A Father's Promise (11 page)

Renee looked down at the dress she had spent half an hour trying to pick out. A soft peach wrap dress that Renee had updated with a wide, brown belt and a shrug. She didn’t usually dress up this much for church. She’d had no reason to before.

Before Zach.

“I also love how you’re wearing your hair,” her mother added.

Renee looked away from her mother’s knowing eyes. “I thought I would try something different.” She had pulled her hair off to one side and secured it with a pearl comb, allowing the rest of her hair to spill over her shoulder in a cascade of curls.

Renee swiped lipstick over her lips, trying not to criticize herself and the faults she always found in her features—nose too long and thin, eyes too wide apart, forehead too high.

“You’re all dressed up, too,” Renee said, noticing for the first time her mother’s skirt and blazer. The aqua shirt she wore had an attached silk scarf her mom had tied in a bow. The drop pearl earrings Renee’s father had given her on their twentieth anniversary glinted from her ears. Renee hadn’t seen her mother wear the earrings or the suit since her father’s death. “Special occasion?”

Brenda gave her a demure smile. “I might ask you the same question.”

Renee returned her smile, thankful to see her so happy. In fact, Renee hadn’t seen her this carefree in years.

She wanted to ask her why, but something held her back. She was still deciding whether to push her mother about the therapy program or leave it be.

Renee parked in their usual spot close to the church, and as she stepped out of the van, she saw Zach’s father striding toward them, his grin making her wonder what was going on.

But soon she realized he wasn’t looking at her.

He was looking directly at her mother.

“Good morning, Brenda,” he said as the lift holding the wheelchair whirred to the ground. “What a treat to see you looking so well.”

“Thank you, Arlan.” Her mother’s hand fluttered up to touch her hair.

Arlan Truscott brushed her shoulder with his hand, then stood aside as her mother maneuvered the wheelchair off the van lift.

“Can I walk with you?” he asked.

“That would be lovely.”

Brenda folded her hands in her lap as Arlan grabbed the handles of the wheelchair. He then shot Renee a quick glance. “I’m sorry—do you mind?”

It seemed strange to let someone else take over, but she knew it would be ungracious to refuse him.

“No. Not at all,” Renee said as she hit the button to move the lift back into the van. She watched them go, snippets of their conversation drifting back to her, fragments of laughter. Renee suddenly realized she hadn’t heard her mother’s carefree laugh in a long, long time.

She closed the door of the van, got her purse, then hurried to catch up. By the time she stepped into the foyer, Arlan was already wheeling her mother to the elevator.

“Renee. There you are!”

Tricia’s exuberant voice behind her created a frisson of yearning and delight. She turned, and when she saw Zach standing beside Tricia, her heart did a slow backflip.

“I was looking for you,” Tricia said, swinging her father’s hand. “Where’s your mom?”

Zach gave Tricia an affectionate smile, then looked back to Renee. “I’m guessing my father absconded with your mother, leaving you all alone.”

“That means you have to sit with us.” Tricia caught Renee’s hand in hers, and Renee looked from Zach to Tricia with eyes glowing with pleasure.

“Renee might want to sit with her mother,” Zach warned.

“Nope. She has to sit with us. Please, Daddy,” Tricia pleaded.

Renee looked down at Tricia, clinging to the little girl’s hand as love swept over her in a tidal wave of emotions. Tricia’s innocent gesture opened a place in Renee’s soul she had kept tightly shut all these years.

Then she looked up at Zach, who was giving her a careful smile, as if unsure of the situation himself.

“I don’t mind sitting by myself,” she said, giving him an out.

“No. That would be silly, right, Daddy? You come sit with us,” Tricia insisted.

“I guess it’s easier to do what Tricia wants,” Zach said, giving her a lopsided smile, which only enhanced the feelings filling Renee’s heart.

Hope and love washed over her. Beneath them was the reality that she was falling for Zach. That he was becoming intrinsically woven into the fabric of her life.

“Let’s go sit down,” Tricia said, pulling Renee and Zach along with her.

They came to the top of the stairs just as Arlan was pushing Renee’s mother down the aisle of the church to her usual spot. He bent over her, as if to make sure everything was okay, then with a wide smile, sat down beside her.

As Renee saw him settle in the pew, then reach over to take her mother’s hand, all the events of the past week meshed together. Arlan was the reason her mother didn’t want to move to Vancouver anymore.

Renee suddenly realized she might not be all alone caring for her mother anymore. She drew in a long, cleansing breath, then glanced over at Zach, who was also looking at their parents. But a frown furrowed his brow.

