The Color of Hope (19 page)

“What?” Travis picked it up to see better. “If I hadn’t seen the sites he’s already done, I’d be skeptical about the quality. Why so much lower?”

“It’s not his main job,” Janelle said. “He does it for the love, says he gets to work a different side of his brain. But since it’s not his main job, he only does it by word of mouth, as he has time. Plus, he’s a bit of a perfectionist, so oftentimes it takes
him
longer to be happy with the look than the client. The upside is he doesn’t charge an arm and a leg.” Janelle added, “But if you’re in a rush, he’s not your guy.”

Travis turned to his computer, where he’d pulled up the New Jerusalem website. “I’ve waited this long. I don’t mind waiting a little longer to get a quality site for a good price. It’s a go. I’m looking forward to hearing his ideas.”

“Cool. I’ll let him know and put you two in touch.” She flipped
the page. “Last piece of business I came in here for . . .” A smile spread over her face. “Kory and I have a date. That is, if it fits with your schedule.”

He looked confused. “What does my schedule have to do with it?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Like Grandma Geri used to tell you, ‘Don’t play with me, boy.’”

He laughed. “I can hear her now. And you know I’d marry you and Kory even if you
didn’t
want me to. What date are you looking at?”

She crossed her legs. “Since it’s a second wedding for both of us, we want to keep it small—”

“How small?”

“Maybe just Kory, me, and the kids.”

“Uh-huh. You’ll never pull that off. Go on.”

“We can dream, can’t we?” she said. “Anyway, however small it is, it won’t take much planning. And we don’t see the point of a long engagement. So we’re thinking the first weekend in October.”

He checked his calendar and made a notation. “All clear on this end. We need to schedule premarital sessions too. I’ll check with Kory—”

The church phone rang.

“I’ll get that,” Janelle said. She reached over and picked up. “Good afternoon, New Jerusalem Church.”

“Hi . . . Janelle? This is Charley.”

“Hey, Charley, why didn’t you call my cell?”

“Actually, I was calling for Pastor Travis. I knew I’d see you later.” She had a smile in her voice. “Is he available?”

“Let me check. One moment.” She put the call on hold. “Charley wants to speak with you.”

“I’ll take it,” he said. “Wait right here.” He answered, “Charley, hello, what can I do for you? . . . Membership? . . . I don’t understand.”

Janelle wished she could hear Charley’s side of the conversation.

“Sure,” he said. “Friday at four will work. See you then.”

He hung up the phone slowly.

“Charley’s doing it, isn’t she? Taking steps to become a member?”

“You knew about this?” Travis said.

“She’s been talking about it all week,” Janelle said. “But it’s not like it’s out of the blue. She was here on Sunday.”

“Which was also a problem.”

Janelle moved forward in her chair. “A problem?”

“When Skip found out, he told Todd it was an unfortunate byproduct of the joint service. When they find out she wants to join . . .” He stared off, thinking.

She looked at him. “I can tell you’re still disappointed about the joint service.”

“How can I not be?” He sat back, let out a sigh. “You were there, Jan, when Todd and I realized we felt God called us back to Hope Springs to do a new thing, as Isaiah 43 says. That’s when it hit us that we needed to pray together. And what we kept hearing was unity between the churches. Everything pointed toward the combined service.” He paused several seconds. “I feel like we took a giant step forward, focused on God. But when the focus shifted to reaction and opinion, we took several steps back.”

Janelle pondered that. “But like Todd said, you have elders to answer to, and a church membership. You’re not islands unto yourselves.”

“Yeah, I know,” he said. “I just think we gave up the fight too easily.” His gaze shifted to the photo. “And the hardest part is I don’t feel I can tell Todd exactly what’s on my heart and mind. I have to tread lightly because I don’t want to get between him and his elder board.”

“That discussion last week was treading lightly?”

“You know me. I tried. But now, thanks to Charley, I’ve got
another
issue that’s related to Todd’s elder board, literally.”

“So you’re focused on reaction and opinion?” Janelle smiled.
“From what I can see, Charley’s experiencing a ‘new thing’ in her life as well. She wouldn’t be doing this if God wasn’t moving in her heart.”

Travis eyed Janelle, steepling his fingers. “You just earned your paycheck for the week.” He nodded to himself. “I’ve been duly checked. I’ve got to keep my focus on God.”

“You sure do,” Janelle said. “By the sound of it, things may get worse before they get better.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

C
harley walked into New Jerusalem for Wednesday night Bible study, late and looking for Stephanie. With Lindell in Haiti this week, they’d had lots of girl time—dinner, an evening walk, even a board game. That they were now attending the same church was icing on the cake. Stephanie had quickly become a treasured friend.

Charley spotted her midway up the aisle and scooted past a few people to join her.

“Thought you were on your way fifteen minutes ago,” Stephanie said.

“You won’t believe this,” Charley said, whispering, “but my grandpa was at the house and flat-out told me I needed to be going to Calvary’s Bible study tonight, not New Jerusalem’s. I’ve never seen him so agitated. Like I was hurting
him
.”

“He’s been a Calvary elder a long time. It’s in his blood. Maybe he can’t fathom that you’d even
want
to go anyplace else.”

“It’s good to see everybody tonight,” Pastor Travis said.

Charley hadn’t seen him walk up front. She glanced around
the sanctuary, which was nowhere near as crowded as Sunday, but the pews were still half full. Charley saw Trina and two other Soul Sisters near the back. And as the door opened and a handful more entered, she saw Marcus. She turned back around.

