How Sweet the Sound

by Jacquelin Thomas

  “She says I need to keep up my strength with all the running around I do.” Bowing his head, he said grace for both of them.

  Grace murmured amen, then picked up her fork. The cafeteria manager was right. “I never thought about it, but besides teaching you’re the advisor for two student organizations, on the faculty council, and you teach accredited and noncredited courses at night.”

  He dug into the mound of buttered mashed potatoes. “You only go through life once, so you might as well fill it with joy.”

  Grace paused. “I think I forgot that.”

  “The important thing is that you remembered.” He forked meat loaf into his mouth. “Can you call someone to open the church early tonight? The drums and keyboard need to be set up early so we can get started on time. President Jenkins approved the overtime for two men from maintenance to deliver them, then pick them up afterward. Musicians, as you know, like playing on the same instruments or I’d just store them at the church.”

  “I’ll call Deacon Scott. He lives down the street.” She took a sip of sweetened iced tea. “Have you thought of any additional songs?”

  Caleb stopped eating and leaned back in his seat. “Revelation wants me to sing ‘How Great Thou Art.’ It’s our closing and signature song. If that’s all right with you?”

  “I have no objections.” She was actually looking forward to hearing him do the solo. “We’ll begin with ‘We Fall Down’, then ‘Stand’, ‘Blessed Assurance’, ‘Stomp’, and close out with ‘How Great Thou Art’.”

  “Well, it’s good to see two of my favorite teachers working so closely together,” President Jenkins said, stopping by their table.

  Grace flushed. She had been so involved with Caleb she hadn’t noticed the president approach. From the startled expression on Caleb’s face, he hadn’t either. “Good afternoon, President Jenkins. Thank you for having the instruments delivered.”

  The president’s broad grin grew. “Anything for the welfare of Summerset students. Just heard that T. C. Holloway, one of our successful alumni, might be able to attend.”

  “That’s big news. He’s a nationally known minister,” Caleb said.

  “He preached his first sermon at Peaceful Rest,” Grace enthused. “He was the pastor of Peaceful Rest before the present pastor.”

  “He hasn’t forgotten that he got his start here. He’s been very generous to us,” President Jenkins said.

  He had also made donations to Peaceful Rest, Grace thought. He was a much beloved son of the church. “I hope he can come.”

  “I hope so, too. He can see Summerset Junior College in action. Well, I’ll let you two get back to planning. Make us proud. Goodbye.”

  “You think he told us about Reverend Holloway coming to make us work harder to shine?” Grace leaned over and asked when the president was out of hearing range.

  “There’s not a doubt in my mind,” Caleb answered softly. “But neither is there a doubt that the music is going to be hot.”

  Grace chuckled. Only Caleb.

  Caleb entered the sanctuary with the members of Revelation at four minutes to seven. Grace and Alton were waiting for them in front of the choir stand. It appeared that all the members of the gospel choir had shown up for practice. They were off to a good start.

  His gaze unerringly came back to Grace. She’d removed the cropped herringbone jacket she’d worn when they had lunch to reveal a slim-fitted white dress with capped sleeves. She looked fresh and innocent and she was smiling at him. He’d always thought she’d be pretty if she smiled more.

  He was wrong. She was beautiful.

  He caught the surprise in her face when he stepped out of the aisle and she could see he had changed from the jeans he had worn at lunch to charcoal-gray dress slacks. He winked. Laughing, she covered her face. He caught some of the members of her choir elbowing each other and knew it would be all over town by tomorrow. If things went as he planned tonight, he’d give them something else to talk about.

  Going up on the platform, he and Grace completed the introductions. Together they went over the music selections. In a matter of minutes they were hard at work on the first song. As he’d told his students, Grace had a great choir. The lead soprano’s voice had a fabulous range. He knew before they had been at it ten minutes that he’d been right this afternoon when he said they’d be hot.

  “Looks like we have an audience,” Alton said from his seat at the organ.

