That Dog Won't Hunt (Dearing Family Series) (6 page)

Ruth could hardly finish her apple pie. The worry over Ben and Christina swirled in her stomach as she lingered with the rest of the adults around the dining table. The three little ones had gone into their play room to watch TV.

Sarah took a satisfied drink of her coffee concoction. “Ben sure picked a fine time to ‘talk.’ Christina’s latte’s gettin’ cold.”

“Yeah, well, apparently they need it.” Jess tossed her head. “You see the look on his face when Christina said her father was dead? I’ll bet anything she hadn’t told him that.”

“How do you know?” Maddy pointed her fork at Jess.

“I was sittin’ across the table from ’em. I saw it clear as day.”

“I didn’t see anything.”

“Maddy, you don’t see things if they’re right in front of your face. I’m tellin’ you, there’s trouble in the Garden of Eden.”

Ruth pushed her plate away. “Really, now, we shouldn’t be talkin’ about ’em. Whatever this is, they’ll work it out.”

She hoped. But she had to admit, she’d noticed Christina’s nervous behavior too. Something about that girl just didn’t sit right—

“Of course we have to talk about ’em,” Jake said. “It’s how the Dearing family does things. Gets in each others’ business.”

“Speak for yourself, Jake Samuels.” Maddy gave him a look.

“Oh, come on, Miss Maddy. You don’t think I heard later ’bout everything y’all said when Sarah and I were datin’? I think Jess even put down a bet we wouldn’t make it.”

“Speaking of.” Sarah set down her mug. “Where’s my money, sister?”

Jess sat back and folded her arms. “We did not bet.”

“Did too.” Sy regarded his daughter from under his eyebrows.

“Daddy! Whose side are you on?”

Sy’s palms went up. “Neither. I’m on the side of the Lord.”

“What?” Ruth laughed.

“He’s quotin’ the Bible. Sort of.” Tamel grinned. “When the angel appeared to Joshua before battle.”

“Know-it-all.” Jess shook her head.

Ruth had to smile. “Knowing it all” was Jess’s territory.

Tamel looked to Ruth. “Anyway, I agree with you. They’ll work it out. Christina’s a fine girl.”

“How do you know?” Jess demanded.

“I got eyes. And gut instincts.”

“Uh-huh.”

Don arched his back. “Jake’s right, it’s not easy walkin’ into this family. Y’all are tigher ‘n’ ticks on a dog leg, even if you don’t act like it sometimes. I sure felt the once-over when I first got here.”

Ruth dropped her hands on the table. “Don, I liked you the minute I saw you.”

“What, you didn’t like
me?”
Jake looked shocked.

“I didn’t mean—”

“Mama Ruth,” Tamel said, “
you
don’t give anybody the once-over. You love everybody from the moment you see ’em.”

“That’s the truth.” Sy gave a decisive nod.

“Aw, Tamel.” Ruth shot him a silent thank-you. That was one of the nicest things anyone had ever said to her.

“I agree, best mama in the world.” Jess smiled at Ruth, then smacked her palms together. “Now that’s agreed on, let’s get back to solvin’ Ben’s problems.”

Maddy made a sound in her throat. “They’ll solve ’em themselves, Jess.”

“I’m not so sure. My guess is, Ben realizes durin’ this reunion she’s not the one for him.”

Ruth shot her daughter a firm look. “Don’t you dare go about tryin’ to make that happen.”

Jess pressed a hand to her chest—
me?

“Yeah, Jessica.” Sarah tapped a fingernail against her plate. “We already had this conversation.”

Jess rolled her eyes. “I’m just sayin’. That girl has too much baggage.”

“How do you know?” Don cleaned the last lick of pie off his plate.

“I just do.”

Ruth and Sy exchanged a glance. “Listen now, all of you.” Ruth’s gaze went around the table. “Ben loves Christina. I’ve never seen him so happy. And we’re goin’ to do everything we can to help her into this family.” Ruth leveled a look at Jess. “Right?”

“Sure.” Jess waved a hand. “It’s not that we’re not tryin’. It’s just that—I’m not sure she’s gettin’ it.”

That comment spread a blanket of silence over the table. As she often did, Jess had hit the nail on the head. Ruth could only pray whatever the issues were, Ben and Christina would be able to overcome them.

