Chapter 13

For a while Daphne didn’t say anything as Cory drove in silence. But as the silence continued, it nearly broke her heart to watch his face. He looked absolutely stricken.

“How would you like to stop over there for coffee?” She pointed out the window to a coffee shop. “I think we need to talk.”

“Sure.” He didn’t say anything as he pulled into the lot and parked the truck.

She really didn’t want coffee. She really wanted to talk to him when he wasn’t driving. Before he could get out of the truck to run around to get the step for her, she reached out to wrap her fingers around his lower arm.

“Wait. We need to talk. I want to talk here, where it’s private and you don’t need to concentrate on driving. Your mom told me what really happened that night. I think you told me quite the edited version.”

His face tightened. “She doesn’t remember what really happened.”

“Not all of it, but she remembered most. Why didn’t you tell me that you were struck several times before you struck back, and that he threatened both you and your mother?” She gulped. “And that he had a knife?”

He pulled his arm out of her grip, wrapped both hands around the steering wheel and stared forward. “I’ve gone over it hundreds of times in my head, and each time it sounds like I’m making excuses, like it couldn’t possibly have been like that. I’ve even doubted myself over the years. Maybe I’m remembering it the way I want to, to excuse my own guilt.”

“You’re not. Why can’t you believe in yourself?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know to this day if I did the right thing. I seriously hurt him. I could have killed him. I even thought about it for a few seconds.”

“But you didn’t. And from what your mother said, it sounded like he was trying to kill you.”

He turned to look at her.

“But he didn’t. I won the fight, then instead of getting away from all that, my mother threw me out. She said I was ruining her life. I was trying to do something so her life wouldn’t get ruined. I sure failed at that, too.”

He turned back to stare blankly out the window. “I’m so mixed up. She’s finally in the right place, and I should be really happy, but I’m not. There are no guarantees that she’ll straighten out.”

“Want to pray about it?”

He gulped then once again looked at her. “Yeah. I do. That should have been the first thing I did, but everything has been moving so fast.”

“We’re not moving anywhere now.” She extended one arm to emphasize that they were at a dead stop with the engine off, in the middle of a parking lot.

He sucked in a deep breath when she reached forward and held both his hands. “I’ll start,” she said, then lowered her head.

Daphne first prayed for his mother to open her heart and accept the help she would receive, and for strength to get through the hard parts. She then prayed for Cory; that he could release all his hurts and know that God had been with him then and was with him now.

When she went silent, Cory thanked God for his mother’s change of heart and, to Daphne’s surprise, he thanked God for her strength, support and friendship at a time when he needed it.

His heartfelt prayer nearly broke her heart, especially when he hesitated at the word “friendship.”

This wasn’t friendship. What they had was so much more.

If she doubted that she’d fallen in love with him, with all that she’d learned today, all those doubts had been erased. Now, hearing his words, she knew that without a doubt she’d fallen in love with Cory.

“Amen,” she muttered, opening her eyes and releasing his hands.

He echoed her amen and his eyes fluttered open. He blinked multiple times and then wiped the back of his hand over his eyes.

She didn’t know if it was possible to love anyone more than how she loved Cory.

Not waiting for him to recover, she pushed herself up to her knees, faced sideways on the seat and leaned toward him, then reached forward to cup his cheeks. “I’m going to kiss you, Cory Bellanger, because I love you.”

His eyes widened, causing her to smile but not to stop what she was about to do.

Daphne moved toward him, closed her eyes and kissed the man she loved.

For a split second he stiffened, then his arms surrounded her and he kissed her back just the way she wanted.

The sound of footsteps beside the truck made her pull back from him. She didn’t want another embarrassing incident of a stranger telling them to get a room.

But no one spoke. Instead, a young man turned and looked at them as he walked past, making an okay sign in the air with his fingers.

Her cheeks heated up as she looked at Cory, who didn’t look the least bit embarrassed.

He reached forward and grasped both her hands in his larger ones. “Daphne Carruthers, you are the love of my life and keeper of my heart. Will you make me the happiest guy on earth and be my wife?”

* * *

Cory held his breath, hoping that in the confines of the cab of his truck, she couldn’t hear his heart pounding. Since she’d said she loved him, he didn’t think she should be taking so long to respond. Unless the answer was one he didn’t want to hear.

Suddenly the reason for her not replying hit him like a sack of rocks.

They were inside a vehicle. The day her first boyfriend asked her to marry him, he’d taken her to his vehicle and attempted to rape her.

Cory dropped her hands and moved back, toward the driver’s door. He didn’t know whether he should tell her not to be afraid or to actually say the words that he wasn’t going to attack her.

Her eyes widened as he hit the door with a thud, then welled up with tears. “You are so sweet. I’m not afraid of you. That’s not what I was thinking.” She jerked her head toward the front of the truck, to the boy who had walked past. Cory hadn’t thought about him, nor had he actually looked at the young man.

Not only was he looking at them, he was standing with his phone poised, ready to take a picture of them, presumably when he kissed her again.

As soon as Daphne saw that he saw the guy with the phone, she motioned her head to the rear of the truck. Rather than turn his head, he looked in the mirror to see a second young man standing just behind his door with his arms spread akimbo in the air.

Daphne grinned. “I think they’re waiting for a photo bomb. You know how teens are. Is this the way you want to remember the day you proposed, and the day I said I’d marry you?”

Cory grinned back. “If that’s a yes, then yes. I do.”

“Yes. That’s a yes. Let’s give them a photo they’ll never forget.”

Instead of embracing her, Cory leaned toward her. In the same way, she leaned toward him. When their lips met he raised one hand in the air and gave the photographer a thumbs-up.

As he did so, he couldn’t help but smile, breaking their kiss. With their lips still touching, he kept smiling. “I’m going to ask him to send me a copy of that.”

Daphne pushed herself back to a seated position. “And you know what? I want to send a copy to Rick. Right now.”

Cory’s smile dropped. Rick. “Do you think this will be a problem for him?”

Daphne shook her head. “I hope not. He’ll come around. He just wants to protect me. But he’ll find other ways to keep himself busy.”

“Speaking of busy, we need to get that photo and get moving. We have a delivery to make and then we have plans to make.”

Daphne smiled. “Yes, we do.”

He gave her a quick peck on the cheek before dashing out of the truck to ask for a copy of that very special photo.

It only took a few minutes for the young man to send it to him, and he was back in the truck. Instead of starting the engine, he opened the photo on his phone and held it up for Daphne.

“I’m going to keep this with me and look at it whenever I get stuck doing desk duty.”

“Not me.”

His heart sank.

She took the phone from his hand and wrapped her other hand around his fingers. “Because I’m going to print it and frame it, and put it on my desk at work to keep forever.” She leaned forward and kissed him again. “Right next to that picture of the bird with the red tummy.”

“I like that.”

“And one more thing. When we get our own house, I want to have his and hers bird feeders.”

He couldn’t help but smile; he thought his heart was going to burst.

As he looked one last time at the picture before he drove away, he noticed that she was wearing the same dress she’d worn to Brad and Kayla’s wedding, where he’d been the best man. The day they’d arranged for their first date.

Now she wasn’t just going to be dating the best man.

She was marrying him.

* * * * *