She heard his regret and sighed brokenly. “I know.”
“I was curious, is all, but you’re right, it was an insulting question.” He turned off the light and hunkered down under the covers.
Sharon heard the even flow of his breathing.
“Who knows what the future holds for any of us?” he whispered.
“What about you?” She repositioned herself so she was on her back. They lay side by side, each staring up at the ceiling, being careful not to touch one another. “Will you remarry?”
“I doubt it,” he answered after a thoughtful pause. “I’ve loved you all these years. I…I can’t imagine loving somebody else… But then, like I said earlier, who knows what the future holds? Not me. Definitely not me.”
Chapter 23
Swallowing angry words is much more palatable than having to eat them afterward.
—Mrs. Miracle
Emily Merkle poured herself a cup of freshly brewed tea and made herself comfortable at the kitchen table. A slow, easy smile spread across her face as she gave herself a mental pat on the back. Everything was falling neatly into place. Seth and Reba were thick as thieves; she glanced heavenward and asked pardon for the analogy. Certainly they had enormous problems to work out, given Reba’s troubles with her sister and Seth’s obsession with the past, but her prayer was that love would see them through all that.
She wasn’t nearly as comfortable with what was happening between Sharon and Jerry. Those two were stubborn, equally at fault, each willing to blame the other. But when Jerry showed up in search of his wife, Emily had hope. Sharon was mature enough to recognize that there was nothing going on between her husband and best friend. The love between those two wasn’t as dead as they wanted to believe.
Harriett Foster…Well, Harriett still needed a bit of work. Nothing major, just a little heavenly illumination. It might take a direct message from the Almighty to reach the widow. The poor dear. She hadn’t a clue of how she muddied the good name of God with her righteousness.
“Do you always wait to do your Christmas shopping until the last minute?” Reba asked Seth, who was pushing the cart through the impossibly crowded toy store. Music blared in the background, loudly enough to drown out her thoughts or, more appropriately, the cries of the children. High on sugar and excitement, kids ran helter-skelter down the aisles. With Christmas in the middle of the week this was the last weekend left to shop, and everyone in the Seattle metropolitan area, it seemed, had descended upon the toy store. There appeared to be a run on Barbie’s playhouses. Reba saw several desperate parents waving fistfuls of money over their heads, hoping to persuade the clerk to be merciful toward them.
“I tell myself every year that I’m not going to do this,” Seth said, maneuvering the cart down the bicycle aisle. He wove it around a little boy who sat in a wagon in the middle of the lane, waiting contentedly for some generous soul to hitch him to the back of a bike and tow him about the store.
Seth looped his arm around her shoulder. His eyes held hers, and everything else seemed to fade away: the noise, the children, the sense of panic and rush. The excitement remained, only now it seemed centered between the two of them. Reba was profoundly aware of Seth, profoundly aware of the strength of their attraction. In her pain and disappointment, she’d come to him. He’d comforted her with his words and his gentleness. And his kisses. If they hadn’t been in his home, with family close at hand, Reba wondered where those kisses might have led them. She was glad she hadn’t needed to make that decision. Seth was dangerous. He reminded her she was a woman. Any part of her that was sexual had been buried. He made her feel again, made her yearn for all that she’d been missing. The fear remained, but with nowhere near the intensity of previous relationships.
“I appreciate your coming with me,” Seth told her, breaking the spell that had enveloped them.
“What, and miss all this?” she teased. Seth’s in-laws had the children for the afternoon. Mrs. Merkle had sent them out with her blessing and the promise of a hot meal upon their return. Although Reba had teased him, she was enjoying herself. This was almost as good as being a mother herself. She loved Judd and Jason and the other children she’d come to know through the Christmas program. She paused as they turned down another aisle. She stood in front of the doll section. Ellen, Vicki’s little girl, would be at the age where she’d love a baby doll. The urge to buy one was strong, but her mother was sure to take it as a sign that Reba wanted to mend the relationship, and nothing could be further from the truth.