Threads of Hope: Quilts of Love Series

by Christa Allan

  Greg shook his head. “We could, what? Jazarah and I could wait for you. Just in case you decided to come back? We’re the consolation prize?”

  “That’s not what I meant at all.”

  “It’s not my place to ask you to stay or to tell you to go. And since you didn’t feel the need to discuss it with me before today, maybe that’s something I need to think about. This is your decision. I wish it was yours and God’s. I don’t want my daughter in the next few weeks to grow attached to you. I don’t want her to have to suffer through your leaving. And, what I’m about to say is so painful, I don’t even want to hear myself say it. But, since you’ve made this decision, I think it’s best we just stop where we are.”

  32

  Please don’t make me tell him good-bye one more time.” Nina closed her eyes and held up her hand so Aretha would stop handing Manny to her. “It’s bad enough the two of you had to get him a car seat, and he took the ride to the airport with us.”

  The exhaust from the cars, the taxis, and buses burned Nina’s nose. At least that’s the excuse she gave Luke for why her face was red and puffy, from the constant sniffling. As Luke emptied the trunk of Nina’s bags, Aretha went through the roll call of tickets, purse, keys, cell phone, cash. . . .

  “Got it. Got it. Got it.”

  Aretha handed Manny to Luke and held out her arms. “I’m praying for you, even if you can’t pray for yourself. I love you, and you need to be careful. Call as soon as your plane lands, okay?”

  Nina hugged her and wished that when she let go, she could take some of Aretha with her. She kissed Manny, who tried to wiggle his way out of Luke’s arms. She stood on her tiptoes, hugged Luke, and ordered him to take care of her friend. “She needs someone to watch her.”

  He smiled. “I know. That’s my job, and I’m good at it.”

  “I can’t do this. We have to go,” said Aretha. She turned to Nina on her way back to the car, “You know, no decision has to be forever.”

  Nina nodded, afraid if she spoke it would be to tell them she changed her mind. Before Luke pulled away from the curb, Nina walked into the terminal. She couldn’t bear to hear Manny’s yelps or watch the car become smaller and smaller until it finally disappeared.

  She detoured into the nearest bathroom, took a deep breath, checked for mascara runs, and lectured herself. This is want you wanted, worked for, and dreamed about. This is your opportunity. You earned this. The woman she saw in the mirror still didn’t look convinced.

  Nina found the gate for her flight. She checked in her baggage, went through security, and looked for a place to eat breakfast. When she finally sat, choosing a place with just a few customers, the past two weeks of her life filled every empty chair at the table and then some. Elise, everyone at the office, Daisy, Shannon, Luke, Aretha, . . .

  The interview with Martha nearly wiped her out, but Elise told her it was her best one yet. Nina sent notes to all the Threads of Hope people thanking them for opening their lives to her so that others could have hope.

  Aretha’s quilt had been under her bed for so long, she’d almost forgotten about it. But she’d wrapped the box before she left, and Luke was going to give it to her today. Nina decided it would be her good-bye gift instead of her birthday one.

  Every time her cell phone rang, she hoped the name Greg Hernandez would flash on the screen. But it didn’t. The time she and Elise were together, neither one of them mentioned his name. A boundary neither one of them wanted to cross.

  She’d had dinner on Thomas’s birthday with her parents. They moved around the house as if they were strangers in an elevator, careful not to invade each other’s personal space. Nina wished she’d bought a cake. They could have celebrated the years they all had with Thomas. After finding out about her brother, she just didn’t know how they could mend all that had broken for them as a family. Maybe, being away would help with that. Give her perspective.

  Nina shivered, and rubbed her arms with her hands. What possessed her to wear a sleeveless dress on the plane? The person next to her would probably set the air on Arctic chill. Aretha thought the deep kiwi cotton dress was classic and made a statement. Nina hoped she remembered to tell her that whatever statement Aretha thought she heard, it was all wrong.

