The Arrangement

by Hilary Hamblin

  “Do you think he’s ready for that?” Evie sipped her coffee, her eyes never leaving his face. She watched as the space between his eyebrows curled and uncurled. One lock of dark hair dangled above his eyes. His lips opened just wide enough to fit the lid of his coffee cup around which his hands wrapped.

  Eli nodded. “He’s ready. He’s built his own business to a point he can leave it with someone else for a while and take care of the whole city for a few years. You don’t get to that place without putting in years of hard work. He’s got a great family, and he’s not about to let any job get between him and his family. I think he’s exactly where he needs to be for this kind of job.”

  “Was your father ready for that commitment when he took it?” she asked, unsure why that question, out of all her questions, bubbled to the top.

  “I don’t know. He allowed the job to take over everything. It took over to the point Mom was not just his wife but part of the staff.”

  She blinked. “That’s a little harsh.”

  “Yeah, it is. She loved being part of the action. She loved being his wife. But being his wife involved a lot of work. She didn’t just go to functions or smile on television. She planned events, worked for charities, and kept up with stuff at home so he could do his job,” he clarified.

  “Does it make you wonder if you are cut out for that kind of work?”

  “We must have spent more time together than I thought.” He smiled at her. “I can’t imagine not having anything to do with politics. I’m content right now, but I’m afraid I’m going to get restless soon. I need action and excitement, and you know this town doesn’t have much of either. But at the same time I wonder what it would be like to have a family like Michael’s. To go home to a house warmed not just by a gas heater but by a laughing, loving family.”

  “Me, too,” she agreed. She let the cup warm her hands as she thought about the lack of warmth at her own home.

  After her final earlier in the week, she’d lugged her laundry, books, and zippered suitcase back to her parents’ house. A note on the kitchen counter had instructed her where to find food for dinner and when to expect her parents home from a Christmas party. She had not seen her parents since Thanksgiving. She still burned with shame for her attitude during that visit. And now they were too busy to welcome her home for a few days.

  But what did she expect? Her parents received hundreds of invitations to Christmas parties throughout the community each year. Even as a child, she had spent more time with babysitters during the holidays than with her parents.

  “Eli, why does God seem to give us such separate desires? Why can we not simply desire a loving family or a full career? Why do we need both so much?” Her questions rushed out like the initial steam from her now cooling coffee.

  He nibbled on his lip. “I don’t know. Either we’re desiring things he doesn’t want for us, or he’s giving us the desires for what he wants for us.”

  She wrinkled her nose. “That doesn’t help a lot, Eli.”

  He laughed. “I know. That leaves us needing to pray a little more about what he wants. If we aren’t to have either of those things, or we are to have one but not the other, we need to pray that God will take away our desire for whatever he doesn’t want us to have. And if we desire what he wants for us, then we need to ask him to confirm that.”

  “That sounds a lot like what Brooke has been telling me. She said God uses his Word, other people, even situations to confirm what he wants for us.”

  “She’s a very smart person. I’m glad she’s your friend.”

  “Me, too.” Evie studied the rim of her cup as she ran her finger along it. Then she looked up at Eli, beaming. “She also helped me get saved a few weeks ago.”

  Eli’s eyes instantly puddled with tears. When he clasped her hand, the warmth of his touch spread up her arm and into her heart. “Evie,” he choked, “I cannot tell you how happy that makes me.”

  A single tear slid down Evie’s cheek and dripped onto the table. “I wanted to call you,” she whispered.

  “I wish you had,” he replied, still holding tight to her hand.

  “I couldn’t yet. I had to know, for sure, that it was for me and for God, not for you or anyone else. You were right. I needed time to figure some things out. I’m still not sure how ready I am for anything beyond school and Bible study right now. But then Michael called and I felt this peace….”

  As she talked, she told him how anxious and unsettled she’d felt for days before Michael called. Like she was missing an appointment or wasn’t doing something on time. But when she talked to Michael and made plans to be a part of something not focused on her, she was relaxed, at ease again. She knew, without a doubt, she needed to be a part of his campaign. Now Eli was a part of that campaign, too.

  “I understand what you mean. I’ve been begging God to show me what he wants me to do. Am I meant for politics, or to be a small-town lawyer? Now I’m beginning to wonder if I’m meant for something different. Instead of being elected, maybe I’m supposed to help someone else get elected.”

  “Eli…” Her heart raced with the possibilities.

  “I know, Evie.” He nodded as though he knew exactly what her nearly panic-stricken eyes feared to hope. “Maybe he’s giving us the same vision, the same focus for our future.”

  Her breath escaped her in uneven pants. “But how do we know?” Her voice wavered. “How do we know it’s him—and not us?”

  His smile spread serenity over her. “We pray about it.”

  )

  Later that night Evie slipped onto the front porch at her parents’ house with a blanket wrapped around her and a fleece cap covering her blond locks. She curled her feet under her and snuggled onto the swing hanging at the end of the porch. Stars made pinpricks in the dark December sky. Evie shivered and tucked the blanket closer. How life had changed since she sat in that swing only a few months ago, harboring bitterness toward her parents’ ultimatum.

