Behind the Altar: Behind the Love Trilogy (12 page)

Geraldine let out a
big gust of air as if she’d been holding her breath. “You must have been giving
Big Jim something more than your smile.”

“Shut up, Geraldine,”
Dean said. “If you say one more word, I’ll come down there and pick you up and
throw you out into the street.”

“Let’s continue.
There’s one last bequest,” Joe said. “And then we’ll be done.”

“To my wife Geraldine,
I leave a stipend for monthly expenses for the rest of her life. I also leave a
warning. If she should attempt to contest this will, Joe Moran has been left
with a sealed envelope containing documentation of her despicable behavior over
the years. Joe has been instructed to turn over that envelope to the
authorities if she should attempt any trouble with what I’ve left in my will
and with the people mentioned herein.”

All eyes looked down
the table toward Geraldine, who sat with her hands on the table, her face
turning bright red. Leah waited for the explosion surely to come. Geraldine sat
very still staring over Joe Moran’s head. Jacob reached for Leah’s hand and
pulled it close to his face.

“Your worries are
over,” he said.

Leah looked across the
table, as Jacob held her hand to his cheek. She pulled her hand away, but not
before Dean stood and left the room.

“I need to go,” she
said. She pointed her head toward Geraldine. “Talk to her.”

Jacob stared at his
mother then he stood and walked to the end of the table and sat down next to
Geraldine. Leah walked out of the office, leaving the two alone to sift through
the news. Leah doubted Geraldine would be in any mood to discuss anything
rationally, but Jacob was the only one to try to talk to her now.

When Leah walked
outside, she didn't see Dean's bike parked in front of the building as it was
when she entered. She decided to walk down Main Street to Dew Drops where Clara
waited with plenty of food for her to take down to the river. She smiled to
think of telling Joshua and Carol the news about Soup’s On, but she wished Dean
could be there when she told them.

Leah’s mind raced as
she imagined the renovated barn with the large front room with a kitchen at the
back. Tables for eating, playing cards, and chatting would be scattered around
the room, but they'd have to save room for a pool table and maybe even a ping-pong
table. She knew providing a place where they could do activities, other than
sitting on the banks of the river all day, would be helpful. Also keeping the
barn in shape and cleaned would give them a daily routine, which Leah knew was
extremely important to feeling useful. The new Soup's On would be everything
she'd ever imagined she wanted to have for the Deer River folks. With the money
Big Jim gave her, it might even go further than just the small town of Victory.

With the addition of
a garden, they'd be able to serve fresher food. Perhaps they could even get
some chickens. As she approached Dew Drops, she wondered if Dean would work the
farm as his father and grandfather had before him. She looked up and down Main
Street for his bike. Maybe he just needs time alone to absorb the news, she
thought as she walked inside.

Clara greeted her in
the kitchen.

"Soup's On is
back on," Leah told Clara as the women pulled trays out of the walk-in
refrigerator. "Big Jim left a new will and in it, he left a trust fund for
the kitchen."

"Honey, that's
just wonderful," Clara said as she came and wrapped Leah in her arms. “Big
Jim always did live his beliefs.”

"Even though the
church has decided to let me continue at the hall, I'm going to renovate the
barn out on the old farm for the kitchen and a lot more."

"What's
Geraldine say about that?" Clara asked.

"She doesn't
have a whole lot to say about it," Leah said. "He left the farmland,
including the barn, all to Dean."

Clara whistled. “If I
know Miss Geraldine she won't take that kind of thing lying flat on her
back."

"The will is
very clear on the terms of contesting it. She can’t do anything."

"We’ll see. I
know you love that woman for helping you out, but I never liked her. She's just
plain mean.”

“I’ll be back in a
few minutes to pick up the trays,” Leah said. “I left the car at the lawyer’s
office.”

When Leah drove the
food down to the barn, she found Dean's bike parked next to the tables they set
up the day before.

He came out of the
barn, as she was getting out of the car.

“I thought you’d be
celebrating with Jacob,” Dean said.

“Why? These folks
need to eat. I’m not sure I understand everything that happened today, but I
really hope it means what I think it means—that I won’t have to worry again
about funding Soup’s On.”

“Here let me help you
with that,” Dean said, as she struggled to get a large tray out of the trunk.
“You don’t have to worry about a location either.”

“So we’re still on
with the barn?”

