Chapter 6
This presentation is
protected by U.S. and International copyright laws. Reproduction and distribution
of this presentation without written consent from the author is strictly
prohibited. © Kristina L. Allen
Fully revised
Second edition
©Kristina L. Allen
Original Copyright © October 16 2013
Original title: LOVE’S MUSES
Recognizing His Rival
All rights reserved.
Chapter 6
GANGING UP ON THE TEACHER
Nick’s
heart dropped when he heard the little girl call out to her father. He turned
to see a tall man, with short-cropped sandy blonde hair, neatly stacked over to
the side. He looked to be about in his early forties, with minimal lines in his
forehead. There was a heaviness in his eyes, a hollowness of a man who has had
to bear much too much sorrow in his life. His pear-green eyes were bloodshot
red, showing signs of fatigue as if grossly overused. The dark circles and
puffy bags under his eyelids testified to anyone looking at him that he was a
man who had traveled many miles that day. His five o’clock shadow glistened
from the lamp over the table, and there was just a slight hint of speckled
white whiskers scattered about in his beard and short sideburns. His loosened
tie draped over his white dress blouse, with the first two buttons un-done, and
there was a ring of dirty sweat that laced the inside collar. His suit jacket
showed signs of creases in the elbows, as if he had spent many hours with his
arms resting on the sides of a chair or a conference table.
Nick
turned back to see Katie wiping away the remnant of a tear that had fallen from
her eye. He wanted to cry himself, but for different reasons than he believed
this beautiful teacher was crying. This was the moment he was dreading. The
luminous glow in his eyes eclipsed, and the smile, which was ingrained on his
face most of that time he was with Katie, had disappeared. Katie looked up at
Matthew with such sadness in her eyes, grieving the premature loss of Prince
Charming, who had resurrected the shiver, which had laid in Michael’s casket
these eight years now. The smile that he put on her heart was about to return
to the mundane frown that had been there since the day the officers rang her
doorbell at four o’clock in the morning, bearing news that she never thought
she could ever live through and survive. Nick leaned in close to Katie and
put his hand on hers, which was resting on her thigh. He leaned into her and
whispered into her ear. “You okay, Teach?” Katie nodded, then patted his
hand on her thigh, giving him what he feared would be his last jolt of the
night.
“Hey,
little girl, I’m surprised you are awake?” Matthew said to his youngest
daughter. He looked at Katie and noticed her tears and her attempt to remain
composed. She kept her gaze locked on Nicolas Paul, while he was
captive to her stare.
“Hi
Daddy,” Marianne said. He smiled greeting his middle daughter and noticed the
same sad look in Julianna that he was watching perpetrating both the country
singer and Katie’s face.
“Hi
sweetheart,” he said to Marianne. “Julie, you okay?” Julianna lifted
her head and looked at Nick. Neither of them was smiling.
“Yeah,
hi, Dad,” she said with her voice lowered in such disappointment. Matthew
shot a glance back again at Katie who lowered her head with a slight nod,
looking at Nick with a sad smile. It was apparent to Matthew that no one wanted
this encounter with the country music star to end, not even Katie.
“Well,
this has to be the saddest restaurant booth I’ve ever walked up to,” Matthew
said. Katie looked up at her best friend, knowing that he knew her all too
well.
“Hey
Matthew, boy you look tired,” she said. “Oh, this is Nick Thomas, and he’s been
sweeping all of us off our feet.” Nick turned from Katie and stood,
putting on a feigned smile when he put his hand out to shake Matthew’s
hand.
“It’s
nice to meet you, Matthew. I have to tell you that you have the most wonderful
girls here. I’ve enjoyed their company very much, all four of them, in
particular the lovely Princess Cindy, over here,” he said swooning Katie when
he turned to look at her. She shook her head with a sad smile.
“Well,
Mr. Thomas, when Marianne texted me that there was a star gazing at my
beautiful sister-in-law, I just had to meet a man with such exquisite taste and
a good eye.” Matthew winked at Katie then smiled at Nick with his head
tilted.
“Knock
it off, Matthew. The girls have embarrassed the snot out of me enough. I don’t
need it from you too.”
