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“Will there be enough room in the house for her too?”
“She usually stays with Matt. So we don’t need to worry about that. Although, as my granddaughter, I do like to have overnights with her.” Lana smiled, thinking about the good times that she had with Nora over the years. “Sometimes I wish I saw her more than just in the summer, but the summer is the best time to be here by the lake, so I just try to focus on that.”
“I guess we have to focus on the good. After all, if we don’t, we could get sucked down into a huge depression.”
“Once you’re down, it’s so hard to pull yourself back up. Because what you have to do is get a hold of your thoughts and shift them. Which is not an easy thing to do.”
“Why is it so much easier to think about negative things than it is to think about positive things?” Jubilee asked, like that was a question that she wondered about before.
“I’m not sure. But it seems to be a struggle we have our whole lives.”
“I guess my first thought about it being crazy to think about a surf and ski shop was negative thinking. And the idea that you had about your daughter who wanted to open an art studio but was afraid. Maybe we should think really hard about that, because it’s like I said, what does it matter if you fail? Isn’t that life?”
“Exactly,” Lana said, smiling. Jubilee was even more than what she thought. The idea caused a little bubble of excitement to form in her chest. It was almost as though she could feel the hand of the Lord working.
Chapter 5
Matt finished brushingBoots, his chestnut gelding, and straightened, his hand on Boots’s neck, looking out over the lake.
He’d enjoyed a beautiful early morning ride, watching the sunrise reflect off the water and feeling the breeze on his face, still chilly, despite the fact that it was June.
Soon his daughter would be there to spend the summer with him, and they’d take early morning horse rides together. Nora had always loved riding, and he never had to wake her up.
A part of him said that maybe things would be different this year. She’d be twelve, and that was a hard age for many kids, but a part of him wanted to believe that she would be just the way she was forever. A little girl who was happy and cheerful and loved everything.
Unlike her mother.
He patted Boots’s neck and then unhooked the lead from the hitching post, leading Boots back into the barn. Unfortunately, both of them had to start their day, as much as he loved spending the morning out in the wide-open air, talking to the Lord, and adjusting his thoughts for the day.
As he turned, movement caught his eye, and he saw a car rolling into his drive up over the hill and down the other side.
After a second or two of confusion, he thought he recognized Eva’s car. His...ex was here? He wasn’t sure he could call her that. They hadn’t really even dated. They’d just spent a few weeks of one fateful summer together, and done things they shouldn’t have, and ended up with a child.
It had totally derailed everything he thought about himself and everything he thought he was going to do with his life.
He hadn’t ever thought that he would be the kind of person who did the things he had done.
