Beyond the Storm: Quilts of Love Series (15 page)

The hospital parking lot was so crowded, Selma had to circle the entire thing several times before a spot came open. To Bob Ray, the tension in his gut felt as if he’d swallowed a couple of burning coals. He repressed the awful need to scream and swear and slam his fists on Ms. Tully’s dashboard. Not knowing where Heather and Robbie were was driving him mad. Ms. Tully was a godly woman. She probably wouldn’t appreciate a crazed outburst like that, but he wanted to give vent something awful.

In the back seat, Elsa had finally lost her battle to stay awake and had fallen fast asleep on her mother’s lap. Smiling with maternal love, Guadalupe stroked her daughter’s hair and whispered to Selma and Bob Ray that she’d decided to stay in the car. “Take your time,” she whispered. “We will be comfortable and sleeping.”

Selma walked with Bob Ray toward the information line and waved him off. “Honey, you go look for your bride. I’ll save you a place. If I get to the front before you come back, I’ll ask after Heather and Robbie. I have some other folks, my niece Abigail, and such that I want to check on, too.”

“Thank you!” Bob Ray kissed Ms. Tully’s soft, paper-thin cheek and jumped into the crowd. His head whipping left and right, eyes flashing, he pushed past people and ran, his heart thudding with both dread and anticipation.

Heather? Where was Heather? Please, please be here
.

“Hey! Watch it!” a woman snapped as he barreled past and bumped her arm.

“Sorry,” he called over his shoulder but didn’t stop. He was a man with a mission.

“Bob Ray?”

He skidded to a stop at the sound of his name and spun around. “Heather?” He hollered. Heads turned to stare, but he didn’t care.

“Bob Ray! Over here!”

Jumping up, he spotted her standing next to a grouping of chairs on the hospital’s front lawn area. Robbie was fast asleep, bundled safely in a giant red blanket. His heart caught in his throat. Heather! Tears were streaming down his face now.
Heather, beautiful, beautiful Heather
. His best friend. The girl who’d given him a healthy son.

Getting to her was like trying to make an end run against an opposing team on the football field. He had to weave and dodge and push, but he finally made it to his family. She gasped as he swept her into his arms and spun her in a circle. Then, in front of God and everybody, Bob Ray kissed his wife. Hungrily. Eagerly. Passionately.

It was a kiss filled with gratitude and apology and most importantly, love. They were both in tears by the time he was done. Clasping her face between his palms, he pushed his nose against hers and kissed her lips, her chin, her jaw and her eyes. “I was so scared,” he confessed. “So scared that I’d lost you. Tell me,” he begged, and threaded his hands through her hair. “Tell me I still have you.”

Eyes shining, Heather laughed like the girl he’d first seriously courted in high school. “You have me,” she breathed against his mouth. “You have always had me.”

The inferno in his belly began to ease and in its place the feeling of becoming a real husband and father took residence.

“Oh, Zuzu. No.” As Abigail drew her friend into her arms for a hug, no one voiced what they were all thinking. A brilliant Olympic career? Over. Years of hard work? Haruo and Mieko had to be heartbroken. “I’m so, so sorry,” she said around a lump of sympathy.

“Thank you,” Isuzu said and sniffed, her smile, watery. “They are alive. This, I am so thankful to Jesus for. And He is working out everything, I trust. Just hard to see.”

Impossible
, Abigail thought, but only nodded. She didn’t share Isuzu’s generous opinion. “How are your brother and sister-in-law holding up?”

“They are thankful both kids are alive, but very scared for Brooke.”

“What about her boyfriend? What was his name again?”

“Nick. The kids were outside when tornado hit,” Isuzu haltingly explained. “When they find Brook she is . . . unconscious. She have serious spinal injury.”

Abigail swallowed and blinked. “And Nick?”

“No one see Nick.”

Heather finally understood the need of the father to barbecue the fatted calf for the prodigal son’s return. Bob Ray was home. She settled in next to the boy she remembered from her childhood. It was that Bob Ray who lit his eyes now. It was that Bob Ray in his touch. In his voice. He drew his foot up over his knee and propped their sleeping toddler in his lap before he turned to face her. For several long seconds, he sat in silence.

Heather could see the thoughts, like logs in a jam, struggling to organize themselves and flow out. She waited, fearing what she would hear, but resigned herself to wait. Her husband was back, but God knew he wasn’t perfect.

“I was so scared,” he began, his eyes welling. “I thought God was punishing me with this storm for the stuff I’ve been thinking about . . . about . . . what I was missing out on. Here I was, married to a beautiful girl and blessed with a healthy son and I wanted . . . something more.”