“Daddy,
Mr. Thomas likes Auntie K,” little Katie said.
“So, I
hear, and now, I can see.” Matthew nodded and winked at Katie. He
gave Nick a smile of approval, observing the sadness in Nick’s eyes. He watched
Nick lost in the same gaze at Katie that his brother had that summer, sixteen
years ago, when he was falling in love with her. Nick looked as if his dream
woman was about to slip through his fingers. He was powerless to stop the ebb
and flow of regret. He noted Katie locked in a trans-like stare, which was
the same way she looked at his brother, Michael, all those years ago. It was a
look and a twinkle in her eye that he had not seen in those eight mournful
years; not since that day when he vowed in weeping to his brother lying still
in that casket, that he would take good care of his widow. His heart smiled,
grateful that his best friend of sixteen years had now found another worthy of
the shiver, for her forlorn heart.
“They’ve
been having a pick-up lines contest. Mr. Thomas won,” Marianne
said.
“Yes,
he’s even had me swooning a couple of times, and you know me, Matthew,” Katie
said never taking her eyes off Nick.
“Mr.
Thomas, if you got my sister-in-law here to swoon, you must be full of magic.”
Nick looked at Katie with such a sad smile. He breathed out a long sad
sigh.
“She’s
the one who is full of magic. I’ve been swooning her since the second she came
around the backdrop at my meet and greet.” He sighed and did not take his eyes
off Katie, who stared back at him, blushing from his compliment.
“Wait,
weren’t you supposed to do that, Julianna?” Marianne chuckled, looking at
her sister and then returned to her previous laughter, only on a smaller scale.
Katie shot her a look, and Marianne stopped laughing promptly.
“I’ll
explain that to you, later, Matthew,” Katie said, looking at Julianna, then
back at Nick. Matthew chuckled at the both of them.
“Mr.
Thomas, you look like you’re about to lose your best friend.” Nick nodded
slowly.
“No, my
Princess Cinderella,” he said while staring into Katie’s sad eyes, with
mournful eyes of his own.
“Well,
Mr. Thomas, I can’t see ending such a magical night so early. My sister-in-law
here is a big girl, and she can stay out late, if she wants. We are staying at
the Embassy Suites Hotel, which is just a couple of blocks from here. If you
could promise to get her back safely, I think she could use a night out with a
little pampering from a Prince Charming.” Nick spun his head toward
Matthew, and his face lit back up with his huge Texas-sized smile. His chest
rose as if life-giving oxygen had just re-inflated his otherwise punctured
lungs. This love-saving oxygen flowed even more blood to his already
fast-beating heart, giving it new life and a happy rhythm. He whipped his head
toward Katie, flashing his pearly whites and screaming to her with his dimples.
The glow in his eyes returned, and his cheeks retained their fleshy pink color.
His body heat rose along with another part of his anatomy at the thought of
spending the entire evening sitting in that booth with just this beautiful
teacher and him. It was a dream come-true for him, one he never expected
could happen, especially in that despairing moment when she disappeared back in
that meet and greet room. He reclaimed his seat next to Katie with such
excitement in his voice, and he grabbed her hands in his, grasping them as if
holding on for dear life.
“You
mean you’re not going back to Kentucky tonight?” He asked with new life and
renewed hope. Katie shook her head.
“No,
we’re here for a couple of days,” Matthew said. “You didn’t tell him that?”
Matthew asked. Katie shrugged her shoulders.
“Well,
I didn’t really have a reason to, Matthew.”
“Oh
Teach, please stay for a while here with me, please,” he begged. “You would
make it the best night of my year, the decade even if you would stay.” He
turned to Matthew, realizing how desperate he sounded. He thought about how
Shawn told him not to lay it on too thick and decided to back it off a bit. “I
mean, I’ve so enjoyed your aurora and funny. I don’t know when I’ve laughed so hard
or enjoyed one single person’s company so much. Thanks for suggesting it,
Matthew.” He gave Katie his pleading eyes. “Please stay, c’mon,
Teach?” Katie looked up at Matthew, then back at Nick with that deer in the
headlights look and shook her head. He was far too dangerous of a man to spend
one more minute with, let alone an entire evening. She again, looked up at
Matthew, then back to Nick. The girls all giggled in their seats, all but
Julianna.
