“So. Married life seems to agree with you.” Audrey wadded up her paper towel and tossed it into the garbage can by the door, then turned to lean back against the counter as Carlene finished touching up her lip gloss. Carlene actually blushed at that and Audrey laughed. “It does, doesn’t it?”
Carlene pressed her lips together, twisted the cap back onto her tube of gloss and dropped it into her cosmetic case. “I’m not saying that there hasn’t been some adjustment. But, yes. Jim treats me well. He told me he wants me to stay home after the baby comes.”
Audrey arched her brows, trying to imagine Cosmo-girl Carlene’s reaction when Jim made that statement. “And you said...?”
She shrugged and looked down. “I always thought I’d have to work when I had kids. Never even considered the possibility that I might not have to. But we’ve been looking at nursery furniture and baby clothes, and...I don’t know. I want to stay home.”
“So, I’ll have to get used to someone else coming in and speculating about the weather every day.” As if to illustrate her point a huge clap of thunder sounded outside. Audrey felt tears sting. She was happy for Carlene. But now it seemed like everything was changing so fast. Her peaceful little life of the past year had been turned over and shaken around, and there was no way to predict where the pieces would fall.
Carlene grinned. “Not for long.”
She furrowed her brow. “What?”
“Well,” Carlene drawled, completely herself again, “I think we can all see where things are going with you and Brent. You’ll be married soon enough.”
Brent had been a constant companion to her and her folks for the past two weeks. Her dad’s depression had improved some with a visit to the doctor and several counseling sessions with the family’s pastor. It was Friday and her father had been to work every day this week.
Brent thought her parents could manage a meal without them tonight while they met up with Jim and Carlene for dinner at the Prickly Pear.
Audrey sighed and smiled.
“See!” Carlene poked her in the ribs, then pulled the restroom door open. “I knew it! Hey, is that Barbie Bledsoe?”
Audrey looked up as the restroom door closed.
It was. Her heart plummeted.
Brent and Barbie had been rather long term in high school. Long term for him, anyway. They had dated off and on for a whole school year, not that Brent hadn’t gone and done whatever he pleased when she wasn’t around. But Barbie had never complained.
And there she stood, as tall and tanned and blonde and beautiful as ever, looking at Brent as if she couldn’t get enough of him. Then she hugged him.
“Well, come on.” Carlene grabbed her by the arm. “Get over there and stake your claim, girl.”
Audrey lurched forward, propelled by Carlene’s grip on her elbow, and was deposited at Brent’s side just as Barbie pulled herself halfway out of the embrace to gaze on Brent some more.
“I’ve been fine, Brent.” Barbie laughed. “Just fine. And how long have you been back in town?”
“Since June.” Brent looked sincerely pleased to see Barbie. His face softened in a way that made Audrey want to remind him somehow that she was here. But then Brent let go of Barbie. He slid an arm around Audrey and pressed his hand to the small of her back. “I’m working for Audrey’s dad now.”
“You’re a veterinarian?”
Brent nodded.
“And I knew the two of you would eventually end up together.” Barbie hugged Audrey. “I think we all sort of knew it, didn’t we, Carlene?”
“I always thought she could do better.” Carlene’s comment was tempered with a grin.
Barbie’s gaze would occasionally flicker to Audrey or Carlene. She glanced briefly at Jim when Brent introduced him as Carlene’s husband. But her primary focus remained on Brent. And who could blame her? Brent was so much more. The change in him was so complete that one could tell he was a different man, a better man, just by looking.
Relief nearly overwhelmed Audrey when Barbie was joined by a thirty-something year old man hauling an infant carrier in one hand, and a short chain of twin boys by the other. She introduced him as her husband, then she introduced her three children. She and her husband had a brief conference before he handed her the check and the infant carrier. He took the car keys and the twins, one by each hand, and headed for the parking lot.
Barbie turned back to Brent as the baby started to cry.
Brent stepped closer to the carrier and peeked under the lightweight, pink cotton receiving blanket. “How old is she?”
“Eight weeks,” Barbie said, gently lifting the baby up out of the carrier to cradle her. She began to sway back and forth, talking softly to the infant, who immediately began to quiet.
“She’s so tiny,” Brent said reaching out to stroke the baby’s small hand with his finger. He laughed, clearly amazed, when the little one’s fingers closed tightly around his.
