To Heal A Heart (Love Inspired) (10 page)

Piper looked up at the tall tan brick building with its steep roof and modernistic spire reminiscent of a ship’s long prow and chided herself for the umpteenth time. Honestly, this quivering in the pit of her belly was pure nonsense! How many times in her life had she walked into a strange church?

She couldn’t begin to count the number of places to which she had accompanied her father on speaking engagements, let alone those churches she had attended for a simple Sunday service. It was true that in recent years she’d regularly attended the same “home” church in Houston, but she’d still managed to accompany her parents—who kept busy schedules despite their retirement from the mission field—several times a year, as her work had permitted. A new church was nothing “new” to her, for pity’s sake, so why this gut-wrenching, heart-palpitating dread?

As if sensing her turmoil, Mitchell slipped an arm about her shoulders, the comforting weight of it jogging up and down as they walked side by side toward the elaborately carved front door. Easily ten feet tall and four inches thick, the heavy portal nonetheless swung effortlessly out as he gently tugged the twisted, wrought-iron handle.

The low, familiar hum of people talking enveloped them as they entered the posh foyer, and almost at once a friendly hand came their way, offered by an official greeter with an “Ask Me Anything” button pinned to the lapel of his sports jacket. Mitch greeted the man by name and made the first of many introductions.

“These are my friends, Piper Wynne and Scott and Melissa Ninever.”

“We’re glad to have you with us this morning,” the fellow said heartily, shaking each hand and repeating the names in turn. Then the thing that Piper dreaded most came about as he turned back to her, the gleam of speculation in his friendly gaze. “Wynne, that’s a mighty familiar name. How do you spell that?”

Before she could answer, Mitch slapped his church brother on the shoulder and said, “If you’re thinking Ransome and Charlotte, you’re on the right track.”

“Any relation?”

Piper made an effort to smile rather than cringe. “They’re my parents.”

“Wow!” the man exclaimed. “I’ve read all of your father’s books.” Thankfully, others crowded in behind them just then, and he was forced to let them go.

Piper glanced uneasily at Scott and Melissa and saw the curiosity in their eyes. Sighing inwardly, she allowed Mitch to usher her deeper into the wide, arcing foyer with its dense plum-colored carpet.

“Mitch,” she whispered, prompting him to bend his head to hers solicitously, “I’d rather you didn’t mention my parents.”

“Oh? Can I ask why, sweetheart?”

Sweetheart? she thought, trying not to be distracted by that casual endearment. “It’s just that it sort of leaves the Ninevers out of it.”

“I’m not sure I follow.”

“I don’t want Scott and Melissa thinking I’m more welcome than they are just because of my family.”

“You’re right. That wouldn’t do. Still, you must realize that ninety percent of the people in this building will make the connection on the strength of your surname alone.”

She sighed. “I know.”

He gave her a measuring look. Henceforth, however, he made every effort to deflect speculation, even introducing her simply as Piper. Nevertheless, by the end of the service, the news had spread.

A slim, attractive, middle-aged woman bustled up to Piper just as she was stepping into the aisle and gushed, “I attended a women’s retreat where your mother was the guest speaker. Such an interesting life you’ve led! Could we entice you to speak to our women’s mission group?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I leave that sort of thing to my parents,” Piper said, very uncomfortable.

“Piper’s a nurse,” Mitch added helpfully.

“Really?” the woman persisted. “In what mission field?”

“I’m not in mission work. Actually, I’m in managed care right now.”

“Ah.”

That single syllable contained all the confusion, surprise and, she imagined, disapproval that Piper had come to expect. Why was it, she wondered, that she was presumed to have a calling just because her parents had? Her brother had often fought the same assumption, but then a year after college he had entered seminary. She couldn’t help wondering if everything might have been different if he’d resisted the expectations of others.

She shook her head. Gordon was a wonderful pastor, and even now he was plagued by those who continually expected him to surrender to foreign mission work, when it was clearly not what he was meant to do.

“Maybe later, Caroline,” Mitch said, and Piper realized that the woman had been speaking, presumably to her.

