Finally & Forever (11 page)

Just then, Daisy turned her head away from Katie and the crowd.

“No! Don’t leave. Was it something I said?”

With her long neck leading the way, Daisy lopped through the cluster of snorting warthogs and headed back to her companion under the acacia tree. Apparently too many people were on the deck, because it once again was filled with visitors standing shoulder to shoulder.

With a sigh, Katie blew a kiss to Daisy and thanked the park ranger.

“Come back anytime,” he said.

As soon as she was back on the bus, she took out her phone to look at the photos Eli had taken. He had caught some great shots, including one that showed a long, swinging string of giraffe saliva that hung from Daisy’s mouth to Katie’s hand.

“This is the one I’m going to send Christy first.” She held up her phone so Eli could see the shot.

“I told you they drool.”

“But she was so cute.”

“I told you they were cute too.” Eli was flipping through the photos. He stopped and studied one of the shots with a big smile glowing on his face like a sunrise.

“What? Did you find another good one?”

He turned the phone’s screen toward her. It was a shot of her feeding Daisy with all her attention focused on the gentle beast and a look of wide-eyed wonder on her face. Eli was on the other side of Daisy, stroking her long neck and peering around her great head to get a full view of Katie. The look on Eli’s face was great. He looked so happy. So content. He was sharing his world with someone who was in awe. It almost looked as if Eli were as starstruck with Katie as she was with Daisy.

“You didn’t know I had the ranger take some pictures of us, did you?” Eli asked. “Send that one to me, will you? And send it to Todd and Christy too.”

Katie tapped out an email to Christy that read:

I will never forget this moment for the rest of my life
.

Then she attached the two photos and sent the email off to the other side of the world.

Before the bus arrived back at Brockhurst, Christy had replied with an email that had the word “Smitten” in the subject line. Her email read:

Katie thought about Christy’s comment over the next few days while she worked with Eli in the Coffee Bar, joined his parents for morning devotions, and helped to paint Mary’s office in the administration
building. Every day was great. Eli wasn’t hiding that he was smitten with her, and she had no reason to pretend her feelings were anything other than mutual.

Having put their kissing-compatibility factor on the back burner, they turned their focus to further chances to get to know each other, discuss a variety of topics, and enjoy the beauty all around them as the days warmed up.

What they didn’t do was discuss “them” or what was next. They simply did what was next as the projects kept coming their way and enjoyed being together. Katie didn’t ask about how things were going between Eli and his dad. She knew he would talk about it when he wanted to. She also knew he still wanted to relocate to Upper Nine, because she heard him talking about possibly using the rest of the paint to redo his new room if none of the other offices needed a fresh coat. Katie took the talk about Upper Nine as an indication that Eli’s dad was at least trusting him more and hopefully seeing him as an adult who was ready to make his own decisions.

But Katie was especially appreciative when Jim came to her and invited her to join him, Cheryl, and Eli on an overnight trip to one of the villages where a newly dug well was scheduled for completion in a week. To her, it meant that Jim saw her as being trustworthy, useful, and part of the team. That was important to her.

Cheryl asked Katie to help her start the immense project of organizing the new office space now that the paint had dried and the boxes and equipment finally had been moved in.

“Well, I’ve made one significant discovery,” Katie told Cheryl when they were about four hours into the project.

“What’s that, Katie?”

“I’ve discovered that this sort of work isn’t my specialty.”

“Really?” Cheryl stopped breaking down the empty cardboard boxes. “I’m surprised you would say that. You’ve gotten so much done. We’ve never had those supporter files organized the way you have them all together now.”

“I’m not saying I won’t help out with stuff like that. It just doesn’t energize me. I wish I knew what my gifts and calling were. Maybe it’s in the village, and I’ll see it when we go tomorrow.”

Cheryl pulled out the second office chair from the desk that faced where Katie was sitting and said, “What does energize you?” She grinned. “Besides Daisy the giraffe.”

