Page 30 of Wish You Faith (Christmas Sweethearts #1)
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“T ime for dinner!” Rosie’s mom said aloud.
“No need to yell,” Dottie said. “We’re all wearing our hearing aids, Sonya.”
Sonya laughed as her two friends shuffled around her in the kitchen and kept themselves busy. They didn’t bother to speak in hushed tones.
Evan wasn’t sure how to remind them that Rosie was still sleeping. He gazed down at his sleeping beauty. He brushed a couple of locks of hair off her face.
She wasn’t wearing any makeup that he could see. No foundation, no lipstick, no eyeshadow. Her eyelashes were the average length—not too long, not too short. Her face was smooth under the ceiling light. Her lips were full.
So that was how Rosie looked when she was sleeping. Evan wished he could wake up to this pleasant sight every morning.
He was more convinced than ever that he would propose tonight.
His phone buzzed. He reached down to retrieve it from his jean pocket. Connor had left him a message wishing his baby brother a Merry Christmas. Evan replied in kind, then texted him about work.
Evan
Thanks for filling in for me the next two days. I’ll be back soon.
Connor
Don’t mention it. What are brothers for?
Evan
How are Mom and Dad?
Connor
They’re all over Marsha, waiting for her to deliver anytime now.
Evan
Whew. That takes the heat off me.
Connor
Just you wait. Mom might be in a good mood now, but Dad’s talking about taking her to Hong Kong for a few weeks so that she can visit her relatives.
Evan
Both of them?
Connor
Yep. It’ll just be the two of us at the HQ. Think you can handle it, bro?
Evan would be telling the truth if he said that he’d rather not see his parents at the office. All his life he’d been sheltered by them, only to return with an MBA to be put in Connor’s shadow.
However, since he’d been in Savannah and spent time in an entirely different work environment at the Christmastown Tree Farm, he realized that peace in his family would be somewhere in between his two options.
Instead of quitting the family business and running away from Seattle, and instead of suffering at work and giving up his dreams, he had found the middle ground: doing a bit of both.
In other words, he was about to compromise with Mom. If she got a whiff of that, she’d take advantage of the situation yet again. Hadn’t it been enough compromise for him to indenture himself to Cavanaugh Shipping for ten years?
Well, maybe indentured was a strong word. His VP salary wasn’t small change.
Connor
You know that I support your proposal to open a Savannah office. But timing is important. Asking the right question at the wrong time won’t help your cause.
Evan
I get it. Thanks.
Connor
We’ll talk and pray this weekend.
Evan
Sure thing.
Connor was right in that timing was an important factor. Not only with his professional life, but also in his personal life.
As Evan watched Rosie sleep, he recalled his arrival at the condo.
In his excitement, he had tried to propose to Rosie on Christmas Day. Nothing wrong with that, except his mind had been so laser-focused on the proposal that he hadn’t thought much about the fact that it was still Christmas Day.
Forgive me, Lord, for forgetting that it’s Your day.
If he had insisted that Rosie give him an answer, she might say something against her own wishes simply to placate him and not let him feel more embarrassment. It would then cast a pall over their relationship.
No, he didn’t want to drag her into an ill-timed engagement.
They both had to be on the same page and level for them to be able to walk in tandem together as husband and wife.
As he was mulling over this, he happened to look down—and was startled to see two big gray eyes staring up at him.
“Why am I sleeping on your lap?” Rosie placed her arms across her tummy.
“Because…” All right, he’d say it. “Because it was too risky for me to attempt to carry you to your room in front of everyone.”
“Risky?”
Evan nodded as his right hand held Rosie’s arm over her tummy. “I didn’t want to drop you. Safety first, you know.”
“Am I too heavy for you?” She didn’t frown or anything when she asked the question.
He shook his head immediately. “I don’t think so. I think my arms are not strong enough to even carry a kid.”
“Too much time doing a desk job?”
“Sadly so.”
“Well, no one has ever carried me before—except Mom and Dad when I was very young. We lived far enough away from relatives that they hardly visited us and we hardly visited them. So there were only three of us in my childhood days.”
Before Evan could say more, Sonya shouted from the kitchen across the open space. “Almost time to eat. Could you two set the table?”
Evan helped Rosie to get to her feet. He put the fleece throw on the nearest armchair and followed her to the kitchen.
The kitchen was crowded, so Sonya sent Rosie to go wash up. After her bedroom door closed, Sonya turned to Evan.
“When are you going to ask her again?” Sonya’s eyes looked excited.
“Pardon?”