  Caleb turned around to see a few young people, older adults, Grace’s parents and President Jenkins and his wife. He looked at Grace. “Looks like we’re being sized up.”

  “At least they’re on our side.” She waved to her parents. “All right, Caleb, let’s give them what they came for.”

  He grinned like a fool, pleased that she was comfortable enough with the music and at ease enough with him to joke. “After you.”

  With an uplifted flourish of her slim hands, the choir came to attention. The music was a swell of sound that sent joy straight to the heart. The addition of the choir was beautiful. When they finished “We Fall Down” many of the people in the choir had their hands uplifted in praise.

  Grace had tears in her eyes and it tore at Caleb’s heart. What had gone wrong?

  “Caleb, there was no reason for you to come over after you’d taken the students back to the campus. I told you I’m fine,” Grace said as she sat in her living room later that night staring down at her hands in her lap.

  “Then why do you look so sad?” he questioned. “Practice went great. Your parents were pleased. Neither the students nor the gospel choir wanted to go home. President Jenkins wanted an encore. Everyone is happy except you. Are you having second thoughts?”

  Her head slowly came up. “No. As you said, everyone is pleased.”

  “And that makes you question the direction of the music program in the past,” he correctly guessed.

  She didn’t even think about evading the answer. “Tonight I looked at the young people who hadn’t been coming to choir practice and thought what might have happened if you hadn’t insisted on a different type of music. Tonight they listened and enjoyed themselves. I invited them hoping they would, but I hadn’t counted on how it would make me feel like a failure.” Her voice trembled. “By holding on to my anger at my father, I failed them.”

  “No, you didn’t.” He came off his seat to sit next to her and take her unsteady hands in his. “You did what you believed in your heart was best for them. I don’t think your father would mind me telling you that he told me a little bit about what was going on between you two. You dealt with the possibility of being hurt the best way you knew, by controlling your life. And that meant every aspect.”

  “Not always.” She pulled her hands free. “My freshman year in college I met a man. Lowell Goodings. I thought he was a Christian, but he proved to be an unprincipled man who prayed on the naive freshmen. I believed his lies that he came from a poor family and gave him the pitiful little money I earned tutoring. It finally came out when I was bragging about him to another student. I felt so embarrassed and such a fool.”

  “He made you withdraw and trust even less.” He gently brushed her hair aside. “When you’re that young it’s difficult to forgive and go on.”

  “I’m afraid I wasn’t very Christian in my thoughts about him at the time,” she confessed.

  “Also understandable.”

  She faced him. “Or you.”

  “I think I’m growing on you now,” he said.

  She smiled in spite of herself. “Just when I was beginning to think you weren’t so conceited after all.”

  “It’s not conceit when a guy likes a special woman and hopes she likes him a little bit, too,” he told her, then blinked as if he had been surprised by what he had just said.

  Her smile froze. She felt her heart thump in the familiar tempo it always played when he looked at her.

  “Sometimes it takes us a little while to see what is right before our eyes.” He paus
ed as if unsure of how to proceed, but his sincerity was obvious. “I’d like the chance to get to know you better outside of the college and practicing for the gospel concert. How about it?”

  Grace looked away from Caleb’s intense gaze as he waited for an answer. They were direct opposites in temperament, but she wanted to go out with him. She wanted to take a chance for the first time in eight years. She took a deep breath, faced him and said, “I’d like that.”

  Pleasure spread across his handsome face. “Let’s see if we’ll both like this.” He leaned forward and pressed his lips gently against hers.

  Grace’s toes actually tingled. She blushed, but she didn’t look away from the happiness in Caleb’s eyes.

  “How about dinner tomorrow night before prayer service? I can pick you up at five-forty-five.”

  Mixed with the wild exhilaration was caution. “This is a small town,” Grace reminded him. “People will talk.”

  Caleb didn’t move. “It won’t bother me, if it doesn’t bother you.”

