Bring on the Blessings

  Grinning, Malachi walked to the door and went inside.

  At the garage the next morning, Trent cleared off a spot on his desk so he could put down the foil-wrapped plate holding his breakfast. The only thing he missed about living in LA was being able to drive up to a fast food joint and get fed. Here, because his father still hadn’t found a replacement for Rocky, he had to either cook for himself in his small apartment up above the garage or go begging from people like his grandmother. Luckily for him she loved him and would feed him until the Second Coming. Beneath the foil lay waffles, grits, eggs, and four slices of Clayton Dobbs’s prize-winning bacon. Trent wasn’t as trim as he’d been twenty years ago, but what man was. He was still in good shape though and active enough to handle a hearty breakfast, especially one that came out of Tamar’s kitchen.

  Taking a seat he undid the foil and pulled out the silverware. Lily claimed she’d be coming by the garage early to pick up her rental car, but he hoped she’d hold off long enough for him to eat. He dug in and as he did his mind floated back to the woman he used to call Lily Flower. Last night Malachi had asked him what he planned to do. Truthfully, Trent didn’t think there was anything to do. After their breakup, she’d gone on with her life and he’d done the same. Time passes, and it wasn’t like they were going to pick up where they left off. Yes, she was still a good-looking woman, even pissed at her he’d noticed that, but she’d kicked him in the heart so hard he still had the bruises to prove it, and he wasn’t looking to get sucker punched again. So, no…He’d be polite, hoped she’d enjoy herself while she was in town, and then she could take her trifling little behind back to Atlanta.

  He heard a car pull up. Being the area’s only mechanic, he knew the sound of every vehicle in town. Marie’s old Pontiac was idling out front. She’d probably given Lily a ride over and his bad mood was all over his face when he turned around and found her standing in the doorway.

  Her face was no happier than his. “Sorry for the interruption. How much do I owe you?”

  “Nothing.”

  Irritation flashed in her eyes. “Right, Trent. How much?”

  “Just take the car. Keys are inside.”

  “Fine. Thanks.” She disappeared.

  A few moments later, he heard the rental car’s engine start up and the car drive away. Cursing teenage love, he went back to his plate.

  Lily’s jaws were tight as she drove the five miles back to Marie’s. All she could think about was his angry face. Granted she’d hurt him, but good Lord, they were teenagers then. Would she have to pay for her sins every time she ran into him from now on? If so, it was going to be a long two weeks. He’s going to mess around and get cussed out, the angry sister voice inside warned, but it was just like him to fix the car for free just to show her how generous he could be in the face of how badly she’d treated him. She slammed her fist against the wheel and set off the horn, scaring herself half to death.

  Pulling it together, she stared at the road ahead. And this was the reason she had dull old Winston in her life, at least for now. With him there was no drama—at all. Of course, there wasn’t much of anything else either.

  When she got back to the house, Marie had her keys in her hand. “I need to do some grocery shopping, you want to ride?”

  Lily nodded. “Is Ms. Agnes going?”

  “And miss Regis and then The View? Nope.”

  Agnes called from the living room. “You got that right. See you when you get back.”

  Minutes later they were on the way. Lily knew her godmother didn’t like a whole lot of talking when she was driving, so while Marie drove, she contented herself with watching the wheat fields roll by.

  For the first time in months felt relaxed. Unlike Atlanta, on the plains there was no stress causing traffic, no hip-hop bass rumbling from cars, no breaking news of man’s inhumanity to man every time you turned around. She was enjoying the peace so much she was toying with the idea of extending her stay. Winston on the other hand hadn’t been happy when she talked to him about it on the phone last night, but she had no intentions of letting him have the final say.

  Something else was in the mix too. Bernadine Brown’s plans for Henry Adams seemed to have infected everyone with its purpose and hope and Lily was no exception. Ms. Brown and her revival campaign were the topic of conversation all over town. Lily wanted to help too, and who wouldn’t want to be in on something so exciting and so real? Bernadine not only wanted to revitalize the community, she wanted to impact lives; children’s lives. She blew Lily away.

