Age Before Beauty (27 page)

“That’s all?” His hands clenched into fists at his side. “You left our helpless child in the care of a complete stranger. Who knows what could have happened to her there?”

“That’s not true. I’ve known Mrs. Caldwell my entire life. Her grandson graduated from high school in my class. Joanie was perfectly safe.”

She met his glare with one of her own. The sight of his jaw bunching sent an unexpected shot of compassion through Allie. Poor Eric. Because of the incident with that pervert, he really was afraid for Joanie when it came to church. She should have realized how angry he would be. She’d been so focused on herself and her new awareness of God’s love that she had not given a thought to her husband’s feelings.

“Eric, I’m sorry. You’re right. I should have called you this morning. But last night I …” She stared at the multicolored pattern of lines and squiggles marching across the comforter and tried to gather her thoughts. How to explain what happened last night? The peace she’d felt, the certainty that she could rest in the arms of her heavenly Father and trust him to take care of her? She swallowed and started again. “I realized something last night. I hate selling Varie Cose.”

That was
so
not what she intended to say.

A scowl wrinkled Eric’s upper lip. “What?”

Allie rushed on, her frantic thoughts becoming a torrent of words. “I hate it, but I have to keep going because I owe too much for all this.” She waved at the boxes lining the shelves. “And we need to figure out a way to get your mom to go back home, but that means I’ll have to find a babysitter. And I’m worried about us too, you and me.”

He looked at her like she’d lost her mind. No wonder. She was making a mess of this. She clamped her mouth shut and whispered a frantic prayer.
Now would be a good
time to give me a hand here
.

“Let me get this straight.” Eric’s effort to keep calm showed in his tense shoulders. “You went to a sleepover with your sisters, and now you’ve decided you hate your job and you want to kick my mother out of our house, so you have to go to church to set things right?”

Mockery laced his tone. She steeled herself against voicing an angry retort. “No, that’s not it. Church doesn’t set things right, God does.” She clamped her jaws shut and shook her head. “I’m not explaining this well.”

“No, you’re not.” Eric’s stare hardened. “Back up a minute. You owe too much to quit? How much do you owe?”

She gulped. Now’s when things would get nasty. She really didn’t want to tell him about the credit card, not when he was already so mad. But things were tumbling out into the open now, and she didn’t see any way to stuff them back under wraps. Unable to meet his gaze, she turned her back on him and rummaged in the stack of folders on the desk for the credit card statement she’d printed out yesterday. Wordlessly, she held it toward him.

He reached across the bed and took it. When his eyes moved to the bottom of the page, they widened. “Allie! How could you do this so quickly?”

Tears flooded her eyes. “I didn’t mean to. It just happened.”

“Debt like this doesn’t
just happen
.” He stopped. Silence hung heavily between them for what seemed like hours before he went on. “Okay, we can deal with this. Just cut up the card before you do any more damage. Call that woman who roped you into this scheme and tell her you quit.”

“I can’t just quit. I’ve got over two thousand dollars in inventory I have to sell.”

“Return it. They’ll probably charge you a restocking fee or something, but that’ll be better than owing thousands. You can stay home with Joanie and I’ll work out a budget that—”

“No!” Panic rose up in Allie’s throat. She couldn’t do that, couldn’t let Eric fix things. She’d be more dependent on him than ever. She was supposed to depend on God, not Eric. “I can handle it. I’ll get it paid off. Just a few more parties and I’m sure I can turn things around.”

“What if you can’t?” Eric peered at her with an intensity that made her want to look away, but she couldn’t tear her gaze from his. “Why don’t you want my help, Allie?”

“Because I have to make it on my own in case …” The gulp of air shuddered on the way into her lungs. She swallowed. “In case you leave me.”

There. Her deepest fear was out in the open. Now would be when he was supposed to come around the bed, take her in his arms, and assure her of his undying love.

The silence deepened between them. Eric stood motionless, staring at her with eyes as deeply sad as his mother’s. Allie waited for his words of reassurance, his promise that he would never leave her. Horror choked her like a fast-growing vine. They did not come.

Instead, Eric shook his head slowly. “I thought I knew you. But I’m married to a stranger.”

