what was going on.
It was the first time the brothers had spoken in seven years.
Clay could still hear the hard, stilted tone of Jesse’s voice as he recounted how his wife had been killed during a tornado that touched down in the area.
Thousands of miles away and weeks after her death, Clay hadn’t known what to say. His heart went out to Jesse, but he couldn’t find the words he needed to offer his brother comfort. It had always been that way between them. How could two sons of the same parents be so different?
Clay had finally asked, “Do you want me to come home?”
Oh, how he needed Jesse to say yes, but his tough-as-nails sibling replied, “Don’t rush back on my account. We’ve managed without you this long.”
It didn’t take a genius to read between the lines. What Jesse meant was don’t come back at all. Jesse hadn’t forgiven Clay for his role in the death of their parents. The hurt went bone-deep.
Clay had gone back into the wilderness with his next group of clients a few days later. Weeks after his call to Jesse, Clay learned about his sister’s marriage in much the same fashion. This time, there had been a letter waiting for him when he got back to the ranch.
He would have liked to have been there for Maya’s big day, but it seemed that she and her new husband, Greg Garrison, were in a hurry so they could foster a six-year-old boy named Tommy Jacobs.
Since Maya already had a three-year-old daughter, Clay realized he now had more relatives that he hadn’t met than ones he knew. Jesse had triplet daughters that were only a few months old, and he was raising them by himself. Jesse never did things the easy way.
“High Plains, Kansas. Where is that?” Tanner asked. “My grandparents live in Wichita.”
From behind them, Karen’s know-it-all voice cut in. “That’s where my class sent a big card on the first day of school. We all signed it.”
“Oh, right,” Tanner replied. “The town that was almost wiped out by a tornado.”
Clay glanced between the kids. “Are you sure you aren’t thinking of Greensburg?”
Karen’s face scrunched into a scowl. She threw a handful of straw at Clay. “My teacher said High Plains!”
“Karen, be nice,” Tanner chided.
“You’re not the boss of me,” she shot back, making a face and sticking her tongue out at him.
Tanner finished his horse and turned the animal loose in the stall. “She’s right. It was High Plains. It was all over the news for a couple of days. If Mr. Hollister will let us use his computer, I can show you the story on the Internet.”
Karen rolled her eyes. “We could have used mine, but Dad wouldn’t let me bring my laptop. He said this was going to be a real old-fashioned vacation.”
Clay gaped at her. “You have a laptop? Aren’t you in, what, the first grade?”
She snatched up two more handfuls of straw to fling at him. “Second grade!”
Karen’s brush with death hadn’t reduced her sassiness one bit.
Tanner walked toward the barn door. “Ignore her. It works for me.”
Fifteen minutes later, Clay was leaning over Tanner’s shoulder as he pulled up picture after picture of High Plains, shredded by a tornado. Hundred-year-old trees stripped bare, building and cars reduced to shattered jumbles of rubble.
Why hadn’t Jesse or Maya told him about this?
Because they think I don’t care.
Maya had mentioned in her letter that the cleanup was continuing after the storm and that she and Greg were planning to hold a wedding reception in the Old Town Hall when repairs were finished, hopefully by Christmas. She’d also written to expect an invitation.
Clay had no idea the damage to High Plains had been so severe. He couldn’t believe he had to find out what had happened to his hometown from strangers when he’d spoken to Jesse on the phone only weeks after the event.
Clay had to acknowledge that he hadn’t exactly stayed on the line to chitchat with Jesse after learning about Marie’s death. Had Maya assumed Jesse filled Clay in on the details of the storm? She must have, or she would have tried contacting him again.
With a sinking heart, he realized his silence all these months probably convinced her he didn’t care.
Next, Tanner brought up a national news story about the storm’s aftermath. As shots of the devastation flashed by in a slide show, Clay stared at them in shock. He recognized the ruins as buildings in the downtown area. The town he knew was all but gone. Wiped out in a day.
Suddenly, a familiar face flashed onto the screen. A second later another picture of a broken building replaced it.
Clay gripped Tanner’s shoulder. “Stop. Go back.”
Tanner did as he asked. Clay leaned closer to the monitor. Nicki stood in front of a pile of rubble with her arm around an old woman clinging to a broken umbrella. Nicki’s face glistened with tears.
His heart ached for the look of loss in her eyes, but she was still the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. Time hadn’t changed that.
He read the caption under the photo: “High Plains residents console each other near the ruins of their historic Old Town Hall.”
Clay closed his eyes as a feeling of helplessness swallowed him whole. He should be there. Jesse, Maya, Nicki, the whole community had suffered a terrible loss, and he hadn’t done a thing to help.
“Is that someone you know?” Tanner’s voice broke into Clay’s thoughts.
“Yeah.” Someone he used to know. Someone he’d left behind a long time ago. What a stupid, stupid mistake that had been.
Shame, anger and guilt had driven Clay out of town. His juvenile pride had kept him away. All this time. All this wasted time.
The next page Tanner brought up was dated the previous month. It was a story about the rebuilding efforts in High Plains. According to the article, the first overwhelming response of volunteers had dwindled leaving much of the town still struggling to recover.
With startling clarity Clay saw what he needed to do, saw for the first time in his life the path God wanted him to follow.
He patted Tanner’s shoulder. “Thanks for showing me this.”
Turing around, Clay strode out of the inner office and crossed the lobby to where his boss stood beside the wide stone fireplace visiting with Mr. and Mrs. Dewey.
“Hollister, I’m leaving. Send my last paycheck to my sister. You’ve got her address.”
The man’s craggy features settled into a scowl. “Leaving? Where’re you going?”
Clay was already halfway out the door. He paused and looked over his shoulder. “Somewhere I should