  They passed a road sign noting the remaining distance to Hayes, and Lily cracked, “Do you think Bernadine can build us a mall so we don’t have to drive to east west hell every time we need something?”

  “I don’t see why she can’t. The woman’s going to build everything else. She is something, isn’t she?”

  “Yes, she is.”

  “And the beautiful thing is that she’s doing this out of the goodness of her heart. She’s going to be blessed for the rest of her life for wanting to take care of a bunch of old people and children.”

  “I know.”

  Marie turned her cat’s-eye framed gaze toward Lily, “You’ve been awfully pensive this morning. Something going on you want to talk about?”

  “I’m thinking about staying an extra week or two.”

  “You know I’d love that.”

  “I would too, but—”

  “But, what?”

  “I feel like I’m going nowhere. Not professionally but personally and spiritually. Like I should be doing something different with my life.” She thought back on all the angst she’d been dealing with for the past few months, how she felt about her Davis moving on with his life now that he’d graduated and had a real job, and about living the rest of her life with comfortable old Winston. In her heart of hearts she knew she didn’t want to marry him, but finding the inner strength to chuck everything and go in a new direction was hard for a woman who liked the universe drama free and well ordered.

  Still, she felt constricted, as if her life and the future were conspiring to choke her to death when all she wanted to do was breathe. “Can you stand having me around for another two weeks or so?”

  “Sure, and if you want to stay for good, I can do that too.”

  “Quit reading my mind.”

  “Was I doing that? Sorry. It’s an old fairy godmother habit.”

  They shared a grin, and afterward Marie said in a more serious tone, “If you are thinking about moving back, you and Trent are going to have to settle up.”

  “I know.” Squaring things with him was one of the larger items on her to-do list, but at least she’d admitted out loud that she wanted to change her life. It was a first step and it would have to do for now. Like the old gospel hymn, she’d figure out the rest by and by.

  CHAPTER

  8

  Bernadine was swamped with faxes, contracts, e-mails, and tons of all kinds of paperwork associated with the Henry Adams project. Now that her laptop and BlackBerry were back online again, info was coming so fast and furious she felt like Noah in the flood. It was scattered all over her small bedroom at Tamar’s, and because of the volume she was having trouble putting her hands on what she needed when she needed it.

  In truth, she would be the first one to admit that she didn’t know a thing about managing something as big as this undertaking was going to be. Sure, she’d worked in offices during her social worker days, but she’d only been in charge of her small cubicle and her file cabinet. The daily logistical operations had been handled by somebody else, and it was that faceless somebody else that she needed.

  Tamar appeared in the doorway and looked around. “Every day I come in here, you got more and more paper.”

  Guilt stung Bernadine. “I’m so sorry. You offer me a place to stay and I turn it into a landfill.”

  “That is a good description,” Tamar offered while taking in the papers covering the old wing-back chair, the dresser top
, the window seat, and the floor. “Not a good organizer, huh?”

  “No, ma’am. To tell you the truth, I’ve never done anything like this before in my life. Pulling this all together is more than a notion.”

  “Simple solution. Since you have plenty of money, just hire somebody, save yourself the aggravation. We can’t have you dropping dead from stress before we get the kids here and the first building up. Speaking of which, Trent just called and said the construction crews are downtown. He needs you there to sign something.”

  Bernadine sighed. She needed to clone herself into four or five individuals in order to keep up with all the plates she was juggling. “Okay. Let me grab my keys.” Her new vehicle had arrived yesterday, a Ford F-150 pickup. A big truck for a big girl. Cobalt blue. Silver trim. Sweet.

  When she got to the site, the first thing the construction crew chief did after introducing himself as Warren Kelly was to ask her, “Where’s your architect?”