  Instead of answering him, she studied him for a long moment. If Caleb had been the womanizer she’d thought, she would have heard. “You haven’t dated very much here.”

  His head twisted to one side. “Never wanted to, and in case you’re wondering, there is no one in Dallas.”

  “The thought had crossed my mind,” she said with complete honesty.

  “I’ll bet.” With a teasing smile he pulled her to her feet. “Get some rest and I’ll pick you up at five-forty-five.”

  Her eyebrow lifted. “I haven’t said yes.”

  “You hadn’t said no, either. Lock up tight.” He kissed her on the cheek and then he was out the door.

  A bemused smile on her face, Grace went to the window and pulled the sheer curtain aside to watched Caleb pull off, then she did what she hadn’t done in too many years to count.

  She went to her closet to find something special to wear for a date.

  Chapter Eight

  Caleb was on time. He’d expected Grace to be ready and she was. But he hadn’t counted on her father still being there working on the deck. He followed her out to the back to say goodbye to her father.

  “Bye, Daddy,” she said over the noise of the buzz saw.

  Mr. Thompson cut the power tool and lifted his goggles. “Be careful and have fun.”

  “Good evening, sir,” Caleb said. “I’ll take good care of her.”

  “If I thought otherwise, she wouldn’t be going,” Grace’s father replied.

  Caleb blinked.

  Grace rolled her eyes, then kissed her father on the cheek. “Now that you’ve tried to scare Caleb, you can go home and eat your own dinner.”

  “Good night, Mr. Thompson,” Caleb said as they started for his car.

  “I’ve never seen the top up,” Grace said as he opened the door and helped her inside.

  “With two sisters I know how women are about their hair.” Getting in, he buckled his seat belt. “By the way, I like that dress.”

  “Thank you and may I say you look rather spiffy yourself. Dress slacks two days in a row. I’m flattered.”

  “You should be,” he said, pulling to a stop at a signal light. “I wouldn’t make this great sacrifice for just anyone.”

  She laughed as he’d wanted. “Sorry about Daddy. Mama warned me that he’s determined to make up for the time he wasn’t here when I was going out on dates.”

  The light changed and Caleb pulled off. “How do you feel about that?”

  She twisted toward him. “Don’t tell him, but it’s kind of nice. Though I think he went a little overboard tonight.”

  “When my sisters’ dates came to pick them up, my father would always just happen to mention that he was a crack shot. Heather and Cynthia probably had more first and last dates than anyone in our high school.” Caleb parked in the front of the restaurant and came around to open her door. “Of course, they’re both married now and living in Dallas.”

  “My brother, Reginald, is married and living here.” She stood. “It wouldn’t surprise me if he’s at the next practice.”

  They entered the restaurant and were shown to their seats. “Can he sing?”

  “About as well as a bullfrog with a cold,” Grace said, picking up her menu. “When Desiree comes home and they’re both singing, it’s an experience, but I love them both.”

  “Desiree?”

  “Desiree Coleman. She, Nina and I went to high school together and were always close. They both grew up here. Desiree now lives in Dallas,” Grace explained. “She has the desire to sing, and has a strong voice, but the notes come out wrong.”

  “That must have been difficult for her when you and Nina sing so well.”

  “Not at all. Desiree doesn’t have a jealous bone in her petite body. She’s a wonderful person.”

  “Maybe she can come to the gospel celebration.”

  ‘That’s a great idea. I’ll call her tomorrow.”

  “Now that’s settled, let’s order. I’m starved.”

  Grace arrived home thirteen minutes before prayer service was to start. “Thanks, Caleb. I had a wonderful time.”

  “Surprised you, huh?” He grinned, his hand on the door frame above her head.

  She quickly learned that, like her father, he liked to tease. “Probably fooled you, too.”

  “Not at all.” His hand lowered to gently cup her cheek. “I have class tomorrow night, but are you free Friday night?”

