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Doyle parked his car in Miles’s driveway and got out, trying to decide whether he should go to the house or to the barn.

He didn’t expect Miles to be in the house at this time of day. Especially since he’d tried to call him several times and was unable to get an answer, so he decided to come and talk to him in person.

It wasn’t an emergency, but he and Miles had done a few jobs together on Miles’s farm, and Miles had done a few jobs on some of the properties that Doyle managed. He considered them friends. The fact that Miles wasn’t answering his phone told Doyle that Miles was in the middle of a project and wasn’t stopping and probably didn’t have his phone on him.

Finally he decided that he might as well go in the house and ask, since if Miles wasn’t in the barn he could be anywhere on the hundred or so acres that he owned, and it might save him some time if he could get directions from his wife.

He knew that Miles and Norma Jean didn’t have the best relationship. Miles had mentioned something about a marriage of convenience, and Doyle took that to mean that they hadn’t maybe known each other when they got married? Or maybe they weren’t in love? He had his own opinions about what being in love meant and the mistakes people made when they got married because they thought that that was a good reason.

In his mind, in love just meant they were very close to being in lust, and it wasn’t a great foundation on which to build a lifetime relationship. Friendship, shared interests, shared values even more than shared interests, and those types of things were the best foundation for marriage in his mind.

But he admitted that he could be wrong. Lately he’d been thinking that maybe it was just more important that both people have their eyes on Jesus and be following him. It was helpful for them to like each other and to be friends, but maybe it wasn’t necessary. Maybe Jesus was all they needed.

He liked that idea and thought it was probably pretty accurate. He knocked on the door, and Norma Jean must have been in the kitchen because she answered almost immediately.

“Sorry to bother you, ma’am, but I was looking for your husband. He’s not answering his phone.”

“I hope it’s not an emergency.”

“No. I’ve just been working inside all morning, and when I couldn’t reach him, I figured I’d come and see him.”

She twisted her hands in front of her and swallowed. “I see. Well, I hate to admit that he doesn’t really tell me what he’s doing, but I know that he’s been working on the fence behind the barn. He has phone service, but he usually takes his phone off and sets it somewhere so it doesn’t get in his way. I think that’s where you’ll find him.”

“Thanks, ma’am.” He winked at the little girl that peeked out from behind a chair, looking at him with big eyes and a sweet little heart-shaped face.

Would that be how Livvy would look when she got a little older?

The baby had been so adorable. And he could easily see Olive all over her features. Of course, the dark, almost black eyes came from her dad. But he understood what Olive had said. That she had made a mistake. He didn’t like it, it hurt him still to think about it, but he understood. He certainly made his share of mistakes, although hopefully not mistakes like that.

Of course, he knew it was easy for a person to look at someone else’s mistakes and say, “that’s a terrible mistake,” judging them, when in reality, the mistakes that he made were just as bad. He had done that so many times in his life. Or looked at someone else and said to himself, “I would never do that,” and then the next thing he knew, he was doing that like he’d never done that before.

It was almost like God had to teach someone a lesson when they thought something like that.

He shoved his hat back down on his head and stepped off the porch into the bright sunlight, taking a moment to realize that a car had pulled in while he had been talking to Norma Jean.

He thought he recognized it as Mertie’s car, Olive’s sister. But he wasn’t expecting to see Olive pop out of the passenger seat. She had said that she was going to be helping her sisters fix up the house, not visiting the neighbors.

But sometimes plans changed, he supposed.

He walked down the walk, waved at Mertie, and stopped beside Olive. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here.”

He wasn’t accusing her of anything, hopefully he was just making conversation, although he was curious as to how she ended up here.

“Yes, I know I said I was going to be helping my sisters fix up the mansion, but things changed for Mertie and Garnet, and I told Mertie I would come here with her.”

“I see.”

“What’s going on with you?” she asked, and her tone was not demanding, like he owed her an explanation or anything of the sort. She seemed almost humble. Or maybe curious, like the care a friend might show.

He appreciated that. It felt good to have someone care.

“I had a project come up that I thought Miles might be interested in. He’s helped me a few other times, and I thought of him immediately when it came across my desk this morning. He’s not answering his phone, and it’s a beautiful day out, so I decided that it might be beneficial for me to take a drive.”

“Oh. It is a beautiful day. I have been enjoying my time out.”

But she looked exhausted. He wanted to tell her that he thought she should go home and lie down, but he figured she probably wouldn’t appreciate him saying that. He just didn’t want her to overdo it and get worse instead of better. Sometimes it was hard for people to slow down, to realize that their body just needed time to rest and recover.

He was a good one to talk and really couldn’t say anything. Plus, he didn’t really have that right.

“All right then, I’ll see you at supper?”

She nodded and smiled a little, which he returned. He didn’t know about her, but he was thinking about their conversation where he had insisted that her meals were included in her employment package, and he wanted her to eat.

But then, when he would have turned away, something kept his gaze molded with hers. Something...elusive, that he couldn’t name, but made him unable to turn away.

It was like the rest of the world faded away and it was just the two of them together.

Even when they were younger, he couldn’t remember so completely losing track of everything else and just being focused on her. He wanted to put his hand out, touch her shoulder, pull her closer to him, maybe kiss her?

“Olive?” Her sister’s voice interrupted them. “If you want to stay out here and talk to Doyle, that’s fine, I can go in by myself.”

He shook his head and stepped back, while Olive seemed to need a second or two to shake the cobwebs from her brain as well.

“Oh goodness. You got Livvy out, and I didn’t even notice.”

“You were talking. It was the least I could do. But if you want to keep talking, it’s fine.”

“No, no,” she said, reaching out for the car seat.

Mertie seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Doyle was, and she pulled it away. “I can carry her.”

Olive must have been just as tired as what he thought she was, since she didn’t even argue with her sister.

Mertie’s eyes met his as they walked away, with her lifting her brows in a silent question and him giving a slight nod of his head. He thought they were agreeing that neither one of them thought that Olive was in very good shape, and they would try to baby her as much as they could. He wondered then if Mertie had really needed to come to do the Bible study, or if she was just trying to make sure that Olive took it easy.

Regardless, it didn’t matter either way, he just knew that Olive needed more time to get better. And he was going to try to make sure that she got it, although he honestly couldn’t say why it was so important to him.