Homecoming Reunion (22 page)

Garret looked over at his grandmother and smiled at her. “You’re a blessing to me, you know?”

“I try to be,” she returned with a smile. “And you’ve always been a blessing to me, too.”

Then she covered his other hand with hers and together they bowed their heads and put everything before the Lord.

* * *

Two days later Garret pulled up to the front of the inn. He’d spent the past few days getting everything in order and trying to phone Larissa. But she wasn’t at the inn and she wasn’t answering her cell phone.

He’d gone through all sorts of indecision as he tried to contact her, but in the end he knew what he wanted to do, not only for Larissa, but also for himself.

He walked up the walk, ignoring the windows on the upper floor that needed replacing and the faint sag in the veranda.

All in good time.

He pulled open the door of the inn, feeling a sense of coming home. It made him smile and it gave him the encouragement he needed to do what he had to do.

Thank you, Lord,
he prayed as he looked around the lobby of the inn. Sheila looked up at him and waved. He returned her greeting, then walked over to the office door and opened it. On the way he had called and told Jack he would meet him here at the inn.

Garret stifled a jolt of regret as he stepped into the office and saw only Jack behind the desk. Though he had arranged this meeting between him and Jack, a small part of him had hoped Larissa would be there as well.

Still gone. He tried not to get panicky about her lack of communication.

Jack leaned back in his chair, his steepled fingers under his chin. “So, I’m assuming your little trip away from here was to help you make a decision?”

Garret nodded and dropped into a chair across from Jack. “Yes. I had to talk to my financial adviser.”

“And what did he tell you?”

“Before we talk about that, I want to know where Larissa is.”

Jack rocked a moment in his chair. “She needed a break. Too many things happening too quickly.” Then he leveled him a serious look. “Why should I tell you that?”

Garret felt it again. That old feeling of unworthiness. But then he remembered how Jack had kept him and Larissa apart the first time and he knew he wouldn’t be intimidated by this man again. “I love your daughter and I’m doing right by her this time. I’m not giving in to you. I’m not selling my shares of the inn to you. I know that you’ll turn around and sell the inn anyway, but not before you break off a few parcels of the land to subdivide it.”

Jack frowned. “How did you know that?”

“Pete Boonstra told me. Actually he dropped it in passing as I was talking to him yesterday about the real value of the inn.”

“And you needed to know that value because...” Jack frowned at him, waiting.

“Because I’m buying your shares of the inn instead.”

“Why would you want to do that? You know what the financials are and I know that you are a savvy businessman. I know you didn’t make your money by making poor business decisions.” Jack rubbed his temple with a forefinger, looking suddenly weary. “I’ve been trying to tell Larissa to let go of this inn for years, but she won’t.” He blew out his breath. “It will suck the life out of both of you, like it did out of my wife. And it won’t make you the money you’re used to as an engineer.”

“You’re right. It won’t, but you know, I’ve learned a few things along the way. To me buying this inn isn’t about choosing money. It’s about choosing to be with the woman I love and to be involved in what she loves. At all costs.”

“Do you think you can give Larissa what she wants this time around?”

Garret hesitated, sending up another prayer for wisdom, for patience and for strength.

“I don’t think Larissa is the girl she used to be and I’m not the man I used to be. But I’m leaving the decision up to Larissa. I’m not assuming what she needs anymore. I’m letting her make up her own mind about what will happen. Whatever she wants to do with this inn, I’ll stand by. I love her more than I ever thought I could love someone and I believe that covers a lot. I believe, with God’s help, we can make this relationship work.”

Jack looked him in the eye and shrugged. “Maybe you can,” he returned. Then he looked over Garret’s shoulder.

Garret felt a prickling at the back of his neck. When he turned around he saw Larissa standing in the doorway, a suitcase at her feet, her hand over her mouth. From the look in her eyes, he guessed she had heard some of what he said.

His heart turned over in his chest and he walked to her side and took her hands in his. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you for the past two days.”

