Chapter Eleven

When they got back to the farm, no one was around so they all changed and headed down to the creek. Sam didn’t realize Jordan hadn’t followed the rest of them into the water until he turned and found his friend still standing on the shore.

Jordan’s focus was on the muddy banks and the tall reeds that lined the shore. He lifted one foot and mud stuck to it. Then he wrinkled his nose and glanced out at Sam.

“Come on!” Sam yelled, splashing water in Jordan’s direction. Next to Sam, Arielle treaded water, and he had to admit she looked cute with her hair wet and slicked back.

“Yeah, what are you waiting for, Mr. California?” Natalie, Arielle’s cousin, called with a hint of flirting in her voice.

“You’re kidding, right? How am I supposed to get out there?” Jordan pushed a cattail reed to the side.

“Those cattails aren’t made of iron. Just move through them. It’s not deep. See? I’m standing.” Sam stood on his toes to make himself appear taller.

“I’m not worried about how deep it is. It’s just … this mud is gross.”

“Ah, come on. What are you, a sissy?” Paul dunked underwater and came up with a handful of mud. Before Sam realized what was happening, a ball of mud flew through the air and hit Jordan on the chest, sliding down the front of him.

“Jerk. Knock it off. That’s gross!” Jordan wiped the mud off the best he could.

“Come on, Jordan. We used to go swimming all the time. Remember those swim lessons when we were five?” Sam tried to keep his tone light, but he had to agree with Paul; Jordan was being a sissy.

“That’s different. We swam in pools … not in mud. This is totally disgusting.” He knelt down and attempted to scoop up creek water to wipe the rest of the mud off his chest. “And this water. You can’t even see through it.”

“See through it?” Natalie asked.

“Yeah, to the bottom.”

“Are you kidding? You don’t want to see the bottom. Then you’d be able to see the fish … and the leeches.” Jake laughed.

“Shut up!” Sam cupped his hand and splashed a huge wave of river water in Jake’s face. “You’re not helping.”

“Hey, lighten up. Come on. You have to admit your friend is being a jerk. It’s just a creek. And he’s making a big deal out of it.”

Sam looked from Paul and Jake to Jordan, and then back again.

“It’s just a creek.” Arielle touched Sam’s arm. “We swim in it all the time. He either needs to get used to it, or he’s going to have a totally miserable day.”

Sam nodded. Then he waded closer to Jordan. “Just think of it as the ocean. We used to swim in the ocean too. And there are fish in there.”

“But not leeches. I’ve never heard of ocean leeches.” Jordan moved back up the shore, out of the mud, and opened up one of the towels, spreading it on the weeds.

“Seriously, just run and jump in. The water feels good.” Sam pushed his way through the reeds near the shore and attempted to get his footing on the bank. His foot slipped, and he felt himself sliding forward. He tried to stop his fall with his hands but both of them sank into the mud to his wrists. He could hear laughter behind him, and Sam was sure he looked great with his rear sticking up in the air. He scrambled up the shore the best he could and then plopped down next to Jordan, trying to ignore his muddy hands and feet.

“We can walk up the bank a little. There’s a rope swing. It’s pretty fun.”

“No thanks. Go ahead.”

Sam felt the sun beating down on him. More than anything he wanted to say that Jordan could throw a hissy fit, but he wasn’t going to put up with it. No one was going to put up with it. More than anything, Sam wanted to tell Jordan to sit there in the sun and bake if he wanted to, but Sam was going to swim with the others.

Yet when Sam opened his mouth, something inside told him that wouldn’t be smart. Jordan, after all, was his best friend. Or at least he used to be.

More than that, Sam remembered what he had been like when he first came to Nebraska. He’d thought everything was stupid and disgusting too. The fact was, it had taken him a long time to adjust. Jordan had been here only two days.

Sam took a deep breath, knowing what his grandparents would tell him. He needed to be patient.

Sam sat there a while, plucking the blades of green grass that poked through the yellowish-brown weeds. He thought about what he could say and what he could do to make both his new friends and his old friend happy. Honestly, he couldn’t think of a way to do it. Someone was going to be upset no matter what.

Side by side, he and Jordan watched the others laughing and splashing in the creek. Finally, Sam cleared his throat.

“You know, I think Natalie likes you.”