By the time the couple returned, it was almost eight o’clock. Ruth and her three daughters were deep into dishes in the kitchen. Sy, Don, Jake, and Tamel sat in the adjoining den, talking all things male. Penny lay on Sy’s lap. At the sound of the front door opening, Ruth’s head jerked up. Seconds later the door closed.

Maddy eyed her. “Mom, stop worryin’ now. You were the one who said everything would be fine.”

Well. Those hadn’t been her words exactly. “I know, I know.”

Ben walked into the den, Christina right behind. The men stopped their conversation and greeted them both. Ruth gazed at her son’s face. The expression she saw mixed relief, resolve, and more than a little anxiety.

“Hi, Ben.” Ruth called. “Christina, we left your dessert on the table for you.”

“Oh.” She hesitated. “Thanks.”

“Do you still want it? Or are you too full?”

Ben turned to watch her answer.

“I …” She glanced at Ben. “I’m kind of full now. Maybe later?”

“Sure.”

Ben smiled and rubbed her shoulder.

“Your latte’s still here too.” Sarah pointed to the mug on the counter. “Little Brother rushed you off before you could even finish.”

“Oh.”

“Want me to nuke it for you?”

“Yes. I’d love to finish it.” Christina shot Ruth a look, as if worried she’d offended her by accepting the latte and not the pie. Ruth gave her an animated shrug.

Just as Christina finished her latte, Lacey bounded out of the play room and grabbed her hand. “Come back and color with me.”

Christina looked to Ben. He waved her on. “Lacey, don’t wear her out, now.”

The little girl giggled, as if that was an outrageous thought.

Ruth settled with the rest of the family in the den, talking and watching TV. Occasionally shrieks of laughter would filter from the play room. Twice Ben went to check on his fiancée. He came out the second time shaking his head. “They’re in there colorin’ up a storm.”

An hour later Christina emerged, looking worn out, indeed. Ruth was beginning to feel tired herself. “Listen,” she said to Christina, “if you’re tired, go on to bed. We’ll all be winding down here soon. And it’s past the kids’ bedtime anyhow.”

“Thanks. I think I will.” This time Christina didn’t look to Ben for approval. He got up to walk her down the hall. Ruth and Sy exchanged knowing smiles.

Tamel said it was time for him to go. But not before egging Jess to take a ride with him the next day in his car.

Jess raised both hands. “And just why would I want to ride in that thing?”

“Don’t you have to go into Jackson tomorrow?” Maddy flashed her sister a gotcha smile. She got a hard look in return.

“I can drive my own car, thank you very much.”

“What do you have to go to Jackson for?” Tamel asked. Jackson was about thirty-five minutes away, up Highway 49.

“Actually I’m goin’ to Ridgeland. I’m pickin’ up the lobsters I ordered at Fresh Market, if you have to know.” Ridgeland was north of Jackson.

“Not that she knows anything about cookin’ lobster.” Sarah wagged her head at Tamel.

“You just watch, smart aleck.” Jess pointed at her. “I’m gonna make you a meal that’ll blow your socks off.”

“That bad, huh?” Maddy snickered.

They’d never had lobster at a family reunion before. Awful expensive meal. But Jess had been talking about it for weeks. The more her sisters doubted her, the more she aimed to prove them wrong. Said she had the perfect recipe to do just that.

Jess made a sound in her throat. “Why’re y’all tryin’ to get my goose today?”

“Every day’s for gettin’ your goose, little sister.” Sarah shot her a sugary smile.

“Perfect.” Tamel said the word with finality. “I’ll take you to Ridgeland, Jess.”

“No—”

“Thanks, Mama Ruth. Syton.” Tamel hugged them both. “Wonderful dinner.” On the way out he cocked a finger at Jess. “Call you in the mornin’.”

Before she could reply, he turned toward the door. Jess put on her best peeved expression. Her older sisters grinned at each other.

It was way past the kids’ bedtime. Their mothers got them down, then one by one the adults straggled off to their old bedrooms. Maddy’s and Sarah’s were downstairs, Jess’s and Ben’s on the second floor. As for Lady Penelope, she’d long since retired to her bed under the piano. Every once in a while she’d raised her head to cast a long-suffering look at the night owls—
can’t you see you’re bothering me while I’m trying to sleep?

