Saving Gracie (15 page)

He drove all the way to her house to rub it in?

“I heard you loud and clear at the church, Jake. Our friendship is over. I know.”

Jake took two steps closer. Gracie stepped back, both in confusion and to allow him through the door.

The clouds outside made the night even darker, and she’d only flipped on one light switch as she’d walked down the stairs. But even in the dimly lit entryway, Gracie thought she could see the emerald flicker that had been absent earlier today. Jake’s eyes no longer appeared dull and lifeless.

He shook his head. “No, not you and me, Gracie. I made a mistake in saying that. But I made a bigger mistake in pushing the City Council for the Maximized Revenue Zone.”

“What?” Gracie’s eyebrows shot straight for her hairline. “I don’t understand.”

“I’m calling Carter Porter and asking him to withdraw the proposal. You can keep your school,” Jake said.

Had she just taken a hit to the back? She couldn’t catch her breath.

Suddenly, as the old hymn said, peace like a river flowed. All the day’s stress melted away, taking the worry of the whole week along with it. And she hadn’t yet dangled even one toe in the warm lavender bathwater upstairs.

“I can keep my school?” She forced her arms to remain at her sides instead of reaching out to hug Jake. Gracie didn’t want to overstep any boundaries. Everything today shifted from one extreme to the other so rapidly that it almost made her seasick. “But what about your condo’s swimming pool?”

“Well, the project’s not mine any longer, remember? And without me, I imagine the company will go back to the original blueprint. The board never even listened to my proposal for the expanded amenities.”

Gracie tore her gaze away from Jake and looked around the ground floor. She surveyed the classrooms, plastic tables in neat rows with folding chairs arranged in regular intervals. She paused briefly at her office, where her secondhand desk chair would support her for many days to come.

Gracie’s wounded heart mended and swelled with joy.

God hadn’t misunderstood her prayers after all. He’d saved her school.

“Let’s get you a towel. Wait right over there.” Gracie pointed at the guest room as Jake followed two steps behind on the way up the tall staircase.

She went into the bathroom and grabbed the towel she’d laid out for herself. The bubbles that had piled up so frothily just a few minutes before had now all faded back into the water. But enough bubbles percolated through Gracie’s bloodstream to more than make up for their absence.

You can keep your school,
Jake had said.

Could she keep him in her life, too? She didn’t want to allow herself to think too hard about exactly what her heart meant by that.

When Gracie walked into the guest room, Jake gratefully took the towel and began to roughly dry his hair, then wiped up the small puddle below him on the floor. “I didn’t mean to barge in on you like this.”

“It’s okay. I was just alone with my thoughts tonight. I left the church not long after you did.”

The springs of the twin bed creaked as Jake sat heavily on top of the pink ring quilt covering it. “I shouldn’t have taken my frustration out on you, Gracie. You reached out to me after reading that grant letter and I wasn’t there for you.”

“You were dealing with your own issues today, Jake. It’s okay.” Gracie leaned against the doorframe. She remembered the hollow feeling inside when she’d watched him walk away. But he’d come back to her. That was all that mattered.

“No, it’s not. And Nana reminded me of that. God puts us into the paths of others for a reason.” He pushed still-damp hair out of his face.

She wanted to tell him that it would all be forgiven if he’d just say he didn’t mean the part about staying out of her life forever.

“Well, yes, He does. But that isn’t what they teach in the MBA program, and you’ve made that clear before. When did you start listening to God?”

“When I realized that’s my family’s strongest legacy—not a company.” Jake locked eyes with her. Gracie could sense the seriousness in their clear green depths. “Nana showed me a book tonight, written after the Great Storm of 1910. It talks about how Peoples Property Group got started. The company is a means to an end, but it’s not the only way I can live out the vision of my great-grandfather. I am no longer part of the company, but I still want to be part of the work he was called to do—to help others build up their lives.”

Gracie straightened up. Jake got her attention.

“You were right, Gracie. It’s about people and love, not profit and loss.” He stood and walked over to her.

The room lit up from a full flash of lightning out over the nearby gulf. The accompanying thunderous boom made the house sway on its pier-and-beam foundation. She reached out and clutched Jake.