Audrey smiled as she watched Brent become completely entranced by the little baby girl. She meant to look back at the baby, but she ended up doing a double take back at Brent. Tears filled his eyes.
“Could I get you to hold her for just a minute while I go and pay our bill?” Barbie had asked a question, but clearly did not mean to wait for a reply, having already settled the baby in his arms and turned to the table beside them to shuffle through her diaper bag in search of her wallet.
“It’ll just take a minute. I’ll be right back.” Barbie headed to the cash register leaving everything but the check and her wallet in Brent’s safekeeping.
Brent didn’t even seem to notice she had gone. The little person in his arms captivated him. He couldn’t take his eyes off her as he gently stroked her face and hands. When the baby turned her head toward him and started to root around in the front of his shirt, he laughed softly. But tears were there just beneath the surface, and when his smile faded his expression became unreadable.
“Thanks so much.” Barbie took the baby, murmuring a few soft words to her as she nestled her into her carrier. Then, with the speed and efficiency of a woman with three small children, she buckled the little safety belt, slung the diaper bag over one shoulder and hoisted the carrier up onto one hip.
“We’re just here visiting my folks for the weekend.” Barbie smiled. “But it’s been a long day and the boys are getting cranky. We should get together sometime.”
Brent nodded as she turned to go, then he stepped silently to the cash register and paid their bill.
The gentle roll of thunder blended together with the soft sounding wash of rain on the roof, and a collective sigh sounded around the dining room. Rain. Several people stood to glance out the windows. Everyone smiled, except Brent who didn’t seem to notice until they stepped outside under the front awning.
The air already smelled cleaner and Audrey took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. Brent stuck his hand out from underneath the protective cover, letting the rain wash over it. Completely lost in his thoughts.
She laid a gentle hand on his arm. “Brent...?”
Out of nowhere came Carlene, one shoe in each hand, running past them straight out into the shower. She threw her arms open wide and spun around.
“It’s raining!” she shouted as the rain soaked her hair and her dress. It made a very unsophisticated sight, but so characteristic of who Carlene really was inside.
Jim came to stand beside them, watching Carlene with a captivated smile. He glanced at Brent, who chuckled at some secret “guy” code that seemed to pass between them.
“See y’all later.” Then Jim jogged out into the rain, getting to their car just in time to open the door for Carlene.
A smile still lingered from watching Carlene’s antics. She turned to Brent to find him studying her. He reached for her hand and together they made a dash through the shower for his truck. He opened the door for her and she climbed in, breathless and laughing, pushing her fingers through her now damp hair. A few seconds later he climbed in behind the steering wheel and ruffled his short wet hair, sending droplets everywhere.
In a second he turned inward again, pushing his key into the ignition and starting the engine, steering out of the parking lot and onto the highway back toward her house. He took a deep breath as if to say something, but then let it out silently. A few times he seemed on the verge of beginning, but the silence lingered as he turned off the highway and into the residential part of town. Block after block and house after house passed by outside as his discomfort seemed to increase.
“What is it, Brent?” she asked gently, apprehensively, trying to eradicate the image of Barbie Bledsoe’s infatuated expression a few minutes ago, as well as the tender look Brent had returned.
He turned his head slightly in her direction, but kept his eyes on the road. Then he exhaled as if he’d been holding his breath for years. “You know firsthand what kind of guy I was back then.” His voice sounded tight and pained, almost defensive. “I didn’t care about anything or anyone. I didn’t have a clue.”
He paused and took another deep breath, pulling his truck up against the curb in front of her house and shifting it into park. “I slept with a lot of girls.”
Some old part of her bristled at his words even though she had always known the truth in them. She didn’t really want to revisit that part of his past. She preferred to think of him as he was now. Totally hers. But withdrawing from him would probably be the worst thing she could do at this moment, so she unbuckled her seat belt and slid across the seat, closer to him, keeping silent while he struggled.
“I was lucky for a long time,” he continued. “No ‘accidents,’ no diseases. But then I got a girl pregnant.”
Audrey froze. This was a possibility she had never considered.
“You have a child?” Her tone sounded disappointed, even to her. She looked down at her knees before glancing back at him.
He didn’t look at her. He just shook his head as tears filled his eyes. “I had a child.”
His hand rested on the seat between them and she covered it with hers as realization dawned on her. “You lost a child?” She could barely push the words past the ache in her throat as memories of her lost child began to swirl.
