The Runaway Pastor's Wife (46 page)

And for now, that was enough
.

chapter
37

Pueblo
,
Colorado

At the
Pueblo
Memorial
Airport
, the
sleek white jet descended for landing. Nearly invisible in the heavy snowfall,
the blinking lights on the aircraft flashed rapidly as though begging for
assistance. The pilot of the jet had ignored the warnings from his radio. He
wasn’t daunted by a few flakes of snow. He had been instructed to land the
plane regardless of the conditions on the tarmac. And land he would, paid generously
for the effort.

The runway had been cleared sometime earlier,
though a fresh layer of snow already covered it again. Fortunate for any
renegade pilots, the salt trucks had prevented the pavement from icing. Still,
the pilot cautiously touched down, careful to ease the brakes. It wasn’t a
pretty landing as the plane slipped to a stop before the end of the runway then
taxied slowly to a hanger.

As the engines whined down, the side door lifted
opened. Stair-steps lowered. Two figures quickly descended the steps and
hurried into a waiting black Hummer. The large vehicle left immediately,
disappearing into the storm before the jet’s engines ever quieted.

Weber Creek
,
Colorado

Doc Wilkins backed into Williamson’s, kicking
snow off his boots. “Bob? MJ? I want to try a run up to Christine’s. Thought I
might take Annie some—”

“You know Annie McGregor?”

He turned around and found himself face to face
with a teenage boy he’d never seen before.

“Excuse me, I don’t believe we’ve met.” He held
out his hand. “I’m Doc Wilkins, and you are?”

“Max McGregor. I’m trying to find my mother,
Annie McGregor. You’ve met her? You know where she is?”

Sheriff Patterson joined them. “Doc? You know
something about his mom?”

“Hold on. Just a minute. I only stopped by to
pick up some groceries and—”

“But you said you were going to take something
up to
Annie.
” Max stepped closer. “That’s gotta be my mom. I need to
know where she is.”

Doc looked over Max’s shoulder at the sheriff.

Patterson scratched his chin. “The kid drove all
the way from
Florida
. If you know where his mom is, help him
out, Doc.”

He hesitated, trying to think. He busied himself
cleaning his glasses even though they were spotless. “I know exactly where she
is, Max. But how about I go on up there and bring her back here to you?” He
turned to leave.

The boy stepped around him, blocking his exit.
“No, sir. I’ve come this far. I want you to take me to her. Besides, why
wouldn’t you want to take me up there to see my mom?”

Doc stared into the young man’s anxious eyes.
Finally, he pulled his gloves back on, and smiled in resignation.

“Then let’s go see your mom, Max.”

CHAPTER 38

Eagle’s Nest

If the weight of the world had lifted off
Michael Dean’s shoulders, it paled in comparison to the thrill that washed over
Annie McGregor. Never had she felt so overwhelmed with gratitude.

She remembered the words of Romans 8:28 as if
the Apostle Paul had crafted them just for her.
And we know that God causes
all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called
according to his purpose.
To think that God had orchestrated all the
infinite details that propelled her on this timely search for truth. All the
stumbling blocks, lined up for a specific purpose. Every trace of exhaustion,
every personal heartache, every emotional drain of her energy had contributed
in part toward a divine appointment on this mountain. Even the sting of her
humiliating confrontation with Chet Harrison had played a
part . . .
for such a time as this.
If Chet hadn’t
crossed the line, she never would have experienced that final straw. That
desperate, urgent need to get away from it all.

Annie could never have imagined that God would
cross her path with Michael’s again in such an extraordinary way to take care
of “unfinished business.” Now, her heart soaring from God’s healing touch, she
left Michael alone to his thoughts, busying herself by preparing something for
them to eat. After toasting some stale bagels in a skillet on the Coleman
stove, she heated water for tea.

“There’s something else we need to talk about.”

Carrying the tray to the coffee table, she set
it down and handed him one of the warm mugs. “What’s that?”

He blew on the steaming tea then cleared his
voice. “It’s just that . . . well, it seems
like . . . uh—”

“Michael, what could possibly be so difficult
for you to talk about? After what just happened here this morning?”

“Well, that’s just it. There’s something you
need to know. And now, all of a sudden, I
know
I have to get this out.
It has to do with what happened all those years ago.”

She shrugged. “Maybe so, but that’s all history.
Just forget about it.”

He shook his head. “I can’t. I was such a fool
to ever leave you, Annie. But I had a very valid reason for letting you go.”

“Michael, I don’t really think I want to—”

“Let me talk! And stop interrupting me. You need
to hear this whether you want to or not.”

She waited, quite certain she did not.

“It was Christine.”

“What do you mean it was Christine?”

“When you and everyone else went to
Hawaii
after
graduation, I stayed home to play in a semi-pro summer league, remember?”

“Okay. So?”

“Christine stayed home too, remember?”

“Yes, I remember. Her father was dying.”

“And she was going through a tough time,” he
continued. “And all of her friends were out of the country. Except me.”

She tilted her head.

