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“I guess it takes a sharp eye to notice that. Someone who’s seen it every day of their life. Because, to me, it looks exactly the same as it did fifteen years ago when I was a kid and sat on the beach, dreaming about what my life would be like.”
Chapter 8
Jubilee and Matt stood, and maybe they should have been looking at the lake, but they ended up facing each other.
He looked down at her, windblown, sand on her face and in her hair, her clothes all flapping in the wind, but a big smile on her face and dreams in her eyes.
Whatever she’d been through, it hadn’t beaten her. The cheating husband, a divorce, two girls who depended on her, and not even enough money for gas in her gas tank, and here she was, finding things to be thankful for, talking about God like He was right beside her, and convicting Matt of not appreciating all the things in his life, because she was so happy with so little.
He had a house, his mom and siblings all lived close, and he could lean on them anytime he needed them. He had a thriving business and horses he could ride every morning. He had the summer to look forward to with his daughter and enough money that he wasn’t worried about feeding her.
He didn’t like the guilty feeling, but he appreciated the fact that she inspired him to want to be better. Saying a little prayer of thanks, which he vowed to expound upon later, he said, “Maybe you’re right. Maybe since I see it every day, I notice every little thing that changes. Or maybe I just want to see the change. And I like thinking about the fact that it’s never the same. Because you’re right. It’s still blue like it always used to be.”
She laughed. “I guess I’m not that observant. It just looks pretty to me. And I’m always amazed at the size and the vastness. It’s just a lake, but you can’t even see the other side.”
“Yeah. It’s really big. You can drive up the shore for hours and not come to the end. I guess I don’t think about that nearly as often as what I should.” He couldn’t tell her how she’d already convicted him just by the little bit that she was saying.
“What are you doing down here? Did you want to go swimming?”
“Don’t be silly, Penelope. He’s wearing jeans. Of course he’s not going swimming.”
“Well, I have gone swimming in jeans, but I wasn’t planning on it today. I just saw you guys down here, and I thought it would be fun to come down and see how you were doing.”
He ended lamely, because he knew that wasn’t a very good reason to go down. Just to check on them? What was he, like her dad or something?
He could hardly sayyou guys looked like you were having so much fun I felt drawn to you and was down here before I thought about it. That sounded just as stupid.
He didn’t really want to leave them, and Jubilee didn’t look like she was in a big rush to run off either. He racked his brain for something to say and pulled out the first thing he could.
“Are you going to Kim and Davis’s party?”
“Kim just mentioned it. Yeah. I would like to get involved in the community. And that seems like a good way. I’ll probably talk to your mom, because Kim said something about everybody bringing something. And I really have no idea. Not to mention, I don’t exactly have a kitchen.”
“I can tell you that my mom doesn’t care if you use hers. She loves having people around. I think that she would have been very happy if all of her kids had stayed in that house with her and never moved out.”
“That sounds like a mom. I...didn’t have one.”
