by Nikki Larson
A touch on his shoulder startled him, and his sharp intake of breath surely gave that fact away.
“May I have a word with you?” It was Galina, Nichole Tiffington’s sister, standing there next to him. The pastor had barely finished the prayer, and most people were still standing with their eyes closed as Rogue had instructed them to continue to do. Except for those who were feeling the pings of their conscience.
“Sure,” Lucas choked out in a whisper.
Galina looked as uncomfortable as Lucas felt–as terrified as a deer in the headlights.
“I’m sorry to bother you,” she said in a slightly raspy voice, perhaps from all those years of cigarette smoking, or from emotion. Lucas couldn’t be sure. “But I wanted to take this moment to extend an apology to you and the kids. It was wrong of me to bring a lawsuit against you. It was… self-serving and… wrong. It was simply wrong.”
Too stunned to say anything, Lucas only cleared his throat.
“I was wondering if you could forgive me,” she said, taking a step back and glancing for a just a moment into his eyes. “I was wondering if you could find it in your heart to forgive me,” she repeated, staring down at the floor.
The lights were dimmed, and for that, Lucas was grateful. “Um, sure,” he managed to say. “Ahem, um….” He reached out to shake her hand. “Yes, Galina, I forgive you.” He blinked, rather surprised at his own words, at his own capability to forgive.
“Thank you,” she said quietly, and she gave him the tiniest of smiles.
Lucas thought it was one of the saddest smiles he’d ever seen. There was regret there, and a disappointment in herself, he could tell. But there was triumph, too, because she had done what she needed to do. She had done the right thing, and Lucas could tell it had brought her relief.
“Go on and have a good life, would you, Galina?” The words sounded foreign to him, but he meant it. He wanted to see her blossom and change, and live for something meaningful.
“I will do that,” she said with resolve. She nodded decisively. “I will do that.”
Lucas watched her step away and, head held high and posture straight, walk back through the crowd before the whole congregation took communion together.
Chapter 32
Reconnecting with Gwenna was one of the most bittersweet moments of Thea’s life. She could barely hold it together. But she had to, for the sake of all the kids in her class. Thank God for Whitney. She kept Thea grounded, and focused on the task at hand.
They’d gone through the Bible story of Jonah and the whale, went over verses on serving God, and song to go with it. The kids were excited to learn of God’s goodness and perseverance with Jonah even though he disobeyed.
“Jonah didn’t do the right things. Many times, he disobeyed God. He went the other way, on a ship, and God sent a storm to tell Jonah he was not pleased with him. It took Jonah three days in the belly of a fish to repent, but he finally did. He preached to the residents of Nineveh, and they turned away from evil and turned towards God. Then Jonah was angry. He didn’t want God to be so merciful. But God showed Jonah with the vine that withered, that Jonah shouldn’t care so much about the little things, he should care about the big things, like people’s souls.” Whitney summed up the whole story in just a few sentences. Thea was pretty impressed.
“Thank you, Whitney,” she said. “Okay, class,” she told the second graders, “It was great to have you all here today. Let’s have you finish your crafts until the parents come. You have a few minutes.”
Thea was putting away the story board and felt pieces when Lucas arrived to pick up Gwenna.
“Hi,” he said, rather shyly.
“Hi,” she said. All her anger towards him had somehow evaporated, but she knew she had to remain guarded. Too bad he looked so perfect, so strong and manly. She could feel herself being drawn in by his presence. But she couldn’t allow that.
“I have some things I want to share with you,” he said. “God has been working in my life, and I think we need to have a talk.” He said it as gently and sincerely as possible, so as not to be threatening.
“Oh, we do, do we?” she said. She was skeptical, yet a part of her heart was hopeful. Maybe the foolish part….
“Can I treat you to lunch? With me, and all the kids?”
