Texas Weddings 3 & 4 (13 page)

“Your wife?” Shauna
looked him in the eye.

Kent nodded. “I need
help. I can’t do this alone. And I’m so worried that Charity will grow up
without the influence of a mother. Maybe she’ll be a tomboy. Or maybe kids will
make fun of her because I’m so clueless about her wardrobe. And what am I going
to do when she grows up? I can’t talk to her about all of
that.
. .that…girl stuff.”

He shook his head, and
Shauna chuckled. “You’re getting a little ahead of yourself, Dad.” She smiled,
and his heart flip-flopped as she continued on. “You should probably just take
one day at a time.”

“Very biblical
advice,” he agreed. “And I do my best. But there are times I feel like a
complete failure.” He hung his head in shame. “Like the other day when you
pointed out all of your struggles with Charity. I felt
so.
. .”

“Helpless?” She drew
in a deep breath as he nodded.

“Yes.”

“I feel terrible for
making you feel that way.” She gave him a look of genuine caring. “I just
didn’t know what else to do. And I’ve asked myself over and over again if I
would have handled the situation differently if I had known you were her
father. After
all.
. .” She paused, and he thought he
saw a hint of a smile in her eyes.

“What?”

“
Well.
. .” She stammered a bit then looked up at him with a hopeful expression. “We
were getting to know each other, and
I.
. .I really
liked that.”

“Me, too.” He couldn’t
help but smile.

Shauna’s eyes lit up, and she spoke with renewed
determination. “I’m going to try a lot harder with Charity. I promise you that
and not just because she’s your daughter, but because it’s the right thing to
do.”

“And I need to make
you a promise, too,” Kent added. “I’ll work on being more disciplined with
her,” he added. “And not spoiling her so much.”

“Sounds like a plan.”
Shauna nodded her agreement, and they sat in silence a moment before he asked
the question that had weighed on his heart for a while now. “So where does that
leave us?”

She shrugged and gave
a bashful smile. “Is it okay just to start over?

“I’d like that.” Kent
suddenly felt as if a weight had been lifted.

“Me, too.” She gave
him a bashful smile then took a sip of her coffee.

***

Shauna’s coffee grew cool as she sat across from Kent
Chapman. She listened with great interest as he talked about his unique
relationship with Charity. For the first time, she saw the child through his
eyes—the good traits and bad, humorous and serious. She heard the details
of her upbringing, the role her grandparents played, and the great lack of not
having a mother. She heard about Charity’s love for music, and her desire to
dance. She laughed as Kent shared his fears about his daughter dating one day.
This somehow shifted into a discussion she had not anticipated.

“I don’t think I like the idea of dating very much.”

She shrugged. “Never did much of it, myself.” She started to
explain that Joey was her first serious boyfriend but decided against it.

“What is your ideal man like?” Kent looked her squarely in
the eye as he asked the question.

Shauna gulped down a mouthful of coffee and fought to
answer. She wanted to say, “Someone like Joey,” but right now that answer
didn’t sound right, even to her own ears.

“My ideal man”—she stumbled a bit—“will
obviously be someone who loves children.”

“Obviously.” He smiled.

“And he’s got to be someone who’s strong in the Lord.
Someone who can lead our family.
That’s a critical part of
the equation.”

“So you’re interested in having children, then.” Kent’s eyes
seemed to smile as she nodded.

“Of course.”

“Ah.” He nodded. “Go ahead.”

She went on to explain that her husband would be the kind of
man who would encourage her to fulfill her dreams. Then she turned the question
around on him. “Now tell me what the perfect woman looks like to you.”

An immediate look of pain filled his eyes, and she realized
he must
be
thinking of Faith. “Other than my wife,” he
said slowly, “I’d have to say that the perfect woman has to be someone who
shares my love for church-related things. I’ve always worked with teens, and
she would have to support me in that.

“I was president of my youth group when I was sixteen.”
What are you doing? Promoting
yourself
?
Her cheeks warmed immediately, and she hoped
he didn’t get the wrong idea.
Is it a
wrong idea?

“I was way too into myself when I was sixteen,” Kent shook
his head, and she could read the sadness in his eyes. “I wasted a lot of time
in that regard—but to answer your question, I was always looking for the
perfect woman, even before I knew the Lord.”

“So does that mean you dated a lot when you were younger?”
Shauna asked.
Kent groaned. “Yeah.”

“Explain.”

She sensed a story coming but couldn’t help laughing as he
shared the details of his youth. “I guess you could say I was always a flirt.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I always fell in love too easily. If you don’t believe
me, just ask my mom or my sister. Most of the time the girls didn’t even know I
existed.”

“That’s hard to picture.”

Kent’s cheeks flushed. “Well, I made a fool of myself more
than once. We’ll just leave it at that. I guess that’s why I was so surprised
when Faith took an interest in me. You have to trust me when I say that I don’t
see myself as the kind of guy women would
find.
.
.appealing. I’m
pretty.
. .ordinary.”

“But ordinary is
appealing,” Shauna argued. “N—not that you’re ordinary. I’m not saying
that. Most women, me included, aren’t looking for super-heroes—just a man
who will love them for who they are.”

The room grew eerily
silent as Kent flashed a crooked smile. Shauna’s heart lurched. She couldn’t seem
to wipe the grin from her own face, but the guilt that quickly followed wiped
it away.
Lord, please take these feelings
away. I need to stay focused on
You
and Your plan for
my life. If Joey is the man
You
have for me, settle
the issue in my heart once and forever while he’s here. If
not.
. .

