By Summer's End (Christian Fiction) (18 page)

The thought of Ben brought a tear to her
eye.  Ryan noticed.   “Ah, Annabelle.  I didn’t mean to make you cry.  I know
you’re stunned to hear your brother might actually be capable of loving…”

She gave a dismissive wave.  “It’s not
that.  You’re going to make somebody a wonderful husband someday, if you’d just
be yourself and stop trying to live up to Dad’s ridiculous idea of manhood. 
Frankly, neither one of us is like him.  We’re both much more like mom,
according to Ben.”

Ryan wasn’t sure how to respond to
that.  He felt he was much more like their father than she realized.  He’d had
astounding success in the family business, growing it far beyond anything his
father had achieved while at the helm.  What did that say about him? 

“Ryan, God says, ‘Be still and know that
I am God.’”

He cocked his head in frustration and
glared at Annabelle.  “Yeah?  Okay.” 
Wait, hadn’t he used those very words
to calm the horse?

“Ryan, be still.  Don’t make any rash
decisions.  Give your worries to God.”

He laughed.  “That’s easier said than
done.”

“No, it isn’t!” she cried.  “The fact
is, you don’t know which end is up right now.  You have too much on your
plate—too many decisions to make.  So, don’t make any right now.  Or, I don’t
know.  Prioritize.  We really don’t need to make any decisions about the land. 
Put that aside for now.  We don’t need to sell it.”  She paused and sighed.  “I
guess I do believe you need to decide what to do about the business.  Ryan, I’d
sell it.  Drake and Bill plan to make you a terrific offer.  Just be free of it
once and for all.  You hate it and you know it.”

“Dad would turn over in his grave,” he
said ruefully.

“Yeah, and Ben will sit up and applaud.”

He searched his sister’s face.  “You
really think I should sell it?  You don’t want your future children working in
the family business?”

She gave a shudder.  “I wouldn’t let
them,” she asserted.  “I won’t let my children profit from others’ misery.”

Ryan felt as if he’d been punched in the
gut.  Leave it to Annabelle to sum up his life’s work in such horrific terms.  “What
would I do instead, Annabelle?”

“That’s the beauty of it,” she said,
beaming.  “The world is your oyster, brother.”

Holly walked into the house.  Her mind
was fraught with fear at the thought of Ryan confronting a huge horse and
attempting to make it go where he wanted it to go.  As naturally as she took a
breath, she began praying for his safety.  “Lord, please make the horse
complacent.  Please keep it calm so that neither Ryan nor Annabelle get hurt.”

“What is it, Holly?” Brianna asked with
concern.

She quickly explained about the horse
and Brianna’s eyes widened fearfully.  “Should I go help them?” she asked.

“No!  You should not help them,” Holly
said, aghast at the thought of her sister anywhere near an escaped stallion.

Brianna’s face was rife with worry. 
“Holly, what should we do?” she cried.  “We need to help them.”

“We pray,” Holly said adamantly, and
reached for her sister’s hands.  She prayed aloud for the McGraws’ safety, and
even for the well-being of the horse.  When she was done, she opened her eyes
and caught Brianna staring at her. 

“I feel better,” the teenager said,
sounding surprised.  “I’ve never talked to God before.”

“I do it every day, all day,” Holly
confided.  “I don’t know what I’d do without Him.  He’s my dearest friend.”

Brianna smiled.  “I guess I’ve never
thought of God in those terms,” she said. 

Holly suddenly felt calmer, as if she
sensed that the stallion was safely stowed away in his stall.  Brianna seemed
to sense the change in her.  “Your prayer was answered, huh?”

“I believe so,” she said, smiling
softly.

“Wow, that’s really something,” she
said, starting off toward her bedroom.  She suddenly came to a stop.  “Hey, you
distracted me from something important,” she accused.

“Not on purpose,” Holly protested with a
smile.

“You kissed Ryan!” she said in a
sing-song voice, as she began dancing around the room.  “Don’t bother denying
it, because I saw you.”

“You saw?” Holly cried, mortified.

“Of course.  How could I not with my
face pressed against the window?”  She laughed with delight when she saw
Holly’s horrified expression.  “Don’t worry.  I closed the drapes when I
realized you might be locking lips for awhile.”

“Brianna!”

In response, she hurried into her
bedroom.  She came out a few minutes later dressed and ready for bed.  She
found Holly sitting in the recliner, her expression pensive.  She glanced up. 
“I shouldn’t have kissed him,” she declared.  “It was wrong.”

“Holly, it’s okay,” Brianna assured her
with a laugh.  “You’re over twenty-one, remember?”