Gracie knew she would have even if there had been no storm. She wanted to hold on to him forever. She wanted to hold on to this feeling in her heart forever. All her life, she’d known she left her homeland to find something new. When Jake said her own words back to her, she knew she’d found not just a friend, but maybe more.

* * *

Although Jake wanted to stay much longer and talk about the future with Gracie, he needed to take care of some important business right now.

“I’ll see you tomorrow. I want to take you out on a real date.” He waved as he ran off the porch and across the asphalt to where he’d parked his truck.

Today’s events tossed his future up in the air. He didn’t know what he would do for a job once he cleaned out his desk Monday morning. But what mattered most was that Gracie would stand by his side.

As soon as he shut the door to the car, Jake dialed Carter Porter’s number. It went straight to voice mail.

“Carter, it’s Jake. Look, I need you to take the vote on the Maximized Revenue Zones off the table for Monday’s meeting. It’s not something I’m interested in pursuing any further. Call me if you have questions. If I don’t hear back from you, I’ll assume everything’s taken care of.”

He hung up the phone and drove back to the carriage house. Everything seemed to be falling into place. Jake loved it when a plan came together.

Especially when he knew it was God’s plan.

The phone rang almost as soon as Jake disconnected the call to Carter Porter.

“Jake?” Jenna’s soft whisper sounded wet with tears.

“Jenna, I’m so sorry. I owe you an apology.” He needed to make things right with his sister. He’d treated the news of her pregnancy exactly the same way his father would have treated a major announcement of Jake’s.

“It’s okay, Jake. I’ve been on the phone with Nana.” She gave a weepy little hiccup. “It’s not right what Sam did to you.”

Jake pulled his truck into a parking spot alongside Gulfview Boulevard. He wanted to be able to give Jenna his full attention, not be distracted by the drive back home.

“No, it’s not. But I’ll be okay. I didn’t know that at first, but I do now.” A smile of recognition crossed Jake’s lips as he spoke. “You were right, you know.”

“About what?”

Jake watched the waves below get splashed with raindrops and remembered a few days back when Jenna had given him a stern warning in his office. “You told me not to forget the important things in life. It wasn’t that I’d forgotten them, Jen. Until tonight, I never really
knew
what they were.”

His heart broke a little for the person he had been, the person who had always struggled to live up to unrealistic expectations.

Jenna didn’t reply immediately. “So what did you learn? What are the important things to you?”

“Family. Faith. Doing what you can to help others.” Jake answered his sister swiftly and without doubt. “Being an uncle who cares. Jenna, I’m really sorry for how I reacted to your news. I want to be there for you and for the baby. I want to remember what truly matters in life.”

“Really?” Jenna’s voice peaked on the last syllable. “You mean that?”

Jake nodded, confirming it to himself as much as Jenna. “I mean it. I know that Sam Pennington’s revelations mean I’m only your half brother, but that doesn’t matter to me.”

Jenna cut him off. “It doesn’t matter to me, either. You’ve always been my brother. You always will be. No DNA or gossip will change that. And I want my baby to grow up knowing that the Sam Penningtons of the world will not win in the end. You and me—we’re family, Jake, no matter what anyone says.”

“I’m glad you feel that way, Jenna. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“I know something you can do,” Jenna said.

He’d do anything for Jenna, and he wanted to prove it to her. He wanted to build an extended family who laughed together and supported each other in good times and bad, just as the Garcias had. “What? Name it.”

“Come with me tomorrow to my prenatal appointment. I’ve transferred from the hospital’s OB/GYN practice to a midwife at that little birth clinic on the corner of Sixth Street, next to Provident Medical Center—and they have Saturday morning appointments. I scheduled it then because I thought Mitch could come, but I forgot he has to fly out of town for a conference. Will you come with me? They’ll be doing an ultrasound. You can see your niece or nephew for the first time.”

Why not? He could clean out his desk anytime. He’d probably never have the opportunity to see Jenna’s baby on an ultrasound screen again. “Absolutely, Jenna.” His heart leaped at the thought of being there for Jenna and her baby.

“Great.” Jake could hear only smiles—no more sniffles—coming from the other side of the line.