Heather nodded. She knew.

Shame had his eyes sliding closed and his chin dropping to his chest. “I thought maybe I’d lost you and the baby and that I’d have to live with that . . .” He had to stop, for the sobs closed off his throat and had his shoulders heaving. “Heather, I swear I never cheated on you. But I was thinking about . . . doing it. I . . . I . . . wanted to. I was just so sick of the responsibility. I just wanted . . .” his head dropped back and he peered into the night sky, “I wanted to play football again, you know? And party with the guys and stuff. Stupid. Stupid. Idiot. I was partying tonight, working, but really? Party time. And, when the hammer came down,” he paused and wiped his face on the baptismal curtain, “everything I thought I wanted? It wasn’t real. And it could never, ever compare to what I already have with you.” His sigh was ragged and he clutched her hands in his, rubbing his thumbs over her knuckles.

Heather stared at her hands, encased in his. The words he spoke cut her to the bone, but . . . hadn’t she had similar feelings? More than once she’d fantasized about disappearing and living a life without Bob Ray’s misery. Thought about meeting someone new and starting over again. How could she be angry with him for sharing the same thoughts? Clearly, it took a lot of nerve to confess. Maybe he really had matured in the middle of the storm. Stranger things had happened.

“I don’t blame you if you don’t believe me. I know I’ve been a total jerk.” His face was so wet, Heather closed her fingers over the cuff of her sleeve and dabbed at his cheeks, nose, and eyes with her cloth-covered palm. Tears welled all over again and spiked his lashes. “T . . . t . . . tonight I learned that . . . one second you’re here, a selfish jerk, and the next minute . . .” his sigh was ragged and consumed with emotion, “ . . . you’re dead. I know this is going to sound stupid, but I think God is trying to tell me something. Have you ever had that feeling where you know that He wants your attention. And you can run, but you can’t hide?”

Heather grinned. “Yes. I have been praying for us. For you. For so long.”

Bob Ray swallowed hard. “I don’t deserve it, but I want to try again. To start over. To go to church and to be a good husband and a . . .” For a moment, he was overcome again. “And, a father to Robbie. The kind of dad I always wished for.”

Bob Ray hadn’t spoken so earnestly in years. For him to be talking to her this way now was unbelievable. It had to be an answer to her prayers.

“I want that, too, Bob Ray,” she whispered and heads together, they cried.

“I found my parents!” Chaz told Abigail, Justin, and Isuzu, his smile huge with relief. “My brother and his family are all good, too. They’re at church right now, finding shelter for people who don’t have anywhere to go.”

“I may need to go visit them,” Abigail said and exhaled a heavy sigh.

Chaz stepped behind her and rubbed her shoulders. “Relax, girl. You are just a pile of knots. Listen, you’re gonna be fine. My parents live over by your Aunt Selma. That whole area was pretty much untouched.”

“Have you seen Kaylee?”

Giving his watch an impatient glance, he patted her neck and said, “She’s only a few minutes away. My phone is working fine now.”

Abigail exhaled tension and breathed in relief. Digging through her purse, she found her phone and saw that she had a frantic text message from her mother in California and several from friends in other states. There were also a number of text messages from local friends and family, concerned about her safety. Quickly, she sent out a mass text, letting everyone know that she was fine and at Rawston Legacy Hospital looking for a friend.

Justin was also able to let his family know that he was okay. “My grandparents are leaving the shelter and heading home. Southshire was lucky. There was some wind damage, but nothing big,” he told her as soon as he’d hung up.

“Oh, I’m so glad—” she was interrupted by giddy squeals as Kaylee and her mother and her aunt found Chaz. In spite of a broken arm, Kaylee was jumping up and down and frantically exchanging notes with Chaz about everything that happened over the last hours, whenever Chaz wasn’t shutting her up with a kiss.

“Our place is completely wrecked,” Bob Ray told Heather. “Seriously. Looks like someone drove our trailer in a demolition derby and lost. Big time.” They’d been talking nonstop since he arrived. And, even though the news was terrible, he’d never felt more at peace. More convicted about what a lousy husband and father he’d been. More willing and eager to make amends and some serious changes in his life. And Heather. Beautiful, sweet Heather. Her forgiveness was a total gift that he in no way deserved. He’d spend the rest of his life working hard to make her happy.

“I know,” Heather said and shivered. “When I got here, I saw on the news that the tornado had plowed straight down Hollingsworth Boulevard.”

Head dipped to kiss his son, he murmured, “Luckily, Mrs. Carmichael is okay, but the place is totaled. Half of it’s in our yard. Half’s in hers.”