Texas Weddings 3 & 4 (32 page)

“How
are you today?” She walked to the bed and gave him a hug. His eyes, though full
of love, still had a look she couldn’t place. Vacant. That’s what it was. He
wasn’t quite himself. Not yet, anyway.

“
F.
. .fine.” He sat up and she plumped his pillows, as
always.

Kellie
took a seat in the chair next to him and struck up a conversation. Of course
she did most of the talking, but her father responded with as many words as he
could muster. His eyes spoke the rest. She told him about her morning, about
her Internet woes and about her business. She shared what it was like to be
back at the church of her childhood and how she felt when she saw Julia and
Madison. In short, she talked his ear off.

At one point, her father
interrupted with one shaky word. “
N.
. .
Nath
..
an
?”

“Nathan’s
in Houston, Daddy.” Her heart ached, even as she spoke the words. “He’s at work
today. But he’ll be home tonight.”

“
H.
. .home?”

She
reminded him of the rental house in
Greenvine
and
tried to put his mind at rest. Clearly he didn’t quite understand how Nathan
could be in one place and she in another. She rushed past the explanation in
this hopes that a little would suffice.

“
W.
. .where is your m…mother?”

“Ah.”
I should have told him right away.
“Mom’s at a luncheon at the church
today. She’ll be here in about an hour.”

Her
father nodded and smiled. “L
. .
.
love
her.”

“I
know you love her, Dad.” Kellie winked at him. “And she loves you too.”

His
eyes filled with tears and he brushed at them with an undeniable look of anger
crossing his face.

Kellie’s mind reeled as she
contemplated his reaction to her words. Why would that upset him?
 
Of course her mother loved him. After
just a moment, Kellie figured out his thoughts.
He’s worried that he’s
unlovable in this condition. That’s what it is.

She
stood and embraced him. “Daddy, you’re still the love of her life. That will
never change, no matter what.”

He
nodded, eyes still moist. “I know.” He squeezed her hand and looked directly
into her eyes. “L
. .
.
love
you, K…
kell
.”

“I
love you too, Daddy.” She gave him a kiss on the cheek, and then sat to chatter
his ear off awhile longer.

***

Nathan pulled into the driveway—if
one could call it that—and turned off the car. He sat for a moment,
staring at his new home in the dusk. It had an eerie look, one that still made
him a little uncomfortable. In some ways, the whole experience reminded him of
a movie.

“And people think living in the
city is scary.” He spoke to no one but himself. Of course, he had been doing a
lot of that lately.

Nathan
took the keys out of the ignition and reached for his briefcase. As he climbed
from the car, he caught a glimpse of Kellie through the front window. She
scurried around the kitchen with her short blonde hair tucked behind her ears.
He hadn’t seen her wear her hair like that
since they’d met years ago in Dallas.
He stared in silence as his
gorgeous bride shifted from the stove to the table. She
looked.
. . what was the word?
 
Relaxed. She
looked relaxed and happy. Funny, He’d almost forgotten what that looked like.

Nathan
opened the back door of the car and pulled out an overnight bag. With the bag
in one hand and briefcase in the other, he crossed the still-overgrown lawn.
Sooner or later he would get to it.
Probably later, rather
than sooner.
Nathan entered the house with a rehearsed smile on his
face. He didn’t want Kellie to see the exhaustion or any hint of frustration.
She had been through enough, after all.

She greeted him with a warm hug
and a brush of light kisses along his cheek. “How was the drive?”

Nathan
fought the temptation to say ‘long.’
 
He opted, instead, to go another route. After all, the Lord had given
him plenty of time to get some work done on the road. And his prayer time had
increased, to be sure. Besides, it was a really pretty drive, especially in the
springtime with the bluebonnets to keep him occupied.

Nathan
smiled as
he said, “Not bad.
I’ve been listening to tapes from that conference in
Austin. I actually made it through the first two.”

“Great.”
 
She took the briefcase from his hand and
set it aside. Her lips curled down in a bit of a pout as she continued. “I had
a little trouble signing onto the Internet today, but I called the phone
company. They’re going to send someone out tomorrow to look at our line.”

He
had worried about this, to be honest. In her line of work, an instant
connection was critical. “Any consequences?”
 
He almost dreaded her answer.

“Yes.”
Her gaze shifted downward. “But nothing a little pleading couldn’t take care
of.” She sighed.

He shook his head. “I’m sorry,
Honey.”

“Se la
vi
.”
She gave a wave of her hand, as if to dismiss the whole thing.

Nathan wasn’t quite ready to let
go of his troubling thoughts. “What are they saying at the office?
 
Are they okay with this change in
plans?”

“So far, so good,” she said.
“Thankfully.”

Nathan breathed a sigh of relief.
“Well then, I’ll just pray the phone company gets all of the kinks worked out.
Looks like the Lord’s already taken care of the rest.”

“Yep.” She ushered him toward the
table. “Hungry, I hope?”

“Starving.”
In truth, he’d barely had time for lunch. Somewhere between the two drives and
the workload, there just hadn’t been time for food today.

She
pointed at the dish of Chicken Cacciatore and salad and beamed. “I’ve been
working hard.”

“I
can see that. It looks great.” Nathan sat at the unfamiliar table in an
unfamiliar chair and ate off of an unfamiliar plate. All the while, Kellie
chattered merrily. She never picked up on his discomfort and he never gave her
any reason to. He took big bites and listened as she told him all about her
day. Had she always been this talkative?
 
For some reason, he couldn’t seem to remember this much chattering after
work. Then again, in the city she had people to talk to all day.
Here.
. .

