First Street Church: Love's Double Blessing (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Clear Creek Legacy Book 2)

by Linda K. Hubalek

  Tomorrow started a new day for the four of them.

  Chapter 9

  From where he stood in front of the stove in the kitchen, Riel barely heard the back door open and close above the noise of the running washer and dryer. He glanced up from pouring pancake batter in the sizzling skillet to see Jenna timidly walk in the room.

  Riel turned back to study the bubbles forming on the edge of the pancakes. The kids were picky on the color of the pancakes. He picked up the bottle of grape jelly, hesitated a moment, then squeezed lines of the purple stuff to form happy faces on the pancakes.

  This morning he'd like to squeeze frowns and cuss words on the pancakes, but he couldn't express his anger at his role as temporary...man in charge. Not guardian, adopting father, or Jenna's future husband.

  He hoped Jenna got some sleep last night because he was going to hide in the hayloft for a nap before the day was over. No, better to get in his pickup and to the far end of the pasture. The dogs would bark and whine below the hayloft wanting attention. Maybe he'd take Lucy along. She hadn't gotten much sleep the last week either.

  "Good morning," Jenna finally said as she walked in to see what he was doing.

  "Morning," was his curt answer.

  "How'd the kids sleep last night?"

  "You hear the washer and dryer going already this morning. I'm not sure who peed in my bed last night, and at this point of exhaustion, might have been Lucy or me."

  Riel flipped the first pancake as Jenna gasped in surprise. He shouldn't have said that, but he was tired, more than he'd ever been in the military he decided last night as he sat against the headboard with a crying child on either side of him. If Amie teared up, RJ always followed suit. It had been better the night before, but seeing Jenna, with the combination of Thanksgiving without their parents, had made it a hard night for all of them.

  "I'm so sorry for dragging you into this, Riel. And I can't ever repay you for all you've done for the children, and me."

  Riel shrugged off her thanks without looking her way. He turned his attention to the skillet of sizzling bacon, checking to see if they were ready to turn.

  "What do you want for breakfast? I'm going to add some eggs to the bacon skillet in a minute. I need some greasy protein this morning."

  "I'll eat whatever you fix, thanks."

  Riel heard her get a mug out of the cupboard and pour herself a cup of coffee out of the automatic coffeemaker.

  "I'll set the table," Jenna said as she opened another cupboard door.

  "Don't bother. I have the plates and silverware sitting by the stove. I plate it up and set it on the table instead of putting it in serving dishes. I don't want to wash more dishes than I have to."

  They both turned when they heard Grandpa talking to the children as they walked through the living room. The kitchen and utility room were the opposite end of the house from the bedrooms with the living room in the middle.

  "Good morning! Look who I found hiding behind the shower curtain in the bathroom?" His grandpa had a hand on each child's head guiding them to their booster seats at the kitchen table.

  And no doubt they caught him at an inopportune time. Hope his pants weren’t down around his ankles when they jumped out of the tub. Living with two children quickly taught Riel you were never alone, and the kids heard everything.

  “Good morning!” Jenna answered back as she left his side to hug each child. “It’s so good to see you this morning.”

  “Did you find our note and eat the pie?” Amie asked.

  “Yes, I did. Thank you so much. And thank you for helping…uh, Uncle Riel with Thanksgiving. I was so tired yesterday I don’t think I thanked you properly.”

  “It’s okay,” Amie shrugged as she moved to her chair. “Uncle Riel took care of everything.”

  Riel watched Jenna flitch from her remark. Of course, he was as bad as Amie was at throwing barbs this morning too.

  Time to set the course and mood for the day.

  “Who wants smiling pancakes this morning?”

  “Me, me!” RJ shouted. The kid had a bottomless stomach. How much would he eat in a meal when he was fourteen and growing? Riel knew RJ’s father was a huge man because he’d seen him during football games on TV.

  Would the four of them be sitting around this table for breakfast in a decade? Riel hoped so.

  “Uh, uh, uh, RJ. Wait until I get everyone’s plates on the table. Grace before food.”

