“That’s a good idea,” he replied with a smile. He stood up and stretched, then went and grabbed his water bottle. “How are your grandparents doing?” he asked as he sat back down beside her.
“Grandpa Phil is a tower of strength, but you can see his age slowing him down some. Grandma is her usual optimistic self -- so calm and confident that Dad will recover. I’m sure they were sent here to help Mom make it through.”
The way she said sent made him wonder if Michelle was recognizing God’s hand in their situation with her dad. Then again, it could be another one of her New Age ideas surfacing. It was hard to tell. He simply nodded his head in agreement.
“Are you okay about Ben and Kelly staying here tomorrow night?” he asked.
“Yeah. I just wish you and I had more time together. I didn’t realize how much I missed you until I saw you standing there tonight.” She sighed. Her voice sounded strained, as if she might start to cry.
“I love you, babe,” Steve whispered softly into her ear, inhaling the scent of her cologne.
“I love you, too,” her voice cracking, as she began to cry.
Steve put his finger under her chin and turned her face toward his. He used his thumbs to brush away the tears then leaned forward and gently kissed her. As he began to sit back up, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close, her lips meeting his once again.
“I need you,” she murmured between kisses. “I need you, too,” he admitted in a throaty whisper.
Michelle turned lazily over in bed. She smiled as she gazed at her husband sleeping peacefully beside her. He looked so handsome and strong. She snuggled back under the covers, pressing up against his warm body, realizing how much better she slept with him by her side.
She was glad he’d decided to come down for the weekend. It helped take her mind off Trevor. As she draped her arm over his chest, he stirred slightly and then opened his eyes. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up,” she said softly.
“It’s okay. I don’t want to miss a moment of our time together,” he replied with a wink, drawing her into his arms.
“Morning breath,” she warned as he bent to kiss her.
“As if that would stop me today,” he chuckled pressing his warm lips to hers, and she wrinkled her nose at his rough chin.
“Good morning, porcupine.” Steve had a heavy beard, and he usually shaved on his way to and from work every day. She wasn’t used to this much stubble on his chin, even in the mornings.
“Okay, okay. I’ll shave.” He started to get out of bed.
“You’re not going anywhere,” she exclaimed dramatically, pulling him back into an embrace, purposely ignoring his beard, and kissing him with fervor.
They both burst out laughing. “I’ve got an idea.” Michelle’s face lit up. “I’ll shave your face.” She leapt out of bed and headed for the bathroom to get his electric razor.
“I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” he said dubiously.
“Just relax. I’ve got this under control.” She held the razor in her hand trying to figure out how to turn it on. She slid a ridged lever upward and jumped slightly as the razor hummed into action.
Steve laughed at her startled expression. “Give me that thing!” he said, trying to sound serious.
“No way. I’m going to finish the job.”
“That sounds ominous.”
“Just relax. You won’t feel a thing,” she promised as she approached.
Steve pulled the covers up over his head.
“Come out of there, you coward!” He peeked out and then pulled the covers quickly back in place. Michelle decided to try another tactic. She lifted the covers from her side of the bed and climbed underneath with him.
“Ahhhh!” Steve yelled as he rolled out of bed, landing with a thump on the floor.
She crawled across the bed and threw herself down on the floor on top of him. They wrestled and rolled across the carpeted floor, the razor buzzing in her hand.
Eventually, Steve was able wrestle it free and made a mad dash for the bathroom. He locked himself inside and started shaving.
Meanwhile, Michelle sank down onto the bed laughing. It seemed like such a long time since she and Steve had wrestled like that. He really was a lot of fun when he wasn’t consumed with work.
She walked over to the dresser and looked in the mirror. Her hair was a mess and her eyes had dark circles under them from yesterday’s makeup that she had neglected to wash off the night before. Licking her finger, she rubbed off the black marks; then picked up her brush and ran it through her long dark hair. She spritzed on some cologne and climbed back into bed, sitting up against both pillows.
