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“And that’s how it happened. Even though I’d been offered that huge opportunity with another Christian speaker, an opportunity that will never come around again, I know that wasn’t what God wanted for me. It was just something the devil was tempting me with. I knew it was more important for me to be a mom than a speaker, and the more I got to know Garnet, the more I knew that God was calling me to be a pastor’s wife.”

Olive remembered Mertie as being confident, someone who forged ahead, who always knew exactly where she was going and what she was doing and saw the world in very black-and-white terms. This new, more reflective woman sitting in front of her didn’t seem like her sister at all. Except, she looked just like her.

The three sisters had gone to their parents’ mansion while the men had stayed away to give them time to chat. Garnet had Dabney and was doing something with her and his mom this afternoon so that Mertie could get away.

“I can’t believe you had a baby and I didn’t even know it.”

“I didn’t realize that Garnet had her. I thought she had been adopted somewhere.” Mertie shrugged her shoulders and shook her head, looking out over the tops of her sisters’ heads. “That’s why when I saw her, it hit me: I need to be here. I had been given a second opportunity. And of course, Garnet was just as amazing as he always had been.”

“But you guys were never boyfriend and girlfriend. You were just...friends,” Amara said, taking a sip of her tea.

“It’s true we were friends, but I guess I did feel some kind of strange pull, which must have been attraction, even when we were younger. But that didn’t fit in with my life plan, and so I ignored it.”

She couldn’t imagine giving a child up for adoption. That had to have been so hard. She looked at her daughter, sleeping in the car seat beside her, and thought of all she had been through to stay with her. The idea of allowing someone else to raise her was just unthinkable.

“The sacrifice you made because of your love for your daughter, making sure that she had someone who would do a good job of raising her, knowing that you couldn’t, that’s just...amazing.”

Her sisters had grown up. And she hadn’t even noticed. Of course, hopefully they would notice that she had grown up as well.

“How soon are you guys getting married?” Amara asked, giving a little sheepish smile. “I know everything is very new. But have you given any thought to a date?”

“We want to do it as soon as possible. He didn’t want to take the pastorate unless he was married. He honestly didn’t think God was going to open that door. But again, Garnet is sure this is what he is supposed to be doing so he wants to get settled as soon as we can. But I need to talk to Dabney. I’ve chatted with her a bit, and she seemed excited to have a mom, but I know I need to have a deeper conversation. Explain exactly what was going on, why I did what I did, apologize, I don’t know. I’ve been praying hard about it, that whenever we talk, I’ll just say the things I need to say, and that God will open her heart and mind and let her forgive me.”

“She should appreciate you. That’s a huge sacrifice to give up your baby. I was just sitting here trying to figure out if I could, and I don’t think I could.”

“There was a very selfish part of me that thought that was the best thing for everyone and didn’t really want to take the time to raise a baby. I would be lying if I didn’t say that, but I don’t think that’s probably something I’m going to say a whole lot about, or at least dwell on, with Dabney. She deserves the truth, but I want her to know, I want to emphasize the fact that I loved her.”

“That’s what’s really important. I believe that if you had thought it would be best for you to keep her, you would have given up your career for it.” Amara always seemed to see the best in people. Olive was a little jealous over it. She was the one who was never bothered by much of anything, but she did notice people’s flaws, and sometimes they grew huge in her eyes when she really shouldn’t allow them to.

“I hope so. I guess we’ll never know for sure, but that’s what I want to think. That I would have chosen the better way, even though I was young and sometimes when we’re young, we just make mistakes.”

“Yeah, but the older we get, the harder and harder it is to justify those mistakes. You want to be able to say that you were young and dumb, but what about when you’re old and you’re supposed to be smarter?”

“You have a story for us,” Amara said, smiling over her tea. And then giving such a sweet loving look at the baby at Olive’s feet that Olive wanted to reach over and grab her sister’s hand, squeezing it and thanking her for just accepting her baby without needing a big long explanation of what had happened.

“Well, I guess you all know that I did a lot of traveling around the world. I didn’t have a whole lot of money, and I didn’t want to take the time to get a ‘real’ job, because so often your money is sucked down in rent and all the things that you get when you decide to put down roots.”

“All the things you get you don’t really need. I certainly have been there,” Amara said, with no sense of judgment at all.

“Well, it wasn’t like I avoided all the pitfalls, I spent a lot of money on recreation, having a good time, transportation to get from one place to the next, but I didn’t spend a lot of money on things that I didn’t think were important, like rent or a wardrobe of clothes, or a car of my own.” She didn’t mention all the times she’d hitchhiked, grabbed a ride with someone she barely knew, and did all kinds of other dangerous things that she really shouldn’t have done. It was funny that God protected her through all of that.

“But the globe-trotting pace was getting a little bit rough and the wanderlust was wearing off, and after our parents died, I spent a lot of time considering coming back for good. The problem was, I had already met a man in Ecuador, who seemed like he shared my values and that we would be good together, but... Anyway, he is the father of Livvy, and when our parents died and I came back, he was waiting for me in Ecuador. I think he saw me as his ticket to the US. He didn’t know about the baby before I left, and when I told him about it when I got back, he...disappeared.”

“Well, if you thought you were his ticket to the US, a baby would have helped his case.”

