The man actually seemed relieved to be told what to do, as if the strain of deciding his next move had been too big of a burden for him.
“Yes, sir, Major, sir.”
His response didn’t sound quite right, but since she didn’t know military protocol, she wasn’t in a position to question it.
“What is your business here?”
Cali woofed, her bark less frantic now and more curious.
For the first time, the man took his eyes off Gray and looked toward the house. Her roommates stepped away from the window, and she wondered if she should have gone inside with them as Paisley had urged. The “soldier’s” gaze remained fixed on the house, leading Ruthie to suspect he might either try to run off or force his way into the house.
“Soldier, I asked you a question,” Gray demanded. “Speak up. Give me your report.”
The man babbled something about the mission he was on and how he could speak with Gray about it only because he was a major. The man said he had come to retrieve classified documents from this encampment, referring to the house. The more he talked, the more confused he seemed to be, as if he had a hard time keeping the details of his fantasy straight.
“What division are you from?”
The man told him his name, Private Denton, his gaze repeatedly returning to the window. “Major, this is urgent. My partner was captured on our first mission to secure the documents and is being held hostage. You’ve got to let me attempt a rescue.”
He made a move toward them, and she retreated toward the divider fence. With his attention fixed on the front door, it seemed that escaping to the supposed safety of the house would be the wrong move at the moment.
Visibly upset, the man kept repeating that he had to get to his partner. Had to bring his partner back.
At the guy’s first twitch, Gray had poised himself for a hand-to-hand altercation. He spread his arms and held his hands low, leaving no doubt he could take the guy down if needed.
The intruder started toward the house, stopped himself and seemed to change his mind a couple more times.
“Halt!” Gray commanded, giving him the option of a peaceful end to this confrontation. “Stand down, soldier.”
All military protocol thrown to the wind, the man rushed past, shouting, “Radar!”
The front door opened, and Cali emerged, ears forward and on high alert. The dog zoomed down the stairs toward the man, her paws barely touching the steps.
Still going full throttle, Cali launched herself at him.
Chapter Eleven
Cali slammed into him so hard they both hit the ground and rolled. The supposed army private shrieked and threw his arms around the dog. Concerned that the animal might hurt the addled man, Gray reached for the collar to pull Cali off of him.
That was when he noticed the man’s tears. He was crying. Cali squirmed in his arms, licking his face and grunting happy little “ooh-ooh” sounds.
Blue strobe lights lit up the yard, heralding the arrival of two squad cars. Ruthie met the officers at the gate and quickly briefed them on what had happened.
“Radar,” the man murmured into Cali’s fur. “You knew I’d come back for you. Didn’t you, girl?”
Gray hated to interrupt their reunion, but the police were here to take the man into custody. “Hey, buddy,” he said. “It’s time to go with these gentlemen. They’re here to help you.”
Denton—Gray doubted he was currently enlisted in the army—looked up at him as though he’d forgotten he was there. “What gentlemen? Why?”
“The officers need to debrief you,” he said, playing along with the fantasy the man had acted out earlier.
Denton rose unsteadily to his feet, and Cali—now known as Radar—circled his legs as if to keep him from leaving her again. One of the officers assisted him into the car, and Cali trotted back to Ruthie.
Gray wished she had gone inside as soon as she had come home. Her presence had heightened the stakes, making him more nervous for her sake than the situation called for. He didn’t know what he would have done if something bad had happened to her. Didn’t want to think of it.
The officer took their names and asked a few questions. Ruthie, ever compassionate, insisted she had no desire to press charges against Denton. Savannah and Paisley, who had joined them in the yard, agreed.
“What about the dog?” Gray asked.
“We can take it to the shelter for a few days,” the officer said. “Mr. Denton will need to be processed, and it might be a while before he gets straightened out. The shelter won’t be able to house the dog indefinitely.”
By now Cali circled the yard, trying to go with her owner. Gray could tell that Ruthie’s soft heart wouldn’t allow them to take the dog to the pound, even if only temporarily. Ruthie called the dog and grasped her collar to keep her out of the way.
“I’ll watch out for her,” Ruthie promised Denton, who peered at her from the back of the police car. “Radar can stay with me.”
Denton looked between Gray and Ruthie, then reluctantly nodded his assent. “She likes bologna,” he said. “And a knuckle rub between the shoulders.”
Ruthie grasped the collar tighter to steady the wriggling dog. “I’ll do that for her. She’ll be well taken care of.”
Gray had no doubt Ruthie would follow through with the requests, but he suspected she’d be more generous with the knuckle rubs than with the processed meat.
Satisfied that his duty to the dog had been done, Denton reluctantly eased back in the car.
That matter settled, Gray asked the officer, “What’s going to happen to him now?”
“He’ll be evaluated. Probably have his meds adjusted.” He straightened the watch on his wrist. “Since you folks don’t want to press charges, he’ll probably be released to the supervision of his social worker once he’s ready to return home.”
As the police cars drove off, Ruthie and her friends waved goodbye to Denton. Ruthie even lifted Cali’s front legs off the ground and waved one furry paw after the dog’s buddy.