  “Miami.”

  Kelly was middle-aged, with blue eyes, his tanned face leathery from years in the sun. “When’s he or she coming?”

  Bernadine shrugged. She knew she was going to sound clueless, but she told him the truth, “I didn’t know he needed to be here. I hired him to do the blueprints. He did them. I paid him.”

  Kelly looked annoyed.

  She got on the phone and talked with the secretary at the architectural firm and was told that the architect, Martin Baird was in Peru. “Peru?” He was working on the reconstruction of an ancient temple found recently by archaeologists. He’d be gone most of the summer. She closed the phone. “He’s in Peru.”

  “Then who’s going to oversee the project on your end? You?” he asked as if he knew that couldn’t be the answer.

  Trent surprised her by saying. “I have an engineering degree. I’ll do it until you can hire somebody.”

  Bernadine was speechless. Why didn’t she know this? It made her wonder how many other residents had hidden talents she knew nothing about.

  Kelly asked skeptically, “You done construction before?”

  “All over the world.”

  Smiling now, Kelly stuck out his hand. Trent did the same.

  Glad the problem was solved, at least temporarily, Bernadine thanked Trent, signed a slew of papers, told him to call her so they could talk later, then climbed back into the truck she’d named Baby and drove back the way she’d come.

  She’d been gone a little under an hour, and when she returned to Tamar’s, Lily Fontaine was in Bernadine’s bedroom sitting in the middle of the floor sorting paper. Caught off guard, Bernadine entered the room slowly. “Can I ask what you’re doing?”

  Lily looked up. “Tamar called and asked if I’d wade through some of this for you. I was an executive secretary back in Atlanta and she thought I could help. Hope that was okay?”

  Bernadine wasn’t sure.

  Lily continued, “I didn’t know how you wanted everything broken down, but in the pile on the dresser are all the financial papers I found. On the chair, things related to the subdivision, and here—”

  Bernadine held up a hand. She looked around the room. In the relatively short time she’d been away, Lily had brought order where there’d been none. Papers were neatly stacked and labeled with sticky notes on the top of each pile. Talk about hidden talents. “How much do you make a year where you’re working now?”

  Lily was the one caught off guard now. She started to explain about the buyout and all but decided to just ask, “Why?”

  “Because I want to hire you and I’ll pay you thirty grand more than whatever you’re making now.” Bernadine firmly believed that God put certain people in your life for a reason and the Lord knew Bernadine needed help.

  Lily smiled and shook her head.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. This morning, I was telling Marie that maybe I wanted to move back here.”

  “And?” Bernadine answered with a smile of her own.

  “I guess I am.”

  “Wonderful.” Bernadine wanted to shout hallelujah! Bernadine guessed she should probably be asking for references and other documentation, but she didn’t feel the need. It was as if an occult hand had dropped Lily in her lap, and she wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. “Welcome aboard, Ms. Chief Operating Officer.”

  Lily stared.

  “You think I’m playing? You get a title and all the benefits that will go with the job description just as soon as I have the lawyers draw it up.”

  “Okay,” Lily laughed.

  “First thing I want you to do. I ordered a trailer to live in. Find out when it’s coming.” Bernice read Lily the phone number of the dealer stored in her BlackBerry. Lily found a pen and wrote it down.

  “Next. Get yourself a round-trip plane ticket to Atlanta so you can get packed up and make arrangements to ship your things back here.”

  “Shipping is expensive. How about I rent a U-Haul, and—”

  Bernadine interrupted, “How about you listen to your Got Rocks boss?”

  Lily chuckled, “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Thank you.”

  They spent the next few minutes firming up Lily’s move.

  Bernadine confessed. “Lily, I have no idea how to set this up. I’m going to be relying on you big-time for just about everything office wise.”

  “That’s okay. I’ve done it all from mail room to executive secretary. My bosses know that I’m detail oriented and meticulous.”