Ruth had lingered in the den, hoping to catch a word with Ben. When Sy rose to head upstairs, she sent him a silent message:
please stay.
He raised his eyebrows, then sat back down in his armchair. Finally only the two of them and Ben remained.

“Everything okay, Ben?” Ruth kept her voice low so it wouldn’t filter down the hall.

He gave a slow nod. “She told me a bunch of things tonight I didn’t know.”

Ruth sat down on the couch beside him and waited him out. He might decide to talk, he might not. Sy clasped his hands and leaned forward. “What things?”

Ben sighed, then launched into a long narrative about Christina’s childhood of terrible neglect and abuse. He spoke quietly but the words chilled Ruth to the bone. They also answered a lot of questions.

“Wow. That’s just …
awful.
The poor girl.”

“I know.”

“You’re going to have to be very patient with her, Ben.”

“I know that too.”

Ruth processed that for a moment. Could he hang on to that patience? Being the child of alcoholics, suffering abuse all those years—these things stained the soul. They weren’t overcome easily. Ruth wasn’t sure Ben saw the depths of that reality.

Sy gestured with his hands. “She’ll be fine. She’s in our family now, and we’ll all love her. Won’t take her long to learn life can be very different from what she knew.”

Ruth shot him a look.

“What?”

Men. Syton tended to look at everything through pure rationality. But things didn’t always work that way. And Ben didn’t need to hear that working through this kind of emotional baggage would be easy. He had to be prepared for it to be hard. He’d have to be ready.

“Ben, your dad’s right. Of course we’ll all nurture Christina and try to help her overcome the hurts. But this may take time. And her … issues may come up in unexpected ways in your relationship. You’ll have to work through that. Some of the very things you might expect of your spouse—things ingrained because of your own childhood—may come in direct opposition to either what she expects, or what she’s willin’ to give. And don’t forget—as much as I love you—it’s not as if you’re perfect yourself. You’ll both have a lot to learn.”

Ben stretched one side of his mouth. “What you said about expectations—that already came up tonight. Kind of an eye opener.”

Sy sat back in his chair. “Main thing is, do you love her?”

“Yes. I
so
want this to work. I can’t lose her. I know we only met a few months ago, but … she’s the one.”

“Good. Then you know what to do. Same thing your mama and I have modeled for you kids all these years. You worry about Christina’s comfort and happiness over your own. And she needs to worry about you over herself. You both put each other first, it doesn’t leave room for selfishness and fights.”

Sy was right—putting each other first had been the philosophy of their marriage from the beginning. That—and even more important—placing God at the center of the relationship.

“I know.” Ben took a long breath. “But like you said, that takes two. And with all the stuff Christina has to work through, she may need to be more centered on herself awhile. That’s what hit me when we were talkin’ tonight.”

Sy shrugged. “There’s always times in a marriage when one person is more needy than the other. That’s when the other one steps up. Gives more. The trick here is, Ben—the answer’s not in takin’. The answer’s in givin’. You may have to do an extra bit of that for a while. But if your wife really loves you and wants the marriage to work, she’ll turn it around at some point.”

Ben focused across the room, then nodded. “Yeah. I get that.” His mouth curved down.

Ruth held back a smile. She could read his thoughts clear as day. The whirlwind “perfect” relationship had slipped, and he was realizing it would take some hard work to fix it. Young lovers always seemed to think it would be so easy …

She patted her son’s knee. “We’ll be prayin’ for both of you. Especially Christina. She’s got a lot of bad hurts that we can only imagine. But God can heal those hurts. It’s amazin’ what His mercy can do.”

Ben smiled at her. “Thanks.” He sat a moment longer, then pushed to his feet. “I’m off to bed. See you in the mornin’.”

Ruth and Sy got up to hug him. As Ben put his arms around Ruth, love and concern for him burst in her chest. She just wanted her son settled and happy.

“Good night, Ben.”

In their own bedroom, Ruth and Sy exchanged a long, concerned look. One that spanned the years of their marriage, leaving no need for words.

Sy lifted a shoulder. “Like they say, ‘Fallin’ in love’s easy; stayin’ in love ain’t.’”

Ruth stepped closer and hugged him hard. “But look what happens when you do.”