Love Inspired June 2021--Box Set 1 of 2

by Patricia Johns

  “Does he?” Avery asked, pinning him with a glare. “Why?”

  “He, uh...” Grayson stumbled over his words and didn’t finish.

  “Can we go see what he’s doing?” Quinn asked.

  “Yes, we can. Hop in my truck.” Grayson shifted his attention back to the builder. “Larry, I’m going to run Quinn over to the house. I’ll be back over here in the morning if you want to meet me then.”

  “Sounds good, boss.” Larry gave a brief salute. “I need to head home anyway. I’m going to make a few notes and assess where we need to pick up on things.”

  “Thanks, man.” Grayson held out his hand to the contractor. “I appreciate you doing this for me.”

  “I’m glad I was available.”

  “What have you done?” Avery asked Grayson as they walked to their cars.

  “Trust me,” he said.

  She was trying but something about the pleased-as-punch look on his face had her worried.

  * * *

  Grayson drove Quinn back to his dad’s place. Avery followed behind in her own car. As he drove, he tried to think of explanations for what he’d done.

  He parked next to Tucker’s truck and Quinn jumped out, running to see what Tucker had in the trailer. Grayson waited for Avery. She took her time getting out of her car. Took her time walking to meet him.

  “What have you done?” She repeated her earlier question.

  “I know you’re going to be upset. I hope you’ll hear me out...”

  “A horse!” Quinn squealed. “There’s a horse in the corral.”

  “A horse,” Avery whispered. “You got her a horse?”

  “I have a lot of birthdays and Christmases to make up for,” he said, hoping his face looked all contrite.

  She brushed her pale blond hair back from her face and glared up at him with green eyes that warned of danger. He considered telling her how beautiful she was. But that might be the worst thing he could do.

  Right now he was perched on a land mine and he knew he’d better choose his words carefully.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. He watched as Quinn hurried to the corral and the dappled Pony of the Americas he’d picked for her. A POA would always be a good choice for a first horse for a young girl. The gray with a black speckled rump tossed her pretty head in greeting and whinnied. Quinn climbed the fence and leaned to claim the horse in a hug. Tucker stood nearby, talking to her, keeping her distracted from his and Avery’s conversation.

  “Why would you think this is okay?” Avery asked. “Is it because I agreed to let you help me with the house and now you think you can do anything you want?”

  “She asked me for a horse,” he said, knowing better than to smile. “I messed up.”

  “Not in her eyes, obviously.” Avery’s gaze followed her daughter. Quinn started to climb over the fence into the corral and Avery tried to stop her.

  “She’s safe,” Grayson assured her. “I wouldn’t buy her a horse that I didn’t trust. Besides, Tucker is right there. If you don’t trust me, you trust him, don’t you?”

  “Grayson, you can’t just show up here with a horse. This isn’t how I parent and I don’t want her to think that every time she says she wants something, it’s just going to appear.”

  “I know, I know,” he agreed. “I should have talked to you about it first. I talked to Tucker the other day, and he told me about Flash.”

  “Flash,” Avery said with an eye roll. “Really?”

  “Flash is a good name for a horse.”

  “I don’t want to talk about the horse’s name.”

  He wasn’t an expert but he guessed there was more to this than the horse conversation. The last thing he wanted was to discuss what he and Tucker had talked about. She’d probably be even more angry about that than the horse. This was one of those situations, where no matter what, he was in trouble.

  “You’re right,” he agreed. He let the conversation drop for a moment. Quinn had scaled the fence and now stood on the other side, her hand on the horse’s halter.

  “That thing had better be gentle,” Nan warned as she joined them.

  “Tucker assured me he is as gentle as they come. He was a young girl’s trail horse and pleasure class show horse. She moved on to a bigger horse and this guy had to go.”

  “Why would anyone want to get rid of him?” Quinn asked.

  “I don’t think she wanted to get rid of him,” Tucker explained. “She just knew that he would need more attention. She knew we would find him a good home with a girl who would spend plenty of time with him.”

  “We’ll get your tack. You stay and get to know him,” Grayson told Quinn.

  He took Avery by the hand and the two of them walked to the barn where he’d left the tack he’d bought the previous day.

  “Grayson, co-parenting requires we talk to each other. We don’t make decisions without informing the other person.”

  “You’re right, and I won’t do this again. It was a spur of the moment decision, but on the bright side, it did make her happy.”

  “Yes, she’s happy. She’s a happy and well-adjusted ten-year-old, Gray.” She swiped away a tear. “I want her to stay that way.”

  All of the things she wasn’t as a child. He got it. He’d lived in a big fancy house and he’d never gone without, but his family hadn’t been the most functional. There had been plenty of fights, doubts and accusations between his parents.

  He had always promised himself that he wouldn’t have children if he couldn’t give them better than he had, if he couldn’t give them a safe and functional home. Avery seemed to have figured parenting out and he wasn’t sure if he could.

  “I want her to stay well-adjusted, too.”

  “What are we doing?” Avery nearly whimpered. “I don’t want this to be what she sees in us, this fighting and doubting and tearing each other up. I want to trust you, Grayson Stone. I want you to be the dad she needs.”