“No, it
is not a great idea. I’d have to be a fool to take the chance of sticking it
out another minute with you and your smooth talking.” Katie cackled. She pulled
her hand out from under his and put them on her lap.
“Dearie,
live a little, will you? You’ve had a bad year. It’s been a while since you’ve
been out in public, and your social skills are a bit rusty. I think that Mr.
Thomas could help you hone-up on them.”
“Speak
for yourself, master geek. Who taught you how to behave in public?” She said,
shooting a frustrated eye at Matthew for suggesting such a thing. The thought
of staying alone with that man for any length of time, scared her
half-to-death. This man could turn her into toast way too easily and in no time
at all with his smooth complimentary vernacular and love-induced stares.
“I
would love to tutor her in the art of fraternizing with a smitten country
artist, a Prince Charming-wanna-be.” Katie could see the glow in his eyes
re-illuminated while he begged her to stay.
“He’s
no Prince Charming-wanna-be, Matthew. He graduated from that college Summa Cum
Laude. He’s very dangerous. He had to put little Katie in between
us, and now, you want to leave me here with him, alone? Are you out of your
cotton-pickin’ mind?” Nick picked up one of her hands and held it
with both of his, pleading with his eyes, all that much more.
“No,
you are, Auntie K, if you don’t stay,” Marianne said. Nick turned to Marianne
and chuckled.
“Thanks,
Marianne. I knew I could count on you, now push her a little more,” Nick
said.
“Will
you take good care of my girl for me?” He turned to Matthew, with
Katie’s hands still in his. He then turned back to Katie.
“A
thousand dragons couldn’t even come close to her,” he said with that love-sick
stare.” Katie pulled her hands from Nick’s grasp and threw them open
wide.
“Do you
see what I mean, Matthew? No way, Mr. Smooth and Sensual singer, you ain’t
gonna get your claws in me.” She feigned a frown.
“Well,
if you ask me, it’s obvious that he already has,” Julianna said with a scowl
and in a sarcastic jealous tone. Katie whipped her head to look at Julianna who
hadn’t smiled once since she found out how smitten Nick was with her Auntie
K.
“What’s
with her?” Matthew asked.
“Oh,
she’s jealous, because Nick Thomas likes Auntie K and not her,” Marianne
reported.
“Shut
up, chubster, you’re a jerk you know that?” Everyone’s eyes popped open wide at
Julianna’s anger.
“Daddy,
did you hear that?”
“Yes, I
did. I also heard you teasing her first. Now, the two of you apologize to each
other.” Julianna’s face turned crimson, as the heat of embarrassment rushed to
all the nerve points in her face. She kept her head lowered and her eyes down
to avoid direct eye contact with Nick.
“Julie,
I said apologize.”
“She
started it.” She lifted her eyes to peak at Nick who was smiling, understanding
Julianna, having been in that position thousands of times as a rising country
artist with thousands of screaming groupies, in particular shy teens. He gave
her his usual friendly inviting smile as if she were the only teen on the
planet. She then darted an angry stare at Katie, who returned a pitiful smile
filled with empathy.
“I’m
sorry, Julie, for saying you had a crush on Mr. Thomas.” Julianna looked up to
her father, looking for him to rescue her from the embarrassment.
“Dad,
you see what I mean?”
“Marianne,
that was a pathetic apology. I think you can do better,” Matthew said.
“Okay,
Julianna, I’m sorry for embarrassing you because of your crush on Nick Thomas.”
Katie shook her head no, giving Marianne a look of disapproval.
“What? It’s
the truth,” the awkward teen said, trying to defend herself.
“Dad?”
Julianna looked toward her father.
“Marianne,
we are going to have words back at the hotel, and they are not going to be
pleasant for you.” Marianne lowered her head with dread. Nick left Katie on his
side of the table. He sat next to Julianna and put his arm around her with her
chin still tucked into her collarbone, trying to ease her embarrassment and
encourage her.
