A Wedding In the Family (7 page)

“No, thank you,” she replied. A fire was already going in the grill and there were hot dogs and hamburgers on a plate nearby, waiting to be cooked.

“I thought you’d ask me to get the grill started,” he commented, noticing the expression of satisfaction shining in her eyes at a job well-done. “I guess you’re doing fine without me.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever be fine without you again, Adam.” The words sprang from the bottom of a heart that he had filled with love and contentment. She was certain, now, that she was in love with him, and almost
as unsure of where it would take them. Or if the Lord was leading the way.

Adam touched her face, brushing a few wisps of dark hair from her cheek. “I feel it, too,” he responded in a low, almost husky whisper. “Very much.” The tenderness in his expression was enough to quiet her concerns for the moment.

Heather came running up the hill into their area, right toward Adam and into his legs, grabbing him and bringing a laugh of surprise from both adults at the interruption.

“What are you doing?” Angela asked.

“Mommy! Adam! Help! David’s chasing me with a caterpillar. A big yucky black one!” she exclaimed.

“Well, tell him I said to stop. And to put that caterpillar back where he found it,” Angela stated firmly.

“The poor thing probably wants to go back home to its family,” Heather added and took off back down the incline to pass along her mother’s instructions.

Adam moved away from Angela as he turned to watch Heather race back down to the lake. “She’s growing up very much like you did. A little girl with two brothers,” he commented.

“But she’s probably equally close to both boys. For me, for some reason, I always felt closer to Rob.”

“Why?” Adam asked as he reached for a soda pop and opened the can. Just as he did so, the carbonated beverage overflowed from its container and ran over the sides and down his hands. He and Angela both laughed in startled surprise at the incident, and the
kids came running to see what the commotion was about.

“Maybe carrying them over that bridge and the bumpy ground shook them up too much,” David observed. He had been the one who’d carried the small cooler, so he was the most likely of all present to know how shaken up the container had been. “Sorry.”

Adam and Angela were both assuring him that it didn’t matter. There was no harm done. Adam wiped his hands on the wet cloth Angela handed to him.

“With three kids you never go anywhere unprepared,” she remarked as she pulled out her plastic bag of supplies. Wipes, bandages, paper towels, shoelaces, safety pins, tablet and pencil, juice boxes and graham crackers.

“You pack snacks, too, for emergencies?” Adam asked as he looked over the items she was sorting through.

“If I get stuck in traffic or have car trouble, I’d rather let them have a drink—even a warm one—and a few stale crackers than listen to the woes of three hungry passengers.”

“That makes sense,” he answered, and watched the children—who’d lost interest in the spilled beverage—amble back toward their fishing spot. “Some of it sprayed on your clothes,” Angela observed. She automatically reached to wipe at the stain across the front of his long-sleeve shirt and down his left arm. “And on…your arm…” Her heart thudded loudly, ringing in her ears, and she berated herself silently for
being so profoundly affected by her actions. But affected she was, and her touch on his clothing remained. She wanted to kiss him; she wanted to even more than she had the other night after the cookout.

Adam knew her feelings instinctively. He’d have known even without the hesitation in her touch or the catch of breath in that beautiful, slender throat of hers. He reached for her wrist, stopping her movement and drawing her attention up to his stormy gaze. The urge to kiss her almost overwhelmed him as the floral scent of her perfume filled his senses. And those eyes…Adam thought he might drown in that summery blue. He couldn’t recall falling so fast for anyone. Ever.

Just over Angela’s shoulder and in Adam’s direct line of vision were the children. His attention shifted from her lovely face to the three kids with fishing poles in their hands. When his eyes met hers again, he released her wrist slowly. “Nathan,” was all he said, and all he needed to say to snap Angela back to reality.

She nodded in mute understanding as he turned from her. He opened the cooler and rummaged through it until he found the iced tea. Reaching for a cup, he smiled over at her. “Maybe this will be safer than the soda.”

She cleared her throat. “Should be,” she replied. She knew she was blushing. What Angela would have liked to do was put one of those cold, unopened cans of cola against the side of her face. As if it weren’t already obvious enough to him the impact that his
nearness could have on her. Angela glanced at the kids when she heard Heather scream.

“It’s only a worm! Shut up or you’ll scare all the fish!” They heard Nathan shouting at his little sister.

