“We’re eating breakfast.” Brooke smiled at her. “Come on.”
Ashley followed her oldest sister. The two of them were so much closer now. Dad said hard times could do that to people. Make them better. Closer.
Downstairs the whole family was eating bagels and cream cheese and blueberries. Brooke laughed as they filled their plates. “You didn’t really think we left . . . did you?”
“Well.” Ashley tried to wink. But both eyes closed instead of just one. Which made her laugh out loud. “Not really. I mean . . . Okay, for a few minutes, maybe.”
All the kitchen and living room furniture was already in the truck, so they sat in a circle in the middle of the dining room floor.
Their dad talked to God for them, asking that they would make as many memories and good friends in Bloomington as they had here in Ann Arbor. “We’re all a little sad.” He looked at each of the kids and landed on Ashley. “But it will get better. I promise.”
Mom nodded. “It’s an adventure now. Just us Baxters.”
Ashley liked the sound of that. She took a bite of her bagel. They would be okay. They really would. But first she had to say goodbye to Lydia.
Something she had been dreading for weeks.
When breakfast was finished, Brooke had an idea. “Let’s go to the tree house.”
Ashley got excited. “How about we get markers? So we can say our last tree marks.”
“Last remarks?” Her dad chuckled. “You definitely keep us entertained, Ashley.”
She smiled. “You’re welcome.” Her shoulders moved up and down. “I think you’re right about last remarks. That’s what I meant.”
“Actually, maybe your way is better.” Her dad grinned. “ ‘Last tree marks.’ Sounds about right.”
Ashley grinned at her father, and then all five of them ran outside and climbed into the tree house.
For the last time.
When they were all seated in a circle on the highest level, Ashley remembered something. “We haven’t been out here all together since we found out we were moving.”
“That’s true.” Kari looked at her hands and then at each of them. “It’s sad. That we’re leaving.”
“It is.” Erin nodded and Luke did the same. It was the first time he seemed less than excited about what was happening.
“And this . . .” Brooke pressed her fingers under her eyes. She did a little cough. “This is our last time to be here in the tree house.”
Ashley thought about something else. Someone had bought their house. So that meant some other kids were going to have the tree house soon.
Silence hung in the air as they all looked out the windows into their backyard. Ashley closed her eyes and inhaled. The summer smells of her favorite trees and flowers and their own piece of sunshine filled her lungs. For a few seconds she held her breath.
Like maybe she could take a little bit of Ann Arbor with her.
“I . . . uh . . . I brought the markers.” Kari held up a few colorful pens. She passed them out. “Everyone write something on the walls. A message to whoever gets this tree house next.”
Erin took a purple one. “I like this.” With great care, she wrote her name on one wall. The letters were maybe an inch high. “Now everyone will know this used to be my place.”
Kari wrote her name and a verse from the Bible in her own words: God has good plans for you. Whoever you are.
It was Brooke’s turn. She wrote her name and then this: Don’t forget to have fun. That’s what tree houses are for.
Luke just wrote his name and a smiley face. “That says it all for me.”
They laughed, and Luke did, too.
It was Ashley’s turn. She took a blue marker and found a bare spot on the far wall. The one with the biggest window. She wrote her name and then something she’d been thinking about for a few minutes. Don’t try to be like everyone else. God made just one you. P.S.—Take care of this tree house. It has love in the walls.
Then on the next wall Ashley made a quick drawing of the Baxter children.
She tried to add a little something special about each of them. Erin’s glasses. Luke’s spiky hair. Kari’s pretty smile. Brooke’s big eyes. And for Ashley, a pencil in her hand.
Princess Ashley, fighting math dragons.
Saving the kingdom one last time.
• • •
Lydia and her mom pulled up out front ten minutes later. By then the kids were all back inside the house. Ashley peered out the door and saw Lydia climb out of the car.
“I hate this.” She pressed her forehead into the wall. “How am I supposed to say goodbye?”
The message was for her and God’s ears only. But Brooke must’ve heard, because she came up and put her hand on Ashley’s back. “With a full heart.” Brooke’s voice was the kindest ever. “That’s how.”
Then Brooke walked back into the kitchen with everyone else. Because goodbyes sometimes had to happen without a lot of people watching. Lydia and her mom came up the sidewalk and Ashley met them on the porch.
Already Lydia was crying. “I don’t want to say goodbye.”
“Me, too.” Tears sprang into Ashley’s eyes. She hugged Lydia and held her for a long time. “It’s going to be a boring summer in Bloomington. Without you.”
“I was just telling my mom that. A whole summer without you will feel like forever.” Lydia sniffed and smiled. “I’ll miss all our fun adventures. I can’t believe you’re really going.”