“Sure. If he hadn’t been married. I think one of his friends told him that there was going to be an investigation, and he would have to prove that he wasn’t married, and that is what scared him off, more than the baby, but maybe he would have stayed with me if it hadn’t been for Livvy.” She didn’t know that for sure. He had said he wanted to go to the US, but he was content with her in Ecuador. She had taken a job housekeeping at a big resort and had been happy in the hut that she had shared with her boyfriend.

She knew it was wrong and wished that she could erase that part of her life, but like she had just told her sisters, it was there to stay. And she just had to live with it.

“That stinks. And then you had all that trouble getting your plane tickets out.”

“Actually, what happened was I got malaria.”

Her sisters gasped.

Mertie was the first to recover. “Why didn’t you tell us?” It was the kind of voice Olive remembered from their childhood, the commanding voice that did not even consider that she might ask a question and someone might choose not to answer it.

“I didn’t want to worry anyone. Ecuador’s a long way away, and it’s not an easy country to get into and move around in. It’s not exactly safe either. I didn’t want you to worry about me and end up flying down. Especially after I got the idea that I’d wanted to get closer to you after our parents died. I could hardly do that if you die coming down to try to save my life.” Livvy fussed a little, and Olive used her foot to rock the car seat.

She settled almost immediately. She wasn’t the kind of baby that was difficult to deal with.

“That must have been terrible to be so sick so far away from home, although you’ve been trotting around the globe so much that you probably don’t even consider the United States your home anymore,” Amara said with a little smile. It wasn’t exactly a question, but she did have inquiry on her face.

“No. Raspberry Ridge is home. And always has been. And that’s why I’m back, although I doubt I can stay. I’m going to need a job, and they’re not exactly numerous in small towns like this.”

“Oh. When we were talking earlier, I was thinking that maybe you didn’t know.”

Olive glanced at Amara, her brows drawing down. “Didn’t know what?”

“Didn’t know about the money that we’re getting from our parents’ business.”

“Yeah,” Mertie said. “I didn’t realize about it at first either, but it’s a good bit of money, and it’s going to be a monthly thing.”

“A good bit?” Olive said, hope rising in her breast. She had thought that she was only going to be staying here for a little while, as long as her sisters would let her hang out at the mansion before they sold it.

She had figured that she was going to need to get a job in order to pay her way, buy things for her baby, and just live. The United States wasn’t like other countries where it didn’t take a whole lot to eat every day. Just groceries in the States could suck up more money than she wanted to admit. Maybe the money from her parents would be enough. From the expressions on Mertie’s and Amara’s faces, it was a good bit.

“It’s more than six figures annually.”

“No way!” Olive said. That was like a godsend.

“Yeah. We’re still trying to iron out the details. It got caught up in a little red tape, and one of the executors wasn’t being honest with us. They were diverting the money to somewhere else, but we’re on it, so it’s going to start, but...not right away.”

Olive deflated just a bit. She had next to nothing in her bank account. Third world countries were cheaper to live in, but once a person came back to the United States, they didn’t exactly have a nest egg. Not unless they were doing business in the US while living abroad.

“How long do you think?”

“The last time I talked to the attorney, it was going to be at least two months, but he was honestly just giving his best guess. It just depends on how long it takes things to roll through the court and for everything to get straightened out. I honestly don’t understand it all.”

“Our parents had some complicated things. But the sale of the house should be helpful. I had wanted to buy it myself, but Hobert wants to live down by the lake, and I have to agree. It’s so beautiful there, and I think I’d really like to raise my kids down there by the water.”

“Wow. That seems so surreal. My big-shot Chicago executive sister is going to be living in a small house down by the lake with Hobert Gilchrest.”

She still couldn’t wrap her mind around it. It was so crazy. One of those shocking things that almost had to be true.

“And I need to talk to Garnet, but I doubt he is interested in buying it either. He’s living with his parents to help them out, and I’m guessing that that’s where we’re going to live. It’s a big old house and they have plenty of room, and his dad needs constant care. So I’m sure I’ll be helping with that or giving his mom a break in the kitchen.”

The idea of Mertie, Christian speaker and author, who had never wanted to do anything else, cooking and cleaning in a kitchen and taking care of her husband’s elderly parents was also almost too far out to be believed.

“You guys have changed so much.”

“Following the Lord does that. He changes your life, changes your heart, changes the things that you want, until you are shocked at the fact that you love things you used to hate, and the things that you used to love with all your heart no longer hold any appeal.” Mertie said this with complete confidence and no sense of irony in the fact that she was giving up a very lucrative, very promising career to stay at home and be a wife and mom.

“The Bible calls women to be keepers of the home. I know that our society has everything mixed up and backward, but I feel like that’s the highest calling for a woman. To minister to her family and to change the course of the world, one family at a time. I think women have been shortchanged by the lie society feeds them.” Amara lifted a shoulder. “I know I feel like I was. Being a big-shot executive in Chicago made me feel stressed and hassled, and I actually had an appointment to go to my counselor to be medicated, because I wasn’t able to handle it. It’s so much more relaxing and so much less stressful here. I wouldn’t change it for anything.”

She believed that and thought about how the Lord worked. Making it so that Amara ended up not needing the medication after all.

“Well, maybe that’s why I’m back in Raspberry Ridge. I was a little disillusioned with my globe-trotting lifestyle. It wasn’t as satisfying as I thought it was going to be. I longed for home so much, and after having my daughter, I wanted to make sure that I raised her where she would be sure to pick up the values and morals that small towns have. That’s more important than any kind of education she might get from traveling. Although, I would like to travel. Just not for months and months at a time.”