“Nathan, go easy on her,” Angela called out to her son, then began setting out the food she had brought for their lunches. “Sandwich buns, chips, drinks…where are the brownies? Did the kids get into them in the van?”

“I don’t know,” Adam responded as he helped her search through their belongings. “Here, in this box.” He produced the plastic container with dessert inside.

“Thanks. The children will be asking for them.”

“Angela, you were telling me about your brothers before the soda ran over. Why are you closer to Rob?”

She wiped her hands on her jeans. “I don’t know. He was older, protective. And our minds kind of worked alike I guess. Eric was rowdy. Not terribly rebellious…still something of a loner. Now Rob—he can be as aggressive at times as he needs to be, but underneath it all, he’s really very sensitive and tenderhearted.” She rolled up the sleeves of her blueand-green plaid flannel shirt. “It’s warming up. It’s hard to believe it’s October.”

Adam looked past the picnic table and across the wide grassy expanse leading to the lake, whose waters remained calm and still. “It’s a perfect day for this. I just hope the kids actually catch some fish.”

“They had a couple of bites when you were down there with them earlier, didn’t they?” she asked and
continued pulling paper plates, cups and other necessary items from her basket.

“Yes. I think I’ll see how it’s going.” He touched Angela’s forearm as he moved past her.

Angela finished getting food on the table, and about ten minutes later, Adam and all three children returned to their picnic area to eat. Fishing tips became the mealtime topic, and the boys’ opinions differed. As usual.

“You’ve only been fishin’ a few times, Nathan, so don’t act like you know it all,” David stated after listening to his brother’s talk a little longer than he cared to. “How many times has Grandpa took—”

“Taken,” Angela corrected.

”…‘taken’ you fishing?” David asked.

“More times than he’s taken you. That’s for sure.”

Adam listened to more than what the boys were saying. He considered the things they weren’t saying. No mention of their dad taking them fishing, showing them how to use the bait or take a fish off the hook once it’s reeled in. How could Dan Sanders have had these two young boys in his life and seemingly have done so little with them? What a loss for all of them. A sharp twinge of remembering pierced Adam’s heart. Adam and his brother had grown up in much the same fashion. But at least their father’s illness had been something of an excuse. He couldn’t imagine what rationale Dan Sanders might have used to avoid a close relationship with his sons.

And Angela? She seemed to Adam nearly too good to be true. What could possibly have gone so wrong
within her marriage? She didn’t seem open to discussing it. Adam knew every relationship had its problems, it’s own uniqueness, but why did it seem everyone was so closemouthed about Angela and Dan’s? He wondered if Tiffany knew any more about Dan than he did. Probably not. If she did, she’d already have told him. And asking—that would seem gossipy.

“What time do we need to leave for you to make it to work?” Angela asked, studying Adam’s thoughtful expression. “I don’t want you to be late.”

“Let’s stay for about two hours if the kids are enjoying themselves. That would leave me time to shower and change before I have to be there.”

Those two hours went by quickly, especially once everyone started catching fish. When departure time arrived, the boys both were asking to come back again. Soon. Heather wanted to know if next time they could fish with something less disgusting than wet, wriggly night crawlers. She thought something dry and plastic would be much more acceptable. The trip back to Angela’s was uneventful, and Adam helped unload the van once they had parked up near the garage. It didn’t take very long, considering all the stuff they had packed. And all three children helped after only a little prodding from Angela.

“Well, I’ve gotta go. I’m due at the center in ninety minutes,” Adam said, walking out of her house. He wanted to drape an arm around her shoulders and pull her closer as they headed toward his truck, but he
wouldn’t right now. Not in broad daylight with the children all around. They stepped onto the driveway, and Adam did reach down to take her hand—as if a touch would in any way placate his longing for this woman.

“Thanks for spending time with the kids. The boys are desperate for that kind of attention.”

“My pleasure. Nathan didn’t seem as out of sorts today as he was last weekend.” Adam didn’t want it to be just his imagination. Things had seemed better, hadn’t they?

Angela smiled. “He’ll come around. He needs time to learn he can trust you.”

Trust.
There was a subject Adam wasn’t ready to delve into. Nathan needed to trust him, Angela needed to trust him…everyone needed to trust him a lot. Now. Before he had to ask them to trust him later.

