The Arrangement (25 page)

Lord, I know this may sound silly, but please show me what to do with Eli. I’ve missed hearing the passion in his voice. I’ve missed seeing his dark curls fall into his blue eyes. I’ve missed sharing my hopes and fears with him. Are you giving him back to me?
she prayed as she drove behind his dark sedan across town.

Christmas music drifted from the dim café into the street when they arrived downtown. Eli waited for her on the sidewalk, and she followed him inside. Two couples shared drinks at bistro tables while another couple shared secrets on a fluffy couch in the corner. Eli led her to a small booth hidden at the back of the building. A server took their orders for caramel
macchiatos
and left them alone again.

“How’s school?” Eli’s voice cut deep through the tension around them.

“It’s good. I’m finished for the semester and glad for a break,” she said, not sure if he really wanted that information or not. She giggled. “This is worse than a first date.”

Eli laughed in return, and the ice was broken. “At least on a first date you get to ask all the crazy get-to-know-you questions. We already know each other and have no idea what to say.”

“Or maybe we just don’t want to say what we want to say.” Her smile faded, and she forced it back again. “That made no sense at all.”

“Sure it did,” he assured her. “I’ve wanted to tell you a hundred things since you showed up at Michael’s house. But I’m not sure any of those things need to be said.”

“Did you not know I was coming?” she asked.

The server arrived, setting two steaming cups in front of them, as well as cocktail napkins and sugar packets, then swiftly left.

Evie opened a packet and sprinkled it into her cup.

Eli shook his head. “No clue. Michael told me he had invited someone else, but I…” He sighed. “I was afraid to hope he would know to call you.”

“When he called, I thought Mom and Dad were fixing me up again,” she confessed.

Eli gagged as he swallowed his hot coffee. “You didn’t,” he insisted.

She nodded and pursed her lips. “Yep. I hung up on him so fast he must have thought I was nuts.”

He laughed. “Why did you call him back?”

“Well, I called Dad, ready to let him have it for interfering in my life. When he told me Michael was married with children, I wanted to crawl under the bed. Then Dad explained what he wanted and suggested I call him back.”

“Did you tell him you thought your father was fixing you up again?” he quizzed her.

“No, I just told him I was confused about why Dad told him to call me, but that I was interested in helping him with the campaign.”

“And he didn’t mention that we were friends and I was helping him, too, did he?”

“Nope,” Evie said, popping the
P
on the end of her word.

“I wanted to call you when Michael first came to me for help with his campaign,” Eli confessed.

“Really? Why?” She tilted her head, then took a sip of her drink.

“I wanted to talk to someone about this re-entry into politics. Before he asked me to help with his campaign, he asked if I was planning to run.”

“Wow, I never thought about you as mayor. Senator, yes, but not mayor.”

“Me neither. Dad never got into local politics, so I didn’t think much about it, either. But I’m more than happy to help a friend. It’s brought back a lot of old memories about being on the campaign trail with Dad. There’s not any traveling for Michael with this campaign, but it will take over his life for a few months. And if he wins, it will take over his life for years.”

“Do you think he’s ready for that?” Evie sipped her coffee, her eyes never leaving his face. She watched as the space between his eyebrows curled and uncurled. One lock of dark hair dangled above his eyes. His lips opened just wide enough to fit the lid of his coffee cup around which his hands wrapped.

Eli nodded. “He’s ready. He’s built his own business to a point he can leave it with someone else for a while and take care of the whole city for a few years. You don’t get to that place without putting in years of hard work. He’s got a great family, and he’s not about to let any job get between him and his family. I think he’s exactly where he needs to be for this kind of job.”

“Was your father ready for that commitment when he took it?” she asked, unsure why that question, out of all her questions, bubbled to the top.

“I don’t know. He allowed the job to take over everything. It took over to the point Mom was not just his wife but part of the staff.”

She blinked. “That’s a little harsh.”