Gray shook his head. It was as if they had been plunked down in Mayberry in a rerun of The Andy Griffith Show.
He walked away from the cluster of friends and stopped at the far side of the yard. The guy’s earnestness to get to his partner had nearly been Gray’s undoing. He understood the urgency. The feeling of helplessness and panic at not being able to protect his charge.
Denton’s “mission” to retrieve his canine partner had brought back his own futile attempt to rescue Jakey Rayner. At least Denton had seen to it that his partner had made it to safety. Gray wished he could say the same for himself.
He rested his hands on the points of the white picket fence. Maybe he could have protected Ruthie better, he thought, as he second-guessed his actions. Denton had seemed harmless enough, but who knew what could have happened if the man had taken advantage of an opening.
A sick feeling settled at the pit of his stomach. He had failed once, four years ago, and couldn’t let himself fail again. Never. Especially not when it concerned Ruthie. He lifted his hands from the fence, aware of the pressure dents in his palms from leaning against the wooden pickets. Given the choice, he would gladly put himself between her and any danger. Would have offered himself in exchange for Jakey, but he hadn’t been given the choice.
“Oh, my goodness! You were amazing!” Savannah hobbled over to him and squeezed his arm appreciatively.
Paisley joined them, followed closely by Ruthie and Cali. “Yes, indeed. Cali was quite frantic,” she said. “Thank God you were here to calm that man down. You were brilliant.”
“Gray is amazing,” Savannah declared. “A knight in shining armor.”
Fortunately, Ruthie refrained from turning the event into a medieval knighting ceremony. “Would you two mind taking Ca
li inside?”
The two women flashed glances at Ruthie. At her nod, they disappeared into the house.
Then she looped her hand through Gray’s elbow. “Looks like it’s my turn to rescue you,” she said with a small laugh.
Just as she expected, he didn’t laugh with her.
The last thing she wanted to do was to give Gray a reason to leave her again, but after what they’d both just witnessed, she couldn’t just stand here and pretend it had been an ordinary turn of events.
“I agreed not to pressure you, and I’ve upheld my end of the bargain,” she said. “But you have to admit the situation couldn’t have been choreographed better than how it turned out. You were here...the right person for the situation at the right time, with all the right things to say.”
He pushed his fingers into his hair, and it looked as though he might actually give it a strong tug. “It’s coincidence, Ruthie. Why can’t it be just a simple coincidence?”
He sounded tired. Perhaps tired of having this discussion with her, but maybe he was just tired of arguing it with himself.
Whatever the case, she couldn’t just let it slide. Couldn’t let “coincidence” be the last word on the subject. She had agreed not to pressure him, but she hadn’t agreed to stifle her own thoughts and beliefs in subjugation to his.
Despite her frustration with his unwillingness to see the truth, she purposefully softened her tone and focused on her desire to understand where he was coming from. “How can you show such compassion and understanding of others, yet not see that God put you—of all people—in that man’s path? He needed someone strong. Someone who understood how to lead him where he was supposed to go. You were that person, and I believe God put you here for him in that moment.”
Now she found herself pushing her fingers through her hair in an action that mimicked his gesture of a moment ago. She lowered her hands and was surprised to discover she’d left her hair intact.
“You can’t call that a coincidence,” she added.
Gray’s jaw jutted forward, and he stared down at her, his expression stoic and hard. “Maybe I shouldn’t have called it a coincidence,” he admitted.
Finally! At last they were getting somewhere.
His hand squeezed hers in a manner that didn’t quite match his expression. Perhaps to convey that he understood where she was coming from? That he was open to the possibility that although Jakey Rayner’s prayer had not been answered in the way they had wanted, God was present and active in their lives every day?
“Maybe,” he said, his eyes softening as he looked down at her, “a better term would be fluke, happenstance, luck, or twist of fate. I’m sorry, but two unexpected circumstances happening at the same time does not imply causality.”
Slowly he released her hands, and she felt as though her heart would break in two.
She had tried to do all the right things. Live by example. Step back and give him space. Bite her tongue to hold back even the most innocuous comments that might be taken the wrong way. She had tried to be respectful and understanding, yet it wasn’t enough. And might never be enough.
Well, enough about him. What about her? Could she be with him if he didn’t believe? If he never changed his heart? She had thought such a pairing might be possible, especially since they were compatible in so many other ways, but maybe this one major difference couldn’t be reconciled after all.
“I’m going to skip the classic-car event tonight,” he said as casually as if they had just been discussing what they’d eaten for dinner. “I’ve got to go to the office tomorrow morning and finish some work at the office with Daisy.”
He bent and kissed her, but the gesture warmed her about as much as ice cream on a snowy day. Then he got into his car and waited for her to go inside and lock the door before he drove off.
Ruthie went straight to her room and didn’t bother to turn on the light. She had promised she wouldn’t try to change Gray, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t ask God to do some fine-tuning on his heart.
She knelt beside the bed and pressed her palms together. This was too big for her to handle. Who better to turn it over to than God? Cali pushed her nose under her elbow, and Ruthie looped her arm around the Lab’s neck.
