Stay With Me
Page 32
“How dare you come here and try to ruin our wedding night. If you hope to have any relationship with your grandchildren—and God willing there will be a bunch of them—you had better think long and hard about what you say to me and my husband. Chris is my first family now. Maybe if you had come to our wedding and listened to the readings, you would understand that a little better.” She expected him to say something. Yell, plead, complain, anything, but he looked as if he’d been slapped, and he stepped backward in silence.
With one touch of Chris’s hand to the door controls, the window rose as the first tears escaped her eyes. “Please don’t let him rob us of our joy tonight, Rebecca.”
Sadness sounded in his voice. Poor Chris. He had really tried with her dad; she knew he had, and yet her father continually rejected him.
Rebecca raised her head. “I won’t.” She sniffed and wiped the tears that had rolled down her cheeks. There was a knock on the window and even though the tinted glass between them muffled Dad’s words, anyone with the most rudimentary lip-reading skills could make out his meaning as he bit out a three-word insult.
Leaning to the side, Rebecca tried to avoid Chris’s arm as he twisted in his seat, yanking off his tuxedo jacket. His hand tightened around the door handle as he let out a growl. “That’s it. He crossed the line.”
Rebecca reached across him and stilled his hand. “We’re not going to let him do this to our wedding night.” He didn’t move for a full half a minute, and then he pulled her into his arms as he told the driver they were ready. They rode in silence for several miles.
“I want to know where we’re headed.”
“Curious, huh?” There was a smile in his voice. “South.”
“That’s it? South? As in the Carolinas or the Caribbean, or the Antarctic?”
“As in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.”
She should have known he’d want to go to his beloved mountains. Then a stab of panic hit her. “We’re not camping, are we?”
His shoulder shook against her as a loud laugh burst from his lips. “No, I’d actually like to stay married to you. We’re spending ten days in a remote, luxury cabin in the Shenandoah Valley. There’s a waterfall, a fireplace, and a hot tub. And it’s fully stocked. With any luck, we won’t see another soul the whole time.”
“It sounds perfect. Thank you.” She turned and gave him a simple kiss that immediately changed the mood. “So, we've got, what, a three-hour ride?”
“Yes.” His blue eyes were bright and simmering with affection. “Alone together at last.” Careful not to snag her hair, he lifted the comb holding her veil in place, and swung it over her head, setting it to rest on the seat beside her. Once the white tulle cleared his line of vision, Chris’s gaze swept over her face. He smoothed her hair where he had loosed the comb. “You’re beautiful.”
“I think you mean that,” she said, recalling their first date.
She had never felt so contented as when she leaned in against her husband—her husband—and it all began to sink in. As she rested her head against his shoulder, all the day’s excitement and tension melted away, leaving her spent. She eyed the limousine’s interior and wondered if there was any way for them to sleep comfortably with her gown taking up so much space. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to rest now and conserve their energy for later.
Chris looped his arm around her shoulder, and his hand ran up and down her arm is if he were trying to warm her. “How about a toast?”
He slid forward on the seat and reached for a bottle of champagne chilling in the limousine’s small bar. He poured a glass for each of them, handed one to Rebecca, and took his place next to her.
The moon peaked out from over his shoulder, reminding her of nighttime rides as a child and being awed at the moon’s ability to follow wherever she went. Like in her Harold and the Purple Crayon book, the moon remained a fixed and ever-present anchor when she felt lost. In its waxing or its waning, eclipsed, or covered by clouds, the moon abided. A fiery ball looming large on the horizon, or a nearly-invisible obsidian disc in a starlit sky, the moon abided.
Her gaze drifted back to Chris. She prayed their love, like God’s, would abide from this day forward through all seasons, all travails, every high and low. An anchor when the world threatened to throw them off-course.
Lines creased Chris’s handsome face as he held up his glass. He was beat, too, but it didn’t stop his mouth from lifting in a smile big enough to show his dimples.
“Here’s to Holy Matrimony, wedded bliss, and a whole ten days of seclusion.”
They clinked their glasses and sipped their champagne.
It was her turn. She wanted to say something witty, but something different filled her heart.
“I went looking for yogurt, and I found love beyond compare, faith that can move mountains, and a husband whom I adore. What more could there be?”
Chris set their glasses aside. His voice rumbled low and soft in her ear, his breath warm. “Stay with me and find out.”
Acknowledgments
Thank you to my husband, Michael, and my children Michael, Felicity, Miriam, and Jacob for their patience and support. Thanks, too, to all those who read my manuscript and offered suggestions: Christopher Blunt, Erin McCole Cupp, Ann Frailey, Father John Mulcahy, Barb Szyszkiewicz, and especially Theresa Linden. Theresa, you’ve made me a better writer and Stay With Me a better book. To my fellow 10 Minute Novelists and members of the Catholic Writers Guild, your generosity in sharing your knowledge and encouragement on this writing journey has made all the difference. Finally, thank you Ellen Gable Hrkach for your support and encouragement and taking a chance on an unknown author.
About the Author
Carolyn Astfalk resides with her husband and four children in Hershey, Pennsylvania. For ten years, she served as communications director for the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference (PCC), the public affairs agency of Pennsylvania’s Catholic bishops. The PCC advocates for religious liberty, pro-life, pro-family, Catholic healthcare, and Catholic education issues before state government.
Carolyn’s column on state and national news related to the PCC’s interests appeared regularly in Pennsylvania’s diocesan newspapers. She also appeared on the state-wide television program PCN Live and was a guest on then-Bishop Donald Wuerl’s television program, “The Teaching of Christ.” In 2005, she resigned from the PCC to be home full-time with her children.
Carolyn is volunteer chairperson of Real Alternatives, Inc., a non-profit, charitable organization that administers alternative-to-abortion funding in Pennsylvania, Indiana and Michigan. She is a member of the Catholic Writers Guild, Pennwriters, and the Pennsylvania Public Relations Society. Her writing has appeared in New Covenant and Lay Witness magazines. Stay With Me is her debut novel.
Check out Carolyn’s Website here.
Published by Full Quiver Publishing
www.fullquiverpublishing.com
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