Wildflowers (22 page)

Genevieve was impressed to see the long list of participants and potential contributors. “You’re the head organizer, I take it.”

“For the time being. If someone else wants to take over, I’ll gladly let him or her have the whole project. But with extra time on my hands until the café is up and running, I can do this. Or at least get it started. And that brings me to my next point. We need to have the Wildflower Café in full swing by the first week of October. This is the biggest event of the year, and it will all happen right in front of the café. We must be in business by then.”

Genevieve blinked. “That’s only two and a half months away.”

“I know.”

“It’s been almost two months since the fire, and you
know how much the builders have accomplished in all that time.”

“That’s why we have to get going!” Leah said. “And that’s why I was so determined to meet with you first thing this morning. I don’t know what it’ll take, but as your new partner in business, I’m here to say we have to make a plan and push these guys to make the deadline. We have the money in the bank now, and all the legal papers have been completed. We can’t waste a single minute.”

Genevieve agreed with Leah. She didn’t have quite the level of urgency that Leah did, but she certainly agreed with her in principle.

“The way I see it,” Leah continued, “if you and I come up with a plan and meet with the builder to present our guidelines, then at least we’re working with something. So far, you’ve been at his mercy, and he’s been fitting you into his schedule whenever he pleases. The café needs to be switched from a sideline project to the top of his list.”

Genevieve sat up straighter. “Okay, let’s dive in. You know I’m not afraid of hard work.”

For the next two hours, the two women put their heads together and their pencils to the papers in front of them. The list of ideas for how to design the café continued to grow. The options, now that they had double the floor space, were much broader.

Genevieve leaned back in her chair. “We have to narrow this down. We have to make some final decisions.”

“I know,” Leah said. “That’s exactly what I’ve been saying. As I see it, we have two separate projects here. We have
to decide if we want a normal little diner sort of café or if we want to do all these specialty areas like the tree house and the ice cream shop and the espresso cart.”

“It’s too much, isn’t it?”

“It’s just more complicated. We can do whatever we want. I like all the ideas, just as you do. But maybe we shouldn’t try to do everything, or at least not right away.”

Genevieve thought of her elaborate garden in Pasadena. It had taken years before she had all the paths and the bench, the swing, and the fountain exactly where she wanted them. When she had started to dream, she wanted it all. Every picture in every magazine captured her imagination, and she was certain she could make it all happen.

The process of sitting and picturing each section was what helped her the most. That, and the many years she worked on the garden. With the café, she didn’t have time on her side.

“Come on,” Genevieve said. “We need to go look at the café. We have to stare at the space for a while.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I think we need to go to the open space and see it in our imaginations before we make a final decision.”

With pens and paper, lists and folders, Genevieve and Leah drove to the café and parked in the back. Genevieve noticed the wildflowers in the vases on the chair under the tree.

“Did you leave those vases there?” she asked Leah.

“No.”

“Are you sure? I thought it was a Glenbrooke Zorro sort of touch of beauty.”

“Not this Zorro. It could have been Ida. She has a lot of those summer flowers growing like crazy in her side yard.”

Genevieve picked up the vases and the now dried wildflowers and carried them into the café. To her they represented a new beginning, a touch of beauty in a place that had been desolate.

It brought a little smile to her face when she thought of how Steven had taken off for work that morning with the blue wildflower still clipped to his car’s visor. Maybe he had glanced at it and remembered when Genevieve gave it to him yesterday with a wide-open heart.

Leah turned and looked at Genevieve. “How can you smile like that? Every time I come in here I still feel like crying.”

“These two vases and especially these wildflowers mean something special to me. They represent a future full of promise.”

“For I know the plans I have for you,” Leah said.

“The plans
you
have for me?”

“No,” Leah chuckled. “The plans God has for us. Haven’t you heard that verse before? It’s in Jeremiah. Chapter 29, I think. I learned it from one of Jessica’s little index cards. You know, the cards she writes verses on so she can memorize them.”

Genevieve didn’t know Jessica wrote out verses on index cards, but she was curious about a verse that talked about plans that God made. “Do you know the verse by heart?”

