Chapter 40
CHAPTER
FORTY
Surprise burned through Reeves that he even remembered how to tie a tie, but he got the garment knotted at his throat on the first try. Despite the jitteriness in his veins, he managed to pick Bailey up on time as well.
She came to the door wearing a light blue dress with white flowers embroidered all over it, with big, puffy sleeves and a V-neck. It screamed happiness, and Reeves smiled at her.
“You’re so beautiful,” he said, reaching for her hand and gently drawing her out onto the front porch. “Are we ready for this?”
“No,” she said, that single word holding onto a little bit of grumpiness. “But my momma says the first time we do something is the hardest.”
She reached back and pulled her front door closed. “I felt like that when I first started getting to know OJ.”
Reeves sensed that she simply needed to talk, so he kept his hand in hers and went down her front steps at her side.
“I didn’t meet him until he was eight years old,” she continued. “He’d mailed me a birthday card, and…well, you’ve met him. He’s just about the sweetest thing in the world.” She sighed like being sweet was a bad thing.
“I remember walking up to his parents’ front door that first time.” She shook her head. “It was terrible. I was scared out of my mind.”
Reeves went around the truck and opened the passenger door for her. “But only walking up to the door, right?”
She climbed up and turned back to him. “Yeah, it’s just getting inside that’s hard. We had dinner, and he played the guitar for me, and it was totally fine. Fun, even.”
“Maybe church will be like that.” Reeves smiled at her, stepped in closer, and reached to slide his hand along the back of her neck.
She leaned down and met him halfway for a kiss, and everything in the world disappeared behind his closed eyes. There was only him and Bailey, and the longer he kissed her, the more vibrant a picture bloomed in his mind.
They’d have a big farm together, where they could have their dogs, and his goats, and maybe even a horse or two—if she brought one home from the clinic.
She could grow her garden and keep working at her practice if she wanted, but they’d have kids that they’d both love and adore and take care of right here in Coral Canyon.
He pulled away, and the beautiful vision of his future disappeared as he opened his eyes. He wanted that small-town happiness, and to raise his kids with the gospel of Jesus Christ, with Bailey at his side.
To do that, he had to take this tough first step and get to church. So he moved to get behind the wheel and get through simply getting inside the chapel.
Twenty minutes later, Bailey nodded ahead. “It’s up there on the right,” she said. “I see the sign.”
Reeves caught sight of it a moment later. “Yep.”
Bailey had gotten the name and address of the church from Joey, who said she attended with Adam, Harry and Belle, and Bryce and Codi. Reeves pulled into the parking lot, everything in his life smoothing out when he saw Luke Young going around the back of his big brown SUV.
“Luke’s here,” he said, plenty of surprise in his voice.
“Yeah, they live in Dog Valley.” Bailey switched her attention to him. “You were just at their house yesterday,” she added with a laugh.
Reeves grinned. “Yeah, I guess I just didn’t even think about it.”
“He lives up here, as do Gabe and Morris,” Bailey said. “I think everyone else goes to church down in Coral Canyon, where my parents attend.”
Reeves pulled into a parking spot a bit further down from Luke and across the aisle, and he looked over to Bailey. “We’ve got this.”
“Yes, we do.” Her confidence, feigned or not, got Reeves out of the truck, and he moved to her side to open her door and help her down.
She slid her hand into his immediately, her grip a little firmer than normal.
Reeves didn’t mind at all, and they both fell silent as they walked toward the white building with the tall steeple on the front.
The sunlight glinted off the stained glass windows above the door, and Reeves found something magical about them.
His nerves settled below his lungs and down out of his stomach, and he managed to go up the steps and into the church without a problem.
A foyer opened up, with two sets of double doors flung wide open that led into the chapel.
The sound of chatter and laughter and someone playing the piano filled the air.
Reeves paused to take in the enormity of it.
The world continued somewhere, but for Reeves, everything had just turned slower, more peaceful. He didn’t need to worry about the hours of editing ahead of him, or the script for his next video, or how he would react if someone recognized him.
Right now he got to be anonymous, only visible to God—something he suddenly craved.
Bailey stepped forward, and Reeves went with her.
They entered the chapel side-by-side, and while her steps slowed, she didn’t stop.
Reeves saw men and women in their Sabbath Day best, with plenty of cowboys wearing their hats.
Relief flooded him, though he’d once been berated verbally for wearing his hat in church as a teen.
All at once, Reeves realized why he’d fallen away from church attendance and joining himself to organized religion: he’d literally never had a good experience with it.
Confusion ran through him, because he did love God and spoke of Him often in his videos, and he didn’t know what to do with the complicated feelings braided through him.
“Let’s sit over here,” Bailey said, and Reeves stumbled after her as she took a seat about halfway toward the pulpit on the far left side. The chapel had a wide middle area full of pews as well, and then another shorter side on the right.
Bailey only moved over far enough for him to take a seat on the end, though another couple could have sat with them. He didn’t think the meeting would be that crowded, and he supposed they could scoot to make room for people if the chapel did fill up.
He sat down and continued to look around, taking in the amazing craftsmanship of the wood on the walls and ceiling.
A big pipe organ took up a huge part of the raised area where the pulpit stood.
Chandeliers dripped down from the ceiling every fifteen feet or so, haloing the congregation with muted yellow light.
Plenty of sunlight came in from the east side, where the Garden of Eden had been depicted in stained glass along the top eight feet of the chapel.
Reeves spotted Luke with his family in one of the middle rows, closer to the front.
