Everyday Blessings

“After a month of missionary work, she says she’s looking forward to the creature comforts of indoor plumbing and air-conditioning.”

There was a lot they didn’t say, but Aubrey knew what Ava was thinking. So many serious issues were hammering hard on their family right now. Spence and Katherine, who both had spoken to their grandmother Whitman on the phone, had concerns about her health. Gran was their mom’s mom, who had decided to snowbird in Arizona and wound up staying there for the past few years. So far away, it wasn’t as if they could be there to help her out.

Then there was this thing with Jonas, and it had all of them running as fast as they could to help Danielle and the kids get through it.

And then there was Rebecca and her not so nice boyfriend, Chris. It had been a good thing for her to be away in Mexico for a chunk of the summer without phone service. But now she was coming back and Aubrey had real concerns—and so did Ava. She could tell by the dark look.

“What happened to boring?” Ava asked as she snatched an armload of books from the cart. “Remember when our lives were so boring all we did was yawn?”

“If I remember correctly, you were complaining you were bored and kept praying for something exciting to happen.”

Ava slid the first book onto a place in the shelf. “I’ve learned my lesson. I’m never praying for something to break up the doldrums again.”

“Be careful what you pray for, huh?” Aubrey teased as she sidled close to her twin and pulled out the book she’d just shelved in the wrong place. “I guess that means this is all your fault.”

“What’s your fault?” Spence strode toward them, glowering, but he was more bark than bite. “And you’re late. Again.”

“I know.” Ava shrugged as if it was no biggie. “I’m just lucky I could make it at all.”

Spence’s left eyebrow shot up in a furious arch. “We’re truly lucky you graced us with your presence. Aubrey, did she misshelf that book?”

“Not now.” Aubrey easily slipped the volume in where it belonged. “Ava’s holding down two jobs, and helping out Dani. You could be more flexible.”

“I could be, but I’m not going to.” He almost said it without a hint of humor.

She wasn’t fooled. “Go back to your computer. We’ve got it covered.”

“You’ll watch the front?”

“There isn’t a single customer in the store. Stop worrying.” She often thought that instead of giving her worries up to God, she’d just give them to Spence. He wasn’t happy unless he was worrying over something. “Ava brought Mr. Paco’s Tacos nachos.”

Not amused by the rhyme, Spence jammed his hands into the pockets of his perfectly creased trousers. “No food near the books.” He scowled extra hard as if to make up for the ghost of his smile and stormed off.

They watched him go. Aubrey didn’t know what to do with their taciturn older brother. She knew Ava didn’t, either.

Ava was the first to speak. “Do you know what he needs?”

“Exactly. A girlfriend. But how impossible is that?”

“I’ve been praying.” Ava had an undeniable gift for prayer. “Just like I’ve been praying for you, too, so brace yourself.”

“Ha-ha, very funny. I can’t imagine some guy falling for me.”

“What kind of talk is that? If I can break my date-only-duds pattern, then you can break this no-dating-ever habit you’ve got going.” Her two-carat engagement diamond chose that moment to sparkle as she shelved a book. “It’s all about positive thinking. That, and a lot of prayer. Oh, and the right man coming along at the exact same moment.”

“We both know how hard that is to accomplish.” Aubrey didn’t mind that she didn’t have a boyfriend who was so deeply in love he couldn’t wait to marry her. Really. Okay, so she did. “Anyway, I love my life the way it is.”

“Okay, but that’s not going to stop me from praying hard for you.” Ava’s cell chimed a cheerful tune and she abandoned her shelving to search through her pockets for her phone. She studied the screen and brightened like a star in the heavens. “It’s Brice.”

Her fiancé. Aubrey pulled the book Ava had misshelved and whispered, “Go into the break room. Go on.”

“Thanks. I owe ya. Hello, there, handsome.” Ava’s smile was 100 percent pure joy as she skipped away, answering the call. Her voice, filled with love and happiness, faded away as she disappeared from sight.

Aubrey hated to admit it, but no amount of Ava’s praying was going to help. She was looking thirty in the face and had never been on a date. It wasn’t as if she was likely to start now. She was a wallflower and doomed to stay that way. She didn’t mind, really. Think of all the blessings she already had in her life. A big loving family. Her left leg, which had healed miraculously enough for her to walk. She had her art and her horse and a good life. She didn’t have any business regretting the blessings she didn’t have.

And why did her thoughts return to William?

Call her curious. She happened to have a few books to shelve in the next aisle. She’d been in such a hurry, she hadn’t taken the time to check out whether they had any of William’s photography books in stock. Maybe now was as good a time as any to see, with her lunch break coming up and no one in the store.

She knelt down and found two of William’s books. One was a big coffee-table type collection full of rich, colorful photos. She took the other, a smaller collection with text from Scripture, and stacked them on the cart. After all, she’d need something to read while she ate lunch, right?

By the time she’d shelved the first row of books on the cart, Ava had come back into sight, grinning from ear to ear. It was a good thing to see amidst all the sadness and worry in their family.

“Brice is going to do my afternoon deliveries. Whew.” Ava was working two jobs to keep her bakery business afloat. “Oh, how about that? You pulled one of William Corey’s books.”

“I was curious. I mean, I’ve seen his stuff before.” Aubrey shrugged as if it was no big deal. The question was, why did it feel like a big deal? She hardly knew the man. “I just wanted to look again, after meeting him.”

“Danielle said he came to the hospital.” Ava stopped to flip open the book. “I had no idea. I guess Jonas knew him from some distant tie to the united churches charities. He’s a big donor, I guess.”

“I’m not surprised.” Aubrey thought of the story William had told her, and the truth he’d trusted her with. He’d struck her as a deeply private person, and she didn’t feel comfortable saying anything to Ava.

She looked over her twin’s shoulder. The first photograph was one of his most collected works, a subtle sunrise scene over the craggy amethyst mountains in Glacier National Park. She recognized the scene because she’d been to Glacier a few times. The lake beneath the mountains glowed as if each rippling wave of water had been painted with rosy, opalescent paint. The photograph seemed to glow with a life—and hope—of its own.

It was hard to reconcile with the man in the chapel. A man who looked as if he’d had all the hope torn out of him. She didn’t know why she ached with sympathy for him. Maybe because tragedy had hit her family, too. Maybe. But somehow her sympathy for William felt more powerful than that. As if by sharing his story, she’d seen more of the private man, the tender places within that no one knew.

“Talk about beautiful stuff.” Ava turned page after page. “It’s a shame he doesn’t work anymore. I’ve heard it’s hard to get hold of some of his prints. They’re all limited editions or something.”