When Corbin pulled up in front of his parents’ home in Buckeye Acres Mobile Estates, a feeling he’d had way too much lately washed over him again.
Shame.
He was a successful man with a house and a savings account and a good job. What did it say about him that his parents were living like this? That his little brother had grown up in a rusty trailer where the dumpster was overflowing with trash and broken glass littered the road alongside the house?
There were plenty of nice trailer parks in the area. This wasn’t one of them.
He made his way up the front walkway, nearly tripping over some overgrown bushes. He rapped on the tarnished screen door.
Beating himself up was starting to be a familiar occupation of his. He was certainly doing it in relation to what he’d said and done to Samantha.
For the past two days, she had cared for Mikey, but the exchange with Corbin had involved only a couple of polite, shallow sentences. When he tried to say more, to really talk to her, she turned away.
He felt like a jerk. And since he couldn’t get through to Samantha, he had decided to go visit his mother and tell her that he had forgiven her.
Now, noticing the rip in the screen, he wondered who really needed forgiving.
When Cheryl opened the door and saw him, her mouth dropped open. She pressed a hand to it as tears sprang to her eyes.
“Hi,” he said, feeling awkward.
“What am I thinking? Come in, come in,” she said, opening the door wide.
He had to stoop his head to walk through the doorway. As soon as he was inside, she wrapped her arms around him in an embrace he didn’t feel like he deserved.
She took his hand and pulled him into the small living room. “Come in, sit down, I’ll make you some coffee.”
The couch was covered with a throw, and when he sat down and sank into the saggy cushions, he understood why. There was another chair, a newer-looking recliner. Most likely, that was where his father sat. A small TV completed the furniture in the living room, which was a good thing, because there wasn’t room for much else.
The place was clean, though. There were curtains at the windows that looked homemade and a colorful rug on the floor. Cheryl had made an effort.
Restless, he stood and wandered into the back hallway.
“Need to use the bathroom?” Cheryl’s voice behind him was anxious. “The door doesn’t close real well, but if you put that little stack of books in front of it, that will hold it.”
“I was just looking around. I shouldn’t have done it without your permission.”
“Don’t be silly.” She waved a hand. “You’re family. Make yourself at home.”
“If you have a toolbox, I can fix that door for you,” he said.
“Really? You’d do that?” She hurried off toward the kitchen and came back with a couple of screwdrivers, a hammer and a little box of nails. “Your dad would’ve fixed it, but he hasn’t been feeling well for a while now,” she said. “Will this stuff do? We don’t have a real toolbox. And you don’t have to fix it. I’m just glad you’re here.”
She was talking so quickly that he realized she was nervous. He put a hand on her arm. “Mom. It’s okay. I should’ve come around before now to help you.” He knelt down and studied the lock mechanism on the door, then selected a screwdriver.
Cheryl leaned against the wall in the hallway. “No,” she said, “I was a bad mother and I know it.”
Corbin had come here to forgive her, but saying that explicitly just now didn’t seem quite right. “Water under the bridge,” he said as he readjusted the mechanism and doorknob, tightened the screws. “You seem to be doing a lot better now.”
“I wish I could say that I am,” she said, “but truthfully, I’ve been having a hard time staying away from the liquor store.”
He looked at her, curious. She didn’t seem to have been drinking already this morning.
“It’s just so hard, with Mikey gone and your father at that rehab center. I know it’s wrong, but sometimes a drink helps dampen down the feelings.”
He nodded, stood and demonstrated that the door mechanism was fixed. “Do you need to call your sponsor?”
She bit her lip. “I probably should.”
“You do that,” he said, “and I’ll trim those bushes outside your door so they don’t trip you and Dad, when he comes home.” If he comes home.
He left her scrolling through her phone and went outside, where he found some clippers in the little storage box at the end of the trailer.
You and Dad. Mom and Dad. It felt surprisingly good to say. They weren’t perfect; in fact, they were a mess. But God specialized in messes. He, Corbin, was a mess, too. Just in a different way.
There was a cool breeze, but sunshine warmed his back. He looked around the little lot thoughtfully. If the bushes and grass were trimmed, if he swept up the glass in the street in front, it would be a decent place for Mikey to come and visit.
In fact, as he clipped, he came upon a little plastic push mower under one of the bushes, the kind designed to help a kid learn to walk.
His throat tightened. Mikey had spent his first two years here. And Cheryl had done her best.
A little later, after he’d tossed the branches he’d cut into the dumpster and swept up the glass, his mother came out. “Thank you for suggesting I make that call,” she said. “I’m better, but… I still hope you’ll take care of Mikey because I don’t trust myself.”