He tossed the credit card bill toward her, turned on his heel, and left the room. The paper fluttered to the mattress.

Allie stared at the door, her mind numb. Was this God’s idea of taking care of things? She’d come clean to Eric, opened herself up. And she’d lost him. Was this God’s answer?

She sank to the bed. No. She didn’t believe that, wouldn’t believe it. She was God’s precious child, and he loved her. He didn’t want her to lose her husband.

A new thought snaked into her mind. But maybe he wanted her to trust her husband. Maybe that was part of the answer he was trying to provide.

A sob rode a wave of panic from deep inside and lodged in her throat.

Lord, I can’t do that! What if he leaves me, like Daddy did,
then where will I be? I need your help!

23

Eric jumped into the pickup and jammed the key savagely into the ignition. The instant the engine roared to life, he shoved the shifter into first and sped out of the driveway. The house receded in the rearview mirror. When he turned the corner and lost sight of it, he blew out a breath. He’d left all the women in his life—and all the problems—in that house. He navigated the truck out of the neighborhood and turned onto the bypass. The minute he left the Danville city limits, he stomped on the accelerator and headed into the country. The sun dipped low on the horizon to his right, a big orange ball that shed little light and no warmth.

What had happened to Allie? Everybody said becoming a mother changed a woman. He never really believed it. Oh sure, little changes here and there. They got more protective, maybe. More homey. But Allie had undergone a total personality transplant.

She didn’t trust him. Anger gnawed at his gut. He had never done a thing to make her think him untrustworthy. Not in any area. He’d supported her in everything she ever wanted. He stepped up as the man of her family when her grandfather died, before they were even married. He’d maintained her sisters’ cars, dug her grandmother’s flower beds, even unstopped their toilets and fixed their leaky roof. When Allie wanted to quit her job and do this crazy makeup sales stuff, he’d supported her decision 100 percent. He had not looked at another woman since the day he first laid eyes on her. And still, she didn’t trust him.

Maybe he’d never go back. Yeah, that’s it. Just hit the road and disappear. That’s what Allie apparently thought he’d do anyway. Call it quits, like Mother and Dad seemed prepared to do. If they could walk away from thirty-five years of marriage, five should be no big deal.

The old days, the pre-Allie days, loomed like a sweet dream in his mind as the town receded in the distance. College buddies partying late into the night at that house they’d rented and then dragging themselves to class the next morning. Walking in a pack to the stadium for the home games, whooping and hollering down Alumni Drive until the cops chased them out of the road and onto the sidewalk so traffic could get by. Calling to the women they passed, trying to catch their eyes and maybe hook up for the night.

And he hooked up plenty. Women always liked him, picked him out in the crowd, much to the disgust of his roommates. If he wanted a date with a woman, he always got it. Probably still could, if he wanted.

Like Molly.

His foot lifted slowly off the pedal, and the truck ceased its mad dash forward. Okay, truth time now. Alone in the swiftly darkening cab of his truck, he could be honest with himself. Molly was available, had been for some time. He’d have to be deaf, dumb, and blind not to notice the looks she gave him, the unspoken invitations. She was not a bad-looking woman, either. Six years ago, before he met Allie, he’d have accepted one of those invitations without a second thought. Not anymore.

Eric pulled off the side of the road and let the truck roll to a stop. An ancient stone fence ran along both sides of the curvy two-lane road. Farms spread out beyond it as far as he could see. The fields around him were littered with tobacco stubble, dried-out stalks left over from the harvest. A white farmhouse sat well back from the road at the end of a narrow dirt driveway that carved the fields on either side into uneven pieces.

Okay, the truth. Allie was the only woman for him. He’d known it the moment he laid eyes on her. He loved everything about her. The way she psychoanalyzed everybody and was almost always right. The way she approached a task like a linebacker ready to knock any obstacle out of her way. Her intelligence. Her compassion. Her looks. Everything. He couldn’t believe his incredible luck that he’d managed to find a woman like her.