Travis stood between the front pews, talking into a wireless mic. “Are you all ready for this deep discussion we’re about to have about love? I see y’all out there, all dreamy-eyed.”

People smiled back at him.

“I’m gonna let you all in on a secret,” Travis said. “I’m not married.” He smiled. “Okay, that’s not the secret. This is . . . It might be because for a long time I had the wrong view of love. I thought it was something that just happened. I would meet someone, firecrackers would start popping, Cupid’s arrow would fire, and I’d be knocked silly off my feet.” He paused. “I guess y’all can see why I’m not married.”

“That’s all right, Pastor, I got a few people I can introduce you to,” an older woman said.

“You can leave their résumés,” Pastor Travis said, “but only if they include gourmet cooking skills.”

“Gotcha covered,” she said.

When the laughter subsided, he continued, “But seriously, love is not the dreamy, mysterious thing we make it out to be. Love is
real
. It means action. It means risk. It means decision.” He walked to the other side of the church, surveying faces. “Did you know you can
decide
to love? You don’t check your minds at the door where love is concerned. Sometimes you have to say, ‘I don’t care if so-and-so doesn’t show me love, I’ll love because God commands me to.’ That’s a decision.”

Charley turned as he walked down the aisle.

“You might have to
decide
you’re going to love someone despite what people will think or say—despite what it will mean for your life. Love reigns above people’s opinions. It reigns above the status quo.
It reigns above all. One of the most important decisions you’ll ever make is to set your heart and mind on loving God with everything in you.” He let that settle as he walked back to the front. “That’s what we’re focusing on tonight.”

Bible study had ended several minutes before, but many remained, talking to the pastor, mingling. Some of the Soul Sisters had formed an impromptu circle and were chatting.

Charley saw Marcus in her peripheral vision, talking to a few guys. She’d barely seen him at school this week, and the void was glaring. She couldn’t understand it. They hadn’t spent
that
much time together. Shouldn’t it be easy to erase?

Stephanie turned to Charley and Trina. “Ready? We can walk out together.”

“You two go ahead,” Trina said. “I’m waiting to talk to Travis.”

Charley and Stephanie headed out.

“I’m parked right over there,” Stephanie said when they got outside. “Where are you?”

“Around the corner,” Charley said. “See you at school tomorrow. Meant to tell you I love that you’re eating with Sam.”

Stephanie put a hand to her heart. “Love that girl. Can’t even explain it.”

“You don’t have to,” Charley said. “I know exactly.”

She rounded the corner and in the darkness made out Marcus farther down the sidewalk, talking to someone. Charley squinted. Was that . . . ? It was. The young woman who’d been rude on Sunday. Why was he talking to her? Worse, why did it bother her? She hated she had to walk past them.

When she got within a couple of yards of them, she saw Marcus backing away from the woman, who then crossed the street and got
in her car. Marcus seemed to notice Charley just then and closed the distance between them.

“I can’t believe that,” he said.

“What?”

He aimed a thumb at the car driving off. “That was the woman who made the ‘blond chick’ comment Sunday. Telling me she wanted to apologize.” He shook his head. “Can you believe she thought maybe we could go out one day?”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“Are you kidding? She’s nowhere near my type.”

“Really? She looks like your type to me.”

Took him a split second. “Touché, Coach Willoughby.” He eyed her. “That was quite a message tonight, wasn’t it?”

“Changing the subject?”

“I’m totally
on
the subject,” he said. “Both Sunday and today, Travis has been in my head about this whole relationship thing. Actually, I’m getting a full assault because he and I have been talking about it at home too.” He paused a moment. “I told him about the conversation you overheard, to get his opinion.”

“What did he say?”

“A lot.” Marcus seemed reflective. “Between him and Stephanie, I’ve been challenged.”

Charley frowned. “Stephanie?”

“She didn’t tell you?” Marcus said. “When she got an opportunity later that week, she let me have it. Said I was in denial and didn’t want to admit . . . that I was drawn to you.”

Charley didn’t know how to respond. “She said that?”

“She said that.”

Several seconds elapsed.

He looked at her. “And she was right.”

Charley half frowned. “I’m not following.”

He sighed, watching a car as it passed. “I’ve been saying I’m finally
ready to have a real relationship, that there are no single women around here—and boom. Here comes Charley. The vibe is there, fun to be around, can talk about anything,
loves the Lord
. . .” His eyes were focused on her. “I felt myself wanting to be near you, forsaking sleep when I knew I had to be up at six for a ball game to be near you. Yet the thoughts kept coming to me . . .
But she’s white . . . That’s not you . . .
What would people say? . . . It wouldn’t work . . .”

Charley waited, mostly because her heart was beating so fast she didn’t know what to say.

“But listening to Travis,” he said, “I’m wondering.” He seemed to be thinking it through even now. “It’s like, ‘Dude, really? You find a woman with all that on the inside, and you’re worried about the outside?’” He quickly added, “I know I sound really stupid right now, like I’m assuming that means you and I—” He waved his hands. “Not at all. I’m just telling you what God’s been doing in my heart since that night, though you probably couldn’t care less.” He shook his head. “I think I just shared way too much and made a fool of myself.”

Charley stared at him, working up the nerve to be honest. “So . . . you really didn’t understand why I reacted the way I did?”