Winter Winds

by Gayle Roper

  Burdened, she slipped her hands into her slacks pockets as she thought about it all. Her fingers brushed the taped-together card.

  A warm feeling washed over her. Certainly there were difficulties, but Trev loved her. He’d told her so last night; he’d written it in the note today. He’d shown it by buying the red fleece top and by remembering to send the plant.

  She sighed. It was time she faced the fact that she was starting to love the now Trev as much as she’d loved the old Trev. At the thought, she waited for the familiar fear to wash through her, dislodging the sweetness of this growing realization. Nothing happened. She felt slightly stunned as she returned to work.

  When she finished clearing all the Christmas bric-a-brac from the gift shelves, she placed Trev’s cyclamen next to a pair of cream candlesticks and a ceramic statue of a little girl sitting in a rocker reading the Bible. She placed Mae’s bouquet on top of the fiction shelf and stacked some of the duplicate novels artistically around the vase.

  She went to the door and turned, looking in, trying to see the store as a customer might. She grinned. Better already.

  After a quick lunch, Dori called Mae who walked her through the intricacies of her software. Dori made copious notes so she would be able to remember how things worked tomorrow and all the days after.

  She worked steadily through the afternoon without another customer. While she regretted the lack of business, she was happy to be able to spend time familiarizing herself with the store, the inventory, the catalogues, and the new supplies. She called all the local churches about their Sunday school materials. She actually got to speak to four directors of Christian education who placed orders immediately. The majority of the churches, smaller in size, had volunteer Sunday school directors or superintendents who would return her calls soon.

  As the day wore on, she decided that things at Harbor Lights were very different from Small Treasures, yet they were the same. She realized she was going to enjoy the challenge of getting the store back in business, maybe even returning it to Mae’s keeping with improvements in sales. She smiled to herself as she washed her dirty hands preparatory to leaving at five. She was drying them on the last paper towel on the roll when she heard the bell over the door ring again.

  “Coming,” she called. She hurried out to find Trev waiting.

  “Hi,” she said, suddenly shy. He looked so wonderful, tall and strong, full of character and depth, a man worth knowing. A man worth being married to. She swept her hand toward the cyclamen. “Thanks. It’s beautiful.”

  He grinned, pleased. “How did today go?”

  “Fine, thanks.” She’d tell him about Angie later. “The strangest thing is not knowing the inventory.”

  “Well, I’ve come to take you away from it all.” He shoved a gift bag at her.

  “For me?” She felt bemused. Two chivalrous moves in one day! She looked at the brightly patterned bag with tissue paper stuffed in the top. She pulled the paper out and put it on the counter by the register. She reached back in and pulled out a flat rectangular package. “A pair of navy tights?”

  He grinned. “Keep going.”

  She reached in again. Another flat rectangular package. “A navy leotard.”

  “Keep going.”

  She reached in a third time, and her hand touched a cold silky fabric. She pulled out a pair of nylon navy running shorts.

  “We’re going to the fitness center.” He spoke with all the delight of someone who had just presented his true love with tickets for a Caribbean cruise.

  She laughed. “Oh, you mad romantic!” She hugged him.

  He looked very pleased with himself. Then a thought hit her.

  “Did you pick these out yourself or did you send your secretary?” Dori tried to imagine him slinking though the women’s department searching for these items.

  He looked surprised. “I got them myself.”

  She smiled. Either way the items had been his thought, but knowing he went out of his way to buy them himself made the gesture extra special.

  “But what about Ryan?” she asked as she put everything back in the bag.

  “Phil and Maureen will see to him.”

  “And the suitcase, I’ve no doubt.” Dori looked down at herself. “I guess it doesn’t matter that I don’t look all that great as a result of pushing dust bunnies and spiders around all day.”

  “This is a resort town, remember? Casual’s in. You look fine.”

  He was the one who looked fine, she thought, in his khaki Dockers, a navy turtleneck, and a cobalt blue sweater that made his blue eyes absolutely riveting.

