Mother's Promise (29 page)

“The population of Pinecraft—at least the population of families that are Old Order like us—is aging, Ben. There are only a few young people living here year-round. Hester Steiner assures me that this will change over the winter, but those children who come to vacation with their parents will be temporary. And then there is the problem of distance. Living here means it is not easy for Justin to spend time with those few children who live in Pinecraft.”

In many ways his heart went out to Justin. He well remembered the bullying he'd had to endure when he was around the same age—both at school and at home. Ben could hardly blame the boy for doing whatever it took to avoid that, even if it meant doing another kid's math homework.

“Here's my best advice,” he said. “Until you know otherwise I would assume that Justin has helped this other boy because he genuinely thought it was the right thing to do for a friend. When you meet with his teacher I would ask the teacher to relieve Justin of the burden he has taken on to tutor this boy by either tutoring the kid himself or finding some older student to do that.”

“You think so?” she said.

“Definitely.”

Her smile was so radiant that Ben felt as if he had given her a wonderful gift. “But what do I know?” he said. “Going on instinct here.”

“It's the perfect solution,” she said. “I stand with Justin without either of us abandoning Derek. Thank you, Ben. I was so worried and I had prayed so hard for some solution and then you stopped by—”

“Whoa.” Ben laughed. “Way too much credit here, and I've never been accused of being the answer to anyone's prayers.”

“Oh, but you are,” she insisted without a glimmer of humor. “At the hospital you are always helping others find their way through their illness—that boy in the shark attack? And Hester told me how very kind you were to Sadie Keller, the girl who accidentally killed her cousin? You must not take your gift for healing others physically and emotionally for granted, Ben.”

Uncomfortable with her praise, Ben stood and picked up the yellow pad. “If you're done with this, I'll type it up for you over the weekend and e-mail the file to your work computer on Monday.”

“I cannot …”

Instinctively Ben placed his forefinger over her lips. “Yes, you can,” he said. “What are friends for?” Reluctantly he pulled his finger away.

“And what can I do for you?” she asked as she walked with him to the porch.

“Be here for me—for us,” he whispered huskily as he looked up toward his sister's house and Sally's upstairs bedroom. “It's possible that Sally is facing another long battle—one we may not know the true outcome of for years.”

She touched his shoulder, and it was all he could do to restrain himself from turning to her and finding solace in her embrace. “I'll pray for all of you,” she replied. “Good night, Ben. Get some rest.”

He did not look back as he retraced his steps along the garden path. But he sat in his car for several moments before driving away. He was thinking about Rachel, and he was not seeing her as a coworker or this nice woman who rented his sister's guesthouse. He was thinking about her as a woman that he could be attracted to, a woman he could see spending time with, a beautiful woman.

“A plain woman,” he reminded himself firmly before he could carry that thought to the next level. “Get a grip, Booker.”

Rachel awoke the following morning to the memory of Ben's light touch on her lips. She lay in her bed as the late-October sun washed over her as she recalled every detail of the time they had spent together the day before. The boat ride. Seeing him so distraught at the hospital. The ride home. The late-night visit. It was as if in a matter of a few hours they had traveled the path from knowing each other through his sister and people at the hospital to becoming truly connected as friends.

And that brought her thoughts back to Justin and his choice of friends. After several weeks in Sarasota she had made many new friends—Pastor Paul, Eileen, some of the others at the hospital, several of the women at church. She had chosen them all, drawn to them because they accepted her—prayer covering and all. So why was it so hard for her to understand that Justin had found similar acceptance with this Derek boy? What had she expected? She was always tied up with work or her courses. They spent practically every Saturday attending to chores. On Sundays they went to church and then spent the rest of the day at Hester's. They needed to broaden their horizons, she decided, if Justin was going to find the right kind of friends.

“Justin?” she called as she got out of bed, twisted her hair into a knot, and padded barefoot to the kitchen to start breakfast. “Time to get up.”

“Did somebody come by last night?” Justin asked as he yawned and rubbed his eyes before setting places for each of them at the table.

“Dr. Booker. He needed to talk some.”

“About Sally?”

“Actually we talked about when he was a boy and then also about you.”

Justin looked at her, fully awake now.

“You told him about Mr. Mortimer calling?”

“I did. He helped me to understand that you have been trying to help a friend who is struggling. He also helped me see that perhaps you had gotten in over your head in trying to tutor Derek. So on Monday I am going to ask Mr. Mortimer to relieve you of that responsibility.”

“But Derek …”

Rachel sat across from her son and took hold of both of his hands. “Derek needs help, Justin, his teacher's help. Not yours. If he is truly your friend he will understand and accept that.”

