God's Gift

Chapter Three

“I can’t believe you talked me into this.”

Dave tossed her suitcase in the trunk.

“A vacation will do you good,” he replied, reaching over to drop a college cap he had snagged from his bag onto her head. “Lighten up. You’re officially on seven days of R and R. Besides, it’s Memorial Day Weekend.”

She wrinkled her nose at him and adjusted the cap. “Dave, my idea of a camping trip is slightly different than yours. I suppose you brought that jazz CD for the trip again, didn’t you?”

“It’s tradition.”

“You don’t like jazz. You just don’t have the heart to tell Lace that.”

He blushed slightly. “It was a birthday gift. One that I appreciate,” he stressed.

Rae grinned. “Why don’t you just ask her out and end her misery?”

“And ruin a great friendship?” He rolled his eyes. “Please, you’ve got to be kidding.”

She pushed him aside to rearrange the bags he had crammed in the trunk. “You’re just gun-shy about making a commitment. It’s past time you got married, you know.”

“Don’t start acting like my mother, Rae. I’ve got a life I enjoy. The marriage bit can wait.”

“You wait too much longer, friend, and she’s going to find someone else,” Rae replied. She gestured to the walk. “Bring me that black bag next.”

He picked it up and the smaller one beside it, giving her a dirty look. “A few books you said? You’re taking your entire library.”

“I told you my idea of a vacation was different than yours. I plan to sleep, read and do some writing.”

“No fishing?”

She took the smaller bag from him. “I might drown a worm if you promise nothing will bite it.”

She reached for the other bag, but he held it back.

“This feels like a computer….”

She put her hands on her hips and grinned at him. “Don’t push it, David, you’ll lose the argument.”

He handed it over. “Am I going to get nagged into finding you a copy of the Wall Street Journal every morning?”

“I’ll read it on-line,” she replied, slipping the laptop into a cushioned spot between her jacket and his. “Okay, let’s pick up Lace.”

“Mind if I relegate you to the back seat for the trip?”

Rae grinned. “I thought you said you weren’t interested?”

“You’re just going to stick your nose into a book. Lace likes my jokes.”

Rae laughed. “There are some she likes just about as much as you like jazz.”

“She laughs.”

“She’s got a sweet heart. And if you break it, I’m going to make your life miserable,” Rae replied.

“Rae?”

The question nudged her away from her research. “Hmm?”

“We’re going to stop at the welcome station and get new state maps. You want us to bring you a box of their free popcorn?”

Rae shifted the pen she had clutched between her teeth. “Sure. While you’re there, check and see if they have new maps of the lake. They were planning to update them to show the new trails.”

“Okay.”

It was almost four in the afternoon. Lace and Dave had been chatting for most of the drive. Rae had lost track of the conversation a couple of hours ago.

She stretched her back and considered putting her research notes and books back in order. The cabin was about thirty minutes away now. A glance at the spine of the book showed she had more than a hundred pages still to read in this latest medical textbook.

She should have become a doctor.

Yawning, she slipped her page marker into the book and closed it, reached over and slipped it back into her briefcase.

The actual manuscript she was working on was in her suitcase, the three hundred pages too hefty for her briefcase. Writing was her one persistent hobby. Crafts, sewing, watercolors had come and gone over the years; she always came back to her writing. She was getting better. Lace and Dave both liked this story. Leo had liked it so much he’d tried to convince her to cut back her hours at the office so she could finish it.

She wanted to finish the novel and write a dedication page to Leo. She thought it might be a way to help her say goodbye.

She smiled. She wouldn’t mind seeing her name on the spine of a published book, either. For all this effort, there should be some payback.

She felt lighter in spirit than she had in the last year. They were right. The vacation was going to do her some good. She was looking forward to days not driven by the markets, a chance to read for pleasure, the freedom to sleep in, the right to be lazy.

The edge to the grief was beginning to temper. The sadness was still there, heavy, and so large it threatened to swamp her, but the pain was less. She had prepared for the vacation. She knew it was going to be hard, not having Leo with them, not having him there for the game, or messing up the kitchen with his creations, or dragging her hiking.