  “Ah! But I’m hungry!” RJ pleaded.

  “Ten, nine, eight…” Riel started to count as he hurried to plate the food.

  Jenna’s eyebrows dipped when she heard everyone counting out loud.

  By the time they reached one—and whispering it instead of shouting—Riel was sitting at the table with his plate in front of him.

  “Let’s hold hands and say grace together.”

  Riel reached for Jenna’s hand and gave it a squeeze. They’d need patience and the good God to help them raise these kids—if Jenna decided to include him in her ready-made family.

  *

  “Can we talk for a minute while the kids are in the other room?”

  “Sure.” He was still scrubbing the second skillet in the kitchen sink, but he’d listen. Jenna leaned back against the kitchen counter, her wedding notebook open in one hand, and a pen poised to write in the other.

  Was she telling him what she had, or still needed to cancel? Or had she already torn that section from the notebook?

  “I’ve started a list of things I need to do for the kids.” She waited for him to acknowledge that, so he shrugged.

  “I think I found all the necessary paperwork I need to enroll Amie in school on Monday. Sunday, I’ll drive by the school after church, so she can see the building.”

  “We’ve already driven by it.” On one of the many trips to town they’d taken this week.

  “Okay.” She moved her finger down her list.

  “The caseworker gave me the location of the Child Protection Agency for our area. I need to contact them, so they know the children are here.”

  “Two women from the local agency made their first inspection Tuesday morning.”

  “What? Already? How did it go?”

  “Not. Well,” he answered reaching for a towel to dry his hands, “since I didn’t know they were coming, which I guess was their plan. It was seven thirty in the morning, RJ needed to use the bathroom, but Grandpa was already in there. I let Lucy outside to do her morning business, and noticed RJ standing on the porch doing his business just as the agency car pulls in front of the house.”

  His mouth twerked thinking of the scene now, but it was bad timing for all of them.

  “Oh. No.”

  “Try, oh yes. I was a stranger, not on their list of contacts—”

  “Why didn’t you call me to verify you?”

  “I tried. You didn’t answer your phone or return my messages to call me ASAP as I asked.”

  Jenna’s face turned red, so she’d seen the calls, but had ignored them.

  “Thankfully your dad had stayed overnight with us, and hadn’t left for his ranch yet. He was on the approved list.”

  “I’m so sorry, Riel. When Mom and I picked up the kids, I didn’t think to put your name and contact information on the list.”

  Riel took a big breath to erase that memory from his mind. “Anyway, they inspected the house, saw we had painted appropriate boy and girl colors in the rooms and agreed to leave the kids here.

  “You should know—when the caseworkers come next time—your dad lied for you. He said you’d been here with the children, but went back to Dallas the evening before to pick up something from the house you’d forgot.”

  Jenna slid her arms around Riel’s middle and gave him a quick hug before pulling away again. He’d missed her hugs, her kisses, her reaching for his hand to hold.

  And now she was back to searching her list. How long was it?

  “I need to talk to a lawyer about the guardianship and
how to proceed adopting the children.”

  “I imagine the lawyer Grandpa uses will help you. He seems like a good man.”

  “Thank you. Could you go with me? I hope to get an appointment today or on Monday.”

  That caught Riel off guard, but two people listening to a legal conversation made more sense to keep it straight.

  “If you can leave the children with your folks. Grandpa needs a break. He’s used to peace, quiet, a clean house, and meals on time. This week has been rough on him.”

  “I need to apologize to him for turning his world upside down.”

  “That, and make his favorite hamburger casserole for supper,” Riel said to lighten the tone. He knew how overwhelmed all of this was to her, because he was going through it too.

  Jenna stared at him a few long seconds, then turned to another page in her notebook. She put her finger on a line, then turned the notebook for Riel to see it. “I put another thing to do on my original list this morning.”

  Ask if Riel will put his engagement ring back on my finger.

  “Riel, I’m so, so sorry I doubted you. I panicked. You’ve been the solid rock for all of us while I crumbled from the stress and anxiety.”

