No Wasted Tears (6 page)

They had planned a beautiful fall wedding at her father’s church in the city. New Haven Baptist Church was well known, as was her father. He was one of Adam’s professors in seminary. Adam had developed great respect for not only Dr. Michael Webber but his wife, Mildred, also. He spent a lot of time at their home. Had eaten many Sunday dinners with them and some meals on occasion through the week. Dr. Webber even allowed him to minister from his pulpit. When he met their daughter, Regina, who was attending Spelman College, their relationship developed over the last two years of college. With all the time they spent together, it seemed only natural for them to fall in love. Adam always told Regina that he was going back home to pastor in the Seattle area. It was a burden he had since he received his calling at
nineteen.

Regina seemed to be fine with that until he told her about the offer from the Greater Community Church of Faith in Seattle. She had refused to listen to
reason.

She shook her head. “I can’t leave Mom and Dad. I am their only child, and they might need
me.”

Adam stiffened; the warmth that was in his eyes faded. “Then, by all means, stay here with them.” That was all he said as he began to walk away from her. This was not the way he had planned on ending his day. He thought
she would be excited about his
announcement.

“Don’t do this to me, Adam, please,” she said, her hand touching the curve of his jaw. “Don’t make me feel as if I’m betraying you because I care about my
parents.”

The word
betraying
stayed with Adam as he said calmly, “Regina I’m going to accept this pastoral position, and either we agree on this or I guess the wedding’s off.” With that said, he walked toward his car from her parents’ front
porch.

“You’re going to walk away from our wedding because of a church in Seattle?” she shouted so loud that her parents came to the front door. “Then go on, Adam, and be the pastor of some poverty-stricken community church in Seattle. You could have worked with Daddy becoming the pastor, but no. That was too easy. You have to be the inner-city warrior for your old
community.”

Regina began to cry. Watching from inside the screen door, her mother walked outside, wrapping her arms around her
daughter.

Dr. Webber looked at Regina then at Adam. “Son, I wish things had turned out differently, but baby girl just isn’t ready to leave home. Don’t worry about the wedding. We will handle all the cancellations and let everyone know.” He began walking toward Adam with his hand held
out.

All he said was, “Son, you do what the Lord told you, and if God sees fit for Regina to be in your life, she will. But for now go and take your final exams, go home, and be the pastor that God called you to be.” He had tears in his eyes when he spoke those
words.

Adam took one final look at Regina, but she turned her head to her mother’s chest and
wept.

After hugging her father, he whispered, “I do love her, you know.”

Dr. Webber responded, “I know you do, son, but Regina has some growing up to do. I’ll tell her mother you said good-bye. God bless you, Adam.”

And with that, Adam got in his car, drove off, and never looked back. His last thought was that when he did get a wife, she would have to support him in
ministry.

Chapter 4

They landed slightly ahead of schedule. As the plane taxied to the gate, Destiny couldn’t help but to feel a few nervous butterflies. She had enjoyed her conversation with Adam; it was easy to flow from one subject to another. He made her feel comfortable, which is probably why they both had enjoyed the in-flight movie. Now her focus was on meeting Cynthia at the baggage claim. Sara said that she’d be easy to recognize with her blonde
braids.

After departing the plane, Destiny followed Adam, moving toward baggage claim, focused on finding Cynthia. Then they both could journey to their new home together. As they approached baggage claim, Destiny noticed the woman she had seen earlier with the beautiful scarf walking around the carousal. She was the same woman who avoided her gaze at the airport before this
flight.

When she neared baggage claim, Destiny searched for anyone fitting the description that her aunt had given her. Unaware that someone had approached her from behind, she turned around, almost colliding with the woman she’d seen earlier. “Are you Destiny Harper?” she
asked.

Destiny was slightly taken aback, shocked that she knew her name. Then it dawned on her, so she in turn asked, “Are you Cynthia
Mason?”

“Yes, I am,” she replied with a
smile.

She was very pretty. Her eyes were dark, and her skin was the color of caramel. Destiny held out her hand, smiled, and said, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Cynthia. I was looking for blonde braids. How was your
flight?”

Shaking her hand in return, she replied, “Good and it’s a pleasure meeting you as well. I can’t believe I saw you at the airport earlier. I didn’t want
to stare you down, but I knew you looked familiar. Your aunt told me about your eyes and I wouldn’t be able to miss you, and she was right. They are unbelievable
eyes.”

“Wow, you’re good for my ego. I think we are going to get along fine.” Destiny
answered.

Cynthia continued saying, “I wrapped my hair in this scarf because I knew the flight was going to be long, and I wanted to sleep worry free.” She pointed to a couple of her braids that were peaking
out.

“I was looking for braids.” Destiny watched as Cynthia took her hand and touched her hair. “Girl, when you have twin boys, you do the simplest things possible to make life easy.” They both
laughed.

Nodding her head in agreement, Destiny stated the obvious. “I don’t know about that yet, but your boys are adorable. They were the highlight of my visits every evening after work at my aunt’s
house.”

“They are precious, but of course I’m biased. I can’t wait to see them. I’ve missed them so
much.”

Destiny responded, “I’m sure they missed you as
well.”