A picture of Charity
flashed before her eyes, and she struggled with the emotions that followed.
Lead me in
Your
way, Lord. I don’t want to follow my feelings or emotions. I just want what
You
want for me, no more and no less
.

Her thoughts shifted to the day care, and she felt a peace.
Except for Charity, the children seemed to have taken to her. Shauna’s heart
warmed as she thought about how much a part of her heart they had become as
well. Grafted in. The words came to her slowly, and she repeated them to
herself.
Grafted in.
Sort of like God
had grafted in His children.

Could she do the same
with a little monster like Charity Chapman? Only time would tell. In the
meantime, she would be content to tour the bookstore with one of the nicest men
she’d met in a long, long time.

fourteen

Kent pushed the cart through the grocery store, trying to
ignore Charity’s whining. “Buy cookies, Daddy!”

“Not this time, honey,” he said. “I need to buy milk and
cereal.”

His cell phone rang, and he tried to balance it against his
ear with his shoulder as he continued to push the cart. “Hello?”

“Pastor Chapman?”

The muscles in his jaw tightened immediately.
Vicky Ebert. How did she get my cell number?
“Yes?”

“This is Vicky. I hate to interrupt whatever you’re doing,
but I really need to talk to you. It’s important.”

“How did
you.
. .?”

“I hope you don’t mind that I called you on your cell
phone,” she interjected. “I called the church secretary at home and told her it
was an emergency.”

Great.
“What’s happened?” Kent asked. “Is something wrong with one
of the boys?” Kent continued to push the cart through the health-and-beauty
department and on towards the dairy section. Charity chattered on and on, but
he tried to force his thoughts to the matter at hand.

“No, it’s not that,” Vicky said. “The boys are fine. Well,
as fine as boys without a father can be. I’m the one with the problem,
actually.” She paused definitively. “Josh has checked himself into a program.”

Kent stopped his cart in the middle of the aisle so that he
could take the time to respond appropriately. “Vicky, that’s wonderful. I’m so
glad to hear it.”

She sighed. “But don’t you see, Pastor? This just
complicates things.”

“It does?” Kent tried to make sense of her words. In the
meantime, Charity reached to pull a large bag of women’s personal products down
off the shelf and into their basket. Kent shook his head and mouthed the word
no
as he lifted the item back to the
shelf. “How does this complicate things, Vicky? I don’t get it.”

“He’s in a Christian program,” she explained, “and they want
to see him restored. At least, that’s what they call it. Restored.”

“Of course. Isn’t that what you want?”

“Well, I do want him to stop drinking,” she said. “But that
doesn’t necessarily mean I want him to come back home again, even if he does
get a handle on the alcohol. He’s awful with the boys and with me.”

“When he drinks, you mean.” Kent pushed the cart a few feet
forward to keep Charity from reaching out for more embarrassing items. “But you
know what, Vicky? He wasn’t always like that. I remember Josh as a
teen—just a few years ago. He was really on fire for the Lord. It wasn’t
until after his father’s suicide that he began to crater.”

“Still,” she argued. “There’s no guarantee he will change.
Drunk or sober.”

Kent rounded the corner, horrified to see he had landed on
the sweets aisle.

“Candy, Daddy!” Charity shouted. “We buy candy!”

To keep her quiet, he tossed a bag of her favorite candy
into the basket. She reached for it immediately, but he pressed it to the back
of the basket.

Charity began to cry. “Candy, candy!”

Kent raised his voice so that Vicky could hear him above his
daughter’s outburst. “There are no guarantees,” he said. “But don’t you think
it’s worth taking a chance?
Especially if Josh has checked
himself into a program.
That means he’s taking this more seriously.”

“I guess.” She didn’t sound terribly convinced.

Kent spoke with great passion, borne out of understanding.
“God can intervene in Josh’s situation, Vicky. I know He can, because I know He
delivered me from a drinking problem years ago.”

“
He.
. .He did?”

“Yes.” Kent pushed the cart beyond the candy section, still
headed towards dairy. “You didn’t know me very well when I was a teenager. We
hung out in completely different crowds. But I was pretty messed up. Then God
got ahold of me and everything changed. The person I used to be no longer
existed. And all of the things I did before are in the past.”

“That’s great,” she said. “I just never knew.”

Kent’s ear grew warm, so he shifted the phone to the other
ear as he wrapped up his thoughts. “There’s a scripture I love. It goes
something like this, ‘
But
one thing I do: Forgetting
what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.’ ” He finished with great
zeal. “ ‘I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called
me heavenward in Christ Jesus.’ ”

Vicky began to sniffle. “I just want a man who will love me
and love my kids.”

Kent stopped the basket, opened the bag of candies, and
handed one to Charity, whose face lit up like a Christmas tree. “I understand
that,” he said, convinced the Lord was speaking through him. “You’re only
asking for the very thing Josh promised you on your wedding day. But Vicky, I’m
really going to encourage you to give this relationship with your husband
another chance. If he’s making an effort to become a new man, maybe God will
give you what you’ve been asking for all along.”

“Do you really think that’s possible?” Kent heard her blow
her nose. “Really?”

“I do, because I’ve walked a mile in Josh’s shoes. And I’m
awfully glad my family didn’t give up on me. There’s no telling where I’d be
today if they had.” Kent ran his fingers through Charity’s hair, and she
cradled her head into his hand. “I wouldn’t give this advice in every case,” he
was quick to add. “But I really feel the Lord is laying these words on my
heart. Love can overcome seemingly impossible obstacles.”

Charity reached out her arms, wanting to be held. He scooped
her up out of the basket, and she threw her arms around his neck in a tight
embrace.