“No, I mean…  I have convictions,
Brianna.  One of the most important, and that I’ve always lived by, is that I
will only date a Christian, and only someone I feel I could possibly marry
someday.”

“Marry Ryan,” she said, swooning
dreamily.

“Honey, you don’t understand.  I can’t
marry a non-Christian.  To do so is to sign up for so many problems.  God must
be at the core of any marriage.  It’s the only way a marriage can succeed.”

“Annabelle is a Christian,” Brianna
mused.  “Maybe Ryan is too.”

Holly considered the possibility.  But
she remembered Jim’s surprise at seeing Ryan at church, apparently for the first
time in a long while.  But then, one didn’t have to attend church to have a
relationship with Christ…  But on the other hand…

She suddenly felt sick to her stomach. 
She couldn’t deny enjoying kissing Ryan.  She couldn’t deny feeling attracted
to him.  She couldn’t deny that she went weak in the knees when she was within
close proximity to him, and that she wanted nothing more than to find herself
in his arms.

“Oh, Lord,” she prayed silently,
glancing heavenward.  “Guide my way.  Let thy will be done.”

Brianna frowned.  “You just asked God
for help, huh?” she said, measuring her with a look.  “But what if
God
wants you and Ryan to be together?”

Holly shrugged her shoulders.  “Then I
guess He’ll work it out, but in the meantime, I have to proceed with caution.” 
When her face suddenly fell, Brianna hurried to her side.  “What is it?  Are
you okay?”

“I…”  She attempted a reassuring smile. 
“I almost forgot about my debt.” 

“You’re not going to let that stop you
from getting to know Ryan, right?  I mean, that would be silly, Holly.”

“Hey, let’s talk about something else. 
I’m just not ready for a relationship anyway.”

Brianna sighed with frustration.  She
felt in her heart that Holly and Ryan were a perfect match.  She hoped Holly
wouldn’t shut Ryan out without giving him a fair chance.

As she headed off to bed soon after, she
did something she had never done before.  She dropped to her knees beside the
bed.  She put her hands together in prayer.  “God,” she began tentatively, “I’m
not sure I know how to pray, but I’m going to try.”  She took a deep breath and
continued.  “God, Holly and I like it here in Washington.  I know.  I’m as
surprised as you are.  If you’re really real, you know I only agreed to come
out here because it’s so much closer to California than back home.  I figured I
could catch a ride with some guy and head south on I-5 to Hollywood…”  She
smiled sheepishly.  “I’ve always wanted to be a movie star…  But, well, anyway,
I like it here and hope that Holly and I can stay.  The thing is, I feel bad
that Holly has no personal life to speak of, because she’s working so hard to
pay off her debt, and to take care of me…”

Suddenly, she felt awkward and rose from
her kneeling position.  She dropped onto the bed and lay back against her
pillow.  She stared out the window and into the darkness beyond.  She could see
nothing in the night sky.  “God,” she began again, “if Ryan is the guy for
Holly, could you open her heart to the possibility?  Maybe you could help us
out by finding a way for Holly to pay off her mom’s hospital bills so she
wouldn’t see herself as such a burden to a potential husband…”

Her words dwindled off.  Thinking about
Holly’s debt due to medical bills reminded her of the brief time her mother had
been in the hospital after the crash.  She’d been in intensive care for a day,
only to pass away from the severity of her injuries.  Her father had died at
the scene of the crash, though he had been able to speak briefly to rescuers
before he had passed.

She would never forget the sight of her
mother, bruised and broken on the bed, and hooked up to all sorts of machines
and monitors.  The doctors had given her little chance of surviving and it
turned out they were right.

Brianna suddenly wondered if things
might have turned out differently if she had only turned to God.  Why hadn’t
she prayed for her mother to live?

She remembered a saying, ‘There are not
atheists in foxholes.’  Seeing her mother at death’s door had been the most
traumatic event of her life, yet she hadn’t turned to God.  It hadn’t even
occurred to her, but then, she had grown up around people who scorned those who
counted themselves believers.  Her father had often said of life, ‘This is it,
kid.  Your one shot.  Enjoy it, because there is no hereafter.  We’re all
destined to be worm food.”

Remembering the pastor’s sermon earlier
today, in which he had said that believers would be in heaven with God someday,
and that non-believers would end up in…

She shuddered.  Her parents…

She jumped off the bed and dashed out of
her bedroom.  She saw Holly’s bedroom door was closed.  A slice of light
slanted beneath the door, so she knew she was awake.  Hurrying toward the door,
she knocked, but flung it open before Holly could answer.

Holly was just climbing into bed but
paused when she saw her sister’s face.  Her eyes were wide with fright. 
“Brianna, are you all right?” she asked worriedly.

“I don’t know,” she said shakily.  “Can
I…  Would it be okay if…?”

