God's Gift

  James choked. “Do you want a brother or sister?” he asked, trying to keep his voice neutral.

  “Sister. That way Emily will stay out of my stuff and have another girl to play with.”

  It was a big deal when you were nine.

  “I hear your dad has been coaching you for the football team.”

  “He’s trying. I still can’t throw a spiral. Jason can, and he makes a big deal out of it.”

  “You’ll get it with more practice.”

  “Want to play catch with me?”

  James flexed his aching ankle and was grateful the van had cruise control. “I’d be glad to, Tom.”

  “Thanks. Mom doesn’t catch very well.”

  James grinned. “She never could. I spent years trying to teach her how to catch a baseball.”

  “She says she was pretty good.”

  “It’s relative, Tom. She was pretty good for a girl who shut her eyes when the ball got close.”

  Tom grinned. “She does that with a football, too.” He grimaced. “I hit her in the face one time by accident. She wasn’t very happy.”

  James glanced back at Patricia, curled up awkwardly in the back seat with her head tucked against her jacket and a pillow. “She’s your mom. I bet she’s forgotten all about it.”

  “I hope so. My birthday is next month.”

  James laughed.

  “Check your mom’s directions again, Tom. I see exit fifty-eight coming up.”

  Papers rustled as Tom found the map and the handwritten directions. “That’s the one. Then take Bluff Road north for five miles. She’ll have to direct from there. I know it’s lots of trees and water.”

  “Got it.”

  Fifteen minutes later, the van pulled up in front of the vacation getaway.

  It was a beautiful cabin, built at the top of a hill looking out over a calm lake that the map showed went for miles. They were half a mile from the nearest neighbor, and ten miles from town.

  James stepped out of the van and stretched, fighting the pain in his spine that came from sitting too long, the muscles in his ribs aching with every breath he took. He smiled at the sound of birds. “Who did you say owned this place?” he asked Patricia.

  “A friend of Dave’s. There are a couple canoes and a fishing boat in the boathouse and a neighbor has horses he lets us ride.”

  Patricia pointed to the shoreline to the north. “Just around that bend is a large meadow and what is practically a sandy beach. It makes a great place to picnic. The fishing is good everywhere along this inlet. The kids were catching crappies off the end of the pier last year.”

  “It looks like we’re the first to arrive. Do you have a key?”

  “It’s off the silver star on my key ring.”

  The porch was solid oak and extended around the cabin, the front door snug and smooth to open. James stepped inside and paused to enjoy the sight. The place had obviously been designed by an architect who knew his stuff. A large fireplace with open seating around it, a spacious kitchen, a large dining room, an encompassing view of the lake. The deck on the back of the house led down to a pavilion built beside the water.

  He turned as Patricia came in with a bag of groceries. “This is going to be a good place to relax.”

  She smiled. “I’m glad you came.”

  She turned at the sound of another car. “That must be Dave and the others now.”

  “Lace, do you want the Wedding Ring quilt or the David’s Star quilt?”

  “The blue one,” Lace replied from somewhere inside the massive walk-in closet.

  Rae laughed. “They are both blue.”

  “Then you choose.” Lace stepped back into the room, having hung up her clothes. “I do love the smell of cedar in a closet. You want me to unpack your suitcase?”

  “Sure, though I doubt the jeans and T-shirts will care much where they are tossed.”

  “Didn’t you bring anything nice?”

  Rae grinned. “Why should I? I can borrow from you.”

  Lace groaned as she saw the contents of Rae’s suitcase. “I’m going to get you fashion conscious if it takes my entire life to do it.”

  “Lace, face it. I’ve got a very limited sense of aesthetics. If it’s comfortable, I wear it.” Rae pulled out the small bear Leo had given her and tossed it on her bed near her pillow. “You ready to eat? The guys are probably raiding the food even as we speak.”

  “Sure. We can walk it off tomorrow. Dave wants to try that trail that wanders up to the eagle viewing platform.”

