Texas Weddings 3 & 4 (39 page)

“Thank
you.” Kellie and Nathan spoke in unison.

“Not
exactly my taste,” the older man acknowledged, “but still, it’s nice.”

Kellie
felt her cheeks flush. “Well, we can always re-carpet if you like.”

“No,
no.” His eyebrows furrowed a bit. “Don’t want you to do that. You’ve gone to a
lot of trouble already.”

“Well,
it’s your home. Certainly we want you
to.
. .”

“It’s
like this,” Mr. Henderson interrupted. “I’ve decided not to come back.”

“What?”
Nathan’s face paled and Kellie was afraid for a moment he might overreact.

An
embarrassed grin crossed the older man’s face. “I never thought I’d live to see
the day, but it turns out I like big city life.”

His
daughter rested her hand across her father’s arm. “We love having daddy with us
in Austin. Our boys just adore him, and our house is so big. We’ve got plenty
of room.”

“They’ve
got cable television.” Mr. Henderson grinned. “Two hundred channels.” He nodded
matter-of-factly, as if that settled the deal.

“
So.
. .” Kellie glanced at Nathan for help. “
So.
. . what were you thinking?
 
You’re going to sell the house?”

“That’s
right.” The older man’s eyes shifted down to his hands. “Look, I know it’s not
worth much. It’s not big city living, for sure. But it’s very homey, and it
sure looks like you two have taken a liking to it.” He gestured with his hand.
“You’ve pert near turned it into a palace. And
besides.
. .” He looked at his daughter once again. “I could sure use the money.
Medicare covers most of my treatments, but I don’t have any real insurance to
speak of.”

Kellie
felt a lump in her throat. How in the world can they tell him they planned to
move out next week?
 
“Oh, Mr.
Henderson.”

“Daddy
tends to worry too much.” Linda patted her father’s hand. “I don’t really think
there’s much to be concerned about financially, but it would ease his mind a
great deal if he could sell the house. That would certainly be one less thing
on his plate.”

Nathan
cleared his throat and looked Kellie’s direction. She wondered how in the world
he would handle this, what he would say. His cheeks flushed
red,
a sure sign thoughts were stirring.
But what sort of
thoughts?
 

“Would you excuse us a moment?”
Nathan asked.

He
took Kellie by the hand and they made their way down the hall toward the master
bedroom. They entered and sat on the bed. For a moment, neither of them said a
word. Kellie finally broke the silence.

“Oh,
Nathan.” She buried her face in her hands. “What are we going to do?” She
lifted her face to gaze into his eyes.

He
drew in a deep breath, forehead wrinkled. “Well, I have an idea. I don’t know
how you’ll feel about it, but here
goes.
. .”

As
he laid out his plan, Kellie’s mind eased at once. Really, it was the only
thing that made sense. Yes, it would require great sacrifice on their part, to
be sure, but they had certainly grown accustomed to sacrifice over the past
several months.

Yes,
she reasoned.
This could work.

With
her husband’s hand tightly clutched in her own, Kellie traipsed back up the
hallway to give Mr. Henderson the news.

***

Nathan returned to Houston on
Monday morning, his head full of ideas. He stopped by the condo on the way into
the office to check the mail. He smiled as he looked around the place.
Quite a contrast to our current living conditions.
He and Kellie had nearly grown used to living with middle-of-the-road
furnishings and appliances.
But not for long.

Their time in
Greenvine
was rapidly drawing to a close. Boxes were packed and cupboards nearly bare.
Soon—in less than a week, in fact—they would be here again. Where
they belonged. It would require at least one truckload of boxes, but they’d see
to that this coming Saturday. Once they got settled in, he and Kellie would
travel back and forth to
Greenvine
on the weekends,
just as they had planned from the beginning.

Not that he really minded the past
few weeks. Truth be told, Nathan had grown to love the people of
Greenvine
. And all of the changes he and Kellie had faced
over the past seven weeks had changed him into a better man.

Nathan
drew in a satisfied breath and thought about how he’d drawn closer to God
during this season. And the Lord responded by speaking, giving direction.
Nathan heard His voice clearly these days, certainly with much more clarity
than in years past.

His
decision regarding the house in
Greenvine
had been
God-inspired, to be sure. They would buy the property from Mr. Henderson and
rent it out. With a little TLC, the home would make for a great investment.

Of course, he must take care of
the technicalities. A realtor would have to be hired and the repairs would need
to take place right away in order for the house to pass inspection. But Nathan
didn’t mind, especially since he wouldn’t be the one doing the work. He
couldn’t. Not with so much going on already.

“Nothing
like taking a little more on your plate when it’s already full.” Nathan smiled.
“But we’re getting pretty good at balancing a lot at once.”

He
pulled his car into the parking garage at the accounting firm and shut it down.
For a moment, he leaned his head back against the headrest and prayed. All of
the pieces to his puzzle seemed to be coming together.
Well, almost
all.
. .
 

Why couldn’t he get
Greenvine’s
financial problems off his mind?
 

He
knew why, of course. After several phone calls last Friday, the truth was
clear. The city had been taken for a ride and had lost a small fortune, almost
enough to sink them completely if someone didn’t intervene—and quickly.

Nathan’s concern for his
father-in-law deepened with each revelation. Kenton had been taken advantage
of, to be sure. He had acted out of honesty and sincerity, and clearly felt
awful about the whole thing. No one held him to blame. That’s how the people of
Greenvine
were. They cared far too much about him to
point any fingers. And right now his health required that he remain positive,
upbeat.