“Yeah. It goes, ‘ “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the L
ORD
, “plans to prosper you and not to harm
you, plans to give you hope and a future.” ’ ”

“I love that!” Genevieve said.

“Me, too. You know what I think?” Leah looked around the empty café. “I think we should pray. We should dedicate the rebuilding of this place to the Lord.”

“Do you mean we should have a blessing party like Meredith and Shelly had for their parents’ bed and breakfast when they wrote verses on the floors?”

Leah clapped her hands together. “Yes! Perfect! Let’s do that. But for right now, let’s pray. Just the two of us.”

They stood in the center of the floor and joined hands. Leah prayed as naturally and openly as if Jesus were standing right next to them. Then she said, “Amen,” and waited for Genevieve to pray.

Genevieve didn’t jump right in. She knew what she wanted to say in her heart, but the words didn’t tumble out of her mouth the way they had cascaded from Leah’s mouth. Genevieve asked God to bless them and direct them as they made decisions about how to design the café. Then she added, “And be with Steven right now. Show him how real You are. Amen.”

With renewed vision, Leah and Genevieve took what Leah called a “virtual” tour of the café, discussing all the options. They came to a conclusion that neither of them had expected: They had too much space.

For the cozy sort of dining they wanted, the openness and all the fun ideas like built-in trees were distractions.

Anthony, the builder, and two of his workers showed up at noon, ready to finish plastering the kitchen walls. Leah
and Genevieve talked to him about their dilemma. Genevieve was feeling nervous about having purchased the other side of the building now that it appeared to be too much.

“Unless,” Leah said, formulating aloud while sketching on a pad of paper, “we make some clever adjustments, like this.” She turned the paper to Genevieve. “Expand the café this far into the new space, then put up a new wall, with a door of some kind between the two spaces. Then in this other, smaller area, we’ll put in a special place for kids.”

“What are you talking about? A daycare center?” Anthony asked.

“No, no, not a daycare center. A little ice cream shop. Or maybe a kids’ bookstore that also sells candy and toys. What do you think?” Leah asked.

Genevieve wasn’t sure. “How would we work that? It takes both of us to run the café. Who would run the kids’ section?”

“I don’t know. It would be separate. We could hire someone to run the store or hire a new person to wait tables.”

“I don’t know,” Genevieve said. “It sounds like a lot more work.”

“Not really,” Anthony said. “I mean, as far as the restructuring. We could run a new wall six feet in from where the old wall divided the building. Once you decide what you want, I can get my whole team here, and we can have it up for you in no time. You just have to make up your minds.”

Genevieve looked at Leah. Her eyes were lit up and her cheeks glowing.

“You know what?” Leah said. “This is what I want to do. I didn’t know it until this moment, but I want to set up the shop for kids next door. Kids of all ages. I’ll have a few toys for sale, Meredith can tell me what kids books I should stock, and I’ll have ice cream. And hot cocoa in the winter. This is perfect!”

“Leah,” Genevieve said cautiously, “are you sure you know what you’re saying?”

Leah laughed aloud and clapped her hands together. “Yes! This is perfect! I’ll call it the ‘Dandelion’! Get it? The Wildflower and the Dandelion!” Leah spontaneously hugged Genevieve. “Seth is going to love this. This is so me. This is what I want to do.”

Genevieve found it difficult to share Leah’s enthusiasm. A few hours earlier, Leah was saying how jazzed she was about organizing Glenbrooke Days. Now she had launched into a blazing vision of a children’s specialty store. Worst of all, Genevieve was losing her partner and the one who made the Wildflower a special place for the older customers. Genevieve could see them all leaving the café and gathering next door, exchanging their morning coffee for morning cocoa just to be near Leah.

“We need to talk about this and think this through.” Genevieve looked from Anthony to Leah and back to Anthony. “I mean, this is crazy, Leah. You said this morning you wanted to have the café up by the first week of October, but now you’re talking about a much more complicated plan. We would have to change the legal forms and file for new business licenses and—”

“We can do all that,” Leah said. “Or more specifically, I can do all that. You can just concentrate on the café. It’s your dream. Your baby. I need to be free to follow my dream, too.”