Well,
here things were different. Clearly.

“I
think my dad is doing a little better.” She paused and her lashes dampened with
tears. “You should see him, Nathan. His face lights up every time I come in the
room. The doctor says he’ll be up to walking outside by next week. I can’t
wait. I hope the weather cooperates. I checked the weather report today and we’re
supposed to have a lot of rain in the next ten days.”

“You
checked the weather report?” He didn’t recall her ever doing that before.

“Well,”
she explained, “I read the paper up at the rehab. I’ve been doing a lot of
reading lately.”

“Wow.” Nathan couldn’t help but
smile at her enthusiasm.
I haven’t seen this side of her in a long, long
time.
Somehow seeing her so relaxed worked to relax him, as well.

He decided then and there that he
could handle the drives, handle the loss in income and handle the bills from
the new house and
furnishings.
. . as long as he got
to look at this beautiful, peaceful face every night.

ten

Kellie stopped off at the grocery
store in
Greenvine
on the way home from visiting her
father. She entered the store with the list of needed items in one hand and the
cell phone pressed to her ear. She continued an ongoing conversation with
Nathan, one that had started twenty minutes prior, as she pulled out of
Brenham.

“How late will you be?” Kellie
spoke into the phone as she grabbed a shopping cart and headed it toward the
produce aisle. One of the wheels didn’t seem to be working properly, so she
switched out one cart for another. Unfortunately, the next one appeared to have
the same problem.

“From
what I’ve been told, this meeting could go on until seven or eight,” Nathan
explained. “Looks like I’m not going to make it home till ten or after.”

She
paused long enough to pout. “No way.”

“Way.

“Man.” Kellie tossed a head of
lettuce into her shopping cart and sighed. “I had planned a great dinner. King
Ranch Chicken and a brand new taco salad recipe I just found in a magazine up
at the Rehab.” Her father seemed to spend more time dozing than awake, so she’d
had ample time to browse the rehab’s worn selection of women’s magazines. She’d
discovered recipes, developed a desire to redecorate and even come under
conviction to intensify her romantic life.

“I’ll
still eat when I get in,” he said. “But don’t wait on me, okay?
 
Go ahead and do your own thing.”

“
Do my own thing?
Are you sure?”

“Yeah.
And don’t stress so much over all the cooking. You’re going to make me fat.” He
chuckled, but Kellie didn’t join in the fun. In truth, she had grown to love
preparing a homemade meal each night and, as thin as Nathan was, she could
scarcely imagine him growing plump.
In spite of her new
recipes.

Nathan let out a groan. “Great.
That’s my other line. I have to run.”

“I
miss you, Nathan.”

“I
miss you too. See you tonight.”

He
disappeared and Kellie turned her attention to shopping. Even if he came home
late, she wouldn’t let that stop her from making a meal he would enjoy. She
would continue to do everything she could to let him know how much she
appreciated him.

She pushed the cart along, broken
wheel bouncing with a
clack, clack,
clack
. She glanced to her right and left, still
adjusting to the outdated grocery store. It in no way compared to the
contemporary, well-stocked markets back home in Houston. To start, it was a
fraction the size. More complicated, it offered little variety. In particular,
this tiny store carried very few of the natural, organic fruits and vegetables
she had grown to love.

Well,
no bother.
The next time she was in
Houston, she would go to the Whole Foods Market.
In the meantime, this
would have to do. She sorted through the bell peppers, finally choosing two
that she could tolerate. Next, she headed to the tomatoes. She picked her way
through the small selection, bagging three small ones and placing them in the
front of her basket next to the peppers.

Kellie
rounded the corner onto the bread aisle. She reached for a loaf of bread and
placed it in the basket. As she did, a familiar voice caught her attention.

“I’ve
got a great recipe for homemade bread.”

Kellie
looked up into her friend’s eyes. “Julia!” She squealed. “I can’t believe it.”

“Why
not?” Julia smiled. “In a town this size, we run into each other all the time.
Better get used to it.”

“I
guess so.” Kellie paused as she thought about it. “It’s kind of nice. Doesn’t
happen much in the big city.”

Julia
quieted Madison, who’d started to squirm in the front of her basket. “This
little girl’s sleepy. She missed her nap today. We had a tea party for
pre-school girls up at the Civic Center. That’s why she’s so dressed up.”

“Well,
she looks adorable,”
Kellie
acknowledged. In truth,
Madison looked like the cutest thing she had ever seen with her ruffled dress
and patent leather shoes. “And it sounds like a lot of fun.”

“I’m
the activities director for the center,” Julia explained. “We do everything
from inviting in speakers to taking road trips together. It’s a blast.”

“Wow.”
Kellie pondered her friend’s excitement. How could anyone muster that kind of
enthusiasm for a children’s tea party?

Julia
continued to tend to Madison, who clearly wanted out of the basket. “So, are
you getting settled in?” she asked, as she reached to scoop the beautiful
little girl into her arms.

Kellie
nodded. “Getting there. The house still needs a lot of work.” She and Nathan
had spent a great deal of time on the place already, but it would
takes
months to transform the little house into a
comfortable living space. Not that they had months.

“Frankie
and I bought a little fixer-upper a couple of years ago,” Julia said. “It’s
been a challenge, but we’ve learned a lot about ourselves along the way. We’ve
done a ton of work on the house—everything from remodeling the kitchen to
laying down a wood floor. And I’ve developed an addiction to home improvement
TV in the process.” She flashed Kellie a broad smile. “You name it, I watch it.
Design shows, landscaping shows, even those funny surprise makeover shows. I
love them all. And I’ve learned a lot, too.”