Christian Romance: Heaven on Earth... [4 Beautiful Christian Romance Stories] (8 page)

Instead, she’d remained staring so
resolutely at the fire anyone would think this was her first time
seeing one and that, as far as she was concerned, nothing else
existed. She stared like she was enthralled by it, but was also
mortally afraid of it, or why would her legs tremble a great deal
even as she tried to hug it to stillness?

Charles had not seen how Lucy shook,
or if he had he attributed the reason to something else. He had
turned his face away and, just as resolutely as Lucy, stared in
that direction for the rest of the night.

But he didn’t get up and leave
her.

No, they stayed that way for many
minutes, sitting without talking, as close as they could ever get
now to each other.

Until all the families that shared
that last night returned to their tents, one by one, they sat
together. Just two sullen teenagers, determined to have none of the
others’ merriment. For how could they have celebrated? They were
too busy drowning in torment.

It’s a wonder that they’d
never once drawn attention to themselves, to the invisible but
palpable
something
between them, not just on that night but from the moment they
first laid eyes on each other.

It’s a wonder that nobody can see it
now, this intense fire that for years had lain dormant, blazing
fully into life the moment the master and mistress that lit it
reunited to stoke it once again.

On the last possible moment that they
could’ve gotten away with being locked inside a world of their own,
Lucy and Charles regained their self-possession and something of
their common sense too. They summoned a polite smile for everyone
else’s benefit and subtly let themselves back into the general
proceedings, just as if they’d never left.

It didn’t matter at all that they
weren’t looking at each other now—the other person was only an
arm’s reach away if ever they were attacked by doubts that this was
really happening. In any case, the heat that was still coursing in
waves through the physical distance they must set between them was
enough of a reminder. For the time being.

“Actually, we are
celebrating too,” Margaret was saying. Without taking her gaze off
of her listeners, she reached a hand behind her and it landed
perfectly on one of her son’s broad shoulders. “Charleston here has
just graduated
magna cum laude
in Molecular Biology
and
he’s being offered a scholarship
in
three
of the
top medical schools in the country. He’s simply wonderful, and God
is gracious. I was so happy, I even told our pastor—I told him,
‘Just you wait now, Father, when our boy’s a doctor, this whole
parish will want for no quality medical attention. Charleston shall
lend you his time and expertise at absolutely no cost.’ And you
won’t believe this, but our pastor told me, he said, ‘Pride is a
sin, my daughter, but in this case I believe you are simply telling
the truth. Your son has a good, God-fearing heart in him. I have no
worries on his behalf.’
Oh
, you can just imagine how my
heart swelled at his words.”

None of them had to imagine anything
because Margaret was suddenly daubing at her eyes—so overcome was
she with happiness. Noah gave a small but unmistakably indulgent
smile at his wife before clapping his son on his other
shoulder.

“You will forgive our
effusiveness, I’m sure,” Noah said, beaming apologetically at them
all. “Rare it is that any child lives up to
some
of his parents’ expectations.
When yours live up to
all
of them, it’s…” Unable to find a good enough
word, he merely shook his head.

Lucy’s father rejoined with, “Oh, not
at all, please. Noah, Margaret—we understand. We understand
perfectly. Don’t we, darling?”

“That is great news indeed, Charles,”
replied Helena, her eyes crinkling and also tearing a bit, in
solidarity with Margaret’s. “Congratulations.”

Charles smiled a bit shyly and said,
“Thank you. Thank you so much.” He was being properly gracious and
humble about it all, but one glance at his ear told Lucy that this
affected him more than he showed—it was hopelessly red. She turned
away and hid a smile behind her hand.

Confirming that Charles
was highly intelligent was well and good, and she already knew he
was a good son from back when they first met. What set Lucy’s heart
to pounding again was how… how
cute
she thought Charles was behaving, so
uncomfortable with being the center of attention. Suddenly it all
felt too much, though not in a bad way. She thought she had already
fallen long ago, so what was
this
happening to her now?

How much deeper, exactly, does this
pit she had flung herself to go?

More importantly… should she dare to
find out?

“Madams, Sirs?” the floor manager
himself appeared by their table. Almost half of the people around
it had simply been standing in talk for several minutes, and no
waiter could successfully find an opening to even approach them
with the menus let alone ask for their orders. “If you would like
to merge your parties, I believe we may be of service and
accommodate it. Would this be agreeable?”

“Well, what do you say?” said Rick
jovially to the other couple. “Come on, then! Let’s celebrate
together.”

“Oh, yes,
please
,” added his wife.
“Do join us.”

Margaret looked at her husband with
moist eyes. “Noah?”

“Why don’t we ask our celebrants?”
Noah said. “Both of them?”

All eyes then alternated between
Charles and Lucy. Lucy thought it would be doubly foolish to look
at Charles at that moment, but she felt his gaze on her and so she
turned too. He was smiling at her with nothing but politeness, but
with those ears he couldn’t possibly fool her. He was nervous about
this game of detachment they were playing, but he looked like he
was enjoying it too. Especially since Lucy was nearly hopeless at
it.

“I think Lucy should
decide,” said Charles. “It
is
her special day.”

“Oh, no, please,” Lucy replied at
once, blushing prettily, her eyes wide when she was not blinking at
Charles. “I’ll have other birthdays, but yours is… it’s an
achievement truly worth celebrating, Charles. It’s… I think it’s
very remarkable. O-of course, we don’t wish to intrude if you wish
to celebrate as a family, but… please know you’re more than welcome
to join us.”

