by T. K. Chapin
“Wow. Have you witnessed to anyone about Christ?”
“Oh, yes,” Emma replied nodding. “More nights than I can count, I have prayed with a hurting soul in these hallowed walls.” Her eyes glowed as she looked around the room. “This inn isn’t just a place to stay when you’re tired. It’s a place where miracles can happen and God shows His strength and power. That lake out there has helped even you.”
Thinking of the day after John blackened my eye when I had come down, I nodded. “It really has.”
“God’s creation has that power on us. We just have to allow Him to work.” Closing the journal, she placed it on the nightstand next to the bed and looked at me. “You’re going to love it here, Serenah. I know it’ll be a blessing to you as it has been to our family for generations.”
Smiling, I leaned in and hugged Emma. “Thank you for letting me become a part of this.”
Charlie’s voice rang through the inn downstairs, alerting both of us. I smiled at Emma and said, “We’re going to go for a float on the raft.”
“Run along,” she replied with a smile.
Smiling, I leaned in and hugged her again. My heart swelled with love and warmth as I heard my love’s voice call out again downstairs. Releasing her, I hurried out of the room and down the stairs to fall into Charlie’s warm embrace.
“She already knew I was going to say ‘yes’,” I said with a laugh in my voice as I told him the news. “She already made the call that I dreaded.”
He grinned. “Nice! You were hating the idea of telling Wendy.”
I pursed my lips together as I nodded and turned toward the oversized bay windows in the living room. “This is going to be the new view every single day for me.”
“You know how people say things get old after you get used to them?” he asked.
Turning to him, I raised an eyebrow.
“It’s not true. You never get tired of this view.” He wrapped his arm around my waist. After a moment, he turned to me and said, “You ready for that ride in that raft? I’m dying to show you the bird nest I was telling you about.”
“Yes,” I replied with a warm smile. He took my hand and threaded his fingers between mine, and we headed down to the water.
To love and be loved—it was all I ever wanted. Nobody could ever convince me that John truly loved me. Though he had played the role exquisitely in the beginning of our relationship and into the first parts of our marriage, he was nothing more than a self-deluded con artist. Charlie, on the other hand, was my real love of a lifetime. I knew his heart was pure and of a good nature—for God had hold of it. When a man’s heart belongs to the Lord, he’s able to show a love that is divine.
The End.
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One Friday Afternoon
Diamond Lake Series: Book 2
By:
T.K. Chapin
www.tkchapin.com
Author’s Note
Thank you for choosing to read One Friday Afternoon. I wrote this book to help inspire both men and women who are married or looking to marry to understand how much they need God in a relationship. A marriage is a three part relationship. You, the spouse and God. With divorce rates being so high even within the Christian community, I wanted to write a book that tackles real life head on. Real people with real problems that are happening in today’s world. My hope is this story will bless you.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28
If you or someone you know needs help in their marriage there are Biblical resources available. You can check out Focus on the Family’s website (click/tap here) to learn more about Christian marriages and get the help you need today.
Prologue
Decisions. They shape us into who we are and impact our lives in ways we often never realize. When I married Nathan, I was marrying my best friend and it was perfect. Our wedding was large and extravagant with all the trappings I had dreamed of as a little girl. Both friends and family came to usher us into the new chapter of our lives. Not long after the wedding, we decided to start a family. Everything was falling into place, just like I had always dreamed that it would. Sure, we had disagreements and arguments, but they never lasted for long, and we always found ourselves apologizing by the end of them.
We were madly in love.
Three children later and almost twenty years of marriage, another decision came.
This time, it wasn’t good.
My mistake came in a time of great weakness on my part. I had been struggling with losing my mother to cancer, and Nathan had been traveling on business for several weeks. One day at the local bookstore where I worked, one of my co-workers found me crying in the stockroom. I confided in him. From there, the emotional affair bloomed.
There’s no excuse for what I did, and I know it was my fault. For a long time, though, I didn’t think that way. I didn’t let myself take responsibility for what I had done.
Our selfishness in the flesh has a way of masking our eyes from the truth and blinding us of God’s plan for our lives. I had myself convinced I committed my sin due to a lack of need in my marriage to Nathan. That wasn’t true though. The real thing lacking in my marriage was God.
We, as humans, are capable of making horrible decisions and affecting not only our own lives, but the lives of others. Often, it happens without our knowing it until it’s too late and the damage has already been done. If I could tell you one little Bible passage that flipped a switch in my soul and made everything better in my life, I would, but I can’t. It was multiple verses and ultimately, my relinquishing control to God.
I’ll tell you a story of how God took my broken marriage and made it beautiful. I’ll show you how a single decision can change one’s life forever.
Chapter 1
Speeding down the freeway, I could barely breathe between pauses in the argument from the passenger seat. It was infuriating that Nathan, my husband of eighteen years, still to this day could somehow forget to turn a coffee pot off. Though if I were being honest with myself, I didn’t care about the coffee pot. No, it was how he made me feel—like he didn’t care about me. If he couldn’t turn off a coffee pot after I asked him this morning, how was this special getaway going to fix anything in our marriage?