  The waitress brought her a menu and poured her a cup of coffee. “Here you go. That should warm you up,” she said and made the last three words sound like one, warmyaup. A snapshot of Jazarah reminding Greg to say “thank you” flashed before her. She blinked, and it was gone. She thanked the waitress who said that she’d be back for her order. “No rush,” she said.

  Nina set her cell phone on the table hanging on a thread of hope that Greg would call. Or like Richard Gere in An Officer and a Gentleman, he’d whip through the airport in his white lab jacket, scoop her up like she’s Debra Winger, and carry her out of the terminal. Why? So you could blame him if the staying behind didn’t work out? Nina closed her eyes until the silly romantic image disappeared. She didn’t need Greg to save her from herself.

  She propped her legs on the chair across from her while she scanned the menu. The Belgian waffles with whipped cream and pecans were winning out over the Blueberry Blintzes, but the omelets held promise.

  Nina felt a tap on her shoulder and, though an odd way of taking an order, she thought it was the waitress. “Oh, I haven’t decided what I want yet . . .”

  “We could tell,” the man standing behind her said.

  “Can I help you?” Nina said to the couple, who appeared to be in their seventies, as they made their way around the table. She made sure her purse was zipped and still on the chair next to her.

  The woman wore an ash gray peplum jacket and a gored skirt that matched. Definitely not a flight attendant. The man next to her was dressed in a charcoal-shaded suit that had a faint gray pinstripe, and his silver tie was almost the same shade as his hair. “Actually,” the woman said, her eyes almost as dark as Nina’s coffee, “we were going to ask if we could help you. Weren’t we, Daniel?”

  Nina looked around for cameras. Maybe this was some weird reality television show. There were still a dozen or so empty tables in the restaurant, so this wasn’t the last place to sit.

  He nodded. “That’s right. We just thought you looked like you could use some company and, well, it’s just Roberta and me traveling by ourselves, too.”

  Nina moved her legs off the chair, already a bit depressed her solitariness was a lighthouse beacon over her head. Greg’s yammering on about trust wound its way through her brain. Her conscience shrugged its shoulders and said, Might as well do a test run here, Nina. You’re about to start the great adventure of your life. Nina pulled out a chair, “Sure, have a seat. My name’s Nina. And you are Roberta and . . .?”

  “Happy to meet you, Nina. My name is Daniel,” he said and stood behind his chair until Roberta was comfortably seated in her own before he sat next to her.

  The man seemed almost senatorial, and Nina’s reporter brain whirred into action. She didn’t want to see a newspaper later to discover she’d had no clue that she shared a breakfast table with a distinguished politician and his bride. But none of the files her brain flipped through made any connection. Still, they seemed to have that patina of gentility that grew more beautiful with age, and she hoped her brain hadn’t misplaced an important file.

  The waitress walked over. “Well, look at you. Made friends already,” she said and pulled her pen out her apron pocket. “Y’all know what you want?”

  That’s why I’m here. Alone. Having breakfast with two elderly strangers. Nina searched the menu one more time. “I’ll have the waffles. No, make that the blintzes.” She handed the menu over and regretted she didn’t stick with the waffles. Roberta and Daniel ordered coffee.

  “Sharing those blintzes?” The waitress, eyes narrowed, looked at the couple.

  Daniel smiled. “Actually, we’ve already eaten breakfast.”

  “Okey-dokey. Whatever,” she said as if she’d been
defeated.

  Why are they stalking breakfast cafes if they’ve already eaten? Nina thought her conscience might be too eager for new experiences. She’d have to be careful to not disclose too much information about herself.

  Roberta asked where Nina was headed. “New York. New job. I’ll be working as an editor for a magazine.” So much for careful.

  They both nodded. “That sounds quite exciting,” said Roberta.

  Nina almost told her why she was so excited. She ushered her enthusiasm away, and asked, “And you? Where are you two going?”

  They looked at one another and turned the same shade of blush pink. “You’re probably going to laugh, but we’ll tell you anyway. Partly why we wanted some company. Nobody to share our good news with.”

  Nina’s journalist ears perked up. “Good news? I could use some. Spill it.”

