Fifteen Minutes

  Gaines was waiting for a response. Zack turned to the window for a long time and then back to the contestant coordinator. “Thank you. For making me aware.”

  “Do I have your word? You’ll do things our way?”

  “I’ll try. I can’t promise anything. My words are my own.” Zack didn’t want to sound disrespectful. But they really couldn’t tell him what to say or not say on Twitter, right? “It helps. Knowing what you expect. Knowing the rules.”

  Gaines studied him. “I’ll be watching, Zack. Don’t hurt your chances.” He smiled and patted Zack’s knee. “You could win the whole thing.”

  With that the man stood and returned to his seat at the front of the plane. Zack watched him go. Surely he didn’t mean for Zack to cut God out of his story. He meant he wanted Zack not to go overboard, not to preach at people or polarize them. Zack had talked about his faith from the beginning, after all.

  If he toned things down now was that a compromise?

  Lord, I want to represent You. People need to see You when they see me singing on that stage. Help me know what that looks like.

  My son, stand firm. Always be prepared to give an answer for the hope that you have. Speak all things with gentleness and respect.

  The words sounded as clearly to him as those Gaines had uttered a few minutes earlier. Zack looked around and felt his heart fill with a peace he hadn’t known in the last week. He hadn’t heard God speak to him like this before, but that’s what just happened. It had to be. He’d read that section from 1 Peter earlier today. Now it was coming back like a direct message from God.

  If he was going to shine brightly in his Fifteen Minutes run, it was a message he would have to hold on to with every breath, every fiber of his being. Starting tonight. He wasn’t letting anyone film or interview AJ. She didn’t deserve that. And Zack wouldn’t be ashamed of the Gospel. His faith was everything to him. He couldn’t hide it from others. And when it came to Twitter, no one could tell him what to say.

  Not even William Gaines.

  chapter 11

  Reese got the text from Zack as soon as he landed. They had to get the crew’s camera bags and then they’d be at his parents’ house in an hour. Can’t wait to see you. Sorry we won’t have time alone. Reese smiled at his words. She would’ve liked time alone.

  She received an alert that a tweet from Zack had gone out. A few clicks and she could see it.

  Back home in Kentucky! Seeing my family and leading worship at my church tonight. #homesick #finally

  Reese checked his @s and sure enough. Almost the moment Zack had tweeted, Zoey had responded.

  Can I just say I miss @ZackDylan already? Hurry back to New York. The team’s not the same without you.

  There was no mention of Reese. She examined herself to see if that bothered her. It didn’t. Not really. Zack hadn’t talked about her on Twitter since going to Atlanta. But that wasn’t so unusual. He used Twitter as a way of sharing his faith with the teens at church, not to give a public window to their relationship. Now there were simply more people paying attention.

  She breathed deep. God, help me shake this feeling. I don’t want to wonder or be jealous. Zack will be here in less than an hour.

  Feeling his arms around her would lighten her heart. She would look in his eyes and know nothing had changed, not even a little. And he could see how much she supported his journey with Fifteen Minutes. Maybe they could steal away for a brief moment and she could ask him if he was okay. Really okay.

  She cleaned up her section of the stable at the Lowell center and clocked out. The heat had left her weary today, but the improvements in four of her kids convinced her she was right where God wanted her. She could hardly wait to tell Zack. Reese drove to his house and found his mom in the kitchen.

  “I thought you might come by.” Dara Dylan was slicing cheese, making a platter of snacks for Zack and the crew. She crossed the room and hugged Reese. Then she looked up. “AJ’s awake. She’s in her room. The doctor said her lungs are breaking down. He switched her to a new medicine.” A sad smile lifted the corners of her lips. “She’d love to see you. She doesn’t know about Zack coming home.”

  Reese nodded. She struggled to understand AJ’s troubles. One setback after another made it hard. Wasn’t it enough that the girl had Down syndrome? Reese tried to stay positive as she jogged up the stairs and found AJ in her room. The girl had Zack’s dark hair, but it was flat and unkempt, especially since she’d been sick. “AJ . . . it’s me.” She stepped into the room.