“Yeah, it is. She loved being part of the action. She loved being his wife. But being his wife involved a lot of work. She didn’t just go to functions or smile on television. She planned events, worked for charities, and kept up with stuff at home so he could do his job,” he clarified.

“Does it make you wonder if you are cut out for that kind of work?”

“We must have spent more time together than I thought.” He smiled at her. “I can’t imagine not having anything to do with politics. I’m content right now, but I’m afraid I’m going to get restless soon. I need action and excitement, and you know this town doesn’t have much of either. But at the same time I wonder what it would be like to have a family like Michael’s. To go home to a house warmed not just by a gas heater but by a laughing, loving family.”

“Me, too,” she agreed. She let the cup warm her hands as she thought about the lack of warmth at her own home.

After her final earlier in the week, she’d lugged her laundry, books, and zippered suitcase back to her parents’ house. A note on the kitchen counter had instructed her where to find food for dinner and when to expect her parents home from a Christmas party. She had not seen her parents since Thanksgiving. She still burned with shame for her attitude during that visit. And now they were too busy to welcome her home for a few days.

But what did she expect? Her parents received hundreds of invitations to Christmas parties throughout the community each year. Even as a child, she had spent more time with babysitters during the holidays than with her parents.

“Eli, why does God seem to give us such separate desires? Why can we not simply desire a loving family
or
a full career? Why do we need both so much?” Her questions rushed out like the initial steam from her now cooling coffee.

He nibbled on his lip. “I don’t know. Either we’re desiring things he doesn’t want for us, or he’s giving us the desires for what he wants for us.”

She wrinkled her nose. “That doesn’t help a lot, Eli.”

He laughed. “I know. That leaves us needing to pray a little more about what he wants. If we aren’t to have either of those things, or we are to have one but not the other, we need to pray that God will take away our desire for whatever he doesn’t want us to have. And if we desire what he wants for us, then we need to ask him to confirm that.”

“That sounds a lot like what Brooke has been telling me. She said God uses his Word, other people, even situations to confirm what he wants for us.”

“She’s a very smart person. I’m glad she’s your friend.”

“Me, too.” Evie studied the rim of her cup as she ran her finger along it. Then she looked up at Eli, beaming. “She also helped me get saved a few weeks ago.”

Eli’s eyes instantly puddled with tears. When he clasped her hand, the warmth of his touch spread up her arm and into her heart. “Evie,” he choked, “I cannot tell you how happy that makes me.”

A single tear slid down Evie’s cheek and dripped onto the table. “I wanted to call you,” she whispered.

“I wish you had,” he replied, still holding tight to her hand.

“I couldn’t yet. I had to know, for sure, that it was for me and for God, not for you or anyone else. You were right. I needed time to figure some things out. I’m still not sure how ready I am for anything beyond school and Bible study right now. But then Michael called and I felt this peace….”

As she talked, she told him how anxious and unsettled she’d felt for days before Michael called. Like she was missing an appointment or wasn’t doing something on time. But when she talked to Michael and made plans to be a part of something not focused on her, she was relaxed, at ease again. She knew, without a doubt, she needed to be a part of his campaign. Now Eli was a part of that campaign, too.

“I understand what you mean. I’ve been begging God to show me what he wants me to do. Am I meant for politics, or to be a small-town lawyer? Now I’m beginning to wonder if I’m meant for something different. Instead of being elected, maybe I’m supposed to help someone else get elected.”

“Eli…” Her heart raced with the possibilities.

“I know, Evie.” He nodded as though he knew exactly what her nearly panic-stricken eyes feared to hope. “Maybe he’s giving us the same vision, the same focus for our future.”

Her breath escaped her in uneven pants. “But how do we know?” Her voice wavered. “How do we know it’s him—and not us?”

His smile spread serenity over her. “We pray about it.”

)

Later that night Evie slipped onto the front porch at her parents’ house with a blanket wrapped around her and a fleece cap covering her blond locks. She curled her feet under her and snuggled onto the swing hanging at the end of the porch. Stars made pinpricks in the dark December sky. Evie shivered and tucked the blanket closer. How life had changed since she sat in that swing only a few months ago, harboring bitterness toward her parents’ ultimatum.