Even as she was speaking, Lucy wasn’t
sure for whose benefit her words were. Certainly not for Charles’.
He already knew what Lucy thought, already knew what she wanted.
For starters, she wanted for them to never part as strangers again.
This was another chance God Himself had given them. She was
determined not to lose it without a fight.

After confirming with his parents that
it would really be alright, Charles agreed to join their party and
share both their celebrations. The waiters went to work at once,
expanding the space they occupied and placing more chairs and table
settings.

When they were all seated—the Ambrose
family at the makeshift space at one end of the now very long
table, the son in between the parents—the waiters could finally
hand over the menus and wait for their orders.

“Speaking of children who aren’t
disappointments…” Rick began as he let his extended brood order
first.

“Rick
,” his wife said in admonition, not liking his
wording.

“Oh, you know what I mean, darling.
Well, our Lucy doesn’t have all that—” Rick gestured at Charles, at
nothing in particular and everything at once “—under her belt,
though I’m sure come graduation time next year we’ll be pleasantly
surprised with a thing or two.”

He winked at his daughter who smiled,
albeit nervously, and said, “Dad.”

“But I’m a simple man,”
Rick went on. “And small things make me happy. Most fathers would
start growing bald after their daughters reach a certain age, but
I—
I
never had a
problem with my Lucy, not one. She’s got good grades at school,
keeps good friends—she spends most of her free time volunteering at
our church, and the rest she spends at home, just reading the hours
away—and not with trash novels or magazines either. She
reads
textbooks
.
She claims they’re
fun
. Well, and who am I to slam?” Rick said with a chuckle
before taking a sip of water, then he became serious. “I count
ourselves very fortunate that our Lucinda doesn’t ‘go out’, or
party, or drink, or do any of those ‘experiments’ children today
are so enamored of, God forgive their souls.”

Rick made the sign of the cross and
his wife echoed him. The rest soon followed, even the people
farther away at the table who hadn’t known what it was for. Some of
the younger ones looked around, thinking their food had arrived
when the waiter hadn’t even finished taking all their orders
yet.

“Well,” Helena said with a
wry smile. “While I’m not discounting any of that, I for one am
beginning to despair that Lucy would ever find a husband. She has
absolutely no interest in such things. Boys would come calling at
our house now and again, and we wouldn’t have grumbled
too much
about her
getting to know any of them better as long as it’s a decent fellow,
but it’s Lucy herself who turns them down. Sends them all home
politely, not even fifteen minutes in.” Helena shook her head at
Lucy, looking torn.

“Eh, but what of it?” said Rick in his
daughter’s defense. “She’s too young for that anyway. Really,
darling.”

Helena looked at her husband patiently
but not resignedly, and it was easy to tell this was an old
argument. “We were twenty-two when we married, dear. Right out of
college.”

All of a sudden, a smile bloomed on
Rick’s face as he looked at Helena. “Eh, but we couldn’t wait,
could we?” he said, to his wife’s mortification and to the
amusement of the rest of the table who were following the
conversation.

“Oh, come, come, Helena,” said
Margaret, wiping at her eyes again, this time of tears born of
mirth. “Your Lucy is a pretty girl, I’m sure she wouldn’t have a
problem on that score, when the time comes. What do you think,
son?” She turned to Charles. “Don’t you think Lucy is
pretty?”

This was such an unexpected turn in
the conversation that the participants stilled for a moment. And
then—almost as one entity—they all turned to look at Charles. He
was the one most shocked by the question, and for once he couldn’t
find it in him to feign anything.

Lifting his gaze to meet Lucy’s,
Charles said, “I think she’s very beautiful.”

It wasn’t just the words that made the
others’ silence stretch on. It was the redness that was seeping
from his lobes and down to his neck, making it flush visibly. And
perhaps the answering bloom in Lucy’s cheeks as well.

In a whisper that carried over half of
the table, Lucy’s cousin whispered to her brother, “Why are they
blushing?” Adrian, being more in tune with his surroundings,
elbowed the other young man in the rib—hard.

There was only one thing this looked
like, and it was perfectly natural and even understandable that two
attractive people of their age, who’ve known each other previously
and haven’t seen each other in a while, would develop a crush on
each other. For some reason that none of them could wrap their
minds around to, however, both Lucy’s and Charles’ parents felt
something like alarm over this—what they thought of as a new
development.

She’s our only
daughter
, floated in the minds of Helena
and especially of Rick, in an attempt to explain and justify their
reaction to themselves.

He’s our only
child
, Margaret thought in a similar
fashion and for much the same reason. Only Noah recognized what was
between the two people for what it was, and his only objection was
that they were both too young.

Awkwardness compounded all their
embarrassment, so the sudden appearance of the waiter over their
end of the table was a godsend. Their attention now turned to
choosing their meal—or seemingly so. The older women were
determined to wipe the incident clean from their minds while the
men turned the fact over for practicality’s sake. They thought they
needed to prepare for eventualities.

Lucy, meanwhile, was lost in a
confusing world of thrill and fear. Charles could barely stop
himself from stealing a glance at her whenever the urge took him,
which was often. He still couldn’t believe this was happening, but
even if this were only a dream or an illusion, he was determined to
never snap out of it...

Charleston didn’t truly understand
what hit him—not five years ago, and somehow even less
now.

At school he’d been the kind of
student who made friends with like-minded people but mostly kept to
himself. He was quiet and detached from the rest, just doing his
work, giving more than what was expected of him, and at home he did
what he thought most young people his age did, which was immerse
himself in television shows, movies, books, or video
games.