The Debra Dilemma (The Lone Stars Book 4) (24 page)

“I’ll um…take care of that lasagna situation too.” Dave winked. “Be right back.”

Dave and his Patty were about to get ten million ways to help others. Normally when he gave out this amount of money, he’d have his attorney draw up a contract stipulating exactly how the money was to be spent, but he trusted Dave. That said a lot about the man, because he rarely trusted anyone. Deep down, he knew that every penny of the money he was about to give the other man would be spent on helping others.

Debra’s random act of kindness had given almost six families a new home. She’d started something wonderful during what had to have been the worst time in her life. That said more about her than she could ever know. She was a phoenix rising from the ashes to do something wonderful in the face of tragedy. If only she could see that in herself.

Never in a million years would Debra ever have imagined that signing over a house ten years ago would have such an impact. She stared at the empty white planter boxes under the front windows of the red brick ranch. The Knowles’s were redoing this house to give away. It was the fifth house they’d renovated all because on a whim she’d signed her name on the dotted line all those years ago. To think that she’d all but forgotten about it.

Something so small had started something so big.

She and Patty had driven Warren’s car over while the men handled the block party. It was amazing that all Warren had to do was send out a group text and the team came running with food.

“Before we give it away, we need to finish the landscaping.” Patty pointed to the planter boxes. “I want to fill those with something colorful even though I know it will die next month when winter finally hits Austin.”

“This is absolutely fantastic.” Debra put her arm around the woman’s shoulders. “I can’t believe that you did all of this.”

Patty shrugged. “I can’t believe that you gave us a house.” The woman’s keen eyes drew together. “You really don’t understand how much that means.”

“I do.” She smiled to herself. “My Aunt June took me in when I literally had nothing but the clothes on my back.”

She didn’t remember being scared back then. She’d always known that her Aunt June would take her in. But not everyone had a safety net. If it hadn’t been for Aunt June, she wasn’t sure what she would have done. To be out on the street homeless and helpless…Debra shivered. Hope was a very powerful thing, and if she’d lost it she wouldn’t have made it.

“I like your Aunt June.” Patty slipped a key out of her back jeans pocket and opened the front door. “Too bad she died before I got to meet her, I think we would have been great friends.”

“You and Aunt June could have taken over the world. She would have loved you and she would have loved this.” Debra waved her arms in a circle gesturing the house around them. This felt like Aunt June’s legacy—she’d always housed those who needed a helping hand.

Patty closed the door behind them. “We took out that wall and added a half wall right here to give the house an open feeling without taking away a proper front entrance. I chose warm a taupe-y gray for the walls because the new owners are both art teachers and I wanted the color to be neutral so they could display their art.”

The house was the same arts and crafts style as most of the homes on this side of town. The entry way-living room combo had beautiful dark mahogany built-in glass front shelves on either side of a fireplace lined in dark green tile. A plain blocky mantle of the same dark wood as the cabinets bisected the tile like a division sign minus the dots. The ceilings were at least ten feet high and the floors were a well-used but newly refinished honey oak. Debra could all but see the roaring fire in the fireplace and the reflection of the flames dancing on the art hanging on the walls. “This house is creaking with charm. It feels like a warm hug on a cold day.”

Patty smiled from ear to ear. “That’s exactly what I was going for. Thank you so much. I love a house that feels like home as soon as you walk in.”

Debra knew that feeling. She’d felt it the minute she walked into Aunt June’s old house. She’d felt it—just a tickled deep down— when she’d walked through the front door of her childhood house. She wanted her home to settled around her like a soft quilt wrapping her in comfort and familiarity like this one did.

“Maybe when you’re finished with this house or have some free time after the baby is born, you could look at my house? I want to make it homey, but I’m not sure how.” It was hard to achieve homey when she practically lived in a museum. At least the animal trophies were on their way out. Tomorrow the American College of Taxidermy was picking them up and would be displaying them in their museum. Apparently among taxidermists, Lars Greenberg, who’d created all of the trophies, was a rock star.

“Really? Me?” Patty put her hand over her heart. “I’d be honored. I’d love to help you in anyway. How about tomorrow? We could start then.”

