Family Matters (17 page)

At first, when Jennie Stratton had phoned him this morning, he'd actually wondered if Andy had engineered the whole thing. But he'd quickly realized Andy wasn't involved. And suddenly he'd found himself wishing that she was.

“I just don't know if I have the time, Ms. Stratton,” he'd told her. “I'm honored to be asked. I'm honored to be included with a list of guests this impressive. I know the swim team is a worthy group. I've heard Mark Kendall works wonders.”

“I just don't know if I want any more media attention,” Buddy told Marshall now, trying to cover for himself. “Things have finally started dying down.”

“Don't tell me you've gotten tired of media attention,” Marshall said wryly, running the towel wildly over his head. “You've always thrived on it.”

“Nah. Not so much anymore.”

Somebody hollered at him from the front office and told him Jennie was on the phone for him again.

“What did you decide?” she asked him.

“I haven't decided anything,” he told her pointedly. “You told me you'd give me some time to think about this.”

“I'm calling again to convince you that you have to do this, Mr. Draper,” she said, the excitement in her voice beginning to wash over him, too. “My editor at the
Times-Sentinel
has just given me permission to do a series of cartoons to promote the event. And I'd love to do one of you—flattering, of course—” she added, laughing. “We'll have cameo appearances from all the other celebrities. But you're the perfect person to be our master of ceremonies for the show.”

“You're sure about that.”

“I wouldn't be bothering you like this if I wasn't.”

He wanted to consider it. But what would happen between him and Andy at this posh media event?

“Well, you've talked me into it. I'll be there,” he said, as Marshall walked into the front office and shot him an A-okay sign. “Let me know when you'll need me.”

“I'll send you a script and a list of the acts,” she told him gleefully. “You don't need to follow the script, though. You can ad-lib all you want to. It'll be fine with us.”

“Ad-libbing?” he asked, chuckling and wondering about Andy again. “You'd better watch me close if you're going to let me ad-lib. Or else I'll probably get myself into lots of trouble.”

T
he next morning just after the little van had come to pick Cody up for school, a pickup truck pulling a horse trailer pulled up to the curb and stopped. Jennie heard the commotion and she peered out through the lace curtains to see who it was. Out stepped Michael clad in faded jeans and an old blue flannel shirt she knew he'd had forever. He looked so handsome and so familiar. She opened the door without giving him a chance to knock.

“Hi,” he said. “I knew you'd be home. I tried to call but the phone was busy.”

“I've been working on the show for the swim team.” She stood staring at him, not inviting him in.

“Can I come in?” he asked finally.

The awkward moment went on a bit too long. “Oh, do.” She stepped back and he entered and, as he stepped onto the carpet, she noticed the gray antelope boots he was wearing. “You make a good cowboy.”

“Yeah,” he said, grinning. “All I need's the hat.”

“Everything's coming together for the fund-raiser. It's going to be quite a production. Mark's already got the kids practicing, too.”

“I think you should work on the fund-raiser tomorrow. I've got two horses out there—” here he put on his best cowboy swagger and voice “—that are just hankerin' to take you for a ride across the blacklands of North Texas.”

“Oh, no!” She started to giggle. “You're crazy. You know that?”

“I have something important to talk to you about. Get into your jeans. We're going for a ride.”

“Michael.”

He saw all her doubts on her face. “Come on, Jennie. The horses are all loaded up and waiting. Don't turn me down now.”

She considered. “I've got to get back by four-fifteen. That's when the van brings Cody back from school.”

“That's fine. We've got all day. We'll beat the traffic back into town.”

Jennie changed quickly and rejoined him downstairs, her heart thumping like a schoolgirl's all over again.

“These are Bill Josephs's horses,” he told her as they climbed into the truck. “You remember him? He's been my patient a long time. They used to have a ranch over on Preston Road. Now they have a little place out past Mesquite.”

“I do remember him. His wife's name is Marge?”

“That's him. They don't use the horses much anymore. He said he'd love for us to take them out and give them some exercise.”

“So…where are we going?”

“You'll see.”

“We need to make plans for Cody to come to your place,” she said in an effort to fill the silence. “You want me to bring him over on Sunday?”

“Let's talk about that later.”

He just kept driving. He drove them far north of Plano to a pretty house atop a knoll that had acres and acres of land and a perfect white fence lining the driveway. Down past the house on the other side of the drive stood the corrals. He backed the trailer in and climbed out to unload the horses.

“This place is beautiful,” she said, climbing out of the truck and crossing her arms over her pretty blue sweater. “Are the owners patients of yours, too?”

He shook his head. “Nope. Just somebody I know.” That was all he intended to say for now.

She stepped over to the side of the knoll and looked across the pasture that was just now beginning to tinge with the green of early springtime. “You can see for miles.”

He came to stand beside her, leading a horse. “That's pretty much what Texas is known for, away from the city.”

She turned to him, only a breath away, her skin as soft and pink in the cool morning air as the embroidered roses on her sweater. It was everything he could do to keep from kissing her. But he wasn't going to do that, not while he still had so much to tell her.

He handed her the reins to Bill Josephs's chestnut mare and he lifted her easily so she could mount. She kept the horse still, waiting for him, while he led the other horse, a dun, out of the trailer. But he waved her on. “Go ahead, Jen. I'll catch up with you.”

“You don't mind?”

He shook his head.

She kicked the horse and they were on their way. “See you in the pasture!”

Michael watched them both for a moment, smiling at the two bouncing ponytails as they disappeared just over the knoll. He saddled up his own horse and hurried to catch up. “Hey, you!” he called as he galloped up beside her. “I didn't know you were going to ride across half the county!”

