Where My Heart Belongs (31 page)
“Sylvia would have room for fifteen more. That woman always has room for guests.” Kathy looked at Brian, remembering his moneyed background. “It won’t be anything fancy, however. You’ll have to deal with Clancy at the door and the table.”
“Who’s Clancy?”
“Their Irish Setter.” Kathy grinned. “She’s very fond of people and handouts.”
He laughed, as did Sunny. “I think I can handle it.”
“I think you probably can.” Kathy met Sunny’s eyes and smiled. “And I think you probably have a place for those roses now.”
Her sister nodded, but Brian looked confused. Sunny took hold of his hand and gave it a squeeze. “I’ll explain after supper.”
“WELL, I’M SO GLAD TO meet you,” Sylvia said as she passed Brian a big bowl of potato salad.
“I’m just glad you agreed to include me,” Brian replied. He helped himself to a big scoop of the salad before passing it to Sunny.
“I would have been offended had you gone anywhere else,” Sylvia admitted.
“This is so good,” Sunny said, tasting the fried chicken. “How come when I try to do this it never tastes the same?”
Sylvia laughed. “Probably because I’ve been doing it nearly every day since I was ten.”
Kathy took the bowl from Brian. “Yeah, Sunny always hated to cook. Mom would try to teach her something in the kitchen and we’d just end up with a small disaster every time. Once she even set the kitchen on fire, but Mom was ready for her.”
“She told me that,” Brian said, reaching for the iced tea Sylvia had poured minutes before. “That’s why I hired a cook.”
“It was that or starve,” Sunny added.
“Or get smoked out,” Brian teased.
They all laughed at this, but Kathy couldn’t imagine the world Sunny had known in California. Nannies, cooks, gardeners, and maids. The idea of so many strangers in your own home didn’t appeal to Kathy at all. Of course, she thought, those people probably don’t remain strangers for long. Still, it wasn’t a life she would want. She would hate the invasion of her privacy.
“So are you two headed right back to LA?” Tony asked.
Brian shook his head. “Sunny had planned to overnight in Colorado Springs. I’ve asked to join her there.”
Kathy reached for a slice of Sylvia’s homemade bread. “Aunt Glynnis and Uncle Will are going to be thrilled. We’ve decided to just surprise them.”
“I’m sure your aunt will be excited. This is really the best news any of us could have prayed for.” Sylvia turned to Brian. “I’m glad you’re here and that we got to meet you.”
Brian reached for Sunny’s hand. “I never knew much about Sunny’s life here in Kansas, so I’m glad to experience it.”
“It’s not a life for everyone,” Tony said in a serious tone. “My boys have little interest in staying here, and frankly, the way things are going with farming, I’m just as glad to see them move on to something else.”
“What do they want to do?” Kathy asked. Sylvia had never said much about the boys wanting to leave the farm.
Tony put his fork down. “Tim wants to go into the Marines. It’s all he’s talked about this year. He’s just nearing fourteen, but he seems to have his mind made up on the matter. Justin doesn’t know exactly what he wants, but he’s been involved in debate at school. The teacher mentioned that he might want to get involved in the law, so he’s been talking about checking that out.”
“And Missy wants to be a ballerina fire fighter,” Sylvia said with a grin.
Kathy laughed. “You can never have too many of those.”
“Where are the kids?” Sunny asked.
“Oh, you were still outside when I told Kathy they were spending the evening with Tony’s mom. We wanted to have you to ourselves.”
Kathy toyed with her glass of ice water. “But what about carrying on the tradition? The family farm and so forth. Don’t you feel they’ll lose a sense of connection?”
Tony shook his head. “I hope we’ve given them a sense of that through their family. I want the kids to always be close to each other—not a place.”
His statement startled Kathy with its simple wisdom. She could see now that the farm—home—wouldn’t matter nearly as much as finding a way to keep a strong connection with her sister.
