DANA SPRANG OFF THE TOP OF A SILVER ESCALATOR AT 7:23 a.m., stared at the Alaska Airlines sign to her left, and tried to figure out why she felt so good. She’d been up till midnight, and since morning wasn’t her favorite time of day, she should have been more than a mite sleepy. Not to mention getting up at five.
But she wasn’t tired. Probably because of her anticipation of what might happen at Well Spring. Reece said she’d find renewal, and hope, and healing. Bring it. She’d needed all three in abundance—ever since she tossed her engagement ring into the Snohomish River three years ago.
“Are you ready?” a voice off to her right asked.
Reece stood ten yards away, a red Osprey Talon daypack slung over one shoulder, a dark green hiking coat thrown over the other. They didn’t come close to matching. And his dark tan, ancient-looking Stetson Muzzle Hat didn’t help the mix.
She smiled at him and strolled over. “Very.”
“Excellent.”
The word he spoke was right, but something in his tone wasn’t. The big man frowned and turned away. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Yeah there is, I saw it in your eyes.”
Reece responded with a glance at his watch, then pulled out his cell phone and talked more to himself than to her. “Where is Marcus?”
He stared out the glass windows of Sea-Tac Airport probably at the cars and shuttles dropping travelers off for departure.
“He should be here by now.” He glanced at Dana, then back out the windows. “Marcus?” Reece shifted the phone to his other ear. “I’m fine. Where are you? We have a plane to catch.”
Concern was etched into his face. Dana looked over his shoulder at a tall, lean man loping toward them who seemed like he was in his late thirties or early forties. Dark hair, thinning a bit, with a complexion that looked like it had rarely seen the sun.
He smiled at her, pointed at himself, then to her, then at Reece’s back. He held a finger to his lips. He stopped ten yards away. It had to be Marcus Amber.
“How soon is soon?” Reece said into his phone as Marcus took three silent steps toward Reece’s back. Funny. Nice to know Marcus had a sense of humor.
“Define very.” Reece scowled.
Marcus said something into his phone, too soft for her to hear, then turned it off and dropped it into the pocket of his light green jacket. Then he took three more steps in their direction till he stood inches from Reece’s back. Reece listened a moment, then dropped his hand and phone to his side and stared at Dana. “He hung up on me.” He glanced at his watch again. “We need to get going if we’re going to make that plane.”
Dana stifled the laughter forcing its way out of her mouth. “Maybe he lost his signal.”
“Boo.” Marcus spoke the words an inch from Reece’s ear.
“Wow!” Reece jumped to his right and raised his fists.
“Just in case your consciousness hadn’t fully woken yet this morning.” Marcus laughed, his eyes bright behind silver wirerimmed glasses.
Reece nodded and slowed his breathing. “I’m seeing another side to Marcus Amber.”
“We academics at the U-Dub are allowed a sense of humor.”
“Thanks for the almost heart attack.”
“My pleasure.” Marcus grinned.
Reece wagged his finger back and forth between her and Marcus. “Marcus, this is Dana. Dana, Marcus.” He turned and strode toward the security line. “Let’s move.”
“I like you already.” She shook Marcus’s hand as they followed Reece. “It was all I could do to keep a straight face until you, uh, greeted our host.”
Marcus grinned again. “I could not pass up the opportunity. In addition, it seems Reece would benefit from a stiff injection of humor into his life.”
Reece turned but didn’t smile. Come to think of it, Dana couldn’t ever recall seeing him smile. “I agree.” They picked up their pace to keep up with their leader. “Reece told me a few days ago that you’re a physics professor at the University of Washington.”
“Guilty.” Marcus shifted his briefcase to his other hand. “And he tells me you work in the broadcasting industry—in radio. But you aren’t on the air.”
“Nope.” She switched her rolling suitcase to the other hand. “Remember that old Billy Crystal movie City Slickers? Where he ‘sells air’? I’m in charge of the people who sell the air.”
“Do you enjoy it?”
“I need it.”
She didn’t offer the reason why and Marcus didn’t ask. They continued to chat as they wound back and forth through the cordoned-off lanes and passed through security to the other side. Thankfully she didn’t have to stand in the little booth, lift her hands over her head, and have some stranger give her the X-ray vision treatment.
After she put her shoes back on and slid her laptop back into her briefcase, she glanced around for the others. Reece stood fifteen yards to her left, Marcus waited for her just a few feet away. She pushed her hair behind her ear. “Do you know the other—?”
Oh no. Her face went hot.
“What’s wrong?” Marcus frowned.
Her throat tightened and she strode toward Reece. When she reached him, she released her rolling bag and put her hands on her hips. “Aren’t we missing someone?”
“No.”
“Is the other gal—this Tamera—is she meeting us at the gate?”
“No.” Reece pushed his hat back on his head and stared at her.
“Why isn’t she here, Reece?”
“She’s not coming.”
“She’s what?”
“I’m sorry, Dana. She called me on the way to the airport. I just found out.”
