Chapter Two
I stood there in front of his family and I knew that they didn’t approve. It’s the way that they looked at me with a critical eye that made me believe I wasn’t welcome. I’m standing my ground, putting my best foot forward and hoping that I will be able to win them over in the end. His mother has the air of a schoolteacher that I had when I was younger, with a strict attitude and the ruler to go along with the discipline. She wears her displeasure like a badge of honor.
“I can’t believe that you would bring this woman into our house and tell us that you are marrying her. You don’t even know each other. This is not the way things are done.” His younger brother Daniel was smiling like he was having the time of his life. I could only assume that he was enjoying the fact that Grady’s mother was now putting the attention on the golden boy.
“I’ve never been more disappointed in you in my life, Grady. She doesn’t belong here and I will not have her living underneath my roof.”
Grady put his finger up and I could tell that he had something important to say.
“For one thing, what I do with my life is none of your business. For another, this is not your house and you’re only living here because I have allowed it. You and my brother think that you have a monopoly over me. I’m the one that decides my own fate. I don’t need your constant disapproval and glaring looks to make things any worse.”
I liked that he was strong and confident and was willing to put his foot down where it mattered the most. He didn’t remind me of some wimpy little kid that was a mama’s boy.
“I’ve never heard you speak to me like that before and I don’t want to hear it again. She is a bad influence on you and this whole thing is disgusting. If your father was alive right now, he would be so mad at you that you wouldn’t have any place you could hide. I can only imagine that he’s probably rolling over in his grave. You have made this family a laughing stock. People will not be able to look at us without judging us this way to Sunday. Do you know what kind of rumors will spread because of this?” Even though she didn’t have a leg to stand, didn’t mean that his mother wasn’t going to put up a fight.
“I don’t know why you even care what other people think. You get too caught up in everybody else and you don’t concern yourself with what really matters. Family is the lifeblood of any society. Delia has come here to find a new life and I’ve graciously offered my hand in marriage. Nothing is for certain and things can change. As far as I can tell, she really enjoys being here, even though I suspect that she’s not very happy with the drama that she’s walked into.”
That was a vast understatement. I had no idea that this was what I had signed up for, but I felt like I had a duty to at least see it through.
His mother Marianne turned around and walked away with this cold icy stare at me. It made me speechless to say anything in my own defense. She was good at getting her way, but this was not her house. She really couldn’t dictate who was going to live here and who wasn’t. It was nice of him to open up his home to his mother and to his brother, but he didn’t have to. I’d always believed that blood was thicker than water and Grady was proving to me that he was a man of honor and substance.
I went to him and held his hand, giving him my strength and showing him that I was going to stand with him through any trial or tribulation.
“I know that didn’t go, as well as you would have hoped it would have, Grady. You had to know that they would be a little shocked to hear that you had turned to a mail order bride to find happiness. It’s not conventional and people are going to feel that they have the right to tell us what they think. You may not have to listen to your family, but they will always be there for you, regardless of how this works out.”
His fingers had entwined around my own and I could feel that he was drawing from me what he needed to stand up and be noticed.
There was clapping. We turned and saw that Daniel was mocking us.
“It’s nice to see that you can do something wrong, brother. I always thought that I would always be in the doghouse, but apparently you have your place there yourself. To me, I don’t care what you do and I’ve never cared what you did with your life. We will never see eye to eye. I think we both know the reason why. I only came here at the bequest of our mother to make sure that there was a buffer between the two of you.”
He placed his hands in his pockets and he walked out whistling a tune.
“I don’t think that I have to tell you that my brother is an asshole. We’ve never really talked much and the love and the connection that we had in the past was severed by a woman.”
I should’ve known that there was a woman involved. Where a brother and another brother fought, there was always some underlying reason.
“I really don’t want to get into it, but love is a strange and fickle mistress.” I wanted to give him comfort and aid in his hour of need, but I was not that type of woman. I could stand with him and give him a shoulder to lean on, but that was as far as I was going to go.
“I don’t like that you kept a lot of this from me. You could have told me, but maybe you thought that I wouldn’t have seen you worthy of my love. I haven’t decided where I’m going to land on all of this. Right now, I’m taking everything with a grain of salt. That’s the best that I can do, under the circumstances.”
Witnessing the strain between family members had raised my curiosity to find out more. Normally, I would talk to each family member individually, but this time it was going to be different.
The main contention between them was me. Stepping into the middle of things was just going to make things worse. When we rode to his place, he told me that he wanted to announce our engagement at Sunday services. I was reluctant, but having him there might be exactly what I needed to stand and not feel like I was encroaching on somebody’s territory. I’d always been someone that wanted the best for everyone around me. I may not be a therapist, but I did know how to read people and to determine what was best to make things better.
“I don’t think that I can ask for anything more than that. I know that I lied to you and I feel bad about that, but I thought that it was the only way that you would come here under your own free will. I believed that once you got here that I would be able to sway your opinion to my side. I just want what everybody else wants and I really don’t see that happening with any of the girls here. My mother has already told me that none of them were my type. I don’t normally take her advice on anything, but this one time I believe her to be right.”