“I already told you I’m sorry, Elizabeth! I don’t know what more I can do here,” Nathan said as he slammed the steering wheel with an open palm. Our special getaway was quickly derailing and becoming a full-on disaster in the making. My attempts to get through that thick skull were falling short. He always does this. He ruins everything. My negative thoughts crowded their way to the forefront of my mind and took the steering wheel. How could any man care so little for everything in his life? I wondered. It was incomprehensible and drove my hopelessness to new depths.
“Just think about something other than yourself,” I said. “Literally, just have a thought outside of you! How about that?”
“It’s a coffeemaker! C’mon!” he snapped, slamming the steering wheel again. “Why do you have to always freak out about nothing?”
“Fine.” The conversation between us stopped, but it continued in my own thoughts. My dislike of Nathan was growing more each day, and hope was dwindling.
Turning my attention out the window, I saw pine trees blurred along the side of the road as I felt my chest tighten under the pressure of my heart breaking. This trip is such a waste of time. We were already one foot into the deep end of misery, and our two teenagers were stuck at my in-laws’ over two hours away. All the trouble of driving Jenny and Dakota to Moses Lake so we can spend our time away fighting in a fancy place? The thought of being stuck in a room with that man for a week pained me.
Silence mingled with the tension between us the rest of the way to the bed and breakfast. As we pulled into the driveway of the inn, a woman opened the front doors and walked outside. She be
amed with a smile that did nothing but annoy me. Instantly feeling bad by my annoyance, I pushed it aside and told myself, have a good time. Just try. We don’t know that Nathan will be a jerk the whole time, and we don’t know what that doctor will end up saying. A woman waved as Nathan slowed to a stop.
“Must be Serenah,” Nathan said as he put the car into park.
I nodded. Without Nathan’s knowledge, I made myself a promise that if this getaway didn’t produce something of a change in our marriage, I’d be filing divorce papers once we got back to Spokane. It was a tall order to put on a simple stay at a bed and breakfast, but I needed something—anything—to change. I would not put up with him anymore.
“You must be the Collinses,” she said as we got out of the car.
“That’s us,” I replied, extending a hand as we met her in the driveway. She beamed with that same smile. What are you on, lady? I wondered as I returned a forced, lesser smile. Noticing the gorgeous Diamond Lake behind her and the bed and breakfast, I suddenly cared a little less about everything. The beauty of the lake captured my attention.
Serenah turned around and peered out to the lake as she said, “It’s stunning, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” I said, my tone light and my mind a little less cluttered.
“Let me show you inside and give you a tour.” Serenah led us down the driveway and toward the house.
“I’ll grab the bags. Go ahead, and I’ll catch up.” Nathan went back to the car as we continued.
Following behind Serenah, we passed through the foyer. A see-through fireplace connected into the living room from the foyer caught my eye as I saw charred blackness on the fake wooden logs in the fireplace. Passing from the fireplace, my eyes saw in through the living room and the French doors that led out to a balcony that overlooked the lake. I couldn’t help but keep looking at the lake as we turned out of the foyer and began up the stairs. “How was the drive in?” she asked, pulling my attention away from the lake view.
“It was fine,” I replied.
To that, she replied, “Good.”
At the top of the stairs, there was a bedroom, then a walkway over to another room. Glancing over the railing, I could see down into the living room and through the large windows that hung above the French doors in the living room. “What a perfect view,” I said. Serenah stood beside me at the railing and looked across the living room and toward the lake.
“It’s amazing here. Every room has a view of the lake. I’ve been here over a year now and still can’t get over it.” Turning, she said, “It gets better. I’ve upgraded you guys to the best room in the house since nobody else had it booked during the time you’re here. No extra charge.”
“Thank you. Nathan will be thrilled.”
She led me farther down the walkway and to the French doors at the end. When she opened them, I was overwhelmed to the point I had even forgotten about the fact that Nathan and I had fought the whole way here. A king size bed sat on one side of the room and a Jacuzzi on the other. Smells of cinnamon and vanilla tickled my nose as I walked farther into the room. My eyes found a set of French doors on the wall facing the lake. Taking a glance out the window, I saw a private balcony overlooking the lake. It reminded me of the night that Nathan and I had stayed in San Francisco on our honeymoon. We had a private balcony. We enjoyed our cups of coffee overlooking the city and talked about how all the people down below looked like ants.
“We provide breakfast and lots of coffee, but no other meals,” Serenah said, pulling me out of the memory. I continued through the room as she spoke. “Newport isn’t very far, and they’ll deliver pizza and that kind of thing if you don’t want to drive. A full list of places to eat and things to do can be found in the nightstand.” Serenah flipped on the bathroom lights as she walked in behind me. High ceilings made the bathroom feel spacious, and a walk-in shower set the tone of luxury.
