by Mary May
Chapter 21
Later that night after they had returned from Devon’s new home, Sabrina was putting Charlie to bed. “She sure was one excited little girl,” Devon commented softly. He stood by the door as Sabrina tucked her in, handing her a stuffed monkey named Wally to snuggle. Charlie smiled and waved her hand at Devon. He walked in the room, sitting on the side of the bed. “What is it, Charlie girl?”
Charlie fought back sleep as she asked Devon the question that was weighing heavy on her little heart. “Will you still be here when I wake up?” Devon looked up, meeting Sabrina’s eyes. “Well, if I’m not here then I won’t be very far away. I’ll be at my house with Dandy and the other horses.”
Charlie nodded. “And with Scarlett and Rhett, too?”
Devon pulled the covers up to her chin. “Yes, ma’am, with Scarlett and Rhett, too.” That seemed to satisfy the little girl because within seconds her breathing evened out, and she was fast asleep.
Sabrina and Devon walked out of Charlie’s room and down the hall to the stairway. Sabrina started to go down the steps when Devon gently grasped her hand and pulled her to a stop. Sabrina turned, looking up into his blue eyes that were filled with regret and longing.
“Darlin’, I know I don’t have any right to ask, but am I too late?” His voice gruff from all the emotion that he was feeling, he searched her eyes looking for the answer that might give him complete joy or utter heartbreak.
“What exactly are you asking, Devon, too late for what? Are you too late for Christmas, New Year’s or Easter? Are you too late for the birth of Keelie’s baby or Charlie’s birthday? The answer to all of that is yes…You are too late.”
He took Sabrina’s hand, laying it on his chest right over his heart that was pounding out a hard rhythm. “Do you feel that? Every beat you feel is for you. Sabrina, I know I left things bad between us, but I love you with every beat of my heart… I love you, Sabrina. I love that little girl in there like she was my own. Baby, I swear if you could give me one more chance I won’t let you down. I need you so much… You make me want to be better. You make me better! After I gave my life to Christ out in Arizona, I felt like He was leading me back here…back to you. Am I wrong? Tell me I’m not wrong, darlin’, tell me I’m not too late.”
Sabrina watched as a single tear traced down Devon’s cheek as he held her hand to his chest over his heart. She could feel him holding his breath and the honesty she saw in his blue eyes started to crack the ice she had formed around her heart. She cupped his face between her palms, whispering, “Devon, I ached from the loss of you when you left. I felt so lost and alone that I walked around here for weeks an empty shell of myself. I can’t go through that again. I love you and I want nothing more than to spend my life with you, but if that’s not what you’re asking me, then tell me now.”
He wrapped his arms around her, lifting her off the floor in a tight embrace, burying his face in the warm crook of her neck. “Sabrina, I’m here. I’m right here and this is where I want to be, where I need to be. With you and Charlie… darlin’, marry me… say you will marry me and make me complete again. I’m nothing without you.”
Sabrina leaned back, looking at Devon, tears of joy falling from her eyes and whispered her answer. “Yes.”
Devon’s face lit up from within. “What? What did you say?”
Sabrina smiled. “I said yes, Devon, I’ll marry you!” He spun her around in a circle laughing. Then he set her down on her feet, cupping her face tenderly in his hands. He kissed her deeply and with such reverence that it left no doubt in her heart what he was feeling.
They sat up for the rest of the night talking and catching up. “So what happened? What happened to make you come to Christ?”
Devon scrubbed his face and laughed ruefully. “That’s a seriously loaded question, darlin’; you sure you want the answer?”
Sabrina leaned up, turning to sit cross-legged in the love seat to face him. “I want to know every detail. Don’t you dare leave out anything. I have burned God’s ears up about you for over a year and a half. I deserve to know!”
His expression serious, he took her hand, running his thumb over her knuckles. “There is no way I can ever repay that debt. I know it was you and your faith that brought me to where I am now. He lifted her hand and placed a sweet kiss on her knuckles. “From the bottom of my heart…thank you.”