“You’re not a grass growing under the feet kind of person, are you?” Debra was finding that she wasn’t either.

“No, life’s too short. You’ve got to seize the day.” Patty rubbed her lower back.

Put Patty and Sweet Louise into a room together and governments were liable to topple over like dominoes. She had to admit, it would be fun to watch.

Debra walked over to the fireplace and ran an index fingertip over the tile. “Is this original?”

“Yes, we found that tile hiding under some truly hideous faux brick. Why some people make the design choices they do is beyond me.” Her voice registered disgust.

“How do you pick the new house recipients?” They must have requests by the carload.

“Usually a friend of a friend, or sometimes through our church.” Patty ran a fingertip over the mantle like she was testing it for dust. She shook her head displeased. Debra was willing to bet that Patty was ruthless when it came to dust. “We like to keep a low profile and don’t advertise. So far the right people have crossed our path at the right time. It’s like what you did for us. We didn’t seek you out and you didn’t seek us out. Fate or God or whatever you believe in brought us together. If a thing is meant to be, it will happen.”

Debra liked that. If a thing was meant to be it will happen. She and Warren were meant to be and they were happening. “How did you find the school teachers?”

“Mrs. McDonald teaches at my daughter’s school.” Patty walked into the kitchen portion of the great room. Brand new gray marble countertops and stainless steel appliances sparkled in the overhead lighting. “The best part is that she and her husband don’t have any clue that they’re getting a house for Christmas.”

Debra followed her into the kitchen. “How did you work that out?”

“They never know until we hand them the keys.” Patty leaned down like she was inspecting the tile work of the backsplash. “You wouldn’t believe the look on their faces when we tell them. It’s more than worth all of the work.”

“That’s awesome. I’d love to see the McDonald’s faces when they get the good news—”

“Why don’t you join us on Christmas Eve? We’re meeting at our house around five and all driving over to their apartment. You’re welcome to stay for the big dinner afterwards.” Patty nodded to herself like she was satisfied with the work and straightened. She headed down a short hall. “Let me show you the master bathroom. It’s like a day spa.”

“I wish I could come with you on Christmas Eve, but I have to work—”

“On Christmas Eve? Give me your boss’s name and I’ll talk him into letting you off.” Patty walked into a fairly large bedroom with a bay window looking out into the backyard. “This is the master bedroom.”

“I am the boss and I work at Safe Place. Christmas is one of our busiest times of the year.” Debra smiled to herself. If she’d had a boss, she had no doubt that Patty could have talked him into giving her Christmas, New Years, Columbus Day, her birthday, and Secretaries’ Day off. The short redhead was not only a bundle of energy, but one of the most determined people Debra had ever met.

Patty turned around to face Debra. “Well, my goodness, you really are a saint.”

Debra snorted in a most unladylike fashion. “My past would suggest otherwise.”

“Oh please.” Patty swatted that statement away like she was shooing a fly. “We all have a past…sometimes it’s sordid and sometimes, in my case, it’s just plain boring, but nevertheless, it makes us the person we are today.” She walked through the open double doors to the right of the bay window. “Let me show you the bathroom. Wait until you get a load of the shower. It has three body sprays, a rain head, and a handheld shower sprayer. When we get the time, Dave has promised to build me a shower just like this one.”

“Wow, when you remodel a house to give away, you go big.” Debra didn’t know what she’d expected, but it wasn’t a fully upgraded house. Most people would have gone cheap when it came to the finish out of a house they were planning to give away.

“I make sure the house is somewhere I’d love to live.” She showed Debra the shower. “Want to know something funny? I actually convinced Lena McDonald and her husband to help me design this shower. In fact they laid most of the tile and they still don’t have a clue that this is their house. It’s like a little game. It’s so much fun.”

“I’m pretty sure that you could talk the Devil into buying a cargo ship full of electric heaters just in case Hell was headed for a cold spell.” Debra would have paid money to watch Patty manhandle her father. She’d have had him doing her bidding before he even realized he’d gotten up off of the sofa. “I wish I could see the looks on the McDonald’s faces when you do hand over the keys.”