  Riel shut his eyes and prayed thank you.

  “Can you forgive me, and we start over? I promise I’ll talk to you first when the next crisis hits.”

  Riel was ready to take her back, but he wanted to get to the bottom of her breaking their engagement first.

  “With two little kids, there will be lots of large and small crisis ahead. But the biggest question is if you can trust me with my PTSD issues. That’s the reason you panicked to begin with, right?”

  “Yes. I was afraid you couldn’t handle two children being thrust into your life like they were. I know you wouldn’t intentionally hurt them, but I didn’t know what would happen if you had nightmares around them.”

  Riel thought back to the last two times he’d waken up in a cold sweat. The first night they were back to the house, he woke up panicking, not knowing where he was. Lucy licking his face woke him up the first time. The children, in bed with him and Lucy, sat on the far side of the bed, wide-eyed and in shock of what he must have been saying or doing in his sleep. Riel explained as best he could, for their age, what had happened in his nightmare and how Lucy, who’s usually in his bedroom at night for this very reason, knows to wake him up. They asked questions and he tried to answer so the kids felt safe around him.

  The second time it happened, Riel woke up with Lucy licking his face, Amie stroking his forehead and RJ tugging his left ear. They weren’t afraid, and they wanted to help and comfort him.

  That was the turning point for Riel. He hadn’t had a nightmare since that night. He wanted children in their marriage, if Jenna gave him a chance.

  He was so glad his chance had been added to Jenna’s list.

  “Me and the kids all had nightmares the first few nights, but Lucy showed us how to work through them.”

  Jenna relaxed her chest against his, the notebook forgotten on the counter. Riel put his arms around Jenna and gave her a “welcome back” kiss she’d remember for a long time.

  “Does this mean I get my engagement ring back? I’ll share two cute kids with you forever if you’ll put the ring on my finger again, and marry me next month.”

  Riel grinned, then kissed Jenna again.

  Chapter 10

  "No! I don't want to go to school there. I want to go home!" Amie screamed from the back seat of the pickup. Jenna knew Amie meant home, as in Dallas, not the ranch.

  The children were subdued in church this morning. Amie was with Jenna as she taught her Sunday School class. Riel went with RJ to sit with him in the four-year-old's class. The children clung to her and Riel as they introduced them to people in the congregation who asked about the children. Most people offered sympathy, which made them sad and tense.

  "Amie," Riel called as he waited for her to meet his eyes in the rearview mirror, "I'm sorry, but we've talked about this. We're a family now and you'll go to school where we all live, on the Cooper Ranch near Sweet Grove, Texas."

  "That's Grandpa's Russ's ranch. Me and RJ live in Dallas," Amie sniped back to Riel.

  Jenna knew this argument could go back and forth all the way back to the ranch as it had for the past two days. She couldn't blame the child for being so upset, it was only natural to act this way after their parents' death.

  Amie was mad now, going through another phase of grief. She was mad at her parents, at Jenna and Riel, and the world in general. Lucy was the one Amie ran to for comfort now. Thank you, Lord, for such a sweet puppy!

  "Maybe it's time to think of a new name for the ranch then since it's all our home now." Riel had explained to the children how he'd been wounded overseas and came to his grandpa's ranch to heal. He'd even shown the kids his artificial foot. Rather than be afraid, they were fascinated with his prosthesis and leg stump, and asked a dozen questions.

  The children knew her story since they had been around Tug. His death would have been the first time they’d experienced the loss of a person they’d known. But being so young, it meant that a person was there one day, then gone the next.

  They explained that their parents were in heaven looking down on them, whether they were outside, or in their rooms. Riel had told Jenna later that's why he added clouds and stars to the children's ceilings, so day or night, there would be a sky to look up to.

  For not wanting children in their marriage, Riel had jumped into fatherhood with both feet. Jenna was so blessed to have fallen in love with this man.

  "Shall we call it Lucy's Ranch? She seems to be in charge most days," Riel looked in the rearview mirror at the kids again.

