“I really am sorry for what I did to Meghan. How I left her alone when she needed someone. And I’m sorry I wasn’t there for Jonah.”
Unable to trust his voice any longer, Brett stared out the window into the bright morning sky and deeply sighed. To trust in God didn’t mean giving up anything that really mattered but discarding his old life for a new one.
One with Jonah, at least as much as Meghan would allow him.
And maybe one with Dani.
She’d been understanding about him breaking their date for today. Even happy for him. But he’d make it up to her and plan something special for next weekend. Something special for his special someone.
– 37 –
Dani stood in the foyer of the church, smiling and nodding as she tried to remember the names of everyone Shelby had introduced to her. After leaving Misty Willow on Saturday morning, she’d driven to the university library, muted her phone, and gotten lost in research. When she finally checked her phone, she’d found one missed call from Shelby. And nothing from Brett. Feeling lonely and forlorn, she’d immediately said yes when Shelby invited her to church and dinner.
They were about to enter the sanctuary when someone tapped her elbow.
“Hi, beautiful.” Brett’s dimpled smile beamed, drawing her into its warmth. “Shelby. AJ.”
“Glad you could make it, cuz,” AJ said.
“Thanks for inviting me.”
Brett asked about Friday night’s football game, and Dani faced Shelby, whose attempt to appear nonchalant wasn’t working.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were asking him too?” Dani whispered.
“Because I didn’t want you to back out.”
“Did he know I’d be here?”
“AJ talked to him, not me.”
As if he heard his name, AJ turned to them. “It’s time to go in.”
Brett stepped to her side and placed his hand at the small of her back. “Shall we?”
She nodded, and they followed AJ and Shelby to a pew.
Once they were settled, Brett bent toward her. “This is a nice surprise. I didn’t know you’d be here.”
“I didn’t know you’d be here.”
“Were you invited to dinner afterward?”
“Yes. You?”
“Yes.” He nodded his head toward AJ and Shelby. “Yentas.”
She stifled a giggle, then stood with the rest of the congregation in opening prayer. He clasped her hand and whispered, “I’ve already found my perfect match.”
His stomach full after a Sunday dinner of roast beef, fingerling potatoes, and a large tossed salad, Brett perched on the porch railing, his back against the wooden column, while AJ lounged on the swing. The first of the falling leaves dotted the long front lawn, and chrysanthemums bloomed along the fencerow.
“You should have seen the bouquet I gave Dani,” Brett said. “I helped the florist choose the flowers. I’ve never done that before.”
AJ looked at him skeptically. “Are you sure you’re my cousin?”
“It’s crazy, I know. But the usual roses just didn’t seem right for Dani.”
“So you created the bouquet.”
“I just selected what I thought Dani would like. And she loved it.”
“Wish I could have seen it,” AJ said drily.
“She took pictures.”
“Naturally. That’s what women do.”
“They’re on her camera.” He suddenly stood. “Which she left in my car. I’ll show you.”
“No need to do that, cuz.”
“I can’t have you doubting my floral-picking skills.” Brett puffed out his chest, then hurried around the side of the house to where his Lexus was parked. As he returned to the porch, he removed the camera from its case and turned it on. The last photo Dani had taken of the bouquet appeared on the screen. He handed the camera to AJ.
“See?”
AJ examined the photo. “Gotta admit. You did good.” He flipped the screen a few times, then stopped. “She’s taken photos around the cottage too. These are really nice.”
“Let me see.” Brett took the camera and looked at a couple of the photos. “My girl’s got talent.”
“Your girl?”
“As long as she agrees.” Brett flipped past a few more photos, then stared at the screen. A hot ember flared as he looked at the previous one and the one before that. His face burned and his hands shook so that he almost dropped the camera.
“I don’t believe this,” he muttered.
“What’s the matter?”
Brett handed AJ the camera, then ran both hands through his hair. It couldn’t be.
“Is this you?” AJ’s gaze was intent on the small screen.
“It’s me.”
“Where are you?”
“The hospital.” She’d taken his photograph outside the hospital. Recorded his image during one of the lowest moments of his life.
Why?
His thoughts flashed back to that night, the night he’d given Aaron a birthday gift for Jonah. Dani had watched it all, photographed it all.
Including his anguish.
She had to see he had been in pain. But she’d taken his picture anyway.
And never told him.
Shelby’s words to Dani flashed through his mind. I don’t think it’s a coincidence you and Brett were at the hospital at the same time.
No, apparently not.
Taken in by Dani’s innocent girl façade, he’d trusted her. Provided for her. And she’d never said a word.
And then there was the ring. He’d accepted her story of innocently pocketing it out of embarrassment. But now he wondered. Sure, she returned it. But who knew what motivated the girl.
She’d lied.
Lied about her job at the station. Lied about why she was at the hospital. Even lied about her name when they first met.
“I don’t get it, Brett.” AJ’s voice pounded into his thoughts. “Why did she take these?”
“I don’t know.” He grabbed the camera and stared at each photo again, burning their images into his brain. Anger built with each one until he couldn’t contain it any longer. “But I’m going to find out.”