“Did you know about this?” she whispered, leaning closer to him, tipping her head toward their parents.

“Not really,” he whispered back. “But my dad’s been acting kind of strange lately.”

“Let’s go sit down,” Tricia ordered, tugging on them again.

Renee and Zach shared another look, then followed their demanding daughter down the aisle.

Chapter Eleven

“I
got new shoes,” Tricia was telling Renee, swinging her legs back and forth in the church pew, admiring the shiny, black Mary Janes adorning her feet. “My daddy bought them for me.”

“They are beautiful,” Renee said.

Then Tricia leaned against Renee.

Zach’s heart faltered at the sight. Yes, Renee was Tricia’s mother, but the situation between them was tentative. He had to be careful.

And yet...

Then Tricia elbowed him. “Daddy. Can Renee come to my school play next week?”

Zach looked down at his daughter, feeling as if he was being pulled in two directions. “I think she might be working at the store,” he said, giving Tricia a careful look.

Tricia frowned, then glanced over at Renee, who had the same expectant look on her face.

In that instant he saw Renee in Tricia’s face. In the curve of her jaw and the set of her eyes. His heart faltered.

Then Renee gave a perfunctory nod. “Of course,” she said quietly. “I...I will be busy.”

“Can’t you get Ashley to help you?” Tricia said, her voice rising in protest.

“Inside voice, please,” Renee said, touching Tricia lightly on the nose.

“Maybe Renee can come another time,” Zach said, slipping his arm around Tricia’s shoulders.

Tricia wrinkled up her face in dismay and looked as if she was about to lodge another protest. Thankfully, the choir started up, and Tricia joined in, switching easily from disappointment to exuberance.

Glancing over at Renee, he saw that she pulled her hand out of Tricia’s and folded hers on her lap. Zach reached across Tricia’s shoulder and touched Renee’s, giving it a light squeeze, reconnecting with her.

She looked at him, and her smile seemed to say,
I understand.

Which made her all the more appealing to him.

But where did her relationship with him end and her relationship with Tricia begin?

Truth be told, he would prefer to keep Tricia and Renee in different parts of his life. At least until he was sure of how things were proceeding with Renee.

He forced his attention back to the minister, who was announcing that he would be preaching on a passage from Psalm 52 today. Zach picked up a Bible and, as he always did, gave it to Tricia. She found the passage, then held it up so they both could read the words.

“But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God’s unfailing love for ever and ever.”

Zach repeated the words again, centering himself. He knew that he had to trust in God’s unfailing love to guide him through this tangle. And he also knew, in every decision of his life, he had to learn to put God first.

When they were done, he dropped the Bible back into the rack, ready to focus on the minister and not the beautiful woman sitting beside his daughter.

* * *

“So, Mom, you’ve been running around the store all morning,” Renee said, standing in front of her mother’s chair to block her way. “We need to talk.”

They stood in the ribbon aisle, with Renee located between her mother and the back room.

“What do we need to talk about?” she said, her mother’s voice as innocent as a child’s.

“Sunday.” Renee dropped her hands on her hips in an I-mean-business gesture. “How we ended up at the Truscotts’ again for lunch, and how you’ve been so busy since Sunday that you haven’t had much time for the store?”

Her mother gave her an arch look. “Or we could talk about that little walk you and Zach went on after church.”

Renee tried without much success to suppress the blush that raced up her neck.

Arlan and her mother had urged her and Zach to go for a walk after lunch. They wouldn’t leave it alone, so she and Zach had gone, Tricia staying behind. They hadn’t talked much, but once she and Zach were away from the house, they’d managed to steal a few kisses. Since then, he’d been texting her every day, each trill of her phone sending an answering trill in her heart.

Renee hadn’t been this happy in years.

However, she needed to discuss important things with her mother.

“Then let’s talk about how, when you pushed me and Zach out the door to go for that walk, you and Arlan took off with Tricia, and Zach had to drive me home. Maybe we should talk about what’s happening between you and Arlan.”

Her mother gave Renee a coquettish smile, then tilted her head to one side. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

Renee tried not to get frustrated with her mother. “I’m thinking your matchmaking had more to do with you and Arlan than me and Zach.”

Brenda merely smiled, and stayed silent.

“So you and Arlan...?” Renee let the question linger, encouraging her mother to finish it.

Brenda gave her daughter a coy look. “And you and Zach?”

“C’mon, Mom, this isn’t junior high. I’ll tell if you will.”

The store’s bell jangled, announcing the arrival of customers, and the moment was about to pass. But she couldn’t let it go.

