Sylvia came over and gave him a hug, and Brenda bent down to pick up the fallen peanuts. “It’s good to see a healthy appetite,” she said. “Besides, who cares what we think?”
“That’s what I was thinking, Mom,” Rick said with his mouth full. “You’ve just got to get over this constant worrying what other people think. Are you going to wear shoes?”
Cathy tried to remember where she had left them, then hurried to slip them on. Annie was right behind her. “Your hair looks funny, Mom. It’s falling on one side. Looks kind of like somebody jabbed some pins in trying to hold it up.”
“Okay, so I’ll never be able to work as a hairdresser,” Brenda said, throwing up her hands in mock defeat. “Annie, help her.”
“I’ll help!” Tracy shouted, bouncing up and down. “I can fix your hair, Cathy!” The eleven-year-old was already reaching for the bobby pins.
“Tell you what.” Cathy started pulling pins out and letting the hair fall around her shoulders. “Forget the fu-fu do. I’m coming as me.”
Steve grinned and stroked the silky hair. “Suits me fine.”
“Me, too,” Brenda said. “Just run a brush through it, and you’ll look like a catalogue model.”
The front door came open, and Cathy turned hoping to see Mark. Instead, Tory stood just inside the door, looking tired and slightly out of breath. “Okay, let me at those flowers,” she called to Sylvia.
Sylvia handed her two vases, and the women began placing them. The smell of white roses and lilies wafted on the air. Cathy looked around at the house full of memories—gold gilded photos of Sylvia’s children on the walls, an eight-by-ten of her new grand-baby, and multiple pictures of Sylvia and Harry with the children they loved in Nicaragua. A dried vine wound over and between the pictures, creating that thread of life that had never been broken. Not in this family.
Cathy wished her vine wasn’t broken. There was something strange, unnatural, about having a wedding shower when you were forty-two years old. But the events of her life had not always been her decision.
“So where’s Mark?” Steve’s question turned her around, and she thought of lying and saying that she’d sent him to get something. She didn’t want to see that look of he’s-at-it-again pass across Steve’s face, and she didn’t want to start him down the are-we-doing-the-right-thing road again, either. She’d been down that road enough herself.
Besides, she wanted to be free to hear Mark’s reasons for being late, before she lambasted him. Her reaction to the children was different when Steve was around. She found herself responding the way she knew he would want her to, with consistency and discipline—all the right things, but for all the wrong reasons.
But the truth would come out soon enough, anyway. “Mark seems to have disappeared with Ham Carter. We’re expecting him to be back soon.” She turned to Annie. “This Ham Carter. How old is he?”
“At least sixteen, I guess,” Annie said. “Can you believe his parents are letting that loser drive? They ought to announce it on the evening news or something just to give everybody a chance to get out of his way. Cool! Cake.”
“Annie, don’t touch that. We’re not ready to cut it.”
Annie looked insulted. “So what do you think I’m gonna do? Just grab a handful?”
Cathy glanced at her son, who had just about finished off the bowl of peanuts. She thought of pointing out to Annie that the only thing she could expect from her children was the unexpected. She stepped into the kitchen, where Brenda and Tory were busy decorating plates of pastries. Steve followed her in and leaned against the counter. He reached for a pastry.
Sylvia slapped his hand. “The guests will be here soon,” she said. “Just a few more minutes. Then, after you and Rick and Mark make your introductions, you can go watch football until we need you to help carry everything home.”
“Might be a long wait, then,” he said. “When did you say Mark would get here?”
“Few minutes,” Cathy said.
Steve looked at his watch. “Mark knew what time the shower started, didn’t he?”
“Oh, yeah, he knew. In fact, I even picked his clothes out for him and told him to get dressed before I left. Annie, he was dressed in those clothes when he disappeared, wasn’t he?”
Annie shrugged. “Not his tie. Not yet.”
Steve stiffened, and that pleasant look on his face was replaced with concern. “Why would he do this today of all days? Do you think this is some kind of psychological plea for us not to get married? Because every time we’ve set a date, something has happened.”
“No, he’s not lashing out. He’s just being thoughtless.”
“Cathy, any psychologist would have a field day with your youngest child running off today.”
“Well, thank goodness no one’s analyzing it.” She took a brownie and bit into it. “Come on, this is not a crisis. Mark’s been disobedient, and I’ll take care of it when I see him. But I don’t want it to ruin the party. So let’s not mention it again, okay?”
Steve locked looks with her, threatening to say more, when Tory walked up between them. “Why’d you take your hair down?” she asked. “Cathy, it was beautiful up!”
Grateful for the change of subject, Cathy handed her the brush.
When Tory had finished lacquering Cathy’s hair, they emerged from the bathroom in time to see Tracy barreling for the door.
“Grandma’s here!” she shouted, and Cathy looked out the window to see Steve’s mother and sister getting out of the car in the driveway. “Let me get it!” she shouted. “Please, can’t I?”
“All right,” Cathy said. “Have at it.” She turned to Steve and struck a pose. “So give it to me straight. How’s it look?”