“This afternoon, when I was taking a nap, my door was ajar. I heard you try to propose to Rosie.” Sonya opened a cabinet door and pointed to a stack of dinner plates.
Evan understood right away. He washed his hands at the kitchen sink. Evan wiped his hands on a clean paper towel, and then took out five dinner plates from the shelf.
“She stopped you because it’s the Lord’s Day today,” Sonya continued. “Rosie has always been sensible like that. Frugal, thoughtful, logical, and sometimes stubborn—like her dad.”
He would have liked to have met Rosie’s dad. He sounded like he’d been a decent man.
“It makes sense not to dilute the day, so to speak.” Evan defended Rosie.
Dottie walked with him to the dining table, carrying a stash of silverware in her hands. “One of my nephews proposed to his wife on Christmas Day. Nothing wrong with that.”
“Not at all. That’s not what I’m saying. If the couple is fine with it, I suppose there’s no molehill to make into a mountain.” Evan distributed the dinner plates onto Christmas placemats.
“But if Rosie is not fine with it, don’t do it,” Sonya said when Evan returned to the kitchen for the next task. “Otherwise every Christmas season will be a reminder for her.”
“Exactly.” Evan nodded. “I want our memories to be positive.”
“Good man.” Marcella elbowed Evan. She seemed to have finished plating slices of ham.
“Shall I take that platter to the dining table?” Evan asked.
“Yes, young man. You may.” Marcella smiled. “You better ask her again before you get cold feet.”
“They only met a month ago,” Sonya reminded her friend.
“So?” Dottie’s eyes glittered under the ceiling lights. “When you know, you know.”
“What I said.” Evan smiled.
“My Frank and I married only a few months after we’d started dating and one week before he shipped off to Vietnam,” Marcella said. “We had to wait until after the war to get to know each other, but we’ve stayed married to this day. Fifty-four years and counting.”
“Whoa. Congratulations.” Evan was genuinely impressed. “What’s your secret to a long marriage?”
“Cherish every moment. Smile at least once a day at your spouse. Choose your battles.” The advice rolled off Marcella’s tongue like she’d been asked the same question before.
Dottie was visibly moved. “Bob left me last year. I still think of all the things I wish I’d said to him and all the things I wish I’d never said to him when he was still alive.”
“I’m sorry.” It was all Evan could think of saying as he watched Sonya and Marcella hug Dottie.
“Learn from us.” Dottie dried her eyes on a paper napkin. “Did Rosie reject you?”
“Actually, I didn’t get a chance to finish my question. She said to ask her another day.” Evan had driven all night to get here, power-napped for a couple of hours, and was then denied the opportunity to complete his mission.
“When is the soonest you can ask her again?” Dottie asked.
“Tomorrow, I suppose.”
“Don’t change your mind. Rosie is a good girl.”
Evan understood what Dottie meant even though he remembered that Jesus said in Mark 10:18 that only God was good.
So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.”
Since Jesus Christ was God incarnate, He was therefore good. In His goodness and mercy, God had protected Rosie’s character all these years. Outsiders such as Dottie could see Rosie’s commendable personality.
In the days that Evan had been with Rosie, both during and after work, he had seen her handle her managerial duties with maturity and calm. The only time she had freaked out was when Travis chased after her. Even then, she hadn’t lost it.
Perhaps Rosie had trained in the school of life, losing her father a while back and going through her mom’s cancer treatment recently. Sometimes hardships made one stronger.
Could Evan say the same for himself? His fractured relationship with his parents was on the mend only because he’d made a deal with them. If he hadn’t made that deal, they’d still be estranged, with Connor being the go-between.
“No, I won’t change my mind,” Evan replied to Dottie. “I know that she’s the only one for me for the rest of my life. I’m trying to move back to Savannah for her.”
“Move from where?” Marcella asked.
“Seattle.”
“Long way from here.”
“It is.” Evan’s heart was heavy when he thought about parting with Rosie again this weekend.
“Then I wish you faith as you go forward.” Dottie patted Evan’s arm.
If worse came to worst, and Mom did not agree on the Savannah expansion, then Evan would have to work in Seattle for ten years.
He couldn’t quit Cavanaugh Shipping because he’d already made a promise.
Mom would go ballistic, and Evan would have to explain how he wasn’t honoring his parents in Ephesians 6:2.
He prayed that if they had to live separately for the next decade, Rosie would understand. They’d be reunited in their forties. Heaven forbid Rosie would tell him to wait until then before proposing.
Evan carried side dishes to the dining table.