A Sister's Forgiveness (5 page)

Jeannie was watching her go when she felt Geoff’s arms come around her, his lips close to her ear. “Thank you,” he whispered.

“I would never have violated…”

“Not for the promise,” he said, turning her so they were facing each other. “For raising such a wonderful kid.”

Suddenly shy, Jeannie fingered his shirt collar. “I didn’t do it alone.”

“But you’re the one who has given her confidence and your gift for taking care of others.”

Jeannie’s heart was so full that she circled her arms around his neck and laid her cheek against his chest. “You make me so very happy—you and Tessa are my whole world.”

She felt the rumble of his chuckle deep from in his chest as his arms tightened around her. When he spoke, his voice was so soft that she had to stay very still to hear him. “We’re going to be all right,” he said, and she couldn’t help but wonder if he had meant to speak the words aloud.

She looked up at him and stroked his cheek. “I love you, Geoff Messner.”

He grinned. “That’s Vice Principal Geoff Messner,” he teased.

“No. That’s Geoff Messner, the best husband and father God ever created.”

He kissed her then, and as they walked upstairs together arm in arm, Jeannie silently prayed the prayer she had prayed every night and every morning of her life.
This is the day the Lord did make; let me be glad and rejoice in it
.

Chapter 5

Emma

A
fter weeks of sunny days with cloudless blue skies, the day after the annual picnic dawned with an unexpected and relentless downpour. Emma was making breakfast for the family, although she was well aware that whatever she prepared would probably be eaten on the run. Sadie was already on the phone for the third time that morning, and Matt could be heard banging around in his room, searching no doubt for the supplies that he and Emma had shopped for a week earlier.

She smiled and shook her head. As organized as their parents were—everything in its place—neither child seemed to have inherited that particular trait. Emma could almost imagine the disaster area that Matt’s room would be after he left for school. Sadie’s room would be no less messy. But in her room, the bed would be covered with rejected items of clothing. For a girl who dressed plain, she could come up with an endless number of combinations of tops and bottoms.

“We can’t ride our bikes in this,” Sadie moaned. “Dan says he could come by here and pick me up, and then we’d go get Tessa.” She delivered this news in a tone that Emma understood was a plea for permission as she covered the receiver with one hand and waited.

Emma exchanged a look with Lars, and he nodded.

“The streets will be slick,” Lars told her. “Tell Dan to drive carefully.”

Sadie grinned and murmured something into the phone; then she giggled as she hung up and took a long swallow of her orange juice.

Emma turned back to the stove. She had wanted Lars to say that he would drive the girls to school when he took Matt. Dan Kline was a nice boy. He was also a senior and president of the student council as well as the quarterback on Geoff’s football team. Emma could see no explanation why he had fastened his attention on Sadie—a mere sophomore. He was older—and by definition more experienced when it came to dating. Of course, that was the real problem—Sadie was dating the boy. Not in groups, spending time with him and his friends or hers, but actual dates—long walks or bike rides and such. Surely Sadie was too young for anything so serious.

At least Lars had stood with her on that one. He had told Sadie that unless they were attending a school or community function with them or Dan’s family, she and Dan were to limit their time together to twice a week—during the day.

“Oh Dad,” Sadie moaned now as she took a bite of the donut that Emma had gotten up before dawn to make as a special treat for the first day of school, “Dan’s eighteen. He knows how to drive in rain.”

Lars put down his newspaper. “Ja, und it’s because he’s eighteen that I worry,” he said quietly. “Young men of his age tend to think they are indestructible and that anyone with them is as well.”

Emma hoped that maybe Sadie’s comment had raised enough of a red flag that Lars would reconsider. In their home, as in most conservative Mennonite homes, the man was the head of the household, and wife and children alike looked to him to make these kinds of decisions. But he picked up his paper again. Sadie rolled her eyes and then turned her attention to Emma. “How do I look?”

“Sehr gut.”

Sadie groaned and punched in a number on the phone that under most circumstances was kept in her father’s workshop behind the house and used primarily for his business. It was a mark of the importance of this first day of school that Sadie was allowed to use the phone. “Hi, Auntie Jeannie, is Tessa ready?”

Sadie giggled at Jeannie’s response. “What’s she wearing?”

A beat and her expression turned pained. “Not the black ones. I love those boots.”

Emma could hear Jeannie’s laugh muted by the phone Sadie clutched to her ear.

