He cleared his throat. Both his parents looked up at him. His father raised an eyebrow. “It was a hard day and I brought it to the table with me. My mistake. I apologize for leaving dinner.”
After several seconds, Phillip nodded. “Apology accepted.”
Rosaline set her crocheting down and slipped off her glasses as she looked up at him. “It was good to have Valerie at the table again.”
He smiled. “I agree. Glad you had all your little chicks in the same roost tonight.”
“It made my mama heart happy.” She put her glasses back on and picked her crochet hook back up. “I saved your plate. Make sure you eat before bed.”
Brad bent to kiss her cheek. “I will. Goodnight.”
They both bid him goodnight as he left the room. He made his way to the kitchen and pulled his plate out of the refrigerator. While it heated up in the microwave, he took his phone out of his pocket but didn’t turn it on. Instead, he plugged it in and intentionally left it sitting on the kitchen counter before taking his plate up to his room.
After setting the plate on his desk, he pulled off his tie and unbuttoned his shirt, untucking it from his pants so it hung loose. He pulled a bottle of water from his mini fridge and sat at his desk. While he ate his reheated dinner, he thought about what Valerie had said, appreciating the wisdom of her words and the simple way she shared them.
As he searched his heart, he realized that he truly served as the only remaining barrier blocking his contentment with his current position. He really should find joy in the evening work as he refurbished a building instead of resenting his brothers for the work they did every day during daylight hours. He really should have put his whole heart and mind into his job instead of withholding this little part that just clung to resentment like he had clung to the short straw when he pulled it.
He pushed his half-eaten plate away and closed his eyes, taking a deep cleansing breath and letting it out. He honestly felt like he needed to repent. As he chuckled out loud, the thought became more focused.
“I’m sorry, God,” he said audibly. “I should have looked at the opportunity you gave me as a blessing and taken into responsible stewardship. I’ll go forward with a clean heart, with ready willingness, and with gratitude.”
The simple two-sentence prayer ended with a burden releasing itself from his heart. He took his water bottle and walked over to the window, opening the sliding door and stepping out onto the small, semi-circular balcony. He sat in the comfortable lounge chair and took a sip of water while he stared at the gazebo in the moonlight.
Often, he’d start to think about Valerie and childhood, but he pushed the memories back, keeping them distant and vague. Tonight, though, they crowded his mind and he closed his eyes, remembering summers in the pool, fishing from the dock, exploring the hidden passageways his father had built into the plans of the house. He vividly remembered the last time he saw her before Tyrone—the day she had graduated from college.
He’d wanted to tell her how he felt then and there, about the love he’d carried inside for so many years. However, he didn’t feel like she would take him seriously.
Instead, he played the brother role that Ken and Jon easily fell into and just celebrated with everyone as a group, never singling her out, never pouring his heart out to her. Finding out that she’d moved in with a man a couple months later—a married man who worked for their father—didn’t make his decision to keep his mouth shut any easier. That experience taught him never to hesitate, not with important matters.
Yet, today he’d seen her twice in one day, once professionally and once personally, and still hadn’t said anything beyond normal conversation. Both his brothers had hugged her. He had given her his elbow for a stroll to her car. How long would he have to hold out until confessing his lifetime of love for her?
He leaned his head back and looked up at the night sky. The temperature had dropped significantly since the morning. In late February, the weather tended to act a little erratic. A seventy-degree high could turn into fifty overnight.
Thinking about the ongoing local jobs, and what severe weather could mean, he mentally made a note to discuss spring weather forecasts with the team in tomorrow’s weekly project management meeting. Then he shook his head. He’d left his phone downstairs on purpose, intending not to think about work at all tonight. Instead, he looked at the gazebo again.
Then he remembered. The metal box. The cards with their hopes and dreams in them. They had made a pact to open them in fifteen years. That would mean this September. Thinking of the words he’d written, his heart skipped a beat and his throat went dry. What would Valerie say if she knew that Brad had summed up all his hopes and dreams?
Wondering if he should even remind his brothers and Valerie about the box, he finished his water and stood. Maybe he’d wait to see if even one of them remembered.
Going back inside, he slid the door shut behind him and grabbed the dinner plate to take down to the kitchen.
Valerie drove home from theDixon castle, immersed in thoughts about the family and their unique closeness. She had grown up with them, so nothing felt wrong. She had realized halfway through high school what a unique family they were and how blessed she’d been to be a part of them. She realized how much she missed them and longed to be back with them.
By the first semester of college, she’d found an entirely different world and the Dixons became an adored family “back home” whom she rarely saw and rarely gave a second’s thought. She knew it had a lot to do with the way her faith had shifted, but it also had a lot to do with the friends she made in college, her attitude about Buddy moving them, and a freedom of movement she gained living independently for the first time in her life.
Intentionally shutting down the happy thoughts about college, she pulled into the driveway of her little house and got out of her car, listening to the chirp of the horn to confirm she had, in fact, locked the doors. At the end of the driveway, she checked her empty mailbox, then walked up the path to the front door, listening intently, looking all around her, her senses heightened.
After she opened the door and turned off the alarm, she shut it behind her, making sure to lock the deadbolt and attach the security chain. Securely inside, she started turning on lights—first the little entryway, then the overhead light in the living room, the light above the small table in the dining area space, and the kitchen light. She set her purse on the table but kept her keys and phone in her hand while she walked back through the living room, checking that the sliding lock was still secure on the coat closet. She turned on the hall light and did a quick check of the bathroom, the spare bedroom, and finally her bedroom. All the closets remained bolted shut. She didn’t actually get on the floor and look under the bed, but she did check the base of the full-length mirror she’d strategically placed next to the bed and made sure she could see the reflection all the way through to the other side of the bed.
Believing herself alone in the house and sure that no one had broken in and hidden anywhere, she relaxed fully, slipping her shoes off and pulling her earrings out of her ears. She set them on the tray on top of her dresser and rolled her head on her neck.
After she slipped her clothes off, she pulled on a nightgown covered in coffee cups and Eiffel Towers, then went into the bathroom to wash her face. As she dried off, she stared at her reflection, running her finger over the scar under her jawline caused by the flying debris of the table she’d landed on. Closing her eyes, she shook her head to clear the image then left the bathroom.
She walked back down the hall and stopped to look into the empty second bedroom. Did she want to invest in a desk for here, to turn this into an office? Or did she want to make it into a spare bedroom for any guests who might stay overnight?
Right, she snorted,what guests?
Tyrone had separated her from any college friends years ago, and he was her only approved work friend. Lying in the hospital bed, broken, cut up, and bruised, no one came to visit her until Uncle Buddy arrived followed by Rosaline and Phillip Dixon. Tyrone had worked everything until she had no world left but him.