  Grace’s knees felt a little shaky with his hand on her. “Yes. Why don’t I fix dinner? Daddy’s not finished with the deck, but it’s still nice out back and I can grill some steaks.”

  “You got a date. Should I bring anything?”

  “No. Can you wait until seven to eat?” she asked. She’d quickly discovered he had an enormous appetite.

  His thumb stroked her cheek before he answered. “Some things are worth waiting for.” His head lowered until his mouth, warm and sweet, found hers.

  Grace’s eyelids fluttered closed. She’d never been kissed as if she were precious.

  “Good night, Grace,” Caleb murmured against her lips, then he was gone.

  Grace opened her eyes to see him pulling out of her driveway. She watched him until he had turned the corner. He certainly knew how to put a smile on woman’s face. Humming softly, she went inside to get her car keys to go to prayer meeting.

  For once Grace was as anxious to leave as her students on a Friday afternoon. Directly after her last class, she hurried to her car. She pulled out of the staff’s parking lot forty minutes past five. She was making good time, she thought as she waited for the light in front of the campus to change. She’d left nothing to chance.

  The T-bones were marinating in the refrigerator, and she had bought fresh flowers for the table. She’d made a three-layer coconut cake for dessert. The giant baking potatoes would go in the oven as soon as she got home. She’d even given the house a thorough cleaning. It wasn’t lost on her that Caleb would be the first man she had invited to her house. The first man she had cared about since Lowell. She thanked God that she had moved on with her life, in so many ways.

  The light changed and she pulled off in a stream of cars, trucks and SUVs. The college had a dormitory, but many of the students left for the weekend. She couldn’t understand why. She had lived in Summerset since she was fourteen and in the ninth grade. Even before she and her father had settled their differences, she couldn’t imagine living anyplace else. This was her home and she never wanted to live any place else. Everything she wanted was here.

  Checking the lane, she pulled into the bakery’s parking lot and barely kept from groaning. It was jam-packed. Her idea to get freshly baked bread no longer seemed like a good one. She was considering leaving when a parking space opened up. Seeing it as a good sign, she pulled in.

  Ten minutes later she hurried out with her onion bread to discover a truck with a trailer hitch double-parked behind her car and three others. One of the other blocked car
owners was angrily denouncing the absent and rude driver. Deciding to act instead of complain, she started back inside to locate the owner.

  She had almost reached the door when the angry blast of a car horn on the busy street caused her to glance in that direction. Her body stiffened in shock. Caleb was driving by with an attractive young woman she had never seen before sitting in the passenger’s seat.

  On the drive home Grace vacillated between warning herself not to jump to conclusions and recalling what a gullible fool she had been with Lowell. Common sense told her that there could be a dozen different reasons for the woman to be in his car; rational thinking went out the window when your emotions were involved. No closer to making up her mind, she pulled into her driveway and got out.

  Her father came from around the house at a fast clip. “I was listening for the sound of your car. I was beginning to worry about you. You said you were coming straight…” His voice trailed off when he neared. “What’s the matter?”

  Until she was sure, she was keeping her own counsel. “Long day.” Reaching back in the car, she pulled out her briefcase and purse, then started to close the door.

  “Wait. You’re leaving the bread.” Opening the door wider, he picked up the clear, handled bag. “Bread’s mashed a little.”

  It was almost flat. She’d mauled it when she’d seen Caleb drive by.

  “Sliced, it might not be so bad.” He valiantly tried to push the onion loaf back into shape. “What do you think?”

  Grace glanced at the pitiful squashed bread, then at her father. She’d tried to push him out of her life, but here he was trying to help her. Just like her Heavenly Father loved her in spite of her sins, in spite of all the times she’d messed up or turned her back on Him. Her earthly father loved her the same unconditional way.

  If not for Caleb, she and her father might never have settled their differences. If God had sent Caleb into her life for no other reason, she was grateful. “I love you, and I’m glad you’re a part of my life.”