“No sir.” Jordan shook his head, but Sam was certain he saw Jordan’s eyes widen in interest.

“Yeah, I think so. Look, see how she keeps looking up here?”

“Yeah, well, she is sort of cute.”

“Yeah, not as pretty as Arielle, but not too bad.”

“You’re right, Arielle is pretty.”

Sam’s eyes darted to Jordan, and Jordan laughed. “Dude, don’t flip out; I’m only joking. I’d never steal your girl.”

“Not that you could if you tried.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Not that it would really work. It seems Arielle is into hicks and hick music. I mean, it’s a good thing you told me that country-western CD was hers in your car, or I would have totally thought you’d gone off the deep end.”

“It’s hers. I don’t listen to that stuff. I might adjust to other things around here, but I’ll never give up my rock.”

They sat for a while longer, watching the others as they timed themselves to see how long they could hold their breath under water. Finally, when Sam thought he was going to pass out from heatstroke, Jordan stood up.

“So you say the rope swing is fun?”

“Yeah.” Sam stood too. “It’s fun.” He nodded his chin upstream. “Wanna go try?”

“I bet I can do a flip off of it.”

“Can not.”

“Yeah, bet I can.”

“Ten bucks says you’re going to land flat on your back or do a belly flop.” Sam stretched out his hand that was now caked with dry mud.

“I’ll bet you, but I’m not going to shake.” Then Jordan turned and headed up the river bank.

“Want to go to the rope swing?” Sam called to the others.

“Yeah!”

“Fun.”

“Cool,” the voices called. Then the others waded to shore.

Sam reached out a hand and helped Arielle onto the bank. Then he handed her a towel.

“Thanks for that, Sam.” She wrapped the towel around her and then turned and helped Natalie up the bank.

“You’re welcome. I think the towel is nice and warm from the sun.”

“Yeah,” she laughed. “Thanks for the towel too, but that wasn’t what I was talking about. Thanks for sticking up for Jordan. I felt bad for him.”

Sam shrugged. “He’s my friend.”

“You’re a good friend. And a good boyfriend.” Arielle took Sam’s dirty hand and squeezed. Then she released it. “Race you to the swing.”

Sam laughed and darted after her. He’d never understand girls, what they were thinking, or what they appreciated. But at least this time he’d done the right thing, according to Arielle. And, well, according to himself. Because as he raced up the shore after the others he felt good inside. Like things would work out. Like this week wouldn’t be a total bomb after all.

WARM AIR AND SWEET SCENTS greeted Charlotte as she carried a basket of fresh vegetables into the kitchen. Picked fresh from the garden, the variety of vegetables would make a nice salad to welcome Jordan to the farm. As she scanned her kitchen counter she wondered if she’d gone overboard with dinner. The homemade biscuits were made. She’d sliced fresh onions to sauté with the pork chops. And from the oven came the yummy fragrance of peach cobbler. A salad and some fresh applesauce would finish the meal.

Sam and Jordan had arrived back from the creek and stayed only long enough to say a quick hello, before they headed upstairs for a shower. Charlotte now heard them listening to their rock music in Sam’s room.

As she sliced tomatoes for the salad, she wondered how this visit would go. But as the stove’s timer beeped, telling her the cobbler was done, she shook any worries out of her mind and looked forward to getting to know Jordan.

After the biscuits were baked and the gravy was simmering on the stove, Charlotte’s stomach rumbled, and she knew dinnertime had come.

“Christopher,” Charlotte said to her grandson, who was lying in front of the television watching a documentary on space travel, “can you please call everyone for dinner?”

Christopher stood and walked to the bottom of the stairs. “Dinner’s ready!” he called.

Then he walked to the kitchen door, opening it and leaning outside. “Dinner’s ready! Grandpa, Uncle Pete! Time for dinner.”

Charlotte shook her head and chuckled. “Thank you, but I think I could have done that. Can you make sure—” The sentence wasn’t even out of her mouth when Charlotte heard the pounding of footsteps coming down the stairs. Sam, Jordan, and Emily entered in mid-conversation that had something to do with the best burgers in San Diego.

Ten seconds later the kitchen door opened, and Bob, Pete, and Dana entered.

Christopher looked at Charlotte with a smirk, and she smiled back. “Boy, you sure have a good set of lungs. Who needs a bullhorn with you around?”