  “Can we get me home in time to change before that party at church tonight? You look so great that I have to dress up to your standard before your congregation, or they’ll think me unworthy”

  He grinned at her compliment. “Sweetheart, you look wonderful no matter what you’re wearing, but not to worry. We’ll get home in plenty of time.”

  He waited while she turned back the heat, shut off the lights, and locked the door. They climbed in Trev’s car for the short drive to the fitness center.

  As they drove, Dori told Trev about Angle’s visit.

  “I didn’t know she was Mae’s part-time help, and she didn’t know I was opening the store for Mae.” She pulled out her reassembled gift card and held it for him to see. Passing lights reflected brightly on the many strips of tape.

  He made a distressed noise deep in his throat. “I knew she had her sights set on me, but I didn’t realize how bad it was.” He ran a hand through his dark hair. “Please believe me when I tell you that I gave her no encouragement.”

  Dori grinned at him as she slid the precious card back in her pocket. “It’s all your own fault, you know. You’re just irresistible to the ladies and always have been. Remember Gladdy Morris?” She started to laugh.

  “The very name makes me shudder.”

  “Sixth grade. She thought you were wonderful!”

  “If she’d been an adult, she’d have been called a stalker,” Trev said, disgruntled. He pulled into the fitness center parking lot and handed her a nylon zipped bag that he pulled from the backseat. “Towel, soap, sneakers, and stuff.”

  The man had thought of everything. Or had he? Blow dryer? Curling iron? She could get pneumonia leaving the center with wet hair on a night like this.

  They parted for the changing rooms. Dori found an empty locker to stash her belongings in and changed into the leotard and tights. She pulled the shorts on, thankful he’d gotten them. They did a lot to relieve the am-I-really-wearing-something feeling of the leotard.

  When she left the changing room, Trev was waiting for her in the hall. He looked at her very carefully, top to toes. He grinned. “You look even better than I imagined.”

  She flushed with pleasure.

  An attractive woman in a red leotard walked by, looking like she’d never broken a sweat in her life. “Hi, Paul,” she said, her voice definitely flirty.

  Trev glanced up. “Oh, hi, Melody.” No flirtiness.

  Dori shook her head as he reached around her for the door. “Ladies’ man.”

  He snorted.

  “Amy Skolnik,” she said over her shoulder as she walked into the room noisy with clangs and grunts and redolent with sweat.

  “At least she was cute,” Trev muttered.

  Was she ever! In eighth grade Dori had been so jealous of her naturally curly red-gold hair and her braceless teeth. “And Jeannie Markowitz and Jordan Darlington and—”

  “Enough, woman!” He led her to the first machine where they waited for the large man with the black back brace to finish his reps. “What do you want me to do—start mentioning the guys you dated? Rob Baldwin? Hal Commons? Denny Lipinski?”

  She just smiled sweetly at him. “A list of guys I dated wouldn’t come near the list of girls you dated. Add to that the ones who chased you unsuccessfully and you have the Chester County phone book.”

  “I’m a changed man,” he said,
hand over his heart, as he stepped back for the large man to get up.

  “Hey, Trevelyan,” the man said as he mopped sweat from his face with a ratty, once-blue towel that had lost most of its loops. “I hear you got married.”

  Trev nodded. “This is my wife, Dori.”

  The man nodded. “Hey, Dori. Nice to meet ya. And congratulations on your marriage. You’ve broken the hearts of all the women here, you know.” He turned and wiped the moisture from the leather bench he’d been lying on. He turned back, looking concerned. “Not that he ever gave them any encouragement, you understand. They just all liked him. Personally, I never understood what they saw in him, him being a minister and all.” He grinned. “When they could have had me.”

  Dori laughed as the man walked away. Trev bent to adjust the weights on the machine to a level he thought Dori could handle.

  “And just what did they see in you, you being a minister and all,” she teased, wagging a finger at Trev.

  He grabbed the offending finger and opened his mouth to retort.

  “Well, aren’t we having a good time,” said a snide voice.

  Twenty-Five

  BOTH DORI AND TREV swung toward the man standing just inside the weight room. Bob Warrington stared at them with Penni Aaronson, her lush curves accented by her black leotard and tights, huddled at his side.