  AJ was lying on her side, facing the wall. She rolled over at the sound of Reese’s voice. “Hi.” She sat up and hung her head. A few coughs and she looked up. “How are the horses?”

  Reese smiled. “They’re good.” She moved closer and sat on the edge of the bed facing AJ. “Better question . . . how are you?”

  “Oh, you know.” AJ shrugged. She was very small, not a hundred pounds if Reese had to guess. Her character remained childlike, a quality that made her endearing to anyone who met her. “I wanna ride horses later.”

  “I want that, too.” Reese tilted her head. “Your mom says you’re on a new medicine.”

  “Sure.” She looked a little bewildered, not certain of the details surrounding her health. She squinted at Reese. “Have you seen my brother? He’s been missing for a long time.”

  “I have exciting news for you.” Reese took gentle hold of AJ’s hand.

  AJ smiled. “I love that kind.”

  “Zack’s coming home today! Just for a few hours, but he can’t wait to see you.”

  The girl sat straight up and stared openmouthed at Reese. “My big brother’s coming home?”

  “Just for today. He’ll be here soon.”

  “Yay!” AJ raised her hands over her head like an Olympian. “Yay, yay, yay!” She stopped to cough a few times, but nothing could dim her excitement. Finally, breathless, she dropped back on her pillow. “I hate when he’s gone.”

  “Me, too.”

  “I think I’ll rest. So I’ll be all better when Zack gets here.”

  “Perfect.” Reese touched AJ’s shoulder. “I’ll tell him to come up when he gets here.”

  Exhaustion was clearly having its way with the girl. She nodded, but already her eyes were closed. Reese crept out, not wanting to wake her. Back in the kitchen she found Zack’s mom again. “She’s sleeping. She can’t wait to see Zack.”

  “She talks about him constantly.” His mom adjusted a few platters on the kitchen island near a pitcher of iced tea and set a stack of plates and napkins nearby. Then she brushed her hands on her jeans and slid a plate of lemons toward Reese. “You know how Zack likes his sweet tea.”

  “Yes.” Reese squeezed three lemons into the large pitcher and found the sugar canister across the kitchen. “They’ve kept him so busy.”

  “That’s what he says.”

  “I told him this would happen.” Reese smiled, but she could feel a sadness in her heart. “I knew he’d make it. This is only the beginning.”

  “I guess I never . . . I mean, nearly a hundred thousand contestants tried out.”

  “It’s down to eighty.” Reese sprinkled extra sugar in the tea, the way Zack liked it. “He could win the whole thing.”

  His mom kept slicing, slower than before, as if her heart were distracted. “Does that worry you?”

  “Sometimes.” Reese stirred the tea and then leaned against the counter. “Fame and recognition take a lot of time. Things could change.”

  Grandpa Dan walked in, heavy on his cane. He saw Reese and his face lit up. “Young lady! I didn’t know you were here.”

  “Zack’s coming home.” She ran lightly over to him and hugged him. “Just for a few hours, but still.”

  “How wonderful.” A smile filled his face. “I miss that boy.” He raised an eyebrow. “Probably worse for you, huh?”

  Reese laughed. “Feels like a month.”

  “Glad you could be here.” Grandpa Dan nodded toward the por
ch. “You have a minute?”

  “Sure.” Reese turned to Zack’s mother. “Can I do anything else?”

  “Go talk.” His mom waved her off. “He loves you. You know that.”

  Reese hadn’t chatted with Grandpa Dan in too long. She followed him outside and sat across from him at the small table. “How are you?”

  “Everyone wants to know about me.” He chuckled and set his cane down against the table. “I want to know about you and Zack.”

  “We’re good. I miss him.” The sun splashed across the porch. Reese smiled at the old man. “It’s hard to be apart—especially in the summer.”

  “That’s right. It’s July.” His eyes sparkled. “You know what that means.”

  “The story.” She hadn’t forgotten.

  “Yes. Every July I get to tell you again.”

  “Every year.” Reese smiled. “Start at the beginning.”

