Wishing on Willows by Katie Ganshert

Author:Katie Ganshert [Ganshert, Katie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-73041-1
Publisher: The Doubleday Religious Publishing Group
Published: 2013-03-18T16:00:00+00:00

The house was quiet. Robin had taken Caleb to the theater to watch a Mickey Mouse throwback playing through next week. Amanda relished the silence. She loved Caleb, but living with a three-year-old didn’t give her many moments of calm. It was good in a lot of ways. He didn’t give her a chance to pout or sulk, not when there were trains to play with and forts to build and bad guys to fight.

His energy forced her to hurdle the pain Jason left behind, but sometimes she wondered if the hurdling had drawn out the grief. Sometimes she wondered if it wouldn’t have been better to let herself experience it in the beginning—like a Band-Aid torn off quickly. A burst of intense pain that stung and went away. That had to be better than this slow peel of heartache she experienced now. Her rush to forget had left her with a residual sadness she couldn’t quite shake.

Jason’s latest e-mail only made it worse.

She crept into the two-car garage, crawled onto the hood of her Honda, and stood on her tiptoes. Batting away cobwebs, she pulled a fishing pole and a dusty tackle box down from the rafters, brought both inside, and got to work untangling the fishing line—an attempt to distract herself from the computer. She would not open her e-mail. She already reread Jason’s reply at least a dozen times and every time she did, she wanted to smack herself with a pillow. Or something harder.

He wasn’t coming back. As much as she searched for clues, he never alluded to that in his e-mail. He was in Nairobi and he missed her, but not enough to come home and propose and promise her the forever she used to think he’d promise. So what was she doing? She had no desire to spend her life in Africa. He hadn’t even asked her. She tied a small weight on the fishing wire and brought the pole outside.

As a kid, tagging along with four older brothers meant spending a lot of time with a fishing pole in hand. Lately, she craved the mindless activity of casting out a line and waiting for something to bite. Perhaps she should teach Caleb. He’d probably scare away the fish with his dinosaur growls and constant motion, but at least she’d be out of the house. Amanda brought the pole back and cast out into the wet lawn when a familiar Bronco grumbled into the driveway.

Evan parked his car and hopped out. “Catch anything?”

“Nothing’s biting.”

He pulled out a small, cardinal-red birdhouse from the front seat. “I come bearing gifts.”

She reeled in the line and cast out into the yard again. “You finally finished, huh?”

“It only took me two months.” He stopped in front of her and held it up.

She traded—one slightly worn fishing pole for one gorgeous homemade birdhouse—then twirled it around to examine the creation. So far, Robin had let Amanda hang three different ones in various trees throughout the yard. She wondered if she could get away with a fourth.

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