Thea pictured Hutch climbing all over her lap while they tried to hold a conversation. She pictured herself laughing, and enjoying everyone’s company. She looked at him with what was surely a forlorn expression. “You know, that’s really nice of you, but I can’t right now. I just can’t.”
“I understand,” he said. “No problem. Maybe some other time.” He turned to Gwenna, who’d been glancing at the two of them now and again, but not moving from her spot at the craft table. “Let’s go, kiddo,” he told her.
Quickly she appeared at his side, and showed him her creation: Jonah and the whale.
“What did you learn about?” he asked her.
“How God gives you second chances,” she replied innocently.
“Ah, second chances,” he said wryly, giving a sad smile before he and Gwenna walked away.
Chapter 33
The birds sang happily in the park, belying Lucas’ somber mood. He tried to act upbeat for the children’s sake, however. It wasn’t fair to burden them with his concerns and his broken heart, he thought as he passed out the Togo sandwiches.
So much had changed in these few months, but he had no time to process it now. The children were all seated contentedly on the blanket he always kept in his trunk nowadays. He’d learned quickly that, when you are a father of children, a blanket always comes in handy. His trunk was full of kid items–frisbees, toys, buckets and shovels for the beach, diapers and wipes, extra water bottles, even a change of clothes for each kid. He was a bona fide dad now, and there was no going back.
“So, how was church? He asked Lily, who was sitting close enough for their knees to touch.
“Good,” she replied in between bites of her sandwich.
“You liked it?”
“Yeah,” she said, giving him a sweet little smile. “Can we go again?” she asked.
Hutch and Harley decided this would be a good time to wrestle, and Lucas had to tell them to settle down before they spilled their drinks. “Guys,” he scolded them. “Really now, No more. Eat your lunch.” He moved the cups closer to himself, so they wouldn’t knock them over. Turning to Lily, he addressed her question. “You want to go again, huh?”
She nodded, her eyes heartbreakingly earnest.
“Well, that’s going to be kind of hard, seeing how Miss Thea wants nothing to do with me,” he confided. Why he was confiding in a five-year-old, he had no idea. Maybe it was because he had no one else to talk to. He’d had no time for friendships all these years, with all his responsibilities on the yacht. Only Gavin still kept in touch. But guys didn’t talk much about these things, anyway,
Gwenna piped up. “She likes you still, I can tell.”
“Yeah, well,” he said sadly, “I’m afraid that doesn’t count for much.”
“You want to win her back?” Gwenna asked him, her voice full of hope.
“Yeah, I do,” he admitted. Where did a little girl get such grown-up language? “You’ve been reading too many romance novels,” he chided her.
“I know what you need to do,” Gwenna told him, skipping right over his comment. “You need to invite her over for dinner, and have Aunt Stephanie babysit us, and then you tell her how much she means to you and how you are very sorry for whatever you did wrong, and then she will love you again.”
“Oh, you think so, huh?” Lucas asked her. For a little girl, she had quite a lot of wisdom and insight. “How do you know so much?” he asked, giving her a very light, playful punch to her jaw.
Gwenna giggled. “I just do,” she answered him with a shrug of her little shoulders.
“I’ll think about it, okay?” he asked. The late summer breeze wafted through the park, carrying with it the
scent of jasmine and dreams. Maybe, just maybe, he could win Thea back.
Chapter 34
When Thea’s cell phone rang with his distinctive ring tone, she bristled at the sound of it. She picked it up quickly, so as not to wake Raven and Wesley.
“Yes?” she answered, and was dismayed to hear the hopeful, uplifting tone of her own voice, as if she were anticipating this moment and was glad for it. She ran her finger along the raised ribbon which decorated her plum-colored comforter in Raven and Wesley’s guest room and willed herself to breathe quietly, though her heart was pounding out of control.
“Thea.” He spoke her name as if it were royalty, with awe and respect.
She was angry that she liked it, and inwardly scolded herself for her weakness. She prayed for strength, and God’s leading.
With baited breath, she remained silent.