Sabrina was too choked up to speak, so she just smiled and nodded.
“First I have to ask you a question. What do you know about demons?”
The surprise at his question was evident on her face. “Demons? Like from hell… demons?” she squeaked.
He nods. “Yes, ma’am, straight from the pits of hell, demons. What do you know about them?”
Sabrina shook her head slowly back and forth. “Not much really. I’m scared to ask why you would ask me that.”
Devon stared at the fireplace for a long minute before he began. “I saw one. I saw it at this bar and grill I was bouncing at out in Arizona. I spotted it on the security camera crawling across the ceiling. I had never seen anything like that before, so I started looking back through the older videos and I saw it seven more times. Each time it was hovering above people it had picked out to influence. Every time it showed up on video there was trouble at the bar.”
Sabrina grabbed a couch pillow to hold in her arms like Charlie would whenever she got frightened. “What kind of trouble?” she asked, her eyes wide. “Bar fights, men fighting over women, and vice versa. Couples breaking up basically; you name it, it happened. It would flare up like a wild fire from nowhere. One second everything was fine, then the next bar stools were sailing through the air.” He sighed then looked at her. “That opened my eyes that there is a lot more to this world than meets the eye. It’s hard to ignore a nasty gremlin crawling across your ceiling. So, once I realized exactly what I was dealing with, I knew I needed help. This wasn’t something I could rough up and send packing. I didn’t have the weapons to defeat this. So, I went to someone who would.”
Sabrina was leaning in closer and closer in her eagerness to hear his story. “Who did you go talk to? Did you know someone?”
He laughed. “I didn’t know any ministers or preachers, so I let my fingers do the walking. I started in the A’s in the phone book under churches and I called until I found someone who took me seriously. Bro. William Mason was the only one out of I bet fifty churches that would even listen to me. All the rest would hang up or tell me they didn’t ‘deal’ with that. Which made me wonder just what someone was supposed to do when they had ‘that’ to deal with. Anyway, I finally got in touch with Bro. William and he agreed to see me so I could show him the videos. Once I showed him everything, he nodded and asked me when did I want to get started?”
“How did he get rid of it?” Sabrina asked.
“Well, he prayed over us first for protection then he went in and anointed the building, praying and speaking the Word of God. You could feel the energy start to change in the bar. The atmosphere got thicker, and I could tell the thing did not like what we were doing, but he just kept praying and speaking the Word. Eventually the thing couldn’t take it anymore and it left.”
Sabrina sat back in relief. “Wow, that had to be intense! But wouldn’t this place just attract more? I mean being that it’s a bar its seems to me that it would in its very nature be influenced by the dark side, wouldn’t it?” she asked.
“Yeah, they do have a tendency to go hand in hand; however, I wasn’t the only one to hear the call of the Lord. The guy that owned the bar, Austin, also started going to church with me, and he gave his life to the Lord the same night I did. So the bar isn’t a bar anymore.”
Sabrina clapped her hands. “You’re kidding! So what is it now?”
Devon lay back, pulling Sabrina over to lean against his chest. He had to be touching her in some way. He couldn’t help it. “It’s still a grill but they have completely revamped the place. No more alcohol, and they play only Ch
ristian music. We still have the dance floor but people dance now in celebration instead of the usual bump and grind. Austin has started having different Christian groups play live music and Christian speakers drop in, too. It’s pretty great actually.”
She looked at him, her eyes wide. “Wow, the Lord was really busy out there! So, what was the reason you turned to the Lord? How did that happen?”
Devon was silent, running his fingers through her curls. “Well, the whole demon issue got me to thinking, but then Bro. William invited me to church and I started going every Sunday and spending a lot of time with him. He had an easy way about him. He didn’t try to push anything on me or try to convince me that was what I needed to do. He just let the Lord pull on my heartstrings and he answered my questions. When I knew what I needed to do, he was there to pray the prayer of salvation with me. I owe him a lot, I really do.”