He entered the front hall and checked the living room. Empty. He turned, intent on finding Dani. AJ blocked his way.
“What are you going to do?”
“Move, AJ.”
“Not till you get control of yourself.”
Brett shoved past him and headed through the hall to the kitchen, AJ hurrying behind. Dani sat at the kitchen table while Shelby put the finishing touches on a chocolate-frosted cake.
Seeing the camera in his hands, Dani’s eyes grew round and she slowly rose. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.
“What’s going on?” Shelby asked as AJ placed a protective arm around her waist.
“Maybe we should leave them alone.”
“No,” Brett said. “She’s lied to all of us. We deserve an explanation.”
“Lied?” Shelby said, incredulous. “About what?”
Brett glared at Dani, steeling his heart against the fear and pain showing in her lovely brown eyes. When he spoke, his tone was hard and unyielding. “Why were you at the hospital that night?”
“I can explain.” Dani grabbed for her camera, but he held it out of her reach.
“We’re listening.”
“I . . . I followed you there.” Tears welled in her eyes, and she seemed uncertain what to do with her hands. Finally she crossed her arms in a tight hold.
“You followed me?”
She bit her lip and nodded.
“I don’t understand—” Shelby began, but AJ shushed her.
“I didn’t know you were going to the hospital,” Dani said, her voice threatening to break at any moment.
“You took pictures of me.” Brett’s voice dripped with accusation. “You lied to me again and again and again.”
He smashed the camera against the table.
�
��Stop!”
“Why did you take those photos?”
“Give me my camera.”
“Not till you give me some answers. Why did you do it?”
Her face contorted from shock to anger. “To sell them.”
The words, colder than ice water, smacked into him. He couldn’t have heard her right. That was something Tracie would do. But not Dani. “To . . . what?”
“I needed the money.” Her voice teetered on the edge of panic.
“I don’t believe you.”
She reached for the camera again, but he was quicker. He slammed it against the table again, then threw it to the floor.
Broken pieces and the shattered lens skittered across the tile. He was vaguely aware of Dani dropping to her knees with a painful moan. Part of him wanted to gather her up, tell her he was sorry. But her angry words snaked through his head and tied him in knots.
He needed time to think, time to let his anger ease. As he pushed through the kitchen’s screen door, he glimpsed Dani, still kneeling on the floor and gathering the broken pieces of the camera.
She might as well have been picking up the pieces of his heart.
He strode up the lane and past the excavation area. Wrong choice, because even this place held memories he now wanted to forget.
She was supposed to be the one good thing in his life. Somehow Meghan’s animosity and Amy’s issues hadn’t pressed against him quite as hard with Dani to think about, to spend time with, to tease.
But his affection for her, his concern for her, even his desire for her, had been built on deceit.
Besides, everything Dani had right now she owed to him—her job, a place to live.
How could she have done this to him? Was it some kind of sick game?
He bent over, hands on knees, and breathed heavily.
A game.
Not much different than the game he’d played with countless women over the past several years. He remembered the hurt in Tracie’s eyes the last time he saw her. He had discounted the pain because he didn’t believe it. She had never really loved him, he was sure of it. Only his name, his good looks, and his bank account.
But his callousness at the end had still hurt her.
He plopped onto the ground at the edge of the cornfield, forearms resting on his knees. The world seemed topsy-turvy, his happy-go-lucky life turned inside out. First with Meghan and Jonah, then with Amy, and now with Dani.
What was he supposed to do?
His phone buzzed, and he glanced at the screen. AJ. He ignored the call.
What Dani said didn’t make sense. If she’d taken the photos to sell them, why hadn’t she?
There had to be another reason she’d followed him to the hospital that night. Watched him. Stalked him.
She must have been proud of herself for snaring him into a date. Then another and another.
But why?
Was it her plan all along for him to fall for her? And then what? Sell her story to the local tabloids? Maybe Dani was more like Tracie than he wanted to believe.
A sour ache clenched his gut.
Well, if that was Dani’s scheme, she’d played her cards like a pro. He’d never even seen it coming. Not from a slip of girl unlike any woman he’d ever dated.
She had somehow managed, with her supposed innocence and naivety, to sneak through his defenses and into his heart. He’d been so busy trying to look out for her, to help her, he’d been oblivious to her stealth.
What a fool he’d been.
He sat there awhile longer, letting his angry thoughts swirl into a confused mass that seemed impossible to untangle.
A few months ago, he’d had life all figured out. But this summer had brought nothing but trouble. From AJ. From Amy. From Tracie. And now Dani.
He wanted his old life back, the one where he was in control, the one where he didn’t get hurt.
The one where he hurt others.
A roar gathered in his stomach and pushed through his throat, but he refused to give it voice. Instead he smacked the hard-packed dirt with the side of his fist as grief and anger contorted his face.
A sound behind him caught his attention, and he looked around just in time to stop Lila from pouncing on him. A few feet away, Elizabeth stood, her feet rooted in the dirt path as if she were a statue. Her eyes, large and uncertain, stared at him.
