Instant Prairie Family (Love Inspired Historical) (15 page)

“I did. I wasn’t much bigger than you are now. I remember my grandpa took me to go fishing and while we were waiting for the first fish to bite, he started to talk to me about how life is too short to wait until we get big to make the most important decision in our lives. He said that I needed to get my life right with God before I could be a good man.”

Tommy stood and threw himself into Will’s arms. The force almost knocked him onto his back, but he managed to keep upright. “I love you, Pa. I’m glad you could be a good man ’cuz then you could be my pa.”

“I love you too,” Will whispered as he hugged Tommy tight. He hooked his other arm around Willy and pulled him into the hug, as well. Seeing Abby watching them, he smiled and mouthed, “Thank you” to her. She smiled back and he felt the force of it all the way to his toes. She had a lovely—powerful—smile.

Both boys pulled away and cuddled with Abby for just a moment before they were ready to run off and tell Colin. Will stood and extended his hand to Abby to help her stand. Her fingers slid into his palm, and their eyes caught for just a second before she looked away. The same burning question from before filled his head. Was she the one God wanted for him—part of a life that followed God’s plan? He wanted to believe it, but he couldn’t be sure. He’d been selfish with his first marriage, forcing his choices onto Caroline, believing he knew what was best for them both. Was he letting his own selfish wishes get in the way again? Until he was certain, he couldn’t open his heart to Abby with all of his feelings for her. But there was still one thing he had to say.

“Thank you. I...I’ll always be beholden to you for taking the time to get to know my boys and being sensitive to the Holy Spirit working in my son’s heart. Today his eternity was determined and I have you to thank for that.”

“No. You have the Lord to thank for that. The time was right and God just chose to use me to explain to him. I’m sure you would have said the same things, or maybe Jake or Colin. But I am glad I was here for it. No matter what happens, I’ll always remember this day.” Her voice cracked at the end and she turned away, following the boys.

Chapter Eleven

“G
ood morning, Jake. How are you today?” Abby greeted the young man she’d truly come to see as her nephew. In the last five months since she had arrived to Nebraska, they had become as close as she had been with Emma’s boys.

“Great, Abby. Uncle Will is thinking we’ll be done harvesting in a few more days. He thinks maybe I could go into the town with him when he goes to sell the wheat and extra vegetables.”

The news shouldn’t have been surprising, but it still shook her. Will hadn’t said anything to her about it. Despite the rocky beginning, they had managed to return to friendship during their four months of “marriage.” Friendship—but nothing more. Will and Jake continued to sleep out in the barn and even though Jake didn’t ask questions, Abby felt his curiosity at times. Will treated her no differently than he had when she was just his housekeeper. It was a relief to have the odd distance between them from their first month of marriage gone, but she still wished their relationship could be something more. Sometimes she wondered if Will felt the same way. There were times...times when she felt him watching her moving around the kitchen or when she was on the porch and he would sit in the quiet and just wait. It felt as if he were being pulled toward her but was holding himself back.

“That sounds exciting. How long has it been since you’ve gone to town?” Abby asked, forcing herself to sound interested instead of panicked. Would Will expect to take her to the train station then or would he leave her back at the farm with the boys? She would rather stay on the farm for the next ten years and never see the town again if it meant staying with her family.

“We went every fall with my parents. It’s been a few years. Not since they passed,” Jake answered with a shrug, but by now Abby knew the young man too well to be fooled by his pretended nonchalance.

“That was almost seven years ago! Why haven’t you gone back?”

“Well...someone had to stay with the livestock.” Jake explained it away but Abby saw something else in his eyes.

“Didn’t you want to go this last time, when the others came to meet me at the train? I’m sure Will could have gotten someone from another farm to come out and check on the livestock or even take them over to someone else’s spread until you got back,” Abby argued.

“I was fine staying here. See, I’m not...” His face turned a bright red and he ducked his head as he tended to when she had first arrived.

“You’re what?” Abby prompted in a quiet voice, waiting for him to raise his eyes and answer.

“I’m not very cultured or educated. I’m just a country bumpkin and I, well, I’m not really fit to go to town.”

“Since when? You are a very well-mannered young man. If you weren’t, I would have let you know by now. You were terribly shy when I first came, but you do really well now, talking with everyone at church.”

“But I don’t have any schooling,” Jake disputed.

“You’ve been taught the basics of reading and writing and I’ve helped you with some of the more advanced math. You’re very smart.”

“No, she said...” Jake turned away and seemed about ready to head back out the kitchen door without breakfast.

“Wait, Jake. Who said what?” Abby pressed, grabbing his hand to keep him from leaving.

“It doesn’t matter. She was right. I’m just a simpleton. I don’t know how to treat a lady or how to act in public.”

