Page 19

Chapter Fourteen

J osiah sat on the bench at the waterfall in the healing garden at Raspberry Ridge.

He’d worked the weekend and finished the job on the yacht, which hadn’t taken very long—only a couple of days—and he’d gotten ready to go to work this morning at Miss Mattie’s house, knowing Miss Mattie and Claire wouldn’t be there, since Miss Mattie had a doctor’s appointment.

He’d come home for lunch with his mother and had gotten the text from Miss Mattie, letting him know that they were going to be calling hospice.

Rather than going back to work, he’d gone to the healing garden to sit and think.

Claire was going to be devastated. And he didn’t know if he had the words to help her.

Or whether he even should try. What did he know about death and dying?

Other than the fact that he knew that his mom had an autoimmune disease that was never going to be healed, and he’d resigned himself to that and the fact that she could die at any moment years ago.

And yet she had hung on. And there was Claire, who had just recently—in the last week—found out that Grandma was dying of cancer, and now she needed to deal with hospice and all the things that entailed .

He wanted to send her a text. Ask her if she needed him to do anything. Ask if they wanted him to start the big kitchen project, which is what he was getting ready to do, now that they knew there would be a funeral in the near future.

Of course, he didn’t know how near the future was. And he wanted to ask that, but that didn’t exactly seem like the kind of question one shot off in a text to someone that one wasn’t even sure was one’s friend, let alone someone that he could talk to about stuff like that.

“Josiah.” A man’s voice interrupted his thoughts. He was surprised, because often people just nodded or waved at the healing garden and didn’t actually talk to anyone.

He looked around to see Trevor. He’d talked to Trevor some at church and knew him from growing up.

They weren’t best friends, even though they both lived in Raspberry Ridge and had chosen to stay to take care of their parents.

Trevor had just moved back not that long ago, and Josiah figured that he probably could really enjoy being around each other if they had the time.

But Trevor had developed a relationship with Grace, and his dad had developed a relationship with Grace’s mom, and between the busyness of Trevor’s life and all the things going on with Josiah, they just hadn’t had a whole lot of time.

“Hey, Trevor,” he said, standing up from the bench.

Trevor put a hand out. “I didn’t mean to interrupt you.”

“You’re not. I came home to eat with my mom, and I had a little bit of extra time before I needed to get back to work at Miss Mattie’s house. But it’s time for me to leave now.”

“Well, I don’t want to keep you. But… I was looking for a chance to talk to you.”

“All right,” he said. “I’ve got time. I keep my own hours, so I can show up when I want to.” He didn’t add that Miss Mattie had a doctor’s appointment that morning.

That wasn’t really his news to share, although Miss Mattie hadn’t told him not to tell anyone.

“I know that you spend a lot of time at Miss Mattie’s house, and I didn’t know if you and Claire have been talking, but Grace asked me to say something to you if I ran into you anywhere. ”

“I’ve spoken with Claire some. And… I think she wants to talk to Grace. I think sometimes those things need—a person just needs a little bit of time to get up the nerve, you know?”

“Did she say that Grace was mad?” Trevor asked, sounding surprised.

“I think she just feels like she needs to give an apology, and sometimes that can feel like an insurmountable thing. After all, if apologies were easy, it wouldn’t be such a big deal.”

“True.” Trevor nodded. “But I guess you kind of answered her question. Grace wanted to know if Claire was still mad at her, because she’s reached out to Claire several times and Claire hasn’t responded.”

“Claire’s been going through a good bit. I’m guessing that she probably felt like she couldn’t handle even one more thing, but that’s just me guessing.”

“All right. Good to know. If she’s not actively upset, Grace thought she might try reaching out again.”

“I really think Claire could use a friend. I’m not even sure that she knows how much she could use one.”

Trevor’s face became thoughtful, but he just nodded. “There are always times in our lives when we need friends. And I’ve never found that having too many friends was a bad thing.”

“Sometimes it’s hard for me to keep up with everybody. I want to be a good friend, but that takes so much time and work that I feel like I can only have one or two.”

Maybe he was just being weird. Maybe it was a man thing. But he wanted to be a good friend, and he couldn’t do that with a whole pile of people.

“Yeah, I guess you could have a few and go deep, or you can have a lot and just be surface friends. Different personalities prefer different ways.”

Josiah nodded. “Congratulations to you and Grace. I heard that there is a marriage in your future soon.”

“Thanks.” Trevor’s face lit up. “There is. And our parents got married. Did you hear that?”

“I did. Congratulations again, I guess. Lots of marriages going around. ”

And a death. But he didn’t say that. Again, it really wasn’t his news.

“Maybe you’ll have one in your future.”

“I think we’re the only two bachelors in our class. And… If I got married, I wouldn’t be representing the bachelors very well, would I?”

He was making light of the situation. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to get married.

He would like to. But he had the feeling that women looked at a man in his thirties who wasn’t married and who still lived with his parents and figured that there was probably something wrong with him.

Some reason why other women hadn’t been willing to give him a chance.

“Maybe I’m too old,” he muttered, not really expecting Trevor to say anything.

“Don’t forget, we’re the same age, and I’m engaged for the first time.”

“Good point. I didn’t mean to insinuate that you were too old.”

“I always thought Claire had a thing for you. I know that she always acted like she had something for me, but we both know she didn’t. And there was that truth or dare game.”

Josiah grinned. Was the whole class there that day? “It’s funny. The only person I remember being there that day was Claire. And…yeah. Maybe she didn’t have a thing for me, but I had a thing for her. And I wonder how long that lasted.”

“You dated around. I saw you with some other girls.”

“I did.” None of them were Claire. None of them took. Maybe it wouldn’t have mattered that they weren’t Claire, if they had been exceptionally interested in him. But he hadn’t found anyone like that.

“All right. I’ll quit bugging you about it. I guess when a guy gets happy, he wants everyone to be as happy as he is. It’s funny, because I’ve never been a matchmaker.”

“And yet you got your parents together.”

“Did you hear about that?”

Josiah laughed. “It’s a small town, remember?”

“All right. I’ll just leave it at that. Grace will be in touch with Claire. She’ll be happy to know that Claire is not angry. I hope they can work it out. Grace really wants to put the past behind her and rekindle her old friendship with Claire. ”

“I hope they can too. I think it will be good for everyone involved.”

The tragedy loomed large over the whole town, and if the friends could get back together and put it behind them, he couldn’t imagine that everyone wouldn’t benefit. Including him.