“This place is amazing,” I said softly.
“Elizabeth,” Nathan’s voice echoed through the house and into the bathroom.
My face went red with embarrassment as Nathan hollered again through the house. “Sorry,” I said to Serenah and hurried out of the bathroom and room, hurrying my steps out to the railing. I looked down at him and scolded him. “This isn’t our house! You can’t just yell.”
He scoffed and shook his head as he looked up at me. “Always picking apart what I do, aren’t you?”
“I’m just saying that it’s not our house and you can’t be yelling!” I tried to say in a loud whisper down to him.
He stood there, shaking his head in disgust.
“Get on with it, Nathan. What did you want?” I asked, placing my hands on the railing.
“Where’s my razor? I didn’t see it in the bathroom bag. These whiskers coming in on my neck are driving me nuts,” he replied, scratching at his neck.
A sense of fear edged into my mind as I realized I didn’t pack it. “I must have forgotten it this morning during all the chaos of last-minute packing. You don’t need to shave right now.” Glancing at his already scruffy facial hair, I knew he would be upset.
“Yes, I do need to shave, and what chaos? I loaded the bags and got gas. All you did was pack a bathroom bag and get in the car.”
Before I could reply, Serenah stepped out of the bedroom and said, “No talk about the world out there. Just let yourselves relax. We have a convenience store up the road in Newport, and I’m sure they’ll have a razor for you.”
He smiled politely and nodded. “Thank you, Serenah.”
He bent over and picked up the bags. “Where’s the room?”
“I was just showing Elizabeth your room. I upgraded you to the best room in the house since we didn’t have any other reservations. No extra charge.”
Nathan’s face lit up. “That’s awesome!” he said, smiling at Serenah as he walked up the stairs with the bags in hand.
“Go ahead and get settled into the room,” Serenah offered. “I’ll be downstairs, just past the foyer, in the kitchen. Oh, one other thing to note—there is Netflix on every TV in the house, but it’s a shared account by all guests. I’m a devout born-again Biblical Christian and don’t watch the majority of what you might see on the Previously Watched list. Lots of different people stay here.”
“Okay,” I replied. “We’ll get settled and catch up with you in a bit. Thanks for everything.” Her comment about her faith was a bit of a surprise, but comforting at the same time to me. Nathan and I hadn’t been to church in almost four years, but we still held the values and beliefs of the Bible. “We’re believers too,” I added.
“That’s awesome, and you’re welcome,” she said as she turned and headed downstairs.
Closing the door to our room as we got inside, I turned around to Nathan. He tossed our bags onto the bed and fixed his eyes on the Jacuzzi. “This place is awesome. I’m so glad you decided to have us come here.” He looked over at the TV on the dresser. “I can totally watch the NBA finals tonight from the Jacuzzi.”
“Yay . . . I’m so excited,” I said dryly.
He turned around and crinkled up a corner of his face. “It’s do or die tonight. I have to watch it. You understand that.”
Sighing, I shrugged. “Whatever.” The truth was that it hurt. It hurt that instead of spending the first night with me and doing something fun in the little town of Newport or going down to the lake, he wanted to sit in the room and watch a basketball game. Going over to the mirror, I looked up at the ceiling and shook my head as I felt tears welling in my eyes. This place was amazing, and I feared the worst—nothing outside of a few arguments and a bunch of TV watching would be accomplished by the end of our trip. If the first few minutes at the inn were a precursor to how the trip would go, I might as well not even unpack my bag.
Chapter 2
Later that evening, after Nathan soaked in the Jacuzzi for an hour, we were lying on the bed. My hand was draped over his bare chest while we watched the NBA finals game. One team had pulled ahead
so far in the lead by the third quarter that there was little chance of the other team catching up. Sliding my hand off his chest, I pressed my palm against the bed and raised my body up to look Nathan in the eyes. “I’m getting hungry. Can we go into Newport and eat?”
Hesitating for a moment, he said, “You know I would, but I’m kind of watching this game, babe.”
Furrowing an eyebrow, I glanced over at the television and let out a light laugh. “Why? Golden State is so far in the lead that there’s no chance of anything changing.”
He shrugged a shoulder and didn’t so much as look over at me. “You never know what can happen. Just bring me something back. Cool?”
My heart felt like it was on a cliff and he just kicked it over the ledge. I felt so unloved, so unseen. A silly basketball game is more important than spending time with me? My natural reaction wasn’t to show my hurt side and true side. It was, instead, an attempt to cripple him by belittling him, one insult at a time, in the hopes it’d get through to him. “You’re such a jerk!”
He shot a look over at me and lifted his hands out. Glancing around the room, he laughed. “This jerk got you a nice getaway, and you can’t even let him watch a single basketball game for a few hours? Seriously, Elizabeth.”
Tears began to well up in my eyes. Sliding off the bed, I hurried across the room and slipped on my flip-flops in a fury. Grabbing my purse off the dresser, I said, “Fine. I’ll go by myself, as usual.”