“Okay, so tell her Dan is picking me up anytime now, and we’ll be by for her in fifteen minutes.” She sighed heavily. “I know. I know. Trust me, Dad has already made the point.” She listened for a moment then blew her aunt an air kiss and hung up the phone.

Emma knew that she and Jeannie were in agreement when it came to Dan Kline. Although not of their faith, he came from a good family, and his parents were good Christian people. Dan regularly attended church and was an outstanding leader when it came to organizing other young people. But next year he would be off to college while Sadie had two more years of high school to finish. One of the things Emma and Jeannie had discussed more than once was that Sadie would be brokenhearted when Dan left and that they would need to help her mend.

“You mustn’t get used to the idea of Dan picking you and Tessa up for school, Sadie.” She stopped speaking and took a sip of coffee, hating the way she sounded so like their spinster neighbor, Olive Crowder.

“We won’t,” Sadie said as she gulped down the last of her orange juice. “But think of it, Mom. This is Tessa’s first day at the academy, and think how the other kids will sit up and take notice when she walks into school with Dan.”

Emma understood that at least on some level Sadie was sincerely doing this for her cousin. Like Jeannie, Sadie wanted Tessa’s first day of high school to be special. It did not occur to either of them that Tessa really did not care about making a first impression socially. She had confided to Emma that she was far more concerned about whether she would be able to keep up academically with the other students.

Sadie looked out the window for the fourth time in ten minutes. Dan was running late, which wasn’t unusual, but the last thing Emma wanted was for him to be rushing on a rainy day like this one. Just when Emma was about to suggest that maybe Lars should drive Sadie after all, a car horn beeped and Sadie grabbed her backpack. “That’s Dan.” Her voice trembled with excitement. She blew Emma and Lars a kiss as she flew out the door.

Emma watched from the kitchen window as Sadie scampered around the front of the car and climbed in. Dan had not gotten out to open the door for her; rather, he had leaned across the front seat and pushed it open. She heard Sadie laughing as the door slammed and Dan shifted into reverse, spinning shell gravel as he peeled out of their driveway.

“They’ll be all right,” Lars told her as he reached around her to put his cereal bowl in the sink.

“He’s too old for her.”

“Two years’ difference,” Lars reminded her. “We have four years between us.”

“But that’s different. We’re adults. She’s a child yet, and he’s—”

“Sadie is a smart girl. This too shall pass,” Lars said as he reached for his hat. “Matt?
Es ist spat,”
he called as he passed the hallway that led to the bedrooms. “I’ll take Matt to school, and then I’ll be in the shop if you need me.” He kissed her forehead. “Stop worrying,” he advised.

After everyone left, Emma finished washing the breakfast dishes and then poured herself a second cup of coffee. Lars was right. Sadie was very good at sizing up people. And Lars had made an excellent point. He’d just turned fifteen when his family moved in across the street from Emma’s. She had been eleven. She certainly did not need to be reminded of a time when she’d developed a crush on a handsome popular older boy—a time when she would have done just about anything he asked of her if he would just walk her home from church.

“Have faith,” she murmured as she sat down at the kitchen table and reached for the phone.

Chapter 6

Jeannie

T
he first day of a new school year was always chaotic around the Messner house. Who was she kidding? Most days were chaotic around their house. But on this day, Geoff was especially anxious. He would never admit it, but Jeannie was well aware that he had hardly slept the night before, and the tension she thought they’d finally laid to rest was back, stretched like a wire between them.

He was running late and that made him even edgier and more impatient. And as was so often the case, it was her fault. It wasn’t the first time in their sixteen-year marriage that Jeannie had put something that Geoff or Tessa needed in a place where she was sure to find it and then had promptly forgotten where that was. Only Tessa remained calm in the face of her parents’ panicked conversation.

“Look in the bathroom,” Jeannie shouted as she searched through the kitchen drawer designated as the catch-all for the bits and pieces of life that had no real home.

“Why on earth would you put the keys to the gym storage shed in the bathroom?” Geoff shouted back.

“Just look, okay?” Jeannie continued rummaging and muttering to herself. “I’d never put anything so important in here, so where are they? Think!”

Why hide the keys at all?” Tessa asked as she completed her assignment of going through Jeannie’s purse.

“Because the shed is new this year, and your father didn’t want to add the key to his key ring until he’d had a chance to make copies for the staff. I had the copies made yesterday and then put the original and the copies”—suddenly her face lit in a relieved smile—“in our storage shed. Got ‘em,” she shouted to Geoff as she grabbed the keys for the small shed behind their house where they kept the gardening tools and other outdoor equipment.