“I hope he warms up to the idea of having me around.
Soon,
” Adam emphasized the word. “It’s important to me. And I know it’s important to his mother.”

“I’m hoping that day comes soon, too.” She squeezed his arm and watched him climb, slowly, into his truck and shut the door. He didn’t want to leave; she could see it in his every movement. And it only made her love him more.

“Hey, Adam!” Heather called as she rushed up to the truck. “When I get my award for swimming this year, will you be there? All of us want you to come.”

Angela and Adam both laughed a little. “Honey,
Adam is the director of the center. Of course, he’ll be there.”

“But, Mom, I don’t mean will he ‘be there.’ I mean will he
‘be there?’
You know, to see
me?
”

“Yes, I will be,” he answered. “And are you going to dive so you can move up to the next class?”

Heather shrugged. “I might, if you help me.”

“When you’re ready, I’ll be there,” Adam promised.

“And come to the ceremony for Mom, so she won’t be lonely,” Heather added. Then she threw a quick “See you later” over her shoulder as she took off to rejoin her brothers.

“Think you’ll get lonely sitting in those bleachers all by yourself?” he asked.

“Actually, I should be used to it. I’ve gone to plenty of their programs alone over the years. And this time the boys will be with me.”

Adam was quiet for a moment, thinking of the parts of life he and Angela had both missed, but each for different reasons. “I’ll go with you to the children’s programs as much as my schedule allows, if you like.”

She tilted her head to the side slightly, studying the look of concern she saw in his eyes. “I’d like that very much.”

He hadn’t even left the driveway, and yet he was wondering when he would see her again. “Tomorrow would be too soon, I think,” he said as he started the engine.

She nodded. “They’re used to having me to themselves
on Sunday. I don’t think they’re ready to give that up yet. What about lunch on Monday?”

“Can’t. I have to be at the center. And Monday night I have a meeting to attend downtown. How about Tuesday?”

“Nope,” she responded, crossing her arms and leaning in through the window he’d rolled down so she could kiss him lightly near his ear. “I have a luncheon to attend. Let me check my schedule for the week. Then I’ll call you.”

He put the vehicle in gear to pull away. “And that wasn’t the kind of kiss I had in mind.” Not even close.

“I know. Me neither,” she replied and moved away from the door. A gust of autumn wind blew swirling leaves of various colors across the driveway and around her feet as he left.

“Do you want to rake leaves, guys?” she asked. They all had too much energy to go inside now, so they may as well have some fun and get some work accomplished at the same time.

“Yes!” the three replied enthusiastically. They headed toward the garage to gather up a couple of rakes and a push broom, and Angela joined them in creating a huge pile of leaves that Heather and David immediately dove into.

“I wish we had a dog like we used to,” Nathan said to his mother when she pulled a few stray leaves from his windblown brown hair. Last fall, when they had raked the yard at their own house, Max had been there jumping into the piles of leaves with them.

She looked into Nathan’s eyes—blue like her own—feeling a pang of guilt. “We can’t, honey. Not in this apartment.” She looked up at the four-unit building where they had resided since the divorce proceedings began. When their former house had sold and the bills had been paid, there hadn’t been enough money left for a down payment on a smaller house. So she had chosen this apartment. “The lease on this rental specifically states that no pets are allowed.” But that was only part of the reason they no longer had the little black-and-brown stray that Nathan had named Max. The animal had run away from them one morning after Dan had disciplined the dog too harshly for growling. Angela refrained from commenting much about the pet’s disappearance since the day it happened because she didn’t want to lie to Nathan, and neither did she want to tell him exactly what had happened.

Max had felt threatened by Dan for good reason when Dan had come home in the early hours of a Sunday morning after spending Saturday night with his friends. Drinking. The dog had only been protecting Angela and the kids from the intruder Dan appeared to be. Dan had been angry and speaking loudly to her, and it must have alarmed Max more than usual. Dan had been verbally abusive to her at times, but he’d not acted in any way that was physically threatening to Angela or the kids. She wouldn’t have stayed with him if he had. No, she’d stayed because he didn’t want her to leave, or so he said. And she stayed because, for a while at least, she hoped
he’d change. The Lord could have changed him if Dan had only been open to the idea of the existence of a higher power, of the God who could have helped him.