Nathan sighed as he contemplated
the most worrisome thing. His father-in-law’s ability to reason clearly had not
returned—at least not in full.
Perhaps in time.
But for now, he simply couldn’t handle the situation. He could barely handle
the small things, like dressing himself and fixing a bowl of cereal each
morning. How could he be called upon to save the city from financial ruin?

“Lord,
I don’t understand. It’s just too much for one man to handle.”
Nathan pursed his lips. “But what
can I do?
 
It’s too late to recoup
their money.”

The best chance the city of
Greenvine
stood right now was a concise, practical
investment plan for the future. They’d probably need to raise taxes a bit to
accomplish this and would certainly need someone they could trust to advise
them regarding future investments.
Someone with a head for
financial matters.
 
And
someone who genuinely cared about the townspeople—cared about more than
their financial interests.
Someone who cared about them as
people, not as taxpayers.

Nathan’s thoughts flashed back to
the night he’d been honored as Man of the Year. What was it Mr. Abernathy had
said of him?
 
“Please welcome
Nathan Fisher—a man with a head for numbers and a heart for the people.
He’s tough, but kind, practical, but pliable. And he’s our Man of the Year at
Siefert
and Collins.”

Nathan trembled as the words
rolled through his memory. “Oh Lord, surely
You
’re not
asking me to do this thing.”
Surely not.

He reached for his briefcase and
sprinted from his car, forcing the ludicrous idea from his mind.

seventeen

Kellie paced around the house with
a string of nonsensical prayers flowing.
Lord, I don’t understand. What are
You
up to? Oh, Lord. I’m going to need your help.

This changes everything.

She stared down at the white
plastic stick in her hand for the umpteenth time. Yep. Positive. Just like the
last million times she’d looked at it.

“A baby?” She spoke to the empty
room.
But how?
 
They had been so careful. If truth stared her in the face, then the Lord
certainly had a sense of humor.

And
interesting timing.
Kellie plopped down onto the sofa, deep in thought. How in the world
could she accomplish working full-time and raising a baby?
 
And where would she raise it?
 
There was certainly no room in their
tiny condo for a child. One bedroom.
One medium-sized,
not-ready-for-anyone-else bedroom.

And Nathan. What in the world would
he think?
 
Would he assume she had
planned this deliberately to somehow trap him?

“Oh, Lord. You’ve got to help me.
I don’t know how to tell him.”

Then again, she couldn’t go
without telling him for long. Her own body had begun to betray her. What had
started out as mere queasiness just a week ago had developed into full-blown
sessions of
toilet-hugging
. Every morning for the past
three days she’d spent more time in the bathroom than out. Thankfully, Nathan
had already left for work before the episodes began.

Clueless. He’s clueless.

The phone rang and Kellie very
nearly jumped out of her skin. She glanced at the Caller I.D.
Nathan.

She tried to sound as normal as
possible as she answered. “Hello?”

“Hey, Babe.” His cheery voice
greeted her. “I just got to the office. Thought I’d call and check on you.”

“Oh?”

“You were sleeping like a rock
when I left.” He sniggered. “I haven’t heard snoring like that in awhile.”

She groaned.
I’m snoring for
two now.
“I’m fine. I’m about to start packing up the bedroom. And I’ve got
a couple of calls to make. Bernie wants me to come in Monday morning. I hope
I’m up to it by then. This weekend is going to be crazy.”
Maybe
crazier than we thought.

“I know. That’s part of the reason
I’m calling. I rented a small moving truck. I’ll pick it up in Brenham on
Friday night. I don’t think we’ll need anything more than that. And Frankie
said
he’ll
come by Saturday morning to help load up.
That means I just have to find someone to help once we get back to the condo.”

“Right. Well, I appreciate him,
for sure.”
I sure can’t do any heavy lifting now.

Kellie listened as Nathan carried
on about how they would transport the two cars back and forth, but really
didn’t take much in. Instead, her mind wandered to the obvious. She put her
hand on her stomach and waited for something to happen.

Nothing.

“Kellie?
 
You there?”

She jolted back to reality as she
heard Nathan’s voice. “Oh, yeah. I’m sorry. I’m just really distracted today.
Too much on my mind.”

“That will all end soon.” His
voice resonated with calm, practical assurance. “Before you know it we’ll be
back home and everything will be back to normal.”

“Yeah.” She glanced down at the
white stick.
Still positive.
“Back to normal.”

“Well, almost normal anyway.” He
paused for a moment and she felt a shift in the conversation. “Things at work
are.
. . strange. That’s the only way I can describe.
Everything is so hush-hush around here today. I don’t know what’s up, but I get
the feeling something’s about to blow.”

“Yikes. No clues?”

“No,” he said. “But I’m trying not
to read too much into it. In fact, I’ve been a little distracted. To be honest,
there’s something I can’t stop thinking about. Something completely unrelated
to the firm.”

As he paused, Kellie felt the queasiness
return. She drew in a deep breath and waited for it to pass. “
W.
. .What do you mean?”

“I,
uh.
.
. I was just trying to figure out how to go about offering my help to your dad.
I can’t get
Greenvine’s
financial issues off my
mind.”

“Ah. I see.” She ignored the
tingling in her cheeks as she contemplated his words. Had the Lord really
convinced him of this?
 
Were they
supposed to be getting involved, after all?
“I’ve spent a lot of time
praying and thinking about it, myself,” Kellie acknowledged. “And I really
think we could help them. But it would take time. Effort.”