Katie had been teased by Eli and his parents over the past few days for the number of times she talked about feeding Daisy out of the palm of her hand.

“I don’t want to be a zookeeper when I grow up, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“No, I’m asking what really gets you going. What projects have you done in the past six months that you felt God’s hand was on? I can think of one.”

“You can?” Katie thought about the stories she had told Cheryl regarding her position as an RA and how she had organized an All Hall Event and the Spring Fling. Neither of those was on her list of things she would love to do again. She had told Cheryl that if it weren’t for Eli’s resourcefulness, both of those events could have crashed and burned.

But when she mentioned those tasks, Cheryl responded, “I wasn’t thinking of either of those.”

Katie couldn’t remember organizing any other projects.

Cheryl raised an eyebrow. “Well, that’s even more of an indication that you were using your gifts and working inside your calling. What about the fund-raiser you did at Rancho Corona for East African wells?”

“That didn’t feel like work. I mean, it was a tremendous amount of work,” Katie quickly added. “Especially that last semester with classes and RA duties. But it didn’t drain me.”

“Exactly. That’s how it is when you’re inside your gifting.”

Katie let that thought sink in. “I think I see what you mean. Sort of. I was really passionate about telling people what you guys do here, and it was easy to get people to make donations. I mean, even this guy
who was a vice president or something at the bank made a contribution when he saw what I was giving from my …” Katie stopped herself. Very few people knew about the huge inheritance she had received from a great-aunt she had never met and how Katie had designated a number of generous contributions from those funds.

Cheryl stood and closed the window and the door to the office. In a low voice she said, “Katie, I have to tell you something.”

Katie wondered if this was going to be the uncomfortable conversation she had anticipated when Eli’s mom would ask about her “intentions” toward their son. Or at least try to find out Katie’s point of view on their relationship. Obviously, Cheryl didn’t want anyone to overhear them.

What Cheryl said next caught Katie off guard. “I know about the money you gave to pay off Eli’s tuition.”

Katie was stunned. “How did you know?”

“Eli told us that my brother paid off his tuition, but I knew Jonathan didn’t have resources like that. Especially since he’s a college professor, and it was right before he was getting married. I asked Jonathan about it, and he said he didn’t pay for Eli’s tuition, but he knew about it because Julia was somehow involved.”

Katie leaned back and wondered what Julia, her former resident director from Rancho Corona, had said to Cheryl.

“I’m afraid I was unrelenting with Julia. I wouldn’t let it go after Jonathan said that Julia knew the donor. It was such a large amount, I felt as if we needed to find a way to thank whoever it was or somehow pay them back.”

Katie felt as if she had been punched in the stomach. How could Julia betray her trust like that? Katie had asked her to keep everything she knew about the inheritance confidential.

Cheryl continued, “Poor Julia had never met me, and there she was, newly married to my brother, and I kept hounding her. She finally told me the payment came from a young woman, a student from her dorm, who had inherited some money. She explained how
she had helped this young woman make several contributions. I didn’t know it was you, Katie.”

“So Julia didn’t tell you it was me? She didn’t say my name?”

“No.”

“Then how did you know it was me?”

“Your name was listed on a report of donors who had made sizable contributions through the fund-raiser you organized.”

“Didn’t the bank just transfer one final amount of money to the bank here?”

“Yes, but they also sent a breakdown report for the large amounts. I was the only one who saw it. Your name was on the report with the amount you gave. I put two and two together, and … Katie … I hardly know what to say. Thank you, and I’m sorry to put you in a place where you must feel vulnerable and exposed. Please know that Julia didn’t betray your confidence.”

“Does Eli know?”

“No. Neither does Jim. I thought about telling Jim recently, but it’s your information and up to you to do with it what you want. I do apologize, Katie. Sincerely.”

“You don’t need to apologize. I’m glad you told me, and I’m especially glad you explained it all to me. It’s an odd thing to have money in the bank, you know?”

“No, actually, I don’t know.” Cheryl offered Katie a tender smile.

