Arousing Love, a teen novel (16 page)

“I guess this means we won’t be going on our
date tonight.” I didn’t know why I said that, I guess I was trying
to lighten the mood, but it sure didn’t work.

Joanna’s mother snorted. “And give you
another chance to put your hands all over my daughter? I don’t
think so.”

“Hey, come on. Let’s all calm down, this
isn’t that bad.” Joanna’s father put a hand on his wife’s
shoulder.

“How can you say it’s not that bad? Your own
daughter—”

“It could have been a lot worse. And I’m sure
it’s not all Zach’s fault either.”

“It’s my fault more than Zach’s. He’s the one
who stopped us when things got too passionate.” Joanna defended
me.

“Joanna! I’m so disappointed. I thought you
knew better than this.” Her mother looked so hurt.

“I know, Mom, but Zach is different. It’s
like we already belong to each other. It never felt wrong ‘cause I
knew he was the one for me, and I love him.” Joanna burst into
tears.

Her mom went to her and drew her into an
embrace. She looked at me with tears in her eyes. “At least you
didn’t take advantage of her, and I’m grateful for that.”

The emotional heaviness of the moment seemed
to settled over all of us. Joanna’s father placed a hand on my
shoulder, his other arm around his wife and sobbing daughter.

“I think we should pray.”

His wife nodded and opened one arm towards me
so I could join their huddle.

“Heavenly Father, you know our hearts. I know
that Zach and Joanna want to be right before you. Lord, please
forgive them for any mistakes they’ve made, and help them to do
what is right. Give us your wisdom in this situation, in Jesus
name, amen.”

Everything was so quiet, only Joanna’s
shuddering breaths breaking the stillness. I looked into Joanna’s
tear streaked face and felt so much love for her.
Please don’t
let them keep us from seeing each other. I know we’ve been stupid,
but please don’t let it ruin everything.

“What happens now? Will we still be allowed
to see each other?” Joanna asked in a small, quavering voice.

Her father released his grip on my shoulder.
“We’re leaving on Saturday, so you won’t be seeing much more of
each other anyway.” He sighed. “You can still see each other, but
you must stay here at the campsite where we can keep an eye on
you.”

Joanna looked relieved. “What about when he
comes to Colorado? Will we still be allowed to date?”

Her father looked at his wife, and she
replied for him. “We’ll worry about that when Zach gets there.”

They’ll never let us date after this. I wish
Joanna hadn’t said anything to her mom.

“Zach, I’d like to talk to you alone if I
could. How ‘bout we take a drive?” Her father gave me such a
serious look it made me nervous.

“Sure.” I nodded.

His car was blocked in, so we took my mom’s
car. Joanna watched us go with a worried look on her face. Her
father sat in the passenger seat as I drove through the campground
and out onto the main road. I didn’t know where he wanted me to go,
and he didn’t say, so I turned onto the coastal highway that wound
its way around the sea cliffs. I knew he had something to say, so I
waited for him to speak first. The silence grew uncomfortable, then
he sighed deeply.

“How likely is it you’ll be moving to
Colorado?”

“I don’t know, hopefully
. . . .
”

“Well you’ve left me in a quandary, Zach. I
don’t want to break the two of you up and stop you from seeing each
other, but I can’t trust you alone together anymore. If you do come
to Colorado, I’m not going to be able to let you date. I’m thinking
it would be for the best if you didn’t come, and you just let it
end here when we leave.”

“I can’t do that, that’d break her
heart.”

He sighed. “Yes, I know my daughter loves
you, and I know you have some feelings for her, but I don’t know
how serious—”

“I love her! I won’t stop seeing her.”

“So you see yourself marrying Joanna in the
future, then?”

“Yes.” I was more certain of that than I’d
ever been. “I know she’s young, but I can wait.”

He nodded. “I’ve never seen Joanna like this
before. She’s not usually so adamant about anything. She’s never
shown much interest in boys before, and now suddenly she’s head
over heels in love. After your baptism, she came home crying, and I
admit, at first I was relieved that you’d broken up, but I’ve never
seen her so upset like that before. She told us she was in love
with you then, but I didn’t take it very seriously. She’s young,
and I knew she’d get over it eventually and forget about you. But
the next morning when I woke up, I had such a strong impression
from the Lord that you were important to Joanna’s life.”