Sabrina leaned over and kissed him gently. “I owe him a lot, too.”
Devon smiled. “So, just how long does it take for you to plan a wedding anyway?”
Sabrina’s smile stretched from her soul and back. “Give me two weeks!”
The next morning they broke the good news to Cleo and Edgar. Cleo hugged them both fiercely, wiping tears of joy off her face, then Edgar offered his congratulations in his own gruff manner, shaking Devon’s hand firmly and giving Sabrina a brief hug, awkwardly patting her back, but Sabrina felt the love nonetheless.
They went in to wake up Charlie. Gideon had heard the news before they came in to wake up Charlie. He had heard Devon’s story while they were talking last night and he was genuinely surprised at the turn of events in the guy’s life. He had only seen one person come to Christ that he knew before. Sabrina’s mother Catherine was a radically different person after her acceptance. She was cold, demanding and quite frankly he couldn’t stand her. Now she was loving and open, changing the moment she gave her heart to Christ, right before his eyes! It was a remarkable thing to see. He could see the light of Christ shining in Devon’s eyes, and he knew the same transformation had happened in his heart as well. Devon was never as openly cold or abrasive as Catherine, but he had a darkness that really made his feathers…itchy. He sighed and scrubbed his face roughly. He guessed he was going to have to learn like the guy, at least a little. The joy that was shining from Sabrina’s eyes went a long way in making that happen.
“Charlie…Charlie, wake up for Mama. I have a surprise for you!” Sabrina gently shook her sleeping daughter and she slowly came awake.
“Mama? It’s too early!” Charlie fussed. Sabrina gathered her up into her lap to rub her back until she woke up a little bit more.
Devon reached over and tickled her bare toes. “Hey, Charlie girl, we have something exciting to tell you.”
Charlie rubbed the sleep from her eyes and yawned. “What?”
Sabrina bounced her a little in her lap. “Charlie, what would you think if Devon never left us again? If he lived here with us always?”
She nodded her head. “I want Devon to be here all the time, but he always leaves.”
That one statement broke Devon’s heart. He reached for her and tucked her into his lap, close to his heart. “Charlie, me and your mama are going to be married. Do you understand what that means? It means you’re going to be my little girl, too, and we will all live together. We will be a family.”
Charlie looked at Devon then her mama. “Really, Mama? We are gonna marry Devon?”
Sabrina laughed at the way Charlie had put it, but in a way she was right. They were both going to be giving their hearts to this man! “Yes, baby, we are going to marry Devon!”
Charlie squealed, leaping into her mother’s arms; then she turned to Devon. “You won’t leave us no more? You promise?”
He smiled at the little girl that had so completely captured his heart. “I promise, Charlie. I won’t leave you or your mama ever again!”
The next two weeks were a whirlwind of activity around the estate. They set an October sixteenth date and Sabrina called in the troops to help her prepare. The first call after speaking to her mother was to her best friend Rachel to let her know she was needed to be her Maid of Honor and to help her get ready for the wedding.
“Oh, my gosh! Really? You finally got that tall handsome rascal to settle down?” Rachel asked in disbelief.
Sabrina laughed. “It took some divine help, but, yes, he proposed a couple of days ago. I’ll tell you all the details when you get here. Now I need you out here pronto! You tell me as soon as you can leave and I’ll have your tickets waiting for you!” They made their plans; then Sabrina hung up. She had a gleam in her eye when she suggested that Eric be Devon’s best man.
“Umm, darlin’, I’m not too sure that would be a real good idea. You know he had his heart broken when you told me yes.”
Sabrina waved that off. “Oh, whatever, he was interested for a minute but it was never going to happen. I was too much in love with you to be really serious about anyone else, but Eric is a great catch.”
Devon frowned. “I’m not too sure I like my soon-to-be wife talking like that about another man.”
