When the first light of sun—bless you.
When the long day is done—bless you.
In your smiles and your tears—bless you.
Through each day of your years—bless you.
Erin wiped away the tears that flowed silently as she drove into Glenbrooke. Releasing her anger toward Delores had made her feel vulnerable and tenderhearted.
Her brother called just then and said he was in Glenbrooke, too. “I found a place for us to meet. It’s called the Wildflower Café. It looks pretty good.”
“Sounds perfect. Could you go on in and get us a table?”
“Sure. See you in a bit.”
Erin found the Wildflower Café easily and parked across the street. She thought it was the most charming place she had seen since leaving Southern California. The booth where Tony was waiting for her by the window seemed to be a special spot set apart for people who liked private conversation.
He stood when he saw her and came to her, brushing a kiss across her cheek and giving her a warm hug. “Aloha.”
“Hi.” Erin smiled a weary smile. She could feel the tears still glistening in the corners of her eyes. “It’s so good to see you.”
Tony looked the best he had in many years. His hair was still long, but he had it pulled back in a ponytail and fastened with a leather strap. He looked more like their mother than Erin did with his dark eyes and broad forehead. She was the one who had inherited all the Irish touches from her dad with her russet-colored hair and his blue eyes.
A young blond woman stepped up to their booth. “Morning. Would you like some coffee?”
“I’ll have orange juice,” Tony said.
“Do you have hot tea?” Erin asked.
The woman nodded. “We have several different kinds. How about if I bring the basket, and you can choose what you would like?”
“And do you have any pastry you would recommend?” Tony asked.
“Yes, as a matter of fact. We have fresh marionberry coffee cake. It’s Genevieve’s recipe and really good. I can highly recommend it because I just had some for breakfast.”
“How about if we split one?” Tony asked Erin. “Unless you would like something else. Or your own piece.”
“No, that’s fine.” Being with her brother again felt strange and yet familiar. She watched him take the lead in decision-making. She knew he had it in him to be a strong leader like their father. It was so good to be with him.
“So tell me what’s going on with Dad. Why didn’t you want me to see him yet?”
Erin explained the morning’s events and was interrupted by the waitress when she placed a yellow ceramic teapot on the table and presented Erin with a basket full of an assortment of tea bags. Erin reached for the Irish breakfast tea and the waitress asked, “Would you like milk and sugar or honey for your tea?”
The waitress returned a moment later with the milk and sugar as well as a huge piece of warm marionberry coffee cake and two forks.
“Good thing we’re splitting this.” Tony punctured the corner closest to him and asked, “So do you think Delores is still at the house?”
“I don’t know. A man was waiting for her in a car; so I don’t know how long she planned to stay.”
They ate a few more bites, and then Erin confided in her brother how she had worked through forgiving Delores on her way to meet Tony and how intense and yet rich her time had been with their father.
Tony reached across the table and rubbed the top of her hand. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For being there with him through all this, for sending the money for the ticket, and for convincing me to come. I should have come sooner.” Tony’s face changed so that his forehead looked just like their father’s did, heavy with anguish lines.
In an effort to comfort her brother, Erin said, “What matters is that you’re here now. You can move on from here.”
He nodded and put down his fork.
Erin took another two bites of the delicious coffee cake and sipped her tea. She realized that if Delores hadn’t left her father, things would be very different right now. Erin had lost her business and had run on empty for weeks, but more than ever she knew her decision to stay was right. Her father had been able to remain at Hidden Cottage to the end. That was his wish fulfilled. And now Tony was here. This was what her mother had hoped and prayed for until the day she died. Erin believed she would soon see the answer to all those prayers for reconciliation.
I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who calls you by name.
Erin felt like she was seeing the words of Isaiah 45:3 coming true in front of her. She had experienced treasures of darkness and riches in secret places. Soon the Lord would be calling her dad by name. The line between the eternal and the temporal seemed very thin at this moment in the Wildflower Café.
Tony finished his orange juice but didn’t go for any more of the coffee cake. He seemed to have wandered into a deep fog.
“Are you ready to go?” Erin asked.
Tony looked up. “Yes, I would like to get to Dad’s place. I’ve come all this way, I’d hate to be sitting here, this close, and have him turn a corner.”
“I’m ready.” She dipped her fork into the coffee cake one more time and took a long sip of her cooled tea.
Tony insisted on paying and slipped a generous tip on the table. The two of them left, going to their separate cars. Erin led the way to Moss Cove along the two-lane road that wound through the forest. Some of the deciduous trees were just beginning to take on touches of autumn color. Erin thought about how beautiful this stretch of road would be a month from now on a sunny afternoon when all the fall leaves had changed.
But I won’t be here to see it. I’ll be back in Irvine by then.
That realization saddened her. Not only because it meant her father would be gone but also because she had come to love the charm of this place. Moss Cove had won her over. How restful it would be to come here one day with their family. Erin could see Sierra and herself slipping off for afternoon tea at the Wildflower Café while the guys tried their hand at fishing. In the evening they would string twinkle lights on the deck and turn up the music as the sun slipped into the sea.
