Page 379

That got a rise out of her. She frowned hard at me and looked as if she wanted to stab me with her plastic salad fork. “On no! You donotget to ‘yada yada yada’ with me! You donotget to brush off my feelings that way!
“When I heard about the kind of life you used to live and the kind of people you used to associate with — thatKaneperson, who makes my skin crawl just remembering the things you told me about him… I told you I couldn’t be associated with anyone from a background like that, and I meant it!”
Her outburst left us both in silence. I just stood there, staring at her, scratching at the back of my neck. It was like the last day of our relationship, all over again.
Kathleen was no longer interested in her saladorin talking to me. She got up, tossed the rest of the salad into the garbage can next to her table, and straightened her skirt, prepared to walk out of my life again after these few uncomfortable minutes that she was back in it.
“I have to go, Elijah,” she said, returning to the flat, cold tone of a moment ago. “Best of luck.”
I called to her back — that beautiful back with the hair tumbling down it that matched the shade of my own hair as perfectly as I’d thought she matched my life — “I’ll never be that guy again, Kathleen! He’s gone, never coming back!”
But, neither was Kathleen. This chance encounter had proven that to me. Kathleen and I would never again be what we were.
My shower waited for me back at my apartment. But, I knew in no uncertain terms that I wouldnotbe screwing the woman I once thought I’d share the rest of my life with in that shower again.
_______________
Alone on my empty bed in my empty apartment, with nothing but a towel wrapped around me after my shower, I almost wished that the lie I’d told Kane about having a German Shepherd guard dog were true. At least the imaginary “Molly” would besomekind of company. Not the kind of company that I most wanted and needed, but company just the same. And, Molly would never have held my past against me.
Wearily, I picked up my phone and texted my sister.
Ran into Kathleen. No wonder Mom and Dad liked her so much. She’s just as disgusted by my past as I am.I frowned at having to include Mom in that, but it was true. She would always act like a loving mother, but she’d never forget how much I used to disappoint her.I’ll always be a lowlife in Kathleen’s eyes. I think every woman I ever meet feel be that way.
Sarah’s reply came with a sad face emoji.They’re the ones missing out. But, why do you care what Kathleen thinks? I don’t want to say the girl was high-maintenance, but you’d just end up spending all your money on her upkeep. She was crazy, anyway.
It was just what I needed right then. I could always count on Sarah for a laugh at exactly the right time.
CHAPTER12
Corinne. Sunday afternoon
To put it simply, I slept through my alarm.
I was drifting warmly in some dream. I don’t even know what it was about now. But there are some times in the middle of a dream when from some corner of your sleeping mind, another thought comes rudely crashing in on you. My dreaming, drifting mind suddenly capsized by a rude, intruding thought:
Daddy’s sermon! You’re missing Daddy’s sermon!
Bolting up in bed, I was suddenly aware that it was Sunday, and I choked out some words that you would not want to use in church — or when virtually attending church online.
I hadtoldDaddy I’d log on for his sermons every week. I grabbed my phone and saw it was after ten in the morning. I was grateful that Daddy’s sermon was recorded at the same time as it was streamed, so I’d be able to catch it again at eleven.
Daddy liked to call technology “the product of the human ingenuity that the Lord so wisely gave us.” Just now, I called it a life-saver, even knowing that he would have forgiven me and that the sermon would be saved online so I could really listen to it any time. It just made me unhappy with myself that I wouldn’t catch the whole thing live. Resigned to the fact, I swung my legs over the side of the bed and got myself up.
If I hurried, I could shower quickly, get some raspberry turnovers and sausage out of the fridge and warm them up in the microwave, do the same with a cup of hot cocoa, then take breakfast back to bed in time to log on with my laptop and catch Daddy just as he stepped up to the pulpit. And, that was just what I did.
The church’s video crew always did some shots over Daddy’s shoulders looking out into the pews. It did my heart good to see so many people there. It made me wish I were there myself. It made me want to hear Daddy talking to me personally, not to his flock. So, after watching the sermon and getting dressed for the day, I started a video call with him as I’d done with Leanna the other night.
“Daddy, the sermon was wonderful, as usual,” I said, sitting up on my now-made bed and talking to his smiling face. “It made me miss being there and hearing it in person.”
“Homesickness is natural,” he replied. “Your heart always knows where it belongs, honey.”
“I know, Daddy,” I said. “I like it here, I really do. But, there are some things about home that you can’t get anywhere else, no matter how nice it is. That’s the hardest part.”
“But, youaredoing well at the internship,” he said. “Everything is fine with you and the people you work with, isn’t it?”
“It’s great,” I assured him. “The woman who trained me this first week is super nice. You’d like her. And, everyone else has been nice. I met the boss — well, one of the bosses — and he’s…” I flashed on that moment of my awkward, embarrassing introduction to Elijah and the thing I felt then. I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to talk to my father aboutthat.“He’s a gentleman,” I said.
“That’s good,” said Daddy. “Your mother and I raised two smart girls who can make anything of their lives they want to. You just keep on the way you’re going, and good things will come to you. And remember…”