Leah’s words hit Genevieve hard. She was right. This was an old, familiar problem of Genevieve’s. She had latched onto Steven when they were first married in such a way that she felt alienated and abandoned when she couldn’t share his dream for flying. Once again, she had latched on to Leah and found it easy to depend on Leah to make her own dream a reality.

Genevieve needed to rebuild the café on her own. It was her dream. She knew that she needed to release Leah from their previous agreement to let Leah pursue her own dream. It was a painful lesson.

“Okay.” Genevieve drew in a deep breath. “We’ll be neighbors instead of partners. Would you like to call Collin and set up a meeting this week so we can change the papers?”

“Sure,” Leah said. “I’ll handle everything.”

Anthony scratched his head. “When do you think you might have some direction for me?”

“Wednesday,” Genevieve said. “Thursday at the latest. We have to get this show on the road.”

All the mixed feelings that collided in Genevieve felt like a thick vegetable stew mushing around in her middle. She returned home and sat down with a fresh pad of paper. All the planning and changing and adjusting were exhausting.

Why is it, Lord, every time I pray about something, it falls
apart? First, I prayed and said I wanted to be made well, and the fire breaks out. Now, Leah and I pray that You will direct us, and suddenly I’m without a partner, and she’s starting a shop next door
.

Genevieve realized not all the changes that occurred after she prayed were negative. The transformation in her relationship with Steven was wonderful. And it was certainly a change that came after a sincere prayer.

I guess I shouldn’t complain, should I? Some people pray and say that nothing happens. I may not like what You’re doing as You put my life in order, but at least something happens when I pray!

Chewing on the end of her pencil, Genevieve thought about how impossible all this was. If God truly knew the plans He had for her, He would have to make them clear because she was dumbfounded. And she told Him so in the longest prayer she ever remembered praying.

Anna and Mallory came in while Genevieve sat at the kitchen table with her hands folded and her head bowed.

“Mom, are you praying?” Mallory asked.

Genevieve paused midplea and looked up. “Yes.”

“Is everything okay?” Anna asked.

“Yes. No. I don’t know. Everything is changing with the café. I’m not sure what to do.”

“Can we pray with you?” Mallory asked.

“Yes, of course. Please. Come here.”

Anna and Mallory took seats on either side of Genevieve. They prayed for God to bless their mom, direct her, and show her what she should do with the café.

They were interrupted by the sound of the doorbell.

Anna jumped up to answer it and returned to the kitchen with a bouquet of bright summer flowers.

“They’re for you.” Anna handed the flowers to her mom.

Genevieve pulled the card out of the tiny envelope and read, “Gena, I miss you already. Love, Steven.”

“Are they from Daddy?” Mallory asked.

“Yes.” A smile came to Genevieve’s lips. She pictured Steven arriving at a hotel room in Singapore sometime tomorrow. When he opened his luggage, he would find the love note she had quickly written to him that morning while he was in the shower.

Anna leaned close, as if trying to nonchalantly read the card before Genevieve could tuck it back into the florist envelope. “Mom, do you think God gave you back your love for Dad?”

Genevieve answered, “Yes. I think that’s exactly what God did.”

Anna sat a little straighter. “Well, if God can do that, then I think He can tell you what to do about the Wildflower Café. And I think He will, too.”

“Me, too,” Mallory echoed.

Genevieve nodded slowly. “Me, too.”

The day before Steven returned home, Genevieve drove into Edgefield for a haircut. It was the first day in two weeks that she had been by herself other than to sleep at night. Anna and Mallory had both found great delight in entering into Genevieve’s new plans for the café. They were with her every day and had assumed a sort of ownership of the café’s changes. Anna particularly had entered in with gusto.

Leah had zoomed around for several days, pushing all the necessary details through the right channels at lightning speed. She and Seth had plenty of connections, and within one week of signing the papers for the Dandelion Corner, they had finalized the plans and ordered the necessary equipment, the first shipment of children’s books, and some toys.