“Huh?” Christopher scratched his head.

“Want me to put this on the table for you?” Dana grabbed the basket that held the fresh biscuits wrapped in a dish towel.

“Grandma, can I put the lemonade on the table too?” Emily asked. “Oh, and the yummy salad.” She grabbed the pitcher of lemonade and the big bowl of salad and set them near her place at the table.

“We pretty much have salad every day. You’re acting like it’s a new thing.” Sam smirked, elbowing Jordan. “You’re lucky you don’t have a sister.”

Jordan chuckled. “Yeah. I guarantee my brother wouldn’t be excited about salad for dinner. I mean …” Jordan glanced sheepishly at Charlotte. “Uh, not that anything’s wrong with salad, Mrs. Stevenson. This one looks great. It’s just that my brother doesn’t really like vegetables.”

Charlotte pointed to the chair next to where Sam usually sat, motioning for Jordan to have a seat. “Oh, I understand. No worries. I have to say that, growing up, Pete didn’t care for vegetables either.”

“Yeah, not until Dad told me I needed to eat them to grow up big and strong,” Pete joined in. “So I did. After all, it became my main goal in life to grow taller than Denise.”

The room quieted, and Charlotte didn’t know if it was because Bob was already folding his hands, or because of the mention of her daughter’s name.

“Shall we pray?” Bob said, breaking the silence.

Charlotte folded her hands, wondering if Jordan was used to such rituals at home. He didn’t seem bothered by it, and he removed his baseball cap and placed it on his lap before bowing his head.

“Gracious Father, we thank Thee for your provisions today,” Bob prayed. “We thank Thee that Jordan arrived safely and that we can look forward to the week ahead in which we will celebrate the bounty of the land. In your Son, Jesus’s name, amen.”

“Amen,” the voices around the table said in unison. As Sam poured lemonade into his glass and Jordan’s, Jordan took a large pork chop from the serving platter for himself and placed another on Sam’s plate.

Charlotte was pleased to see that Jordan wasn’t shy about serving himself or filling his plate with food. She also liked to see the way the guys seemed natural around each other.

“So did you have a nice flight?” Charlotte asked Jordan as she scooped salad onto her plate.

“Oh, yes ma’am. I thought I would fall asleep right away, but I started reading this book, and it turned out to be pretty good.”

“Do you like to read, Jordan?” Dana’s face brightened.

Jordan shrugged and glanced around the table. “Sometimes, I suppose.”

Sam chuckled, and Jordan elbowed him in the ribs. Sitting side by side, Charlotte noticed how much taller Jordan was than Sam. And thinner too. But with Jordan’s boyish face and round blue eyes, he seemed younger. He didn’t have that tough edge that Sam always tried to affect.

“Tell my grandparents about the time my mom took us to the library and we got kicked out,” Sam mumbled with his mouth full of food.

“Kicked out? Really?” Pete eyed Jordan as if he suddenly had a new respect for the young man.

Jordan shrugged. “Yeah, well, we thought the tiny elevator that carried books between floors was really cool. But I guess we gave the upstairs librarian quite a scare when she opened the door and saw two boys sitting there.”

“All we said was boo.” Sam smirked.

Laughter erupted around the table, and Charlotte tried to picture Denise’s reaction.

Sam took a drink of lemonade. “Yeah, my mom insisted that we volunteer there every Saturday for a month. Although I think she thought it was a better idea than the head librarian did.”

Jordan laughed as another memory was resurrected, and Charlotte was almost afraid to ask.

Sam glanced at Jordan and must have understood what his friend was thinking, because he quickly changed the topic. “Hey, Grandma, I was wondering. Do you have a calendar or something for the fair? I want to take Jordan to the demolition derby.”

“There are other things you don’t want to miss—like the dog show,” Christopher butted in.

“Or the art display.” Emily grinned.

“Exactly.” Jordan nodded.

“Yes, the fair-events calendar is over there under the pile of mail.” Charlotte pointed to the counter. “There’s always more to do than time to do it, but I’m glad Jordan decided to come for fair week. It’s always full of excitement, unlike ordinary summer days.”

“Unless you call chores exciting,” Sam mumbled.