“What is it, Brianna?”

“May I sleep in here tonight?”

“Sure,” she answered, watching her with
concern.  “Climb into bed.  I’ll get the light.”

They both climbed between the covers. 
Holly turned off the lamp on the small bedside table, and then reached for
Brianna’s hand.  She gave it a squeeze.  “Are you all right?” she asked.

“I…”

Holly felt Brianna trembling beside
her.  Alarmed, she sat up and turned the light back on.  “Brianna, what is it? 
Please talk to me.”

The girl sat up and drew her knees to
her chest.  She turned toward her sister.  “I…  Well, I just prayed to God…”

“You did?” Holly cut in.  She was
delighted to hear that Brianna had apparently gone to God with whatever was
troubling her.

“Yes, I prayed,” she said.  “I mean, I
don’t know if I did it right, but…”

“Honey,” she cut in.  “I’m sure you did
just fine.  But, what’s bothering you?”

“I got to thinking about the pastor’s
sermon.  You know, he talked about how we should ask God into our heart and
that if we believe in Him and ask forgiveness for our sins, we’ll be with Him
in heaven when we die.”

She nodded.  “Yes.  I remember.  Did you
… ask God into your heart?”

“Well, no…  I mean, I started talking to
Him, so I guess I did sort of invite him into my life…”  She furrowed her brows
in confusion.

“Do you want to ask Him into your
heart?  Would you like me to pray with you?”

“No, I mean, I might—when I understand
better.  It’s just…”

“Go on,” Holly prompted.

“Well, my parents didn’t believe, and if
what the pastor said is true, that means they aren’t with God, but are
instead…”  Her face suddenly crunched in misery.  “Holly, they’re…”

Holly’s heart twisted with pain.  She
could see the anguish in her sister’s eyes.  She hurriedly took a hold of her
hands and began praying.  “Lord, please be with Brianna and comfort her during
this difficult time.  Lord, she loved her parents and is worried for their
souls.  We pray to you that her parents found you before they passed.  We pray
that they reached out to you during their final moments.  We know that you’re
good, and loving, and forgiving and that you care deeply for your children.  We
know that you sought to love Brianna’s parents and that you don’t give up
easily.  We know that if they called out to you at the end, you were there to
gather them close to you…”  She ended the prayer and met her sister’s gaze.

“Do you think they might be in heaven,
Holly?  Do you really think there’s a chance?” Brianna asked.

“Honey, there’s always a chance.  Some
people find the lord at the end of their lives.”

“Does God give you credit for that?”
Brianna asked.  “You mean, you can be a nonbeliever your whole life and then
accept God at the end of your life and still make it to Heaven?”

“Honey, I don’t have all the answers,
but I know God wants us to come to Him, regardless of when and where and how. 
He gives all of us the opportunity to accept the gift of salvation through
Him.”

Brianna lay back against the pillow and
contemplated her words.  “I hope my parents became believers,” she said with a
sigh.  “I really do.”

“I do too.  Let’s try to sleep.  If you
need me during the night, wake me up.  Okay?”

“Holly?”

“Yes?”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Holly held Brianna’s hand until she
detected the change in her breathing and realized she was asleep.  Her heart
broke for her sister.  Moments before, Brianna had been in terrible pain,
fearing the very worst for two people whom she had loved most in the world. 

As she lay beside her, she struggled to
remember their father.  Since he’d been a part of her life until she was
twelve, she figured she should retain many vivid memories of him, yet, she
didn’t.   She realized she had never really known him.  She’d always been close
to her mother, but her father remained an enigma. 

Her mother had never spoken ill of her
father, but Holly had finally pressed her for some information about him when
she was eighteen.  She had been hesitant to say much, but had finally admitted
that her former husband had been arrogant—routinely putting on airs in order to
elevate himself above others.  He had often embarked upon ‘get rich quick’
schemes that had cost them their savings on several occasions, and had taken to
the bottle which each subsequent failure.

When her mother had urged him to turn to
God, to pray for his salvation, and to be content with the many blessings in
their lives, he had scoffed at her—calling her weak and simple-minded.  He had
laughed scornfully at her faith, and when he’d begun cheating on her, had
suggested it was her fault, since she’d put her ‘religion’ before him.

It broke Holly’s heart that Brianna had
lived for fifteen years with two people who hadn’t put her needs above their
own.  They had died from injuries sustained in a crash, caused by Alex, whose
blood alcohol level was double the legal limit.  He had driven while drunk,
with little regard for the possibility that he could kill someone while behind
the wheel.  Holly had learned that her father had been driving without a
license, since it had been suspended due to his having been arrested for DUI on
two previous occasions.