who’s gonna eat all of that?”
“I’d planned on Casey eating his share and then some, since he practically cleaned everyone’s plates at Nelson’s last night. But if he’s eating with the Berrys, it looks like we’re going to have some serious leftovers.”
John grabbed a water bottle from the small fridge they kept on the deck. “Not a problem. Steak and eggs are Casey’s favorite for breakfast, so we’ll give him a treat tomorrow morning before church.”
“Steak and eggs work for me too,” Landon said.
John still wore his work clothes from the steel mill, and Landon easily detected the metallic scent of the plant on the worn blue fabric. For some reason, John looked older than his twenty-eight years when he came home from the plant. It wasn’t because the work was too hard for Landon’s brother. There wasn’t any kind of work more labor-intensive than farm work, but working on the farm was something John enjoyed. Landon knew his brother didn’t enjoy working at the plant, but it was necessary. Or it had been for the past few years.
Not anymore.
But John didn’t know that yet. In a few minutes though, he would. Landon felt great about what he’d accomplished today while John was gone. He glanced at his brother. John had donned his traditional Claremont baseball cap on the way home, and Landon was reminded of the fact that ten years ago, when John had played ball at the high school, he’d dreamed of having a better life. Going to college, getting a business degree and starting some type of business that would revolve around the farm and help the place thrive instead of merely survive.
Landon leaned against the porch railing near the grill. “I have something to talk to you about.”
John sat in one of the rocking chairs lining the deck and took a long drink of water. Then he rubbed the back of his hand across his mouth and eyed his older brother. “More about Georgiana?”
“Nope.”
“The farm? Because I had an idea today.”
“I’m definitely interested in your idea, but this doesn’t have to do with the farm. It’s about you.”
John’s look turned curious. “All right, what’s up?”
“You’re only working at the steel plant now, right? No other jobs?”
John frowned. “Yeah, but not by choice. The feed store’s sales dropped with livestock grazing more in the summer so they had to let me go. And the office supply store also cut half of their third-shift stockers, so I lost that one too. But I’ve applied to a couple of other places that may pan out. I can always swap to third shift at the plant if a day job opens up somewhere.”
Landon would tell him what he learned at the feed store later. First things first. “You said you already saved enough for Casey’s college expenses?”
“Yeah, I did. Not just me though; some of the money you sent every month went into that fund too.” He locked eyes with Landon. “The money you sent really helped out. I don’t know what we’d have done without it.” He frowned. “I’d really hoped to get things in better shape before you got back.”
Landon sent money every month, but if he’d realized how John had taken on extra jobs, he’d have sent more. Even so, he had saved the majority of his income while he was in the service and now thought it pretty bizarre how their thoughts had been so similar. He’d had a goal to help a brother as well.
“I did send some money,” Landon said, “but I saved some too. And I saved it with a purpose in mind.”
One of John’s dark brows lifted. “What purpose?”
“The thing is, I want you to know how much I appreciate you working so hard to take care of Casey while I was gone and saving the money to pay for him to go to Alabama.”
“You don’t have to thank me,” John said, clearly a little uncomfortable with the sentimental turn of the conversation. Not very guy-like to sit and talk about how thankful they were for each other. A decade ago they’d have merely shoved each other and let that be the extent of their brotherly expressions. But Landon had learned during his time in the service that sometimes you never got a chance to tell people, show people, how much they mean before they’re gone. He wasn’t going to make that mistake with his brother, and he definitely wasn’t going to downplay everything John had done.
“I know I don’t have to thank you, but I want to.” Landon turned the meat, then closed the grill and moved to sit beside his brother
. “And I want to do something else too, something I’ve planned for a while.” He smiled. “About eight years of planning, actually. Something that involves you.”
“Something you’ve been planning eight years that involves me? Should I be worried about whatever you’re about to say?” John looked skeptical.
“Nah, I think you should be pretty happy about it.” He’d looked forward to this conversation since the day he’d made the decision to help John out, and he couldn’t wait to see how his brother reacted to the news.
