Raspberries and Vinegar (A Farm Fresh Romance Book 1) (28 page)

Dad grinned. “Wouldn’t have anything to do with a cute snip of a girl from next door, would it?”
 

When had Dad learned to read him again? “She seems pretty special, all right. But she won’t give me the time of day. Well, you saw.”

“Those weren’t exactly the best of circumstances,” Dad said mildly.

A sharp laugh came out of Zach. “True. But you’d be amazed. Any time Jo and I get together there are sparks.
Not sparks in a good way, either. Sparks that are just shy of exploding the known universe.”

His father chuckled. “Your mother used to be like that. Never me, of course.” He winked. “She was a ball of fire.”

“Watch who you’re talking about in past tense,” Mom hollered from the kitchen.

Zach hadn’t heard her come in. Had she been listening for long?

“I like Josephine.” Mom leaned in the archway. “You better make an all-out effort to win that girl over, Zachary John, or I’ll never forgive you. She’s a wonderful young woman.”

“When did you tell that veterinarian you’d have an answer for him?” Dad asked.

“A couple of days.”

Mom nodded briskly. “Better get off your backside and onto your knees. Make a plan, and start implementing it. You don’t have long.”

Zach shook his head. “You’re both crazy.” But as for the praying, he’d already started in on that. “Something like this takes longer than a few days.”

Dad grinned. “Not necessarily. Let’s start with this. You need a place to live after you’re married, right?”

Zach choked.
“What?”

“I’m guessing you don’t want to live in Grandma’s trailer with all those girls, or in here with your old parents hanging around.” Dad’s eyes twinkled. “And Galena Landing is a fair commute from your apartment in the city.”

Zach stared at his dad as heat rose in his cheeks. Did he have to answer this nonsensical question? And besides, it was a long way from a done deal. “I’ve given notice on the apartment anyway.”

“Better tell him what we’re thinking, Rosemary.”

Mom crossed the room and sat down beside Dad, who took her hand. Both looked serious.

Zach glanced from one to the other. Were they actually going to put the farm on the market? His heart sank. Not that. Please. Not when he’d just started to fall in love with it all over again.

Mom spoke first. “Daniel and Arlene are flying into Spokane today to be here in time for the funeral.”

Zach nodded. Gabe had mentioned his folks were on their way.

“They’ve been after us to come see the work they’re doing in Romania at that orphanage. We’ve never been able to take the time.”

Dad took over. “So, when they go back in September, we want to go, too. They say a gimped guy like me can do plenty to help. Those little kids need someone to be a human jungle gym. Somebody to spend time with them and read them stories.” Dad inhaled sharply. “I can still do that.”

“What?” Zach stared in disbelief. “You’re going to Romania in two and a half months? How come you never mentioned that you were considering this?”

“We just finalized things.” Mom patted Dad’s leg. “Or, I should say, almost finalized them. There’s still the question of what to do with the farm while we’re gone.”

Here it came. He’d been half waiting for the other shoe to drop. He jerked to his feet.

“Gary Waterman wants to lease the land.” Dad’s voice came like a knife to his back.

Zach pivoted and stared at his parents. “What? Gary
Waterman
?”

Mom raised an eyebrow. “You’ve made it clear you didn’t want it. Things aren’t settled yet, but that’s the direction we’re leaning.”

“We thought you and Jo could live in the house, though.” His dad’s voice faltered. “At least until we get back next year. Unless you don’t want to.”

Conflicting emotions ricocheted around Zach’s brain. He’d been wishing something would happen to break his folks out of this deadlock with the farm, only... Had he been too late? “Can I-can I think about this for a bit?”

***

Zach hauled an armload of boards through the wet woods. It
would have been better to wait until things dried off a bit, but time pressed in around him. This evening he needed to be at Gabe’s side in the funeral chapel, and he’d set the timer on his cell so he wouldn’t be late.
 

Even with his parents back in town, Gabe needed Zach. Tomorrow Bethany would be laid to rest. It seemed almost sacrilege to seek his own happiness when his best friend faced anguish and loneliness.

Of course, Zach didn’t know if Jo would be willing to talk to him or not, willing to hear him out. That chat with his folks had infused him with hope, though he couldn’t have said why. It wasn’t like Jo had tossed him a bone of encouragement.