To keep Lila from licking his face, he stood and brushed his pants, then managed a smile. “Hi, sunshine.” His voice sounded weak and pitiful, and he took several deep breaths. “Your mom send you after me?”
She silently shook her head, then took a few steps toward him.
“I saw you,” she said as a large tear glistened on her delicate cheek. “Why are you so sad?”
“Come here.” When he stretched out his arms, she ran to him, and he inhaled the sweet fragrance of a soap-scrubbed youngster.
Elizabeth wrapped her arms around his neck. “Did I do something to make you sad?”
“No, sweetheart. No.” He adjusted the way he held her and gazed into her elfin face. “Of course you didn’t.”
“Who did?”
Instead of answering, he hugged her close.
Dani did. Dani made him sad. And he wasn’t sure he could forgive her. But the pain he felt went deeper than her deceit.
He was sad because of who he’d become over the years. His pride, his arrogance, his indifference to others had brought him to this place where everything in his life was turned upside down.
“I could sing you a song,” Elizabeth said as he set her feet on the ground. She tightly gripped his hand as if afraid to let him go. “Would that make you happy?”
“It might.” The sound of a car engine caught his attention. Someone was leaving, probably Dani.
Good riddance.
Elizabeth tugged at his hand.
“What are you going to sing?”
Instead of answering, she sang the chorus to “You Are My Sunshine.” Not really a surprise, since he often sang the song to her and Tabby.
“Don’t you want to sing too?” she asked when she finished.
“Not today.” All he wanted was to go home. Lie on his couch. Forget the photos he’d seen.
“I know something else.”
“What’s that?” The photos. His anguish hit him again.
“‘I trusted in the Lord when I said, “I am greatly afflicted.”’”
He was lost in his thoughts, and Elizabeth’s solemn recitation scarcely registered. “Say that again.”
“‘I trusted in the Lord when I said, “I am greatly afflicted.”’”
“What is that? Do you even know what afflicted means?”
She glared at him. “Sad.”
“Why do you know that?”
“My Sunday school teacher where we used to live told it to me. After Daddy died. She helped me remember it so I’d be close to God when I cried.”
“It’s a Bible verse?”
“Psalm 116:10. You should memorize it.”
Brett’s thoughts slipped back to the days surrounding his parents’ deaths. The news reporters, the sensationalism. All the wrong things people said—meaning well, he supposed, though back then he had no patience for anyone’s grief but his own. They didn’t understand, they couldn’t understand.
Elizabeth had been, what? Four or five when her father was killed. Did the words even exist for telling a child that young that she’d never see her dad again?
“You miss your dad, don’t you?”
Elizabeth focused on something beyond him and nodded.
“Can you teach me that verse?”
She smiled slightly and repeated the Scripture. Brett said it after her, then they said it together.
Trust.
He’d never trusted anyone but himself. Until he met Dani. But she’d been as deceitful as any of the other women he’d dated. Worse even.
His conscience squirmed. Maybe not worse. But different. Her deceit had been different, and that somehow ma
de it worse. With the others, he’d suspected their false motives from the start. But Dani had appeared so innocent. It was like she had an unfair advantage.
Like the unfair advantage he’d always had when he started his countdown clock to a breakup.
Trust in the Lord.
Easy to say. Almost impossible to do.
“Did it help?” he asked Elizabeth. “Saying that verse.”
“Most of the time. I prayed Daddy would come back, but he didn’t.” She picked a wild daisy from a nearby clump and absentmindedly pulled the petals off, one by one. “I thought I’d be afflicted forever.”
Brett knelt beside her and covered her hands with his to keep her from destroying any more petals. “What’s bothering you, Elizabeth?”
Her chameleon eyes, more blue than brown today, searched his as if wondering if she could trust him.
That word again.
Trust.
Maybe this was where it had to begin . . . with being worthy of a seven-year-old’s trust.
“You can tell me, sweetheart. No matter what it is.”
She swallowed hard as if making up her mind. “Is it bad to be happy that I’m getting a new daddy?”
“Of course not.” He gently tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “You love AJ, don’t you?”
“More than this.” She stretched her arms wide, and the flower stem dropped to the ground.
“He loves you too.” He put his face close to hers so they were almost nose to nose, then lowered his voice. “And so do I.”
She threw her arms around his neck. “I love you too, Uncle Brett.” She placed a kiss on his cheek, then ran down the graveled drive with Lila loping beside her.
Brett straightened, his thoughts swirling as Elizabeth hopped on her bicycle. Even at his darkest moments, bowed to his knees with worry over Jonah, he’d resisted the temptation to bargain with God. Somehow he sensed that a God who was no more than a business partner, a heavenly entity open to negotiations, wasn’t much of a God at all.
Yet it seemed that the more he tried to be a good person, someone who Jonah—and even the little monsters—could be proud of, things had only gotten worse. Amy was a mess. And Dani . . . He shook his head. He didn’t want to think about Dani.
I trusted in the Lord when I said, “I am greatly afflicted.”
It sounded so simple. So why was it so hard?
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