“I’m sorry. What were you saying?”

“I thought you might want to join our mission group,” the woman, Caroline, offered, not unkindly.

“Oh, ah, Mitch is right. I haven’t made a decision about a local church yet, but thank you for the invitation. I’ll certainly keep it in mind.”

The woman looked past Piper to Melissa then. “What about you?”

Melissa glanced at Piper. “I’m not even sure what a mission group is.”

To her credit, the woman whom Mitch had called Caroline began a patient and thorough explanation of the group’s purpose. Melissa shot a look of surprised interest at Scott when Caroline mentioned sending shoes and Christmas presents to underprivileged children in South America, as well as numerous other local projects.

“I, uh, I’ll have to think about it,” Melissa said, and Piper could tell by her tone that she meant it.

Piper glanced at Mitch, sure that they would be sharing the same pleased speculation about Melissa’s interest in the group, only to find Mitch studying her with a faintly troubled expression. She figured she knew what that was about, so she ducked her head and tried not to think that she had disappointed him somehow. Had he expected her to declare a sudden vocation for exotic foreign fields? Or had the notion that she might be headed in that direction only just occurred to him?

The woman named Caroline moved off, and Mitch guided Piper into the aisle, turning toward the foyer. The resemblance between this church sanctuary and the auditorium of the symphony center downtown struck her suddenly. True, the church was built on a smaller scale, but it was every bit as opulent as the Meyerson. She said as much to Mitch, glad for a “safe” subject for discussion. She felt the weight of his hands rest lightly on the tops of her shoulders as they caught up with the exiting crowd, and he connected the dots for her.

“We used the same architect. Several on the symphony board are members here, too, including my mom.”

“Ah.”

He chuckled. “You thought I was kidding about her hoping she’d get a classical musician out of me, didn’t you?”

She put her head back and looked up at him. “I didn’t get the sense that she was disappointed in you in any way.”

“I’m very blessed,” he said, and that he could think so after the way he’d lost his wife seemed harshly significant to Piper. She lifted her head and gulped, aware that her faith couldn’t hold a candle to his.

Always the disappointment, she told herself, once more sick at heart.

They picked up sandwiches at a deli that Mitch liked, probably because they piled on the jalapeños and banana peppers as if they were relish, then stopped by the apartment so the girls could change out of their Sunday clothes. Mitch and Scott were content in their chinos and jeans, respectively, and Scott stayed downstairs chatting with Mitch while Melissa ran up to their place. When Piper came back into the living area wearing jeans and a lightweight, V-necked, turquoise-blue sweater, the two men were deep in conversation.

“Man, I never thought of it that way,” Scott was saying. He swept a hand through his shaggy hair. “And it’s just a matter of accepting that publicly?”

“Or privately,” Mitch said, “depending on your personal convictions. For myself, I don’t believe a person can privately accept Christ without it becoming public through personal behavior.”

Scott nodded thoughtfully at that. “You know, a lot of it’s what Melissa and I have always believed, that you’re supposed to love your fellow man and do right by him.”

“I think that’s a God-given impulse, Scott,” Mitch told him. “The problem comes when our earthly impulses get in the way of our godly ones.”

“And that’s what repentance is about,” Scott murmured.

Mitch let that notion simmer in silence for a moment before he turned to Piper. “Wow, that color’s really good on you.”

“Thanks.”

“Ready to go?”

“When everyone else is.”

Scott was still mulling over his conversation with Mitch. Piper and Mitch exchanged a knowing look. His gentle smile was full of hope. Piper felt her heart swell. Leave it to Mitch to find a way. The Ninevers were her friends, but he was the one who seemed able to reach out to them in the most important matter.

Melissa tapped at the door and stuck her head in. They were off in a moment, piling into Mitch’s car with their picnic lunch and a tie-dyed blanket that Melissa had brought. The mood was gay but strangely serene, as if peace had found them all at the same time.

That feeling deepened for Piper as the afternoon wore on. It was something about this place, she decided. It was a true Eden for her, where all the worries of the outside world were held at bay. Later, when Mitch dropped them all off at the apartment house, he suggested that they follow the same plan the next Sunday. The Ninevers endorsed the idea soundly. Piper went away feeling that she might have found a haven for her troubled soul.