  “A five-mile hike, mostly uphill, is not my idea of a good time,” Rae replied.

  She laughed at Lace’s expression. Her friend had discovered the romance novel tucked in the side pocket of the suitcase.

  “Want to borrow it after I’m done?”

  Lace grinned and tossed it on the nightstand. “With two, good-looking, single guys on the premises? Why bother to read?”

  Rae tugged Lace to the door. “Come on, friend, there is mischief to make. I still owe Dave for that ice down my back two years ago.”

  Lace laughed. “The long arm of revenge is about to strike one unprepared man. What are you planning?”

  “I have no idea. But that has never deterred me before.”

  James couldn’t decide who he liked more, Lace or Rae. They were sprawled out on the floor battling it out over a checker board, both having soundly beat Dave an hour earlier.

  Lace was the more outgoing of the two, Rae more contained and likely to be the one who smiled quietly. They were obviously old, lifelong friends.

  No, it wasn’t really a contest. Lace was nice, but Rae…Rae had him almost regretting he was going back to Africa in a couple months.

  Dave dropped a new log on the fire and both ladies jumped. He ruffled Rae’s hair. “Sorry. Want a toasted marshmallow if I get the stuff?”

  “Sure.”

  Patricia came back and James slid over, gestured for her to put her feet up on the couch. She had finally convinced two worn-out kids that ten o’clock was late enough for bed. “Thanks, my feet are killing me.”

  “Maybe you should have passed on the game of tag.”

  She laughed. “And lose out on the opportunity to hug my son? It’s worth a few aches.”

  James pushed off her tennis shoes and gently massaged her feet. Both her ankles were swollen. He smiled. He was almost positive she was pregnant.

  He would be back in Africa when the child was born. His face tightened at the thought.

  “Ribs still bothering you?” Patricia asked quietly.

  “Not bad,” James replied. The pain was tolerable. He’d live. “What’s that you’re eating?” he asked, noting the sandwich she had brought back with her.

  She looked guilty. “Roast beef and hot mustard.”

  She was pregnant.

  James grinned. “Next time you go scavenging for something to eat, I’ll teach you how to make Manallies. You’ll love them.”

  Lace won the checker game and Rae rolled over onto her back with a groan. “Lace, you are a devious, underhanded, world champion of world champions. What is that now, the last fifteen games we have played?”

  “Leo could beat me,” Lace replied, sliding the pieces back into the box.

  “Leo could beat anyone at anything,” Rae replied, pushing herself up and redoing the ponytail that was holding back her long hair.

  Dave offered a golden toasted marshmallow. “Careful, it’s hot.”

  Rae slipped it off the stick. “Thanks.” She stood up. “Anyone need a drink? I’m going to go raid the ice chest.”

  “See if we’ve got another Sprite,” Lace replied. Rae glanced at Dave who shook his head and at Patricia who indicated a soda at her feet, stopping at James with a raised eyebrow.

  “Root beer.”

  She nodded. “Coming up.”

  She was gone a long time for someone simply getting sodas from the ice chest. She came back with three soda cans. She handed the Sprite to Lace. “Dave, y
ou want to help me carry in more wood for the box? The radio said we might get some rain tonight.”

  “Sure. Be right there.”

  James caught a private byplay between Lace and Rae, saw a smile pass between them, and wondered if the guys should stick together. They were outnumbered two to one. Rae looked at him as she handed him the soda he had asked for; James decided Dave was on his own.

  They disappeared out the front door and James saw Lace struggling to contain her laughter.

  “Sorry, I’ve got to see this. It’s two years overdue.” Lace slipped over to the window to look out at the porch.

  “What did he do?”

  “Put ice down her back when she and Leo were dancing.”

  James glanced at his sister. “Who’s Leo? He’s been mentioned several times,” he asked softly.

  “Rae’s business partner. He was killed in a car accident a year and a half ago,” Patricia replied.

  “They were close?”

  “Yeah.”

  His heart tightened. No wonder he saw sadness behind Rae’s smile.