John set his water bottle on the small wooden table by his rocker, inhaled deep and let it out. “Okay, I’m not sure what you’re about to tell me, but let ’er rip. I’m ready.”
Landon nodded, knowing John was indeed ready for the next stage in his life, a stage he should have entered about ten years ago. But the farm had been struggling financially then as well, and they’d had to take care of their mother during her depression. So John had given up on his dream.
But Landon hadn’t.
“You know how you were working so hard and saving the money to pay for Casey to go to school,” Landon started.
“Yeah,” John said, and quickly added, “but I wanted to.”
“I know that, and I admire it.” If Landon couldn’t already tell how uncomfortable John was with his gratitude, he’d have elaborated on how much he admired everything John had sacrificed to take care of Casey, but instead he said, “Well, like I said, I was saving too.”
John’s head tilted, causing his baseball cap to look a little lopsided. “Saving for...”
Landon smiled. “I was saving for you.”
John blinked. “For me?”
“Yeah, and I kind of set it all in motion earlier today, so I hope that you’ll want it as much as you used to.”
Undeniably thrown, John asked, “Are you going to tell me what you’ve done or have I got to guess? ’Cause I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“While you were saving for Casey’s college education, I was saving for yours. I know you wanted to get a business degree and eventually run some kind of business that involved the farm, more than selling beef. And I want you to get that degree.”
John’s mouth dropped open and then he shook his head. “Dude, what’d you go and do?”
Landon laughed at the way John swiftly went back into high school conversation. Raising Casey had worn off on him more than he probably realized. “I registered you for classes at the college in Stockville. And I’ve saved enough for you to get a four-year degree too. I have enough for you to go pretty much anywhere you want, but I figured you’d probably want to stay near the farm. So I registered you at Stockville, just twenty minutes away. Classes start this week.”
John’s jaw clenched, and he pulled at his lower lip with his teeth. Landon knew the look. It was the same attempt to hide emotion that John had the day they lost their father. And again at their mother’s funeral. John was pretty good at holding it all inside, but not good enough that Landon couldn’t see that he was touched. Then John visibly swallowed and looked at Landon. “Man, I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything.” Landon stood, moved to the grill and returned his attention to the steaks. “But you do need to log in and finish the information on your student record. There were a few things I didn’t know. You should have an e-mail with your log-in information.”
“That would be awesome, really it would, man, but...” John shook his head. “I don’t think I can. I mean, I can finish the student info, but I don’t think I’m able to go back to school.”
“Why not?” Landon hadn’t anticipated John turning down his offer...at all. “It’s what you’ve always wanted, right?”
“Yeah, yeah it is.” His head continued to shake, and his mouth shifted to a frown. “But there’s the farm. If you’ve got money saved, we should put it toward the loans, don’t you think?”
Landon processed the main thing John still hadn’t said, and it was time to get everything on the table and make a plan. “The farm—how bad is it?”
“The economy has killed us over the past few years. Beef sales have dropped, and I never was any good at crops. I tried it one year, but nothing yielded. I don’t even know what I did wrong.” He shook his head defeatedly. “I even tried fixing up all the old fishing shacks on the other end of the pastures, thought maybe I could rent them out, but I didn’t have the funds to finish or to advertise.” John inhaled thickly, blew it out. “I’m almost a year behind on everything. The bank’s been lenient because of them knowing us and all, but they’ve done all they can. I think I was lucky to get six more months to catch up before they foreclose.”
Landon felt like he was back in Afghanistan and the world was literally blowing up all around him. The situation was even worse than he’d realized, but he wasn’t going to throw in the towel. And he wasn’t going to give up on John’s dream. “They aren’t going to take it, and you are going back to school.”
“I really think we should use that money you saved for my college to cover some back payments on the farm. I can go back to school later, but I really appreciate what you tried to do.”