“But what am I going to tell him when we take the bus?”

“On Monday you will not take the bus. You will go with me early to school and meet with Mr. Mortimer. I will ask Mr. Mortimer to speak with Derek and explain the situation.”

Justin groaned. “You don't understand, Mom.”

She squeezed his hands, forcing him to focus on what she was saying. “Justin, I am worried about
you
, not Derek. And what I understand is that Mr. Mortimer believes that you have cheated in his class. Such things—right or wrong—can follow you as you move forward in life. We need to resolve this now.”

Justin stared at her for a long moment then pulled his hands free of hers and took his breakfast dishes to the sink. “You promised it would be better here,” he said petulantly.

“I know, and I will keep that promise, Justin. But you have to give it time.”

Her phone rang, and she glanced at the screen. Hester was calling her. Almost always when Hester called it was good news—an invitation for Rachel and Justin to come out to their place for the day or to come with her to the shops in Pinecraft.

“Hi,” Rachel said, trying hard to keep her voice from revealing her stress—but failing.

“What's wrong?” Hester asked immediately.

Rachel cleared her throat and forced a light laugh. “Nothing.” She would ask forgiveness for the lie as soon as the call ended. “Frog in my throat. How's that?”

“Better.” But Hester's tone told her she was still suspicious. “I'm calling to see if you might have time for coffee today.”

“Today? Justin and I were going to go downtown to the farmers' market.”

“Perfect. John and I will meet you, then Justin can come back here with him while we go for coffee. I have this friend that I think should meet you.”

Rachel noticed that Hester didn't say “that I think you should meet.” And now she was the one with suspicions. “Why?”

Hester sighed. “The friend is Jeannie Messner—her daughter was the one killed in that horrible car accident last month. She's really struggling and well, I remembered you telling me about that victim offender program that you and Justin went through after James died—vort or something?”

“VORP.”

Justin turned around and looked at her, his eyes curious.

“That's it,” Hester was saying. “Well, I mean, when you and Justin went through it, the offender was a stranger. In Jeannie's case it's her niece, Sadie, and that girl is like a second daughter to her and her husband—or at least she was until this happened. Rachel, this thing is ripping these two families apart, and I want to do something to help them.”

“It's not a simple solution,” Rachel warned. “Everyone has to agree to participate—the offender and in the case of a death, all of the victims impacted by that death including the family of the offender. Are you sure they are ready for this?”

“I don't know,” Hester moaned. “But what I do know is that this would be a quadruple tragedy if Jeannie and Emma were never able to get past this—and Sadie. I can't begin to imagine what that poor child is going through. She's in jail, you know, or detention as they so eloquently like to call it when it's a child locked up.”

“Hold on a minute.” Rachel covered the phone and turned to Justin. “How would you feel about—”

“I heard, Mom. Sure. That'll be okay. Maybe John and I can do some fishing.”

Justin's willingness to go along with the change in plans without question or protest gave Rachel enormous relief. “Thank you,” she mouthed and put the phone back to her ear. “All right. We will meet you at the market. Where?”

“The coffee bus. You can't miss it. It's a red double-decker bus that serves coffee. Half an hour?”

“Forty-five minutes,” Rachel bargained. “We need to dress, and the bike trip will take time.”

Hester laughed. “At some point we are going to have to find you a good used car.”

“Our bikes are fine and the morning is so beautiful. Red bus—we'll find it.”

When she ended the call, Justin was already back in his room making his bed and dressing. Rachel dressed, then finished washing the breakfast dishes while Justin got their bikes from the small shed outside the cottage and checked the air pressure in the tires. She picked up the cloth bag she used for shopping and put some money in her pocket.

“God in heaven, please help me keep the promise I made to Justin of a better life,” she whispered as she closed the door to the cottage.

As they pedaled out to the main street, she noticed that Justin was staring at the Shepherds' house. “Are you thinking about Sally?” she asked.

Justin shrugged.

“We must pray for her every day until she is home again and on the mend.”

“And what if …”

“We will find our way to understanding should that be God's will.”

They had stopped to wait for traffic to ease so they could enter the bike lane. Justin looked at her. “Like we did with Dad?”

“Ja. Like we are struggling to do now that your father is not with us,” she said. “As every morning and night I ask for God's guidance for both of us. You must do that as well, Justin.”

She watched Justin's throat contract as he swallowed. “I miss him so much,” he murmured.

“Me too,” she admitted. “But sometimes on a morning like this I feel his presence so strongly. Remember how he used to make up those silly songs?”

Justin grinned. “Ja. They were really awful.”

“But they made us smile, and the memory of them still does.”

Chapter 18