She finally appreciated her father’s vision for Hidden Cottage. It was a beautiful vision. But Erin knew she had to stop the dream right there. Delores was the one who would inherit Hidden Cottage. Erin would not have a reason to come back here after her father was gone.
That sharp truth, like a lit match, begged to ignite any mound of kindling Erin could gather. She knew how easily she could tip that flickering match and let it restart a wildfire of anger and resentment against Delores.
Gripping the steering wheel, Erin prayed for strength. That’s when she heard her mother’s words for the second time since she had started on this journey with her father.
To experience the fullness of love, you must go the distance. Only the strongest and bravest stay on the path. And you, my darling girl, have been given everything you need to be among the strongest and bravest.
Forming a small O with her lips, Erin blew into the space between herself and the windshield as if she were physically snuffing out the tempting flame on the freshly lit match.
How could what she had experienced on the way to Glenbrooke be true forgiveness if she let it burn a hole in her spirit when the first opportunity presented itself? Forgiveness was a process. She knew that. Being with her father all these weeks had been a process. Starting over after losing her portion of the business was also going to be a process. But she knew that if she wanted to experience the fullness of love, she had to go the distance with all these difficult relationships. She could do this. God was supplying her with everything she needed—strength, courage, grace, and lots of hope.
The fog had lifted when they arrived at the coast highway. Erin put on her blinker to indicate Tony should follow her, turning right and heading north. To make sure he saw it, she rolled down her window and waved her arm, indicating that he should turn right.
He waved back.
She waited at the stoplight and read the banner that hung between two lampposts across the narrow street.
RACE FOR THE CURE
PORTLAND, OREGON
OCTOBER 9
The light changed, and Erin had driven another few miles when she recalled Delores’s face. Not the way she had seen Delores’s stern face peering in her side car window during Erin’s first visit to Moss Cove. The image in her mind’s eye was of Delores’s face the way she had appeared that morning, swathed in the pink paisley head scarf. Delores was thin. Her skin was sallow. She wasn’t the same robust woman in the Hidden Cottage scrapbook photos wielding a sledgehammer and taking down the old kitchen wall.
The scarf, her coloring . . .
Erin gasped.
Delores is ill. She has cancer. Delores has cancer.
She thought of how Marge had told Erin to really look at Delores. Marge saw the signs right away. Erin’s heart pounded. She had missed it. All the indicators were there.
How long? How long has Delores been fighting this?
Pressing on her brakes and flipping on her blinker, Erin pulled into the nearest parking area and sat in her car with the engine idling.
Tony parked and came over to the passenger’s window. He looked in at her the same way Delores had at the grocery store a year and a half ago when she had told Erin that if Jack became an invalid, she couldn’t stay with him. She would leave him.
Erin pushed the button to roll down the window.
“You okay?” Tony asked.
“No.”
“What is it? What’s wrong? Is it Dad?”
“No, it’s Delores.” Turning to Tony she said, “She has cancer.”
Tony opened the passenger’s door, slid inside, and sat next to Erin. “Turn off the motor,” he said.
She obliged.
“What makes you think Delores has cancer?”
“The way she looked when she walked in this morning. Have you been around many people who are going through chemotherapy?”
“No.”
“There’s a look. I should have known when I saw the head scarf. And before, when I arrived in August, her hair wasn’t right. She was tired all the time. I should have picked up some of the signs.”
“Why didn’t she tell you?”
“She’s an intensely private person. She’s aggressive and abrupt. But, Tony, Dad loved her. He really did. I know this must sound strange, but I could read it in his eyes.”
“I believe you,” Tony said calmly.
“It makes sense now. Don’t you see? She couldn’t take care of Dad. She needed someone to take care of her.”
Erin let out a long, slow breath and looked out the car’s front window. “I should have seen it. I should have picked up the clues.”
“From what you’ve said about her, it doesn’t sound as if she left many clues.”
“She told me something significant right before she left him, only I didn’t know what she meant at the time.”
“What did she say?”
“She said she married Dad because he was strong and full of life, but now he couldn’t do for her what he had promised.”
“And you’re thinking that he promised to take care of her.”
Erin nodded.
“That would explain a lot.”
Erin nodded again. “We should go. I just had to pull over for a second when all of that hit me. We’re not far away. Hidden Cottage is just down the road.”
Tony returned to his car, and Erin led the way. She turned down the long, gravel driveway and was disappointed to see that Marge’s car was the only one there. Delores was gone.
Tony edged out of his rental car and stood for a moment, giving the place a full view. “Is this the place Dad fixed up?”
“Yes, this is Hidden Cottage.”
“It’s amazing.”
“Yes, it is. Remind me to show you the before and after photos.” Erin paused at the persimmon red door and looked at Tony. “You ready?”
He nodded. His eyes were misted with tears. He looked every inch the prodigal son at last returning home.
Only it was too late for his father to come running to meet him.