Woodlands (16 page)

“I should get back on my route. I have a lot of deliveries today.” He took some money from his pocket and left it on the table. “I’ll see you later.”

“Okay,” Leah said, trying to sound cheerful, even though she felt as if she had been rejected. “Let me know if you need any help with the couch.”

“No, I have it covered.” Seth headed for the door. Then he turned and walked back to the table. “I still don’t think it’s a good idea for Franklin to go anywhere. Will you at least reconsider your answer to him before he makes a lot of plans?”

“Okay, I’ll think about it.” She waited until Seth was gone before she pulled out the remaining amount due and placed it
on top of the bill along with Seth’s contribution. She slid across the seat and was about to rise when Collin Radcliffe came across the room and stopped by her table.

“Leah?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Leah Hudson, right?”

“Yes.”

“So good to see you,” Collin said in a professional tone. He stuck out his hand to shake Leah’s. With his other hand he pulled a business card from the pocket of his expensive-looking jacket. “You probably don’t remember me. Collin Radcliffe. We went to school together.”

How could I forget you?
Leah thought. Collin was her first gradeschool crush and a disastrous disappointment. She found this attention from Collin almost humorous. In third grade she had saved her best valentine for him and bravely wrote the word “love” on the back. He had somehow managed to return it to her valentine box before the school day was over. Only, instead of a mutual, secret message of admiration, Collin had torn the valentine into two pieces and x-ed out the word “love.” That was Leah’s most vivid memory of Collin Radcliffe. This polite, professional version was a surprise to her.

“I was sorry to hear about your parents.”

“Thank you, Collin.”

“Perhaps you’ve heard that I’ll be taking over my father’s practice. If you have need of any legal advice, you feel free to call me.”

Leah took his business card and then looked up at his face, just to make sure this was the same Collin she knew so many years ago. He was a nice-looking man, with rich, dark hair and dark eyebrows. He was also tall, which meant Leah had to look up to him, in the literal and figurative sense. And that was something Leah didn’t do well with men.

“I’ll be sure to call you if the need ever arises,” Leah said politely. “But I doubt it will. Thanks anyway.”

She left before Marcus Shelton, the insurance agent dining with Collin, could corner her and ask about her current life insurance policy. She had enough challenges on her plate at the moment.

A
s Leah planted her garden that evening, she thought about Seth and how life offers no guarantees. Before going to bed, she wrote out her verses on three-by-five cards, first the verses from Seth about the winter being over and the flowers appearing. Then she wrote out the three verses from Jessica about trusting in the Lord and delighting in Him.

Leah crawled into bed tired and sore from her gardening. She prayed aloud into the stillness of her room, “Lord, I don’t know how to delight myself in you, and I don’t know how to trust you. I think Jessica’s right. These are important steps for me to take. So please teach me how to trust in you and delight in you. Plant these new seeds in my heart.”

Not until she was on her way to Camp Heather Brook the next morning did Leah realize how easily she had been talking to God ever since her early morning rendezvous with him in the garden. Everything in her life felt fresh, just like the clear,
spring morning that greeted her as she drove along the country road to Glenbrooke’s outskirts.

I hope the weather is this nice next weekend for the May Day event
.

All the other women on the May Day planning committee were saying the same thing when Leah arrived at Camp Heather Brook. Jessica and Lauren already were seated next to Shelly in the lounge area of the camp’s main meeting hall. Shelly had the chairs and leather couch pulled close in a circle by the window where the morning sun poured in and troupes of dust ballerinas danced on the sunbeams.

On a thick wooden coffee table sat trays of muffins and a carafe of coffee. Hot water stood ready in a teapot covered by a quilted white cozy, and stuffed in several small baskets were tea bags, sugar, and powdered coffee creamer. The party napkins, decorated with sleek, white swans, were fanned across the front of the table. Teacups and saucers were stacked two high across the back. It looked like a picture from a magazine.

“You sure have a knack for this sort of thing,” Leah told Shelly as she reached carefully for a teacup.

“I wasn’t sure about sitting in the direct sun,” Shelly said, surveying the room.

“It’s so inviting.” Lauren opened an Irish Breakfast tea bag and dipped it in her cup of hot water. “I’m ready for some more sun after all the rain we had last week.”

“If we get too warm, we can move to the center of the room,” Shelly suggested.

The ladies settled in with their beverages and muffins, and Shelly said, “I have a handout of the schedule.” She was efficient and organized but not bossy. Leah enjoyed working on projects with Shelly.

The May Day event was Shelly’s idea two years ago. At the
time, Mother’s Day was approaching, and she was going through fertility tests at the hospital. She and Jonathan had been married for four years and had hoped to have children right away, but Shelly was having difficulty conceiving. That made Mother’s Day a painful event for her so she decided to host a celebration that would encompass all the women of Glenbrooke, whether they were mothers or not. Leah liked the idea right away since it included her as a single woman.

“We need two greeters at the main door,” Shelly was saying now.

Jessica and Lauren simultaneously signaled that they would volunteer.

“Okay, good.” Shelly held up a packet of seeds. “This year I thought it would be fun if we used these for name tags. The permanent markers work well on the front and that way the women can take the seeds home and plant them. I got a great deal on the packets. They’re mostly flowers, but I have some vegetables as well.”

