Sowing Faith, Reaping Love

Sowing Faith, Reaping Love - Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Tanner had been worrying about seeing his mom ever since he told Charlie and Julie that he would. They decided that the best thing to do would be to invite her over on Sunday after church for lunch. On Sunday's they would get up and go to church, then the family would come home and Nana and the girls would finish cooking lunch. They normally did not do heavy work on Sunday's. Only what needed to be done. Mostly taking care of the animals.

Sunday morning they went to church. Pastor Rick and his family was introduced and he was actually going to preach to the whole church that day. After introductions, Brent came to sit with Tonya, Julie and Tanner. Tonya looked over at Brent when Pastor Rick read the scripture for the day. John 8: 1-11 The story of the condemned woman who is about to be stoned. And Jesus said, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone."

Tonya mouthed, "Did you say something?" Brent just shook his head no. Afterwards, he told her that has happened more times than he can count. Something will be going on in his life and the pastor (sometimes his dad, sometimes not) will preach on something for that moment in his life. They were friends and he was fine with that, for now. Until Tonya was ready for more, he could wait. If it happened, great. If it didn't, he was happy being her friend. He loved hanging out with Tanner and Julie too. But, they were a pair and when they would have their private moments, he and Tonya were OK alone carrying on conversations, or just sitting there being alone.

After church, they headed to the farm. Brent was coming over late in the afternoon for horseback riding, but Tanner's mother's visit occupied everyone's mind. Especially Tanner's. Right on time, Ann Jones pulled into the dirt drive to the farmhouse. Charlie and Tanner were sitting on the porch waiting together. Tanner was very jittery and shaking his legs as he sat on the top step.

"Relax son." Charlie looked over at him from the rocker and said, "You can't change the past, but you can fix things for the future."

"Yes, sir." Tanner said as Ann's old Buick pulled up to the house and parked under the old oak tree.

Ann was rather nervous herself, she put her cigarette out in the ashtray as she opened the car door. She knew smoking was a bad habit, and she was a chain smoker for twenty plus years. But, she had tried to cut back after her last drink two months ago, but just couldn't give them up totally. She was stressed and worried about seeing Tanner today, so she had three on the hour drive to the farm.

Tanner stood at the foot of the steps to greet his mother. She was not drunk and he realized this was the first time in his life that he was one-hundred percent sure she was sober. This came as a shock to him as he shoved his hands in his pocket, a nervous habit he had since childhood.

"Tanner it is good to see you." Ann said as she opened her arms for a hug. Tanner leaned in to her arms, but kept his hands firmly placed in his pockets. "How are you doing son?"

"Good." Tanner said. "Mom, this is Mr. Charlie Croft. He is my boss, landlord, guardian, friend." Tanner said as he gestured to Charlie who was now standing on the top step.

"Nice to meet you Mr. Croft. Thank you for watching out for my boy." Ann said as she climbed the steps to shake his hand.

"My pleasure ma'am. Tanner is a good kid. We consider him one of the family. Hard worker, trustworthy, dependable boy. You should be very proud."

"I am, sir. Thank you." Ann said as she reached up to pat Tanner on the shoulder. Charlie noticed that Ann was a petite lady. Her head only came up to Tanner's shoulder. The years of drinking and smoking had taken a tole on Ann. He thought she may have looked good in her youth, but now she was not someone to turn heads.