“I will,” he said, patting her awkwardly on the back. “I’ll raise him up to adulthood if you need. But there’s no reason he shouldn’t come and visit you.”
Her face lit up. “I’d love that better than anything,” she said. “Especially if you would bring him. My two sons.” Her voice broke on the last word, and then she sank down onto the porch steps and let her face drop into her hands and wept.
Some things never changed. His mother was very emotional. He comforted her, awkwardly patting her back. Told her he loved her, because that was true despite everything. Promised he’d bring Mikey to see her real soon.
Once she’d finally stopped crying, she went into the house for some tissues, came back out again, and sat beside him. “What about Samantha?” she asked.
“What about her?” he asked, wary.
“You like her, right?”
“I do,” he said, “but…”
She seemed to read his mind. Maybe it was a thing mothers did. “You know, she’s a lot further along in her recovery than I am. She never was anywhere near as bad as I was, drinking-wise. She helps other members all the time. I don’t think she’ll relapse, not like me.”
He thought about that. “You’re probably right,” he said, and realized that he meant it.
“And the whole thing of her pretending she didn’t know me, that we hadn’t set things up with you and Mikey… You need to know that she begged me to tell you the truth. Not just once, but a lot of times. I wouldn’t.”
“Why not?” he asked.
She shrugged. “Afraid, I guess. Afraid you’d turn around and dump Mikey into social services. You can be a little…” She hesitated.
“Rigid? Judgmental?”
She studied him, eyes clear. “Yes. Understandable, considering the way I raised you, or didn’t raise you. But I didn’t have a lot of confidence that you’d understand.” She patted his hand. “I just want you to know that the deception was more me than Samantha. And it was all for Mikey’s sake.”
Any remaining anger he’d felt just floated away with her words, leaving him with a strong sense of regret. “Samantha isn’t speaking to me. Not after the things I said. I really hurt her.”
His mother nodded. “People hurt each other. But that doesn’t mean you can’t pick up and start again. At least, I hope not.”
So if he was forgiving his mother…and if she was forgiving him…then maybe… “I love her,” he blurted out, his face heating. “I’d like to marry her, but I’ve made a mess of the whole thing.”
Cheryl nodded, thoughtfully, and they both sat for a few minutes, watching a bird flit from branch to branch. In the street, a little girl rode her trike in circles. Suddenly, his mother snapped her fingers. “What you need,” she said, “is a big fancy marriage proposal. And I have just the plan.”
He tilted his head, looking at her, as he remembered something he hadn’t thought of in years: Cheryl was great at planning surprises and parties and events, at least when she was sober.
“I’m not doing something in front of a bunch of people,” he warned her. “That’s not my style.” Besides, odds were at least fifty-fifty that Samantha would turn him down.
“I get it,” his mother said. “We’ll make it suit your personality.”
Corbin thought about it. If Cheryl had a plan, well, that was a lot more than Corbin had.
“You’d help me like that?” he asked. “Even when I haven’t been the greatest son?”
“You’re a terrific son,” she said, her easy forgiveness of his failings stunning him. “I’d be honored.” She patted him on the arm and ran inside for a memo pad and started talking and making lists.
And as they worked together, he and his mother, Corbin felt a warmth he hadn’t felt in years.
As Samantha parked her car in front of Corbin’s house on Friday night, emotions threatened to overwhelm her.
Corbin had texted her yesterday, asking if they could switch times: he’d care for Mikey during the day if she could come pick him up and take him for the evening.
That had been convenient for Samantha, because it had given her a day to get started on planning the program for younger kids at Rescue Haven.
But she had to wonder why Corbin had requested it. Did he have a date with someone else? Already?
That shouldn’t matter. This was a chance to hang out with Mikey for an evening. She figured she’d take him back to Hannah’s house and feed him dinner, let him play a little bit outside, then get him into his pajamas. They’d cuddle up and watch a kids’ movie until Corbin came to pick him up.
It sounded wonderful to her, and it didn’t matter that Corbin had been vague about what time he’d get there. It didn’t matter what Corbin was doing.
If she told herself that often enough, maybe it would start to feel true.
Looking at the house and yard, though, made her chest ache with nostalgia and regret. They had had something wonderful there for a little while.
She got out of the car, and only then did she see Mikey, sitting on the porch by himself, carefully holding something in his lap.
“Mikey!” she said as she hurried up the walkway. “What are you doing out here by yourself?”
“Present for you,” he said. He glanced back into the house.
That was when she saw that Corbin was standing just inside the screen door.
