“Oops. Sorry,” Lil said, looking to see if any of the boys had overheard their conversation, but Fletch was showing them how to build a truck with their plastic building blocks.
Lil took a bite of the cracker appetizers, swallowed, and ventured, “Can I ask you a personal question?”
“Of course.”
“How do you get your bangs to do that? Mine are about that length, and all they ever do is fall in my eyes.”
Britt carried her skillet to the counter with a stack of plates, glancing at Lil’s hair. “I can help you with that. After dinner, I’ll get out my straight iron.”
Lil moved to hand her plates as Britt served up their dinner. “You can do that with a straight iron?”
“Yep. I can finish here if you want to call the guys.”
Lil strolled across the sparkling tile to the family room and placed a hand on Fletch’s shoulder. “Britt wants us to come eat.”
Vic flicked off his show and gathered up his boys. Lil was glad Britt was keeping it casual, the adults dining at the kitchen table while the boys ate at the kitchen island.
Vic cleared his throat. “Fletch, you want to pray?”
“Wait, boys,” Britt told her sons, who had already started eating.
Lil bit back a smile as the youngsters’ forks clanged onto the granite countertop. Fletch took her hand.
“Lord, I thank You for this home and for providing me with such a generous employer. Bless Britt for making this meal, and bless the boys in all they do. I thank You for this food. Amen.”
“That was nice,” Britt said. “But you do realize that since you two got involved in my husband’s life, our world has turned topsy-turvy.”
Fletch’s fork stopped halfway to his mouth. “Just for the record, it was really Lil who wrecked your car.”
Lil grimaced. “Sorry about that. It was how we met.”
“Tell us what really happened that day, Lil,” Vic urged.
When the story had been told, the couple agreed with Fletch that it was Lil’s fault, after all. But the dinner turned out to be nothing like the meal with Marshall. This one was warm and personal, and Lil felt as though she’d made friends with Vic and Britt.
On the ride home, Fletch reached across the console and touched her hand. “I like your hair.”
She gave her bangs a puff. “These? Thanks. Britt has a knack. She’s pretty and sweet. But I was kind of surprised that she doesn’t work. She really had her house in order.”
“She’s a stay-at-home mom.”
Lil watched the moonlit trees moving past her window. “In the Conservative Church, we don’t even use that expression. It’s taken for granted. It’s just what women do.”
“Not all of them,” Fletch observed.
Lil ignored his reference to her own career. “Britt seems to be a good mother. I mean, it would be better if she took the boys to church, but … I liked her.”
“Vic claims she’s great with the boys. He just wishes she didn’t like to spend money.”
Lil laughed. “Ugh, money. I don’t even have time to spend mine anymore.”
Fletch fell into a contemplative mood until they reached the doddy house. “Can we sit in the car and talk?”
When he had picked her up that evening, he had given her a quick apology about being in a bad mood the last time they were together. She assumed that was their talk. Now, her apprehension returned. “Sure.”
He turned to face her. “Let me start by telling you that my dad and I worked some things out, and things are better between us. But he said some things that got me to thinking. He asked me if I was running from God’s calling.”
“Isn’t your veterinary career your calling?”
“I thought so, but I’ve been praying, and now I see there’s more to it. I don’t know how to tell you—I know that your career is important to you, and I don’t know how this will affect our relationship.”
“What is it?” she asked nervously.
“You know how I’ve always vowed that I would never go into missionary work?”
Lil felt her heart sinking into despair. She blurted out, “You want to be a missionary?”
Fletch sighed. Became stone still.
“I mean, is that it?” Lil urged, seeing she’d frustrated him.
“I was afraid that would be your response. I had hoped you’d be willing to at least consider …” His voice faltered.
“It’s just that I didn’t see this coming. It’s out of the blue. Are your parents going back to Africa? Are you going with them?”