Why was he telling me this? Does he want
us to keep seeing each other?
I decided to be completely open
with him. “I’ve never been in love before either. I never knew it
could happen this fast. I never thought you could meet someone and
within a few days you’d never want to let them out of your life
again. It’s scary how fast it happened, I can’t even bear the
thought of living without her now. We talk about everything, and
I’m constantly amazed at the things she says. I’ve never enjoyed
being with anyone as much as her, she’s so much fun, and she’s the
most beautiful girl I’ve ever known. I know she’s too good for me,
but she loves me, and her love for me is so huge, I don’t even know
why. All I know is her love is real and it blows my mind that she
loves me that much. I’d do anything for her. I just hope I haven’t
ruined it all, because I know it’s the best thing that’s ever
happened to me, apart from finding God, and even that was ‘cause of
her. It’s amazing how you can meet one person and your whole life
changes forever.”

I glanced at him. He was nodding, and he
smiled. “I see you really do love her, Zach.”

“Yeah, I do. I know I’ll never meet
anyone
. . .
” My emotions got the
better of me and I got all choked up. Embarrassed, I focused my
attention on the road, and he turned his face to the window and the
rugged coastline below.

“I’m sorry I let you down. I know I betrayed
your trust in me.”

“Yes you did, but I forgive you. I know how
hard it can be.”

We drove in silence for a while. The sun was
lower in the sky now, its glaring light coming through the windows
on his side of the car.

“Zach, can I ask you a personal
question?”

“Sure?”

“Are you still a virgin?”

“Yes.” I was relieved I could still say that
to him.

“And you honestly believed having sex would
make you married in God eyes?”

“Yeah.”

“So you understand marriage isn’t just a
piece of paper that can be ripped up, divorced from or annulled.
It’s not the vows between a man and a woman that can be broken.
It’s a covenant of flesh made before God that joins you together as
one, and what God has joined together may no man separate.”

“Yeah.” I nodded.

“In Biblical times, a father would give his
daughter in betrothal to a man in exchange for a bride price, and
after that she would be considered his, but they weren’t married
until the day of their wedding, which was often a year or more
later. On their wedding day, she’d be given to him, and they’d go
to his bedroom and become one, then everyone would celebrate. There
was no religious ceremony, no priests or vows or anything, all the
legalities were done already when she become betrothed to him.”

“Okay?”

“The role of the father was very important.
He had authority over his daughter, and he was the one who gave her
away, she didn’t give herself away. Any prospective husband had to
negotiate with him for her, and he was responsible for choosing the
right man to give her to in marriage. I know we don’t do that
anymore, the state has replaced the father’s authority and taken
that role from him. But if you want to marry each other in a
biblical way, you can’t ignore the role of the father.”

“Okay, I didn’t know that.”
So I’d have to
negotiate with him for Joanna?

“I’ve been thinking about this, Zach. How
would you feel about being betrothed to Joanna for a future
marriage when she’s old enough?”

My mind reeled. “What would the bride price
be?” I asked almost as a joke.

He gave me a serious look. “The bride price
would be that you don’t do anything sexual with her until the day
of your wedding.”

“Oh
. . .
” A
thousand jumbled thoughts swam through my head, until one thought
surfaced
—
“But if we had sex we’d be married in God’s
eyes?”

“Yes.” He nodded. “Reneging on your bride
price would actually make you one flesh, but I would hope you’d
want to do things properly, and have me give her to you with our
blessing after you’ve fulfilled the bride price I’ve set for
her.”

“Yeah, of course.”

“You wouldn’t be allowed to do anything even
slightly sexual with each other, and if we found out you had, we
wouldn’t let you see each other for as long as we’re still
responsible for her. The whole thing would rest on you and your
word of honor. You’d have to agree not to do anything sexual with
her until you’re allowed to marry, and we’ll have to trust you to
keep your word.”