A gentle smile softened Steve’s features.
“Like cool water in hundred-degree heat. As usual.” He leaned down to kiss her. “How’d I get so blessed?”
Tracy threw the door open, and her grandmother and aunt came in with a flourish of gifts and hugs. Sylvia turned on some piano music on the old stereo system Harry had left behind. As more guests arrived, Cathy greeted each one as if they were her old best friend. It bowled her over that anyone had actually taken the time to come. When there was a lull in the number of women arriving, Cathy went to look for her children, who had retreated into the kitchen. “You guys come out here and be polite now,” she whispered. “Speak to every guest, and when I open gifts, ooh and ah over everything. And no cryptic comments about what I get.”
“Do you believe this?” Annie asked Rick. “She’s asking us to lie.”
“I’m not asking you to lie,” Cathy said. “I’m just asking you to be polite.”
“So what are you going to do to Mark?” Annie wanted to know.
“I’ll deal with him when the shower is over. One thing at a time, okay?”
The doorbell rang again, and she heard more guests coming in. “Come on, now. We have to get out there.”
The smell of fruit punch and sugar icing hung on the air, along with that of melon balls and a dozen different pastries that Brenda had concocted. Cathy owed them big-time, she thought. She just hoped she wouldn’t have to move out a couple of rooms of furniture to get all the gifts into her house.
She and Steve had thought of moving to his place, but she hadn’t been able to stand the thought of leaving her little neighborhood. Sensing her reluctance, he had offered to move into hers and build a couple of extra rooms, so they would have a little more square footage in which to spread out. The foundation had been poured last week, and the contractor said it would take a couple of months to get the rooms up—not in time for a July 4th wedding. But that hadn’t bothered them. They would go ahead with the wedding and move Steve and Tracy into her house, as it was. That way they could put Steve’s house on the market while they waited for the new master bedroom and the extra family room to be finished, and they could take their time decorating Cathy’s room for Tracy.
The doorbell rang again, and Tracy flung it open
. Her excited face changed to surprise, and she stepped back and called over the crowd, “It’s a policeman!”
Everyone got quiet and turned to the door, and Sylvia rushed to the foyer. “May I help you?”
“Could you tell me if there’s a Cathy Flaherty here?” the officer asked.
Cathy started to the door, not certain whether this was some kind of prank her friends had played on her, or something more serious. She glanced at Tory and Brenda and saw that there was no amusement in their eyes.
“I’m Cathy Flaherty,” she said. “Is something wrong?”
“Mrs. Flaherty, I need for you to come to the police station as soon as possible.”
If she hadn’t still been standing, she would have been certain her heart had stopped beating. “Why?” she asked. Something told her she didn’t want everyone to hear this, so she stepped outside. Steve followed her out, then Annie and Rick bolted to the door.
“It’s your son, Mark,” the police officer said. “I’m afraid he’s been arrested.”
A wave of uncertainty and denial washed over Cathy, and she took a step back and bumped into Steve. His arms came around her, steadying her.
“For what, officer?” he asked.
“The charge was drug distribution.”
Cathy couldn’t get her voice to function, and she felt Steve’s hand squeezing her arm. Tears blurred her vision, and she thought she might tip right over and collapse on Sylvia’s front porch.
“No way,” Rick said, finally.
“My brother was selling drugs?” Annie asked, as if to make sure everyone in the house had heard.
“He was picked up on Highland Avenue,” the officer said, “after he tried to sell marijuana to a plainclothes officer.”
The world seemed to grow dim. Cathy was going to throw up. Her head was going to explode. Her heart was going to give out. Her knees were going to buckle.
But she just stood, letting the words sink in like some kind of toxin, seeking out every vulnerable cell in her body.
She heard Steve taking charge, finding out where they were holding Mark, asking Rick to get the car, telling Sylvia to call off the shower. For a few moments, her thoughts remained scattered. Only one seemed to motivate her to action.
Her son needed her.
ALSO FROM BEVERLY LAHAYE AND TERRI BLACKSTOCK…
Seasons Under Heaven
Beverly LaHaye & Terri Blackstock
What does a child’s life-threatening illness cost a quiet, suburban cul-de-sac? What joys can be hidden in life’s greatest tragedies? Behind brightly lit windows and on front porches, marriages are tested and mended, hearts broken, hopes resurrected, dreams released and reformed, values and futures shaped, and Christian faith rekindled…or found for the first time. And there, bonds of friendship are formed as lives connect in ways only God can arrange.
As the women of Cedar Circle band together to save a dying child, they learn that each moment is precious in every season under heaven. Seasons Under Heaven depicts the deepest emotions of a woman’s heart, and those circumstances—both thrilling and tragic—that test and strengthen Christian faith.
Softcover 0-310-23519-7
Pick up your copy today at your favorite bookstore!