“Then I won’t tell.” Her mother spun her wheelchair around and headed to the back room. “I’ve got a card-making class to get ready for. Did you make sure we have enough chartreuse and mauve card stock for the projects? And ribbon. I know we were short of that.”

“We have all we need,” Renee said as she followed her mother into the room, then shut the door behind them, closing off the outside world for a moment. Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she smiled. Another text from Zach no doubt, but she ignored it as she sat down, putting herself at eye level with her mother.

“Mom, you and I both know we’re under a time crunch. Tomorrow we’ll be having that conference call with the therapy team, and you’ll have to tell them what you want. I need to make sure you’re not postponing all this for the wrong reasons.”

Brenda folded her arms and tucked in her chin.

Not a good sign, Renee thought. If there was one language she was fluent in, it was her mother’s body language.

“I have my reasons for my decisions,” her mother said. “I was going to let you know soon. However, I had to make sure the...situation I was involved in was going the way I had hoped, and that I wasn’t misreading the circumstances.”

“Between you and Arlan,” Renee said, reeling her mother back to the point.

“I think he loves me.”

“Loves you?”

“And I love him.”

“You love him?” Renee parroted what her mother told her. “How...when...?”

“If you must know, it started because of you and Zach. Arlan had been helping me write up my will—”

“Your will?”

“Yes. I like to be prepared. Anyhow, at one of our meetings he told me his son was coming to town. I joked that we should get the two of you together. He thought it was a great idea. So we started planning. And then when Tricia talked about making a scrapbook, we both thought that was the perfect solution.”

As her mother talked, Renee felt as if all the pieces of a convoluted puzzle slowly fell into place.

Zach had mentioned how his father had encouraged Tricia to make the scrapbook. She remembered her mother’s approval that Renee be the one to work with Zach and Tricia.

“So the meeting at Mug Shots...and the Mother’s Day dinner...?” Renee let the sentence drift off in a question.

“All part of the plan. Look how well it worked. You and Zach seem happy together. I know he’s been texting you all morning.”

“How—”

“Seriously, Renee. You’re as transparent as vellum. Your phone rings, you pull it out of your pocket and then you get that look on your face.”

“What look?” Renee protested.

“That sappy, lovey-dovey—”

“Mom,” Renee protested. “You started telling me about you and Arlan. Let’s get back to that.”

Her mother shrugged and then it was her turn to get a sappy look on her face. “While we were planning to get the two of you together, there was a...fortunate...side effect.”

“You and Arlan fell in love.”

Her mother looked down at her hands. “Yes. We care very much for each other. Trust me, honey, it was as much of a surprise to us as it is to you.”

Renee released a gentle laugh. “This is an interesting predicament,” she said. “I never thought—”

“Me neither. I never thought someone like me could attract a man. But Arlan is loving, kind and generous, and he told me that he loves me just the way I am.”

“That’s why you don’t want to go through with the therapy program in Vancouver?”

Her mother nodded. “I don’t want to be so far away from him. We’ve talked about marriage,” Brenda said quietly.

Renee sat back in her chair, still trying to absorb what her mom had just told her, and all the implications for her.

“It’s premature, I know,” Brenda continued, “but I thought I should let you know what’s at stake here.”

Myriad emotions swirled through Renee’s mind. Hope. Happiness for her mother. Fear of the repercussions of this decision. Fear for what would happen to her mother if Arlan realized the full scope of Brenda’s care.

She didn’t know how to process all this in a way that made sense to her.

Then her cell phone rang. Like a drowning sailor she pounced on it, glancing at the display. Zach.

“Hey,” she said, thankful for the diversion. “How’s it going?”

“Can you come to the office?”

“Now?”

“Now would be nice,” he said, his deep voice holding a hint of promise. “I need to talk to you.”

And she needed to talk to him, too. She realized that she had someone special. Someone other than her mother that she could talk to. Share things with.

“Yeah. That would work just fine.”

“See you soon.”

Renee couldn’t stop smiling as she ended the call, then looked over at her mother, who was smirking at her. “I’m guessing that was Zach,” she said.

“You can guess all you want,” Renee said, pushing herself to her feet. “But I’ll be gone for an hour or so.”

“Stay as long as you want.”

Renee just shook her head. “We’ll talk more tonight,” she warned. “And we are still going to take that call on Thursday.”

Her mother nodded as Renee stifled a flicker of panic. Pulling out of the therapy program was her mom’s decision. And Renee had to trust that this was truly what her mother wanted.

But part of her still felt it was the wrong thing to do. Part of her felt that all wrongs would be made right if she could see her mother free from that chair.

Still felt that she could move on with her life only if everything was right in her mother’s world.