  “I will.” He leaned back slowly in his chair. “Lucy and I were friends in high school. Close friends.” Grandpa Dan took his time. “A lot of people thought we were sweethearts, but we never were. She didn’t see me that way.” His eyes grew distant, far-off yesterdays alive again. “After high school, we lost touch. I joined the service and she became a nurse.”

  Reese knew the story well. She could’ve recited any section of it. But there was nothing like hearing Grandpa Dan tell it. He had a way of bringing the details to life again, making Reese feel like she’d been there. Grandpa Dan continued: He had come home from the war to find everything changed for his friend Lucy. She had taken up with a young soldier and the two had gotten married. The man was killed a month after their daughter was born.

  By then Grandpa Dan had met the love of his life, Jean, and the two of them were engaged. “We had a conversation once, Lucy and I. I took her flowers and met her baby. She wasn’t a year old.” A twinkle shone from Grandpa Dan’s eyes. “Beautiful child.”

  The conversation Dan and Lucy had that day was the first and last time they ever talked about their feelings for each other. “Lucy told me she loved me. She said she always would. I had no idea, of course.” Grandpa Dan’s voice was heavy with emotion. “It was too late. Life had moved past us. And I was in love with Jean.”

  For a season, life was easier for the two families. Lucy remarried a doctor. They raised the little girl and had three more children before the doctor ran off with a woman in California when the kids were teenagers. Lucy grew close once more with Dan and Jean, and the three spent a great deal of time together raising their kids and riding horses at the Dylans’ farm.

  But the day after Lucy’s first grandchild was born, her doctor gave her the diagnosis. “Cancer. There was nothing they could do.”

  Grandpa Dan smiled at Reese. “Lucy loved that little granddaughter of hers. Loved her with all her heart.”

  Reese felt her heart grow heavy. This was always the most touching part of the story. Because four months later Lucy died. “The day she died, Jean and I were with her.” Tears welled in Dan’s eyes. He looked to the distant horizon. “Lucy made us promise something. She asked us to love her granddaughter. She wanted us to pray for that baby every day. And one day when the child was older, she wanted us to tell her about her grandma Lucy.”

  Dan and Jean kept their promise. They were the only grandparents the little girl ever knew. Even after Jean died ten years later, Dan kept the promise. The little girl’s mother moved the family to northern Kentucky, but still Dan loved her and prayed for her and sent her Christmas presents. And every year he called her on the phone and told her the story.

  “I always want you to know.” Grandpa Dan smiled at Reese. “Your grandma Lucy loved you so much.”

  The impossibility of the story, the enormity of it swept over Reese the way it did whenever Grandpa Dan remembered the connection they all shared. The idea that she would meet Dan’s grandson her first year in college; that when Zack had brought her home the first time to the horse farm, she would recognize it from when she was a little girl and Grandpa Dan would immediately know the girl Zack had fallen in love with.

  “I prayed for both of you every day since you were both born. But I had no idea what God had planned for you.”

  The story always made Reese smile, but this time around it also made her a little sick. What if she and Zack didn’t stay together? The woman from London had called again. Somehow, though, Reese hadn’t wanted to think about giving her an answer. What if Zack’s time on Fifteen Minutes took him far from her, and what if she went to Europe to train people in equine therapy?

  The sense that she and Zack were destined for each other, that as Lucy’s beloved granddaughter she belonged with Dan and Jean’s grandson, had always been comforting. But now she wasn’t sure.

  “What are you thinking?”

  “Mmm.” Reese met his wrinkled eyes. “You know me well.”

  He smiled. “I should.” Again he was in no hurry. “You want to tell me?”

  “Just thinking about Zack.”

  “I understand.” Grandpa Dan slowly reached for her hand. Once his weathered fingers were around hers, he squeezed softly. “Don’t you worry, Reese. No one knows if you and Zack will stay together. That’s up to God and the two of you.”

  She nodded, fresh tears spilling from her troubled heart. “Yes.”

  “But no matter what . . . no matter where life takes you . . . I’ll pray for you and tell you the story of Lucy. I’ll do that as long as I live. I gave her my word.”

  How did he know exactly what to say? She wiped discreetly at her eyes. “Thank you. That . . . means a lot.”