Brent took hold of her hand, intertwined his fingers with hers and held on to it tightly, bringing it to his lips and pressing a kiss to the back. He shook his head again and took a deep breath, finally looking at her with tearful eyes.
“I didn’t know what to do.” He glanced away again. “I was young and stupid. I was drunk most all the time. I could barely hold a job. I certainly didn’t want to be bothered by any kind of commitment, and there I was faced with fatherhood.”
He paused and looked down. A tear fell and landed on her hand. He wiped it away with his thumb. “When she told me, I got mad. As far as I was concerned, it was her problem. It didn’t need to involve me. But she told me, and then I was involved. And I got mad.”
He squeezed his eyes shut and gave his head a shake. “She was crying when she left. And I was stunned. But after the initial shock wore off, I thought maybe it could be my chance. To change. To break the insane cycle of my life…my mother’s life. To at least be there, so the kid wouldn’t have to grow up wondering who I was and what I looked like.”
He pressed his lips together and stared out the windshield for a long, silent moment before she laid a hand on his arm to bring him back.
“Anyway.” With a small shake of his head he continued. “For three days she wouldn’t return my calls. When I finally found her at her dorm…” He swallowed hard. “She told me she’d had an abortion, and she never wanted to see me again. And she never did. Not around town, not at parties. I heard she dropped out of school and went back home.
“And I started drinking harder than ever. I managed to convince myself the kid was better off...just like I’d always thought I would have been better off–my mother would have been better off...you...and so many others…the world would have been better off–if I’d never been born.”
Audrey couldn’t stop an involuntary gasp. So much heartache hounded her, used by one man, then abused by another. But with his last words her heart absolutely broke. She’d never known–never even imagined–that Brent had felt that way. All these years she’d remembered him as arrogant and insensitive, not caring how his behavior affected anyone else.
“Oh, Brent,” she breathed his name.
“I always imagined the baby was a girl,” he whispered.
Silence descended on them before he finally took a deep shuddering breath. “My own child. And if I just hadn’t spoken so harshly to a girl I’d already treated so wrongly. Now there’s not anything I’d rather have than a family. But sometimes I think that I had my chance, you know? I had a kid, and I...” He ended with a shrug and a slight shake of his head. “Maybe having a family is too much for me to ask now.”
The view out the windshield was blurred as much by her tears as by the rain that continued to fall in large soft drops. Another distant rumble of thunder sounded as the world around them was finally washed clean. She sniffed.
“I’m sorry, Audrey.” Brent’s low, deep voice went right to her heart. “It’s been on my mind a lot lately. I just had to tell somebody. I thought you should know…what all I’ve done.”
“Oh, Brent.” She leaned closer still and placed her palms on either side of his face. He was still convicting himself for so many things he did before he came to know the Lord. How could he not? He had freely admitted to her that he knew better than to live his life the way he had, even before he became a Christian. But he, better than anyone, should know that only God could have ever broken those chains anyway.
She pushed a short lock of his hair off his forehead. “You’re not that person anymore. Remember?”
He looked at her as if searching for forgiveness in her eyes, and finally smiled through his pain and nodded.
“You’re a Christian now. That all by itself makes you a different person.” She slid hands down to his shoulders, then down his arms to his hands which she clasped in her own. “I can see the changes in you, Brent. Everyone can see the changes in you. Barbie could see the changes in you, and she has no idea what’s happened in your life these past years.”
He raised his gaze from their joined hands to her eyes.
“Did you think it would change the way I feel about you?” The breath nearly caught in her throat at the desperate look in his eyes. That’s exactly what he had thought. “Because it doesn’t.”
He let go of her hands and reached for her, pulling her the rest of the distance across the seat until he embraced her. So close she could feel his heart beating.
“Do you still love me, Audrey? After all this time. Really?” Brent asked, a finger under her chin gently tilting her head back up to look at him. “Because I love you.”
Audrey bit her tongue to keep the tears from coming, but it was a futile attempt. Her vision blurred as she listened to his sweet words.
“I want you to marry me, Audrey, and come to live with me.” Brent choked up a little before he continued. “I want us to have children and, someday, grandchildren. I want us to be a family, even though I know it’s probably the last thing I deserve.”
A sob erupted from her, catching her completely off guard.
Of course he wanted a family—children. She buried her face in her hands and sobbed again, squeezing her eyes shut against an image of Bobby’s enraged expression above her, remembering how she had curled up into a ball trying desperately to protect the child inside from his furious kicks. The tearing pain a few hours later assured her that she had failed.