“Fair week kicks off with the parade on Tuesday, followed by the opening of the fairgrounds and all the rides.” Charlotte tucked her hair behind her ear. “Although, truth be told, I’m not sure that we’ll be able to attend all the fair activities, especially with all the excitement happening around the farm.”

“It’s so crazy.” Pete shook his head. “I knew of one, maybe two, of that woman’s songs. And now that she’s coming to Bedford and filming that silly video on the farm, I hear her everywhere. On the radio. In television commercials.”

“Yeah, I even saw her photo on the cover of Teen magazine,” Dana said. “She’s super cute.” She chuckled. “It’s not fair, really, to have those looks and that voice.”

Pete wiped biscuit crumbs off his lips and then glanced over at Dana. “She’s not as pretty as you.”

Pink rose to Dana’s cheeks, and Charlotte could tell she was pleased by the comment.

“I have to admit I feel the same way, Pete. Shae Lynne was even on Good Morning—”

“Shae Lynne?” Jordan interrupted, his light blue eyes widening. “Did your grandma just say Shae Lynne?” He turned in his chair, grabbed Sam’s shoulders, and shook them. “Is that the video Emily was talking about on the phone earlier? A video for a country music star?”

Sam grimaced.

“Sam didn’t tell you yet?” Charlotte cocked an eyebrow at Sam.

Jordan’s eyes widened. “No, Sam said they were filming a milk commercial, starring Trudy the cow.”

Sam smiled and flipped his long bangs out of his eyes. “No, I didn’t tell you it was a milk commercial. I said they were shooting a video and Trudy was going to be in it. You just assumed it was a milk commercial and that our cow was the star.”

“So what kind of video is it? Is Shae Lynne going to be singing?” Jordan started to pick up his fork but then put it down again, too distracted to eat. He folded his arms over his chest.

“Oh yes. It’s a music video for one of Shae Lynne’s new songs.” Charlotte hoped her feigned excitement made up for all of them.

“A music video? She’s going to be singing?” Jordan asked. Then, remembering that he was a guest, he bit his bottom lip. “No offense. I just would rather listen to rock. I’m sure she’s a nice, uh, person.”

“Speaking of nice people,” Charlotte cut in, “did Will call about what time everyone is coming?” She poured a tall glass of lemonade for herself.

“Yes, well, I was going to talk to you about that.” Bob rubbed his chin as if trying to remember the conversation. “The whole crew will be here around one o’clock tomorrow.”

“One o’clock tomorrow?” The list of all she had to do tomorrow scrolled through Charlotte’s mind.

“So, I suppose it’s a go?” She used her fork to move around the food on her plate.

“Well, Bill read through the contract and said that it looked in order, but he took the extra copy with him to read it in more detail. He’s supposed to call us back before bedtime. But as far as I can figure, unless Bill sees a major problem, it’s going to happen.”

“So the video people are really going to be here tomorrow?” Emily placed a hand over her heart.

Jordan poked Emily’s shoulder. “You should have at least told me. You’re never able to keep secrets.”

“Ha-ha, very funny. I can keep a secret. Besides, Christopher and I were going to tell you, but Sam wanted us to wait. He thought you would just make fun of it.”

“Maybe we can just stay in town with Paul and Jake and steer clear of the whole thing.” Sam took another biscuit from the basket and slathered it with butter.

“Seriously?” Emily cocked an eyebrow. “You can’t dislike country music that bad.”

“Wanna make a bet?”

“I’ll bet you about that, or about anything!” Christopher jumped in, excited that the conversation had finally come around to something worth talking about.

“You really want to bet, buddy?” Jordan eyed Christopher from around the table. “I bet I can make a rock skip more times across the creek than you can.”

Christopher’s shoulders sank. “I don’t know how to skip.”

“Really, it’s easy. I’ll show you.”

“After dinner?” Christopher perked up.

Then Jordan turned to Charlotte. “If that’s okay with you, ma’am.”

“Yes, of course, Jordan.”

As Charlotte finished her meal, she let out a small sigh of contentment. For the previous week she’d thought about all the work that needed to get done—including caring for a guest. But what she hadn’t remembered was that even in the midst of busy days and weeks, God sometimes opens up a window of grace too. And this was one of those moments, when they could just enjoy being together.

In fact, moments like this were what made life at Heather Creek Farm different from most places. Yes, they were busy. But at least they were busy together.