  There was a crash from the front of the house and the roar of a surprised man.

  Lace was laughing. “Good job, Rae.” She came back and dropped into one of the plush chairs. “We’re going to need to get more ice,” she remarked, reaching down to pick up her soda. “Dave is sitting in it.”

  Dave came in brushing water off the back of his jeans and shaking ice out of the back of his sweatshirt. “Rae, that was excessive,” he mildly remarked, scowling at her as she slipped under his arm.

  “That was two years of interest,” she replied with a twinkle in her eyes. “You want a towel?”

  He tweaked her ponytail. “Bring me two.”

  She came back with two bath towels, draped one around his shoulders. He took the other and rubbed under his sweatshirt.

  “You know I owe you one now.”

  She laughed. “Got to catch me first.”

  She dropped into the chair opposite Lace. “Lace, he’s got six days to retaliate. I think I should have waited a few days.”

  Dave came in carrying a soda and Rae ducked when he stopped behind her chair, half-afraid she was going to get a bath with it.

  James chuckled.

  It was going to be quite a week around these three friends.

  Chapter Four

  “Tranquil morning.”

  It was the crack of dawn. Rae, seated on the porch steps, turned, surprised. She knew neither Dave nor Lace were likely to be moving at this time of the morning.

  James.

  “Couldn’t sleep?” she asked, concerned. He was in pain, she could see it in his movements and his face.

  “Overdid it yesterday. I pay for mistakes like that,” he replied, sinking down onto the porch steps beside her. “Thanks for making the coffee.”

  She smiled. “Not a problem. I don’t wake up without it.”

  “These days, neither do I,” he replied. “Why aren’t you sleeping in?”

  How was she suppose to answer that? The truth or something that made sense? Rae shrugged a shoulder, then changed her mind and decided to tell him the truth. “Ever have one of these experiences in life that just stops you in your tracks until you figure it out?”

  She liked his smile and the frank way he turned and met her gaze. “Like God just grabbed your jacket collar, tugged, and said ‘No, think about this’?” he asked softly.

  Rae nodded. She drew her knees up and folded her arms around them. “I woke up about 2:00 a.m. with Psalm 37 running through my mind. I don’t know why. Feels important.”

  He leaned back on his hands, his expression thoughtful. “It’s an interesting Psalm. Trusting God with your dreams, the security He provides, the promise of refuge in times of trouble. What were you thinking about when you went to bed—if you don’t mind me asking?”

  Rae smiled at the room he was trying to give her. She didn’t know if it was the conversation topic or the fact it was her that had him slightly uncomfortable. “Nothing earth-shattering. The book I’ve been writing.”

  He looked surprised. “I didn’t know you were a writer.”

  “Have been for years. I’m not published, just enjoy doing it.” She tipped her coffee cup to see if there was any left.

  “Sounds like fun.”

  She smiled. “It’s a different kind of work.”

  A blue jay dropped down past the porch steps to land on the flagstones and check out what looked like a dropped dime. He took back to flight with a raucous cry.

  “Most of the time when a scripture comes to mind like you described, it’s because it is an answer to a question you were asking.”

  The only things I’ve been asking lately is where do I go now that Leo is dead….

  “Could be,” she replied, knowing he was right. She nodded toward his coffee mug. “Want some more? I need a refill.” She didn’t want to think about Leo and the past. Not on this vacation.

  He knew. It was there in his eyes. He knew she was avoiding something God wanted her to deal with. He handed her the mug. “Sure,” he said.

  He’d probably never been afraid to face anything in his life. Rae wished she had that kind of courage. She didn’t. Not when it came to saying goodbye to what she might have had. “Black?”

  “Please.”

  When she came back out with the coffee, he had moved, stretched his legs out fully, was slowly working his right knee. He was doing his best not to grimace with the movement.

  Rae felt an intense sense of empathy for him. He was like Kevin, a man accustomed to days of physical work. The pain had to be hard to cope with. She sat back down beside him, leaving a foot of space between them, turning slightly so she could lean against a porch post. “Patricia said the bug was damaging your joints,” she remarked, handing him the refilled mug.