  She closed her eyes and pictured Eli standing in front of her that night as he’d walked away. How did her parents know he would care for her not because of what she could bring to his life or what material possessions she could give him, but that he would care for her because she made him smile or think? She never imagined sharing her passion for politics with someone.

  Her whole body fell still, listening to the steady squeak of the swing as it moved back and forth. She opened her eyes when gravel in the drive crunched under the pressure of car tires. She watched her parents pull their car into the garage. Her mother jingled her keys and went into the house. Her father, in his black wool trench coat, walked back into the drive and up the steps to the porch where Evie sat. He lifted the corner of her blanket and spread it over his lap when he sat next to her.

  “How was the party?” she asked, her breath making wispy smoke in the cold air.

  “Ah, the same old, same old,” he answered, pushing the swing with his feet. “Mayor Colson was there, talking about the election next year. He usually doesn’t come, but I guess he wants to remind people what his face looks like.”

  “Did he say anything about Michael Hudson?”

  “He knows he has a tough election facing him. He kept talking about all the progress they’ve made over the last four years,” he explained.

  “Do you think Michael has a chance?” She watched her father’s face for any signs of uncertainty.

  “He definitely has a chance. How did your meeting with him go? Do you think this is something you want to get involved in?” He kept pushing the swing.

  “I think he has some great ideas. He wants to see the community move forward and protect it at the same time. He’ll have some big issues to deal with if he gets elected, but he’s faced harder trouble building his own business,” she said, remembering their long conversation earlier.

  Eli’s face danced through her mind again. “Dad,” she said, watching her vapor of her breath disappear into the ni
ght, “did you know Eli was going to be there?” The blanket around her grew warm as her heart bumped against her chest. She listened to her father’s steady breathing and the rhythmic squeak of the swing.

  He opened his mouth to speak, closed it, and opened it again. “Yes.”

  “Why do you think we need to be together so much? You just keep going out of your way to make sure we see each other.” Her shoulders sagged. Does this mean it wasn’t us, but it wasn’t God, either?

  “Evie, Michael Hudson is a long-time friend. He’s much younger than me but older than you. But he made this community a priority, which put us in the same social circles for years. I would have suggested that he involve you in his campaign whether Eli Wheatly had anything to do with it or not. He’s a good man, and you could use the experience and the distraction.” He continued to look at the black sky, lit only by a sprinkling of stars.

  “So this had nothing to do with Eli?” She turned to gaze directly at her father. His more salt-than-pepper hair highlighted what remained of the summer tan he’d received from numerous golf trips. Tiny lines etched themselves to the side of his eyes and even a few at the corners of his mouth. She struggled for a minute to remember how he looked before time and teenagers wreaked havoc on him.

  “Mmm, yes and no,” he hedged before meeting her eyes. “Eli was a bonus. I know you would be happy with him. He cares about the same things you care about, and he would be faithful to you.”

  Faithful. The word stung like the cold wind whipping around their shelter on the porch. He did want more for her than he had for himself. He wanted her to marry someone who met his approval, but he also wanted her to be happy—maybe even loved.

  “I’m not good at being a husband, and your mother has never been interested in being a one-man woman. We both knew those things when we got married. And we stayed married because the world expected this of us. We have our business partnership and our personal partnership, and it’s too much trouble to break either of those up now. But I want more for you and for Taylor. Eli is a good man, and he’ll be good to you.”

  He leaned over and kissed his daughter on the cheek in an unusual gesture of affection. “Don’t stay out here too much longer; you’ll get sick.” The swing dipped and swayed when he stood.

  She watched as he walked through the front door into the house.

  “He is a good man,” she whispered to the empty tree branches and whistling wind. She pulled her cell from her pocket and dialed a familiar number.

  “Hello?”

  “Eli? It’s God. I know it now. It’s God,” she sang.

  Postlude

  S

  ix months later, Eli and Evie perched on coolers under an open tent in front of Duncan’s City Hall. Rain cascaded off the small shelter and made puddles in the well-trodden grass. Across the parking lot she could see Mayor Colson’s family and friends huddled under a similar tent.

  Evie drummed her fingers on the hard plastic cooler under her and tapped her foot. She resisted the urge to check her watch again. The poll had closed five minutes earlier. Her fingers stopped when Eli’s sweating palm touched them.

  “I’m nervous too, but driving me crazy isn’t going to make them count any faster,” he teased her.

  She stuck out her tongue and turned her hand over to intertwine her fingers with his. “Were you always nervous when your dad had an election?”

  He twisted his mouth in concentration. “No,” he finally answered. “The first couple of years I had no idea how one election could change my entire life. The last few years, when I realized one election could move me from my friends in D.C. to someplace we visited only on holidays, I was really nervous. I think I threw up halfway through election day every time after that.”

  “Ugh, gross.”

