by Gary Parker
“I expect you should.”
Allie slouched toward the waiting room, her heart low. Trey stood as she entered the otherwise empty room, and she tried to brighten her face but didn’t manage it too well.
“He’s passed,” she said.
Trey crossed to her and slipped an arm around her waist. “I’m sorry,” he said.
Allie laid her head on his shoulder, and he held her for a long minute, then stepped back. “What do we do now?” he asked.
“I don’t know, never done this before.”
“I’m sure the hospital will take care of things.”
“We’ll bury him in Harper Springs,” Allie said. “Mom and I talked about it when she got here yesterday.”
Trey studied his shoes, and Allie felt the distance between them. Even though he’d finally come to Atlanta, his earlier refusal had kicked a dent in her trust in him. Until now she’d been too concerned for her dad to give their situation much thought, but now that she did, it saddened her.
“When do you think the funeral will be?” he asked.
Allie closed her eyes, the lack of sleep in the past two days catching up with her. “Friday or Saturday,” she said.
“What about the wedding?” he asked.
Allie sagged onto a sofa sitting in the corner, the enormity of the moment too much to bear standing up. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I don’t know.”
She covered her eyes with her hands and tried to figure things out. Should she marry Trey? But he’d refused to rush to her when she found her dad. How could she love him after that?
A million thoughts tumbled through her head. Could they postpone the funeral until after the wedding? But what about the honeymoon? The airline tickets, the reservations at the resort—all was ready and paid for. Could they postpone the wedding? But they had people coming in from four different states.
Allie looked back to Trey, who stood beside her, his eyes still down. Was he the man she should marry? Was he God’s perfect will for her? He had his faults, sure, but what man didn’t?
She thought of Chase, staying at a hotel a couple of blocks away. Although he’d stayed in Atlanta to “help wherever I can,” as he put it, he’d left an hour before Trey had arrived.
“I don’t want to come between you two,” he’d told Allie as he left the hospital. “You decide your future with him; I’ll live with your choice.”
“You still think you’re going to marry me?” she’d asked. “It’s in God’s hands,” he’d said.
She’d thanked him for all he’d done, and he’d left, his broad back the last thing she saw as he walked away.
What were Chase’s faults? Allie wondered. He’d kept them pretty well hidden so far.
Allie stood and took Trey’s hand.
“What about us, Allie?” he asked.
“I’m clueless.”
Trey pointed her back to the sofa and sat by her, holding both her hands and locking eyes with her. “Let me make this easy for you,” he said.
Allie held her breath.
“I don’t think we should marry,” he said.
Allie’s heart jumped.
“I’m not sure I love you,” he explained. “If I did, I wouldn’t have stayed so removed from this... whatever it is... this quest for your dad.”
He paused, but Allie found no words to say, so he took a breath and pushed on. “I’m not sure you love me either,” he said.
“But I do,” Allie insisted, although she wasn’t sure what she meant by it.
“Not the way a woman should love the man she’s about to marry,” Trey argued.
Allie dropped her eyes as he said plainly what she’d recently concluded but didn’t have the courage to verbalize.
“We seemed so right for each other,” Trey continued. “Right age, both prime for marriage, reasonably compatible. It was so convenient for both of us. But ultimately it’s wrong.”
Allie squeezed his hands and looked at him, gratitude rising in her heart. “You’re stronger than I am,” she said. “I couldn’t have broken up with you this close to the wedding.”
“This is better than a divorce,” he said. “Although Mother doesn’t want me to marry you, she’d kill me if I did and then divorced you later.”
Allie laughed, and the tension in the room relaxed. “Your mother is a pistol,” she said.
Trey grinned and shook his head. “I’m all she’s got,” he said. “Sometimes much to my chagrin.”
Allie kissed his hands. “We’ll find the right person,” she said. “We have to believe that.”
“I think you already have,” he said.
“You mean Chase?”
“Yeah.”
Allie’s heart warmed as she considered the possibility, but she didn’t want to say anything to hurt Trey, so she shrugged it off. “I’m clueless there too.”
Trey opened his mouth, but Allie put a hand over his lips. “Let it go,” she said. “My fiancé just called off my wedding; it’s not the time for me to worry about another man.”
Trey kissed her on the forehead. “You’re a special person, Allie Wilson. I hope you’ll still be my friend.”
She hugged him, then leaned back as Gladys walked in, a doctor beside her. “They’re moving your dad,” Gladys said. “Guess it’s time to go.”
Allie and Trey stood and walked out of the hospital with Gladys, each of them wiping away tears for all different kinds of reasons.
Allie met Chase two hours later at a restaurant in Decatur a few miles from the hospital. He stood as she walked in and pointed her to the table he’d chosen for them.
“You and your mom get things situated?” he asked.