We walked out of the house and immediately felt in awe at everything that we saw around us. Nature was beautiful and splendid in its own way.
“I feel like taking a walk.” He tried to move away from me, but I grabbed onto his hand like an anchor weighing him down.
“I never said that I wanted to take a walk alone. You should show me around.”
He smiled, thinking that maybe I was willing to at least entertain the idea of sticking around for the long haul.
“I’m not promising anything. One thing that I want to make very clear is that I cannot live with your family fighting each other at every turn. We need to do something about that, even if it means that we’re going to have a family meeting.”
He did not look happy, but I think he was only going along because he thought that I might be right.
“I need you to see something, but I don’t think that it’s right for me to put you in the middle of things. It will make things more clear and I feel that you need to have all the information that you can get your hands on. This will be very difficult for many reasons, but you’ll see what I mean when we get there.”
This was his place and even though his mother thought that he she ruled the roost didn’t mean that it was true.
“I’ve hidden one more thing. It has to do with my brother.”
We walked in the field, feeling more like we were on a date instead of being set up for failure. I looked at him and I could see that something was haunting in his eyes. Something had grabbed hold of his soul and had frozen it in time. His brother had had that same look, but it was more like he wanted to wrap his hands around Grady’s throat. Daniel did not have any problem showing his anger that was seeping out of every pore. He was an angry young man that had a chip on his shoulder the size of the rock of Gibraltar.
I had to believe that the woman in question that had caused this rift was no longer in the picture. There was no talk about this mysterious woman. Nobody had spoken her name and maybe they were afraid of what kind of memories they would uncover. This was obviously an old wound and by poking at it, I had made it fester into something ugly.
“I have to tell you that your property is very amazing. I see that you have everything tyou need right here. You’re the type of guy that takes care of family, regardless of your personal opinion. You have this obligation weighing down on your shoulders and I’m glad that I’m here to help take some of the strain off.”
I was not a professional, but I was a meddler from a long time ago. I could never leave anything alone and for Grady I was going to take that one step further.
“I’m very proud of my accomplishments. My father was very vocal about how he wanted me to succeed. I don’t think my mother would agree that I’ve made anything of my life, but it’s not her life. The one thing that I have learned is that time is a commodity that can be lost like that. They say that time heals all wounds, but five years is a long time to keep this particular animosity alive between myself and my brother. Daniel can never forget and I will never forgive.”
Those were harsh words and I was hoping that I could bring the two brothers back together again.
The air was ripe with tension but out here in the middle of nature, it all washed away. It was replaced by living in the moment. I was tempted to wrap my arm around him, but I thought that that might be a little too presumptuous. We barely knew each other and staying underneath the same roof was going to be hard to deal with, especially with his family underfoot.
“I get the sense that you were never really close with your brother. You may have convinced yourself otherwise, but I think that there was still a form of jealousy. You are the older brother and he was always in your shadow. He had big shoes to fill and you had even bigger shoes to fill when your father died.”
I saw his eyes well up and he was close to tears. He didn’t show that kind of emotion and maybe he was under the impression that a man didn’t do that.
“I don’t want to get into the middle of things, but you’ve made it very difficult for me not to.”
“I’m glad that you’re around, but I hope you don’t think you are going to make things better. My brother and I have a reason to be angry at each other. I’ve tried to reach out, but he has always slapped my hand away in defiance. He wants nothing to do with me, even though I feel that it was his fault for all of it. I was willing to look past it. I may not be able to forgive, but I could at least show some restraint in knocking his teeth out.”
I was getting closer to the truth and with each step into the field, I felt like he was leading me by the hand to something of great revelation.
“I would suggest that you try harder to make up with Daniel, but I can only do so much. Like a horse, you can lead them to water, but you can’t make them drink.”
I didn’t know if that analogy was fitting, but it felt right at the time. I heard the birds in the distance singing their song and it brought to mind those times that I had found myself enjoying the weather in India. It might’ve been hot, but there were ways to cool off.
His steps were getting shaky and the path was now showing a worn footpath that led to somewhere that was holding his heart hostage. I could see that he was visibly distressed. He had to stop for a moment to catch his breath. It wasn’t because he was running or taxing his body, but it was his soul that was holding him by a thin thread. If I were to pull too tightly he may break like a broken doll. I didn’t know how fragile his mind was, but something was definitely putting him to the test.
“Grady, this whole thing sounds like it needs to be aired publicly.” I needed to find a way to get them together to hash this thing out once and for all. It was only hurting them from moving forward. I’d also seen that his heart was not open to a new love. He claimed in his letter that he was ready, but I could see now that he was only fooling himself.
We came to a sudden stop and I looked down to see that there was a gravestone with the name of Stephanie Archer. There wasn’t much that needed to be said, as he crumpled onto the ground on his hands and knees.