Zach looped a rope over a high branch and began hoisting boards up to the platform. Besides fixing the railing, he’d had a couple of other thoughts on the drive to the lumberyard. It wouldn’t be that hard to add a proper roof over the lower platform. Maybe — if all went well — later in the season he could screen in the area so it would be welcoming even once the mosquitoes made their appearance.

Whistling, he measured out the length of a needed board and began to saw. He blocked out the passage of time and immersed himself in the project.

“I wondered if it was you making all that racket. What are you doing on our property?”

The hammer slipped out of Zach’s hand and dropped from the
tree house deck to the forest floor. He stared down at Claire, who’d appeared from nowhere. Thankfully the hammer had missed her by a mile.

He had no words. Surely she could see what he was doing. He held out his hands to indicate the treehouse.

Claire stared up at him, hands planted on her hips and a frown on her face. Didn’t look like she was buying his attempt at the silent sell.

Zach worked his way down the knotted rope. That needed a more elegant solution, as well. Maybe a rope ladder like they sold for fire escapes. But first, Claire.

“When are you moving back to Coeur d’Alene, Zach? When will you get out of Jo’s life?”

He opened his mouth, closed it again. He’d known she didn’t much like him, but where had this much bitterness come from? “Claire, I-uh. What if I don’t want to get out of her life? What if I...want to be in it forever?”

She laughed, a short, sharp bark. “Then I guess you’ve got some changing to do, buster. Because you’re not the kind of guy she’s looking for. The kind of guy that can make her happy.”

Zach grabbed his hammer and tossed it up to the platform. “What makes you an expert in what is best for her?”

Claire raised her eyebrows. “Maybe I got it from Jo herself?”

Please, God. Help me out here.
“I’m not sure what I ever did to make you dislike me so much, but I’d like to point out that it’s not so much a guy that can make her happy.”

At her look of protest, he held up a hand. “Hear me out, please.” A couple months ago, he’d never have believed God words would come out of his mouth again. Whew. He’d had a close call.

She pulled her lips into a sullen line and crossed her arms over her chest. “Fine. Talk.”

“When I came home, I didn’t want to be here. I wanted to stay in Coeur d’Alene and live the easy life. I only came back because I was between jobs and my dad was sick.”

Claire gave a crisp nod.

“But, you know, God brought me back here for a bigger reason.”

Her eyebrows went back up, and Zach grinned. “I don’t know if that bigger reason includes Jo, I really don’t. But one thing I’m certain of. I needed to be here to get pulled back into a right relationship with God.”

“Then what’re you doing about it?”

He frowned. “What do you mean?”

“If you’re walking all nice with God now, how is that changing your life?”

Didn’t look much like she believed him. Fair enough. “God isn’t changing me like a tsunami, Claire.” Zach held out his palm and droplets splashed into it. “He’s working in me like gentle rain.” Except for... He grimaced. “Gentle rain with some thunderstorms, like Bethany’s death.”

Claire studied his face, and Zach stood there, hands at his sides, waiting for the examination to be complete. She leaned in close. “Zachary Nemesek, if you hurt her, I will never forgive you. Not as long as I live.”

He rocked back. How could she even think that? And yet he
had
hurt Jo already. More than once. He managed to keep his voice steady. “I have no intention of it. But Claire? What have I done to offend
you
?”

She glowered at him. “We came here as a team, the three of us. We need Jo. If she left us for the city, everything would go wrong.”

“I didn’t say anything about taking her away.” Just how would it work, anyway, if he remained in the valley? Would next door be close enough for Jo? Would he feel like he’d married a girl with too many sisters? Not that anything was sure. “Do me a favor, Claire?”

“What?”
 

“This may surprise you, but I want God’s will in my life. Also in Jo’s. Even in yours. I’ve tried to control my own life. That didn’t work out so well.” And oh, how it hadn’t. But if Jo hadn’t told Claire about Yvette, he wasn’t going to bring it up now. “I’m done trying to manipulate things the way I want them. My plan is to pray, to do my best, and to trust God for the outcome He wants, even if it’s different than the one I thought I wanted.”

Was her face softening any? “What do you want from me?”