P
iper noticed that many of the trees were ablaze with autumn color. One half-decent freeze would denude the branches entirely. That time couldn’t be far off now, she told herself, strolling silently through the arboretum at Mitch’s side. They had left the Ninevers all but dozing on the blanket after devouring a massive lunch that Mitch had ordered specially catered for them.

“I’m sorry about this morning,” Mitch said suddenly. “When my mother heard, she…well, I told her last Sunday evening, but I guess my explanation about the Ninevers didn’t make a lot of sense, after the fact.”

Piper sighed. The pastor had actually announced from the pulpit that the congregation had a special guest in their midst. Piper had felt her face burn hot at the mention of her name. A lengthy tribute to her parents had followed. It was just the sort of thing that they would have hated, but she couldn’t help a small lurch of pride as their many accomplishments were listed in glowing terms. That had been swiftly followed by a stab of regret so profound that it had taken her breath. Here in the peaceful sanctuary of the arboretum, however, she could be a little more sanguine.

“I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later,” she told Mitch. “Dad would be horrified, though. He really tries to keep the focus where it belongs.”

“I can believe that.”

“The problem is, they’re just what you think they are.”

“Giants of faith,” he said, and she nodded.

“It must be difficult when your parents are as well-known in ministry as yours are.”

Piper shrugged, secretly pleased that he had divined much of the problem. “It’s called the ‘PK phenom.’”

“PK?”

“Preacher’s kids. We’re held to a different standard than others.”

“I hadn’t thought about it before, but I guess that must be so.”

“Believe me, it is.” She looked down at the well-mulched path they were treading and added unthinkingly, “I can’t tell you what that’s meant to my brother.”

“How so?”

She looked away, unable to speak of it, unable to speak at all for a moment. Finally she managed to say, “The expectations have just weighed far more heavily on him than on me, that’s all.”

“It’s not a lot different for lawyers, when you think about it,” Mitch said after a moment. “I mean, everyone assumed that because Dad was in law I would naturally go into it, too.”

“Is that why you did?”

“No. I believe I’m called to it. I believe we’re all called to something. I think that’s probably why you became a nurse.”

Piper bit her lip. Another failure, then, if that were true.

“I think I must have got it wrong,” she said, trying to make it sound like a joke. “I think I must have been called to something else.” Like messing up.

“What makes you say that?”

She shook her head. “Oh, nothing.”

“If this is about your job,” he began, but she couldn’t allow him to pursue that subject much further. She didn’t want to get into why she’d left a hands-on practice, a subject she had studiously avoided during their shared lunchtimes during the past week.

“Come on,” she said, slipping her arm through his, “it’s too beautiful a day to be talking about anything as unimportant as my job.” With that she jogged ahead, giving him a tug.

He joined in, and they ran, laughing and tussling, all the way to the fountains at the back of the park, where they plopped down on a rock as big as a bench. Mitch straddled it, and she sat on the end with her back to his chest, his arms looped about her. For some time they sat there listening to the water spill, then they got up to wander along to the giant wind chimes, which they played like two kids, trying to make some recognizable tune with the thick, long tubes hanging from a crossbeam.

Piper let happiness settle over her, aware that it would be fleeting, but all too glad to soak up what she could for the present. Such was all, it seemed to her, that this life had to offer. It was enough, surely, to sustain her, and yet she was vaguely aware of a certain exhaustion lately.

It was as if she fought demons in her sleep and the demons were slowly winning.

When they finally wandered back to the picnic spot, Scott and Melissa were gone with the blanket.

“Think we should go look for them?” Piper asked, but Mitch didn’t see the point.

Piper seemed troubled, though, so he put his arms around her. More and more lately she seemed to be sinking into a funk. One moment she would be laughing and happy, tossing out clever lines with amazing wit and ease, and then a cloud would pass over her eyes and she’d grow quiet and morose. He had the awful feeling that the real Piper, the vibrant, witty, engaging one, was slowly dying, leaving behind a hollow husk. It had to do with her family, he was sure, but he couldn’t imagine what had taken place to drive them apart.