“Called the funeral home in Harper Springs,” she said as she sat down. “They’ll pick Dad up in the morning; funeral is set for Saturday at eleven o’clock.”
“You can still make your wedding,” he said.
“Not going to be any wedding.”
His mouth dropped open, and she quickly told him what had happened with Trey.
“He called it off?” Chase asked.
Allie nodded. “Said he didn’t love me.”
Chase raised an eyebrow. “I’m shocked,” he said. “Still a little numb myself.”
A waiter arrived with two glasses of water and set them down.
“Are you okay with his decision?” Chase asked as the waiter left.
“He did what I didn’t have the courage to do. I admire him for that.”
Chase sipped from his water, his brow furrowed with obvious thought. “I still can’t believe it,” he said.
“It’s true. I’ve made some calls already—the minister, the florist, the caterer. Trey’s taking care of canceling the travel arrangements, the photographer, the limo service. Do you give back wedding presents?”
“You’re asking the wrong guy.”
“I think you do.” Allie pondered the work ahead. “It’s not as embarrassing as I thought it would be.”
“You’re not back in Harper Springs yet,” Chase said. “You’re no help.”
The waiter brought bread and butter with menus. They thanked him, and he walked off. Chase leaned forward, his elbows on the table, his hands clasped.
“Look,” he started. “I told you that God wanted me to marry you, but if that had anything to do with what happened with you and Trey, I take it back; don’t want that on my conscience in any form or fashion.”
“No,” Allie said. “What Trey did... it had to happen. Not your fault.”
Chase wiped his brow. “Okay,” he said.
Allie fixed a piece of bread and butter, handed it to Chase, then took a drink of water. Chase nibbled the bread. “Well?” he said as he swallowed.
“Well what?”
He faced her, eyes dead ahead. “Are you going to marry me or not?”
Allie choked.
“Easy!” Chase said. “I’m not trying to scare you.”
Allie wiped her mouth with a napkin and slowly caught he
r breath. “You’re not serious?” she said.
“I don’t mean tomorrow, but one of these days, once we know each other better, once you’ve come to love my charms, my looks, my sensitivity.”
“Your humility?”
“That too.”
Allie grew serious. “You really believe God wants you to marry me?”
“Do you believe God wanted you to find your dad?”
Allie hesitated, still unsure how to answer that question. “Let’s just say I’m not closed to the possibility,” she said. “Something brought me to him, I know that. Just don’t know what to call it yet.”
Chase beamed. “That’s where you start,” he said. “If you’re open to truth, I believe God will lead you to it.”
“I’m open,” she said. “Seeking, in fact.”
“Good,” he said. “I can’t marry a woman who’s not a believer.”
“So you’re putting conditions on it?”
“No, God is.”
Allie started to raise a mock protest but refrained. After all, if Chase wouldn’t marry a nonbeliever but God had told him he would marry her, then that obviously meant she’d inevitably become a believer. The thought of that soothed her more than it bothered her, so she let it go.
Chase grinned widely, like he knew something nobody else did.
“What?” she asked.
“I still can’t believe Trey broke up with you.”
“You might call it a miracle,” Allie teased.
“So I really do have a chance with you?”
Allie’s grin now matched his. Although her dad had just died, her fiancé had just canceled their wedding, and the doctor had told her her father had died from complications from a genetic disease called Marfan syndrome and that she needed to receive testing for it, she felt happier than she could remember. Against all odds she’d found her dad before his death, found him in time to assure him of her forgiveness and love and to hear him express his love to her. Not only that, but a caring, handsome, intelligent man sat across the table from her—a man who had walked with her through a quest she’d never imagined starting, much less completing—and he said he wanted to marry her. In the midst of hard times, good things were still possible.
“Do I have a chance with you?” Chase asked again.
Allie took his hands in the center of the table. When she spoke, her eyes sparkled. “Let’s just say I’m not closed to the possibility.”
Epilogue
Saturday, Two Weeks Later
Allie and Chase climbed out of Chase’s truck and hauled the last of the wedding gifts Allie had to return into the post office.
After handing them to the attendant, Allie wiped her hands and faced Chase. “Glad that’s all over,” she said. “How many gifts did you give back?”
“Over two hundred. Thank goodness I didn’t have to mail but thirty or so.”
They hopped back into the truck and headed to Allie’s apartment. She rolled down the window and enjoyed the feel of the June air blowing through. A warm late-morning sun baked down on her, but she didn’t mind. The heat helped her relax, something she finally felt she could do after surviving the blur of the last few weeks.
Offering countless explanations about the cancellation of the wedding, grieving her dad’s death, undergoing a series of medical tests at the Asheville hospital—each had taken its physical and emotional toll. She sighed, glad she had the whole summer without school to regroup.