“It’s kind of a burden in some ways. I mean, I don’t think about it a lot. It’s just money. It’s a resource. I want to be wise with how it’s dispersed, so that’s why I had Julia walk through the process with me with the lawyers and everything. It was my inheritance, in case you wondered where it came from.”

“I’m glad you don’t feel as if your trust was betrayed, Katie. I’ve wanted to tell you that I knew just so it was out in the open between us.”

“I appreciate that,” Katie said. “And I’ve wanted to say something to you for the past few weeks.”

Cheryl’s expression made it clear that she was open and receptive. That helped Katie to feel as if she could confide in her.

“I’ve wanted to say thank you for taking me in and making me feel welcomed. I know that I pretty much invited myself, and you’ve been very gracious. So thank you.”

“Your arrival wasn’t a complete surprise.” Cheryl smiled. “I had a feeling you’d be coming. We’re glad you’re here, Katie.”

“I’m really glad I’m here. And that brings me to the other thing I wanted to say.”

“If the reason no one is giving me anything permanent to do around here is because you’re expecting me to go back to California, then I think you should know that I don’t see that happening. And that’s not just because of Eli. I mean, of course he’s a huge part of the reason why I came, and things are great between us from my point of view, but he’s not the only reason I’m here. This is where I am supposed to be right now. I know that.”

“It’s good to hear you say this, Katie.”

“Well, there’s more I should say, and you probably already know this, but Eli and I are fine with taking our time figuring out what’s next for us. I mean, us as a couple. He needs to decide what he’s going to do here and so do I. We’re not pushing our relationship ahead too fast, in case you were worried about that. We really are taking it slow.”

Cheryl gave an affirming nod as if she’d already heard the same sort of report from her son.

Katie was glad to see that what she was saying seemed to be resonating well with Cheryl. Since she was on a roll, she kept going and leaked some more blunt truth. “I know that things are tense between Eli and your husband right now. I’m hoping the two of them will be able to work through their disagreement quickly. The thing is, I don’t picture Eli as someone who could sit at a desk in this office and spend his days calling drilling companies or writing letters to donors. I see him being happier doing all the jobs he put down on his own list.”

“He has a list?”

From the look on Cheryl’s face, Katie could tell she’d said too much.

“He was going to talk to you guys about it.”

“I see,” Cheryl pulled back.

The office suddenly seemed to be getting smaller and smaller. Katie bit her lower lip and tried to think of what to say next.

Cheryl took the lead and said, “Why don’t we put this topic aside for the moment. We can talk about it later.”

“Good idea.” Katie excused herself, saying she needed to go check on something. It was a lame excuse, but it got her out the door and into the fresh air. What she needed to check on was her emotional balance.

Trucking her way up the path to Eli’s favorite bench, she kept scolding herself for not keeping her mouth closed. Things had been going so well. She’d felt a level of confidence opening up when Cheryl revealed she knew about Katie’s inheritance. That openness obviously did not carry over to Katie being involved in Eli’s conflict with his parents regarding his future position with the ministry. That was something Eli needed to settle with them without her involvement.

Katie remembered a line she’d overheard Claudinei say in the kitchen a few nights ago. “Throw it into the river. Let the crocodiles chew on it instead of you.”

At first she thought Claudinei was talking about some food that had gone bad, assuming he was telling one of the guys on the kitchen staff how to dispose of it. As sh e handed over her dinner tray she discovered that the topic was problems, not food. The young man had apparently been telling Claudinei about his worries, and the chef was telling him to go toss them into the river for the crocodiles.

Katie wished she could gather up what she’d just said to Cheryl and go throw her over-zealous statements into the river. She would much rather see the crocodiles devour her words than have them gnawing away at her.

For a moment Katie considered turning toward the Lion’s Den. She was pretty sure Eli was still working at the Coffee Bar that afternoon. If she could kidnap him and take him to the bench with her, she’d tell him about her financial situation and apologize for interjecting too much information into her heart-to-heart conversation with his mom.