It was going to be okay.

She should have picked up working on the book months ago. It was good, and when she worked on it, she felt better than she had in a long time.

She was determined to smile, laugh, and do her best to have a good time.

“Emily is asleep.”

James glanced in the rearview mirror to see his niece collapsed against the bright yellow Big Bird pillow she had brought with her. He smiled at his nephew Tom, sitting in the front passenger seat. “It was only a matter of time. Your mom was asleep hours ago.”

“She was up late with Dad,” Tom replied. “They’ve been talking about having another baby.”

James choked. “Do you want a brother or sister?” he asked, trying to keep his voice neutral.

“Sister. That way Emily will stay out of my stuff and have another girl to play with.”

It was a big deal when you were nine.

“I hear your dad has been coaching you for the football team.”

“He’s trying. I still can’t throw a spiral. Jason can, and he makes a big deal out of it.”

“You’ll get it with more practice.”

“Want to play catch with me?”

James flexed his aching ankle and was grateful the van had cruise control. “I’d be glad to, Tom.”

“Thanks. Mom doesn’t catch very well.”

James grinned. “She never could. I spent years trying to teach her how to catch a baseball.”

“She says she was pretty good.”

“It’s relative, Tom. She was pretty good for a girl who shut her eyes when the ball got close.”

Tom grinned. “She does that with a football, too.” He grimaced. “I hit her in the face one time by accident. She wasn’t very happy.”

James glanced back at Patricia, curled up awkwardly in the back seat with her head tucked against her jacket and a pillow. “She’s your mom. I bet she’s forgotten all about it.”

“I hope so. My birthday is next month.”

James laughed.

“Check your mom’s directions again, Tom. I see exit fifty-eight coming up.”

Papers rustled as Tom found the map and the handwritten directions. “That’s the one. Then take Bluff Road north for five miles. She’ll have to direct from there. I know it’s lots of trees and water.”

“Got it.”

Fifteen minutes later, the van pulled up in front of the vacation getaway.

It was a beautiful cabin, built at the top of a hill looking out over a calm lake that the map showed went for miles. They were half a mile from the nearest neighbor, and ten miles from town.

James stepped out of the van and stretched, fighting the pain in his spine that came from sitting too long, the muscles in his ribs aching with every breath he took. He smiled at the sound of birds. “Who did you say owned this place?” he asked Patricia.

“A friend of Dave’s. There are a couple canoes and a fishing boat in the boathouse and a neighbor has horses he lets us ride.”

Patricia pointed to the shoreline to the north. “Just around that bend is a large meadow and what is practically a sandy beach. It makes a great place to picnic. The fishing is good everywhere along this inlet. The kids were catching crappies off the end of the pier last year.”

“It looks like we’re the first to arrive. Do you have a key?”

“It’s off the silver star on my key ring.”

The porch was solid oak and extended around the cabin, the front door snug and smooth to open. James stepped inside and paused to enjoy the sight. The place had obviously been designed by an architect who knew his stuff. A large fireplace with open seating around it, a spacious kitchen, a large dining room, an encompassing view of the lake. The deck on the back of the house led down to a pavilion built beside the water.

He turned as Patricia came in with a bag of groceries. “This is going to be a good place to relax.”

She smiled. “I’m glad you came.”

She turned at the sound of another car. “That must be Dave and the others now.”

“Lace, do you want the Wedding Ring quilt or the David’s Star quilt?”

“The blue one,” Lace replied from somewhere inside the massive walk-in closet.

Rae laughed. “They are both blue.”

“Then you choose.” Lace stepped back into the room, having hung up her clothes. “I do love the smell of cedar in a closet. You want me to unpack your suitcase?”

“Sure, though I doubt the jeans and T-shirts will care much where they are tossed.”

“Didn’t you bring anything nice?”

Rae grinned. “Why should I? I can borrow from you.”

Lace groaned as she saw the contents of Rae’s suitcase. “I’m going to get you fashion conscious if it takes my entire life to do it.”

“Lace, face it. I’ve got a very limited sense of aesthetics. If it’s comfortable, I wear it.” Rae pulled out the small bear Leo had given her and tossed it on her bed near her pillow. “You ready to eat? The guys are probably raiding the food even as we speak.”