  “And I want to be that man,” he told Avery in a quiet voice, seeking forgiveness and trust. “I want to be a person you can trust.”

  Silence held them both captive in the stuffy interior of the barn. Nan and Quinn’s voices carried through the door, the happy magpie chatter of his daughter and Nan’s calm and reasonable tone. Every now and then Tucker would interject something. Tucker, the responsible, decent one.

  Avery listened, her eyes closing.

  “Please don’t break her heart.”

  “I’m doing my very best to be the dad she needs me to be.” He hooked a finger under her chin. “As much as you don’t want this, I’m trying to be the man you need me to be, the man I should have been eleven years ago.”

  She exhaled softly, inclining her head, a positive sign, he thought. The last rays of sun shot red and gold through the barn, catching the silvery light of her hair and the softness of her expression. He felt himself falling like the floor was dropping out from beneath him. He couldn’t ever remember having felt that way before.

  “Don’t look at me like that,” she whispered, catching her breath.

  “I’m sorry. I can’t not look at you this way.”

  He brushed a tendril of hair behind her ear and her eyes closed.

  “Grayson,” she whispered, soft and breathy as he stepped closer.

  He cupped her cheek in his palm and brushed his lips against hers. She whispered his name again, then kissed him back.

  “What’s going on? Are you bringing the tack or not?” From behind, he heard Nan’s voice, taking them both by surprise. “You have a child out here waiting and the sun is setting.”

  “Thanks, Nan,” Grayson said with a laugh as he stepped away from the temptation in front of him. “I appreciate the reminder.”

  “I bet you do,” Nan said sharply.

  Grayson grabbed the tack he’d purchased for the hor
se as Avery left the barn with Nan. He watched them walk away and he couldn’t help but smile. She’d kissed him. She hadn’t turned him down.

  He was an expert at fixing things, at rebuilding what was broken. He had come to town to help his father. But finding out he had a daughter had changed everything.

  Avery was more than he had ever expected, and that was something he didn’t quite know how to handle.

  Yet.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Grayson pushed his father up the ramp at the side of the porch in his wheelchair, even though Mathias grumbled the entire time that he could use a walker. His halting speech lent a cadence to the words that sometimes made them difficult to understand.

  Nina waited on the porch, her tiny stature but determined expression meaning business. “Mathias Stone, stop your caterwauling.”

  “Bossy woman,” Mathias grumbled as he made his way across the porch of the old farmhouse.

  “This would have been a lot easier in the old house,” Grayson mentioned as they entered the front door.

  “Sold it,” Mathias said. “Too big. Too many...”

  “Too many what?” Grayson asked as he lifted his father out of the chair and lowered him into the lumpy recliner next to the window. He handed his dad the remote and stepped back as the elder Stone flipped through the three channels that came in on the aging set.

  “I could get you satellite TV, you know,” Grayson offered.

  “Don’t want it,” Mathias said. He found an Andy Griffith rerun and settled back to watch. After a moment he looked up. “Too many memories. We didn’t want to live there after you and your sister were gone. So we moved to Springfield. We needed a place to start over.”

  Nina buzzed into the room with a tray holding two plates. “I thought you might be hungry.”

  She set the tray over Mathias’s lap, and handed one plate to Grayson.

  “Thank you, Nina.” Grayson smiled at the woman.

  “I don’t want noodles,” Mathias grumbled as he stuck his fork into the pasta on his plate. “I want meat.”

  “Tomorrow,” Nina called out as she hurried from the room, on to a new task.

  “Dad, please be nice to her,” Grayson warned. “We can’t afford to lose her.”

  Mathias scooped up some pasta on his fork and shoved it into his mouth. He chewed slowly and then took another bite. Grayson picked up a napkin and wiped the corner of his father’s mouth.

  “Don’t,” Mathias growled.

  “Do you want alfredo sauce on your chin?”

  “I don’t.” Mathias swallowed and moved his plate so that it was on the edge of the tray. “But I don’t want to be helpless.”

  “I know you don’t.”

  His father leaned back in his chair. “You can’t afford to lose Avery.”

  “I don’t have Avery,” Grayson informed his dad.

  Mathias chewed another bite of pasta, then pointed to the glass of tea with the straw. “Drink.”

  Grayson held the glass up for his father to take a drink. The doctor’s prognosis for Mathias wasn’t the best. They thought Grayson’s father had continued to have small strokes. Because of the strokes, he had decreased cognitive ability as well as other health issues. He might not get worse anytime soon. But he wasn’t going to get better.

  He had aged too quickly, having been too hard on his body with the wrong foods, lack of exercise and heavy drinking. Grayson was more determined than ever not to follow down that path.

  Mathias pushed the glass of tea away. Grayson set it on the coffee table and waited, knowing his father had something to say.

  “I missed out,” his father said. “I worked too much and I was hard on my children. You don’t want to live with those regrets.”