One of the twins sat with him, while the other took up the row behind them.
Gabe and Hilde had the four little boys, and Reeves smiled at them sitting beside Luke’s two sons, the six little boys all in a neat row.
He ducked his head toward Bailey. “Look at those Young boys up there,” he whispered.
She found them and smiled. “They’re cute.”
“Do you want boys or girls, wildflower?”
She snuggled into his chest, and Reeves lifted his arm around her. “I don’t dare wish for one more than the other,” she said.
Reeves figured he’d love any child the good Lord blessed him with.
He didn’t have time to say so before the music changed and doors opened on either side of the pipe organ.
Choir members started to flow out, wearing deep, dark red robes.
They made three rows behind the pulpit and in front of the pipes, singing Amazing Grace in a four-part harmony.
All the confusion and darkness in Reeves’s soul fled. The music, the words of the song, the stained glass, but most of all, the spirit here, had just flooded him with light, reminding him that he was a son of God, and that the Lord had been keenly aware of him every day of his life.
His emotions surged, but Reeves managed to keep the tears burning in his eyes until he could control them, and they dried up.
The choir finished, and the pastor moved to stand behind the pulpit.
He stood at least six feet tall, the tie around his neck seemingly a little bit too snug.
Perhaps that was simply the thickness of the man’s body, as he could play for a professional football team with shoulders that wide and a chest that big.
He put a folder on the pulpit in front of him and looked out at his congregation. Pure light emanated from him, and when he said, “My brothers and sisters, good Sabbath day morning,” he didn’t really need the microphone.
He broadcasted power and joy, and Reeves wanted that feeling in his life every Sunday for the rest of his days.
“It’s been an amazing summer so far, hasn’t it?” Pastor Michaels asked. “I sure think so, and I’ve got two teenagers who will be heading back to school very soon.”
He grinned as if this were great news. “It’s been fun to have them home during the summer, but I find I’m better with the routine of them going to school every day.
The older they get, though, the more I’m reminded of how much Satan desires to have us, and none of us are immune from his charms, his tricks, and his deception. ”
Though he’d turned a touch more somber, he still spoke with an undercurrent of love in his voice Reeves felt way down in his heart. “None of us are perfect, my friends, and we all need the redeeming power of the Lord.
“Today, I’d like to remind you that no matter what you think you have done, or how far you think you have strayed, God’s desire to have you, to save you, and to walk beside you still exists.
“In the Bible, we read of great kings Saul and David. Some of you may know the stories of David and the terrible things he did, despite God’s influence over him. When Solomon had just finished the new temple and was dedicating it, he pleads with the Lord to remember those who will return unto Him.
“That’s us, my friends, and I want to testify that God stands ready to receive you. In his prayer, Solomon said: ‘if they will repent and make supplication to Thee’—meaning prayer—and plead with Thee for help, and return unto Thee with all their hearts and all their souls.”
He looked around at everyone again, and Reeves swore the man made direct eye contact with him personally. “If we can do these things, Solomon then begs God to hear us, to forgive us, to have compassion upon us, and to maintain us in the land.”
He hadn’t touched his folder, and Reeves knew, because he hadn’t looked away from the man once.
“Brothers and sisters, what does that mean? To have God on your side, to be maintaining you, to hear you, love you, forgive you, and pour His blessed compassion out upon you? Who among us does not want these blessings?”
Pastor Michaels grinned, and Reeves found himself in desperate need of the things the man had spoken of.
“It may seem hard,” he said. “You may not have troubles like David, as he committed sins with another woman and then sent a man to his death to cover them up. But if you’re off the path at all, you can start small to begin making your come-back.
“If you haven’t been praying, make a commitment right now to pray tonight before you go to bed.
If you haven’t been reading your scriptures, make a goal to read at least one verse every day for a week.
Then, increase it to two, and then three, and before you know it, you’ll be pages deep into the Bible, and loving every second of it. ”
Reeves wasn’t entirely sure that was true, but he did like the advice to start small. He prayed silently already, but hadn’t uttered his prayers out loud in a while. He certainly didn’t take time to kneel down at his bedside to talk to the Lord.
He also didn’t have big sins to repent of the way David did, but Reeves definitely had some work to do to return unto the Lord. The spirit of God burned through him, testifying to Reeves that he’d never shied away from doing hard work. He could do this too—and more than that, he wanted to do this.
He ducked his chin toward Bailey and whispered, “Do you pray out loud?”
She looked at him, her eyes wide. “Usually only in dire circumstances,” she whispered back.
Reeves nodded a couple of times. “That’s going to be my goal.”
He thought about committing to morning and evening prayers, with him kneeling down at his bed, but he decided to go a step even smaller.
“Evening prayers,” he said out loud. “Kneeling down at my bed.”
The pastor continued to talk, but he kept his head down, creating a small, intimate space for him and Bailey to whisper back and forth. “What about you? Is there anything you want to set a goal for?”
“Are we accountability buddies now?” She grinned at him.
“Yes,” he said without missing a beat.
“I think I’m going to have my goal be church attendance,” she said. “Every week, unless I’m really, really sick.”
“Or the weather’s too bad,” he whispered.
She giggled quietly, turning her face into his chest. “Yes, or unless the weather’s too bad.”
Reeves grinned at her and pressed a kiss to the corner of her eye, then lifted his face back to the pulpit, beyond glad that he hadn’t canceled on church this morning, that he hadn’t given up on himself, and especially that God hadn’t given up on him.