He would be there for Jenna. This should have been the loneliest night of his life. Instead, he’d found his relationships and his purpose renewed. He’d found out the true meaning of what really mattered in life—people and love.

Chapter Nine

J
ake pulled up to Jenna’s beachfront condo just before eight o’clock the next morning and honked the truck’s horn.

“Coming!” She opened the front door and shouted, then ran back inside. When she came back out, she was holding a purple notebook. Jake watched as she ran down the sidewalk toward the truck. She still seemed just as fast as in her high school days, when she flew from one end of a basketball court to the other.

In some ways, Jake couldn’t believe his little sister was having a baby. Truthfully, it was hard to believe she was actually married. He remembered when she used to play house in the backyard with her teddy bears and tea sets.

“Hey, little mama,” Jake teased. “You ready?”

“Yup.” Jenna closed the door to the truck and buckled up. “I’d forgotten my notebook. I’m keeping all my notes about the pregnancy in it. I don’t want to forget a single second of it.”

She flashed him a wide grin, full of pride and excitement. Jenna was so excited about every little detail pertaining to this baby already. Jake had no doubt she would make a great mother and that this baby would have the loving, secure childhood Jake himself never did.

The trip to the Provident Women’s Health and Birth Center only took about five minutes. It was a small building on the far corner of the property that made up the Provident Medical Center.

“The clinic is in the front of the building, and at the back are four birthing rooms designed to be like a room at home. They’re close enough to transfer patients quickly and efficiently in case of an emergency, but far enough away that you don’t have to feel like you’re in a hospital.”

He had to admit, the oversized craftsman-style building surrounded by oak trees and flowerbeds full of pansies in bright shades of yellow and purple looked like a much cozier place to start a family than the stark, hushed hallways of the hospital next door.

Once inside, Jenna stepped right up to the sliding-glass window at the back of the waiting area. “Hi, I’m Jenna Carson. I’m here for my appointment.”

The receptionist gestured at a clipboard on a small ledge. “Just sign in and your midwife will be right with you.”

Jenna scribbled on the paper, then walked over to a wingback chair next to where Jake was seated.

“Uncomfortable, big brother?”

Jake tried to scoot back from the edge of his chair and pulled back at his collar. “It’s all so...female...in here.”

“Well, sure. It’s a women’s health clinic.” Sarcasm coated Jenna’s words and she rolled her eyes at Jake in the universal look of sisters who thought their brothers were a little crazy.

“But I’m not a woman. I’m not even married to one. This is all new to me.”

A brown door next to the small sliding-glass window opened. The midwife looked up from the chart in her hand.

“Jake?” Gloria Garcia Rodriguez’s eyes shot white-hot sparks in Jake’s direction. “What are you doing here?”

Jenna jumped out of her chair and clutched at Jake’s arm. The sparks in Gloria’s eyes intensified. “Jake, do you know Gloria? She’s going to be my new midwife.”

“Oh, he knows me,” Gloria said flatly. “I’m his girlfriend’s sister.” The emphasis on
girlfriend
was unmistakable. She stared at Jenna with disbelief starkly painted across her face. “So, you’ve orchestrated another surprise for Gracie?”

The words startled Jake. He’d only asked Gracie on an official date last night. But Gloria seemed to have gotten other ideas. And something told him this wasn’t the time or place to deny Gloria’s suspicions.

“Who is Gracie, Jake?” Jenna looked back and forth between her brother and the midwife. “And since when do you have a girlfriend?”

The silence made Jake feel the heat on both sides, as if he were a slice of bread in a toaster. Gloria’s hazel eyes stared at him intently, daring him to confirm her obvious suspicions about why he was attending a prenatal appointment. Jenna cautiously took a half step back, trying to make sense of the situation.

“Well, I officially asked her out on our first date late last night. With all the other family drama yesterday, I didn’t have the chance to tell you.”

Gloria gave him a look that would freeze water, then jumped in with the gusto Jake had come to expect from her. “It sounds like you have a lot of explaining to do, Daddy.”

“Daddy?” Jenna repeated, then laughed. “You mean Uncle.”

Gloria rested the clipboard on her hip. “Hmm?”