“You have to remember, Kathy, your father never minded the idea of your leaving the farm or of Sunny having a life elsewhere,” Sylvia reminded.
“That’s true. Dad always wanted me to go back to college and finish my degree. I didn’t need that many more credits to complete it, and he always felt sad that life had interfered.”
“Well, maybe you can do that in Colorado Springs,” Sylvia suggested.
“What were you majoring in?” Brian asked.
Kathy smiled. “Animal husbandry and business. Dad always wanted to get away from just farming. He wanted to bring in quality horses—good bloodline animals that would be excellent for breeding.”
“Would you still want to do that?” The question came from Sunny this time.
Thinking about it for a moment, Kathy finally shook her head. “No. I was only doing it for Dad and Mom. I knew Dad had the dream, and I wanted to help see it come about. That’s all it was ever about.”
“So if you went back to college, what would you want to study?”
Brian’s question pierced her heart. What she really wanted—all she’d ever wanted—was to marry Kyle and have a family “I’m not sure . . . I want to study . . . anything,” she said rather hesitantly. She looked at the gathering of friends and family. “I guess I’d really like to just settle down, marry, and have a family. Anything else can come another day.”
Sunny nodded and reached over to pat Kathy’s hand. “I think it sounds perfect. You’ll no doubt be great at being both a wife and a mother.”
“Oh, I nearly forgot.” Tony dug into his pocket and pulled out a folded paper. He opened it and tried to flatten it out. “Here’s your share of the wheat money. Gary said to make it out to you, as it would be part of your inheritance.”
Kathy took the check and glanced at the amount. “Wow. This is a lot more than last year.”
“We had a great crop. Weather was good last winter and spring. It was one of the best yields we’d ever had. Your dad even noticed that. He was pretty excited.”
“I’ll bet he was.” Kathy tucked the check into her pocket.
“So will everything be finalized when you close the sale of the farm tomorrow, or do you still have to go pay this and that?” Sylvia asked as she offered Brian more of the green bean casserole.
“Everything will be done. Dad borrowed against the farm to pay Mom’s medical debts as well as his own. He paid off all the other bills with that loan as well. The bank will get their share off the top and cut me a check for the balance. I won’t be mega-rich, but I’ll be very comfortable.” Kathy looked at Sunny and smiled. “Can I tell them?”
Sunny laughed. “I suppose so, since you’ll probably need to get Tony to go ahead and farm the land at least another year.”
“What’s she talking about?” Sylvia asked.
“Sunny knew I was worried about the farm not selling, so she called her mother-in-law to get help. Brian’s mother is the one purchasing the farm.”
Sylvia clapped her hands together “How wonderful! So it will stay in the family?”
“I’m not sure what will be done at this point,” Sunny said, looking to Brian.
He shrugged. “Might be nice to have it as a place to come and get away from it all. Maybe make some good memories with a new generation.”
“Can’t you see Lucy there?” Sunny laughed. “She’d be all over the place. And no doubt she’d want a pony.”
“She wants one anyway, and we live in Beverly Hills.”
“Oh, I’m so happy to hear this,” Sylvia said, looking to her husband. “And of course, we’ll still farm it for them. Won’t we?”
“I don’t see why not,” Tony said with a shrug.
“So we have a happy ending,” Kathy said, toying with her glass.
“Well, you deserve much more than that,” Sunny interjected. “I for one appreciate what you’ve done more than I can find words to tell you.”
Kathy turned to her sister. “Thank you.” Sunny’s acknowledgment meant a lot. Her sister had truly changed; it was easy to see, now that Kathy could look at her without anger clouding the image.
“So will you buy your own place right away?” Tony questioned.
Kathy shook her head. “I had thought that’s what I’d do, but now things are different.”
“Because of Kyle,” Sylvia said, grinning.
Nodding, Kathy felt a giddy sense of anticipation. “Yes.”
“Does he already have his own place?” Brian asked.