  “Good. Do you have a laptop?”

  She nodded. “It’s at Marie’s. Wireless. Thanks to the new router, it’s actually working.”

  “Then start ordering whatever you think we’ll need to do an office from the ground up. Everything. If you can find some good deals that’s okay, but nothing cheap. Here’s a credit card.”

  Lily took the offered square of black plastic.

  “Get furniture, printers, paper, desks. The works.”

  “No problem.”

  Bernadine thought for a few more minutes. “We’re also going to need either trailers or modular homes for the foster parents and kids to live in until the new houses are done. The parents are supposed to be visiting the day after tomorrow and I’ll be bringing in the kids by Friday, hopefully.”

  Lily stared. “So soon?”

  “Yep. The sooner we get them here, the sooner they can start adjusting, but I’ve only got two couples and they’re both shaky.”

  “How shaky?”

  “To the point that I’m real worried, but we’ll talk about that later. Go ahead and order the trailers, add one more because we’re going to need an office until we can get one built.”

  “You want to lease them for now?”

  She nodded. “See if we can have them for sixty days. Mr. Kelly says, weather willing, we should be in the houses and the new rec center by then.”

  “I hear they’re working faster than beavers.”

  “Hope they build them as well as beavers.”

  “Anything else?” Lily asked, grinning on the heels of that last remark.

  “Yes.” And in a soft voice laden with sincerity, Bernadine said, “Thank you so very much for taking the job.”

  Lily acknowledged her with a quiet, “You’re welcome.”

  They were about to further separate the piles of paperwork Lily had begun when they heard Tamar call out, “Bernadine and Lily we have visitors.”

  They shared a confused look and went to see who’d come to call.

  There was a big black SUV parking out front. The logo on the side indicated it was from one of the cable news giants. Trent’s black truck was parked beside it.

  As they watched from the porch, two men, one carrying a TV camera, got out of the SUV.

  “Wonder what they want?” Lily asked in a low voice.

  “My guess is Bernadine.”

  Bernadine hoped she was wrong.

  Trent walked up to the porch. The man beside him looked vaguely familiar to Bernadine,
and after Trent made the introductions, she knew why. His name was Greer Parker, and he’d done the news story that had inspired her to buy Henry Adams.

  “I contacted Trent a few days ago,” Parker said, “and told him I was in the area working on a story down in Hays and wanted to talk to him about doing a follow-up on what happened after he posted the eBay notice, and he told me about you, Ms. Brown.”

  Bernadine wished somebody would have let a sister know. Not that she didn’t look good, she always did, but she could’ve freshened her lips gloss and checked her hair.

  Trent seemed to read her mind. “Been so busy I forgot to tell you, sorry.”

  “It’s okay.”

  “Do you have a minute or two to talk to me?” Parker asked.

  “Sure.”

  Tamar and the others went inside while Bernadine and Parker took a seat on the porch’s old sofa. Once the camera man was set the interview began.

  It didn’t take long, but Parker was very interested in her foster care plan. “If I may, I’d like to come back after you get the kids here.”

  “Let me get them settled in first. I don’t think a whole lot of hoopla will be good right off the bat.”

  “How about you call me when you think it’s appropriate. Trent has my card.”

  “That I can do.”

  He seemed okay with the compromise. “Once this runs I think you’re going to draw a lot of interest, maybe more foster parents or just new residents who want to live in a place with so much history.”

  “We’ll take both. The more foster parents we get the more kids we can help.”

  “I’ll do my part. This will probably begin running in the morning. Want me to send you a copy?”

  “Please.”

  He stood. “Been nice talking to you, Ms. Brown.”

  “Same here.”

  “Can you let Trent know I’d like to see him a minute before I go?”

  She stood to comply but stopped at the sight of a battered white pickup truck rumbling onto the property. She sighed. Riley.

  Bernadine called through the screen door. “The Currys are here, Tamar.”