“Jenna’s my sister, Gloria. I’m here because her husband is away on a business trip. And because I learned from some great people recently what it means to support your family.”

Jake could hear Gloria’s breath as she finally exhaled fully.

“Bien.”
She looked at Jake and let a smile slip across her usually measured countenance. “Now come on back and let’s take this baby’s first photograph.”

Jake stayed in the hallway while Gloria did the routine exam on Jenna. When the checkup was finished, she opened the door a crack. “Well, Uncle Jake? Are you ready to come in?”

Gloria bunched Jenna’s loose blouse up and tucked in the elastic waistband of her new maternity pants, exposing the tiniest of baby bumps in her lower abdominal area. A computer sat on a stand next to where Jenna lay. Jake assumed that the ultrasound images would be shown on the flat-panel monitor perched on top.

“Are you ready?” Gloria asked Jenna with a warm smile.

Jenna nodded in reply. “Mmm-hmm. It’s still hard to believe this is all real.”

“I do this every day, Jenna, and it never gets old. It’s such a privilege to be able to see one of God’s creations for the first time, and a few months later, help bring them into the world.” Gloria flipped a switch and then mouse-clicked her way through a few menus on the screen.

The dim lighting in the room made Jake feel as if he was in some kind of sacred place. And then he thought about Gloria’s words and realized that, in a way, he was.

“Gloria, how did you come to be a midwife?” Jake asked with honest curiosity.

She grabbed a clear bottle filled with blue goop and squeezed it around Jenna’s belly. “Honestly, Jake, it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do—since I was a kid. Where Gracie and I come from, there’s more of a tradition of midwifery. Especially in the small towns and rural areas.”

She moved a small white probe around in little circles and the sound of
whoosh-whoosh-whoosh
came clearly through the speakers.

Awe struck Jake with a force that made him catch his breath. He could hear the heartbeat of his niece or nephew.

It sounded strong. It sounded perfect. It sounded like the rarest of gifts.

Jake knew he could never thank Jenna enough for asking him to join her for this moment. Maybe he’d been wrong all along. Maybe his family did have a lot in common with Gracie’s. Just because his parents weren’t the kind of parents he’d often wished for didn’t mean that the links of love didn’t stretch over generations. Already, Jake knew he would do anything for this little creature growing inside Jenna. And Jenna herself. He had a family to be thankful for.

This baby had just taught him a very important lesson. No wonder God chose the same kind of miracle to teach all of humankind.

“So you never wanted to work in a hospital?” Jenna asked as Gloria took measurements of the baby’s head, arms and legs with repetitive
click
sounds.

Gloria took her hand off the mouse. “Well, I used to work on the Labor and Delivery floor next door at Provident Medical Center. But after I lost my son and my husband, I had a hard time returning to the hospital. So I started working here.”

Gloria’s last name was Rodriguez, not Garcia, so Jake knew she had been married. He’d noticed last night at Huarache’s that she wasn’t wearing a ring. But he just assumed she had probably gotten divorced. Or maybe she just didn’t want masa dough squishing around a diamond.

But he’d never guessed that Gloria had lost her husband. And a child. No wonder she was so protective of the family members she still had, like Gracie.

“I’m so glad you’ve been pointing out what everything is up there. I know the round part is the head, but the rest is like Greek to me.” Jenna wiggled a little closer to the screen for a better look.

Jenna giggled, still staring intently at her baby on the screen.

Gloria punched a few more buttons. “I’ll print out the screenshots I’ve been taking. There are about seven or eight of them. You can take them, so your husband can see baby’s first pictures when he gets home.”

Jenna beamed. Jake couldn’t deny the truth of the old cliché. Pregnant women really
did
glow.

“Hey, Gloria, can I have a copy, too?” Like Jenna, Jake couldn’t keep the smile off his face. “I want to be able to show off the newest member of my family.”

Gloria handed a small, shiny square of paper to Jake. He stared at it and began to memorize the features of this tiny little person.

Just twenty-four hours ago, Jake felt his world being pulled out from under him, like sand displaced by a wave. But in this moment, with his sister and Gracie’s sister—and the next generation—Jake felt renewed.