The porch light up at the farmhouse came on, and he could make out a man’s figure as it stepped through the front door, staring intently his way. Eric noticed a sign nailed to a wooden post that stood sentry to the driveway. No Trespassing. He put the truck in reverse, backed into the dirt driveway, and then pulled out onto the road heading slowly back toward town.

There was only one catch with leaving his problems behind. He’d also be leaving behind everything he cared about. Everything he loved. Every
one
he loved. He couldn’t do that.

The sun had sunk out of sight behind the gentle swell of the hills, and his truck’s headlights carved two bright beams through the deepening twilight. They’d just have to work it out, that’s all. If Allie wanted to keep doing this makeup sales stuff, he’d shut his mouth and let her. After he watched her cut up that credit card, that is. But she’d figure it out. She might make a mistake or two, but in the long run she would succeed. He couldn’t imagine Allie doing anything else.

So what about this church thing? His teeth scraping across each other sounded loud in his ears. All day long as they worked in the yard alongside her family, he had sensed a change in her. A couple of times he heard her humming a song as she raked leaves, and Allie never hummed. He’d attributed her good mood to spending time with her sisters last night. But what if it was something else? What if going to church was what made her happy today? He wanted her to be happy, didn’t he?

The first buildings of town came into view. Eric drove past without seeing them. He kept his eyes fixed on the road, his mind skipping all around their argument. What had Allie said? “Church doesn’t set things right. God does.”

Sounded like something Ken Fletcher would say. Or Joan. That was probably it—Joan had gotten to Allie last night with her God-talk. Eric’s wife had found religion. He was married to a religious makeup saleswoman. A shudder passed through his shoulders. Could he live with that?

Without really paying attention to where he was going, Eric steered the truck through town. He followed a path he’d traveled more frequently in the past few days than in all the years since he moved to Danville. Down Main Street past Constitution Square with its restored log cabin and historic statues. Past the courthouse. The fire station. Toward the Centre College campus. With no surprise at all, Eric turned onto the drive of Christ Community Church. He pulled the truck around to the back of the building and got out. A lone car sat on the other side of the lot, covered in darkness.

Eric leaned against the door of his pickup and stared at the building. A tall spire thrust into the sky. Moonlight glimmered off the cross that topped it. What was it about this place that had drawn Allie here this morning? Why did an intelligent man like Ken choose to spend time here? And Joan was no dummy, either. What about this place had grabbed her attention a few months ago and made her want to go off to Mexico like some kind of missionary?

The back door opened and a man exited the building. Uh oh. Though it had been a few years, Eric recognized the guy even across the distance. Reverend Jacobsen performed their wedding ceremony.

It was dark. Maybe if Eric didn’t move, he wouldn’t be spotted.

No luck. Reverend Jacobsen’s head turned toward him on the way to his car. He changed directions and headed straight for Eric.

Terrific.

Eric hefted himself upright as the older man approached, squinting in the darkness. He probably wouldn’t remember him, anyway.

His face brightened with a smile as he drew near. “Hello, Eric. What a surprise to find you here.”

So much for not recognizing him. Nothing wrong with the guy’s memory.

Eric took the hand that Reverend Jacobsen thrust toward him. He pocketed his own as soon as the man released him. “Hello, sir. I was just out driving around and decided to stop for a minute.” Lame excuse, but it had the benefit of being the truth.

“I had the pleasure of seeing your wife and your beautiful little girl this morning.”

“Yeah, she told me. I was at home. Uh, with my mother. She’s visiting for a while.” His mouth snapped shut. What was the matter with him? He didn’t need to make excuses for not going to church!

Reverend Jacobsen nodded. “I understand you’ve been helping out with the auction our mission team is conducting.”

Fletcher. What else had he told the minister?

Eric lifted a shoulder. “Not much. Just picked up a couple of donations. Not a big deal.”

“Well, we appreciate your help. It’s an important project, one we hope will spread the love of God not only in Mexico but here as well.”

“Excuse me?”

The older man smiled. “When people like our singles group promote a project with such enthusiasm, it demonstrates God’s love in a real and tangible way. Projects like this have a way of catching a community’s attention. We hope people who don’t normally come to church will come out Tuesday night, and that they’ll get a glimpse of God’s love in action.”