Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Seth
The bite of loneliness had sunk its teeth into me far deeper than I realized. Another birthday alone. I stared at the half-eaten cake I’d shared with my grandmother Maggie and sighed.
Don’t get me wrong,. I loved my grandmother, but I wanted a wife. I knew what it was like to have the love of a good woman, and I wanted it again. I needed it. I felt empty inside, like in the center of my heart was a gaping hole that would never be filled again.
I was twenty-nine. By now, I’d envisioned a couple of kids and a noisy house filled with laughter.
But instead, it was just me and four empty bedrooms with Maggie in the apartment over the barn.
This wasn’t the future I had wanted for myself.
I had so much love to share with someone, the right person.
In desperation, I fell to my knees and clasped my hands together.
“Lord, so much has been taken from me, and I never lost faith in You. Even now, I believe You have a great plan for me. But I’m…
” My voice cracked as my throat tightened.
“I’m lonely.” I lost my ability to speak as my thoughts went to Scarlett.
She had been perfect in every way, and I felt guilty asking for a replacement for her.
No one could replace the woman I’d loved for so many years.
But I wanted this hole in my heart to be filled. I wanted to love again, if that was God’s plan for my life. He wouldn’t want me to be alone and feel this way forever, would He?
Of course not, I told myself. But what if He did? What if that’s why I hadn’t met anyone, even though Scarlett had been gone now four years?
“Your will be done, Lord,” I finally said.
It was the scariest prayer a believer could pray.
Because if the Lord wanted me to spend the rest of my days alone, I would.
But I had to believe He didn’t want that for me.
Because it was my heart’s desire to have children and the love of a good woman. And it had been Scarlett’s, too.
Even on her deathbed, she’d dreamed up a beautiful future for me.
Because that was the kind of selfless, amazing woman she was.
I missed her throaty laugh, the way she’d mischievously wink at me when she thought I was being cute about something.
I missed her walk, her big, giving heart, and the way she loved and trusted the Lord. I missed everything about that woman.
Maybe that’s what I was looking for—a Scarlett 2.0—and that just didn’t exist. The thought depressed me, so I pushed it to the back of my mind and started doing dishes.