“Have you heard anything from Stiles?”
“No. Why would I? The man practically hates my guts, and it’s not like I’m all goo-goo over him either. I mean, I know I was the one who cheated. God knows, you’ve reminded me of that a zillion times.” Detria huffed and shook her head like she was disgusted with the conversation they were having, and she was.
“But I’m past all of that now. I wish Stiles well, and I’ve moved on. God has forgiven me. I’ve paid for my mistakes. Brooke, in case you forgot, my child is dead, and I’m…well…look at me. Don’t you think that it’s hard to deal with the fact that I’m in the position I’m in because God is punishing me?”
“God is not punishing you, and you know it. You were involved in a car accident that was no fault of your own, so I’m not going to let you go around saying that God caused your accident, and that God let my niece die all because you were sleeping with Skip. No way. God doesn’t operate like that.”
“I can’t help it. That’s how I feel at times.” Detria bowed her head.
“If you feel that bad then why are you still with Skip? You’re saying one thing, but you’re doing something else.”
“Look, you have somebody, Brooke! You have a man. Do you think I want to go through life alone? Do you think it’s fun being tied to this chair and never having the use of my arm? You think that’s a good feeling or something? Well, it’s not.”
“Dang, it still doesn’t mean you have to settle for Skip. How do you know God doesn’t have someone better out there for you? What you need to do is pray. Ask God to take away the feelings of guilt you have toward yourself. Ask him to take away this need to have a man in your life until He brings the right one along. When He does, then that man will love you and accept you for who you are, and how you are.”
“How do you know that man isn’t Skip?”
Brooke inhaled deeply, then got up from the couch. “You know what, I’m going to leave on that note. Sometimes you act like you don’t have the sense of a goldfish. You can’t see that the man is using you.”
“Using me how, Brooke? Tell me,” Detria fumed.
“You get a disability check. You have this huge house,” Brooke stated pointing and looking around. “And now you’re a multi-millionaire.” Brooke folded her arms. “What does he have?”
“For your information, Skip has a home of his own and a job. Anyway, it’s none of your business what he has and doesn’t have. If you’re trying to say that he’s only with me because of what I have, then you don’t know me at all. Why can’t you believe that he loves me? Huh? Why is that so hard for you to digest? You think that you’re the only one who can be happy and have a good life with a good man?”
Detria pushed the On button on her chair and navigated the joystick on it, turning herself away from Brooke. She took off toward the door leading to the side driveway.
“You’re right; I think it’s time for you to go. I’m tired.”
Brooke eyed her sister, rolled her eyes, then picked up her purse. “I’m out of here. I’ll talk to you later.”
Priscilla appeared with the sandwiches.
“I’m sorry, Priscilla,” Brooke told her. “Something came up. I have to go.”
“Oh, okay,” Priscilla replied, as she looked over at Detria, and placed the sandwiches on the table in front of her.
“Will you take my food up to my room?”
“Of course.” Priscilla retrieved the tray of food and left.
Detria waited until she was sure that Brooke was gone. She went to her room and parked her chair on the side of the bed. Priscilla had brought the food like Detria asked and sat it on the side table next to her bed. Detria took several bites out of the sandwich, ate a few chips, and took several sips of the hot tea.
Next, she grabbed her cell phone and threw it on the bed. With expert precision, just like the occupational therapist taught her, she transferred herself from her wheelchair to her king-sized bed. She sat up in the bed, got her cell phone, and called Skip.
“I have some good news. Can you come over?”
Epilogue I
Two years since the accident
“A hard beginning maketh a good ending.” John Heywood
“When are you going to wake up and stop being stuck on stupid?”
“You know what? You are my sister, Brooke, so don’t get it twisted; you do not control me.”
Brooke was so angry and disappointed in Detria, she couldn’t see straight. The foolish girl was like a wild child. She had done what she said and made her immediate family members debt-free since receiving her settlement. She had upgraded all the furniture in her already perfect home, and she told Brooke that she gave a sizeable donation to the church where she had been attending.
If things had ended there, Brooke would have been good, but seeing how ignorant Detria was acting, made her want to choke some sense into her.
“Somebody needs to control you,” Brooke countered. “I can’t believe how you’re spending money on Skip. What’s wrong with you? Are you that hard up for a man that you have to buy his love and attention?”
“I beg your pardon? Are you jealous? I mean, hey, what more do you want from me? I got you out of debt, bought you and John new vehicles, paid for my nephews to attend a private school, and you still aren’t satisfied? You’re biting on me because I’m happy for once in my life?”
“Happy? Girl, please. You’re only fooling yourself. You’re nothing but an insecure woman who thinks that buying fancy cars, name brand clothes and shoes for that fool you call your man is going to keep him. But I’m telling you, and this is out of love; you are only setting yourself up to get hurt.”
