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Of course, he loved his daughter and wouldn’t trade her for the world, but he hated that her upbringing had been the kind of upbringing that he’d never wanted for his child. If he’d been thinking, instead of just feeling and doing what he wanted, not what he knew was right, he wouldn’t have made the mistake he did.
It had been a hard lesson, but a good one, he supposed, in a lot of ways, because it had made him become much more deliberate about his life from then until now.
Regardless, he was a little gun-shy when it came to women, because Eva had lied to him. Multiple times, or he probably wouldn’t have ended up the way he had, distrustful of any woman not a family member.
“You guys can bring all your suitcases. We’ll throw them in the back of my truck, and we’ll get you guys in, too. It’s just ten minutes or so to my mom’s place. She’s on Main Street in Strawberry Sands. I assume that’s where you’re going?” It seemed like the obvious assumption, since that was where the road led. It ended at the lake.
“Yes.”
“You don’t know anyone there?” he asked, again assuming that she would have called them if she had.
“No. I...” Her cheeks, still pink, darkened even more, and she looked down. “I just have good memories of there. And... I needed somewhere to go... I needed a place to land. A soft place.”
He understood about that, even though he’d never left his hometown. It was small, but it was home, and he’d never had the desire to go anywhere else.
She lifted her hand from her suitcase, and he lifted it out, walking up with it and a second one, throwing them in the back of his truck, while Jubilee brought two more bags, and each of her girls handed him a bag.
They went back to their car to get the things in the back seat while Jubilee went and grabbed a few things from the passenger side along with the keys.
“If you give me those, I’ll come out tonight or tomorrow and fill it up with gas. I can probably get one of my brothers to bring me out.”
“I could do it,” she said, biting her lip again, because she was obviously unsure of what tomorrow was going to bring.
“I guess we can cross that bridge when we come to it. If I know my mom, she’s going to want to introduce you to everyone and feed you as much as you can eat. If you’re really staying and you don’t have a job lined up, she’s going to want to help find one.”
“She sounds like quite a woman,” Jubilee said, sounding tired. Like maybe the idea of someone doing all those things made her feel more exhausted than what she already was. “I suppose that’s the kind of woman I’d like to be someday,” she said, almost as though she were thinking out loud.
He understood how it felt to stand in front of a major mistake and think about all the things that a person wanted out of their life, and all the things they probably weren’t going to get, and then about all the ways they were going to try to make their life better and not repeat their mistakes. He didn’t know if that was what Jubilee was doing now or not, but it would be what he would be doing.
“She is quite a woman. I didn’t appreciate her as much when I was younger, but the older I get, the more I admire her. That’s life, right?” He smiled over at her as he put the last bag in the back of his pickup and shut the tailgate.
“You can go ahead and get in if you want.” Part of him wanted to go over and open the door for her, but part of him knew that was rather old-fashioned and maybe she would get the wrong idea. The idea that he was a different kind of man than what he actually was.
He was a farmer first, someone who raised hay and horses and leased horses out for tourists during the summer beach season.
They sold some grain on the side as well, and the farm they owned also produced berries and vegetables.
All of them worked with the horses, but he had brothers who were in charge of the other areas of the farm.
Both of the girls walked to the passenger side of the pickup with Jubilee, so Matt walked around his side and got in.
She had the girls in the back and was climbing in on her side as he settled in his seat.
“Do you think it will be okay there?” she asked, looking uneasily at her car.
“I’m sure it will be. You’ve already seen this road isn’t traveled overmuch. If you’d like, it will be almost dark when we get home, but I can come right back out with some gas with one of my brothers.”
“I don’t want to put you out,” she said, although he figured it would ease her mind if that was what he did. After all, as far as he knew, all she had in the world was her car, and if she couldn’t even afford to put gas in it, she probably couldn’t stand the idea that something might happen to it.
He tried to imagine being that destitute, but he never had been. Plus, he always had his family to stand behind him, to catch him if he fell.
He’d fallen, more than once, although once he’d fallen spectacularly, and while none of his family were happy with him, they supported him nonetheless. He never doubted that they loved him and that if he needed them, they were there. That was what family was about in his opinion.
This woman, Jubilee, didn’t seem to have that. It made him sad. It wasn’t just a part of modern America, although maybe it was more prevalent in America today than it used to be, but down through time, there were families who didn’t stay together, or who split apart because of differences, or who died, or whatever.
God hadn’t seen fit to put him in a family like that, other than his dad leaving when he was a kid, but God had given him the resources to help people who had. He owed that thought to his mother, who had never hesitated to take in anyone who needed it. What a great example she’d been.
“I don’t want to be nosy, but is there a reason you’re coming to town?” he asked as they pulled out on the highway.