  As they headed back in the house, as the Fifteen Minutes crew in their rented van appeared on the horizon and drove up to the Dylan horse farm, Reese felt more peace than she’d felt all week. Not because she had clearer answers about Zack and her but because she had the love and prayers of her parents and Zack and Grandpa Dan.

  And somewhere in heaven, her sweet grandma Lucy.

  THE VISIT FELT rushed from the moment Zack walked through his parents’ front door. He saw Reese first, standing in the doorway to the kitchen, waiting, her eyes full of a love he’d missed more than he knew. “Reese.” He rushed to her and drew her into a full embrace, the kind usually reserved for people returning from war.

  Behind him the Fifteen Minutes crew filed into the house and past Zack and Reese into the kitchen. They didn’t seem in a rush to catch footage of the two of them, and Zack was glad. Reese was a private person. What they shared was private, too.

  Zack took Reese’s hands, breathless at the feel of her in his arms. They heard the film crew making introductions to the rest of Zack’s family. But before Zack and Reese could join them, he had to know about AJ. “How is she?”

  “Not great. She’s coughing a lot,” Reese whispered, instinctively knowing that it wasn’t her place to tip off the film crew to the existence or condition of Zack’s handicapped sister. “I told her you’d find her upstairs.”

  Zack put his hands on either side of Reese’s face and kissed her hard and fast. “Thank you.” It was all he needed to say. He led Reese up a back staircase to AJ’s room and when they walked in, his sister opened her eyes.

  “Zack! You’re here!” She flew out of bed to him. “My brother is home!”

  He picked her up, twirled her around, kissed the top of her head and set her back down. She looked thinner, her face pale. Zack still had her hands in his. “You need to get better.”

  “I’m trying.” Her grin took up her whole face. “I will now that you’re home.”

  They talked for a few minutes, and then Zack and Reese had to join the others in the kitchen. He didn’t want William Gaines overseeing a line of questions to his parents or grandfather without being in the room. Already Gaines’s agenda felt shady.

  On the way downstairs, Reese whispered, “How are you? Really?”

  He stopped on the landing, the dark lighting perfect for the moment. He kissed her again, slower than before.
As he pulled back, he breathed his answer against her cheek. “Perfect now.”

  “Mmmm. Me, too.” She looped her arms around his neck. “I wish we had more time.”

  “Maybe tonight.” He kissed her once more. “After church.” He took her hand and they finished the rest of the stairs and moved into the kitchen.

  From that moment on the night passed in a blur. Gaines oversaw the filming while one of the on-air correspondents asked the questions. He was a young guy just out of college and excellent at getting responses.

  Zack stood next to Reese and watched from across the kitchen. The correspondent was interviewing Zack’s younger brother, Duke. Their parents stood next to each other, clearly proud of the way Duke was handling the spotlight.

  After Duke the questions were aimed at Zack’s mom and dad and then Grandpa Dan. The only one not interviewed was Reese. Zack pulled Gaines aside as the crew packed up and readied for the move to the church. “Did they forget about Reese? She knows a lot about my love for the farm. She works with horses.”

  “Yeah, I know about that. She does equine therapy.” Gaines patted him on the back and smiled. “They’ll probably get her over at the church. She’s going, right?”

  It was too weird how much Gaines knew about his life. Not that it would’ve taken a detective. Facebook and Twitter were enough to connect the dots. Still . . . Zack wondered as the group headed to the church just how much Gaines knew. There could be only one reason why he wasn’t in a hurry to get Reese on camera. She was the girlfriend. If Zack were single, more people might tune in to the show. Chandra Olson had warned him about that.

  Of all the people connected with the show, Chandra was easily the kindest, the most genuine. Everyone knew her story, the tragedy of it. If she had a faith in God, she didn’t talk about it. But she seemed concerned for Zack.

  Yesterday when Chandra heard that he had a girlfriend, she warned him. “They won’t want you to talk about her. Just be aware. It’s easy to feel single when the producers are treating you that way.” Chandra told him something else, too. “They’re talking about you and Zoey. It’s a better story if a relationship develops from the show. Coming in with a girlfriend doesn’t do anything for ratings. Unless she’s sick or famous.” She smiled. “You get it?”