She couldn’t quite face him, not yet. She sank down onto the steps beside Mikey. “What is it?”
“Candy.” He thrust the bag into her hand.
“Well, thank you.” For Mikey to share candy instead of eating it himself… She hugged him. “You’re a great kid.”
Probably, soon, Corbin would find someone else to help care for him. Another nanny, which would be bad enough, or a girlfriend.
That’s not your business.
But still, it would be hard to face. She had agreed to stay in town long enough to get the program at Rescue Haven started, but she didn’t know if she would continue for the long term. Didn’t know if it would be too painful.
When she didn’t open the gift bag right away, Mikey thrust it at her again and she peeked inside. It was one of those candy rings.
She pulled it out and held it up in the sunlight. “Look how pretty it is! Thank you!”
“Welcome,” he said, looking longingly at the candy, and she laughed and handed it to him.
There was a sound behind them, dog claws on the screen. Boomer was trying to push his way out. Corbin scolded him and then slipped out, leaving the big dog inside.
“Hi,” she said, feeling unaccountably awkward. You’d think they would have perfected the exchange of Mikey by now, but it still felt strange every time.
“There’s something else in the bag,” Corbin said.
She frowned. “What is it?”
“Look.”
She did, hesitantly, and when she found a small velvet box, her heart hitched. What in the world?
“Go to Mom, like we talked about,” he said gently, and Mikey scrambled down the steps. Corbin took Mikey’s place beside Samantha.
Cheryl came out of the same bushes where Samantha had hidden all those weeks ago, watching over Mikey until Corbin found him. “Come on,” Cheryl said, holding out a hand to Mikey. “Let’s go for a walk.”
Cheryl was here?
But she couldn’t think about that because now Corbin was taking her hand, holding it in both of his. “Open the box,” he said.
She stole a glance at his face and then looked down at the box, withdrew her hand from his, and carefully opened it.
Inside was a beautiful square diamond in an antique setting.
Samantha couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t think. She just stared at it as the world seemed to spin around her.
“I want you to marry me.”
The spinning got faster as she looked from the ring to his serious, handsome face.
“Don’t answer. Just think about it.” He sank to his knees on the step below her. “I made so many mistakes, said such awful things, but I was wrong. I love you, Samantha. I’ve loved you since high school, and I’ll always love you. So I just had to try.”
“To…to try.” She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“Samantha,” he said, his voice sounding dogged now, like he was getting to the end of a speech he’d rehearsed, “will you marry me?”
Now her heart was hammering so hard that she couldn’t have stood up if her life depended on it. She stared at Corbin’s dear face and didn’t dare believe that he was serious, that this was really happening. “But you’re angry with me.”
“I’m not, and I was wrong to feel that way even for a minute. You did what you had to do for Mikey, and I love that about you. I’m the one who was wrong.”
“And you really want to…to marry me?” He actually seemed to mean it, seemed to be proposing marriage, and underneath her shock, a thrilled kind of excitement was starting to rise. “Shouldn’t we date first?”
“Yes!” He eased onto the steps beside her and took her hand in his. “Yes, we should, and we will. We’ll go to movies and nice dinners and…and bowling and…”
“Bowling?” she asked, her mouth curving up into a smile. “Do you like bowling?”
“With you, it would be fun. Anything would be fun. Samantha, we’ve lived in the same house and eaten together and cared for a child together—”
“We’ve screwed up and lost him together,” Samantha interrupted.
“And found him together. And I want to keep doing things together. So yeah, let’s date. But I already know how I feel, and nothing’s going to change it.”
She stared at him, getting a little lost in his eyes.
“You can take as long as you need,” he repeated.
She sucked in a breath and finally let herself believe this was really happening. Joy exploded like fireworks in her chest. “I think I know, too.”
“You do?”
She nodded. “I’m saying yes. I’ll marry you.”
“All right!” There was joy on his face as he drew her into his arms. He held her against him for a moment, their hearts beating together, and then he took her chin in his hand and kissed her with all the tenderness and all the promise in the world.
A while later, there was a shout, and Mikey came running into the yard, Cheryl right behind him. “Gotta get truck!” he yelled as he ran into the house, accidentally letting Boomer escape. So Boomer ran around the front yard in circles, and Mikey came back out and zoomed around with his big plastic truck, and Cheryl laughed and tried to catch them both. Of course, Corbin and Samantha helped, and soon the whole crowd was safely on the front porch and they were able to tell Cheryl their good news.
It was fitting that she was there, because she had been instrumental in their getting together. Not that she intended it, but maybe God had intended it.
Whatever the case, they were going to be a family. A happy family, together.