Snowbound - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Lauren

“Come on, Dakota! Time to come inside!” Lauren called from the back door of her mother’s house. She supposed she should call it her own house, she had signed the papers, it was legally her home, but claiming it as her own just did not feel right. Dakota wasn't even hers, he was her mother’s border collie mix and in his old age he was struggling with the snow that blanketed the back yard. Both Dakota and the house were left to Lauren when her mother passed away from breast cancer back in August. The shaggy collie and her church were the only family she had left, she could not recall ever having felt so alone before. Not even when she moved out to Tacoma, Washington on her own right after finishing nursing school.

She was born and raised in Colorado and had never lived any place else until that move. In fact, most of her life was spent in the same small ski town of Red Valley. Moving to Tacoma had been an adventure, she had quickly made friends with some of the other nurses and spent her free time taking in all the Puget Sound area had to offer. Then just before Christmas of the year that would become known around the valley as the “Hard Winter” she got the call that would change everything. Her mother’s breast cancer had returned and metastasized into her brain. They would do surgery to remove as much of the tumors as they could, and do chemo to get as much of what was left, but none of this would do anything more than extend her life. It was just a matter of time.

Lauren put in her notice and a month later was back in Red Valley to be her mother’s personal nurse and shop assistant. Her mother, Nancy, was a Colorado mountain woman to the bone and had owned an outdoor gear shop in town. In the winter she rented skis and snowboards, sold jackets and snow shoes, and all the other gear you ask for. In the summer her inventory included mountain bikes, kayaks, backpacking equipment and hiking shoes. Lauren had loved spending her after-school hours helping out at the shop while growing up, and getting to try out the merchandise on weekend trips with mom had been the building blocks of her favorite childhood memories. Nancy had filled the role of two parents with admirable skill. It was only when those father-daughter events rolled around at school that Lauren even wondered what she might have missed by not having a dad at home. Still, the men Red Valley Baptist had been surrogate fathers for her, especially Pastor Mike and James McLeod. James and his wife, also named Nancy, had always invited Lauren and her mother out to their ranch to share Thanksgiving and their boys Nathan and Zachary had become like brothers.

Then, in her junior year of high school her mother had been diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer. The diagnosis had turned life upside down for both women. Lauren had just started dating Zachary and broke off the relationship after her mother's diagnosis. Frivolous things like high school boyfriends no longer seemed to matter. She dove into her studies and spent many weekends keeping her mother company while she went through chemo at the Community Cancer Center. When she wasn't playing nurse she was playing shop keeper, though Nancy had hired a store manager to see to the day-to-day operations, Lauren felt obligated to be there in her mother's stead.

After spending the last two years of high school with very grown-up concerns and responsibilities, Lauren was ready to cut loose and be a carefree young person. She flew the coop and went to nursing school on the front range. Led an adventurous life of a single nurse in the Pacific Northwest. Lost touch with the McLeod boys and their family. Yet, now a full decade later Lauren felt she was back in that same place she was as an 18 year old - back in Red Valley, caring for her mother's shop and wondering what to do next with her life.

~~~

During her time in Tacoma, Lauren had not been one to attend church. Nurses keep odd hours and she was rarely free on Sunday mornings even if she had wanted to go. When she had free time she preferred to spend it going out with friends, hosting parties at her place or traveling abroad. It's not that she no longer considered herself a Christian or stopped believing in God - there was simply no time for church. After all, she was a nurse, so she was always serving others. At least, that is what she told herself.

When she moved back to Red Valley two years ago her mother insisted they go to church together. Lauren was hesitant at first, it felt weird to be back in the same place she'd spent the last few years trying to escape, and to be around people who knew her as a child instead of as the woman she had become. Nevertheless, she was thankful for the support as her mother's illness got worse. She joined a ladies' Bible study with some other women in their 20s and 30s at church. Some were working moms, some stay at home moms a few were recently married but most were single, young professional women like herself. As her mother's health declined they brought food and friendship, comfort and laughter to that dark time.

Lauren got especially close to the other single girls. They would meet up for girls' nights and bemoan the lack of eligible men in the valley. Then, last spring, Emily had gotten engaged to Nathan McLeod of all people! Lauren was invited to be in the wedding a bride's maid and was honored to stand beside her new friend and the man she had once considered to be like a big brother. During the wedding festivities Lauren had been able to reconnect with Zachary too. He had grown into a very attractive young man and she had to kick herself for dumping him all those years ago.

~~~

Lauren reached into the big tub just outside the door and filled Dakota's bowl with fresh kibble and grabbed a couple logs off the pile to add to the fire blazing in the living room hearth. "Dinner, Dakota!" Not that she needed to call for him. His joints and eye sight may be failing, but he could still smell the food as she scooped it out of the tub and hear the clanging of kibble against the sides of the metal bowl. He was already rounding the corner before she could shut to door and set down the bowl on his mat.

As soon as Dakota was busy with his own meal, Lauren ladled herself some beef stew from the pot on the stove and plopped herself on the couch to enjoy it while watching some guilty-pleasure reality TV. She wrapped her legs up in a cozy woolen blanket, flicked on the television and began scrolling through the innumerable options to vegetate on. Running her mother's store was stressful. Though she had plenty of experience helping out as a store clerk, Lauren was not a businesswoman like her mother. She loved to help customers find what they needed, she prided herself on her ability to match people with a perfect set of skis or the perfect back-packing tent, but she hated doing all the paperwork. The store manager helped with making deposits each day, but Lauren was responsible for ordering, tracking invoices, payroll for her 3 employees, lines of credit and plenty of other responsibilities that kept her up at night. She felt she owed it to her mother to keep the store running and in the family, but she felt so out of her element. Once again she found herself wondering if she might not be better off selling the store and returning to nursing. Her nursing license would need to be renewed soon so she would have to make a decision one way or the other before that deadline.

Lauren sighed as she settled on a show and tucked into her bowl of savory stew. Tomorrow the shop would close early and she would head out to the McLeod ranch for New Years Eve with Emily and some of the other Bible study girls, she was very much looking forward to it. It would be a chance to unwind after the busy Christmas shopping season at the store and to relax before the wave of peak ski season traffic began. Possibly a chance to use the girls as a sounding board and ask for their prayers as the decision of the fate of the store and her nursing career loomed. But most of all it would be a chance to spend time with the friends that had become her family instead of spending another evening alone with Dakota and the Duggars.