“I left my cell phone here. In the office,” she said, her voice quiet. Then she shook her head, her bright eyes holding his. “That’s not what I wanted to say.”

“Let’s go somewhere else to talk.” He took her arm and led her away from the office and away from her father. They walked out the front door in silence to the bridge over the creek.

He stopped there, still holding her hand, still trying to absorb the fact that she was here. That she had heard the declaration he had wanted to make to her face.

The river burbled beneath their feet, the steady flow of water reminding Garret of the flow of their lives as he clung to her hand. He and Larissa had been through a lot to get here and he wasn’t letting her go.

He reached up and stroked a strand of hair away from her face. “I missed you,” he said quietly.

“Where did you go?”

“I had some important business to take care of.” He took a chance and brushed a kiss over her forehead. Then she leaned against him, wrapping her arms around him.

“I heard what you said to my father.”

“About the inn?” he said, deliberately misunderstanding her.

“That and the rest,” she said with a gentle smile.

Garret let his fingers drift over her beloved face, his eyes following the path of his hand, noting the changes that had happened during the intervening years. “I do love you, you know. I always have,” he said, as he traced the curve of her lips, the line of her jaw.

She caught his hand and pressed a kiss to his palm, holding his gaze, her own steadfast. “I’ve always loved you too. I never stopped thinking about you, wishing things had gone differently—”

He touched a finger to her lips to stop whatever else she might say. “Whatever happened, happened for a reason. I sincerely believe God had better things in mind for us. Maybe we both needed to learn some hard lessons. I know I did.”

“What lessons did you need to learn?” she asked, her tone puzzled.

He was quiet a moment, still uncertain how much she would understand. But if they were going to move ahead, he knew he had to be honest with her. “I needed to learn what really matters. That money doesn’t give you freedom or power in spite of what I had seen. I needed to learn that money is a gift from God and that we are entrusted with it. And I needed to learn that when you went against your father’s wishes, I knew that I could trust you completely.”

Larissa stood up on her toes and pressed a kiss to his lips. He returned it and for a few blissful moments all was forgotten. The only people who existed in this world were the two of them, here in this place that had created a sense of home and belonging.

Then Larissa let her hand rest on his shoulder, her expression suddenly serious.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, twisting a strand of her hair around his finger.

Larissa pulled back, giving him a plaintive smile. “I left after you did to stay at a bed-and-breakfast that a friend of my mother runs. They were very close. For the last four years of my mother’s life they would go together to Mexico. For a break, my mother always said.” She stopped there, pressing her lips together as she shook her head.

“What’s wrong?” he asked quietly.

She drew in a slow breath. “I always thought it was a holiday. But while I was staying at Lydia’s B and B I saw some photo albums from one of their trips. Lydia had been looking at it before I came and had forgotten about it. Apparently I wasn’t supposed to see it. In the album I saw a picture of my mother sitting on what looked like a hospital bed. I asked Lydia what that was about and very reluctantly she told me the truth about the trips she and my mother made to Mexico. It was for alternative treatments for my mother’s cancer. Treatments that were very experimental and very expensive.”

She stopped and Garret felt as if pieces of a puzzle were slowly falling into place.

“Did she ever tell you about them?”

She shook her head. “Apparently not even my father knew. Lydia said he would have talked her out of doing them. So I called Orest and asked him if he knew. After much sighing and hemming and hawing he told me that the treatments had been so expensive my mother had taken out a loan she didn’t want my father knowing about.” Larissa’s voice broke and she stopped there, lowering her hand as if retreating. “That’s why the inn couldn’t make any money. Orest was juggling accounts trying to pay the loan without making it look like he was paying it.”

“So he wasn’t taking money.” Garret felt a moment of shame that he had practically accused the older man of stealing, but what else could he have thought?

“No. But he was covering for my mother’s mistakes.”

Sensing her shame and the echoes of older pain and loss, Garret drew her close. “It doesn’t matter. Not now.”

“Yes, it does,” Larissa mumbled against his chest. “Why didn’t she tell me about the treatments? Or my father? How could she be so selfish and not think we should be involved?”