“This feels wonderful,” she called back, laughing. Her wheat yellow hair was streaming back behind her and she had tears running down her cheeks from the wind. “I know it sounds wild,” she told him. “But I feel so
free
right now. After everything that's been weighing heavy on my life for so long.”

They rode along together in silence. It was one of those precious days when the black earth and the tender sprouts of grass poking up through the brown smelled herbal and rich and full of promise.

“What are the horses' names? Did Bill tell you?”

“He told me,” Michael answered her, smiling. “He treats these horses like they're his children. Your horse is Kimbo. Mine is Dan.”

“Cody would like to ride sometime. Do you think Bill would let him?”

“Bill's been suggesting it.” Michael chuckled. “Bill has a lot of suggestions.”

She tilted her head at him and grinned. He loved watching her. She looked like one of the little sparrows that kept twittering and rising from the pecan trees around them. “Dan is a pretty common name, but I wonder where he got ‘Kimbo.'”

“I think he named her after his daughter.”

She laughed. “An honor, I'm sure.” She laid long, slender fingers against the horse's neck. “You're a good girl, Kimbo. A fine horse.”

They rode farther, neither speaking.

“You want to race?” Michael suggested.

“Do you know something I don't know?” she asked him. “Which one of these horses is faster?”

“I have no idea. That's why I wanted to race. We could find out.”

She leaned low over the chestnut's neck. “Okay. You're on.” Before he knew what was happening, she was galloping ahead of him like a Kentucky Derby jockey and the distance was spreading.

“Hey!” he hollered. “I didn't say ‘go!'”

“No,” she shouted back, pulling even farther ahead. “I did.”

He spurred Dan and the horse leapt forward. Michael felt as if he were flying as he pounded after her. The distance began to close. Up ahead, he could hear Jennie laughing and urging Kimbo on. “Come on, boy,” he whispered. “Let's get her.”

Dirt flew up in clouds from Kimbo's racing hooves. Jennie's ponytail was long gone. Her hair flew out from her head like a banner.

He'd just about caught up with her. They raced together across the field toward an unknown goal, running just for the joy of running, the horses flank to flank, the sweat pouring from beneath their saddle blankets despite the cool day.

Dan inched up now, slowly, slowly, until his nose bobbed up and down directly beside the horse he challenged. And then, at long last, the nose went past and the race was over. “I won! I won!” Michael shouted as he pulled up. He winked at her. “That was the finish line back there.”

“No,” she said in her soft Texas drawl. “There wasn't a finish line. I just wanted to see how far I could go before you won.”

“Ha!” he said, throwing his head back and wiping sweat off his face with a shirtsleeve.

“We got pretty far,” she added, grinning.

“Thank you,” he said. “For letting me win.”

“Thank you,” she said. “For the race.”

“There's a creek up ahead. We probably ought to let these guys rest and have a drink.”

“Sounds fine to me,” she said. “You know the lay of this land pretty well, Michael.”

“I've walked it several times.”

They came toward the creek. The horses began to nicker as soon as they saw the water. Michael and Jennie loosened the reins and the horses lowered their heads. Dan and Kimbo snorted and sucked water with such relish it made Michael smile. “Sounds like a herd of elephants drinking here instead of two horses.”

“We ran them pretty hard.” But she didn't really participate in the joke. Her mind was somewhere else.

Jennie's senses were suddenly filled with her ex-husband, filled with the nearness of him, with the warm gamy smell of the horses, the creaking of worn leather.

She reached across and touched his hand where his fingers lay open atop the knotted reins.

He turned to face her. “They've had enough to drink, I think,” he said quietly. “We'd best get them out of this creek.”

He turned his horse back toward the house and Jennie followed him, seeing how serious he was, hoping she hadn't done anything wrong. They'd ridden without saying anything for what seemed like forever before he turned to her. It was time he told her what he'd brought her here to say. “There's something I've been praying about, Jen. In my heart of hearts, I feel it's what my Heavenly Father wants me to do.”

“What?”

“I'm letting go. I'm letting go of everything.”

“What do you mean?”

“I'm giving you full custody of Cody, Jen.”

Shock silenced her.

“My lawyers have been working on it. All they need is your signature.”

Jennie stared at him, stunned. She pulled the horse to a full stop. “After everything you fought for, Michael? Why? Why now?”

“Jen,” he said, stopping Dan just beside her. “I've watched you give Cody everything you had to give him.”

With tears in her eyes, she nodded.

“It's what I know I have to do. I don't want him to have to go back and forth between us. I want him to have one home, one life, where he belongs.”

“Until he's stronger?”

“No. Until forever. In a home where he belongs.”

“But…Cody…” It was all she could say. She reeled from the enormity of his sacrifice.

“It's too hard for him to keep going back and forth. I'll be in his life as much as I always have. But this will give him the strength to keep doing what he needs to do.”

The tears began to course down her face. Michael grieved, too, but he didn't regret what he was doing.

This is what love is,
he thought.
This is what God had showed him.
Love, different in countless ways from what he and Jennie had shared before. Love, free from suspicion and guilt and jealousy. Not romance but love, tempered to strength on the anvil of what they'd been through—a broken marriage—a son's illness—a binding faith.

“I'm afraid,” she told him quietly.

“Because you'd have him all to yourself?”

Reluctantly, she nodded.

“But you won't be by yourself,” he said, his own tears threatening again. “I'll be there, too. I'll always be there for you and Cody. Remember that.”

This time, it was Michael's turn to reach across the horse and touch Jennie's hand.

“Michael,” she said. “I don't know what to say.”

“You don't have to say anything.”

She gripped his hand, held on to it as tightly as she wanted to hang on to him.

Gently, tenderly, he lifted her hand, their fingers intertwined, until the back of her hand rested against the cool skin of his cheek.