“I would like to apologize for misleading you about my actual identity, about my role as Mr. Hunt’s employee. I am sorry I let you think I was a billionaire.”
“You think I care about that?” she asked. “You’ve got to know this was not about money,” she scolded him as she sat up in bed.
“I know,” he said, his voice full of regret. “It’s about honesty.” He gave a deep sigh. “I am even more sorry that I let you think I was ever Nichole Tiffington’s husband, or the children’s dad.” He cleared his throat.
This must be awfully hard on him, Thea realized, to humble himself and apologize to her. She was rude to him, the day she found out he was a liar. But a liar he was, and she’d do well to remember that. She sat perched on the edge of the bed, unsure what to say. But she had to say something. It would be unkind to just let him flounder in his guilt. “I forgive you,” she said. She swallowed hard.
She had thought he would have given up, and would never have reached out to her again, after she made it quite clear she preferred they keep their distance.
“You do?” His voice immediately brightened, and she imagined him smiling, sitting on the pool deck, which was his favorite spot at sunset. But this was many hours past sunset. What time was it, anyway?
Thea had been lying there awake, staring at the wall where the light from the moon shone in through the blinds. “Yes,” she sighed. “I do.” She reached over and clicked on the lamp, to its dimmest setting. “Look Lucas, I was unduly harsh with you when I found out you had lied to me. Your deception was a grave mistake, but not as monstrous or as large as I had made it out to be. I can understand why you did what you did.”
“You can?” he asked.
“You sound surprised,” she told him.
“Well, yeah,” he agreed. “Of course.”
“Lucas, do you really think I am so shallow that I would hold something like this against you?”
She could hear him chuckle nervously at her question.
“I know, that’s hard to answer. Never mind. I need to be more humble,” she told him. “I have not been fair to you. I’ve been acting holier than thou.” It pained her to admit it.
“Well, thank you,” he said, “but I wouldn’t go so far as to say that. You are a humble person, a kind soul,” he praised her. “You are special and important, and beautiful, inside and out.”
She turned over on her stomach and bent her knees so that her feet were kicking in the air behind her. She felt childish and free, leaning her face on her hands, propped up by her elbows. “You really think so?” Now she was fishing for compliments, though he had offered enough. “I mean, you are special, too. Lucas. What kind of man would offer to take care of four children after his boss dies?”
“Um, I didn’t really offer,” he admitted. “I was kind of thrown into it.”
“Oh, true,” she recalled. “Well, in any case, you accepted the responsibility graciously. You stepped up and made it work. Or, at least that appears to be the case from my vantage point. You even brought them to church–to a good, solid, Bible-teaching church. That counts for something. That counts for a lot, actually.” Too bad it was her church, though.
She stood to look out the window, which faced the back yard. The water in the swimming pool glistened in the moonlight, and the sky was black except for the multitude of dim stars, obscured as they were by the city lights. But still the stars were there, whether Thea could see them clearly or not. Then something else occurred to her. “How did you know it was my church? How did you find me?” She’d been wondering that ever since he’d arrived at the door of her Sunday school class.
“You dropped a card,” he told her. “A business card for the church, with your pastor’s name and number on it.”
“I did?” she asked, quite surprised. “Where?”
“Underneath your bed, on the yacht.”
“You crawled underneath my bed?” she asked him. She pictured him crawling around on his hands and knees, searching beneath her bed. Why would he be doing that?
“Not exactly,” he said. “It was sticking out a little bit. I could see it when I stepped into your room to see if you’d really gone.”
“You checked to see if I was really gone?”
“Yes, I was checking to see if you had taken everything. I figured if you’d left a few things, you’d be back.”
“No,” she said quietly. She had made a clean break. It had been necessary.
“Would you ever consider coming back?” he asked her hopefully. “To me, and the kids?”
The silence that followed weighed heavily on her heart, and she felt the spirit of God calling out to her, drawing her in with cords of kindness. “Maybe,” she allowed.