“I don’t think she was being selfish,” Garret said. He swallowed down his own flicker of sorrow. “I remember how much my mother cried when she thought she wouldn’t see me and Carter grow up. I’m sure your mother felt the same way. I’m sure she hoped that what she did was an investment in the future. A future with you and your father.”

Larissa was quiet a moment, then she looked up at him her eyes shimmering with the remnants of her tears. “Thank you for that,” she whispered.

Garret kissed her again. “You’re welcome.” He smiled down at her, then reached into his pocket, wanting to move the conversation to a happier topic. “And speaking of investments...”

He pulled out the necklace and let it dangle from his finger.

She frowned when she saw the gold nugget at the end of the chain catching the sunlight, throwing it back at her.

“Is that one of the necklaces your grandmother had made out of the nuggets?”

Garret nodded. “Hailey, Shannon and Naomi all wear theirs. But Carter gave his to Emma.” Then he carefully slipped the necklace over Larissa’s head. “And I’m giving mine to you. It’s my way of saying that I want you in my life. That I choose you just like August chose Kamiskhak. That I’m willing to do whatever it takes to keep us together.”

Larissa fingered the gold nugget, a lone tear trickling down her cheek as she did. “I...I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t need to say anything. Just nod. Or, if you don’t accept, you can just turn and walk away.”

Larissa turned her face up to his, “Of course I accept. You’ve always been the only one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.”

Garret smiled, gave her another kiss and slipped his arm around her shoulder. “With or without the inn?”

“With or without the inn,” she agreed. “I know the inn was too important to me. Too much a legacy from my mother. I put it in the wrong place in my life. I learned that the past few days. So if you think you should sell your share to my father, or if you want to sell it to someone else, then that’s fine.”

“I thought you said you heard everything I said to your father.”

“I know, but it isn’t necessary.”

“But it is. Because this inn was a place of healing for me,” he said quietly, his fingers caressing her shoulder. “It’s a place where I realized the importance of legacy and community. And now that I know about the loan, I’m even more determined to make a go of this place.” He paused, in spite of his brave words, still feeling the remnants of faint panic clawing at him. “I’ve cashed in my investments. I’m using that money to buy out your father and now that I know why the inn hasn’t been making money, I’m sure we’ll be able to make a profit.”

Larissa gave him a wistful smile. “Paying out that loan won’t be as hard as you think. Apparently my mother had also used my grandparent’s legacy to pay for some of the treatments. Money that was supposed to come to me. To protect her secret, Orest paid me from the income of the inn, even though the inheritance was all used up by my mother.”

“Your father told me about that money,” Garret said, lowering his arm. “He said that you were able to supplement the income you got from the inn with that.”

Larissa’s laughter was a surprise to him. “I didn’t supplement my income at all. Every penny I got from that inheritance was put into a savings account. I was hoping to use it to eventually buy out my father. It wasn’t enough for that, but it is enough to do some of the renovations I wanted to do in the first place.”

Garret was surprised at the relief he felt at her declaration. “So all along, you’ve been getting by on what you’ve been drawing from the inn?”

“Of course,” she said, sounding surprised. “More than getting by.” Then she gave him a mischievous grin, as if she knew what he was thinking. “And you know exactly how much that amount is. I’m not the spoiled high-maintenance girl you seem to think I am.”

“Never spoiled and never high-maintenance,” he said, with a touch of shame.

“But you did think that at one time.”

“I was an idiot at one time,” he returned. “But I know you better now and I know myself better now. I’d like to think we’ve both grown up. I know I’ve had to learn where to store up my treasure.”

Larissa smiled at him. “I have, too. And I am praying that together we can help each other trust in God as well as each other.”

“I’m praying the same thing,” he said with a gentle smile. He pressed a kiss to her lips, then brushed her hair away from her face and slipped his arm around her, and looked out over the property. “This is a good place,” he said. “I think we’ll do well here.”

“I know we will,” she said, tucking herself against his side. “Mostly because we’ll be working on it together.”