“Beautiful
girl, you have nothing to be embarrassed or feel bad about. I appreciate the
compliment.” Julianna picked up her head and looked at Nick then
Katie. Her Auntie K reached over to hold her niece’s hand. Julianna responded
by giving Katie her hand. “Just like your Auntie, you’re a timeless beauty,
only your time has not come, yet. I’m sure though, when it does, your dad over
here is going to have to beat them off with a stick.” Julianna put
her other hand on Nick’s hand that was resting on the table. He looked at Katie
who mouthed the words, ‘thank you.’ He nodded at Katie and then returned his
attention to Julianna, brushing her hair back behind her shoulders.
“I
already do,” Matthew said. Nick continued to comfort Julianna.
“Beautiful
girl, there’s a young man out there that God is getting ready for you, and when
he finds you, he’s going to sweep you off your feet, and you’ll be looking at
this old man over here, saying ‘What the heck did I see in him?” He said,
pointing to himself.
“That’s
not true, Mr. Thomas. You’ll always be hot, and I’m happy for my Auntie K. She
deserves a rockin’ hot country music artist taking her away to live happily
ever after. She’s had it rough, and she’s due something good to happen to her.
You certainly are a good thing.” Julianna gave Nick a big hug, and he held her.
He gave her the first of many hugs those girls would receive from Nick, not
just from his arms, but from his heart. Katie put her hands to her mouth and started
trembling. A river of tears began to flow from her eyes.
“Thank
you, Julie, but I think I’m getting the better end of the deal if she stays,”
he said looking over toward Katie who was losing the battle to retain control
of her overflowing emotional response. He then turned to Julianna, and he
whispered in her ear. “I’m going to need some help,
though.” Julianna leaned into Nick and whispered into his ear.
“I
think she needs a hug,” Julianna said. Katie’s head remained low. Nick
hesitated, unsure if the hug should come from him, or if that was too intimate
of an act, too fast, with her family there. He looked up at Matthew who tossed
his head in her direction, giving him permission to comfort his sister-in-law.
He slid back into their bench seat, next to Katie making sure that their thighs
were touching, and he put his arm around her shoulder, welcoming her to his
comforting arms.
“You
okay, Teach?” She kept her head down and leaned into his shoulder to receive
his comfort. After a few seconds, she cleared her throat and nodded, slightly
self-conscious. She backed up out of Nick’s arms and gave him an appreciative
smile. He brushed away the remaining tears.
“I
wonder if I’ll ever stop crying.”
“Nope,
dear sister, you have an ocean’s worth of tears in there. I think the Lord will
return before you even come close to running low on your water works.” The
girls all broke out in laughter, nodding in agreement. Katie put her
hands on Nick’s face and chuckled with them.
“Save
yourself, leave here and run for your life.” Matthew started laughing while He
shook his head no. Katie looked up at Matthew and smiled. “Isn’t that the
truth, Matthew?”
“No, it
is not, you little Valentine that everybody loves.” That dropped Katie, again,
bringing back the waterworks.
“Oh,
Matthew,” she said, a little miffed that he pulled that on this day. He had
spent the last sixteen years trying to undo the damage her birth father did
when he called her those awful names. Nick looked puzzled, then he looked to
Marianne, knowing full well that he’d get a detailed explanation from her.
Marianne, true to form, did her job as the family heralder.
“You
see, Mr. Thomas, Auntie K’s Daddy, was mean to her and used to tell her that
she was the Valentine that nobody loved or was it nobody wanted. Which was it,
Julie?” Julianna shook her head.
“Does
it matter?” Katie kept her head down, disgusted with the family heralder. Nick
looked with shock on his face at the two girls, then at Katie.
“What
kind of evil man would say such a thing to his daughter?”
“Auntie
K’s,” little Katie responded. Katie took in a deep sigh. She raised her eyes at
Nick with some shame and awkwardness. He rubbed her cheek with the back of his
fingers and brushed away the flow of tears.
“Does
your life story get any worse than that?”
“Yes,—”
Marianne started to say when everyone stopped her by calling out her name in
unison.
“What?”
she asked, clueless. Nick looked at Marianne, then all the rest of the family.
