“Ah-ah…” Aidan covered his mouth with his hands. “Achoo!”
Pepper sneered at her son in the doorway and pushed past him into his apartment. “Don’t you dare give me that, bud. You called me, remember?” She faced him as he shut the door. “Otherwise I wouldn’t be here invading your space.”
He laughed. “Just kidding. Little touchy, are we?”
Maybe she was.
Okay. Yes, she definitely was. She could be woman enough to admit it. But not to him. No way.
Fourteen hours into her fast, she was struggling. Usually when she practiced the discipline, she disengaged as much as possible from the world and tried to do it in secret the way Jesus suggested in Matthew. Her daughters Carys and Davita went off to school, Mickey Junior to a friend’s, she cleared her schedule, stayed home, and didn’t answer the phone.
The day wasn’t usual. Mick had left town early that morning. His absence always left a vacancy inside of her. The twins, Lisel and Sari, were spending their Easter break from college at the house. Good news, bad news: They kept Mickey and the other girls busy, but they kept them busy at home, stirring up all kinds of energy. Then the washer broke. Then Aidan phoned. Kenzie was in a bad way. She needed his mom. Could she stop by?
The whole reason she fasted was to focus on prayer for Aidan and Kenzie and the Starrs. Of course she agreed to go right over.
Her stomach growled. Lord, I realize these interruptions could be a test. An opportunity to radically depend on You to keep me sane and focused. But I gotta tell You, I’m leaning toward the other explanation. As in this is a total waste of effort!
Aidan’s smile caught her attention, and she noticed her accusatory forefinger was still planted in his sternum.
He winked. “Thanks for coming.”
“Sure.” She removed her hand and turned to see Kenzie reclining on the loveseat, propped against a pile of pillows and covered with a ratty, colorless afghan Grandma Bella had crocheted ages ago.
“Hi.”
“Kenzie.” She went over to her and sat alongside her legs. “Got enough room?”
“Yeah.” She wriggled toward the back cushions.
“You don’t look so good.”
The girl shrugged. Her hair was more flat than spiky and her complexion pale.
Aidan squeezed onto the end of the couch and put Kenzie’s feet in his lap. “She hasn’t eaten since the picnic yesterday.”
Well, that makes two of us. “Hon, Baby needs nourishment. He needs—I’m sorry. You know all that. What’s wrong?”
Kenzie exchanged a glance with Aidan. He nodded.
“I saw my parents last night. We went to the house. Aidan waited in the car.”
The feeling of a fist pressing into her stomach squelched the rumbles. “Your mom was at home?”
“Yeah. They sort of made up on Saturday.” She rolled her eyes. “Mom left me a voice mail. Dad actually went to the beach house and they talked and then she went home. I guess I was feeling left out.”
“Of course you were.”
“Then at your dinner yesterday, I felt so sad. You all treat me like I’m family, even all those relatives I hardly know, but…” When Kenzie wasn’t talking, singing, or smiling, her lips remained partially open as if ready to jump into the action. Right now they were shut tightly. Holding in?
“But you’re not exactly family.” Pepper finished her sentence. “Not the flesh and blood or by marriage kind.” She stopped, feeling like she’d lit a firecracker. Holding her breath, she waited for the explosion. None came. “You want to reconcile with your own family.”
Kenzie nodded. “Friday night was so good with Mom.”
“I know. It was evident to everyone at the shower.”
“So.” She glanced again at Aidan. “I begged him to take me to their house. I wanted to ask Dad once and for all, calmly, to forgive me.”
Pepper touched her cheek. Thank You, Holy One, for prompting this child of Yours. “That took a lot of nerve.”
“It was more like something I just had to do. Like I didn’t have a choice.”
“The Spirit can push us like that.”
Kenzie’s long lashes swept over her blue-gray eyes, as if in dismissal.
Pepper’s heart sank. Evidently the dialogue hadn’t gone as hoped. “What happened? Did you tell him?”