Chase turned left and pointed the truck up a small mountain road.
“Wrong way,” she said.
“There’s a little roadside trail overlooking the valley up here,” he said. “I found it last week on the way back to Knoxville. I’ve got a basket lunch.” He nodded toward the truck bed, and she glanced back and saw a wicker basket and a cooler wedged against the side. “Thought you might enjoy a walk, then maybe a bite to eat,” he said.
“You bring insect repellant?”
“I’ve prepared everything—a blanket for when we eat and a UT cap to cover your eyes from the sun. You relax and enjoy.”
Allie knew she had one more thing to do before she could really do that. Chase drove a couple more miles, then pulled off and parked, but Allie grabbed his arm and stopped him before he jumped out.
“What?” he asked, facing her.
Allie bit her lip, a little afraid to tell him what the medical tests had revealed but absolutely certain she needed to do it. “You know those tests I told you I had to have?”
“Yes.”
Allie clenched her fists. “I got some results back yesterday, and I’ve inherited the disorder that led to Dad’s death.”
Chase turned more in her direction.
“It’s called Marfan syndrome,” she said.
“I never heard of it.”
“Few people have, but about one in every ten thousand people have some level of it; it’s a disease that affects connective tissue, the glue that holds the body together. It can affect the lungs, the eyes, the skin, the spine, the heart.”
“But you’re healthy as a horse.”
“I’m not sure I like that comparison, but you’re right. I’ve always been healthy, played basketball, everything I ever wanted to do.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“It can affect me later; that’s what it did with Dad. It caused problems with his heart, his aorta.”
“But he fought in a war.”
“The effects often show up as a person gets older.”
“How so?”
“The doctor explained it to me this way. When it affects the heart, it’s usually the aorta—that’s the main artery connected to the heart. In people with Marfan syndrome, the aorta isn’t as flexible as usual, since connective tissue is used to build it. Since the aorta is so close to the heart, it’s subjected to the full force of the heartbeat. This pounding can, over time, wear down the aorta until it ruptures.”
“Did your dad’s aorta rupture?”
“Not completely. If it had, he would have died in minutes. But since he was already in the hospital for problems related to his years of drinking, they found the problem before that happened. His aorta was weak though, eventually too weak for them to fix.”
Chase took off his UT cap and brushed back his hair, then placed the hat back in place. “And you’ve got this syndrome?”
“A mild case, but yes.”
Chase glanced out then back to Allie. “How serious is it?”
“Not too bad right now. With modern medications and surgical techniques, the doctor said it’s plenty manageable—as long as the person is aware of the problem and takes corrective action as it becomes necessary.”
“Anything you need to do now?”
“Make sure my blood pressure stays low. That lessens the stress on the aorta and heart valves. Don’t play contact sports.”
“So we’ll never get to play field hockey together?”
“Strike that off your list.”
Chase rubbed his eyes. “Can you still have children?” he asked.
Allie noted the implication of the question. “Yes, though a child might inherit the disease from me.”
“But not necessarily.”
“That’s right.”
“What’s your life expectancy?”
“With care and treatment as necessary, pretty normal.”
Silence fell between them. A bee buzzed into the truck then back out. Chase stared out toward the mountain.
“What are you thinking?” Allie asked, fearful of the silence, fearful that he was trying to figure a way out of their budding relationship now that he knew of her ailment.
Chase took off his cap and set it on his knee.
“What?” Allie pressed.
When he faced her and took her hands, a small tear rolled from his left eye. Allie felt certain he was about to tell her good-bye. She braced herself.
“I wondered why,” he said softly. “Now I know.”
“I don’t under
stand.”
“The search for your dad—this is the main reason. So you could find this out, take the precautions necessary to protect your health.”
Allie squeezed his hands. “You’re not going to leave me over this?”
“Did you really think I’d do that?”
“I didn’t know.”
He bent to her and kissed her, the first time ever. She felt his lips, smelled the woodsy smell of his cologne. She hugged him and realized she’d never felt this way about Trey, never felt this way about anybody. Safe, comfortable, completely loved.
She lingered in his arms for another few seconds, then placed her head on his shoulder. He stroked her hair. She leaned back and gazed into his eyes.
“I can’t believe I’m with a UT man,” she said.
“I can’t believe I’m with a heathen,” he teased. “Converting you might be harder than converting me,” she teased back.
“I’m counting on that.”
Allie snuggled into his shoulder once more. “I think you can,” she whispered. “I think you can.”
Gary E. Parker is the author of nineteen published books, including A Midnight Miracle, Secret Tides, and Fateful Journeys. He currently serves as the senior pastor at First Baptist Church in Decatur, Georgia, and is a popular speaker on college and seminary campuses. He lives in north Atlanta.