  Roberta leaned toward Nina and whispered, “We’re going on our honeymoon.” Daniel nodded and smiled. He couldn’t seem to stop doing either one.

  “Honeymoon? Really?” Nina sipped her coffee, grateful she didn’t laugh as they’d expected. How could she when their faces glowed like soft lamp light?

  The waitress returned with two cups of coffee and Nina’s breakfast. “There ya go, honey. Belgium waffles with whipped cream and pecans.”

  “But I ordered the blintzes,” said Nina. Didn’t I?

  She reached for Nina’s plate. “I can take these back. Thought for sure you said waffles.”

  “No problem. These are great,” Nina told her. “Really.”

  She mumbled as she walked away.

  Nina separated the waffles and spread the whipped cream over each. “Oh, so you renewed your wedding vows?”

  “No. We just made them,” said Daniel. He reached out and put his arm around his bride. “Just this morning we did.” Roberta rested her head on his shoulder when he hugged her, then gently patted his chest. “Now Daniel, we shouldn’t make a scene in public.” When he let go, Nina didn’t miss the fact that he moved his hand so that it rested on her knee.

  “So, you just got married this morning, and you’re leaving to go where on your honeymoon?”

  “We’re going to Hawaii,” Daniel said. “We think it’s time we learned how to surf. Don’t you?”

  Nina hesitated. If Roberta laughed, so would she. But she didn’t. “We registered for private lessons. At our age, we didn’t want the young people in a group to worry about us having heart attacks the first time we tried to stand on our boards.”

  Aretha would love this couple. Nina was quite infatuated with them already. Nina’s stomach wasn’t so infatuated with butter and whipped cream as breakfast choices and grumbled its disapproval. She set her fork on her plate and checked her cell phone. Just in case. Still silent. And so were Roberta and Daniel. Nina looked up from her phone. “I’m sorry. That was rude of me.”

  “We all get distracted, especially when we’re not sure what we’re looking for,” said Daniel. He clasped Roberta’s hand, intertwining their fingers so that their polished wedding bands, his next to hers, seemed to connect one to the other. “For a long time, we both had . . .” he looked at his wife. “What’s that called?”

  “Shiny ball syndrome.” She leaned toward Nina and whispered, “His grandson told us about that.”

  “Guess I forget it because I don’t want to remember having it. We spent too many years of our lives chasing after jobs that glittered, shiny things, even people we thought sparkled. Everything loses its shine after a while. It’s what we’re left with after the newness wears off that matters.”

  Roberta laughed. “I think we’re proof God has a sense of humor, you know? But we learned the hard way that when our time is over here, no person in his right mind says, ‘Wish I would have spent one more day at the office.’ ”

  Daniel and Roberta left for their flight to Maui, and Nina gathered herself for the walk to her gate. She thought about what they’d said . . . about no one ever regretting the time they spent with the people they love. Did being alone in the job she dreamed of trump being with those she cared about, in the job that allowed her to be there with them?

  Nina thought about her life, the one she was leaving behind. How many times the unexpected had provided for her, how the very boy she detested in high school grew to be the man who made her a better person, how being given the opportunity to attend the benefit resulted in the feature stories that could change lives.

  And who made all that happen, Nina? Who brought that together, stitch by stitch, threading pieces of lives together to create something extraordinary? Just because you don’t see Me, that doesn’t mean I’m not there. Would you want Thomas to have lived longer if it meant being in pain? Was that prayer for you or for him?

  Your entire life, you wanted to belong, to be loved, to be a part of something that could make a difference . . . and you had it. Just where you were.

  Those were the desires of your heart, Nina. New York is the desire of your ego.

  What if she gave God another chance? What if she prayed for Greg to meet her at the airport? That would prove God heard her, how could she not have faith after that?

  Nina waited until she heard the final call before she handed over her boarding pass. Another prayer unanswered. Another loss. Another reason to doubt.

  33

  Elise, this is the third consecutive year you’ve called the night of the benefit to ask about picking me up,” Greg said as he checked his tuxedo pockets for his cuff links.