Ashley’s mom stepped out onto the porch. “We have to go, sweetheart.” She hugged Lydia’s mom. “Thanks for coming.”
“I promised her one more goodbye.” Lydia’s mom looked heartbroken. Because that’s how moms look when their kids are sad.
They didn’t have much time. Ashley hugged Lydia once more. “Thanks for being my friend. Even when it was hard.” Ashley’s words got stuck in her throat. She coughed a little.
“Thanks for being mine.” Lydia laughed even as a few new tears fell down her face. “You are one of a kind, Ashley Baxter. No one will ever be as fun as you.”
They laughed and cried and then laughed again. But there was no way around what was next.
It was time to say goodbye.
Lydia and Ashley hugged once more, and this time, both girls cried. Ashley wondered if her heart would break in half. Every wonderful memory with Lydia circled in her heart and reminded her of the worst thing.
All of it was over.
“You’ll visit, right?” Lydia stepped back. Her mom put her hand on her shoulder.
“We will.” Ashley wasn’t sure when or how often. But somewhere down the road they would visit. They had to, because otherwise this goodbye wouldn’t just be sad.
It would be impossible.
Finally, Lydia exhaled. She dried her face with the palms of her hands. “Write me. Or call if you can!” Lydia squeezed Ashley’s hands.
“I will. You, too.” Ashley squeezed back and nodded. “Bye, Lydia.”
“Bye, Ashley.”
Lydia and her mom walked to their car and once she was buckled in, Lydia waved out the window. Ashley waved, too. All the way until Lydia’s mom drove their car around the corner.
Then she collapsed against her mother. “This . . . is so hard.”
“I know.” Her mom held her warm and close. “I’m sorry.”
They stayed that way for a while, until Ashley felt strong enough to stand up on her own. She dried her face and tried to smile at her mom. “It can’t get harder than this.”
“No. Probably not.” She smoothed Ashley’s hair. “Go get your backpack.”
Ashley turned and headed inside the house. It was quiet and empty. It was their house . . . but at the same time, it wasn’t. It looked different without the furniture and without her family. Without the sounds of them living and loving each other here.
The spaces looked strange.
She ran her hand along the wall and made her way into the kitchen. It was the place where they
had cooked pancakes and pizza and apple pie. Here was where they had shared a thousand birthdays and dinners and funny stories.
Next Ashley walked to the living room. Where they once played Old Maid and Scrabble and talked till late in the night, the room where their dad played his guitar.
Memories lived in every inch of the house. But they wouldn’t stay here. They would go with Ashley and her sisters and brother. They would stay with her parents, too.
They would stay in their hearts.
Ashley walked up the stairs. Each step felt more difficult than the last. This was another part she didn’t want to do.
Say goodbye to her room.
Ashley opened the door. It was empty now. The special part of the house she and Kari shared was just an open space now. Just faded squares on the walls from where posters and pictures used to be.
Ashley grabbed her backpack, flung it over her shoulder. Then she lowered herself to the floor, cross-legged.
“I wondered where you were.” Kari’s voice sounded behind her.
Ashley turned around. “I had to say goodbye.” She looked around the room again and pressed her fingers into the familiar carpet.
“Remember in kindergarten when I split the room down the middle with tape?” Kari’s voice was light. Like she wanted to hold on to the happy times they’d shared here.
“Yes!” Ashley had almost forgotten that. “You said I couldn’t cross over to your side!”
Kari laughed. “Mom found out and we both had to scrub the sticky stuff off the window and wall!”
The memory made Ashley smile. “We became even better friends over that. Something that should’ve torn us apart brought us together.”
After a minute, Kari dropped down to the floor beside Ashley. “We had some good times in this room.”
“We did.” Ashley put her arm around Kari. The two of them, side by side. For now, for these last few moments, this was still their room. And Ashley wanted to sit here as long as she could.
A knock came at the door. They both turned to see their dad. His eyes looked red. “You girls ready? Everyone’s in the van.”
Ashley nodded and stood. She helped Kari to her feet. “I guess.” Ashley would never be ready, but she didn’t have a choice.
“Okay, then.” Their dad walked back down the hallway.
Ashley and Kari grabbed hands, and, without saying another word, they left their room and walked downstairs to the front door. Kari kept walking, but Ashley stopped.
One more time, she looked back inside. “Goodbye, house . . .” She put her hand on the doorframe. Then, with every inch of her strength, Ashley turned away and walked to the car.
Their dad locked up the house. Then he climbed into the front seat and they pulled away. Ashley watched her house for as long as she could. Kari and Brooke did the same thing.
Their mom, too.
When they turned the corner, their dad looked in the rearview mirror at the rest of them. “Get ready, Bloomington. The Baxters are coming for you!”