Little Katie picked up where Marianne left off by filling in a little
detail.
“That’s
why Daddy adopted Auntie K the first day he met her on their first day of
college. He said she needed a loving family, and his had lots of love left over
to spill all over Auntie K, because no one loved her in her own family while
she was growing up.” Katie dropped her head, putting her hands over her face,
hiding under her visor.
“Oh,
honestly, Matthew, can we get these girls out of here? My goodness girls, why
don’t you just tell him how much I weigh?” Marianne took in a breath as if she
were going to spill those beans, and she was promptly halted from speaking when
Matthew put his finger to his lips.
“Dearie,
why don’t you just step out of the box and push the envelope? Try doing
something unexpected and spontaneous for a change,” Matthew said to Katie.
“Good
one, Dad, challenge her to have the guts to be different, nice approach. Dad’s
right. Auntie K, you are very boring. I think that Mr. Thomas could add zest to
your night,” Marianne said.
“Can
you get a load of this? They are sinking to insulting me. A very unique tactic
I’d say.”
“Well,
if it works, I’m all for their technique. So, Miss Katherine Lynn, my teacher
in the pink hat,” he said as he flipped her visor up a bit. “Are you going to
send me back to my bus a broken and humiliated man, or an extremely blessed,
elated man, who just met the most beautiful woman in the world, and she chose
to stay for a while to enlighten and enthrall him with her essence?”
“Do you
honestly think I’m going to stay here and let Prince Charming sweep me off my
feet, then dump me by the roadside, when his bus pulls away? Sorry, my Prince,
but this Cinderella has a lot more going on up here than the original,” she
said pointing to her head.
“Apparently
not, if you say no to Nick Thomas, who just asked you on a date, Auntie K, I
mean, no offense, but you’re not getting any younger. Who knows how long you’ll
be able to attract a rockin’ hot artist like Nick Thomas. Do you know how many
women would kill for that? Are you crazy?” Julianna said.
“I’m
with my daughters on this one, girlie. I think he looks pretty safe,” Matthew
added.
“I am,
and I promise to get her back safe and no funny business, Matthew. I’m an
honorable kind of guy; I don’t do that kind of thing.”
“Auntie
K, it wouldn’t be worth it without some funny business,” Marianne said, with a
chortle. Matthew put one hand on his hip and darted a disapproving glance at
Marianne. Katie laughed at Marianne’s candor. “Well, it wouldn’t,” she
said laughing.
“I
wouldn’t turn down any funny business Nick Thomas was offering me, either”
Julianna said, giggling.
“Girls,
I’m surprised at that kind of talk,” Matthew said furrowing his brow.”
“Lighten
up, Matthew, you’re such a prude. I suppose, if this Prince Charming wants to
pamper me, then funny business would be a just reward.” The girls all
laughed. Nick chuckled and shook his head.
“Beautiful
teacher, as desirable as you are, and you are, I would not dream of treating
you with such dishonor. You are a noble woman, way too classy and upstanding
for something as cheap as that. I am a grown man who abhors one-night-stands.
So even if you begged, you would be turned down, as difficult as that would
be.”
“Auntie
K, he’s good. Mr. Thomas, I am so impressed,” Marianne said.
“Thank you,
Marianne, but that was not a line. It was the God’s honest truth.”
“Mr.
Thomas, will you excuse us, so we can duke it out,” Matthew said in jest.
“Sure,
do what you can to get her to say yes, and I’ll be forever
grateful.” He stood and put out his hand for Katie to take to assist
her out of the bench. She looked at his hand, then at Matthew and declined his
offer. “You are a little firecracker, aren’t you?” He gave her a
disapproving shaking of his head, while she flipped her visor back at him.
“With
nuclear power, bud, be therefore warned. I’ll go duke it out with
him, but he’s not going to win on this one. So, just get that ridiculous notion
of a night here with you making love to me with your glances right out of your
mind.”
The
girls giggled knowing the contest was over. Katie would stay. Matthew handed
little Katie over to Nick, who gladly held her for him. As Katie
dismissed herself and went off in the corner to fight with Matthew, the other
girls told Nick to sit back down. All three were laughing in unison.