  She pretended to move away from him, but he tightened his grip on her fingers and pulled her back until their shoulders touched. She locked eyes with him and smiled. She knew Michael Hudson—hopefully Mayor-elect Hudson—stood only feet from them drinking another bottle of water and talking to his wife. Their two sons dripped with rain water from running in and out of the shelter where the rest of the campaign staff stood.

  “So what now?” she asked.

  “We wait. It could take an hour or longer for the results to be ready.” His eyes roved over the crowd huddled together under umbrellas, tents, and the awning of the building, all waiting for the results of the day’s election.

  “I know we wait now. But what about tomorrow or next week or next year?” She raised her brows as the questions she’d pondered for months seeped from her lips into the damp spring air. “Are you,” she stopped and took a deep breath, “going back to D.C.?”

  He cocked his head. “What makes you ask that?”

  “Well, you told me last week that one of your father’s colleagues heard about this campaign and asked you to head up his re-election bid. I thought you’d have to go back to D.C. to do that,” she whispered. She felt like a little girl asking silly questions, but she had to know.

  Over the last six months she had grown to love Eli. She had attended Bible study with Brooke every week, but she and Eli discussed the group’s lesson every week. His passion for God’s Word invigorated her, and she held a deep respect for his opinion. But she had grown in her own beliefs as well. She felt more comfortable discerning God’s voice from her own selfishness—though she still wanted to ignore him from time to time.

  She still had a year before she finished college, and she knew she needed to be on campus for those additional months. She needed more time sheltered from the realities of life and learning about God before she jumped into the middle of a national political campaign. But would Eli have time for her and a major campaign? Would his new “boss” want her to help as well or see her as an unwelcome distraction?

  Eli cupped Evie’s chin with his free hand. “Evie Barrett, I love you. God has given us a passion for the same work, and I believe he will direct us in the same path. Wherever one of us goes, the other one goes.”

  He slipped off the cooler onto one knee on the rain-soaked grass. He dropped her hand and reached into his pocket. “Marry me, Evie,” he murmured, his eyes locked with hers. “Whether Hudson wins or loses, whether we stay here or go to D.C., whether we live quiet lives or land on the national news, marry me.”

  Evie gaped at the large diamond ring Eli slipped onto the ring finger of her left hand. Hands shaking and eyes tearing, she nodded happily before flinging her arms around his neck.

  Applause erupted from throughout the city hall campus. Evie lifted her head from Eli’s shoulder just long enough to see everyone watching, laughing, and cheering. She buried her red face back into his shoulder for a moment before Michael Hudson and the crowd of onlookers started offering their handshakes, back slaps, and general well wishes.

  Two hours later, when the initial results of the day’s election were announced, Evie twisted her hand one way and then another in an attempt to catch a flicker of light from the street lamp across the parking lot. The sparkle in the diamond matched the smile on Michael Hudson’s face when he realized he’d soon take on the responsibility of the mayor’s office. But he was more than ready for the challenge of the future.

  Just like Eli and Evie were…together.

  Don’t miss…

  The Color of Love

  Hilary Hamblin

  She was trying to escape her past…

  until it caught up with her.

  Fifteen years ago, Peggy Luther took her infant daughter, Maggie, and ran away from her husband and ten-year-old daughter, Martha. She settled in Arizona and started over. But there was always something not quite right about Peggy Luther…something Maggie could never identify.

  When Peggy takes her own life, Maggie’s life tumbles into chaos. She’s forced to move to a small town in Tennessee, to live with a sister she never knew existed. Worse, Martha’s lifestyle is entirely different from hers. But they wi
ll need each other far more than they ever dreamed when the truth about their mother is revealed…and their father comes to visit.

  www.facebook.com/HilaryPHamblin

  www.oaktara.com

  Acknowledgments

  My dear husband, Josh, for loving me and encouraging me to follow my dreams. You take such good care of all of us. Malcolm, Katie, and I are so lucky to have you.

  The Hot-Mamas and Crew, for encouraging me and being my friends through this crazy ride called motherhood.

  Mom and Dad, for showing me what marriage should look like.

  Jack and Sandra, for raising a son who turned out to be a great husband and an amazing father.

  Tammy and Debbie, for going to lunch with me when I thought I was going to be pregnant forever and giving me the inspiration to write even with swollen fingers.

  My reading circle—Stacy, Carolyn, Kelly, and Angie—for being constructive and willing to read “just one more” manuscript.

  Becky, for keeping Malcolm one day a week. Without that time, this book would not have been written.

  Malcolm, my tender-hearted son, you make me laugh every day. I treasure every hug and kiss and bedtime story. You are a wonderful big brother. Katie is lucky to have you.

  Katie, my blue-eyed girl, you charm everyone who meets you, including your brother, father, and me. We are so blessed to have you in our lives.

  Jeff and Ramona at OakTara, for giving me another shot at being published and helping me to become a stronger writer.

  W Alumni, who spread the word about my first book, The Color of Love, booked speaking engagements and book signings for me, and supported my efforts. Your help connected me with readers who might never have picked up my book otherwise. Thank you for all your help.