“Sure. We can walk it off tomorrow. Dave wants to try that trail that wanders up to the eagle viewing platform.”

“A five-mile hike, mostly uphill, is not my idea of a good time,” Rae replied.

She laughed at Lace’s expression. Her friend had discovered the romance novel tucked in the side pocket of the suitcase.

“Want to borrow it after I’m done?”

Lace grinned and tossed it on the nightstand. “With two, good-looking, single guys on the premises? Why bother to read?”

Rae tugged Lace to the door. “Come on, friend, there is mischief to make. I still owe Dave for that ice down my back two years ago.”

Lace laughed. “The long arm of revenge is about to strike one unprepared man. What are you planning?”

“I have no idea. But that has never deterred me before.”

James couldn’t decide who he liked more, Lace or Rae. They were sprawled out on the floor battling it out over a checker board, both having soundly beat Dave an hour earlier.

Lace was the more outgoing of the two, Rae more contained and likely to be the one who smiled quietly. They were obviously old, lifelong friends.

No, it wasn’t really a contest. Lace was nice, but Rae…Rae had him almost regretting he was going back to Africa in a couple months.

Dave dropped a new log on the fire and both ladies jumped. He ruffled Rae’s hair. “Sorry. Want a toasted marshmallow if I get the stuff?”

“Sure.”

Patricia came back and James slid over, gestured for her to put her feet up on the couch. She had finally convinced two worn-out kids that ten o’clock was late enough for bed. “Thanks, my feet are killing me.”

“Maybe you should have passed on the game of tag.”

She laughed. “And lose out on the opportunity to hug my son? It’s worth a few aches.”

James pushed off her tennis shoes and gently massaged her feet. Both her ankles were swollen. He smiled. He was almost positive she was pregnant.

He would be back in Africa when the child was born. His face tightened at the thought.

“Ribs still bothering you?” Patricia asked quietly.

“Not bad,” James replied. The pain was tolerable. He’d live. “What’s that you’re eating?” he asked, noting the sandwich she had brought back with her.

She looked guilty. “Roast beef and hot mustard.”

She was pregnant.

James grinned. “Next time you go scavenging for something to eat, I’ll teach you how to make Manallies. You’ll love them.”

Lace won the checker game and Rae rolled over onto her back with a groan. “Lace, you are a devious, underhanded, world champion of world champions. What is that now, the last fifteen games we have played?”

“Leo could beat me,” Lace replied, sliding the pieces back into the box.

“Leo could beat anyone at anything,” Rae replied, pushing herself up and redoing the ponytail that was holding back her long hair.

Dave offered a golden toasted marshmallow. “Careful, it’s hot.”

Rae slipped it off the stick. “Thanks.” She stood up. “Anyone need a drink? I’m going to go raid the ice chest.”

“See if we’ve got another Sprite,” Lace replied. Rae glanced at Dave who shook his head and at Patricia who indicated a soda at her feet, stopping at James with a raised eyebrow.

“Root beer.”

She nodded. “Coming up.”

She was gone a long time for someone simply getting sodas from the ice chest. She came back with three soda cans. She handed the Sprite to Lace. “Dave, you want to help me carry in more wood for the box? The radio said we might get some rain tonight.”

“Sure. Be right there.”

James caught a private byplay between Lace and Rae, saw a smile pass between them, and wondered if the guys should stick together. They were outnumbered two to one. Rae looked at him as she handed him the soda he had asked for; James decided Dave was on his own.

They disappeared out the front door and James saw Lace struggling to contain her laughter.

“Sorry, I’ve got to see this. It’s two years overdue.” Lace slipped over to the window to look out at the porch.

“What did he do?”

“Put ice down her back when she and Leo were dancing.”

James glanced at his sister. “Who’s Leo? He’s been mentioned several times,” he asked softly.

“Rae’s business partner. He was killed in a car accident a year and a half ago,” Patricia replied.

“They were close?”

“Yeah.”

His heart tightened. No wonder he saw sadness behind Rae’s smile.