He looked at them with a quizzical stare. Nick picked up little Katie and put
her on his lap.
“C’mere,
little darling.”
“Mr.
Thomas, you just won that battle. It’s all sewn up in your corner. She’ll be
staying, so get those eyes ready,” Marianne said.
“Yeah,
Auntie K always does whatever Daddy tells her to do. She has all of her life,”
little Katie said. Julianna stepped in to give her opinion.
“Not
all her life, squirt, only since she was seventeen, that’s when they met on
their first day in college.
“So,
her birth father was abusive?” He asked. Memories of his past began to
resurface. Little did he know that the injured little girl in Katie was about
to bring out the long-since buried injured little boy in Nick.
“The
entire family was all mean to her. Then her mother killed herself when she was
only twelve, and they all blamed Auntie K.” Nick gasped, putting his hand on
his chest.
“Good
Lord, what tragedy has that woman not been put through? My goodness, how does
she even smile, let alone light up a room?”
“Daddy
says, that because she didn’t get any love from her family, that God put his
Agape love in her and she is very generous with it,” Marianne reported,
repeating her father’s much-quoted words.
“Well,
that’s gotta be it. It makes perfect sense. So, how did your Daddy give her
your Uncle Michael’s lips for her legal birthday?” Julianna filled
in some of the missing pieces.
“You
see, Mr. Thomas, Auntie K met Uncle Michael on her sweet sixteen birthday, but
only for a few minutes on stage at her high school Valentine’s dance. He didn’t
kiss her on the lips, because he was twenty, and she wasn’t legal. She met
Daddy in college two years later. When he found out that it was his brother
that she had a crush on, he and Mommy went on their first date on Katie’s
birthday, taking her to Michael’s lips. Uncle Michael was playing at a bar, and
they surprised Auntie K. She didn’t know that her Michael was Daddy’s twin
brother. Auntie K always says that Uncle Michael kissed her like a thirsty man
who had just spent a year in the desert.” They all chuckled at Katie’s
descriptive words.
“Yeah, Mama
says she walked around with Daddy’s face for over a month, not knowing she was
walking around with the face she fell in love with, two years earlier. Daddy
and Mommy still laugh about that, and the plan they hatched,” Marianne added.
Julianna finished the story.
“Back
then, Uncle Michael was a playboy, so Daddy would only let him kiss her
once. Auntie K had to wait for Daddy to give Uncle Michael
permission to pursue her. Daddy said Uncle Michael had to be worthy of her and
earn her by changing his ways. That was why they made up Operation Rescue Fair
Maiden from Stalker.”
“Operation
Rescue Fair Maiden from Stalker, now that sounds like an interesting
story.”
“Oh, it
is. She loves to tell that story. You should ask her. She’ll cry all the way
through it. She cries all the time. Sometimes happy tears, sometimes sad, it’s
hard to tell most times,” Marianne said. Nick darted a gaze at Katie
while she argued with Matthew, praying silently that Matthew could talk her
into staying. As Marianne continued her chatting, Nick kept his glare and
attention glued to Katie and Matthew, stealing glances. He was lost in that
lover’s gaze, until he heard those fury firing-up words from the family
heralder, giving out more details than she should.
“When
Uncle Scotty beat her up, then Daddy beat up Uncle Scotty. Daddy always sticks
up for Auntie K.” Nick’s head spun at lightning speed to Marianne for details.
“Scotty
beat her up?” Fury escalated to new heights in Nick’s heart. He clenched his
jaw and gritted his teeth. He tightened his fists as if to seek out this man
and beat the living tar out of him. Loathing seeped into Nick’s heart flooding
it with a hate for a man he never met. It remained that way until fate and his own
carnality would end up teaching him otherwise. “When did this
happen?”
“It was
in the summer.” Marianne started to go on with more details before Julianna
stopped her when she elbowed her.
“Geez,
Marianne, there you go flapping your ever lovin’ gums. Do you ever shut up?
Auntie K doesn’t like it when people know about that, neither does Daddy. Don’t
tell her you know, okay, Mr. Thomas?”