“Who said that to you, Jake? Was it someone from church?”

He shook his head and Abby tightened her grip.

“I want to know who lied to you, Jake. You’re a wonderful person. It’s been a pleasure to get to know you. Your own parents and then your uncle raised you very well. I’d be proud to introduce you to my nieces if they were here. You have nothing to be ashamed of. You might find some things in town confusing because you didn’t grow up there, but that doesn’t mean that you’re worth any less than any city boy. You just need to learn.” He stopped fidgeting and listened but he didn’t look her in the eye.

“Jake, I want you to believe that God made you special. You’re young yet, but you’re so handsome we’re going to have to beat the girls back with a broom one of these days.” Abby grinned, but he didn’t even smile.

“Who said those horrible things to you, Jake?” Abby entreated.

“My aunt,” Jake stated flatly, in a voice just above a whisper.

“Do you mean your aunt Caroline?” Jake didn’t answer, but Abby didn’t really need the confirmation. Caroline was the only aunt Jake had known, growing up in Nebraska.

“She lied. I’m so sorry that she said those horrible things to you, but they were lies. You can’t possibly believe her.” Abby moved to stand directly in front of Jake. “You have to understand—I never met her and don’t want to speak ill of the dead, but she lied to you. Don’t let the words she said dictate who you are or who you become. When I see you, I see a wonderful young man who is very smart and capable. Someday you can have your own farm just like this, or breed hoses or cattle or anything else you want.”

“No. I’ll always just be a stupid farmhand. Uncle Will needs me and he has given me everything I’ve ever needed. It’s an okay life. I don’t mind.”

“Have you ever thought about what you’ll do for yourself?”

“No. I can’t run my own farm. I’m too stupid. I can’t read enough and someone would just swindle me out of everything.”

“Is that what you know or what your aunt told you?” Abby pressed; her gaze was steady as she waited for Jake’s answer.

“That’s a good question, Jake. I’d like to hear the answer to that myself,” Will said, startling both Jake and Abby.

“I heard what Abby was saying through the window,” Will informed Jake.

After a pause, Will took a seat and motioned Jake to take the one next to him. “I’m sorry I didn’t realize what Caroline had said to you, or how it’s hurt you all these years.”

Jake flopped down in the chair at the foot of the table. Abby turned back to the stove, caught between the urge to leave to give the men some privacy for their conversation and to stay so that she could be of help. Will looked like a fish out of water, trying to deal with the fragile ego of his nephew. Emotions didn’t seem to be his area of expertise.

“You were always so busy trying to keep everything together. She was always saying stuff about you being...” Jake stopped and looked down at his lap.

“I don’t care what she said about me,” Will answered, his voice soft. “I know she was angry with me. That’s nothing new. But I didn’t know she’d hurt you, as well.”

Will reached out across the empty chair between the two and briefly squeezed Jake’s shoulder. “Listen, Jake, you’re your father’s son and I knew Mathew better than anyone. So I know, for certain, that he’d have been very proud of you. You are very smart. You have a special way with horses, and I wouldn’t be able to get nearly as much done without your help. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about these doubts you’ve got about yourself. All this time I just thought you didn’t want to go to town because it brought memories of when your parents went and didn’t return.”

Silence filled the kitchen. Both men sat staring at their hands, resting on the table in much the same loose fold. If Abby hadn’t known that Will was Jake’s uncle and not his father, she wouldn’t have been able to tell by looking at them. She knew that Will loved Jake as much as he loved Tommy and Willy.

“Jake, I need to ask you to forgive me. I was struggling so much with all that was going on that I didn’t pay enough attention to you and how you must’ve been feeling.” Will looked Jake in his eyes and Abby held her breath, waiting for Jake to acknowledge his uncle.

“It’s no big deal. You had your hands full with everything else. I was just glad that you didn’t send me back East to live with Grandma or in some orphanage.” Jake ducked his head and didn’t make eye contact.

“Jake...” Will stood and cleared his throat. Squatting down next to his nephew, his hand on the teen’s shoulder, he looked him straight in the eye. “Your pa and I had a covenant, kind of like David did with Jonathan in the book of Samuel. I promised to see to you, your ma and any other of his kids if anything ever happened to him. He promised to do the same thing if the tables were turned. Half of this homestead is yours when you come of age. You’ve worked by my side like a man and deserve it. This was his dream before it was mine. If, when the time comes, you want to concentrate on breeding horses or raising cattle or anything else God puts in your heart, you have my blessing and my help if I can.”

Will stood and Jake unfolded from his chair, as well. Both men stood face-to-face, Will only a few inches taller than the boy. Soon Jake would be as tall as his uncle. Neither one seemed to know what to do or what to say.