  He heard Peyton through the speakerphone. “That’s because she’s stubborn. I told her—”

  “Please don’t shout. You’ll upset the baby.”

  Greg laughed. “The baby isn’t due for another two months.”

  “Babies hear sounds eighteen weeks into a pregnancy, and loud noises startle them. I’ve done my research. I don’t want her traumatized before she’s born,” Elise said.

  “She? When did you find that out?” He checked his pants pockets. Still no cufflinks.

  “We didn’t. I just alternate between using her and him. We still want to be surprised.”

  “Whatever makes you happy. In the meantime, I don’t want one of your surprises to be us being there late. I’m looking for my cufflinks, and she’s almost ready.” The bedroom door opened, and Greg smiled. “In fact, she’s ready now. We’ll be there soon.”

  Jazarah pranced in and stood in front of the full-length mirror and twirled. Her sapphire dress sparkled almost as brightly as her eyes. “You are so pretty,” she said to her reflection. “Right, Daddy?”

  Greg lifted her, kissed her forehead, and whirled her around. “You are beautiful, my little princess.” As her feet touched the floor, he noticed they were still bare. “You can’t go to the ball without shoes.”

  Paloma entered after a faint knock at the bedroom door. “She escaped to your room before her shoes and her sash. A few more minutes, and she will be dressed.” She held her hand out to Jazarah, “Come, princess. It’s almost time for you to leave, but you need to finish getting dressed.”

  His daughter blew him a kiss, and she skipped out of his room, her dark curls bouncing.

  Again the door opened. “I found a pair of lovely silver monogrammed cufflinks. They must be yours since you’re the only man in the house who’d be wearing them.”

  “You are not only beautiful, but useful in emergencies,” Greg said before he kissed Nina. “This never gets old,” he whispered and kissed her again.

  “We have to stop now or we’ll never make it to the benefit,” she whispered back, her voice warm and silky. “I promise we’ll pick up where we left off when we return.”

  “I’m a lucky man,” Greg said and held out his arms so Nina could put his cufflinks on.

  “Lucky? No. Smart? Yes.” Her eyes drank in this man whose wife she had become because he trusted God. And, in doing so, showed her how to trust Him as well. Almost two years ago, she’d stepped out of a plane determined to start the life she’d dreamed o
f for years. When God didn’t answer her prayer for Greg to meet her at the airport in Houston, by the time she arrived at JFK, she’d decided she could live without both of them.

  Nina was on the phone with Aretha waiting for her baggage when someone tapped her on the shoulder. What is it today with this shoulder tapping? She turned around and found herself face-to-face with Greg.

  He took the cell phone from her. “Hi, Aretha. She’ll call you back.” He ended the call and handed her the phone. “Do you need help with your suitcases?”

  “Help with my suitcases? Are you kidding me?” She swatted her bangs off her forehead and resisted the urge to bash him over his head with her purse. “What are you doing here, and how did you know I was talking to Aretha?”

  “Is this your way of telling me you’re happy to see me?” He reached for her hand. “Let’s talk over here. Away from the crowd.”

  Nina remembered looking around the airport to convince herself she hadn’t fallen through some worm hole and into another life. She recognized the faces of passengers who were on the same flight, and she spotted her luggage as the conveyor burped it out of the belly of the plane. So she had landed exactly where she’d intended. But she was no less confused than she was before. “Look, I don’t know how or why you’re here. All your talk about faith and trust and prayer. I prayed and waited and waited and waited for you to meet me at the airport—”

  His hands cradled her face. “Well, here I am. At the airport.”

  And that was her first lesson in understanding that answered prayer may look different than she expected.

  And she could not have expected, standing in the airport baggage claim that day, the blessings that awaited her in the life she and Greg shared today.

  He straightened his bow tie and turned to Nina, “Well? Should I whirl around like our daughter so you can see how beautiful I am?”

  She laughed. “I should have made you sign a ‘non-compete clause.’ It’s not fair that you turn more heads walking into a room than I do.”