“All is well that ends well,” Drew assured me, gently brushing the hair from my face and looping it behind my ear. His touch was gentle, loving. “Everything happens for a purpose.”

“True, but you should never have involved yourself in this, especially without me knowing.”

Drew agreed and apologized again. I accepted, determined to put this in the past. He’d paid the price and so had I.

As a result of all this hullabaloo, I felt I needed to make friends with the very people who had doubts about me and my relationship with Drew. The first person I wanted to start with was Linda Kincaid. This was an important relationship. Linda didn’t openly dislike me, although I wasn’t sure she trusted me.

—

Thursday evening of that week, I joined Linda Kincaid and a couple other volunteers at the Bring-a-Meal night at Hope Center. It was while I was a resident there that I’d met Linda the first time. That seemed like a lifetime ago now. Since I’d started attending Drew’s church, I’d volunteered to work on the kitchen crew twice and both times Linda told me that she had all the volunteers she needed. I tried not to take her rejection personally. She’d never been openly unkind, but I had the feeling that she would rather not have me.

When I phoned to tell her I was available for that Thursday night, I recognized her hesitation. Knowing how important Linda was to Drew and how much she loved the children, I wasn’t going to be easily turned away this time. In the end she agreed to let me help, although she’d made it sound as if she was doing me the favor.

After I finished my shift at the café, I headed to the church. Linda and the two other volunteers were busy making dinner for the women at Hope Center. Stephanie and Kelly were good friends and the two of them chatted away and basically ignored me. It wasn’t intentional, I knew. It had been awhile since they’d last talked and they were catching up. As soon as they realized they’d excluded me from the conversation, they did their best to include me. I appreciated their effort.

The menu for the evening was roast beef, mashed potatoes, green beans, salad, and red velvet cake.

“Where would you like me to start?” I asked Linda once all the ingredients for the meal had been set out. I’d washed my hands and rolled up my sleeves, ready to dig in.

“How are you at peeling potatoes?” Linda asked, giving me the least welcome task.

“An expert,” I assured her with a smile, eager to prove myself.

“Then have at it.” Her smile was strained. I knew I wasn’t her favorite person and appreciated that she was trying. But then so was I.

Stephanie put on the playlist from her phone and soon the three of us were dancing around the kitchen, laughing and having a good time. The only one who showed any restraint was Linda, who didn’t even tap her toes.

Once the meal was ready, we loaded the food into the church van and drove over to Hope Center. Lilly Palmer met us at the door and led us to the cafeteria. Her eyes met mine and I saw the worry there.

We’d talked several times in the last week, mostly about my brother and what had happened at the church with Drew. Lilly had helped me talk through my emotions with both incidents.

“Everything coming up roses?” Lilly asked, helping me cart in the large containers of food. The residents had started to line up with their trays. Stephanie and Kelly helped serve while I filled the drink glasses. Linda supervised.

“Everything’s great,” I responded, laughing softly. Lilly was a dear friend and I was grateful every day for her support and encouragement.

“Have you been able to find out anything about your brother?” she asked as she helped cart out the carafes of coffee.

I shook my head, thoroughly depressed when it came to Caden and his troubles. I’d talked to both the prosecutor and his court-appointed defense attorney and learned what I could. It didn’t look good for Caden. Thankfully, the police officer would make a full recovery from his injuries in time.

No way was my brother going to avoid prison. I knew jail time might be the only way he would get sober.

The dinner went well with all of us working together. It was hard to believe that I had once been one of these women, struggling to find my place in society, weighed down by rejection from the very ones who were supposed to love and care for me. Like many of them, I had made poor choices and had low to no self-esteem. I wasn’t that person any longer, and seeing these women showed me just how far I’d come.

As we finished loading up the van, I saw Linda on her phone, deep in conversation. She frowned and closed her eyes before righting herself. While Stephanie and Kelly dealt with cleaning up the kitchen and clearly didn’t need me, I went out to talk with the residents.

Stepping up to a table full of women, I told them my own story and saw their eyes widen with what I could only describe as hope.

“You were part of Hope Center?” one of the women asked me.

“Sure was. Arrived with a lot of attitude, too.”

“That she did,” Lilly verified, coming to stand beside me.

I smiled at my friend. “I remember the first day I was here, when Lilly told me she was going to be the best friend I ever had. At the time I wanted to laugh in her face, but you know what, she is.”

“Hate to tell you this, but I say that to all the women.”

I smiled because I knew that was probably true.

Lilly placed her arm on my shoulder. “Shay didn’t have an easy time of it at Hope Center, but she stuck with it. She’s proven that taking a negative and making it a positive is possible.”

The women gathered around the table nodded.

“You’ll be seeing more of Shay,” Lilly continued. “Starting in June, she’ll be working as a bookkeeper at Hope Center.”

“As soon as I finish my accounting classes, which Lilly suggested I take. When I first came to Hope Center, I was afraid to dream of anything good happening in my life. Lilly asked me to come up with a dream and I told her I’d only be setting myself up for failure. Do you remember what you told me?” I asked her.

“Sure do. The same thing I’ve told these women. Any dream will do. Allow yourself to dream.”

I felt someone come up behind me and discovered it was Linda. “The van is loaded. It’s time for us to leave.”

After hugging Lilly goodbye, I headed out with Linda and the other two.

I sat in the front seat with Linda. Stephanie and Kelly were in the back, chatting away.

“I didn’t mean to rush you,” Linda murmured.

“You didn’t.” I noticed that her hands were holding on to the steering wheel in a death grip. She’d seemed to be in a rush ever since she’d taken that phone call. I’d noticed that she’d grown quiet and intense afterward.

Not sure if I should say anything about the call or not, I watched her out of the corner of my eye and then decided I had to say something to break the tension. “Linda, I don’t mean to pry, but did something happen earlier?”

“What do you mean?” she asked defensively.

“I saw you on the phone,” I said. “I noticed since then that you’ve become quiet and tense.”

“Sorry, it’s just that…”

“Just that?” I prompted when she didn’t finish.

“Lloyd called. I put a load of wash in before I left this afternoon. Our washer is in the basement, and it seems that a pipe burst. The basement is flooded.”

“Oh no. How bad is it?”

“I don’t know. Lloyd is trying to deal with it, but it’s too much for him to handle alone.”

We arrived at the church and I realized that after working all afternoon getting the meal ready to deliver to Hope Center, Linda was headed home to clean up a huge mess in her basement.

“Let me help,” I said.

“Help?” she asked, as if she didn’t know what I was talking about.

“With your flooded basement.”

She paused, as if she didn’t hear me correctly. “It’s late. You were up early this morning and—”

“You have given yourself to the church, to others, to Drew and to his children. I think it’s time someone stepped in and gave you a hand.”