  “What can I do for you, Bob?” Trev asked. Dori noticed that all traces of his laughter disappeared when he saw Bob. Her own stomach gave a little jump. These constant meetings couldn’t be good for anyone’s digestion.

  “I got a letter in the mail today. So did Penni.”

  Penni nodded energetically. “That was mean, Pastor Paul.” Her lower lip trembled.

  Dori looked from Bob to Penni to Trev. Mean? Trev? No way.

  Trev looked quickly around the weight room. “Here is hardly the place for this conversation, Bob. Why don’t you call me at the office for an appointment? I’ll be glad to talk whenever it’s convenient for you.”

  “You know you can’t get away with this,” Bob said, his voice shaking with anger. Apparently now was the convenient time and talking in the weight room didn’t bother him at all. Neither did the people at the machines who looked on with interest. “If I don’t play on the church basketball team, we’ll lose the championship. Believe me, no one will appreciate that. We’ve won for the past three years.”

  Undoubtedly all because of Bob.

  Trev ignored him as he held out his hand to Dori. She took it, letting him pull her out into the hall.

  Bob and Penni followed them. Dori’s shoulders twitched. It felt like Snoopy’s evil twin was doing Snoopy’s vulture act, staring at them with malevolent eyes.

  Bob hissed, “Wait until my father hears. He’ll have a few words to say. Don’t think he won’t.”

  Once they were in the hall, Trev glanced around. “Let’s find an empty room to talk. I’d just as soon not all of Seaside knew the chapel’s family problems.”

  Dori had no doubt that Bob would be happy to air them to the world, but Trev was right. Some discussions should be private. “You think you run this church,” Bob said, his voice spiteful. “Well, you don’t. No one crosses my father and lives to tell about it.”

  A chill slid over Dori. Even assuming that Bob was exaggerating, his threat was ugly. Was this the kind of thing pastors faced often, this animosity? This defiant challenge? Her only Christian experience was Young Life back in high school. She knew so very little about what a pastor’s life was like. Or a pastor’s wife’s life, for that matter.

  Never once did she think Trev was in the wrong, whatever had set Bob off. The little she knew about Bob and Penni left no doubt in her mind that they were facing some consequence of their brazen actions, and like most sinners caught in their own web, not liking it.

  Trev tried a couple of doors, found one that was unlocked, and flipped on the lights. It was a small office with little more than a desk and two visitors’ chairs.

  “We’ll borrow this for a few minutes.”

  Bob and Penni followed him in. Dori pulled the door shut behind them and came to stand beside Trev. To say the room was crowded was understatement, and it would be impossible to overstate the animosity pouring off Bob. Dori shivered. Trev leaned back against the desk. “Lord, give us wisdom and strength and the ability to act in a manner that honors You.”

  For once his prayer didn’t aggravate Dori. She wasn’t certain whether that was because she was becoming used to his praying anytime, anywhere, or whether it was so obvious that this conversation needed Divine guidance that the prayer seemed more than appropriate. Either way, she supposed it signaled an advance in her own spiritual reawakening.

  Trev began. “Penni, you said you thought I was being mean. I’m sorry you see it that way. That’s not my intent at all. I’m just following church policy.” He turned to Bob. “Policy that your father helped write, Bob. When someone is involved in continual sin, has been confronted about it, and won’t change his mind or actions, that person can’t participate in church-sponsored activities.”

  “So because I love Bob, I can’t sing in the choir anymore?” Penni’s chin started to wobble again, and her big eyes filled with tears.

  Trev shook his head. “You know that’s not what it is, Penni. The discipline is because you are having an ongoing affair with a married man. If we let you continue to sit up there in the front row of the choir loft and sing, it’ll be like we approve of what you’re doing.”

  “But I love him!” Penni’s voice had become loud and whiney. “And I’m scheduled for a solo this Sunday. I can’t leave Rosetta in the lurch.”

  Dori watched Penni with interest. She didn’t want to leave Rosetta—the choir director?—in a lurch, but she was willing to leave Shannon without a husband and the kids without a father. Can you say ‘warped thinking’?

