Piano Lessons

by Gail Sattler

  Jillian sat beside him, and as she took the bag from his hands, her own hands started to shake. She recognized the logo as belonging to the large jewelry store in the mall. Peeking inside, she could see a small velvet box.

  “Open it.” Jed’s deep voice trembled.

  As she picked up the box, Betsy and Mark stepped closer to see what it was. With all eyes on her, Jillian opened it. It was a small heart-shaped ring, with a small sparkling diamond set in the middle. It was delicate, and it was beautiful.

  Jed’s bandaged hand rested on her knee. “Jillian, I’d like to plan for the future, and I want you to be in my future. I had intended to talk about it later, and, well, now that we’re together, I can’t wait. Jillian, will you think about marrying me?” he said in a low husky voice. “This wasn’t the way I intended to ask you something so important, but it couldn’t be helped. I can’t let you walk away from me again.”

  Jillian’s vision blurred as she raised her head to look into his eyes.

  “You bought this at the mall,” she choked on the words, “the day I saw you there with your sister.”

  “That’s right. It’s just a little promise ring, because it’s going to be a long time before I finish my education. If you’ll wait for me, I wanted to give you this ring as a promise. But if you say yes now, we can go together so you can pick your own engagement ring.”

  Jillian swallowed, hard. “Yes, of course I’ll marry you. But your education comes first, before an engagement ring.”

  One side of his mouth tipped up in a lopsided smile. “It’s taken care of. I was going to take out a student loan, but as it turns out, yesterday I had another visitor in the hospital. An old friend stopped by and it seems she saw the error of her ways, turned her life over to Jesus, and paid back a lot of money she owed me. So, don’t you worry about that.”

  Jillian’s heart pounded. God had carried her through her trials and hurts, and helped her to rise above them. Now she could love Jed as he deserved to be loved. God had given her the best gift of all, and she didn’t have to do anything to receive it. She’d received the gift of love, both through the salvation of Jesus Christ, and the commitment of a wonderful, God-fearing man. Her voice dropped to a choked whisper. “I love you so much, Jed.”

  “I love you, too, Jillian.”

  At the same moment, they both turned their heads to see Mark and Betsy, who were staring at them with their mouths hanging open, still watching, and listening to every word.

  “Okay you two, beat it, or you’re going to have to watch Uncle Jed kiss Miss Jefferson.”

  Mark ran away first. “Yuck! No! Anything but that!” he screamed as he ran. Betsy shrieked, following his example, and ran after him.

  Then Uncle Jed kissed Miss Jefferson like she had never been kissed before.