  "But there's three other dogs who might have their feelings hurt," Jenna added to calm the backseat outburst. "But then we have two horse, sheep, cattle, chickens, and cats too."

  "It doesn't matter because we're going home!" Amie yelled.

  "But Lucy doesn't live there, or the cats," RJ hesitantly contradicted his sister. By luck RJ had caught a kitten who didn't mind his awkward loving. Somehow the kitten ended up in RJ's room last night, leaving a little mess on the floor rug Jenna accidently stepped on this morning.

  They stopped at the Sweet Grove Market after church and bought cat litter, knowing the cat would end up living in the house.

  The Good Shepard Ranch popped in Jenna's mind because of how Riel had helped her and the children. They had told Amie and RJ they were getting married, so they knew her last name would change to Shepard, like Riel's. So far, they hadn't talked to Amie and RJ about her and Riel adopting them, and changing their names to Shepard too. Since the children were so young, they thought it best to give them a fresh start and have the same names as them.

  "Maybe the CS Ranch, for Cooper and Shepard?" Riel turned to ask her.

  "Maybe you and the kids could work on a design for it and stamp it on leather to see what it looks like."

  "I could make a nice metal sign to hang at the top of the entrance gate."

  Jenna loved the idea of a welcome sign at the ranch entrance.

  "Can we draw dogs and cats on the sign too?" RJ piped up.

  "It's not that kind of sign, RJ," Amie huffed, but at least she wasn't yelling now.

  Jenna reached her hand across the console for Riel's hand. He immediately took hers and gave it a light squeeze.

  "They're holding hands again," RJ loudly whispered to Amie.

  "If you're getting married, why don't you kiss?" Amie asked, skipping subjects just like her moods.

  Jenna blushed as Riel picked up her hand and kissed it while he drove, eyes still on the road.

  "We kiss, not always when you see us though. Would it bother you if we kissed in front of you?"

  Little shoulders shrugged in the back seat. "Mommy and Daddy argued more than kissed."

  Jenna whipped around at Amie's confession. Were the Sharpes having marital problems?

  "Why?" Jenna
asked before she could help herself.

  "They didn't know I was listening, but I think Daddy had a date with lady."

  Jenna was floored by Amie's observation.

  "All our private conversations will now be out in the far end of the pasture," Riel said under his breath so the kids couldn't hear them.

  No joke.

  "Amie, I'm sure it had to do with your dad's work. He had to go to sports dinners now and then, and your mom stayed home with you instead of going with him."

  "But Daddy stayed overnight with the lady," Amie continued.

  Jenna thought how to answer, and end this conversation. It was part of being a parent to these two children now.

  Riel pulled into the drive and drove up to their home. Jenna waited to say anything more until the children were out of their car seats and standing beside her and Riel. Jenna got down on one knee, so she was the same level as the children.

  "I'm sure everything was okay with your parents, Amie. They loved you and hated to leave you." Jenna tried to answer while her throat clogged with unshed tears.

  "Now it's our turn to love you, Amie and RJ," Riel said as he picked up both kids at once, grunting a little to make the children giggle.

  "Deal?" Riel kissed one child's cheek, then the other. RJ's nod was enthusiastic compared to Amie's but that made sense because she was two years older and understood their situation better.

  "All right with you too, Jenna McDowell, soon to be Jenna Shepard?" Riel wiggled his eyebrows at her and grinned the smile she so loved.

  "It's a deal, my husband-to-be. In fact, I want a kiss too!"

  Jenna wrapped her arms around the three of them, and then gave Riel a loud smacking kiss.

  "Kiss her again!" Amie chanted as Riel slid the children down to the ground and the dogs barked and danced around them all.

  "I’d love too," Riel whispered before giving Jenna a long heartfelt kiss. Before he ended it, he surprised her by slowly dipping her backwards for the benefit of the kids. They loved it, forgetting for the moment their grief.

  Their lives were in turmoil now, but Jenna knew they'd survive, although things would be bumpy for a while as everyone adjusted.