“Come on, now, give each other a hug. If you don’t, I’m not gonna feed you for a week.” It slipped out so easily she was turning back to the stove to give the men some privacy when she realized what she had said and felt her face turn the shades of sunset. While she was Will’s wife in name, she was just his housekeeper in truth, and wanted to keep that position as long as possible. Threatening to not comply with her work was not exactly the way to ensure her stay.

Jake was the first one to laugh. “Well, now, Auntie Abby, you sure know how to threaten a man. You’ve got us so spoiled we’d probably starve to death the first day.”

“So don’t make me do it,” Abby threatened playfully, pleased that Jake was teasing her.

“You heard the woman,” Will mock-growled at his nephew. “I guess we’ve been given our orders.”

A moment later, they both shook hands and then Will pulled Jake into his arms. The hug resembled a wrestling match between bear cubs as Abby watched it in her peripheral vision. She swallowed back the lump in her throat and sniffed to keep from crying, forcing a smile instead.

Ever since Pastor Colin had preached about “numbering one’s days,” she had tried to do just that—live each day as if it would be her last day to interact with Will and the boys. She looked for ways to encourage them or to teach them so that when she left, they would have a host of memories that would keep her alive in their hearts.

She also prayed for them and their daily growth. Even as she sewed seam after seam into their new winter clothes, she prayed God would sew His Word in their hearts so they would carry it with them always. Abby thanked God with tears streaming down her face the night of the picnic when she had the privilege to help Tommy accept Jesus as his Savior. Now she added to her precious memories the privilege of seeing Jake and Will draw closer and Jake overcome hurtful lies his aunt had told him years ago. Lies that had kept him from enjoying social activities with his peers and other adults.

She placed a cup of coffee before each man and returned to her work. Listening to Will and Jake take their seats again in the kitchen and just sit in silence, a peaceful silence that no one wanted to spoil with words, she felt as though this had been part of the reason God had brought her all the way out to Nebraska. He had a divine plan to use her in the boys’ lives and in Jake’s. Even as she resigned herself to the truth that she might not have many more days with the Hopkins, her heart cried out to God. If she had been able to bless them in little ways, it would only stand to reason that staying for a lifetime would bring a lifetime of blessings.

But the words
Teach me to number my days
rang in her mind. Hers were but a few days on earth. She would have to find a way to survive when the allotted number had been spent here and then she’d have to accept when it was time to move on.

Later that night, the boys already tucked in bed and the kitchen set to rights, Abby slipped out onto the porch with a cup of tea and a light shawl draped around her shoulders. Now the evenings cooled quickly once the sun began to set. The nice part was the bugs didn’t bother nearly so much as they had done in the heat of the summer. She settled into the swing with her knitting on her lap. There was a lantern on in the barn and she could hear the frogs still singing in chorus down by the creek.

She had often been tempted to take a stroll down by the creek at this time of night, just to get away from the house and enjoy God’s peace and quiet. No wonder He had chosen this time of day to meet with Adam and Eve in the Garden. But she had never ventured away from the house again. She had sensed Will’s deep concern for her the night he had found her and Colin talking by the creek, and she hadn’t wanted to worry him again.

As if just thinking about him conjured him up, he emerged from the barn and headed toward the house. “Good evening,” she called out from the shadows of the porch. “Everything all right?”

“Good evening,” he called back. His eyes searched her out in the shadows and then, when he spotted her, a smile lit his eyes and his lips curled at the edges. It was a warm, friendly smile. She reminded herself not to read anything more into it than that. “Everything’s fine.”

“Want a cup of coffee or tea?” Abby offered, setting her knitting to the side and starting to stand. In a blink, Will was up the stairs and held out a hand to steady her on her feet.

“A cup of tea sounds good tonight. But stay put. I can get my own,” he reassured her, motioning her back toward her chair.

“No, sir. I just washed up in there and I’d rather make a little mess than have to deal with the bigger mess you’ll make,” she teased, rewarded by his boyish grin in return.

He held the door for her, then waited as she prepared the tea. By mutual accord, they returned to the porch with their mugs. She settled on the swing and he sat next to her, leaving as much space between them as possible.

“I wanted to say thank you for your help talking to Jake earlier today. You’ve done wonders pulling him out of his shell. You’ve done wonders for all of us, really. I don’t know what I would have done without your help this summer,” he started, his gaze holding hers.

Abby bit her lip and tried to calm her racing heart. What was he saying? Was this the opening of a discussion about how she’d done enough for them, and now it was time for her to leave? Until now, he hadn’t heard back from the East. At least he hadn’t told her about anything from his family in the post. In fact, just a few days before he’d commented how strange it was that his mother hadn’t sent her regular letters.