  “It’s doing damage like lupus, fibromyalgia, or the aggressive forms of arthritis. The joints lose the ability to move freely.”

  “Is it getting better?”

  He grimaced. “At a snail’s pace. They don’t know what bug I picked up, and they don’t know how long the symptoms are going to last.”

  “Is it the pain that messes up your sleep?” she asked, curious.

  “Yes and no. The sleep study showed there is a lot of alpha wave activity during what should be delta sleep. My body isn’t sleeping properly anymore. They don’t know why.”

  “You weren’t praying for patience by any chance, were you?”

  He smiled. “I was praying for someone to show up in Africa who knew how to train medical staff. We were building clinics faster than we could staff them.”

  “What’s the problem with getting staff?”

  “Money. Doctors who have been in practice for a few years have grown to like the income and don’t want to go, doctors straight out of medical school are so deep in school debts, they can’t afford to go.”

  “I don’t know why that surprises me. We’ve got the same problem staffing the Crisis Centers here.”

  The door behind them opened. “Would you two like a hot or cold breakfast? We’ve got everything from fruit and cereal to bacon and eggs,” Patricia asked.

  “I want you to give me another pancake making lesson,” Rae requested, scooping up her mug. “The squirrels can eat the ones I burn.”

  James laughed. “Rae, she’s not the best at it either.”

  “She’s better than I am. That’s all I care about,” Rae replied with a grin as they both went inside.

  “Dave, Rae is cooking.” It was a whispered warning overheard from the hall. James had to smile at Lace’s reaction. No one could be that bad a cook.

  He changed his mind thirty minutes later. Rae had tried, but the pancakes were not like the ones his mom made.

  Rae chuckled at the expressions on her friends’ faces around the table, pulled back the plate of remaining pancakes she had set on the table and reappeared with a plate of pancakes Patricia had fixed. “I’m getting better, you didn?
??t try to stifle a gag.”

  “Rae, why don’t you just give up?” Dave asked. “It’s not your fault your grandmother refused to cook. Cooking is something you either learn as a child or it’s a lost art.”

  “Nope. I’m going to learn how if it kills me,” she replied, helping herself to two of the pancakes Patricia had fixed.

  “It might kill one of us one of these days,” Dave replied, then yelped when someone kicked him under the table.

  “David Hank McAllister, be nice.”

  “She knows I’m teasing, Lace.”

  “Hank?” Rae burst out laughing.

  Dave turned to Lace. “Now see what you’ve done? You promised you wouldn’t tell.”

  Rae’s laughter intensified. “Hank. Oh this is rich.”

  “I’ll give you rich, Amy.”

  Rae wrinkled her nose at him and did her best to stop her laughter. “I can’t believe I’ve known you ten years without knowing your middle name.”

  “What’s so funny?” Emily had joined them, wiping sleep from her eyes. James lifted her up into his lap, his own laughter hard to contain. “Just adult stuff,” he told her, smiling.

  The threesome quieted down. “Sorry, Dave,” Lace whispered, then giggled.

  He snagged his coffee mug to get a refill, his head shaking as he walked to the kitchen. “Women.”

  Rae leaned across Dave’s empty chair toward Lace, a smile dancing across her face. “I think I know what we should get him for his birthday.”

  Lace had to stifle her laughter at the whispered suggestion. “Think we could still find the CD?” Lace asked. “He hates country music almost as much as he does jazz. It’s perfect.”

  “You knew?”

  Lace grinned. “He hides a cringe every time I choose track four. He is so easy to get.”

  “Lace, you are good,” Rae said, sitting back in her chair and looking at her friend with new respect.

  Lace leaned back in her chair. “I’m better than good,” she replied with a smile. “He’s never going to know what hit him.”

  Laughter was good medicine, James thought. He hadn’t felt this good in weeks. Watching Rae and Lace, he couldn’t contain his smile.