“Don’t worry,” he said lightly. “Scott and Melissa will be around in a bit. It’s not like they can or would leave without us, after all.”

“True.”

They strolled over to a table and chairs on the veranda of the DeGolyer mansion, which functioned as the centerpiece for the park, and settled down to gaze out across White Rock Lake. Mitch tried to get it out of his head that Piper was hiding some terrible secret, running from something traumatic, perhaps. He was beginning to fear that it might be something that could come back to bite them both, something that might keep them apart. All that stuff about the “PK phenom,” as she called it, no doubt had merit, but it couldn’t be just that bothering her.

How could he lose his heart to her without knowing what she was hiding from? Yet he was in danger of doing that very thing. Maybe it was time to push a little, let her know that running and hiding would only make matters worse in the long term. He searched for the right words and found what he felt was a good opening to a subject that had been on his mind again lately.

He was ashamed to admit that he’d let the issue of the letter fall by the wayside, allowing all his energies and attention to be taken up by the woman at his side. Now he hoped that one might prompt the other to open up a little.

“Listen, Piper, did you by chance get a letter from the airline telling you that someone had found a personal item that they were trying to return to the owner?”

Her brow furrowed as she thought about it. “Yeah. Yeah, I think I did, now that you mention it. Why?”

“Well, that someone is me.”

“Oh?”

He nodded. “You remember that day when we bumped into each other on the sidewalk and I asked if you’d lost a piece of paper or if you’d seen anyone else lose something similar?”

“Sure. What about it?”

“It was a letter, a page out of a letter, really, and I’m still trying to find whoever lost it. Or I should be.” He hadn’t exactly been following up leads lately—not that he had many to follow. Some pretty little copperhead had distracted him completely. He made a mental promise to get back to the search.

“Is it really that important?” she asked.

“I think it could be. See, the person who lost that letter is running from something devastating—the loss of a son, perhaps.”

Piper shivered, and he naturally dropped an arm around her, but his mind was taken with the letter again. The eloquent words came back to him, sifting through his memory like an almost forgotten sigh.

“It spoke of pain and crosses to bear, and it begged for this person, whoever it was written to, not to leave.”

She quaked against him, and he glanced up, realizing suddenly that the sun had gone behind a cloud. Though it wasn’t particularly cold to him, he linked his hands together, trying to warm her within his embrace even as the letter took shape before his mind’s eye.

“I recall one phrase especially,” he said, and went on to quote from the letter. “‘To forget our dear boy would be to rob us of all the delights he brought into our lives.’” That passage still moved him, and he took a deep breath to help clear away the emotion. “It went on to say how he would hate it if his loss tore apart their family. It’s heartbreaking, really, because that’s what seemed to be happening. The writer begged this other person not to leave.” Mitch tried to remember the exact phrasing. “Something like, ‘To lose you, too, is surely more than I can bear.’”

Piper suddenly lurched forward, yanking herself from his grasp and bending at the waist. She promptly threw up her lunch, barely making it to the grass.

“Piper! Honey?”

Shocked, he sprang up belatedly and hurried toward her, but she turned and ran. He went after her, appalled that he hadn’t realized that the poor girl was sick. It quickly became obvious that she was heading for the rest room in the rear of the building. He let her go, fighting the urge to follow her into the ladies’ room just to be sure that she was all right.

“Piper!” he called out. “Baby, are you okay?”

When she didn’t answer, he began to pace, wondering what to do. A young mother with a little girl came along a few moments later, and he didn’t think twice about approaching her.

“My girlfriend’s sick in there. Would you check on her for me? Her name’s Piper.”

“Piper,” the woman repeated, and he inanely heard himself explaining, “For the bird.” That didn’t seem to make much sense to the woman, but she nodded kindly and went in with her little girl.

After what seemed like an eternity, Piper came out, mopping her face with a paper towel. Her eyes were red and watering, but he threw his arms around her and hugged her tight with relief.