“I love it!” Lauren said, taking the sample packet from Shelly and examining it more closely. “How many women are we expecting this year?”

“Around two hundred.”

“And only the four of us to run it?” Lauren asked.

“My mom and my sister Meredith are coming for the weekend. I know they’ll pitch in and help us.”

“How’s Meredith feeling?” Jessica asked.

“Better. She thinks she’s over the morning sickness now that she’s out of the first trimester.”

Leah wondered if Shelly found it hard to talk about her younger sister’s pregnancy—especially since Meredith had gotten pregnant only a few months after she and Jake were married. Leah tried to imagine how Shelly must feel about not having
children when all her married friends and sisters seemed to have no problem getting pregnant. Considering Shelly’s situation made Leah realize everyone has her unique challenge in life.

“Is that okay with you, Leah?” Shelly asked, drawing Leah back to the meeting.

“I’m sorry. What did you say?”

“I asked if you would be willing to oversee the maypole event like you have the past two years.”

“Sure,” Leah said. “Is Jonathan going to have it up the day before?”

“We’ll have it up at least the day before,” Shelly said.

“Good, because I think some of the vinyl streamers tore last year when those kids were hanging on them. I’ll check it out and see if we need to replace any of them.”

“That would be great,” Shelly said. She continued through to the end of the list and asked if anyone had questions.

“The food?” Leah asked, noticing there was no list like last year’s of what everyone was supposed to bring.

“We were able to have the event catered this year,” Shelly said. “Some of you may have met Genevieve Ahrens and her daughters at church on Easter. They just moved here, and Genevieve is starting up a catering business from her home. She’s going to take care of all the food for us.”

Leah guessed that Genevieve’s daughters weren’t toddlers, otherwise Leah would have had them in her Sunday school group.

“That’s a huge relief,” Lauren said. “Remember all those egg salad sandwiches we made last year?”

“And the fruit cups?” Jessica added. “I think Kyle and I were up until midnight filling those little pastry shells with pudding and fruit cocktail.”

“Those were a big hit,” Lauren said. “Are we having those again?”

“I don’t know,” Shelly said. “I’m leaving it all in Genevieve’s capable hands. Her talent in the kitchen is surpassed only by her talent in the garden.”

“That reminds me,” Lauren said. “Do you want us to bring in cut flowers like we did last year?”

Shelly went over the instructions for the cut flowers, the craft table that offered a glue-it-together birdhouse or a clay pot for each guest to paint and to plant the seeds from inside her name tag. That brought them to the end of the list.

“Are you sure you don’t need to delegate anything else to the rest of us?” Leah asked.

“I believe that’s it,” Shelly said, checking her list one last time. “Why don’t we pray together about all this before you go?”

Shelly led them in a heartfelt prayer, thanking God for the opportunity to have a day they could celebrate together. She asked for his blessing on the event and asked that the time would encourage many of the Glenbrooke women.

As Leah listened to Shelly’s prayer, she felt as if she were praying every word with her. Leah was no longer an outsider, listening and observing while others communicated with God. She felt connected. The sensation was overwhelming, and she found uninvited tears tumbling down her cheeks as Shelly said amen.

“Are you okay?” Jessica asked, reaching over and giving Leah’s arm a squeeze.

“You guys,” Leah said, encompassing Lauren and Shelly in her answer to Jessica, “I have something I want to tell you.”

The three women waited in a united silence.

“Jessica knows part of this, but I wanted to tell all three of you what’s been happening in my life lately.” The tears kept coming, but Leah didn’t care. They were like a gentle spring rain and seemed necessary to water the fresh seeds God had been planting in her heart.

She let out a breathy laugh and wiped her cheeks with her
fingers. “Seth told me that tears wash the windows of our souls, helping us to see ourselves more clearly. I think the windows of my soul must have needed a lot of cleaning because I’ve been crying more these past few weeks than I’ve cried in years.”

Her three friends all looked at her with understanding smiles.

“The thing is,” Leah continued, “I don’t know if I’m seeing myself more clearly, but I’m definitely seeing God more clearly. Is it possible to be a Christian for a long time and then suddenly have this breakthrough, and you feel as if it’s all brand new, and all you want is to know God more deeply and completely?”

All three women nodded with shared understanding.

“I experienced a huge change in my life about five years ago,” Shelly said. “I was supposed to be helping with food service at a woman’s retreat, but my sister tricked me into going to the chapel and listening to the speaker. I think Meri knew I needed to get my heart set back on the Lord. Do you feel as if God is pursuing you?”

“Yes,” Leah said, straightening up in her chair. “That’s exactly what I feel.”

“Your soul is mingling with God’s,” Lauren said. “Don’t hold back. Let your heart echo back to him all the messages of love he’s sending you.”

“Okay,” Leah said, absorbing Lauren’s advice.

“God is the relentless lover,” Shelly said with a knowing smile. “You’re his first love. He will never stop pursuing you because he wants you back.”

Leah nodded.

“ ‘Delight yourself in the Lord.’ ” Jessica quoted the Scripture softly. “ ‘See! The winter is past … the season of singing has come.’ ”

L
eah didn’t sing a lot during the next week. But she found herself humming. And praying. She prayed more often and more openly than she remembered ever praying before.