“Wow. It’s not Nelly Bushnell, is it?”
Roland stared at Judd, his eyes going wide, before he started to laugh. “Oh my goodness, no way! If you had been at any of the church committee meetings or yesterday’s play practice, you wouldn’t even think about suggesting that. My word, that woman could cause a saint to lose his sainthood. Holy smokes. Ha ha.”
“And you don’t think it has anything to do with the fact that the two of you don’t get along,” Judd said easily with the casual confidence of someone who knew him well enough that he could say things that perhaps might offend someone who they didn’t know as well.
“Okay, you’re right. She just rubs me the wrong way. Actually, the exact opposite of my Secret Saint partner, who is a female, by the way. But…it’s just night and day difference. I get along with this person, we work so well together. She makes me feel calm and secure and brings out the best in me. Nelly, on the other hand, makes me feel stressed and angry and brings out the worst in me.”
Judd laughed. “Sometimes it’s all in our own attitude.”
That gave him pause, and he had to admit Judd had a point. Attitude had a huge role in how he thought and felt. “You’re right. I know that my attitude toward Nelly is not the right way that I should act, and I’ve been praying that I can be more like Jesus when I’m around her. It’s…a long, hard road though.” He rolled his eyes.
“Yeah. I don’t know what to tell you other than just keep working at it. God puts people in our lives for a reason, and sometimes thatreason is so that we can work on areas of our personality that need a little attention.”
“Interesting. I’ve heard that before. And I agree.”
They chatted a bit more, with Roland being tempted to mention his mother, but he didn’t, because the last few times he mentioned it, everyone acted like he was nuts.
Shortly thereafter, he drove down the roadways to pick up his niece and nephews.
He followed a car in and realized as they parked beside each other that it was Nelly.
Seriously? He had to meet her here of all places?
And then he realized there was a kid he didn’t recognize in the back of her car. She must be the one bringing the kid for therapy.
He got out of the car and walked toward the barn, since he’d seen all three kids waiting for him there, along with Summer and Gilbert as well.
He didn’t wait for Nelly to get out of her car, wanting to chat with his sister-in-law and his brother before she got there and then cut out, possibly without having to talk to her.
“You seem like you’re in a rush,” Summer said as she looked up from the horse she was leading in from the pasture.
“No. Not really. You guys ready?” he said to the kids.
They cheered and said yes, and then ran for his car.
“Looks like your client is here, so I don’t want to hold you up.”
“Yeah, I’m so glad that Nelly has taken an interest in her. She’s actually even paying for the lessons, if you can believe it,” Summer said in a lower tone as Nelly walked their way.
Really? Nelly was actually paying for the therapy?
“It’s one of her students. She’s noticed that she struggles in class, and then she found out that there are some things going on at home. I can’t talk about that, but…Nelly is definitely a really amazing person,” Summer said. Being that she hadn’t grown up here and wasn’t the same age as Roland, she probably didn’t know about all of the competition that had gone on between Nelly and him growing up. Maybe she’d heard snippets of it in family conversations, but she’d probably forgotten. Otherwise, she probably wouldn’t be saying such wonderful things about Nelly in front of him.
Or maybe she would, trying to convince him that Nelly was a good person.
“Hey there, I’ve got Allie with me,” Nelly said as she walked up to Summer.
She gave Roland a side glance and lifted her head, which probably was a greeting but looked more to him like she was sticking her nose in the air.
Play practice the night before hadn’t gone the best.
“Good to see you guys. I’ll be skipping out. I’ll pick the kids up when I’m done with my meeting,” Gilbert said as he waved a hand at Roland.
“I’ll be leaving you guys too. See ya,” he said, trying to be nice to Nelly but able to see from Summer’s glance that he hadn’t quite succeeded.
She had narrowed her eyes, but there was also a bit of interest in her gaze as she looked between Roland and Nelly.
He could tell her immediately that there was nothing going on in that department, because he could tell a matchmaking gaze when he saw it, and he didn’t appreciate having one directed between Nelly and him. It was all he could do to be nice to her—he certainly wasn’t interested in spending any extra time with her and absolutely not interested in any kind of romantic relationship.
