Three

T

his might be my last major holiday here on this earth, Lord. I won’t lie. I wish it was Christmastime instead of Easter.

Christmas was Leora’s favorite. It had always been a month-long celebration in this house. No doubt, this December when the kids brought out all of the decorations, including her collection of Elvis ornaments, she would be on their hearts and minds. Hopefully, they would share memories of all their good times together and it would ease the grief that was sure to come.

Leora paused her efforts of filling the children’s Easter baskets to listen to the ending of How Great Thou Art playing softly from the small radio in the corner of the kitchen. This part always made her heart swell with joy.

She loved all of Elvis Presley’s classics. No telling how many times she and her late husband, Dean, danced in this very spot to Can’t Help Falling in Love. But lately she couldn’t get enough of Elvis’ gospel hits.

Lord, I hope Elvis made it up there. I sure would like to hear him sing in person. Just saying.

“What put that smile on your face?”

Her oldest son, Wade, reached for a piece of candy and she smacked his hand away. “This is for the kids.”

“What about your kids? Enough food here to feed an army and we can’t have a bite of it until tomorrow. Doesn’t seem right to me. I should at least be allowed to sample our efforts. What if something doesn’t taste good? You wouldn’t want to serve it to our guests.”

“Everything has been sampled enough.” She looked pointedly at his gut. “There’s some carrots in the fridge. Why don’t you grab one of those to hold you over ’til the pizza arrives?”

The whole family had been teasing Wade about the small paunch he’d grown during his wife’s pregnancy. Wade poked his belly out even further, holding both sides as he grinned. “What? I’m eating for two now.”

Jolene joined them in the kitchen right at that moment. “Keep it up and we’ll have to wheel you into the hospital next to Dani.”

She kissed Leora’s cheek and then stared at the Easter baskets covering the kitchen table. “How many grandkids do you think you have now, Ma?”

“Including the two on the way, eight.” Besides Dani, who was due any day now, Leora’s daughter, Belva, was due in May. “Dani’s brother’s family is coming. That adds two more little ones. And Micah’s little girl. I added a few extras in case more than expected shows up. You know how it is around here.”

Jo propped her hands on her hips and her brow wrinkled. “Micah? Who’s that?”

Leora tore open another bag of candy and continued divvying it out. “He’s a friend.”

“A friend?” Jo popped her hip to one side. “Is this your way of trying to tell me you have a boyfriend?”

Leora stopped what she was doing to stare at her daughter. “Don’t be ridiculous. He’s not but a few years older than you, I think. And he’s a nurse, so you have that in common too.”

Wade hip-checked his sister. “I think she’s trying to tell you that she found you a boyfriend.”

That got an eyeroll from Jo. “Now who’s being ridiculous?” She held up two fingers like a hippie giving a peace sign. “Forever single, baby.”

“A spinster Spencer. Say that three times fast.”

Jolene stuck her tongue out at Wade. “If I do, will you disappear?”

Leora shook her head with a grin. No matter how old they got, they would always act like siblings. Ones who will love and take care of each other after you’re gone.

“Ma, please tell me that Wade is wrong and you didn’t invite someone over with me in mind.”

“No, nothing like that. He has no family other than the baby girl he’s raising by himself. I invited him for the whole weekend since he’s coming all the way from Tennessee, but he had to work through tonight. He’ll be here in the morning and will head back on Monday.”

“Tennessee? How did you meet?”

“He works in Charlotte.”

“Charlotte? In oncology? Have you been to see your doctor?” The hope in Jolene’s eyes was unmistakable. She made no bones about hounding Leora to fight against the inevitable. Hopefully this wouldn’t lead to another argument.

“No. He works in ICU. We met in the cafeteria three years ago. I’ve been talking to him about renting Alethea’s upstairs apartment so he’d be closer to work.” Dani’s grandma lived right next door. She’d been looking for a reliable renter for a while now. It would be the perfect situation for Micah.

Jo looked at Wade, who now stood staring into the refrigerator. “Did you know about this?”

“Sure did.” He let the door close on its own as he turned to look at Jo. “You act like you and Ma just met. The woman adopts people like an old spinster woman collects cats. Speaking of which, there are two new litters in the barn. If you want to tame a half dozen of them for pets, you’d better get a move on it. You’re getting up there in age. No time like the present to get started on that collection.”

