Chapter Eleven
“Are you all right?” Terry asked as they walked down the church corridor from the Sunday school classroom to the sanctuary.
Their footsteps echoed through the long hall.
“Why shouldn’t I be fine?” Lesley decided to be obtuse. Three weeks and not a word from Cole. Not that she expected him to
contact her.
“Don’t play dumb,” Terry hissed. “You’re miserable, so admit it.”
“Okay, you win,” Lesley answered sharply. “I’m miserable. Does that make you happy?”
“No,” Terry observed softly. “It makes me as brokenhearted as you.”
“Well, don’t be,” Lesley responded in a falsely cheerful voice. “My relationship with Cole was doomed anyway. I only hastened
the process.”
“But you still love him.”
Fresh pain burned through her heart. “That hasn’t changed, but after my speech on God’s love and forgiveness, I’ve got to
look on the positive side of this situation and grow from it.”
“Don’t try so hard.” Her sister squeezed her arm affectionately. “Give yourself time.”
Lesley arched delicately shaped brows. “Time,” she said with a sigh, “the great healer.” But how much time would it take for
the haunting memories to dissipate? How long would it be before thoughts of Cole didn’t dominate every waking minute and before
her life had order again?
Every time the phone rang, her heart pounded like a jackhammer. When she checked the mailbox, her fingers shook. Cole had
written and phoned her so often. And now there was nothing. Nothing. Lesley was left to pick up the pieces of her life and
go on. Although she accepted the fact Cole wasn’t coming back, her heart waged its own battle. Time, she had to believe, would
convince her heart, too.
“Is the other half of the duplex rented?” Terry whispered as they entered the vestibule.
“Not yet.” The for rent sign in the grass outside the duplex was a constant reminder that Cole was gone for good.
“Any nibbles?”
Lesley shrugged. “Not that I know of.”
They slipped into the pew and waited for the morning worship service to begin. Robert joined them a minute later. Lesley bowed
her head, seeking to clear her thoughts and prepare her heart for the pastor’s message. As she raised her head, her gaze fell
on her ringless left hand. Inadvertently she touched her bare finger. She felt naked without the engagement ring.
Terry’s hand reached over and squeezed hers. “You’re going to make it.”
Lesley nodded. Yes, she would. She’d never stop loving Cole, her heart had decreed as much. But she would be stronger, better,
because of that love.
The bright spring sunshine greeted Lesley as she drove home from work Monday afternoon.
The time had come to get busy in the garden.
She hadn’t felt like working outside. The energy spent smiling and putting on a friendly facade drained her by the end of the long workday.
She usually ate a light meal, read and went to bed early.
Not that she could fall asleep so quickly.
The first thing Lesley noted when she pulled into the driveway was that the for rent sign had been removed from the lawn. Apparently she was going to have a new neighbor. The place had been vacant for months
with Cole gone so much of the time. It would be good to have someone close again.
Pouring herself a glass of iced tea, Lesley took a long swallow and set the tall glass on the kitchen table. The jeans she
wore to work in the yard were a little large in the waist, prompting her to grab a couple of cookies from the cookie jar.
They tasted stale, and after one bite she tossed them both in the garbage. Saturday she’d remember to pick up a fresh supply.
The sweatshirt was a faded red one she’d had since her college days. Lesley pushed the long sleeves up past her elbows as
she walked out the sliding glass door into the backyard. The garden fork was resting against the back wall of the work shed.
She successfully stifled a wince when she reached for it, refusing to look at the snow shovel, which forcefully reminded her
of Cole and the fun they’d had in the first snowstorm of the season.
The earth was damp, which made the tilling easier. Lesley had finished the first long row of the garden when she paused to
wipe the perspiration from her brow with the back of her hand.
She stopped in mid-action as she caught a glimpse of her new neighbor. It felt as if her heart had stopped beating, and all the color drained from her face. Cole. What was he doing back? Had he forgotten something? Had he come to torment her?
He stood framed in the doorway, watching her. Their eyes clashed, shocked sparkling blue against warm velvet brown. Mesmerized,
Lesley watched as he pulled open the sliding door and stepped outside.
“Hello, Lesley.” He was dressed in brown slacks and a tan sweater, looking so handsome it was almost impossible for her to
breath evenly.
“Hello,” she managed at last.
“I take it you’re surprised to see me?”
Her hand curled around the rough wood handle of the garden fork. “Yes,” she whispered. She wasn’t ready for a confrontation
with Cole. She needed more time to prepare, to school her reactions.
“You look well.”
“I’m fine.” How could they exchange pleasantries like polite strangers? This was the man she loved, and all that emotion had
to be shining from her eyes for him to see. Why was he standing there? “How have you been?” she asked, her voice husky.
He shrugged one muscular shoulder. “Much better, actually.”
“Good.” She cast her eyes down at the partially tilled garden. “As you can see, I’m at it again.” The toe of her tennis shoe
parted the rich soil.
“Yes, I can.” His smile was strangely enigmatic.
Lesley’s nerves were pulled taut until they grated against one another. “What are you doing here?” she demanded, her voice
quivering violently.
“You put the Bible in the back of my car, didn’t you?” He answered her question with one of his own.
“Yes.” She wouldn’t lie. “I knew that I couldn’t help you, but I thought my Bible might.”
“You’re wrong, I didn’t appreciate it when I found it. The fact is, I went to throw it away. Purging my life of anything that had to do with you made sense at the time.”