Seeing that first light of understanding and then amazement in a child’s eyes as she walked them into the toy room at work must have been nothing compared to the overwhelming joy of finding out that you now own a home outright.

“Well then, we’ll postpone it…” Patty snapped her fingers, “or better yet, we’ll give it to them on Christmas Eve eve. That way they can wake up Christmas Eve in their new home.”

“Oh no, I don’t want you to change your plans—”

“Nonsense, giving it to them a day early isn’t a game changer. It’ll be fun.” Patty headed back out into the bedroom and then into the hallway. “There are two other bedrooms all with their own bathrooms, but I want to show you the conservatory.”

“Conservatory?” That seems mighty pompous for such a charming house.

“Dave and I joke about it all of the time. When our Realtor called the listing agent to put in an offer, he asked if we liked the conservatory. I had to look up what that meant—it’s a fancy, schmancy way to say sunroom.” She gestured to a small spiral staircase at the back of the hallway. “It’s upstairs.”

Debra looked around. “I didn’t realize that this house had an upstairs.”

From the street, it had looked like a single story.

“Neither did we because the stairs had long since collapsed. I wasn’t sure how we were supposed to see, much less appreciate the conservatory, but it really is something now.” Patty stepped back, letting Debra go first up the stairs.

“No, you go first.” Debra wanted to be there to catch her if she slipped.

“I can’t climb those stairs. I can’t see my feet anymore.” She made a big show of looking down.

“I remember those days. Swollen ankles, heartburn from spicy food, the need to pee every five minutes, and a craving for fresh tomatoes, which I actually don’t like. Ahhh pregnancy…it’s a multi-faceted experience.” There was also hearing her baby’s heartbeat for the first time and feeling him kick. That had made everything worth it.

Patty held her left ankle out and tried to inspect it. “My ankles look like fence posts, or I’m pretty sure they do. I can’t actually see them.”

“Nonsense, you look wonderful. Pregnancy agrees with you.” Debra wasn’t just being nice. Patty glowed.

“You have children?” She put her left foot down, and held out her right foot in a cute game of pregnant Hokey-Pokey.

Debra opened her mouth to answer that simple question, but nothing came out. She pressed her lips together and tried again. “I had a son, his name was AJ. He died in childbirth.” It sounded a lot like she was at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and was confessing the number of days since her last drink.

Patty didn’t say a word, she just wrapped her arms around Debra and pulled her into a tight hug. It felt good to be held and it felt good to be comforted. They stayed like this for several moments. Finally, Patty dropped her arms and stepped back.

“Two years ago, I lost a daughter at seven months. It was devastating.” She shook her head. “I wish I could take that pain from you. I know how it feels after the loss to sit in the waiting room at the OBGYN’s office full of pregnant woman. Or worse, sitting amongst the new mothers holding their crying infants and feel like you’ve lost everything and wondering what you did wrong.” Tears pooled in her slate gray eyes. “There are no words that fully express the depth of misery. I’m so sorry.”

“Thank you for not saying ‘it’s for the best’ or ‘he’s in a better place.’ Back then, I got a lot of that.” Warm tears misted Debra’s eyes. Two fat teardrops rolled down her cheeks.

“I wanted to punch every person in the mouth who patted me on the back and told me it was God’s plan.” Patty’s tone turned cold. “What a crock.”

“You should punch them in the throat. That way they can’t talk.” Debra was on a crusade to educate the world about the effectiveness of punching people in the throat. Maximum results with the minimum of effort.

“Really?” Patty looked like she was filing that bit of advice away from future reference as she swiped at the tears on her cheeks. “Good to know.”

Wait until you see the conservatory.” Debra didn’t remember being this excited since she’d stopped believing in Santa Claus. Sweet Louise, Summer, and Patty stood around her in a small group. They’d come with their husbands to the block party. Thank goodness it was unseasonably warm and in the low sixties. Everyone on the street had turned out for the party and brought food. Once the awkwardness of being around celebrities had passed, all of Patty’s neighbors had warmed up to the team.