“Don’t
you worry, I won’t say a thing.” Nick settled it in his mind right
then. Depressed or not, he did not care. He determined to mount his white horse
this night and whisk her off to a safe place in his arms. Ignorant
of Scotty’s importance in this family, he was ready to kill this man, when he
thought about that man hitting this wonderful little woman. “Thanks for letting
me know, at least I won’t say anything dumb to make her cry, I hope.”
“She’ll
do it anyway, especially today. Every once in a while, a memory will pop up,
and she’ll cry for only a few minutes. Then she gets it together. We
hug her a lot. Her family never hugged her when she was a little girl. Daddy
says we are making up for all those years she felt so unloved. Can I tell him
that?” Marianne asked.
“Does
it matter? You just did, for crying out loud,” Julianna said in frustration.
They all looked over at Katie and Matthew talking.
“They’ve
been through a lot together, haven’t they?” He asked Julianna.
“Yep,
the night that Uncle Michael died, the police officers had to tell Daddy on the
phone, because Auntie K didn’t want to hear the words. Then Mommy and Daddy
rushed over to help Katie and Laurie in the wee hours of the morning,” Julianna
reported.
“Who’s
Laurie?” He asked. Sadness fell onto the air in that booth. The girls started
to whimper, just slightly.
“Our
cousin,” Julianna said with her voice cracking, attempting to retain her tears.
“She was twenty years old when she died. Uncle Michael had her when he was only
sixteen, and he raised her alone until Auntie K came along.” Julianna cried and
could not finish. Marianne finished the story.
“After
Uncle Michael died, a couple of years later, when Laurie was eighteen, she sort
of retreated. She was mad that her Daddy had died, and she blamed Auntie K. She
got very mean to Auntie K and did mean things. Then she moved out and got
involved with a band member like the one Uncle Michael used to be in. They both
died because he was driving drunk.” Nick grabbed his chest. His eyes watered
and his heart stung him. This was just another nail in the coffin of Katie’s
heart.
“When
did this happen?” Both Marianne and Julianna started to weep, that much
more.
“It was
three years ago; Auntie K took it really hard. That was when she met Uncle
Scotty. He helped her through it after he saved her life.” Marianne took over
the story when Julianna could continue to tell it. Nick looked up at Katie, amazed at all the
pain she had been through, yet was as lovely and as spirited as she was
funny.
“Yeah,
we don’t know how, and they are keeping it a secret. Even the family heralder,
here is not privy,” Julianna said with sarcasm. “Daddy says it was dramatic,
but we are not allowed to ask about it.” Nick closed his eyes and
began to understand the bond that Katie had with this Scotty.
“You
can’t tell her that you know all of this, or she’ll be mad at us,” Julianna
said.
“Oh,
don’t worry, beautiful girls. These secrets are safe with me. Thank you for
telling me. Your Auntie K is a special lady, isn’t she?”
“Yes,
Daddy says everyone falls in love with her right away.” Marianne said. Nick
nodded having been bitten by that love bug.
“I surely
can understand that,” he said.
“Mr.
Thomas, our Auntie K isn’t a a believer, and that is why we are here for a
couple of days. Are you one?” Marianne asked.
“Yes, I
am sweetie, since I was a young boy.”
“Good,
she is going to a ladies’ conference on Wednesday. One of Daddy’s friends says
they are having a great speaker that Auntie K needs to hear. We are all praying
that Auntie K will ask Jesus into her heart then,” Marianne said.
“Mommy
says, Jesus is already in there, but Auntie K just hasn’t let him out, yet,”
little Katie said.
“Well,
we’ll all pray for that, okay? Your Auntie is real special, I knew that the
minute I saw her,” he said. Nick only had a miniscule understanding of the love
that lay in the heart and soul of this kindergarten teacher, but by the end of
the evening, he would find himself drowning in her ocean-sized heart. A new
respect for this woman began to bloom like a well-seeded garden of flowers in
the springtime, and a whole new dynamic of emotions began to
flourish in him for her, as he learned of her losses and appreciated her spirit
and spunk. He just stared at her, while she spoke more with Matthew.
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