“Let me think a minute.” Landon rubbed his head and concentrated on a strategy to tackle their problem. He rocked back and forth in the chair. Come on, Lord. Help me know what we should do. We can’t lose the farm, but I don’t want to give up on John going back to school either. Help me, Lord.
“Do you want to see the account statements? I have them in the kitchen.” John stood and moved toward the door.
“Yeah, let me take a look at them.” Within a couple of minutes, Landon held the statements for three loans, all fairly substantial and each nearly a year past due.
“I’m catching up, but like I said, I was behind already, and I was also saving for Casey’s education.” They sat for a moment in silence then John said, “I’ll grab the steaks while you look those over.” He got the meat from the grill and brought it inside, and Landon followed him into the house.
After filling their plates with steak, corn on the cob and baked potatoes, they sat at the wooden table that centered the kitchen and blessed their meal. John didn’t say anything, but started eating. Landon, however, didn’t lift a utensil. He sat back in his chair and ironed out his strategy.
Thank you, Lord. I think I’ve got it now.
“You going to eat?” John asked between bites.
“Yeah,” Landon said with a grin. “I am. And you’re going back to school.” He cut into his steak, popped a big bite in his mouth and closed his eyes to enjoy the savory meat. “I tell you what, I didn’t get food like this in the army.”
Now John had stopped eating. “I’m going back to school? How you figure?”
“I’d saved enough to pay for four years. From what I saw on those statements, it’ll take three years of it to get the majority of the back payments caught up. So I’ll take care of doing that this week. You’ll go ahead and start back to school and also start researching other ways the farm can earn more income. There’ve got to be other things we can do besides beef. I know a thing or two about crops, but it’s too late for planting anything this season, so we’ll have to plan that for next year. In the meantime, I already lined up a job off the farm.”
“Already lined up a job? You’ve only been in town a day,” John said, baffled.
“Had to go get feed today. When I got there, Mr. Ramer asked when you could start working again, because he had a guy quit and needed someone who can work the store and make deliveries.” Landon grinned. “I told him you weren’t available, but I was.” He took a bite of potatoes. “I start Monday.”
John couldn’t contain his grin. “So you’re gonna work at the feed store, and I’m going back to school?”
“That’s the plan.”
“And my first
year of college is covered,” John continued, obviously trying to follow the abundance of information Landon had spouted.
“Yeah, and we’ll get the farm back on track enough that we’ll be able to save that money for your next three years too,” Landon said. “I want you to get that degree.”
“Any idea how we’ll go about doing that? Not getting me back to school but getting the farm back on track? You said the money you have saved will get the majority of the back payments. We’ve still got to get caught up and also make the payments the rest of the year, so that we’re all caught up by the spring, if we don’t want the bank to take everything.”
“I figure you’ll come up with an idea for how we’ll do it. You’re the one who’ll be studying business. And you should only go to school and work on the farm. If you’re going to do this right, you’ll need time to study and time to iron out how we’re going to implement some kind of business plan around here. You won’t have time to work other jobs too.”
“I can’t give up the steel plant,” John said flatly. “That’s where I have mine and Casey’s insurance covered, and honestly, that regular income has saved us over the past few years, even if it isn’t all that much. I can easily swap to third shift, three days on and four days off. I can do that and go to school, no problem.”
Landon took another bite of steak. “I really didn’t plan on you working and going to school, but I suppose if you’ve been handling the farm and three jobs, then you can probably still pull off the steel plant.”
“And it’ll be worth it for that insurance,” John said.
“Yeah, I suppose it will.”
John stabbed a bite of steak and popped it in his mouth. “You sure about working at the feed store? I thought you were planning to come home and run the farm.”
“You’ve worked three jobs, run the farm and raised Casey. Yes, I’m sure. It’s my turn to do my part.”
“And I’ll go to school,” John said, his desire to smile now almost breaking free. No doubt he was excited about the idea of getting that degree.
Love Reunited Page 6