  “Rosetta knows not expect you,” Trev said. “The choir will manage.”

  “You told her about us?” Penni all but shrieked.

  Dori couldn’t help but compare poor, heartbroken Shannon with Penni, all wide eyes and hard edges. No question, Bob was not only wrong; he was nuts.

  “Told?” Trev looked flabbergasted. “Come on, Penni. You’re living very openly with Bob. We saw you together at Dante’s and now here at the center. I didn’t have to tell anyone anything. Rosetta already knew. She came to me about it.”

  Penni turned a tragic face to Bob who rose to the occasion.

  “It seems to me, Paul,” he spat, “that we’re entitled to live our lives as we want.”

  Did Trev notice that Bob had dropped the pastor from his name? Whether he did or not, he gave no indication.

  “You can say you’re entitled to live as you want, but what about those you’re hurting by your choices? You’ve got a wife who is brokenhearted and two kids who don’t understand why their father suddenly disappeared.”

  Bob waved his hand in the air like his family was of no account. Dori thought of the adorable Serena and poor, colicky Jonny named after Bob’s own father, and couldn’t understand Bob’s easy dismissal of them. Had he never loved them, his very own children?

  Bob decided to try another tack. “Doesn’t the Bible say love is of God and God is love? So what we feel for each other, Penni and me, comes from Him. And if He didn’t want us to be together, He never would have let us feel the way we do for each other.”

  Nothing like blaming God for your sin, Dori thought, astounded at the man’s gall.

  Trev just shook his head in appalled amazement. “God does not condone adultery, Bob. He never has, and He never will. The Bible is very firm on that point. You can manipulate Scripture all you want, but you know what it says. You know very well.”

  For a moment there was silence in the little office.

  Then suddenly Penni pronounced, her voice sharp and dismissive, “Shannon is a mess.”

  Dori frowned at her and her cruelty. Penni glared back, though her cheeks did flush.


  “Well, she is,” Penni said defensively. “She calls all the time. She begs Bob to come back. She cries. She asks for money. She claims that she can’t pay the mortgage or the grocery bill.”

  Dori couldn’t keep quiet any longer. She glared at Bob. “So you let the church pay for your family’s food and housing.” Her tone was scathing. “Talk about deadbeat dads. Men go to jail for that, you know.”

  Bob ignored her and looked at Trev. “We’ve gotten off topic here.” He sounded stiff and self-righteous.

  “Have we?” Trev asked. “I thought we were talking about the consequences of abandoning your marriage, of breaking the vows you made to your wife. Remember ‘what God has joined together, let no man put asunder’?”

  Dori wanted to ask the sixty-four thousand-dollar question but wasn’t sure she should. This pastor’s wife stuff was going to be tricky. She glanced at Trev. “Can I ask a question?”

  “Go ahead. Ask whatever you want.”

  She hesitated a minute, then blurted out, “Is this the first time you’ve been unfaithful to your wife?”

  Bob and Penni stared at her, their mouths agape. Trev lowered his gaze, but not before she saw the amused approval in his eyes.

  “Well?” she prompted.

  “It’s not a matter of being unfaithful,” Bob said, carefully dodging the question. He pulled Penni close to his side. “It’s a matter of loving Penni.”

  “Don’t try to put a nice face on it, Bob.” Trev sounded disgusted. “No matter how you try to explain it, it’s adultery. Don’t kid yourself with nice words. If you choose to continue in this pattern, I can’t prevent you. But before God, know that you are wrong. Marriage vows are forever, not until a Penni comes along.”

  “Look who’s talking,” Bob spat, clearly tired of being on the defensive. “You and your sudden marriage. I’m not even sure I believe that she is your wife.”

  Trev glanced at Dori and grinned. “Oh, she’s my wife all right.”

  Dori looked at Bob and Penni and smiled as sweetly as she could.

  Bob shook his head. “There’s something weird going on here,” he persisted. “It’s just too sudden. My dad has been checking, and we’ll find out the truth. I hope you can deal with that!”