Steve emerged from the bathroom clean-shaven. His bare chest revealed his solid frame. She was amazed he still looked so athletic even though he didn’t really have time to work out since he got his job at the law firm. She smiled as he approached her.
“Truce?” she asked tentatively.
“Truce,” he agreed, falling onto the bed and kissing her. She could taste the mint from his toothpaste, and his face felt smooth against hers. After a moment, he popped up and said, “How about breakfast in bed?”
“Are you kidding?”
“Nope. I checked with the coffee shop when I got here yesterday. They deliver breakfast to the motel until noon.”
“What time is it?” she asked, unable to see the clock from her position on the bed.
“It’s 9:30.”
“9:30? I should be over at the hospital by now.” Steve’s face dropped, and Michelle could see his look of disappointment. “I guess I could go around noon,” she admitted. “Then Mom, Grandma and Grandpa could get a break for lunch.”
“That sounds like a good idea. Then we’ll be there when Ben and Kelly arrive.”
“Okay. You win. Order the breakfast,” she said with a smile.
Picking up the phone, Steve called the coffee shop. He ordered an omelet, a stack of pancakes with blueberry syrup, two coffees, and a large orange juice. Michelle’s stomach started growling just listening to the order.
After he hung up, she beckoned him back into bed. He smiled and climbed under the covers beside her, enjoying the feel of her slender curves and the fragrance of her cologne. He rested his head on her chest, and she ran her fingers through his hair massaging his scalp. He loved having his head rubbed, and he hummed with appreciation.
They were both close to drifting back asleep when a soft knock on the door indicated the arrival of breakfast. Michelle pulled the covers up to her neck, while Steve slipped into his jeans and strode over to answer the door.
After the delivery boy left, she reached for her robe, but Steve intercepted her, pulling the robe off the bed and tossing it onto the dresser. “We’re not eating at the table, Madam. Remember, I said breakfast in bed.”
She smiled and nodded. “Yes, sir.”
Propping herself up with the pillows, she let the covers slide down again revealing her beautiful silk chemise. Steve was momentarily distracted from retrieving the breakfast. She could see the twinkle in his eye. “Hey, buddy, get the breakfast,” she said with a laugh.
“Oh, yeah. Breakfast. Coming right up.” Steve brought the cups over and placed them on the nightstand. Then he opened up the box and brought the plate with the omelet over to her.
“So I get the healthy breakfast, and you get the sweets?” she asked with a pout.
“Actually, I thought we’d share both of them. How about if we start with this omelet and work our way to the pancakes for dessert?”
“Works for me,” she replied gleefully.
They cozied up together under the covers and shared a fork, taking turns feeding each other bites of omelet and sipping on the same large orange juice.
Finishing up, Steve carried the empty plate over to the table and returned with the pancakes and syrup. As he carefully balanced the plate on her lap, he attempted to feed her without dripping syrup all over the bedding. He was fairly successful
with the exception of one large drip that landed on her chest.
Mimicking a ferocious animal, he made a dive for the drip, growling and shaking his head like a lion while he licked it off. Michelle laughed hysterically, almost knocking over the entire plate. Looking up into her sparkling eyes, Steve planted a wet blueberry kiss on her lips.
“I’m so glad you came for the weekend,” Michelle said lovingly. “Me, too. Max never shares his breakfast with me.”
“It’s a good thing we have Monica to take care of him while you’re gone,” she said, laughing.
“She seems to have grown very attached to him.”
“Maybe she just needs a baby of her own,” Michelle suggested with a smile.
“Maybe we do, too,” he added with a sly grin.
“Oh, really?”
“Really. I’m willing to think about it, babe.”
She was surprised but pleased. “I’m glad. I think about it a lot lately. Every time I go into the gift shop on my way to or from seeing Dad, I stop and look at the adorable baby outfits and blankets. Mom and I like to stop by the nursery too. Being in a hospital changes your perspective on everything. You see some people coming to die and some coming to welcome new life.”