The warmth of Brent’s arms closed around her. “Audrey?”
“I don’t know if I can,” she whispered.
His arms slackened about her. “What?” He sounded as if someone had just knocked the air out of him.
“Have children.” She clarified, sniffing and wiping her tears away. “I don’t know if I can have children. I had a miscarriage last year...”
“Oh, Audrey.” The compassion in his tone prompted another tear to fall as he cradled her face in his hands. Then he kissed her.
His mouth was soft and familiar, but this experience with him was still all new and almost too good to be true. He was completely here with her, wanting her alone, and no other woman would do. He loved her. He wanted to marry her. Finally.
“Will you marry me, Audrey?” He murmured against her skin, pressing small kisses softly to her cheek, then brushing her hair off her shoulder to press a series of warm kisses to her neck, just below her earlobe. “Will you come live in that big old house with me?” His mouth covered hers again once, then twice. “Please?”
She nodded as more tears flowed. “Yes.”
He let out a long, relieved sounding breath as she pressed her forehead to his. “I don’t have a ring.” He mumbled the admission. “I’m maybe not as prepared as I should have been.”
“Oh.” She sniffed and raised her hands to wipe away her tears. “Well then, forget it.”
He straightened and stared at her, a slow smile emerging to mirror hers. Then he kissed her again as the rain continued to fall softly outside.
****
“So when can we tell them?” Brent murmured in Audrey’s ear as they followed her parents down the church aisle to their regular pew in the center of the sanctuary.
She hadn’t been to church for a regular Sunday morning worship service in a few years, and she was just a bit nervous about being seen here by everyone after so long an absence. Especially considering that her moral conduct during that absence had been significantly less than stellar.
“I don’t know,” she replied quietly, a smile touching her mouth. “When do I get a ring?”
Brent paused and looked at her as she took her seat beside her mother. He grinned.
“How ’bout we drive to Austin this afternoon and shop for one?”
“Shop for what?” Paula leaned over and asked.
“An engagement ring,” Brent said.
Paula looked from Brent to Audrey, who couldn’t contain a giddy smile.
“Must have been some night at the Prickly Pear,” she said just before she leaned the other direction and began to whisper in her husband’s ear.
Her father turned his head to look over at her. But he wore a satisfied smile, the first one she’d seen on him since the fire, and almost as if this had been the plan the whole time. They approved this time.
Brent’s arm slipped around her shoulders and she nestled there basking in his affection. As the organ prelude swelled, the small choir filled the loft, and the preacher took his place on the platform, her heart soared. It felt good to be back, natural, and as she sang, and prayed, and listened to the sermon, she began to feel as if she’d never been gone at all. By the end of the service peaceful joy enveloped her. The Lord had taken her back. Everything would be all right.
As they stood to leave, Brent took her hand.
“You never did tell me if you thought going to Austin today would be a good idea.”
“You mean to shop for a ring?”
He nodded.
“Oh, I guess it would be all right.” She teased him with an exaggeratedly put upon sigh. “Just remember…” Audrey stopped short at the last thing she expected to see today, or any day, for that matter.
Sudden tension emanated from Brent and his hand tightened around hers. She glanced up to find him staring at the same person who had halted her in her tracks.
Bobby Kerr leaned against the wall at the very back of the sanctuary.
His eyes met Audrey’s, then he looked at Brent. His dark gaze dropped to their linked hands, then down to the floor where it remained as they passed him on their way out. Audrey’s spine was rigid with the tension she felt, and she had to fight hard against the impulse to look back over her shoulder.
“You OK?” Brent asked once they’d reached his pickup.
“I knew he’d be back,” she said through gritted teeth. “I knew it. I knew he’d never just leave and let me move on and live my life in peace.”
Brent pulled her close and held her.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “We’ll handle this. We’ll do whatever we have to do. We’ll go the police, and get a restraining order.”
Audrey nodded, content to be in his arms and so glad to have him on her side.
“We can handle this,” he said quietly.
****
Brent checked his watch as he slid into what was becoming their regular booth at the Prickly Pear. He was fifteen minutes early. He ordered iced tea to drink while he waited. After the waitress left his table he realized he was grinning.
He’d been doing that a lot the past few weeks. It surprised him, too, because he’d never behaved this way over a woman. But he couldn’t seem to stop it. He was getting married. To Audrey who was not only the woman he loved, but also his best friend.