“Sweetheart, you should’ve told me you were ill.”

She put a hand to her abdomen. “Guess something I ate didn’t agree with me.”

“I’m taking you home,” he said, feeling responsible. He’d handpicked the whole meal, after all. He was going to have a word with the caterers, too, but maybe it wasn’t their fault. He’d never had any trouble before with anything they’d provided for him, and he didn’t feel sick in the slightest himself—unless he counted the fist inside his chest that seemed to have a death grip on his heart.

Piper was shaking her head. “No, we can’t do that,” she argued, sounding tired. “Not without Melissa and Scott. Would you just go find them first, please? I’ll wait right here.” She pointed to a nearby bench. When he hesitated she added, “Please, Mitch.”

“Okay, baby, if that’s what you want.” He walked her over to the bench and sat her down before warning her, “But if I don’t find them within the next ten minutes then they’ll just have to wait until I can come back for them. Understand?”

“The sooner you find them the sooner we can go,” she answered ambiguously.

He set his jaw and hurried off, determined that he would have his way in this. He’d humor her for now, but he wasn’t taking any chances with her health, period.

Fortunately, he stumbled across the Ninevers within the first five minutes. He hadn’t even finished explaining the situation before they were all on their way back to Piper. She was sitting right where he’d left her, gazing morosely into the distance.

“You okay, hon?” Melissa asked anxiously.

“Just an upset stomach,” Piper answered with a wan smile.

Mitch swept her up onto her feet. “I can carry you, if you like.”

She shook her head. “No, no. I’ll be fine.”

He dug out his keys and handed them to Scott. “Bring the car around, would you?”

“Sure thing.”

Scott took off at a run, but Melissa stayed behind to add her support to Mitch’s. Flanking Piper, they coiled their arms around her and walked her gingerly toward the front of the park.

“Take your time,” Mitch counseled.

“I’ll be fine,” she said, and she kept saying it, but something told Mitch that she believed just the opposite. Shaken, he wondered wildly if she had some fatal disease that she was hiding from him, but surely not.

Please, God,
he prayed silently.
Oh, heavenly Father, please. You wouldn’t do that to me. Not again.
Then he remembered how the letter writer had put it.

To lose you as well is surely more than God can allow.

It was a sentiment with which Mitch suddenly identified all too well.

Piper was ill, really ill. She realized that she couldn’t go to work, and after dragging herself up the stairs to phone her supervisor from Melissa’s apartment, she was almost too weak to get back down again.

“Maybe you should see a doctor,” Melissa said worriedly, feeling Piper’s forehead for signs of a fever. “I promised Mitch that if you weren’t better by this morning I’d see to it.”

“It’s just a stomach thing,” Piper insisted, shaking her head in refusal. “Some sort of bug or virus, nothing more.”

But what sort of virus produced such tears as she’d been experiencing? Buckets and buckets of them, and she couldn’t understand what she was crying about, for pity’s sake.

“Stay here and let me take care of you today,” Melissa urged, but Piper was determined not to do that.

“No way. You have to go to work.” If this was some sort of weird bacterial infection, she didn’t want to expose her friends to it any more than she already had. Besides, instinct told her that whatever the cause of her physical distress, she was better off battling her personal demons in private.

Melissa protested, but Piper held firm, going back downstairs to curl up on her bed in her sweats. Unexpectedly, she fell asleep at once.

The next thing she knew someone was beating on her door. Feeling as lethargic as when she’d lain down, she struggled up and went to glower at whoever it was, but the instant she opened the door, Mitch enveloped her in a worried embrace, a white plastic bag in one hand.

“You’re still sick. I knew I shouldn’t have left you alone last night. Melissa says you won’t go to the doctor.”

“It’s just a stomach flu of some sort,” she argued defensively. “Honestly, I know when I have to see a doctor and when I don’t.”

Undaunted by her lousy mood, he chucked her under the chin and kissed her forehead. “All right, I won’t nag, but I brought you some canned soup and crackers.” He set the bag on the little bar separating the kitchen from the living area. “If you feel up to it, try to eat.”