Andrew stood in the living room leaning his right shoulder up against the mantle of the stone fireplace, gazing out the window in front of him at the front lawn: its curved driveway with the evergreen trees planted alongside it, the long pond which the driveway wrapped around, and the woods in the distance on either side of the lawn; yet no matter how much of a peaceful atmosphere it bestowed, none of it could lighten his spirits this evening. He looked over his left shoulder at the couch in front of the coffee table. Walking over, he sat on it and stared aimlessly at the items on the table in front of him: an old coffee cup containing a dark shot of black coffee that had been sitting there since last week and a few hunting and wildlife magazines. One item caught his attention: a black leather Bible lying on the far-left side of the table.
Resting his elbows on his knees and his head in his palms, he began to pray. "Oh, Lord, what do I do?"
Andrew's prayer was interrupted by his phone vibrating in his shirt pocket. He pulled it out and looked at the screen. With a sigh of relief, he answered it.
"Hey, Stacy."
There was a long pause while Andrew listened to the voice coming from the other end. "Yes, she's here… No, no… You were right. She needs much more time than I thought to get used to things… Well, I tried, but this is just too much for her at the moment. Listen, why don't you come over, and we'll talk more about it then… No, no. She's upstairs in her room and hasn't come down for the past half hour. My guess is that she's sleeping off the long trip down here. Even if she was awake, I think it might be good for her to see another face besides my own—one closer to the same age as hers, too!"
Andrew looked down at the old coffee cup while listening to the phone.
"Well, good," he replied. "I'll see you at six o'clock. Oh, and I'll have a fresh pot of coffee waiting… Okay. Love you, too, Sweetie. B-bye."
After hanging up the phone, he looked at the Bible again. He took a deep breath and let out a sigh of relief.
"Thank you."
It was now dark outside. The lights downstairs were on, and a nice hot pot of coffee had just finished brewing in the kitchen. Andrew stood leaning against one of the pillars on the front porch, looking out into the night sky. Something about those stars gave him hope.
"Is this the right thing?" he asked the One in the Heavens. "For however long she is here, I'll be raising her. Do I have what it takes to raise another at my age?"
He continued to gaze up as if to expect some response. To his hope's desire, a shooting star fell out of the Milky Way sky. A slight uplifting hope filled his heart as he smiled big.
His attention fixed on a pair of headlights coming up the long driveway. Andrew's smile grew bigger as the car approached the house. He walked down the porch steps and toward the right side of the house, where he had left his truck parked. Coming to a stop beside his white pickup was a small car, now turning off its lights. Andrew walked over to the driver's side and opened the door. Out leaped a young woman in her mid-twenties. She had long brown hair and wore a black suit and high heels. She wrapped her arms around Andrew's neck and kissed him on his cheek.
"Dad!" she exclaimed.
Andrew returned her hug with a strong embrace of his own. She pulled back and looked her father in the eye. With a slightly worried expression, she slowly stroked the side of his face with her hand.
"Dad, what are you doing? What is going on? Is this right for her?"
Andrew pulled his daughter's hand from the side of his face and gently kissed her palm. "I honestly don't know, Sweetie. I honestly wish I did know. I just know that I promised to keep her protected."
"But, Dad, she's young. Last week, she was living her normal life in Miami, and now she's in the mountains of Tennessee. This is more than just a change of scene for her. This is an upheaval of everything she's known."
"I know; you're right. But this is the only way I know how I can keep her safe, Stacy."
"Dad, she has close friends back home."
"But not family."
"But I'm sure there's someone that can take care of her. You don't have to be in this position. You have too much on you as it is at your age."
A slight sense of pride sparkled in Andrew's eyes. "I'm not too old to shelter and care for my own kin. Besides, I raised you well, and look how you turned out."
A trace of pity crossed Stacy's face. "Daddy, you also had Mom back then…"
She stroked the gruff side of her father's face again. "I just want to make sure that you are up to this."
Andrew looked up at the night sky as if to seek another answer. "At this point, Sweetie, I just don't know, but for some reason, I have hope that things will work out, somehow, in the end."
Looking back at his daughter, he continued. "I promised her mother that if anything like this happened, I would take care of her. In their will, Maggie and David made me Virginia's legal guardian. I am now responsible for her."
"Dad, this should not be based upon the guilt of a promise. What if you can't keep it?"
"It is based upon a promise I made to my sister, and you talk as if I'm about to bite the dust, young lady." That same pride rose back up into Andrew's eyes again. "I'm fifty-nine years old. I'm alive, and I'm able to keep my promises."
Stacy gave a loving smile at her father's grit. Deep down, she was glad that the same strong heart that raised and protected her was still beating just as strong.
"Well, then," she said, smiling big, "could you use a woman's touch to help you out?"
All pride left Andrew's eyes as relief brought ease to his mood.
"Yes," he said gratefully.
He escorted his daughter to the porch and inside the house, where coffee awaited them both.