Steve gazed at her thoughtfully. “What about school? You really want to wait on that?”
“I know I need to finish, but my heart just isn’t in it right now.”
“I understand. Especially with everything going on with your dad.”
She nodded, looking down at her hands resting on her knees. Suddenly her eyes pooled with emotion as she glanced back up at her husband. “Is it crazy to be thinking about babies at a time like this?” A tear slipped out and trickled down her cheek.
He wiped it away and kissed her forehead. “No, babe. I think it’s a good time to think about the future. We’ve always planned to have a family. I’m not sure there’s ever a perfect time to do that. But I don’t want to see you give up your dream of being a teacher, either.”
“I know. Same here. This just feels right to me now.”
“Let’s pray about it, Michelle. Then we’ll decide.”
She nodded and smiled. “I love you, Steve.”
“Feeling’s mutual.”
As they embraced, she glanced over his shoulder and noticed the clock. “We’d better get up and get moving. I’ve got to get over to the hospital.”
“Race you to the shower,” he grinned as he jumped up and bolted toward the bathroom.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Ben and Kelly Johnson were up before the sun peeked into their window, the alarm clock echoing raucously in their empty bedroom. Their furniture had been loaded into the rental truck the day before, and they were camping out in sleeping bags in the middle of the master bedroom floor.
Ben threw his pillow at the alarm clock, flipping it onto its back and pressing in the off button. “Nice job,” Kelly murmured with a sleepy smile. Her eyes began to close again.
“Up and at ‘em, Madam,” he chided. “We’re on the road in half an hour.”
She groaned and pulled the sleeping bag up over her head. “Okay, okay,” came her muffled reply.
Wiggling out of his bag, he began rolling it up. Just for good measure, he patted his wife on the shoulder through her heavily quilted covering. “I’m up, I’m up,” she responded, unzipping the zipper and sitting upright.
“I’ll roll up your bag while you start getting ready,” he suggested.
“Okay. It won’t take me long,” she replied with a sigh, shuffling in the direction of the bathroom.
Thirty-five minutes later they were walking out of their tiny bungalow in the sleepy town of Sierra Madre for the last time. Kelly sighed as she remembered Ben carrying her over the threshold on their wedding day. It was a cute, if not incredibly small, cottage, and they would miss the quaintness of its simplicity as well as that of the town itself, nestled up against the foothills of the San Gabriel Valley.
“This has been a great little place,” he commented as if reading Kelly’s thoughts.
“Yep,” she sighed. “But I’m excited about the move. God’s going to do a great work in Sandy Cove.”
“Let’s hope so,” he replied with a smile.
Although he wrestled with self-doubts, his wife steadfastly believed in him. It was her faith in him and in the God they served, that gave Ben the courage to step out and try this call on his life.
They closed the front door gently and climbed into the rental truck that was loaded with their worldly possessions. As Ben climbed into the driver’s seat, Kelly took her place beside him. “Penny for your thoughts,” she said with a yawn as they pulled out of the driveway.
He looked at her and smiled. “I think you should get some more sleep.”
Kelly knew him well enough to know he was probably wondering if he would be up to the challenges ahead. He’d already expressed his concern about how they would find the first people for his opening Bible study. He wondered how they would adjust to life in the Northwest. She knew that most of all he worried about whether their savings account would hold out until one or both of them could get a regular paying job.
In spite of her husband’s tendency toward self-doubts, Kelly was so proud of Ben and his willingness to be this responsive to a call by God. She hoped she could be a supportive pastor’s wife and meet all the demands of that responsibility. Though it felt a bit overwhelming, she was certain this was God’s will for her and for her husband. Even their parents had been amazingly supportive of their move. Surely the Lord was going to supply all their needs as they stepped out in faith to serve Him in their new hometown.