She swatted at his arm. “A great catch for my friend Rachel! I think they would get along really well. Come on; just ask him. I’ll give you twenty kisses if you will say yes.”
Devon pretended to ponder her request. “Make it thirty kisses and you have a deal!”
She jumped up into his arms and smacked him loudly on the cheek. “Deal!”
Sabrina picked Rachel up from the airport, hugged her tightly and did a little happy dance right in the middle of the terminal. She filled her in on everything that happened on the way home and then told her a little about the best man. “You’re going to like Eric. He is tall and blonde like my Devon and handsome, too. He is a real estate attorney out in L.A.”
Rachel looked at Sabrina suspiciously. “Ok, he sounds nice.”
Sabrina just smiled and then started talking to her about her wedding plans. Catherine was in the den when the women got back from the airport and Sabrina rushed over to hug her mother, tears filling her eyes. “Oh, Mama, I’m so happy right now it scares me a little!”
Catherine hugged her back then pulled back in surprise. “You called me Mama! You have always called me Mother before!”
Sabrina laughed. “I guess I did. I don’t know; it never felt right before. Does it bother you?”
Catherine pulled her in again. “No, I don’t care what you call me…just call me! By the way, Keelie and Carl and the baby will be here soon. Evan is finishing up some work at the office then he will drive in tonight. You didn’t leave us a lot of time to pull this thing together, you know.” They all walked down the hall so Rachel could put away her things.
“I don’t need or want anything elaborate, just a simple service with my friends and family. I have an idea I want to go over with both of you and get your opinions.” Sabrina told them her idea and both ladies were smiling and nodding their heads.
“I think that is the sweetest thing I have ever heard! You should absolutely do it!” Rachel insisted.
Catherine agreed wholeheartedly. “Yes, darling. That would really be beautiful.”
That evening all the family had arrived and gathered in the den. Devon had immediately offered his heartfelt congratulations to Keelie and Carl. Then he asked if he could hold Kinsley. He reached and lifted the tiny bundle carefully and brought her to his chest. He looked at her in wonder -- she was so tiny and pretty. He had been told that Kinsley had been born with Down Syndrome. She had the typical upturned eyes and slightly flattened features but she was so beautiful. He sat down on the love seat next to Sabrina and they both loved on the infant for a few minutes.
Devon suddenly got up and handed Kinsley back to her mother, after kissing her little hand. He stood before the crowd and cleared his throat. “I wanted to do this in front of the entire family. I know I already asked Sabrina to marry me but I wanted to make it official, and I needed to ask Charl
ie a question, too.”
Sabrina looked at him in surprise as he got down on one knee in front her and pulled out a black jewelry box. “Darlin’, I know we are going to have a real short engagement, but I want my ring on your beautiful finger until then anyway. Sabrina, I love you with everything I have. I want to ask you again in front of your family. Would you would do me the incredible honor of being my wife?”
Sabrina smiled as once again tears filled her eyes. “Yes, Devon, I want nothing more than to marry you!” Devon opened the box and pulled out a diamond engagement set that had both the engagement ring and the wedding band. It was white platinum with a cross that ran across both bands in sparkling diamonds. The cross would be fully formed once Sabrina had on both bands. It was stunning! Sabrina gasped and held out her hand that was trembling; Devon slipped the bottom band on her left hand. Devon reached and kissed her as the family applauded.
Then he turned to Charlie, who was looking at the baby. “Charlie girl, come here for just a minute, please.” Charlie ran over and climbed in his lap. Devon looked at Sabrina and at Carl sincerely. “I love this little girl as much as I love her mama. I want you both to understand that I will never try to take Luke’s place as her father. But I want to show that my commitment to her is just as deep.” He pulled out a longer jewelry box and opened it. Inside on a sterling silver chain was a small pendant. It was a circle with a cross in the center and down below the cross were three figures, two taller ones to represent the parents and a smaller figure in the middle to represent the child.
