Two Months Later
“I wish Dawn could be here for this. Nobody grills baby back ribs like your father,” Paige’s mother said, and Paige watched as she took a small bite. For her second day home, her mom was doing wonderfully. She was still so thin, so frail. But healthy—for now, at least. And today Paige would finally get to take her parents to see her pride and joy. Her mom looked across the picnic table as Paige’s father polished off another rib. “Maybe you should save her some.”
He grinned a messy smile. “There’s plenty. From the look on her face when she left a while ago, she wished she was staying, too. I hope her daddy’s not too hard on her—maybe I should go over and talk to him.”
Paige nudged her father with her elbow. “What would you say?”
“You know, don’t be too hard on your girl, she’s learned her lesson the hard way. Now’s a good time to lighten up.” He reached down to pet Dusty. “What are you begging about? You know we never feed you from the table.”
Tony choked and coughed. “Oops. Sorry, sir, guess that’s my fault.”
Paige’s father looked over at him. “Say what?”
“Well, the young man has such large brown eyes, and when he looks at me, I just can’t take it. I’d give him the steak off my plate if he looked at me long enough.”
“Well then, I just got one thing to say to you. You’re toast.”
Tony smiled at him. “Toast?”
“Cooked. Burnt, if you want to know the whole truth. If Dusty’s theatrics make you cave so quick . . . Paige has always been able to melt me with her big ol’ blue eyes—she had me wearing a tiara and fake jewels when she was little, sitting through jazz concerts when she got older.”
Tony clasped her hand under the table. “There’s a problem I think I’d like to spend the next sixty years figuring out.”
Paige squeezed his hand. “Only sixty?”
“Yeah, I figure by the time I’m ninety, you’ll be getting old. I’ll be looking for someone younger then.”
Paige swatted at him with her free hand. “Thanks a lot.”
“Yep, you’re burnt toast all right.”
Paige felt her heart would surely burst as she finally led her parents through the lobby to the door of the pharmacy. “What do you think so far?”
Her mother’s smile was still weak, but it lit the room. “It’s everything I imagined it to be.” She leaned on her husband’s arm for support as she looked up at the sign. “You couldn’t have chosen a more perfect name, could you?”
Since it was closed on Sundays, Paige had to unlock the door and hold it open. “Welcome to Daybreak Apothecary. Please, come in, look around, make yourself at home.”
“Oh, Norman, look at this.” Her mother’s voice floated across the store.
Paige went back to start a pot of coffee. Today, she would share it with her parents and Tony and drink it in Ora’s honor.
“Oh, honey, this is just beautiful.” Her mother came to sit in the waiting area. “It’s exactly what I always dreamed of for you.”
“It’s more than I ever dreamed for myself.” Paige thought about the truth in that statement. This might have been a fantasy, but she had never allowed herself to dream beyond the HMO job in Atlanta.
It occurred to her then that it had taken every single one of the bad things that had happened to cause her to land here, exactly where she wanted to be, doing exactly what she wanted to do. There was so much truth in what Ora had said. At the time that seems darkest, when the city is surrounded and all apparently lost, the only thing to do is stand your ground and have faith for the break of day.
The next morning, Paige left a bit before everyone else to make a quick detour. She’d made this trip at least once a week and walked to Ora’s grave under a beautiful spreading elm. Like each previous time, she stood and marveled once again at the inscription Ora had requested on her tombstone. Who knows but that you have come here for such a time as this? Esther 4:14.
“Ora, I still don’t know what you had in mind when you selected that verse, but I believe God sent you to me for just this time.” She looked at the sky. “Thank You. Thank You for sharing her with me.”
The sun broke over the horizon as Paige reached her car and drove away.