“Christine needed a friend. She was alone. She
was upset. Especially after her dad died. And . . . well, we
became . . . close.”

Silence.

“Close,” he repeated. “As in, intimate.”

She tented her eyebrows, tilting her head to the
other side. A long-forgotten impish grin crossed his face. That crooked grin
that used to melt her heart.

Not this time.

“Annie, it just happened. It wasn’t planned, we
didn’t mean for it to happen—it just did.”

“And you think I need to know this
now
because . . . ?”

“Because you need to know. Because I’m trying to
make a fresh start of my life here. Because in order to do that, I need to
start with a clean slate, and there are things you need to know. What else can
I say?”

She dropped the bagel that had been dangling
from her hand and blew out a lung full of air. “Well, let’s see. For starters,
how about ‘I’m sorry’? We were together for
four years
, Michael. I left
town for a few days and you bedded my best friend? How could you! Her father
was dying, for heaven’s sake! And you took advantage of her at a time like
that? What kind of animal are you?”

She jumped up, the plate on her lap crashing to
the floor. “Great. Just great.” Ignoring the mess, she hopped over to the
fireplace, angrily warming her hands. “I can’t believe it. How could you be so
heartless? How could you even think of being so heartless? And then, you turn
around and dump me without so much as a single word of explanation?” She tossed
the words over her shoulder like guided missiles. “You didn’t even have the
decency to at least be honest with me—after all those years together? It’s
unspeakable, Michael. How dare you. How
dare
you!”

“It would have been too much for you, Annie, and
you know it! The last thing I wanted was to hurt you!”

“Well, it’s a little late for that now because
you most certainly
did
hurt me!” She wrapped her arms around herself, a
sharp sob stealing her breath. “You broke my heart, Michael, and you know it.”

Silence hung for seconds between them. But the
spell was broken with the wild tapping of a heavy branch against the roof. Her
shoulders slumped. She exhaled in defeat, a quiet moan in its wake.

“This is so typical,” she finally whispered,
realizing what had happened. She turned, peeking over her shoulder at him. A
sad smile pulled across her lips. “
So
typical. One minute we’re standing
at the very throne of God as he’s holding his arms open wide to greet you—and
the next minute we’re at each other’s throats. It’s so ridiculously
predictable.”

She collected the pieces of broken stoneware off
the floor. “The enemy can’t stand the fact that you’ve given your life to the
Lord, Michael. He won’t stand for it. So he does whatever he can to steal the
joy of that decision. Even with a silly argument about ancient history like
this.”

“But I had to tell you.”

“I suppose. I’m just amused by the timing of it
and the way I over-reacted.”

“Come here.” He reached out his hand to her. She
put the broken pieces on the tray and sat back down in the chair adjacent to
him.

“I don’t know much about that sort of
stuff—about the ‘enemy’ or Satan or any of that. But I’m not finished. Let me
say what I have to say so we can put this behind us and be done with it. Deal?”

“Deal.”

“There’s more to this and it’s time you knew.
When you all got back from
Hawaii
, if you’ll remember, Christine
was gone.”

“I know. She went to
New
York
to work on her master’s degree while she interned for that big agency.”

“Yes and no. The degree came later. She left
because she was pregnant.”

The air vanished from her lungs. He held her
hand tight, refusing to let her pull it free.

He went on. “I was
so
 . . .
full of myself back then, Annie. I told her I wanted no part of it. In fact, I
tried to get her to have an abortion. Even as radical and free-spirited as she
was back then, she wouldn’t hear of it. That’s why she left town. She made me
promise not to tell a soul. But I knew I could never face you with it anyway. I
may be a lot of things, but I’m an absolute coward when it comes to the
emotional stuff. Which is probably no surprise to you.

“And that’s why, when you came back, I had to
break it off between us immediately. Only I didn’t have the guts to tell you
why.”

She stared at him in disbelief, speechless.

He pressed on. “About a year later she called
me. Said she’d had a baby boy. Said she had tried hard to take care of him,
tried to be a good mother, but she just couldn’t do it. She wanted something
better for him. She was hoping I might volunteer to raise him, but naturally
that
didn’t happen. My career was just taking off. No way I was gonna care for the
kid.

“Christine said she figured as much. So she told
me she was going to give him up for adoption. She wanted him to have a mother
and a father and a real chance at a normal life. Of course I agreed.

“She kept the adoption very private, never gave
me too many details, only that she was careful to make sure he was placed in a
good home. She went through an attorney—it was all very anonymous. That was her
requirement.”

“You never saw him? You’ve never even met your
own son?”

“No, I never did, at least not in person.”

Annie studied him through narrowed eyes, trying
to understand. Trying to find some trace of sympathy about the whole bizarre
situation. The analyses rolled awkwardly through her mind.

 “What did you mean ‘not in person’?” she asked.

“Christine sent me pictures of him from time to
time. She had some kind of arrangement through her attorney to get pictures of
him through the years. At least that’s what she told me. I guess that sounds a
little strange.”