“Of course. As I
understand it, the trust fund for Soup’s On only covers costs of the day-to-day
operations,” Dean said. “Joe explained some of the finer points before the rest
of you got there. The money I receive can be used for anything, so I thought we
could set up a non-profit corporation for Soup’s On, and I’d make donations,
which could then be used for renovating the barn.”

“Why not just pay to
have it renovated?” Leah asked.

“Because I want you to
know this barn is for Soup’s On, and to be used in any way you see fit. I don’t
want you to worry about ever losing it.”

Leah stopped fussing
with the food and eating utensils to look at Dean. “You’d do that for me?’

Dean stared back at
her. “Yes, I’d do that for you. Don’t you know that by now? And I’m going to
help get the work done here so you can be out of the church in the next month.
No matter what you decide about Jacob, I’ve decided to help you get this thing
going. I believe in you and in your vision.”

Leah stepped closer
to him and reached out her arms to give him a hug. He put his arms around her
waist and pulled her close. She laid her head on his chest, and they stood
there not moving or speaking. When they heard Joshua yell as he approached,
they pulled apart.

“Hello there, Leah
and Dean,” Joshua said as he came closer. “I wondered if I’d see you today.”

“I was just headed
down to tell you soup’s on,” Leah said. “In more ways than one.”

“What’s that mean?” Joshua
asked.

“Big Jim’s new will
was read today, and he left me enough money to fund Soup’s On for as long as
it’s in existence. He also left this barn to Dean, and Dean’s agreed to turn
this over to the kitchen, after he helps renovate it.”

“I’m blown away,”
Joshua said as he gave Leah a hug. “That’s great news. I think we should all be
involved in the renovation as well as tending the garden. What do you think?”

“I think that’s a
great idea,” Dean said. “It’ll give the folks a sense of community and pride.”

“I have so many
wonderful things I want to do here, Joshua,” Leah said, her eyes filling with
tears. “It’s going to be a community for everyone.”

“We’re already a
community, but this place will help the others feel what I’ve known all along.
Thank you both,” Joshua said. “I’ll go tell the folks to come for lunch, and you
can tell them about it then.”

“I’ll be back serving
tomorrow in the church,” Leah said. “Dean thinks we can whip the barn into
shape in a month or so, and then we’ll be down here permanently.”

Joshua left the two
of them alone again. When the food was all set out, Dean grabbed Leah’s hand.

“No matter what
happens, I’m glad I came back,” he said.

“Me, too.” She didn’t
ask the one question she wanted to ask ever since the will was read. Was he
going to stay after the barn was finished?

“I was pretty upset
when Dad stopped working the fields down here,” Dean said. “Geraldine talked
him into it, right before I left town.”

“Is that one of the
reasons you left without fighting?”

“I left mainly because
of Geraldine, but when the farm stopped, it never felt the same.”

“Maybe you can get it
going again,” Leah said. “It might help, unless you can’t wait to get back to
South Beach so you can tattoo all those rich ladies.”

Dean laughed and came
around to Leah’s side of the table.

“I think the days of
Harold Grant are just about over. It wasn’t me, not really. When I walked over
these fields the other day and went down to the river, I realized I was home.
It didn’t matter what Geraldine said or did. She couldn’t hurt me anymore.”

“That’s a big lesson
to learn. I didn’t realize the land meant so much to you.”

“It’s more the sense
of place it gives me. It makes me feel in sync somehow. I certainly never felt
that back at the parsonage, and I never once felt it in Miami. Why do you think
I used a different name?”

“I wondered about
that. Dean Davis is a much nicer name than Harold Grant.”

Dean laughed again,
and gave Leah a brief hug before the others reached them. “I haven’t felt this
good since I was a kid skinny dipping in the river with Reggie and the rest of
the boys.”

The work began the
next day when Dean brought an old friend of his to the barn. Stan Thomas owned
a small construction firm near Victory, and Dean wanted him to consider doing
the work with some help. He asked Leah to meet them at the property after she
finished serving lunch.

“Leah, Dean tells me
you have a vision of the sort of place you’d like,” Stan said after the
introductions were finished.

“That’s right. I need
a kitchen of good size. I’d like bathrooms—male and female—that have showers
and changing rooms. The rest of the ground floor needs to accommodate ten to
twelve tables, a pool table, and a ping-pong table. I’d like the upstairs to be
a large loft for cots, with a divider down the middle to separate males and
females. Maybe some gym equipment.”

