Blind Trust (24 page)

With eyes as humble and frightened as she had ever seen them, he entered the room. “How do you feel?” he asked.

“I’m fine.”

“Well, I’m not. I’m a little shaken,” he admitted. Awkwardly, he pulled up a chair to the bedside and sat down. “I thought I’d lost you.” He covered his face and shook his head. “I would never have forgiven myself.”

Sherry sat up, and Clint started to get off of the bed. “I’ll step outside and—”

“No,” Eric said. “Stay. You’re part of this family, and you belong here. Besides, I owe you a fierce apology.”

“No.” Clint held up a hand to stem the regrets. “I did all this for my conscience, not because you—”

“I’m not apologizing for that,” Grayson cut in softly. “I’m apologizing for undermining you by sending Gary Rivers to protect Sherry. At the time it seemed as if someone who cared for her would do a better job. It was stupid, and it must have made things so much harder for you. And it turned out to be such a disaster.”

Clint looked down at Sherry’s palm and stroked his hand across it. “I’ll admit I cursed you for that a few times.”

“You should have.” Grayson shook his head. “I misjudged him terribly. I never suspected—”

Clint reached across Sherry and touched the older man’s shoulder. “Enough said. It’s over, and I think I can understand your reasoning. No hard feelings.”

Grayson released a heavy breath, then looked at his daughter. “And now, my apology to you,” he said.

Sherry shook her head. “Don’t.”

His eyes were pleading. “Sherry, I probably could have handled things better. But I was so desperate to protect you. You were all I had left. Can’t you see that?”

“You let me suffer, Dad, and I didn’t have to. You kept me away from Clint when I could have been there, helping him through it. You robbed me of my marriage, and let me think I wasn’t enough for him, that he got bored …”

“I never meant for you to think that, Sherry. I never wanted you to feel that way. I just didn’t see another way. I thought the emotional danger was much less significant than the physical danger.”

“You were wrong,” she said. “Emotional ties are strong, Dad. You’ve never understood them, not really.”

“Yes, I have,” he insisted. “I understand them now. I understand that I’d rather be in physical danger, myself, than to suffer the emotional danger of losing you. Honey, I’m asking you to forgive me one more time.” His voice broke with the words, and he wilted and dropped his forehead on her mattress. He began to shake with deep, hard sobs, and Sherry’s face slowly changed.

She looked up at Clint with tears in her eyes, then back down at her father, hurting and broken. She closed her eyes and wiped the tears from her cheek, and breathed in a sob herself. Slowly, she withdrew her hand from Clint’s, and touched her father’s head.

He looked up at her, his face twisted and anguished. “You have to believe me, Sherry,” he forced out. “Everytime I looked in your eyes after Clint left, it was like a knife being twisted inside me. I prayed that God would intervene so that I could bring Clint back, and when we thought we found Paul’s body, I believed that was the answer. Honey, don’t cut me out of your life because of this. I want to give you away at your wedding. I want to be a grandfather to your children. They don’t have to know that their grandfather is a fool.”

“You’re not a fool.” The words came on a whisper, and she reached out and touched his face. Eric pulled her into a hug that included Clint.

“Does this mean I still get to be your father?” he asked.

She breathed a laugh through her tears. “I guess so. Somebody’s got to give me away when I get married.”

Eric let her go and wiped the tears on his face. “As soon as I leave here, I’m going for the minister. We have a wedding to plan, and there’s no time to waste.”

Sherry breathed an enormous sigh and smiled at Clint. “Just give me a license and a ring and a few months of uninterrupted peace with the man I love. And then I’ll be back to myself.”

“Is that possible?” Clint asked softly. “Will any of us ever be ourselves again?”

“No,” Grayson said. “We’ve all changed. But we’re stronger now. None of us will ever take the people we love or the time we have with them for granted again.”

Clint’s arms tightened around Sherry, reaffirming that strength that filtered into their love, promising never to be torn asunder, never to be mistrusted, never to turn against them again.

A
fter Eric left, a knock sounded on the door, and Clint called, “Come in.” Wes’s face was pale as he pushed open the door. He took a look at his sister, started to say something, then, overcome, just leaned over and gave her a hug. When he had found his voice, he said, “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Yeah, me, too,” she said. She gestured for him to pull a chair up to her bed, and as he did so, she said, “I heard you were in court today.”

He nodded. “Yeah. He got me in.”

She knew he referred to their father, even though he’d never been able to call Eric that.

“Are you two speaking now?”

“Hardly.”

“Wes, don’t you think it’s time?”

Wes’s expression was stunned. “How could you say that? The man got you shot. You were almost killed because of him. He cared more about that case than he cared about you!”

“I thought so, too,” she said, taking her brother’s hand. “But Wes, he meant well. He thought he was doing the right thing. Everything he did was to keep me from getting hurt.”

“But it didn’t work.”

“I’m fine,” she said. She thought about the struggles with Paul, the gunshot wound … “You know, I can keep a score-sheet of all the things that went wrong, dwell on them and get bitter over them, or I can decide that those things are not going to mess up my life, and move on. He’s still our father. He’s not perfect, and he makes mistakes. But his heart is right, Wes.”