When everyone else dismissed him as trash on account of his mother’s lifestyle, Audrey had been a steadfast friend. She had never seen anything but him—not his mother and her string of live-in boyfriends, not the run-down, filthy trailer he’d lived in. She’d only seen him, independent of all that, and she loved him. Only God knew why.
Even when he returned after a ten-year absence, she couldn’t hide how she still felt about him. She tried hard to be stoic, but Audrey was an emotional woman. Every little thing she felt showed clearly on her face…in her eyes.
He loved that about her.
He glanced down at his watch. Almost no time had elapsed.
“Waiting for someone?”
Brent’s grin faded and every muscle tensed. He recognized the voice. And the question sounded like a challenge despite the cordial tone. His pulse quickened and he forced himself to take slow, deep deliberate breaths.
“As a matter of fact, I am.” He didn’t want to fight, so he forced an easy tone. But when he looked up, Bobby refused to look away.
Bobby shifted his weight and looked down. Clearly he had not come here to cause trouble either, and as far as Brent could tell, he was completely sober.
“Mind if I sit for a minute?”
Brent clenched his teeth. He minded. He’d like nothing better than to run Bobby out of town permanently, but not before punching him a few times for good measure.
“Just for a minute,” Bobby said.
Brent nodded and took a deep breath, his pulse slowing at the realization that Bobby hadn’t come here to confront him. “What’s this about? Audrey is supposed to meet me in a few minutes, and I’d rather you were gone when she gets here.”
Bobby slid into the opposite side of Brent’s booth and waved the waitress away when she came to ask if she could get him anything to drink.
“I’ve been trying to keep my distance from Audrey.” Bobby looked down and began picking at a callus on the palm of his hand. He kept his voice low.
“You mean you’ve been trying to keep your distance by showing up at her house and stalking her at church?”
Bobby glanced up at Brent briefly, then he redirected his attention to the callus again.
“I heard y’all got engaged.”
“That’s right.”
Bobby nodded. “I know I’m not what Audrey needs. I’m the last thing anyone needs. And I know she doesn’t believe me when I tell her I want to change. Why should she? I never change.” He paused and took a breath. “I never intended to be the kind of man I am.”
“Listen, Bobby.” The disdain in Brent’s heart was clear by the tone of his voice. “Audrey and me, we’re gonna get married. She’s got a ring on her finger, and we’re making wedding plans. Don’t think you’re going to come back around and change her mind, because I won’t let that happen.”
Bobby shook his head and leaned on the table.
“That’s not what I’m doing,” he said earnestly. “I swear it. This isn’t about Audrey. Not directly. That’s why I wanted to talk to you when she wasn’t around.”
“If it’s not about Audrey, why are you talking to me about it at all?”
“Because you’ve done it,” Bobby said quickly. “You and me, we’re a lot alike. At least we used to be. But you’ve...you’re somebody now. You’re different. You’re a better man, a respectable man, and I want to know how you did it. I’ve tried so hard and nothing about me ever changes. But you did…
“The reason I’ve been at the church is because I heard you go there now. I heard you believe in God now. I thought maybe that’s what made the difference. I’m not stalking Audrey.”
Brent sat up straight and leaned back against the seat. The shock probably registered plainly on his face, but he couldn’t cover it. Bobby wanted to know about God? About Christ and salvation?
Audrey’s past declarations of his deceitful ways streamed steadily through his mind, at odds with the resonation in his soul. The skin on the back of his neck prickled. But Brent narrowed his eyes. If she were here, she’d see right through him. She’d see this encounter for what it probably really was: Bobby trying, by any means necessary, to work his way back into her life.
Considering honestly changing his ways and coming to Christ was one of the most uncharacteristic things Bobby could do. Even if he tried, Brent couldn’t imagine a more unlikely source for questions that might lead to salvation.
Except maybe himself about six years ago.
The breath left his chest, as if someone had stuck a hand inside, wrapped thick fingers around his heart and began to squeeze. He’d been right there in Bobby’s place once. Who was he to doubt God’s direction in the life of another?
Lord? Is it you?
Brent swallowed and started to speak but found his voice was thick and hoarse. He cleared his throat. “When was the last time you drank?”
The look of relief on Bobby’s face erased all doubt about his motivation. His eyes filled with tears, then he smiled a little. “Not since the day I was arrested.”