“Come over tomorrow,” he requested.
The suddenly cheerful sound of his voice uplifted her and made her happy and hopeful no matter how much she tried to squelch the unreasonable feelings. “Okay,” she agreed. “What time?”
“Seven o’clock?” he asked her. “I’ll make you a pizza. I never got to make you a pizza in the woodfired oven.” He thought of the garlic. Not very romantic. “Actually, I’ll surprise you. I’ll make you a gourmet dinner that I learned in culinary school.”
“Okay, Lucas,” she said in agreement. “Seven o’clock. I’ll see you then.”
Chapter 35
This was the moment he’d prayed for. This was the day he had been waiting for all those long and lonely months, apart from Thea. And now that it was here, he was all abuzz with nervousness.
“Lord, help me make it a good one,” he prayed. “A good evening. A wonderful, special evening for Thea. Help me win her back. Help us reconnect and resolve all of our past troubles.”
Perhaps his words were cheesy and his nerves were frazzled, but his heart was sincere and that was all that mattered. He never cared this much about anyone before, and the past few months had been filled with loneliness, angst, and soul-searching. Thea Chambers was everything he had ever hoped for in a woman, and he’d lost her due to his own foolish decisions. Now, he wanted to show her just how much he had changed.
Lucas busied himself with gathering and preparing all the ingredients for dinner, buying flowers, setting the table with candles and a decorative black tablecloth with a white table runner. The flowers were red–red roses, wonderfully fragrant. The candles were sleek and white, set in crystal holders which used to be his mother’s. Maybe he’d even write a poem. He’d practice his song. And he’d spend the day preparing the marinade for the lemon chicken piccata, cutting and seasoning the broccoli, mixing the ingredients for the wild rice, chilling the white wine. This was a recipe he had perfected over time, and now he was excited to be able to share it with her.
He couldn’t believe she had agreed to meet with him on the yacht once again. What if he messed it up? What if he offended her? What if she didn’t truly forgive him for his past mistakes? What if he burnt the dinner?
At that last thought he laughed. He was letting all this get to him far too much.
He’d just be himself, be as sincere as possible, and see how it went. He prayed again that it would go well.<
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If God is for me, who can be against me?
Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.
These newly-learned verses were igniting a spirit of hopefulness in his heart. He wanted more than anything to impress her. He was energized and happy, and ever-so-grateful his sister Stephanie had again agreed to watch the kids. He owed her, big time.
Thea arrived on the yacht at ten minutes past seven. She was wearing silky black and white pants with an intricate pattern and a silky black blouse which showed off her tiny waist. Her hair was longer than he’d remembered, and lay alluringly at her shoulders in loose curls.
“I’ve missed you,” he said huskily, and immediately regretted it. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to….” He shrugged his shoulders helplessly, at a loss for the right words. What do you say to the love of your life when she has snubbed you for months, and for good reason?
“Hi, Lucas,” she said, offering him a gentle smile and a tilt of her head.
That’s what he liked about her. When she smiled her eyes crinkled. She wasn’t one to pretend. Well, only once or twice when he’d made her uncomfortable, maybe. Maybe then she was pretending. The time at dinner, maybe, when he’d ask her to travel to Saint Cathay Island with them. She’d pretended to be sophisticated and aloof when she’d walked in. And later, she pretended not to care that she would have to leave this nanny job, leave the kids without a mother figure. But she’d been reeling from a breakup, so it was hardly fair to judge her for her actions that day. He couldn’t blame her for being uncomfortable. She had every right to be off-balance and scared.
If only he had been there for her. He had, sort of. But not completely. The lies he had built their relationship on–that he was the billionaire, and that he was the children’s dad–had inevitably come between them. You can’t build a close relationship on lies. He’d found that out the hard way.
Instead of greeting her with an embrace, he gently took her by the hand and led her to the dining room, where the flowers and candles were set on the table.