Ruth Scofield - In God's Own Time

Meg decided to turn the subject.

“Why don’t you come into the kitchen and supervise icing the cake. Jack and the kids will be here any min—”

Andy and Sara swung through the back screen at that moment, and the phone rang Meg picked up the kitchen extension just as Jack, following the children in, called, “We’re here. Hi, sis.”

She glanced up to smile a welcome at her brother and nearly dropped the phone when she heard Kelsey’s deep voice.

“Sounds like I called at a busy time. Am I interrupting dinner?”

“Oh, Kels.”

Jack looked up, raising his brows. She turned her back on him. He knew her too well, and she didn’t want to risk his reading anything into her expression while her heart pounded into her throat at the very sound of Kelsey’s voice. Her face had always given her away where Kelsey was concerned, anyway.

“No, we haven’t begun yet,” she said.

“Good.” He paused. “About tomorrow…”

Kathy came in with the milk, and joyous shrieks followed when Andy and Sara threw themselves at their mother.

“Hi, munchkins.” Kathy laughed, hugging them close.

“Hmm…a few days absence makes Mommy popular, huh?”

“Definitely does with Daddy,” Jack replied with a wicked grin over his children’s heads, then leaned to kiss his wife.

Meg’s heart always warmed at the love she saw between her brother and his wife, and she even owned up to a bit of envy of it. But now she plugged her ear with a finger against the happy noise.

“I hope my plans with Lissa and Aimee are still on,” she said into the phone.

“Jack,” her mother called from the other room.

“No problem there, Meg,” Kelsey assured. “The girls are so excited, they’ve talked about it all week. They’re trying to make up their minds what to wear.”

“Oh, tell them nothing formal,” she said as Jack landed a kiss on her forehead, leaned into the phone to give a “Hi, Kelsey” before going on his way into the living room. “Shorts, T-shirts and sandals are fine.”

“Okay.” Another pause ensued from his end while a brief knock sounded on the back door.

“May I pop in for just a minute?” Sandy Yoder called through the screen. “I’m not here to stay.”

“Sounds like you’re really busy,” Kelsey said, turning her attention. “Tell old Jack and all hello, and my best to your mother. I’ll, uh…I’ll see you tomorrow, Meg. Bye.”

“Yeah, Kels.” She hung up the phone feeling like Kelsey hadn’t given her the real reason for his call.

The plump woman set a huge cherry pie on the kitchen table. “I just knew you’d have need of a little extra something with Jack and the children in the house for a few days.”

“That’s really nice of you, Mrs. Yoder.” Meg picked up the big ivy leaf platter and dished up the pot roast, her mind only half engaged in what she was doing. What had Kelsey really wanted? “Shall we set a plate for you at the dinner table?”

“Oh, no, dear. I’ve had my supper. Don’t like to eat so late, y’know, and I’m on my way to meet with the church building committee.”

“Why don’t you go on in and say hello to Mom, then,” Meg suggested. The next few minutes bustled by as she made gravy from the pan drippings while Kathy finished getting the other food on the table.

“Well, I’ve got to go,” her mother’s friend said, walking back through the kitchen a few minutes later as Meg filled the iced tea glasses. “The committee is meeting at seven-thirty. Was that Kelsey on the phone a moment ago?”

“Mmm…” Meg answered, concentrating.

“Poor man. He hasn’t been the same since Dee Dee died, y’know,” Mrs. Yoder continued, shaking her head. “Too bad he hasn’t any folks to help with that brood he’s got. They need a mother.”

“I suppose so,” Meg answered automatically.

“He should get on with marrying Linda Burroughs and be done with it. Linda’s good at managing a household, y’know, and she’d put some discipline back into those children.”

Kathy made a quick pass through the kitchen, picked up the bowl of corn and basket of bread rolls, slanted Meg a speaking glance and headed once more for the dining room.

“Oh?” Meg murmured. “I didn’t think they were so badly behaved. Just kids.”

“And Linda’s girl—can’t think of the child’s name—but she’s Lissa’s age. They make a matched pair, I’m thinking.”

Meg had forgotten that Linda had a girl Lissa’s age, and she wondered why Lissa hadn’t bothered to mention it on Sunday. If she and the girl were friends, wouldn’t she have said so? But Lissa hadn’t appeared at all eager to go to the Burroughs’s house, Meg thought.

“I hear you’re taking Lissa and Aimee for a day out tomorrow.”

“Yes, I am.” Now how did Sandy Yoder hear that? From her mother, no doubt.

“That’s very sweet of you, Meg. I’m sure Kelsey will appreciate it as much as the girls. But do you…well, do you honestly think it the best thing? You came home to take care of your mother, after all, and you’ve been home only a week.”

Meg almost laughed aloud at both the sweet patronizing and the gentle reproof. Her mother’s friend meant well, but she still thought of Meg as a youngster who needed a guiding hand. Meg guessed that in the face of her mother’s illness, Sandy Yoder thought she should be the one to offer it.

“Thanks for worrying about Mom, Mrs. Yoder.” She went back to stir the bubbling gravy, then turned off the stove. “But Kathy and Jack are staying till Saturday. Mom won’t miss me tomorrow.”

“Well, if you really think so, I suppose. But Meg, dear, don’t let yourself get too, y’know…involved with Kelsey Jamison. He…well, he’s the kind of man who’s totally self-involved, if you know what I mean. And that farm of his needs so much—”

“Mrs. Yoder…” Meg drew a long breath to keep her temper from rising like the simmering gravy. Her thought of Sandy Yoder being sweet in giving her unsolicited advice just burned to a crisp. The woman wasn’t sweet at all, Meg decided—she was just an old-fashioned busybody.

“Sis, we’re ready.” Jack stuck his head around the old-fashioned swinging kitchen door and threw an unrepentant, pointed grin toward Mrs. Yoder. “Are you?”

“Yes. Yes. Everything’s done in here,” Meg answered in gratitude; another moment and she’d have been very rude indeed. Everyone accepted Jack’s occasional mild rudeness with a shrug, but if she’d cut the woman short, her mother never would’ve heard the end of it, and then Meg in turn would’ve had to hear about it for days.

“Oh, dear. Well, you run along. I’ll pop in again in a few days.”

“Sure, Mrs. Yoder. See you then.” Meg decided she would be very busy the next time her mother’s friend called in to say hello. It would be the truth, anyway. On Monday she had to make contact with her office in London; she’d left two clients in the air about investments She just hoped Clive had been watching their accounts. And she’d postponed a decision on recommending a resort compound for the Neels, her firm’s oldest client. Also, she’d turned over to Clive a new client, an important European hotel chain that sought investors. Another wanted her services in expanding their holdings, wanting to include a strategic piece of real estate in Hawaii.

At eight-thirty Meg tucked her tired mother into bed, and Jack and Kathy did the same for their children before sneaking off to the front porch swing. By nine-thirty Meg looked at her watch and wondered what to do with herself for the next hour. She was restless. The house was quiet.

She might as well pull out some work; she hadn’t touched her briefcase since arriving home. At the very least she could review that real estate proposal and the report on the financial stability of the firm making the offer.