Times and Season
Beverly LaHaye & Terri Blackstock
When Cathy Flaherty’s teenage son Mark is arrested for selling drugs, her neighbors once again show that Cedar Circle is more than a suburban cul-de-sac. It is a tightly knit circle of friends whose faith, love, and encouragement help each other make it through the changing seasons of life.
More is at stake for Cathy than her son. With Mark in juvenile detention, the single mother of three finds herself struggling over whether to marry Steve Bennett, a man she truly loves. It will take strength and wisdom for Steve to see Cathy through this time of family conflict. Fortunately, he is not alone. Other lives, each with concerns of their own, weave together in a strong show of mutual care and support. And through the hands and hearts of this loving community, God moves.
Softcover 0-310-24297-5
Pick up your copy today at your favorite bookstore!
Season of Blessing
The Fourth and Final Novel from Blackstock and LaHave about the Residents of Cedar Circle
Beverly LaHaye & Terri Blackstock
Cancer is a short word for something that has such a devastating impact. Why would God allow it to strike Sylvia Bryan—and why now, of all times, when her mission work back in Nicaragua is bearing such fruit and beset by such needs?
For Sylvia, the ravages of surgery and chemotherapy are just part of the struggle. There are the questions, the emotional upheaval—and through it all, one deep desire: that God will use her illness and that she will glorify him through it.
As the friends of Cedar Circle lend their love and support to Sylvia and her husband, God is at work, knitting hearts, shaping and changing lives. Out of this season of pain and sorrow come blessings that are unforeseen.
Softcover 0-310-23328-3
Pick up your copy today at your favorite bookstore!
Seaside
Terri Blackstock
Seaside is a novella of the heart—poignant, gentle, true, offering an eloquent reminder that life is too precious a gift to be unwrapped in haste.
Sarah Rivers has it all: successful husband, healthy kids, beautiful home, meaningful church work.
Corinne, Sarah’s sister, struggles to get by. From Web site development to jewelry sales, none of the pies she has her thumb stuck in contains a plum worth pulling.
No wonder Corinne envies Sarah. What she doesn’t know is how jealous Sarah is of her. And what neither of them realizes is how their frantic drive for achievement is speeding them headlong past the things that matter most in life.
So when their mother, Maggie, purchases plane tickets for them to join her in a vacation on the Gulf of Mexico, they almost decline the offer. But circumstances force the issue, and the sisters soon find themselves first thrown together, then ultimately drawn together, in one memorable week in a cabin called “Seaside.”
As Maggie, a professional photographer, sets out to capture on film the faces and moods of her daughters, more than film develops. A picture emerges of possibilities that come only by slowing down and savoring the simple treasures of the moment. It takes a mother’s love and honesty to teach her two daughters a wiser, uncluttered way of life—one that can bring peace to their hearts and healing to their relationship. And though the lesson comes on wings of grief, the sadness is tempered with faith, restoration, and a joy that comes from the hand of God.
Hardcover: 0-310-23318-6
ALSO FROM TERRI BLACKSTOCK…
NEWPOINTE 911 SERIES
Private Justice
Softcover 0-310-21757-1
Shadow of Doubt
Softcover 0-310-21758-X
Word of Honor
Softcover 0-310-21759-8
Trial by Fire
Softcover 0-310-21760-1
SECOND CHANCES SERIES
Blind Trust
Softcover 0-310-20710-X
Broken Wings
Softcover 0-310-20708-8
Never Again Good-Bye
Softcover 0-310-20707-X
When Dreams Cross
Softcover 0-310-20709-6
SUN COAST CHRONICLES
Justifiable Means
Softcover 0-310-20016-4
Presumption of Guilt
Softcover 0-310-20018-0
Ulterior Motives
Softcover 0-310-20017-2
Evidence of Mercy
Softcover 0-310-20015-6
Pick up your copy today at your favorite bookstore!
CAPE REFUGE
Number One Best-seller!
By Terri Blackstock
Mystery and suspense combine in this first book of an exciting new 4-book series by best-selling author Terri Blackstock.
Thelma and Wayne Owens run a bed and breakfast in Cape R
efuge, Georgia. They have two daughters: the dutiful Morgan who is married to Jonathan, a fisherman, and helps them out at the B & B, and Blair, the still-single town librarian. Jonathan discovers Thelma and Wayne murdered in the warehouse where they held their church services. Considered the prime suspect, Jonathan is arrested. Grief-stricken, Morgan and Blair launch their own investigation to help Matthew Cade, the town’s young police chief, find the real killer.
Softcover: 0-310-23592-8
SOUTHERN STROM
Highly anticipated sequel to Cape Refuge!
By Terri Blackstock
The Second Book in the Best-Selling Cape Refuge Suspense Series
Police Chief Cade disappears without a trace after accidentally hitting a man with his patrol car and killing him. While the rest of the police force looks for him and chases a series of clues that condemn Cade as a murderer, Blair Owens can’t believe he is guilty of such a crime. Instead, she conducts her own search for the truth.
Softcover: 0-310-23593-6
The Act of Marriage, Revised
Showers in Season Page 34