“No. But there’s a program at OSU. It’s available for veterinary students. They go to other countries to treat and train others regarding the care of their farm animals. It’s called Christian Veterinary Mission. I want to check it out. Try to understand. All this time I thought I was rejecting my dad. Now I wonder if I was rejecting God’s calling. I need to find out.”
“I don’t know what to say. This is so unexpected.” Lil shook her head and stared straight ahead, unable to meet his gaze given the way he was breaking her heart.
“Lily,” he pleaded. “Look at me.”
She turned, fighting back tears of resentment that he would come into her life and make her fall for him. He had persuaded her to trust him. Just when she was willing to give their relationship her all, he got restless on her. And now he wanted to run off and find himself doing missionary work. As if their church predicament wasn’t bad enough.
“Lil?”
At his request, she stared into his pleading brown eyes, knowing that she would never recover from loving him. “What?”
“I want you to know I love you.”
She shook her head. “Why would you tell me that now?”
“Because I’m asking you to wait.”
“What?”
“A little while. Give me time to talk to my professor and find out more. Time to pray. I need to spend time with my dad. If God wants us together, He’s going to make a way for us. Right now, if I asked you to marry me, I wouldn’t even know what I was offering you.”
“Have you heard me asking for a marriage proposal?” Why couldn’t they just go on dating. Let things work out?
“Isn’t that where we’re headed?”
She bit her lip to keep from saying something that would ruin all her chances with him. “If you love me at all, will you wait and pray? For us?”
“Let me get this straight. We’re not exactly breaking up, just taking a break? And am I supposed to be trusting you during this little interval?”
“I think it would be better if we both trusted God right now.”
“Whew!” She puffed her bangs again. That clarified things.
Furious, Lil slammed the door and marched through the doddy house. “Megan!”
Peeking over the arm of the sofa and looking at her with one eye, for the other was covered with a waterfall of hair, Megan replied, “What?”
Lil sank to the sofa.
Megan snatched up her legs to keep them from getting crushed.
Lil tossed Megan’s Christian novel onto the coffee table.
“You just lost my page.” Megan ran a hand up the side of her face, further ruffling her hair. “You crying?”
“I just got dumped.”
“He didn’t!”
“He’s dumping me to become a missionary.”
Megan suddenly perked up. “What? Did he ask you to go with him? Did you even give it any thought?”
Lil’s mouth flopped open. “I shouldn’t have expected you to understand. And no, he didn’t ask me.” She stopped, thought back to make sure that he hadn’t. She was unsure. “He wants me to wait for him while he figures out his future. Later, if I fit into his plans, he might be back. I don’t think he’s willing to make compromises anymore. He’s taking charge. He’s changing.”
“That all sounds pretty iffy,” Megan said with disappointment.
“I didn’t see this coming. I thought our last hurdle was deciding whi
ch church to attend.”
Megan wrapped an arm around Lil. “I’m so sorry. I don’t suppose there’re any Italian restaurants in Africa?” But then her friend turned thoughtful. “Well we don’t know that for a fact, do we?”
“It’s not about me. I’m not the barrier. I don’t even like my stupid job.”
Her face twisting in horrific disbelief, Megan blinked. “You don’t?”
“It’s not as glamorous as I thought it would be. It’s glorified slavery. The higher up you go, the harder the work.”
“Really?”
“Trust me. Tonight when we were at Britt and Vic’s, I envied her for her little homemaking life.”
“Has your face been too close to the gas burner all day?”
“I’ve been trying to tell you. And Fletch, too. Except, I haven’t seen him that much lately. And nobody’s listening. Maybe I need to do like he’s doing and go find myself.”
“That’s kinda scary, because you always knew what you wanted.”
“I thought I knew what I wanted.” Slinky rubbed against Lil’s ankles. She swept the purring kitten up against her cheek then settled him on her lap.
“Let’s back up. Fletch wants to find himself?”
“Yes, but he didn’t put it that way. He said we needed to pray. He told me not to trust him, but to trust God.”