Maneuvering the bulky vehicle toward the freeway, Ben cautiously merged into the number three lane. He would cruise there until he got a better feel for the monster he was navigating.
Kelly leaned against the window, using her pillow as a headrest. “I’ll wake you up when we pull off for breakfast,” he promised. “Thanks, Pastor,” she said with a smile. Closing her eyes, she attempted to stop the continuous parade of thoughts marching through her mind. It would be her turn to drive in a few hours, and she knew she’d do better if she had a little more rest first.
As Kelly slept, Ben thought about their destination for that night. They would be with Steve and Michelle up in Bridgeport near the hospital where Michelle’s dad was in intensive care. He sent up a silent prayer for them. It was hard to imagine how Michelle must be feeling during this aftershock from her father’s attempted suicide.
Steve looked to him for spiritual guidance, since he was the one who had led Steve to a relationship with God, so Ben prayed for wisdom and the right words to minister to his friend. Although Ben trusted God, he lacked trust in himself. His secret fear was somehow disappointing God the way he felt he had disappointed his dad during his partying years. He hoped someday to make both his father and God proud of him and what he had become.
While he drove, he listened to a country western station strumming melancholy sounds about love gone sour. His dad was a country music fan, and Ben had gotten hooked while he was still a young boy riding in their old Chevy truck to the various construction sites where Ben would ‘help’ his father on Saturdays. Something about this music seemed to fit naturally with driving a truck. He smiled to himself as he tapped the steering wheel to the beat.
The freeway was wide open at this early hour. He glanced down at his watch. 6:10. He’d start looking for a fast food restaurant around 6:30. Coffee was sounding really good to him, and he wished they had kept the coffeemaker out for this morning. Oh well. He’d be getting his brew soon enough.
“You done me wrong. You done me wrong. You left me standing on my own far too long....” The music reached into his ears and mind. He thought back to his first love, Trisha Parks. It was his freshman year of college. Trisha was his partner in a sociology project. Her sparkling smile and contagious laugh had captivated his heart.
They spent many long hours together that semester, some wor
king on the project, but many just getting to know each other. Though Ben was quite a playboy, he kept going back to Trisha. She seemed sincerely interested in him and was enchanted with his dream to become an anthropologist, even saying she could imagine accompanying him on some exotic dig in the jungles of Africa or South America.
Shortly after they began dating, Ben attended a crusade with his roommate. They planned to go just to study these far out ‘born again-ers’, but something in the message had touched a part of him he’d never even known existed. By the end of the evening, he was streaming down from the bleachers with thousands of others who were responding to the call to commit their lives to God.
Trisha couldn’t understand this new side of Ben, and she definitely didn’t want any part of it for herself. Their relationship, which had been headed for serious physical involvement, now cooled noticeably as he dug into the scriptures and began reevaluating his priorities and values. Within a month, Trisha announced their relationship was at a dead end.
Ben mourned her departure, grieving his inability to persuade her to explore this new spiritual dimension. It had seemed like such a sacrifice at the time. Losing Trisha was like losing a dream for the future. But when he tried to seek her out one last time, she made it abundantly clear she wanted nothing to do with him or his God.
The next two years had been years of single focus for him as he sunk his roots deep into the heart of God. He spent every spare moment reading and studying scriptures. Sometimes he stayed up all night, poring over verses and commentaries while he downed cup after cup of coffee to keep going. He would stagger into class the following morning, his mind reeling with scriptures he had been reading. Somehow he’d manage to stay awake through the morning lectures and then would crash in his dorm room during the afternoon, often skipping lunch out of sheer exhaustion.
By his junior year, it was clear Ben was not destined to be an anthropologist. Though he loved to study about all the biblical digs and was fascinated about the idea of actually participating in one some day, he was certain God had a different plan in mind. He transferred from the state university to a Christian college and changed his major to theology. Now his studies matched his passion, and he voraciously devoured the scriptures.
Through the Tears (Sandy Cove Series Book 2) Page 5