“You’d like that wouldn’t you, Brooke? You hate the fact that me and Stiles got divorced. You always thought he was so special, but you don’t know Stiles like I do. You don’t know how he was behind closed doors. You, Momma and Daddy, all of you want to come down hard on me because I cheated.” Detria threw her good arm up in the air. “Okay, so I screwed up, but it wasn’t all my fault. If he wasn’t so busy up at that church, or running to that university doing any and everything but be with me, then maybe Skip wouldn’t have been able to step into Stiles’ place so easily. And, yes, I had a baby by another man, but again, I didn’t plan for that to happen!”
“You know what? I get it. You think you don’t deserve any better than Skip? You’re still blaming yourself for Audrey’s death. You hate the fact that you’ve lost the use of your arm and that you walk with a limp. So you think he’s all you can get. Detria,” Brooke pleaded, “don’t keep doing this to yourself. Let him have visitation rights with his son, and leave it at that. Move on with your life. Please.”
Detria stared at Brooke. A flood of thoughts played through her mind. Part of her felt what Brooke was saying. There were times when she did feel less than, but Skip seemed to come at just the right time and always made her feel that she was his queen. And what was wrong with buying the man she loved gifts? What woman didn’t do things for her man, and now that she had money and plenty of it, she was more than happy to cater to him.
She paid off the mortgage on his house, bought him his dream car and truck, and gave him a huge sum of money to start his own business. They were going to get married soon, so what difference did it make anyway.
“Not that it’s any of your business, but me and Skip are going to get married.”
“Ha, married? You really believe that? Think about it, Detria. Skip has had all the time in the world to marry you, that is, if he really wanted to. Especially since you keep saying that he is so madly in love with you. Now that you have him living like a king, you rarely see him, and he hardly ever spends time with Elijah anymore. I bet that little boy doesn’t even recognize his own daddy, for Christ’s sake!”
“That’s a lie. He knows his daddy.” Detria was becoming more and more upset. She was sick and tired of being judged. Why couldn’t Brooke and her parents understand the relationship between her and Skip
?
“You spend all your time cooped up in this big old house, hoping and praying that he’ll drop by.”
“How do you know what I do or what I think? You don’t live here. You don’t run my life.”
“Believe me; I know you don’t have a life outside of that man. You don’t even take time with Elijah.”
“I go to church almost every Sunday. I’ve made friends there. And me and Donna have become friends too, so you don’t know what you’re talking about.” Detria gave her sister an evil look.
“And what about Elijah? He sure as heck isn’t in here with you. You know why? It’s because you’re no better than Skip. You never have Elijah unless it’s when Skip is coming over. You let Priscilla take care of him twenty-four seven. It’s not like you aren’t able to care for him. Just because you have one arm, you think you aren’t capable of being a mother to that precious little boy?”
“It’s time for you to go. I will not listen to any more of this nonsense. I’m fed up with your sanctimonious garbage. Even if what you said is true, then it’s still my business and not yours. I’m a grown woman. I make my own decisions. I’m living my own life. If you, Mom and Dad don’t like it then you don’t have to come around.”
Brooke’s eyes bucked. “You mean you’re ready to cut off your family for a man?” Brooke picked up her designer bag from off the island, placed it over her shoulder, and turned to leave. “You really do have a serious problem. I’m going to keep praying for you. I just hope you wake up before it’s too late.”
“Whatever, Brooke. Just leave.”
“Gladly,” Brooke countered and stormed out of the house.
Epilogue II
“When one door closes, another opens, but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” Unknown
Stiles, through Wallace, heard that the small congregation of Full of Grace Ministries was searching for a new pastor after their former pastor died from a massive heart attack. With Wallace’s prompting and pushing, Stiles submitted his pastoral résumé. He understood that even if he was offered the pastoral position that he would be making pennies compared to his salary at Holy Rock, but that was okay with him. Money didn’t buy happiness, and he wasn’t in the ministry for the money anyway. He wanted to serve God with all of his heart, mind, and soul. The fact that he had gone through some of the darkest times of his life, hadn’t changed that.
A few weeks after submitting his résumé, Stiles was contacted by the church’s Pastoral Search Committee and invited to bring forth the Word at Full of Grace. Stiles accepted the invitation. Standing in the pulpit, looking out on the congregation, he felt the presence of the Holy Spirit as he rendered the Word to the people of God. At that moment, he understood his true calling. In spite of everything that had transpired in his life, he still had the burning desire within to preach God’s word. It was who he was and what he was born to do.
After preaching that first time at Full of Grace Ministries, Stiles was called to come preach at the church five more times over the next six months. Two weeks after the last time he preached, Full of Grace Ministries unanimously voted Stiles in as their new pastor.
Today had been Stiles’ installation service. He was now officially the pastor of Full of Grace Ministries. At the end of the service everyone left out of the sanctuary and went to the fellowship hall to further enjoy the sit down dinner in honor of their new pastor.
Stiles stayed behind, explaining to his new pastoral staff that he would join them shortly. Once he was alone, he surveyed the empty 200-hundred-seat sanctuary. He never envisioned his life being like this. He thought he would be like Pastor, and stay at Holy Rock until he no longer could stand in the pulpit and preach the Word. He experienced a gamut of emotions as he thought about pastoring again. It had been a long time in the making, and he hoped that he was ready to stand in a position of leadership again.