“You’d still trust me?”

“I think this would be a good incentive to
keep you from fooling around, and it’ll make it easier for both of
you to know exactly what you’re waiting for and how long you have
to wait. Do you think we can trust you Zach?”

“If I make a promise like that, I’ll keep it.
I know it’ll be hard but I’ll keep it.”

He nodded. “So you think being betrothed will
help keep you from fooling around?”

“Yeah, I think so. We’ll help each other
because we’ll both have the same goal to wait for.”

“You’ve made it hard for yourself, though,
Zach. You’ve had a taste of what it’s like, and seen how good and
exciting it is. It’ll be difficult for you to take a few steps back
from all that.”

“Yeah, I know.”
He’s right, it’s going to
be really hard.
“When will you let us get married?”

“When Joanna turns eighteen.”

“Okay
. . .
but
. . .
do we even need to be
betrothed then? We’ll probably get married when she turns eighteen
anyway, so it’s not like betrothal would be anything more than what
it is already.”

“You’ve lost a lot of trust with us, Zach.
This betrothal will lay a new foundation of trust. Without that, I
don’t think we can trust you seeing our daughter anymore. Betrothal
is a very serious commitment. Once the deal was done and the bride
price paid, the father had to give his daughter to the man at the
agreed upon time. He couldn’t give her to anyone else because she
was already his. So it’s not a small thing to agree to. When she
turns eighteen, we’ll ask you if you’ve kept your word and not done
anything sexual with her. If you’ve kept your word, we’ll give her
to you as your wife, and you can marry her.”

“I can see why it’s a good thing, and I like
the idea, but what I meant was, Joanna and I can legally get
married at eighteen anyway. And that’s a long time to wait when
you’re in love. It would be easier if we could get married before
that.”

I glanced at him nervously. He was looking at
me with raised eyebrows.

“Before she turns eighteen?”

“Yeah.” I couldn’t believe how bold I was
being. This was a scary conversation, and I was aware I could
easily overplay my hand. I glanced at him again to get his
reaction. He was slowly shaking his head, and
. . .
was he smiling? I took a deep breath.
“I can’t believe what I’m saying either, but it seems to me this is
a negotiation of the bride price.”

“Yes, you’re right.” He laughed. “I
understand it from your point of view, you don’t want to wait that
long, and it doesn’t really give you anything you can’t have
already when she turns eighteen.”

“Yeah, and the longer it is, the more
difficult my bride price is to pay. Not saying that I won’t keep
it, it just makes it harder to have to wait that long, and I think
you wanna try and make this easier for us not to fail, right?”

“Right. So you think the bride price is too
high in terms of how long you have to keep your promise.”

“Yeah.”

“You don’t think Joanna is worth the
price?”

“It’s not about what she’s worth. If I had to
pay what she’s worth I’d never be able to afford her.”

He chuckled. “This reminds me of Jacob in the
Bible. He wanted to marry Rachel, and he offered to work for her
father for seven years as a bride price for her. The Bible says the
seven years felt like only a few days to him because of his love
for her. Waiting two years would be a lot easier than waiting
seven, don’t you think?”

“I don’t know, I think it’ll be hard for us
to wait that long, but I’ll do what I have to do.”

“You’d want to marry her when she turns
seventeen? That’s a little more than a year from now.”

“We’d be able to wait one year a lot easier
than two.”

“I get your point, and I’ll think about it,
but to be honest, I didn’t even like the thought of her marrying at
eighteen. I thought that was too young. Seventeen is very young to
be getting married. Do you really think you’d be ready for marriage
in a year?”

It was a good question, and I wasn’t sure.
The thought of it was exciting, and it would make Joanna happy.

I nodded. “I think so. Do you think it’s fair
to Joanna, though? She’d be so young.”

“I don’t know that myself, Zach. I only have
one daughter, and I only get one chance to get this right. I don’t
think her mother will like it, but I’ll discuss it with her and
we’ll see what she says. So you’re definitely interested in making
this kind of arrangement then?”