There was a crash from the front of the house and the roar of a surprised man.

Lace was laughing. “Good job, Rae.” She came back and dropped into one of the plush chairs. “We’re going to need to get more ice,” she remarked, reaching down to pick up her soda. “Dave is sitting in it.”

Dave came in brushing water off the back of his jeans and shaking ice out of the back of his sweatshirt. “Rae, that was excessive,” he mildly remarked, scowling at her as she slipped under his arm.

“That was two years of interest,” she replied with a twinkle in her eyes. “You want a towel?”

He tweaked her ponytail. “Bring me two.”

She came back with two bath towels, draped one around his shoulders. He took the other and rubbed under his sweatshirt.

“You know I owe you one now.”

She laughed. “Got to catch me first.”

She dropped into the chair opposite Lace. “Lace, he’s got six days to retaliate. I think I should have waited a few days.”

Dave came in carrying a soda and Rae ducked when he stopped behind her chair, half-afraid she was going to get a bath with it.

James chuckled.

It was going to be quite a week around these three friends.

Chapter Four

“Tranquil morning.”

It was the crack of dawn. Rae, seated on the porch steps, turned, surprised. She knew neither Dave nor Lace were likely to be moving at this time of the morning.

James.

“Couldn’t sleep?” she asked, concerned. He was in pain, she could see it in his movements and his face.

“Overdid it yesterday. I pay for mistakes like that,” he replied, sinking down onto the porch steps beside her. “Thanks for making the coffee.”

She smiled. “Not a problem. I don’t wake up without it.”

“These days, neither do I,” he replied. “Why aren’t you sleeping in?”

How was she suppose to answer that? The truth or something that made sense? Rae shrugged a shoulder, then changed her mind and decided to tell him the truth. “Ever have one of these experiences in life that just stops you in your tracks until you figure it out?”

She liked his smile and the frank way he turned and met her gaze. “Like God just grabbed your jacket collar, tugged, and said ‘No, think about this’?” he asked softly.

Rae nodded. She drew her knees up and folded her arms around them. “I woke up about 2:00 a.m. with Psalm 37 running through my mind. I don’t know why. Feels important.”

He leaned back on his hands, his expression thoughtful. “It’s an interesting Psalm. Trusting God with your dreams, the security He provides, the promise of refuge in times of trouble. What were you thinking about when you went to bed—if you don’t mind me asking?”

Rae smiled at the room he was trying to give her. She didn’t know if it was the conversation topic or the fact it was her that had him slightly uncomfortable. “Nothing earth-shattering. The book I’ve been writing.”

He looked surprised. “I didn’t know you were a writer.”

“Have been for years. I’m not published, just enjoy doing it.” She tipped her coffee cup to see if there was any left.

“Sounds like fun.”

She smiled. “It’s a different kind of work.”

A blue jay dropped down past the porch steps to land on the flagstones and check out what looked like a dropped dime. He took back to flight with a raucous cry.

“Most of the time when a scripture comes to mind like you described, it’s because it is an answer to a question you were asking.”

The only things I’ve been asking lately is where do I go now that Leo is dead….

“Could be,” she replied, knowing he was right. She nodded toward his coffee mug. “Want some more? I need a refill.” She didn’t want to think about Leo and the past. Not on this vacation.

He knew. It was there in his eyes. He knew she was avoiding something God wanted her to deal with. He handed her the mug. “Sure,” he said.

He’d probably never been afraid to face anything in his life. Rae wished she had that kind of courage. She didn’t. Not when it came to saying goodbye to what she might have had. “Black?”

“Please.”

When she came back out with the coffee, he had moved, stretched his legs out fully, was slowly working his right knee. He was doing his best not to grimace with the movement.

Rae felt an intense sense of empathy for him. He was like Kevin, a man accustomed to days of physical work. The pain had to be hard to cope with. She sat back down beside him, leaving a foot of space between them, turning slightly so she could lean against a porch post. “Patricia said the bug was damaging your joints,” she remarked, handing him the refilled mug.

“It’s doing damage like lupus, fibromyalgia, or the aggressive forms of arthritis. The joints lose the ability to move freely.”