Lesley blanched. Tossing her Bible in the garbage would be like throwing away part of herself. But apparently that had been
Cole’s intention.
“This fell out of it.” He handed Lesley a paper she’d used to mark her place.
Lovingly she fingered the long marker and nodded. “Thank you for returning it.”
“There were other things inside the cover, too.” His look was unreadable.
Briefly she nodded, unable to look at him.
“The card I sent with the Valentine roses, a death announcement. Some relative?”
Again she acknowledged him with a nod of her head.
“This book is important to you.”
“Yes.” She’d missed it terribly, and although she’d replaced it immediately after he’d left, Lesley had had difficulty finding
familiar verses. The pages were still so new they stuck together, and the leather binding remained stiff.
“As soon as I saw the treasures you had stored in its flap, I couldn’t understand why you’d given it to me, but I decided
maybe I couldn’t throw it away.”
Lesley released an unconscious sigh of relief.
“But I wasn’t about to return it personally, I’d already made myself perfectly clear. I wasn’t coming back to Coeur d’Alene.
I meant to mail it. Instead I found myself leafing through the pages. Soon I found myself reading the Gospels. You had several
verses underlined in John. ‘I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly’ was one that sticks out in my mind.”
“John 10:10,” she supplied.
“But Jesus wasn’t talking about riches, was He?”
“No, He was talking about the quality of our earthly life.” Her gaze slid to him again. A beautiful feeling of hope began to mount within her.
“Soon I found verses everywhere that spoke of forgiveness: Hebrews, Psalms, Acts. I read about the new life, the abundant
life. For the first time in nearly a year I slept peacefully and uninterruptedly. I have peace within myself now. I can’t
say that everything’s behind me yet. The hate and bitterness are lessening. I haven’t forgiven Jennings for what he did. But
I’m willing to try, with God’s help.”
Lesley stood immobile for only a moment.
“I love you, Lesley. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I want to share this new abundant life with you. Can
we start again? Can we place the past behind us?”
The garden fork fell unheeded to the damp earth as she walked to Cole and slipped her arms around his neck. Brilliant tears
of happiness shimmered in her eyes as she smiled up at him.
Very gently, Cole wrapped his arms around her, and kissed her with a fierce kind of tenderness. He released a shuddering sigh
as he held her close, his lips moving back and forth against the side of her head, his breath ruffling her hair.
A happiness unlike anything she’d ever experienced stole through her. “Did the landlord explain about the water pressure?”
she asked teasingly.
“No,” Cole murmured and brushed the hair from her cheek. “But he had plenty to say about the occupant in the second half of
the duplex. Apparently my new neighbor is a karate expert.”
Laughter tumbled from Lesley as she tilted her head back to gaze into the powerful face of the man she loved, the man God
had sent to her.
Six months later, Lesley came in the back door of her Detroit home and placed the two grocery sacks on the kitchen countertop. Pausing, she unzipped her short jacket and tossed it across the back of the kitchen chair.
A package of cookies was on top of the first sack. She opened it and dumped them in a red apple-shaped cookie jar, nibbling
on one as she put the frozen foods in the freezer section of the refrigerator.
The sounds of Cole working in the basement brought a sigh of contentment from slightly parted lips. Even after several months
of marriage, her husband’s genius had the ability to amaze her. His work area was a collage of ideas. Most of his work centered
on the automobile and parts she hadn’t known existed. But his inventions extended into the kitchen, and he had her testing
a few of his crazy ideas. If she wasn’t so much in love, she would have complained.
“Cole.” She pushed the button of the intercom. “Would you like me to bring you down a cup of coffee?”
“Sure.” He sounded preoccupied, but then he usually did when he was in his workroom.
While she finished unpacking the groceries, Lesley plugged in the coffeepot. Ten minutes later she carried two steaming cups
down the stairs.
“I hope you’re ready for a break.”
“In just a minute,” Cole answered without looking up, keenly concentrating on his latest contraption.
A smile touched the corners of her soft mouth. She’d sat an hour waiting for his “just a minute” on more than one occasion.
“Cole,” she said softly, “I’ve got something important to tell you.”
“Go ahead, I’m listening.”
Lesley rolled her eyes and sighed. “I was just thinking that maybe it would be a good idea for you to start working on a new type of car seat for the baby. I was looking at ones in the shopping center today, and they don’t look all that secure. Do you think you might have a couple of ideas?”
“Sure,” he mumbled, “no problem.”
Lesley sat on a tall stool and took a sip of her coffee. Glancing at her wristwatch, she mentally calculated how long it would
take to get a reaction. Five minutes, she guessed.
“Baby!” Cole exploded, and banged his head on the light fixture as he stood up abruptly.
Lesley shot a glance at her watch. “Very good. That only took you two and a half minutes.”
Rubbing the back of his head, Cole looked at her and shook his head. “Did I hear you right?”
“As a matter of fact, I think you heard me perfectly.” Lesley was loving this.
“A baby? So soon? Are you sure?”
“I saw the doctor this morning.”
Cole took the coffee out of her hand and set it aside. He sat on the stool beside her, his hand tenderly resting against her
flat abdomen. “Why didn’t you say something earlier?”
Lesley brushed the hair from his forehead. “I wanted to be certain.”
“But, honey, I wanted to build you that dream home on the lake before we started a family. I want to give you diamonds and
smother you in furs.”
Linking her arms around his neck, Lesley pressed an ardent kiss over his mouth. “Don’t you know I’m already the richest lady
in town?”
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