Megan tilted her head thoughtfully. “There’s nothing wrong with that advice. For any of us.”
Lil gave Megan a sideways glance. “Your boss isn’t bothering you, is he?”
“No, but something’s bothering him, and of course, that affects me, but I do like my job. I’m sorry you don’t.”
Lil felt suddenly weary. It felt like they were talking in circles, and it had already been such a trying day for her. There had been too many trying days in a row. She was exhausted. “Thanks for being here for me. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
CHAPTER 35
Rolling the kinks out of his shoulders, Fletch climbed out of Vic’s pickup and followed the vet into the clinic. Successive nights of camping out in a sleeping bag on the floor of his apartment was taking its toll. Make that half a sleeping bag. Buddy assumed the floor pallet was an invitation for him. The dog’s dead weight wouldn’t budge. His breath wasn’t that appealing either.
He opened the clinic’s back door for the guilty party to use the dog walk. When he went back inside, Vic asked him to go fetch an extra cage from the truck.
Fletch stepped back outside, and a swirl of brown leaves skittered across his red sneakers and down the sidewalk.
“It only takes one hard freeze. Soon they’ll all be dead. All gone.”
He halted. Turned. “Marshall?”
The older man raised a gloved hand. “I came to apologize. Your dad was right. I’ve been manipulating ya, and that was wrong.” He sighed deeply and cleared his throat. “I didn’t do it on purpose. There’s so little time, and in my mind I thought I knew what would be best for everybody. But I can’t make the world a perfect place.”
“I understand. Earth’s far from perfect. Or fair. It hurt, bad, to hear about your cancer. But there are survivors.”
“I won’t be one of them. The most we can do is slow it down.” He squatted and picked up a leaf. Crumbled it. Scattered it on the sidewalk. “It’s only a matter of time.”
There was no changing that, Fletch thought glumly.
The southerner stood. “On the bright side, I’m taking your dad to lunch tomorrow.”
Giving Marshall a wry smile, Fletch said, “Now that’s a scary thought.” Although Marshall’s anger had dissipated and he was releasing his control over Fletch, this still wasn’t the friend that Fletch had known all his life. This was a grieving man.
He was thrilled Marshall was having lunch with his dad. But after the scene at the restaurant, the image that shot in his mind—of Frank and Marshall chatting together—was that of a pile of leaves and a match.
“I’m going to give him one shot to preach to me.”
“You are?” Fletch had to chuckle now. “I mean, that’s great.” God did have a sense of humor to orchestrate this—Marshall’s most important moment on earth. But after all those years of Marshall supporting Dad’s ministry, it was the perfect plan. Fletch’s admiration for both men grew considerably. For his dad, because he’d been tough but said just the right thing to set Marshall thinking. For Marshall, because he wasn’t bowing to his pride.
And if God could set Marshall’s mind at peace, then Fletch should be able to trust Him with his own future.
Marshall reached into his coat pocket and pulled out an envelope. “Ya know how I like to give gifts?”
“Oh no, Marshall. Please don’t—”
“It’s for Lily. I think I offended her.”
Join the club, Fletch thought, remembering how she flew out of his car in a tiff on their last date. He took the paper that Marshall offered. “What’s this?”
“It’s a phone number of a Mexican restaurant chain that will give the Landis family a contract if they agree to certain organic methods.”
Shaking his head, Fletch stared at the paper. “I don’t know how to thank you. It’s too much.”
“I think Lily’s perfect for you. She was delightful, by the way. Makes me think of my Barbara. She passed long ago. Now she was a fine Christian woman.”
“I wish I could have met her.” He would give the information to Matt. His friend was supporting him in his decision to take a break from Lil. To figure out what he really wanted to do with his future. A lump formed in his throat at Marshall’s generosity. “Lil’s friend Megan loves her job.”
“Good. Good.”
Fletch stepped forward. “Thank you for everything. You’ve been such a blessing in my life.”
Marshall studied him with a smile.