“As I understand it,” Kathy began, “he’s lived in a very small house all these years. He plans to use it as a rental if we . . . well, when we . . .” She let the words trail off, feeling awkward in speaking about something that still seemed more hope than reality.
“When they get married,” Sunny said, laughing. “It’s still too much for her to even put into words.”
Back at the farm, Sunny and Brian walked around the property. Sunny wanted to show her husband some of the various spots that held special meaning.
“This was where my dad and grandpa used to play horseshoes,” she pointed out. “I can remember hearing that clank as the shoes hit the post well into the evening. Grandma would question whether they could even see, and Grandpa said they didn’t have to see, just hear. Then she would tell him he wasn’t any good at that either.” She smiled at the memory. “They were so well suited for each other. He called her his ornery little darlin’ and she called him her mule-headed sweetheart. I loved to watch them together.”
“I take it they died before you left home?”
“Yeah. Everything seemed different without them.” She sighed. “It’s taken a lot of honesty to realize there were good times here as well as bad. I used to hate it so much, but now I see I just had a lot of hate in me to begin with.”
“Or maybe a lot of ambition. Wanting something more than what you have doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Sometimes it drives us in a direction the Lord had for us all along. Mom told me that.”
“I just wasn’t a very nice person back then. I hurt a lot of people, but I know I can’t live in regret. I want something more for us—for Lucy—and for whoever else might come along.”
He pulled her into his arms. “I’ve been thinking about something, and I’d like your opinion.”
Sunny recognized an intensity to his expression that she’d not seen in a long time. “What is it?”
“You know how I mentioned we could move and start over elsewhere?”
“Yes. I like the idea . . . except for not living near your mom. It was nice to have family around.”
“Well, what about Colorado Springs?”
Sunny cocked her head to one side. “What are you saying?”
“I’ve been thinking that Colorado Springs might be a good place to start over. Your sister will be there. It would be nice for Lucy to know her aunt. I’d like to know her better myself. Plus it seems that you two could really lean on each other and help each other in the years to come. Then there’s your aunt and uncle. I think it would be nice for them to get to know the rest of your family, don’t you?”
“But what about your mother and your practice?”
“I have a feeling Mom might find Colorado Springs refreshing. If not to move there full time, then maybe to have a summer place. Of course, there’s this farm as well. It could be fun to fix things up and spend some time here.”
“Well . . . I must say this is a big surprise. I’d never thought about it before. I wonder how Kathy would feel about it. She might feel that I was once again imposing on her moment in the sun. When I ran away from home it was the day of her engagement to Kyle twelve years ago.”
“Sunny . . . why
did
you leave?” The light was fading, but Sunny could see him studying her, as if trying to read the answer on her face.
“I left because I could. I wanted to exercise my rights as a young adult, and I ended up pulling off the covers and everything else with me as I went.”
“What?” His expression betrayed his confusion.
Sunny laughed. “When we were little girls our mom would let us make forts with blankets over the kitchen table and other things. We would sometimes line up several chairs and bring in a coffee table from the living room and have this grand fort in the kitchen. We used blankets to cover the furniture, then crawled underneath and played for hours. When we went from one little room to another, we had to be careful of the various blankets. The only thing holding them in place was whatever we’d put atop them on the table. Usually it was a pair of Dad’s work boots, some of Mom’s heavy pans, and stacks of old magazines or books. If we weren’t careful, we could pull down the covers and bring everything with them. Sometimes we got bonked on the head pretty good.”
Brian pulled her closer and smiled. “Still, it sounds like a lot of fun. I never had that kind of thing.”
“As a rich child, your parents could buy you a proper playhouse. Of course, that’s not to say we didn’t have great times. I was remembering just this afternoon that we used to play out in the barn stacking up bales of hay and making tunnels.”
“I’d like to visit that barn again.” He kissed her lightly. “It might be fun to tunnel in the hay with you.” A coy smile spread across his face. “Maybe we could sleep out there tonight.”