She closed her eyes and pictured Eli standing in front of her that night as he’d walked away. How did her parents know he would care for her not because of what she could bring to his life or what material possessions she could give him, but that he would care for her because she made him smile or think? She never imagined sharing her passion for politics with someone.

Her whole body fell still, listening to the steady squeak of the swing as it moved back and forth. She opened her eyes when gravel in the drive crunched under the pressure of car tires. She watched her parents pull their car into the garage. Her mother jingled her keys and went into the house. Her father, in his black wool trench coat, walked back into the drive and up the steps to the porch where Evie sat. He lifted the corner of her blanket and spread it over his lap when he sat next to her.

“How was the party?” she asked, her breath making wispy smoke in the cold air.

“Ah, the same old, same old,” he answered, pushing the swing with his feet. “Mayor Colson was there, talking about the election next year. He usually doesn’t come, but I guess he wants to remind people what his face looks like.”

“Did he say anything about Michael Hudson?”

“He knows he has a tough election facing him. He kept talking about all the progress they’ve made over the last four years,” he explained.

“Do you think Michael has a chance?” She watched her father’s face for any signs of uncertainty.

“He definitely has a chance. How did your meeting with him go? Do you think this is something you want to get involved in?” He kept pushing the swing.

“I think he has some great ideas. He wants to see the community move forward and protect it at the same time. He’ll have some big issues to deal with if he gets elected, but he’s faced harder trouble building his own business,” she said, remembering their long conversation earlier.

Eli’s face danced through her mind again. “Dad,” she said, watching her vapor of her breath disappear into the night, “did you know Eli was going to be there?” The blanket around her grew warm as her heart bumped against her chest. She listened to her father’s steady breathing and the rhythmic squeak of the swing.

He opened his mouth to speak, closed it, and opened it again. “Yes.”

“Why do you think we need to be together so much? You just keep going out of your way to make sure we see each other.” Her shoulders sagged.
Does this mean it wasn’t us, but it wasn’t God, either?

“Evie, Michael Hudson is a long-time friend. He’s much younger than me but older than you. But he made this community a priority, which put us in the same social circles for years. I would have suggested that he involve you in his campaign whether Eli Wheatly had anything to do with it or not. He’s a good man, and you could use the experience and the distraction.” He continued to look at the black sky, lit only by a sprinkling of stars.

“So this had nothing to do with Eli?” She turned to gaze directly at her father. His more salt-than-pepper hair highlighted what remained of the summer tan he’d received from numerous golf trips. Tiny lines etched themselves to the side of his eyes and even a few at the corners of his mouth. She struggled for a minute to remember how he looked before time and teenagers wreaked havoc on him.

“Mmm, yes and no,” he hedged before meeting her eyes. “Eli was a bonus. I know you would be happy with him. He cares about the same things you care about, and he would be faithful to you.”

Faithful.
The word stung like the cold wind whipping around their shelter on the porch. He did want more for her than he had for himself. He wanted her to marry someone who met his approval, but he also wanted her to be happy—maybe even loved.

“I’m not good at being a husband, and your mother has never been interested in being a one-man woman. We both knew those things when we got married. And we stayed married because the world expected this of us. We have our business partnership and our personal partnership, and it’s too much trouble to break either of those up now. But I want more for you and for Taylor. Eli is a good man, and he’ll be good to you.”

He leaned over and kissed his daughter on the cheek in an unusual gesture of affection. “Don’t stay out here too much longer; you’ll get sick.” The swing dipped and swayed when he stood.

She watched as he walked through the front door into the house.

“He is a good man,” she whispered to the empty tree branches and whistling wind. She pulled her cell from her pocket and dialed a familiar number.

“Hello?”

“Eli? It’s God. I know it now. It’s God,” she sang.