Like his niece or nephew, he had the opportunity to grow and develop and pursue his dreams, whatever they wound up being.

He buried the old Jake, the son who was never good enough. The new Jake had his whole life ahead of him.

* * *

In spite of the rain, Gracie slept all night long...and then she overslept. But even though she was running late, she lay in bed a few minutes more than necessary, stretching. Gracie enjoyed the feeling of refreshment. The grass and trees received what they needed from the heavens last night in the form of rain. She received what she needed from Heaven last night in the form of a reprieve for
El Centro.

And Jake’s words to her, too.

Dating David had left her so unsure of herself. His words and actions had made her self-conscious about who she was and where she’d come from. She’d met David on her first day as a student at Provident College, when he conducted one of the orientation sessions she attended. She’d asked a question at the end of the class, and they’d found themselves talking about aspects of college life. He’d been so easy to talk to at first.

As a graduate student who then got a job in academic advisement at Provident College, he’d initially been so supportive of her education. But then, as it became clear to her that her life’s work would involve ESL education, he began to change. David told her she was wasting her time, that she’d need to choose a field that would garner more respect from others.

He said he had a reputation to uphold and she couldn’t spend her time with “blue-collar people” if she was serious about a relationship with him because he was committed to moving up in his career of collegiate administration, where they would be surrounded by those with advanced educations.

As he became more verbally abusive, Gracie found the only way to make a clean break from the relationship was to leave Provident College. She started
El Centro
with no degree or much formal training, just a desire to help and mentor others.

And even though she’d heard through the grapevine that David had left Port Provident last year for greener pastures, she still felt that scar on her heart and her self-worth every time she thought about returning to the classroom to complete her own degree—
if
she ever had the funds to again do so.

She’d assumed that since David’s background was more similar to that of Jake’s than her own, that Jake would hold the same opinions as the people who made up his world. Certainly, his initial desire to shut down her school did nothing but bolster that theory.

Of course, Gracie now knew Jake was different than she’d initially assumed. Jake’s pedigree wasn’t quite as advertised and she’d learned that he managed a bankruptcy judgment instead of a trust fund. But last night, Gracie looked straight into Jake’s heart. Titles and money didn’t matter. A person with a caring heart and a newfound trust in God could become anything.

Today marked the first day of that life for Jake, and Gracie felt so privileged to be a part of it. She threw her feet over the side of the bed and rose, not wanting to waste another minute of this precious day.

She showered quickly and got dressed, then went downstairs to begin setting up for the day’s lessons. A full schedule of classes always filled her Saturdays.

And on this particular Saturday, she knew thoughts of Jake would fill her mind.

“Miss Gracie?” Juan Calderon stuck his head in the classroom as Gracie pulled workbooks off the bookshelf. “Have you talked to Mr. Jake? My boss said he got fired yesterday afternoon. He was good for the company. I don’t want it to be true.”

The anxiety written across Juan’s face touched Gracie. Jake once told her he wanted to change the bitter corporate culture his own father had built at Peoples Property Group. Juan’s concern showed that even in his short tenure, Jake had made a difference in that regard.

“It is, Juan. The board of directors did not confirm him as CEO.” Out of respect for Jake, Gracie left it there. God didn’t want her to gossip, and she didn’t, either. Too many other wagging tongues in a small town would take care of that soon enough.

“That’s not good news, Gracie.” Juan cast a glance at his brown boots, scuffed by the hard work of supervising landscape crews.

“No, not for Jake, it isn’t. But there is a silver lining.
El Centro
won’t be closing now, since they won’t be expanding the condo project.”

Juan looked up and smiled. “So you’ll still be teaching, Miss Gracie?”

“Absolutely. I’ll be here for you, Juan, and all the other students.” She carefully laid out the workbooks for those students.

“I’m going to go outside and wait for Pablo before class starts. He was wondering about Mr. Jake, too.” Juan ducked back out of the classroom and Gracie heard the front door quickly open and shut.

Before she knew it, the room had filled up. Saturday morning’s class was a favorite of Gracie’s to teach. The men and women who came had been with Gracie for several years and were her most advanced group. They wanted to own their own businesses—students after Gracie’s own heart.