The men laughed.

“You’ve been thinking
about this,” Stan said. “I don’t think it’s going to take much. There’s a well
already in place, and we’ll need to upgrade the electric. The other things are
superficial. I’ve gone over the floors, walls, and roof and everything was
built to last. We might need to put on new shingles, but that’s no big deal.”

“One other thing,”
Leah said. “Could the roof over the front doors be expanded so we could place a
couple of picnic tables under it? The river folks like being outside, but the
roof would give them protection from the sun and rain.”

“I think that can be
arranged,” Dean said as he smiled down at her. “Your demands aren’t too steep
unless you want marble countertops in the kitchen.”

“I want sturdy and
functional in the kitchen. Nothing fancy,” she said. “We can decorate the walls
in the main room to give it atmosphere.”

“What about air
conditioning?” Stan asked.

“I think it’s an
absolute must,” Dean said. “The place needs to be airtight, and we might as
well put in a heat pump so they can be cool in summer and warm in winter. She
wants to use this as a shelter from the weather, too.”

“I want them to feel
free to come here whenever they need it,” Leah said. “I’ve talked to Joshua,
and we agree that the main camp will continue on the river bank. But I will be
cooking and serving food here every day. And they’ll have a place to shower and
get ready for appointments. Now that they’ll have a permanent address and a
phone number, some of them will find jobs.”

“Let’s get moving
then,” Dean said. “No time to waste.”

“OK, I’ll draw up a
proposal for the work this week,” Stan said.

“Stan, I’m going to
be pulling an RV here, so I’ll be on site during the project,” Dean said. “And
the Deer River folks want to be involved.”

“There’ll be lots of
ways we can use them,” Stan said. “They can clean up every day, and when it’s
time, they can paint.”

After Stan left, Dean
and Leah sat on the lawn chairs Leah had brought from Susie’s the day before.

“It’s really going to
come true,” Leah said. “It’s hard to believe.”

“Have you talked to
Jacob since yesterday?” Dean asked.

“I saw him this
morning at the church. He said Geraldine threw clothes in her car and left last
night. He doesn’t know where she went.”

“Is he worried about
her?”

“He didn’t seem to
be. If anything, he seemed relieved. He’s still trying to sort out the will and
what Big Jim said.”

“What about you?”
Dean asked.

Leah stared at the line
of trees. She didn’t know how to answer him. Her feelings hadn’t changed since
the weekend, and since the day when he walked into the church hall and looked
at her with his blue eyes twinkling in amusement. She was so attracted to him, she
found it hard to look at him. She wanted to crawl right up inside him and stay
forever. Yet, when she thought about Jacob, her heart went out to him, and she
couldn’t imagine breaking his heart. He hadn’t mentioned Dean’s declaration of
love yet, but she knew they’d soon have that conversation.

“I don’t know. I’m
still as confused as I was the last time we talked. So much has happened that I
haven’t had much time to sort things out about how I feel. I’m sorry I can’t
give you a better answer.”

“I understand. No
pressure. I’m supposed to pick up the motor home tonight, so I’ll be back here
tomorrow to start cleaning things out of the barn and setting up my new home.”

“What about your
tattoo shop?” Leah asked.

“I’ve got plenty of
employees who are trained in the ‘Harold Grant’ method. If someone wants a
Harold Grant original, for right now, they’re out of luck. Being back here on
the land has me wishing for a different kind of life.”

“What kind?”

“Where I lived closer
to nature. Just a simpler life where folks aren’t so complicated and
superficial. You wouldn’t believe the folks I know in South Beach.”

“You could start all
over again here,” Leah said. She wondered if this new life included a wife and
children but found herself too shy to ask. She could picture a two-story log
cabin at the edge of the woods and herself in it with Dean. She forced her
daydream to leave.

“See you tomorrow,”
Dean said as he stood. He leaned down and gently patted her knees. “Take care
of yourself, Leah. Sit here and listen. Maybe your answer will come to you.”

She watched him walk
over to his bike and get on. She knew in her soul the answer; her mind was the
thing getting in the way. It became clear to her earlier when she imagined
living with Dean here on the land. She’d never been able to imagine her life as
Jacob’s wife, but in a matter of minutes, she placed herself in a log cabin
with children running around the yard, and Dean sitting by her side holding her
hand.

How was she going to
tell Jacob, she wondered as she headed for the car.