He stood stationary before the altar and began to pray. “Life has a funny way of turning out the total opposite of our plans,” Stiles told God. “I don’t know why my life has turned out the way that it has, but I’m asking you to help me to accept the things I cannot change. Give me wisdom. Help me to let go of yesterday and move into the future you have for me. Enable me to go forward with the knowledge that your plans for me are for my good, and not to bring harm to me.”
“Uh ummm.”
Stiles stopped praying when he heard the soft sound of someone clearing their throat. He looked back over his shoulder, curious to see who had entered the sanctuary. He swallowed hard when he saw the beautiful young woman standing just inside the entrance. She was one of the deceased pastor’s daughters.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were praying.” The lady turned around to leave.
“Wait,” Stiles told her. “You don’t have to go.”
“But I interrupted your prayer. I didn’t mean to.” She spoke softly.
“Really, it’s not a problem. I was done. Plus, me and God go a long way back. He understands.” Stiles chuckled lightly.
The woman smiled. “I was asked to come tell you that the food is ready, and everyone is in the fellowship hall waiting on you, Pastor Graham.”
Kareena was twenty-seven years old, single, no children, and loved the Lord. Her soft coffee brown eyes seemed to hypnotize Stiles. Her smooth ebony skin set against her petitely sculptured body caused him to swallow hard. He had not entertained the thought of another woman in his life since before his divorce. With both of his marriages having failed, he felt inadequate and unsure of himself. He even wrestled with the fact that maybe God didn’t want him to have a wife. Maybe he was meant to be alone and not have a family. He recited first Corinthians verses eight and nine in his head. Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
He didn’t think he had any passion left. He had all but lost his desire to have someone in his life again. Too many losses, too much heartache. He decided that the only thing he would totally pour his heart into was the ministry. When the offer came from Full of Grace Ministries, he felt this was just the place to do that. What he hadn’t expected was his feelings to be awakened again.
“Thank you, Kareena. I’ll be right there.”
“If you’d like, I’ll wait and walk back with you,” she offered. Her voice sounded like sweet music to his ears. His body seemed to come alive, like it had been hibernating for the past two plus years.
As he walked beside her, his mind recalled another bible verse: Proverbs, eighteen verse twenty-two. He who finds a wife finds a good thing….
Epilogue III
“If I cut you off, chances are you handed me the scissors.” Unknown
Skip was living life to the fullest. Things had definitely turned around for the better. He had plenty of money in the bank. Thanks to Detria’s generosity and his business savvy, he was financially secure, meaning he no longer needed to rely on Detria’s monetary handouts, although he would gladly take it when she offered.
Detria had given him enough money to open his own franchise. His lifelong dream of owning his own restaurant was now a reality. He had two Subway franchises and business was booming at both establishments. He had plans in motion to open two more locations.
As for spending a lot of time with Detria and Elijah, it was quite limited because he was pouring everything into his business, among other things.
Detria walked into the Subway location where Skip usually was on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The other location was farther away from where she lived. She had Priscilla to drive her over because she hadn’t driven a car since the accident, and she was nervous about driving with one arm. She hadn’t seen Brooke in weeks, and though she missed her, she was not going to be the one to call. She didn’t want to listen to her sister talk bad about Skip. It was all she seemed to do every time t
hey talked on the phone or saw one another, and Detria was tired of hearing it. If Brooke wanted to talk to her, she needed to call, apologize and promise Detria that she would stop berating her baby’s daddy.
Detria had been walking on her own for several weeks. She still was unable to walk at a normal pace, but she could walk and that was all that mattered to her. She had a new sense of freedom. She couldn’t begin to describe how it felt not being tied down to a wheelchair anymore.
She enjoyed taking short shopping trips and going out to eat. Today she thought she would surprise Skip by coming to have lunch with him. She had brought Elijah along with her, but left him outside in the car with Priscilla until she made sure Skip was inside the restaurant.
A customer leaving out of the restaurant held the door open for her and Detria slowly walked inside. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Skip coming from the back of the restaurant. Her smile turned into a frown when she saw Meaghan walking next to him.
Meaghan stopped and stood behind the cash register.
Skip whispered something in her ear.
Meaghan giggled, then looked at Detria and slyly rolled her eyes.
Skip happened to look up. “Hi. Welcome to Subway.” He looked surprised to see Detria. “Hey. What are you doing here?”
Detria turned as swiftly as her weak legs could carry her. She hobbled out of the restaurant, but not before seeing another smile of satisfaction spread across Meaghan’s face.
“Detria, hold up,” Skip said as he followed her outside.
“Let’s go, Priscilla,” Detria told her as she tried to get inside the car.
Skip easily caught up to her. Standing next to the passenger’s door, he didn’t stop Detria from getting inside the car. He looked in the back seat and saw his son. He patted Elijah on his stomach and ruffled the thick head of hair on his head.
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