After this, they would drift apart. They both knew it. Marshall would draw strength from Marcus. Fletch and his dad would enjoy the relationship they had never known. “I really needed you.”
“Our friendship was no accident.”
Fletch thought they must both be thinking about the next day’s lunch.
“Are ya on your way—” Marshall’s words cut off with a sudden cough.
“No. Vic sent me to fetch something off his truck.” He watched the man wheeze and fight for control of his breathing.
When he was able to speak, Marshall said, “Well, stop by the shelter if ya have time. I’m headed home on Friday.”
“Thanks.” Neither Fletch nor Vic had been at the shelter in days. Fletch felt as though his time there was finished. But he did want to see Marshall again, hoped to see how the lunch went. “I’ll try.”
It was embarrassing that Lil hadn’t been to Katy’s new house yet. She and Jake had dropped by the doddy house a few times since the move, but the weeks had flown by with new jobs and everybody settling in. One October Saturday, however, Katy invited Lil and Megan for tea. Lil made some oatmeal raisin cookies and Megan took a stack of Christian novels she wanted to share.
They walked up the pristine, perennial-lined sidewalk that led to the front door. Lil rang the doorbell. “This is nice.”
Megan shifted her novels to the other arm. “I like the gray siding. It’s one of my favorites.”
Katy opened the door and pulled them inside. “I’ve missed you.”
“Yeah, but you’ve got the chump to keep you company,” Lil teased.
“He’s off playing basketball with Chad. I usually go along, but today I needed to see my friends.”
Katy gave them a quick tour of the house. Though small, it had high ceilings and three bedrooms. One of them was made into Jake’s home office. The other one remained empty. When Lil stepped into the kitchen, she froze. “Granite countertops?”
“They came with the house. You know it was a model, so they had it fixed up nice.” Katy filled the teapot with water and turned on the burner. She was all smiles. “I have to admit, it’s really fun to clean our new home.”<
br />
Lil unwrapped the plastic that covered the cookies and set them on the table. “We have played musical chairs. I never pictured it would be like this. I always thought we’d all three live together.”
“We don’t have to live together to be best friends. Where do you want these books?”
Katy took them to the living room and returned just as the teakettle whistled. She served them their chamomile along with Lil’s cookies. She’d been sporting a smile ever since they arrived. At first Lil thought it was just the joy of showing them her home, but now her friend’s smile deepened, spread across her face, and lit up her eyes.
“I have something to tell you both. Aside from Jake, you’re the first to know.”
A sweet inkling blossomed inside Lil. “Yes?”
“We’re going to have a baby.”
Megan and Lil squealed, jumping up to hug Katy.
“This is wonderful. How do you feel?”
“I’m not even sick. Just a little tired.”
“When’s it due? What does Jake say?”
“The baby is due the end of April. Will you help me prepare the nursery?”
“Of course!” Lil touched Katy’s arm, thinking about the empty bedroom. “We’ll give you a shower, too.”
“That would be nice. Maybe after Christmas.”
“Perfect.”
“Are you going to keep working?” Megan asked.
“Probably until the baby comes. Then I guess we’ll see how it goes. If I do, I’m sure I won’t work as much.”
“I imagine the chump’s excited?”
“He’s been wonderful, doting on me. But we’ve only known a few days. I suppose that will wear off soon.”
Lil clasped her cup with both hands. “Your baby will be born right after Michelle’s. Maybe they’ll play together.”
“I hope so.” Katy talked happily about her baby, and they emptied the teapot.
Lil hadn’t known there were so many things to say about an unborn child, but Katy already seemed to be well informed. She’d picked up some library books on the subject.
Katy gave a happy sigh. “Enough about me. What’s going on in your lives?”
Lil crossed her legs and swung her foot in tiny circles. “I haven’t heard anything from Fletch since he asked me to wait for him. But Matt says he’s still in town. That’s something. Matt doesn’t really want to talk about Fletch. He feels like he’s squealing on his friend.”
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