Ashley was still sad. Tears streamed down her face again. But there was something exciting about the way their dad’s words sounded. They were moving to a new city with a new school and new friends. A new house and a new soccer team.
No telling what else might be there.
They got on the interstate and Ashley pulled her journal from her backpack. She opened it to the page she liked best. The drawing of the Baxter house in Ann Arbor.
She loved every brick, every shutter, every window. The mailbox and roof. All of it. Ashley would remember every detail for always.
But somewhere in Bloomington, Indiana, stood another house. The one they were going to move into. Dad and Mom said it had a porch and a stream out back and a garden with roses. Their Realtor had found it for them. Mom said she thought it was the prettiest house she’d ever seen.
Ashley believed her. Her mom always told the truth.
Quiet words to God ran through Ashley’s heart. God. I’m nervous about all this. And I’m sad to say goodbye. But I trust my dad and mom. And I trust You. I don’t know what’s ahead in Bloomington, but I have a feeling it’ll be good. Like Mom always says. “You never leave us. Great is your faithfulness.”
She leaned her head against the window. The trees rushed by as Michigan disappeared behind them. But even so something inside Ashley couldn’t help but feel like the best was yet to come. That just maybe the most exciting years of her life were waiting for her in Bloomington. Ashley would go to middle school there and high school.
Bloomington was where life would begin. Not just for her, but for all of them. The Baxter children. She took one last look at her sketch of the old house, and then an idea hit her.
A long sigh slipped between her lips, and finally she did what she had to do. She closed the journal. One day soon she would open it again. She would turn to a fresh, crisp, blank page and she would draw her new house. The one they were about to meet.
Ashley set her journal in her backpack and stared out the window. A smile lifted her lips, even as her tears were still wet on her cheeks. There were so many possibilities ahead in Bloomington. And suddenly Ashley had a thought that surprised her.
She could hardly wait.
Because this time they weren’t just taking an adventure together. They were doing something only a family could do.
The Baxters were finding home.
About the Authors
KAREN KINGSBURY, #1 New York Times bestselling novelist, is America’s favorite inspirational storyteller, with more than twenty-five million copies of her award-winning books in print. Her last dozen titles have topped bestseller lists, and many of her novels are under development as major motion pictures and TV series. Her Baxter Family books have been developed into The Baxters, a TV series produced by MGM Studios and Lightworkers Media, currently on the air. Karen is also an adjunct professor of writing at Liberty University. In 2001, she and her husband, Don, adopted three boys from Haiti, doubling their family in a matter of months. Today the couple has joined the ranks of empty nesters, living in Tennessee near four of their adult children.
TYLER RUSSELL has been telling stories his whole life. In elementary school, he won a national award for a children’s book he wrote, and he has been writing ever since. In 2015, he graduated college with a BFA from Lipscomb University. Soon after, he sold his first screenplay, Karen Kingsbury’s Maggie’s Christmas Miracle, which premiered in December of 2017 on the Hallmark channel. Along with screenplays and novels, Tyler is a songwriter, singer, actor, and creative who lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where he enjoys serving his church, adventuring around the city, and spending time with his family.
Visit us at simonandschuster.com/kids
Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Karen-Kingsbury
Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Tyler-Russell
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Simon & Schuster, New York
Also by Karen Kingsbury
Inspirational Fiction for Adults
The Chance
Fifteen Minutes
The Bridge
Angels Walking Series
Angels Walking
Chasing Sunsets
Brush of Wings
The Baxter Collection
Love Story
A Baxter Family Christmas
In This Moment
When We Were Young
SIMON & SCHUSTER BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2019 by Karen Kingsbury
Karen Kingsbury is represented by Alive Literary Agency, 7680 Goddard Street, Suite 200, Colorado Springs, CO 80920, www.aliveliterary.com
Illustrations copyright © 2019 by Olivia Chen Mueller
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
SIMON & SCHUSTER BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or [email protected].
The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.
Book design by Laurent Linn
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Kingsbury, Karen, author. | Russell, Tyler, author.
Title: Best family ever / Karen Kingsbury ; with Tyler Russell.
Description: First edition. | New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, [2019] | Series: The Baxter family children | “A Paula Wiseman Book.” | Summary: “When Dr. Baxter tells the family that they will be moving from Ann Arbor, Michigan, to Bloomington, Indiana, the five Baxter children, ages six to thirteen, are sure that their lives and home will never be the same. But they find that being together with the ones you love is the most important part of home”—Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018006712| ISBN 9781534412156 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781534412170 (eBook)
Subjects: | CYAC: Family life—Fiction. | Brothers and sisters—Fiction. | Moving, Household—Fiction. | Friendship—Fiction. | Home—Fiction. | Christian life—Fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.K6117 Be 2019 | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018006712
Best Family Ever Page 15