Brent looked down. Then he looked around the diner. There had to be someone here more qualified to lead this discussion than he was. He still struggled so hard.
“The other night at the AA meeting, they gave me this.” Bobby reached into his shirt pocket, pulled out a small gold medallion and held it up. The phrase one day at a time stamped clearly on it.
Brent reached for his keys and showed Bobby the fob he carried in which his own chip was displayed. “Six years for me. No, six and a half.” The amendment gave him a measure of comfort. He had struggled hard lately, but he hadn’t failed. And in six more months’ time, he’d be able to pick up another medallion. One with seven years stamped into it.
“They suggested I find a sponsor...” Bobby let his voice trail off as he dropped his chip back into his pocket, then he hazarded a glance back up at Brent.
Brent understood what he was asking and shook his head. “I’m not sure that would be such a good idea.”
Bobby nodded and swallowed hard. “I know there’s no reason for anyone to want to help me, especially you. But I just...I can’t...” He shook his head as his voice trailed off.
He couldn’t put it into words, but Brent knew what he was trying to say. Bobby was desperate to change. There was no way he’d be asking him for help otherwise.
Brent ran a finger over his six year medallion. Pete Daly had been his sponsor, and he never would have made it this far if he hadn’t had Pete to confide in. Brent didn’t want to hear Bobby’s story over and over. Especially as it related to Audrey. But if Bobby was really going to do this, he needed someone. Someone who had been there.
“I need to talk to Audrey about it.”
Bobby paused and looked back down, the muscles in his jaw began to twitch. “I never wanted to hurt Audrey.” His voice was low and thick. “Never. I love Audrey. And even she’ll tell you that when I wasn’t drinking we had a good life together. As long as I’m sober, I’m fine.”
Bobby wasn’t fine, drunk or sober. But how was Brent supposed to tell him that? What words would he use to convince Bobby that what he needed was not merely to stay sober? What could he say to persuade him that he wouldn’t be able to stay sober relying on his own strength anyway?
Brent had never had the opportunity or inclination to witness so boldly to anyone before. Fear seized him. What if this wasn’t really what Bobby came for? Maybe his gut feeling was wrong. Maybe to mention Christ and salvation now would serve only to drive Bobby away, thinking Brent was some kind of over-zealous religious freak.
“What changed you?” Bobby’s question was like a word straight from God.
Brent’s pounding heart began to calm and his mind to clear.
“God.”
Brent paused and waited for a disdainful laugh or a snide mocking reply, but none came. Bobby’s gaze remained unwavering on Brent’s face. Clearly this was exactly what he’d come for. “Do you believe in God?”
“Yeah,” Bobby answered. “I guess I’ve always believed in God.”
“I always believed in God, too,” Brent said.
Then he took a deep breath and plunged in.
He told Bobby of his youthful perception of God as a distant dictator whose function was to make rules that no normal person could possibly live by. He told of his exploits in College Station and how he’d come to be living as all but a vagrant. Then he told Bobby about the experience he’d had in the parking lot of the bar the night he became aware that God’s grace at some point extended even to a faithless loser like him.
During Brent’s narration, Bobby had leaned closer, his hands balled into fists on the table in front of him. After Brent finished, Bobby sat still, breathing deeply, tension radiating off him like the little heat waves rising off the blacktop parking lot outside.
“Do you think that same thing could happen to me?” Bobby finally asked.
“I think it is happening to you,” Brent said.
Bobby swallowed hard, looked down and shifted in his seat. “I want to think about it.”
Brent glanced down at his watch. Audrey was ten minutes late. He looked up to find Bobby watching him.
“I’ll go,” Bobby said. “I guess she’ll be here any minute now. Is there any way I could talk to you about this more sometime?”
Brent nodded as Bobby slid out of the booth. He stood for a moment, awkwardly. Then he extended his hand toward Brent.
Brent hesitated. Shaking Bobby’s hand now would change everything between them. It might change everything between him and Audrey, too. And how could he? After all the pain and suffering Bobby had inflicted on her.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
The scripture that had tethered him to Christ rolled through his heart. If it had been true for him, then it could hold true for Bobby as well. Otherwise it wasn’t the Truth at all.
He’s almost there. The still small voice whispered. Help him along. If you don’t, no one will.
Brent nodded, reached out and shook Bobby’s hand.
“Thanks.” Bobby turned to go, but stopped short.
Audrey stood just inside the door, the look on her face already calling Brent a traitor.