Dana spun to her left and stared at the white airport ceiling. “I don’t believe this.”
“Neither do I.”
She yanked her arms tight across her chest. “How would you feel if I reduced the number going with you to two?”
Reece looked at her with compassion. “That would be your choice.”
Dana unfolded her arms, tapped her cell phone, and looked at the time. Seven forty. She was tempted to ask for the number and call Tamera, but it wouldn’t change anything. If she wasn’t already working her way through security, she wouldn’t make the plane. But going to Well Spring as the only woman? No way.
Dana glanced back the way they’d come. Reece was right. It was her choice. She didn’t have to go. And right now she wanted to choose home.
“You said I wouldn’t be the only woman there.”
“That was the plan.” Reece turned and strode toward their gate. “Let’s make sure we’re there in time.”
“I need a few minutes to think about this.”
“Same thing Tamera said, so I’ll give you a similar answer. If you’re coming, you need to decide now.”
Why are you doing this to me, God?
Dana shut her eyes and ground her teeth. Unbelievable. She blamed Tamera, blamed Reece, blamed God, blamed herself. But she was already here and Toni was probably right. She needed this trip. Dana opened her eyes and glared at Reece. She had been an island all of her life. Why should she expect anything different now?
Dana grabbed her suitcase and slogged after Reece as the fatigue she should have been feeling earlier showed up in full force.
As they stood at the gate waiting to board, Reece motioned them both closer. “I am truly sorry, Dana. I thought Tamera would be the last one to cancel. But the enemy does not like what we’re about to do. Did you have any second thoughts about coming? Anything thrown at you to keep you home?”
Other than what had just happened? Yes. Her budgets. The possibility her job was hanging on a weakening string. Still stinging from another guy breaking up with her. But not enough to keep her from coming. “A few things.”
He looked at Marcus. “You, Professor?”
“Yes.” Marcus nodded as his face clouded over. “This morning my wife, Kat, talked me into coming. I’ve been a picosecond away from canceling for the past eleven hours.”
“A what?” Dana said.
“Excuse me. A trillionth of a second.”
Reece didn’t question why Marcus almost hadn’t come, and Dana didn’t know him well enough to ask.
“I would have been surprised if you hadn’t bumped up against resistance.”
“But not you, right, Reece?” She was half serious.
The look on his face said his battle ran deeper than she could imagine. So she wasn’t the only one with issues. And he probably wasn’t any happier about Tamera canceling than she was. Maybe it didn’t matter what Tamera did. Maybe the only choice Dana needed to consult the mirror about was her own.
Ten minutes later they boarded their Boeing 707 and sat in 2A, 2B, and 2C. Marcus patted his armrests and looked at Reece. “Thanks for the seats.”
Reece downed a glass of apple juice the flight attendant had given him and turned to Marcus across the aisle. “At my size, flying in coach is not easy for me or the people around me. So I always fly first class.”
Always? Fascinating. Nothing about Reece had ever reflected the ability to always fly first class. Not his car, not his watch, certainly not his clothes. Even though she’d known Reece for over a year, she had no idea what he did for a living. It had never come up and she’d never asked.
As the plane climbed its way to thirty-five thousand feet, Dana turned to Reece. “Would you like to tell me about the other guy who’s coming?”
Reece accepted a refill of apple juice from the flight attendant. “He’ll join us later this afternoon. He’s wrapping up a business commitment in Denver and should arrive at Well Spring shortly after we do.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“You’ll meet him when the time is right.”
“I don’t like that you haven’t told me who this guy is or anything about him.” She stared out her window at the rapidly shrinking ground below. “Just tell me his name.”
Reece downed his juice, leaned back in his seat, and closed his eyes. “Take a good look at Seattle.”
“Why is that?” Marcus asked.
“Because next time you’re here, you’ll be seeing things differently.”
“Do you care to expand on that?”
Reece pulled his hat over his eyes. “Please wake me up ten minutes before we touch down.”
Marcus leaned over to Dana and whispered, “Have you noticed how evasive he is when you inquire of him?”
“Yes. If he wasn’t so big, I’d strangle him.” She pulled the inflight magazine out of the seat pocket in front of her. “Did he tell you what we’d be doing at Well Spring?”
“It’s likely he didn’t reveal much more than you already know. We’re to explore a Christianity most followers of Jesus aren’t acquainted with. One we’re not acquainted with.”
Marcus was right. That part she’d heard. “Anything else?”
“That we’ll find more freedom and heal some emotional wounds by delving into our pasts.”
Great. Sharing her wounds and shortcomings with total strangers. Thanks, Lord. This will be a blast. Especially if the third guy wasn’t as approachable as Reece and Marcus.
Dana leaned closer to Marcus. “Do you know who the other guy is?”
“We were introduced last week.”
“Who is it?”
“I apologize.” Marcus squinted and shook his head. “But I assume you know Reece has asked me to stay silent on that matter.”
Dana slumped back in her seat, her stomach knotting as an image floated into her mind of arriving at Well Spring and being shoved inside the lions’ den.