She nodded her head. “Miss Sara wanted them to come with her so that I could make sure everything was done before leaving Charleston. Nothing would have been done with two rambunctious twins getting in the way. The Lord himself sent Miss Sara to
me.”

Noticing Adam pointing to the carousal, she indicated which bag belonged to her. As he reached for it, he must have seen his as well because his attention went right back to the carousal before she could tell him she’d found
Cynthia.

The air was a little cool in the terminal, wrapping itself around her as the sliding glass doors continued to open and close. Her eyes darted back to Cynthia as she was putting her arms in her sweater; it was then that she noticed her fidgeting with the purse straps almost as if she was trying to avoid looking at
Adam.

“I sat next to him on the plane. He’s a pastor here in Seattle.” Smiling, Destiny glanced at Adam. He was moving toward
them.

“Cynthia? What are you doing
here?”

Destiny watched as Cynthia’s eyes froze on Adam. She tried but had no hope of disguising the look of shock on her face. She opened and closed her mouth, seemingly trying to get her voice to work. By the movement of her eyes her brain was flying off in all directions, confused, frightened, and lost. As if she were asking the question. “How could this
be?”

Destiny noticed her hands shaking. Shifting to look at Adam’s dark and intense gaze, she was a little surprised to see the gaze he was emitting was a little chilling but curious as
well.

“I could ask you the same thing, Adam,” she finally responded. Her tone was just as sharp as his had been. For a heart-stopping moment, no other sound left anyone’s
lips.

Adam looked over at Destiny, “I assume you two have
met?”

“Yes, we have. Adam, this is Cynthia. She’s the houseguest I’ve been telling you
about.”

Not quite letting the smile reach his face, Adam looked back at Cynthia. “I know Cynthia well. It’s been a while, and I’m sure we’ll have a lot of catching up to do.” With that said, he began to move toward the airport
exit.

Destiny, sensing something was going on, looked at her watch. “If you’re ready, we can get going, Cynthia. Are you okay?” Destiny asked, concerned by the stricken look on Cynthia’s
face.

“Yes, I’m fine. Just surprised to see
Adam.”

“It’s going to be all right. Let’s get you to your boys,” Destiny
said as they walked toward the car. “Because honestly, Cynthia, you don’t look all right to
me.”

Cynthia didn’t argue. She just waited with Destiny as Adam brought the Range Rover around to pick them up. While Adam put the bags in the back, Destiny opened the door for
Cynthia.

Adam eased the car into traffic. “Destiny, we are going to SeaTac right? I know the general area. Just give me the street address.” He looked over at her for a
reply.

Destiny began to look into her purse for the paper she had written the address on. Once she found it, she told Adam and placed the sheet back in her
purse.

Destiny glanced at the backseat
when she heard Cynthia mutter something crossly, just before she pulled her cell phone out of her purse. The strain on her face evaporated once she began her conversation with whoever was on the other end. Turning around, she whispered curiously to Adam, “So how do you know
Cynthia?”

It was a moment before he answered. Destiny couldn’t help feeling he was holding something back from her, something important. Inhaling
, Adam’s brain flew through what he knew about Cynthia Mason, wondering
what brought her back to Seattle,
“We all graduated from high school the same year. She went to school on Mercer Island. Marvin and I attended Bellevue High.” He focused on the road ahead of
him.

Finally his lips stretched into a brief on-off smile that didn’t involve his eyes. “That doesn’t seem to merit the reaction she had when she saw you walk through the door.” Destiny tried to read his expression, to see if any slight movement of his lips, eyes or forehead would provide some clue to the state of the relationship they apparently shared once. He gave a slight frown but did not elaborate on his response. She wondered if they’d been a
couple.

Adam couldn’t help but notice the look on Destiny’s face and the strange arch of her brows. “Cynthia and my twin, Marvin, dated from the eighth grade until they were seniors in high school. They were really in love. I thought if I ever were in love, I’d want it to be like theirs. But I guess it wasn’t meant to be. Cynthia’s parents, Edward and Gwendolyn
Mason…”

“You mean the Dynamic Duo? At least that’s what they’re called on CNN. They own the Mason Law Offices, right? And they handle all the high-profile cases.” Destiny
gulped.

Adam chuckled. “That’s them. Cynthia’s parents didn’t approve of her relationship with Marvin. Didn’t think he was good enough. So on the night of our graduation, Mr. Mason paid a visit to Marvin, and in not so many words he was ordered to stay away from his daughter or there would be consequences he did not want to pay. That’s the long and the short of
it.”

Adam reached out and touched Destiny’s hand before quickly pulling it back. “So you see why I was shocked, but it seemed to take a whole lot more out of her. I can only imagine Marvin’s reaction after he finds out she’s back in the
city.”

Destiny sensed that it was much more. Just seeing Adam could not have garnered that kind of reaction from Cynthia. Destiny also noticed that Adam never mentioned anything about Cynthia having children, which meant maybe he didn’t know. It wouldn’t be hard to put two and two together. Adam and Marvin were twins, and Cynthia had two beautiful twin boys. Come to think of it, they looked a lot like Adam. If Cynthia didn’t mention it, then she would keep her thoughts on the matter to herself. Besides, she would be dealing with her own skeletons in a few days. They would deal with Cynthia and the twins when they arrived at the
house.