“After all,” she told the dog, “if God could change Saul’s heart and the hearts of kings, He can surely change Gray’s.”
And if that prayer wasn’t answered in the way she hoped, she would have to change her own heart...and let him go.
* * *
The prowler’s capture warranted a two-minute spot on the eleven-o’clock news in which the anchorman explained that the delusional man had been apprehended while searching for his dog. Then the fickle media moved on to a three-car accident in neighboring Henrico County.
By the next morning, Ruthie’s attention had turned to creating a display on the back wall featuring Sobo’s hats and some stylized heart-shaped wrought iron pieces. Hard and soft. Cold, wintry colors and warm textures. Opposites.
Back to that again. Last night she had fallen asleep wondering if she should just set her concerns aside and try to find a way to meet Gray in the middle. Wishing it was even possible to mesh a relationship around two such divergent beliefs. And while she was wondering about the future, what about children? Was it possible to raise a child with two differently believing parents and not have the little one grow up confused and searching, possibly in the wrong places?
The front door to the shops opened and closed several times, so she needed to hurry and finish this job before any customers needed her attention. She moved a beveled-glass picture frame and temporarily set it on a small round display table where it wouldn’t get broken while she climbed up to arrange the pieces on the wall. With a knee hold on the waist-high storage cabinet along the back wall, she climbed up onto the surface to drape some beads over the decorations for a feminine and festive effect.
“I’ll spot you.” Savannah appeared beside the cabinet and held her arms up in preparation to catch her if she fell.
A customer with a two-year-old daughter in tow paused to watch. “Ruthie, please be careful. You’re making me nervous.”
Milena, a regular at Gleanings and especially at Milk & Honey, had become a mother a few months ago after a trip to China to adopt little June. Since then, her mothering tendencies had widened to encompass everyone in her path, whether young, old, friend or stranger.
When the new mom had first brought June to the shop to show her off, Ruthie’s thoughts had gone immediately to the baby she and Gray might have had if they had stayed together. Would their child have had dark hair and warm-toned skin like Gray’s? Would the genes from Sobo’s lovely almond-shaped brown eyes have been passed along through Gray to the child, or would there have been a hint of Ruthie’s hazel eyes and reddish hair in their blended traits?
Now that she and Gray were back together, albeit connected by a fraying thread, there was another thought to add to her futuristic musings. Would the child go to church with her and learn that red and yellow, black and white, we’re all precious in His sight? Or would that child stay home on Sunday mornings and learn that God is a fairy tale and that you have to rely on your own strength to get by?
She moved to one side to straighten the gold-and-black hat with the asymmetric brim, and her foot slipped on a scrap of paper that had been left on top of the cabinet.
Savannah and Milena gasped as one. Little June, thinking it a joke, squealed with delight, then giggled in anticipation of her doing it again.
“Ruthie, please come down,” Milena pleaded. “Let me help you.”
“I’m fine,” she insisted as she righted herself and nudged the paper off the cabinet to avoid a repeat performance. “You go ahead and shop around. Holler if you need me.”
Milena grabbed June by the hand. “We’ll go over there where we can�
�t watch you.”
“Speaking of needing you,” Savannah said, her head tipped back and arms outstretched as if fully expecting her to fall. “How is Mrs. Bristow? Is she back to climbing the rose trellis yet? Considering your monkey antics today, I’m beginning to think you and she may be more than honorary relatives.”
The bell over the door jangled again. The sound of money, Savannah had called it. All of the Abundance entrepreneurs welcomed the Saturday surge of customers.
She gave Savannah a quick update on Sobo’s health and filled her in on the unresolved situation with the doll. “The aunt’s birthday party is today, so it looks like we’re going to have to break the news about the doll to Sobo very soon.” She started to bend down for the pile of bead necklaces at her feet, then thought better of it. “Would you mind handing me the purple beads?”
Sobo’s recent health crisis had driven home the unwelcome reality that Ruthie’s loved ones were getting older. Only God knew how much longer she would be able to enjoy their company, so she needed to make sure to spend plenty of quality time with them now. The Bristows—all of them—were her family. Without them, she would be as adrift as the day her mother died.
No, she couldn’t bear the thought of losing her honorary grandparents.
“What about you and Gray?” Savannah persisted. “You two seem pretty happy together. Does that mean your faith issues have been resolved?”
Ruthie focused on straightening the items on the Peg-Board wall. She couldn’t bring herself to look at her friend, who would surely be able to see the conflicted feelings in her eyes—the joy of being back together with the man she loved, tempered by the feeling they were incomplete without the faith that had once connected them on a very deep level.
“Progress is slow,” she admitted. “He has his heart set against God, but I’m praying and believing he’ll eventually turn around. Hoping for sooner rather than later.”
It had to be soon if their relationship was to survive. The longer she waited for Gray to return to God, the harder it would be to let go if this proved to be an irreconcilable point between them.
Love Inspired June 2014 - Bundle 2 of 2: Single Dad CowboyThe Bachelor Meets His MatchUnexpected Reunion Page 55