He set his hand on her shoulder, and she didn’t shrug it away. “I just want you to pray, too. Not with me, not for me, unless you want to. But for God’s will to be done. For all of us.”

Claire stared at him a moment longer, then gave a sharp nod. “Fair enough.”

Chapter 29

After the funeral, Doreen sat in a corner of the church basement near the stairs, twisting a tissue and refusing the plates of food people offered her. When she was alone for a moment, Jo slipped into an adjacent chair.

Not that she had a clue what to say. She didn’t know Bethany’s mother well. Hadn’t even known Bethany well. “I’m so sorry.”

Doreen glanced at Jo from red-rimmed eyes then focused again on the crumpled tissue in her lap.

Mrs. Humbert’s words came back to Jo’s mind. Words about forgiveness, acceptance. “I-I hope you and Bethany were close.” Jo’s voice trembled. How painful for Doreen if her last memory with her daughter was of angry words.

Bethany’s mother looked at Jo strangely, her jaw quivering. “She was my sunshine,” she whispered.

Jo nodded. Would fewer regrets make it easier? Or harder?

“The last thing she said to me was that she hoped she could be as good a mom to her baby as I was to her.”

Words that would never come out of Jo’s mouth. Did that say anything about her as a daughter, or only about her mom’s parenting skills?

“Th-that means the world to me.” Doreen blew her nose into her sodden tissue.

Jo snagged a fresh one from a nearby box and handed it over.

“Thanks.” Doreen dabbed her eyes. “Tell your mom how much you love her. Don’t let the opportunity be lost.”

“She drives me crazy. We have nothing in common. All we do is argue. Fight.”

The grieving mother grasped Jo’s hands with surprising strength. “Talk to her, Josephine. Don’t let one of you d-die with this between you.”

Jo blinked back tears. “That’s what I’ve been thinking the past few days. I’d hate myself forever.”

“And if the unthinkable happened—” Doreen buried her face into her hands for a moment. “If you should go, she wouldn’t be able to bear it. There’s something about mothers that daughters don’t understand.” She blew her nose and searched for a fresh tissue.

The holy grail of motherhood seemed open before Jo. “What’s that?”

“Your child grows within you for nine months. She’s completely a part of you, truly part of your body, of your being.”

Jo nodded her understanding.

“But for the daughter, it’s different. The mother is never part of the child. Not like the child is part of the mother.”

Could her mom ever have had these intense feelings for her? It didn’t seem possible.

Doreen wiped her cheeks. “We never expect our children to die before us. When my mother passed, she was old and ready to go. I was ready to let her, but now I see that willingness stemmed partially from who is part of whom.” She took a ragged breath. “Having Bethany gone is like having a piece of my soul torn out and stomped in the dirt.”

Jo became aware of someone close, someone listening, and she glanced up to see Sierra, whose bloodshot eyes matched Doreen’s. Sierra knelt in front of the older woman and took both hands in hers.

No, Sierra. Don’t. This isn’t the time or the place. There will never be the time or the place.
Not that telepathy had ever worked between them before, and it didn’t now.

“I feel so awful, Doreen. Can you ever forgive me?”

Doreen’s brows pulled together. “Forgive you what?”

And as fate — or God — would have it, the ebb of conversation in the basement retreated just as Sierra spoke. “My father drove the truck that hit Bethany.”

For one shocked instant, the silence was complete.

***

Gabe’s hand clenched Zach’s forearm with a grip so tight it snatched his breath, but he couldn’t tear his gaze away from Jo. Somehow in that one second of panic, a miracle happened. Without thought, he’d looked for Jo. The marvel was, Jo had found him. His heart sang. This was what he’d envied in his parents, or the beginning of it, anyway. Her subconscious knew they were meant for each other, even if she wouldn’t admit it yet.

Gabe jerked Zach forward. “Did you hear that?”

Yeah, he had. Zach held his ground and put a hand in front of Gabe. “Don’t, man.”

Not that it helped. Gabe shoved past him and stalked toward the women in the corner. Zach hurried to catch up. “Gabe, no.”

Gabe towered over them, face red and twisting as a battle fought within him. “What did you say?”

Sierra, cheeks pale, stood and stared at the floor by Gabe’s feet.