“Is it getting better?”

He grimaced. “At a snail’s pace. They don’t know what bug I picked up, and they don’t know how long the symptoms are going to last.”

“Is it the pain that messes up your sleep?” she asked, curious.

“Yes and no. The sleep study showed there is a lot of alpha wave activity during what should be delta sleep. My body isn’t sleeping properly anymore. They don’t know why.”

“You weren’t praying for patience by any chance, were you?”

He smiled. “I was praying for someone to show up in Africa who knew how to train medical staff. We were building clinics faster than we could staff them.”

“What’s the problem with getting staff?”

“Money. Doctors who have been in practice for a few years have grown to like the income and don’t want to go, doctors straight out of medical school are so deep in school debts, they can’t afford to go.”

“I don’t know why that surprises me. We’ve got the same problem staffing the Crisis Centers here.”

The door behind them opened. “Would you two like a hot or cold breakfast? We’ve got everything from fruit and cereal to bacon and eggs,” Patricia asked.

“I want you to give me another pancake making lesson,” Rae requested, scooping up her mug. “The squirrels can eat the ones I burn.”

James laughed. “Rae, she’s not the best at it either.”

“She’s better than I am. That’s all I care about,” Rae replied with a grin as they both went inside.

“Dave, Rae is cooking.” It was a whispered warning overheard from the hall. James had to smile at Lace’s reaction. No one could be that bad a cook.

He changed his mind thirty minutes later. Rae had tried, but the pancakes were not like the ones his mom made.

Rae chuckled at the expressions on her friends’ faces around the table, pulled back the plate of remaining pancakes she had set on the table and reappeared with a plate of pancakes Patricia had fixed. “I’m getting better, you didn’t try to stifle a gag.”

“Rae, why don’t you just give up?” Dave asked. “It’s not your fault your grandmother refused to cook. Cooking is something you either learn as a child or it’s a lost art.”

“Nope. I’m going to learn how if it kills me,” she replied, helping herself to two of the pancakes Patricia had fixed.

“It might kill one of us one of these days,” Dave replied, then yelped when someone kicked him under the table.

“David Hank McAllister, be nice.”

“She knows I’m teasing, Lace.”

“Hank?” Rae burst out laughing.

Dave turned to Lace. “Now see what you’ve done? You promised you wouldn’t tell.”

Rae’s laughter intensified. “Hank. Oh this is rich.”

“I’ll give you rich, Amy.”

Rae wrinkled her nose at him and did her best to stop her laughter. “I can’t believe I’ve known you ten years without knowing your middle name.”

“What’s so funny?” Emily had joined them, wiping sleep from her eyes. James lifted her up into his lap, his own laughter hard to contain. “Just adult stuff,” he told her, smiling.

The threesome quieted down. “Sorry, Dave,” Lace whispered, then giggled.

He snagged his coffee mug to get a refill, his head shaking as he walked to the kitchen. “Women.”

Rae leaned across Dave’s empty chair toward Lace, a smile dancing across her face. “I think I know what we should get him for his birthday.”

Lace had to stifle her laughter at the whispered suggestion. “Think we could still find the CD?” Lace asked. “He hates country music almost as much as he does jazz. It’s perfect.”

“You knew?”

Lace grinned. “He hides a cringe every time I choose track four. He is so easy to get.”

“Lace, you are good,” Rae said, sitting back in her chair and looking at her friend with new respect.

Lace leaned back in her chair. “I’m better than good,” she replied with a smile. “He’s never going to know what hit him.”

Laughter was good medicine, James thought. He hadn’t felt this good in weeks. Watching Rae and Lace, he couldn’t contain his smile.

Rae caught him watching her and grinned. “You’ll get used to us, James.”

“I’m enjoying it,” he replied, watching her blush slightly.

Lace saw the blush and turned to look at him. He winked. James saw Lace hesitate a moment and glance back at Rae. Then a wide smile crossed her face. “Dave,” Lace called, “we want to go canoeing this morning. But I’m riding with you. Rae sent me into the drink last time.”

Dave appeared in the doorway, munching on a piece of bacon. “Only if I’m steering.”