He dodged Jo’s attempted swat at his arm and the chase was on. Leora shook her head. Still siblings.

Gravel crunched beneath the tires of Micah’s Toyota 4Runner as he slowly made his way down the long drive leading to the Spencer farm. Pastureland dotted with cattle stretched out on both sides as far as the eye could see. He parked on the edge of the driveway behind a Ford truck and blew out a whistle as he viewed all the vehicles crowding the front of the house and spilling out into the drive. It looked more like a public event rather than a family gathering.

A peek in the rearview mirror showed Lala looking through the window with lidded eyes. She’d gone to sleep right after their last stop two hours ago and was just beginning to wake. He got out and walked around in a circle, trying to work the kinks out. The constant switch from night shift to regular time was already hard on the body. Adding two four-hour trips in as many days addled the mind.

Micah pushed the stiff legs of his black jeans down and then tried to smooth out the wrinkles brought on by all the sitting. He tossed his jacket into the passenger’s seat and tucked the blue and white plaid shirt into his pants. He’d bought new clothes for him and Lala, hoping they wouldn’t come off as the country bumpkins he knew them to be.

Lala began kicking her short legs. “Daddy, I want out.”

“I’m coming, sugar.” He unstrapped her from the car seat and grabbed a diaper, wipes, and the bottoms that matched her frilly pink dress from her bag. “Let’s get you changed, then we can go see Miss Leora.”

She repeated the name, garbling it so badly no one else would recognize it. After the quick change, he placed her on his hip and grabbed her diaper bag. His eyes zeroed in on the huge purplish-blue blossoms on the hydrangea bush in the back passenger side floorboard and then glanced at the distance to the front door of the gray two-story farmhouse. “This should be interesting.”

After some creative maneuvering, he had Lala and the diaper bag in one arm and the other wrapped around the flowerpot—praying the whole time that he wouldn’t end up with dirt on his new shirt. Sweat beaded at the back of his neck. Wasn’t March supposed to be cooler than this?

“Cow.”

“Yes, honey, it’s a…” His words died away when he looked to where Lala pointed. A llama? He’d never seen one close up before and it was a little unnerving seeing one now. The llama pushed against the fence, its beady eyes following Micah’s progress down the drive. What rabbit hole had he fallen into?

As they got closer, the sight of kids playing at the side of the house had Lala bouncing in his arms and jabbering up a storm. He could hear adults laughing and talking. Should he walk around or go to the front door? Miss Leora might seem like family, but he would be a stranger to everyone else. Best use the front door.

He used the edge of the pot to press against the doorbell and then boosted Lala up closer to his waist. Someone from inside hollered out I’ve got it and then the door flew open. One beauty of a woman with long, honey brown hair stood there looking at him.

His eyes locked with her hazel brown ones and stayed there. All the moisture left his mouth and showed up in the palm of his hands. He hadn’t been this tongue-tied around a female since junior high.

Lala pointed at the woman. “Look, Daddy, it’s the angel.”

He’d heard her say it enough to understand the words but thankfully Daddy was the only word clearly spoken in that sentence. A picture of an angel with golden hair helping two kids cross a bridge hung on their living room wall. It had belonged to his mother and Lala had been fascinated by it for a while now.

Laughter pealed from the lips of the golden beauty in front of him and his gaze dropped down to her mouth.

“Trust me, I’m no angel.”

So she had understood the child’s babble. That didn’t happen very often. Before any kind of response could form in his head, Lala reached for the woman and practically catapulted herself from his arms into hers.

Without hesitation, the woman took her. She fluffed the pink ruffles on Lala’s dress. “I like this dress. What’s your name?”

“Lala.”

“Lala?” The woman looked at him. “Then you must be Micah. Come on in. Ma’s been expecting you. She’d never admit such a thing, but she’s been worrying worse than a hen over a brood of chicks about your drive from Tennessee. Glad you made it. I’m Jo, by the way. Jo Spencer.”

His spirit dropped at hearing her name but at least it loosened his lips. “Micah Abram. Pleased to meet you.”

Without realizing it, his thoughts had run toward the future the minute he laid eyes on her. She was beautiful and he wasn’t, but would she have gone out on a date with him once they got to know each other? A man could hope. The hope was short lived though.

This was the daughter Miss Leora had constantly requested prayer for. The unsaved one. He would never hold that against her, but neither would he date a girl who didn’t know the Lord as her Savior.