“Yeah. All he could talk about was us getting married. He said…” She swallowed with difficulty a few times. “He said he won’t forgive me until that happens.”
Pepper closed her eyes.
“But that’s not the worst.”
Swell. She looked again at Kenzie. “I’m sorry, hon.”
“Then my mom argued with him. She said he forced her to choose between him and me. She said she wouldn’t give up on our relationship.”
Lord, thank You for my Mick.
“He said if she left…” Kenzie’s face crumpled.
Aidan continued. “He said if Susan left, she needn’t bother to come back.”
“Oh, no.”
“We gave her a ride to the beach house.”
Pepper leaned over and hugged Kenzie.
“They never argued before.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“But it is!”
“No, it’s not. It’s not.” She held Kenzie’s small body wracked with sobs.
Eventually Pepper’s silent cursing slowed. The man really needed prayer, but for now her semi-daughter-in-law was the one she carried to the throne.
They coaxed Kenzie into eating some chicken noodle soup. Still seated on the loveseat under the afghan, she spooned it from a mug.
Aidan sat beside her on the floor, Pepper in the old upholstered chair.
“Mom left a voice mail for me this morning, but I just can’t talk with her now.”
“That’s okay,” Pepper said. “Do you two mind if I express my opinion?”
Aidan slapped a hand to his mouth. “Achoo!” He made his eyes abnormally wide.
Pepper laughed.
He grinned. “Opinionate all you want, Mom.” He looked at Kenzie, and his voice softened. “It’s a special day.”
She watched him for a moment. Beneath his impulsive personality beat a solid, tender, loyal heart. “You are a lot like your father, Aidan James Carlucci. You are a good man.”
His brows rose. “Thanks.”
“I know you’ll take care of Kenzie. Whatever that entails.” Like you will figure out marriage is God’s best way for a family to function. Her son needed to hear that from some other voice, though, not hers again. “You know you’ll be in deep yogurt if you don’t.”
He turned to Kenzie who sprayed a mouthful of soup back into the mug.
Pepper said, “What?”
Aidan laughed. “Susan said basically the same thing to me last night. She said she’d punch my lights out if I didn’t.”
Kenzie giggled. “I still can’t believe that came out of her.”
Pepper said, “Well, I can. You think mama bears are tough. You ain’t seen nothing yet. Grandma bears have triple the hutzpah.”
They roared.
“I’m serious.” She smiled and waited for them to finish laughing. “Okay, here’s what I think. Kenzie, what’s happened to your parents is understandably painful for you, but it could be for the best.”
“Mom said they’re facing issues they should have taken care of a long time ago.”
“That’s the sort of thing I’m talking about.”
“But she left him.”
“She temporarily removed herself from the situation. It’s a healthy thing for her to do. I believe she thought there was no other direction to go right now. If they made up on Saturday, something happened before Sunday night that showed her things weren’t finished.” Pepper imagined it had to do with their own premarital pregnancy. Kenzie didn’t seem to be aware of that story, and she wasn’t about to bring it up.
She continued. “With your mom not being at home, your dad is forced to face the problem. He wouldn’t have such a large congregation if he wasn’t a man who trusts in God. And God is faithful. It’ll work out.”
Kenzie lowered the mug to her lap. “We got along when I was little. Then I became a teenager.”
“And he became a big success.” She shrugged. “His church wasn’t always this huge, was it? And I imagine his early churches weren’t either?”
Kenzie shook her head.
“So who’s to say what came first? The terrible teens or the hotshot holy man?”
Kenzie giggled. “He’s never been called that.”
“I certainly hope not. It’s horribly disrespectful.” She smiled. “Let God have His way with him. And ask God to help you forgive him. Sing Aidan’s song over him, that one about peace.”
Aidan scoffed. “I had antiwar efforts in mind when I wrote that.”
“I know. So do I.” She looked at both of them. “We are in a war, kiddos. As long as our relationships remain unhealed, we cannot live in peace. Forgiving those who wound us is an antiwar effort.”
“You’re weird, Mom.”
She grinned. “I know that too.”