  The words hit him full force. Grayson sat back, whistling as he took in his father’s meaning. First, he thought about what the words meant for him. And then he realized what they meant for his father. Mathias Stone was a lonely man with regrets. He’d been hard, difficult and often unkind. He’d expected a lot from the people in his life.

  “I’m sorry,” Mathias said. “For everything I ever said. Your mother forgave me. I hope you will, too.”

  “I forgave you a long time ago, Dad.”

  “I appreciate that,” Mathias said.

  “Dad, I think you should come to California with me.” Grayson said quickly, before he changed his mind. He couldn’t believe that was his response to this father and son moment.

  “No!” Mathias didn’t even take time to think about it.

  “I can’t take care of you here,” Grayson told him. “And you’re going to need family. If you come to California, I can take care of you.”

  “This is my home.” Mathias’s voice raised a notch. “I was born here. I’ll die here.” The final sentence was somewhat garbled but Grayson understood.

  “Calm down. It was just a suggestion. I’m your son and you should be with family.”

  “Nina can take care of me,” his father said. He pushed at the tray. “I’m done. Take this. And you worry about your own life. Buying ponies. Being the hero. When you leave? What then? What about my granddaughter?”

  “I’m not walking out on my daughter,” he assured his father.

  Mathias swallowed and it took him a minute to continue. He clearly struggled to find the words he wanted to say. Grayson waited, wondering at the change taking place in his heart and probably in his father’s. Years of being a Christian had taught Grayson the importance of forgiving. At that moment he felt the hardness in his own heart softening toward the man who was his father.

  “Dad, I forgive you.”

  Mathias’s gaze snapped toward him and he was clearly shocked.

  “I was angry with you for years,” Grayson admitted. “Because you sent me away. But then I realized that you also made sure I had a second chance.”

  “I wasn’t an easy man to live with,” Mathias admitted. “Don’t follow in my steps.”

  Grayson nodded. “I know.”

  “You can’t get time back, son.”

  Grayson took his father’s tray and left the room. At the doorway he stopped to look back, at a man he’d spent too many years resenting.

  “Let me take that.” Nina appeared at his side. “He’ll sleep now.”

  True enough, Grayson’s father’s eyes had closed and his head drooped.

  Grayson followed her to the kitchen. He stood at the back door, watching as Dolly the miniature horse tried to find a new spot in the fence to escape through.

  “He doesn’t want to go to California.” Grayson shrugged. “Can’t say that I blame him. This is his home. But he won’t be able to live on his own.”

  Nina dried her hands. “I’ll do what I can. I guess if it comes to full-time care, that’s more than I can handle but I can be here during the week.”

  “He isn’t going to like the idea of a residential home.”

  “No, I don’t think he will.” She smiled. “He might be sick but that doesn’t mean he won’t still have opinions.”

  His gaze shifted back to the door and the miniature horse. Dolly was trying her best to get through loose fence. Fortunately, he’d done enough repairs that she couldn’t get out, but she’d just pointed out a section of fence he had missed.

  “I have to go deal with her. If it was up to me, I’d sell the three of them.”

  “And that is one of the things he might have a differing opinion on. He loves those ornery animals. He makes me take him out to see them every day.”

  “Every day?” He had no idea.

  “Every day. But that isn’t your only problem. That looks like trouble coming up the drive.” Nina pointed and he knew what he would see even before he looked.

  Trouble didn’t seem to be a strong enough word for this situation. And yet, his daughter had come
to see him. She was riding up the rutted gravel driveway, her backpack hanging over her shoulder as she bounced along on her bike, a pleased smile on her face.

  “I’m going to tighten up that fence and see what my daughter is all about.”

  “I wish I could help, but I have laundry...” Nina said with a little laugh.

  Avery wouldn’t be happy about this situation. As a father, he had to remember that there were rules. As a man, he had to remind himself that the last thing he wanted was the mother of his child mad at him.

  He texted her their daughter’s whereabouts as he walked down the drive to meet Quinn.

  “I didn’t expect to see you today,” he told her in a conversational tone. What he really wanted to do was ask her if she had any idea how dangerous a stunt like this could be. He wanted to tell her she could have gotten hurt, or worse.

  “I wanted to see Flash,” she said, giving him an uncertain look. In that moment she looked younger than her ten years.

  “You can always see Flash, but don’t you think you should have called first? Was your mom okay with you riding your bike all this way?”

  Uncertainty turned to fear on her face.

  “I didn’t tell her. She was helping Nan in her workshop. Nan forgot something on one of the boats.”

  “And you left without telling them?” Just then, his phone buzzed. He glanced down and wasn’t surprised to see the text. Avery had been frantic. She’d been about to call the police.

  Should he be hurt that she didn’t think to call him first? He guessed this wasn’t the time to think about hurt feelings, but instead to make sure Quinn knew the dangers of riding off by herself.

  “I guess I should call her,” Quinn said. She looked up at him, brown eyes swimming in tears.

  “Yes, you should.” He handed her his phone and did his best to keep the stern father expression in place.

  He listened as his daughter talked to her mother, apologizing for leaving without telling her. She cried a little but swiped at the tears, too stubborn or too brave to really give in and cry.