“But he let you hurt for all those months. He had the power to give you some peace about Clint, and he didn’t. Then he dragged you right into the fray—”

“That’s not true, Wes. I was in it whether any of us liked it or not. Getting shot was more a result of my own rebellion than anything he had done. I shouldn’t have gone out of the sight of the bodyguards. I should have been more cooperative.”

Wes got up and ambled to the hospital window, looked out, and then turned back to her. His face was a study in emotional turmoil, and she knew where it came from.

“Wes, he’s not the same man who left us when we were kids. He’s changed, just like Laney changed after the two of you were married. He knows what he did was wrong, and he’s repented. God’s a God of second chances, Wes.”

“But I’m not that good. I can’t forgive like God does.”

“Then you’d better stay away from the Lord’s Prayer.” He looked at her. “What do you mean?”

She smiled. “‘Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who’ve trespassed against us’? If you’re going to
be
forgiven in the same way
you’ve
forgiven, that could be trouble.”

“That’s not what that means,” Wes said.

“Yes, it is, Wes, and you know it.”

Silence held between them, thick and uncomfortable, and finally, Wes came back to the chair and sank back down. “It’s hard, Sherry. Maybe if Mom was still alive, if I could see the two of them make peace, maybe it would be easier. But she’s not here, and she never had the satisfaction of seeing his repentance.”

“But you have, Wes.” She slid partially up in bed, intent on making her point. “Remember when Laney was nothing more to you than Amy’s birth mother? Remember when she found out Patrice was dead, and that Amy was being raised without a mother? She said, ‘Amy has a mother, so she doesn’t have to grow up without one.'”

“Yeah, so?”

“It’s the same with us. We have family, Wes. We have a father. Your kids have a grandpa—and he’s the only one they have. Let him be a part of your life. It won’t take anything away from you, Wes. It’ll only make your lives richer.”

Wes’s eyes were wet as he rubbed his hands down his face. “I’ll think about it, Sherry. That’s the best I can do.”

“That’s enough for now.”

L
ater, Sherry got up and walked down to the waiting room where so many of her friends had gathered. She saw Madeline and Sam, Wes and Laney and the kids, her father, and even Erin, the pilot.

She hugged them all, giving a special, lingering hug to her friend and roommate. “If a person has to get kidnapped, Madeline, you’re the one to do it with.”

Madeline laughed. “Actually, it was kind of fun.”

“Fun?”

“Well, not the dangerous part. But we met some nice people.”

Everyone broke into laughter, and Sherry shot Clint an amused look.

“So I guess you’ll be getting married and moving out of my house, now? Leaving me high and dry without a roommate?” Madeline asked.

“I’ll miss you,” Sherry said with a grin.

“I don’t do well alone, you know. I like having people around. I’ll probably resort to talking to myself …”

“You can get another roommate.”

“Who?”

Erin, the pilot, stepped forward then, her eyes narrowed as she thought over the possibilities. “Are you really looking for a roommate?”

“Yes, I really am,” Madeline said. “Do you know anybody?”

“Well, as a matter of fact … I
have
a roommate—a flight attendant who’s almost never home—and we just got notice that our apartments is being converted into a condo, and neither of us wants to buy. If you could handle two roommates …”

“Are you kidding? We’d have a ball! I’d love it!”

“Well, neither of us is home that much, but you should probably know that I won’t be flying any more covert operations. Commercial flights only.”

“Let’s do it,” Madeline said. “I’ll take you right over and show you the house, and if you like it, I’ll help you move as soon as Sherry moves out …”

Sherry gaped at her. “Are you trying to rush me out?”

“Yes!” Madeline said. “You and Clint need to start your new lives, anyway. And they have to find a place to live!”

She watched, laughing, as the two women left with Sam, both of them talking ninety-to-nothing.

When they were gone, she turned back to the others left in the room. Wes and Laney sat awkwardly in one corner—the baby sat in Wes’s lap, smiling at all the activity, and Amy leaned against her mother. Across the room, Eric Grayson sat alone, rather awkwardly. He got up, and took a deep breath. “Well, I guess we’ll all sleep well tonight. I’ll go on home now.”

Sherry shot a look to Wes, silently pleading with him to make peace with his father now. Wes sat unmoving, and his gaze drifted to his sneakers.

“I’ll see you all later,” Eric said, pressing a kiss on his daughter’s cheek. Then he started out of the waiting room.

“Dad?” It was Wes’s voice, slightly hoarse, and Eric turned back. His face betrayed how moved he’d been that Wes had called him that.

“Yes, son?”

“How’d you like to come have a bite somewhere with us? We haven’t eaten yet and … well, my kids really need to get to know their grandpa.” His eyes misted as he spoke.

Eric stared at him for a moment as his face reddened, and Sherry could see how he struggled with the emotion taking hold of his face. “I’d love to do that,” he said.

Laney’s smile was huge as she got to her feet and handed Eric his grandson. “Can you say ‘Grandpa’?” she asked the baby. He grunted something and smiled at the man who looked so much like his father.

Sherry and Clint walked them all to the elevator, said their good-byes, then stood watching the doors as they closed. “I can’t believe that,” she whispered.

“Me, either,” Clint said. “It was a miracle.”

“God is so good.”

Clint turned her around. “Do you really believe that? A couple of days ago you had lost your faith … you said it was self-betrayal. Do you still believe that, Sherry?”

“No,” she said. “I was angry, and lashing out. Thank goodness God is still faithful even when we’re faithless.”