Redemption Song (21 page)

He’d checked his calendar and he only had one more concert scheduled in the next couple of weeks. He knew that one would be an easy reschedule because it was a fairly small venue somewhere up in Washington. He figured that if he could only hold out till then, it would give him and Alaina more time to figure out how they were going to make this complicated mess work. And to top all of that off, Ethan wasn’t quite ready to leave Ben yet either. It seemed that Ben had gotten worse in the few short day’s Ethan had been there. What was going to happen when he had to leave for a couple of months at a time? Ethan shook those thoughts from his mind. They were too much to think about.

He needed something to occupy his time today. Something to take his mind off of Ben and something to calm his racing heart from the memory of Alaina’s kiss. He couldn’t believe he wasn’t exhausted because trying to go to sleep after she’d bid him goodnight had been next to impossible. He wanted to do something special for Alaina. And not something generic like flowers or chocolate. He wanted to do something that showed her how much he cared about her. A gift that showed her that there had been effort put into it. He wanted to do something that would mesh both of their personalities and show her how easy it would be for them to be together once they got Ethan’s scheduling straightened out.

That’s when he was hit with the perfect idea. He wondered how that kept happening lately. It was as if he was being inspired by some little voice in his head telling him all of the right paths he should take.

Ethan jumped up from the couch, suddenly much more eager about the day ahead. He had a plan. He had a purpose. He needed help . . .

Ethan darted to the kitchen and hopped up into one of the stools at the island. Granny Mae stood on the opposite side holding a rolling pin, the entire front of her apron caked in flour. She was putting the finishing touches on the strawberry ice cream cheesecake for Ben and was starting on a homemade chocolate pie that Ted placed an order for the day before.

“Hey there, lil’ E,” she smiled. “What are you so happy about this morning?”

“Granny, I want to do something for Alaina,” he said a bit sheepishly. “And I think I’m going to need your help.”

Granny looked up to him and her smile widened. “I’d love to help you, baby! What did you have in mind?”

Ethan paused only for a moment, already knowing exactly what he needed to say.

“I need you to teach me everything you know about Fairhope . . .” Ethan paused, not believing the words that were about come out of his mouth. “. . . and I need a Bible.”

Alaina

It was evening. A dark pink sun was starting its slow decent over the wide Mobile Bay coastline when Alaina finally pulled into the drive from a long day of hard waitressing. Tips had been great, which was definitely a plus, but that hadn’t made the thought of coming home any easier for her. That morning, as per her normal routine of spending a few minutes with Ben before she left for the day, Alaina had been presented with what she knew without a doubt would be the absolute most difficult question that she would ever have to answer in her entire lifetime.

Ben wanted to know what the doctor said.

Alaina had thought of little other than the answer to that question ever since Dr. Rouse spoke with her, but that didn’t leave her any more prepared to deliver the news to her little brother. She’d told him that they would talk about it when she got home from work. Alaina couldn’t even deal with the possibility of it in her own mind. How was she to tell him? That would be like confirming that it really was happening. Alaina wasn’t ready to lose her brother yet. Sure, he had driven her crazy growing up: getting into all her stuff, constantly wanting to be in her room when her friends were over, tattling on her for every little thing. But that didn’t mean that she didn’t love him or that she didn’t want him around anymore.

It all seemed so unfair. There she was, seventeen years old, and she was living the life of a forty-year-old. This was not her job! She should have been the one breaking down and crying and getting consolation from her parents that everything would be okay, that they would take care of everything and they would all get through this hard time together. But no, she was all on her own, playing the role of mother, father, and sister all at one time. She had to be Ben’s rock, but who was going to be her rock?

Her mind instantly flashed to Ethan, but she pushed that back just as quickly. She loved what they were becoming, but she would not use him as her crutch. This was not his battle. Granted, she couldn’t imagine what that visit to the treatment center would have been like without him there—with his playful banter with the kids, his deep respect for the nurses, and his never-ending support that kept her from losing her grip . . .

The truth was, she’d already involved Ethan too deeply as it was, but she just couldn’t seem to keep him away. She knew it would be better for him to stay as far away from this mess as possible, to go on living his life as he always had before he’d met them, but every time he offered to spend time with her, Alaina just couldn’t quite bring herself to tell him no. And time with her meant time with her complicated life. She wondered how long he would stay involved. When would it become too much for him? When would it be simpler for him to just pick up and go back to where he’d left off?

Alaina knew it would come eventually. What was developing between her and Ethan seemed too good to be true. They’d spent such a short amount of time together, but their connection was so much deeper than she’d ever experienced with anyone else.

Alaina realized then that she’d been sitting in the driveway for a good five minutes with the car still on, still in drive, with her foot pressed tightly to the brake. There was no more stalling now. She was home. There was only getting out of the car, walking in to face Ben, telling him the news of his fate in the most honest and delicate way she possibly could, and being as strong as she could be for him. There was no magic formula or secret trick. There was only doing what she knew she had to do. So, very reluctantly, Alaina shoved the gear shift into park, took a deep breath, straightened her shoulders, and forced her hand to the door handle.

The trek up the flower lined walkway to the whitewashed front porch seemed ten miles long, and that was perfectly fine with her. She would have gladly walked many more just to keep from having to enter that house. As she climbed the small flight of white wooden steps and approached the front door, she could hear Looney Tunes echoing throughout the living room. When she opened the door and took a look around the room, her eyes instantly zoned in on the couch, and to her utter amazement, a small smile formed in the corner of her lips.

Ben was sitting on the couch curled up under Ethan’s arm, a huge bowl of spaghetti in his lap and red sauce outlining the entire circle of his mouth. They were laughing together about the latest way Wile Coyote was using an anvil to cause himself bodily harm.

“Hey Al!” Ben jumped off the couch and came over to his sister, wrapping her in a big bear hug. “How was work?”

Alaina instantly noticed the redness and strain in his eyes. He’d been throwing up today. She’d expected it—it was always this way the day after chemo—but it never got any easier to see. He looked pale and didn’t show signs of having much energy, but he was still smiling, so she let out a little laugh and bent down to return his hug. “Not too bad. Mr. Carn came in to eat with his wife today.”

Ben scrunched up his nose in a cute little grimace. “Is he the stinky one?”

Alaina grinned. “Yep, that’s him.”

“Eeeww! What’d you do?”

“I saw him coming through the window and took my break,” Alaina replied with a sly grin. “Gabby ended up waiting on him.”

Ben laughed. “Good one!”

Alaina reached behind her waist and untied her apron by pulling one string at a time. She pulled it off and flopped it down on the arm of the couch. Her eyes veered to Ethan, who was pretending to be engrossed in Looney Tunes. She appreciated that he was trying to respect her time with Ben. “So what have you two boys been doing today?”

Ethan glanced up. “Oh, a little of this . . . a little of that. We men don’t share our secrets, do we Ben?”

Ben’s shoulders straightened a bit and he crossed his arms, the cutest scrunch forming in his nose. “That’s right! We’re men. We keep our secrets.”

Alaina couldn’t help but laugh. “Is that right? Okay, I guess I can accept that.”

When Ben and Ethan both looked up with cheesy, not to mention guilty, grins, Alaina new that something was up. “Okay, I retract my previous statement. What’s going on?”

Granny Mae entered the sitting room from the kitchen, pulling off her own tomato splattered apron and hanging it on a hook in the interior door frame. “We’re going out,” she said with a smile of excitement.

“Out?”

“Yes, out. This family needs a break from this house and we are about to get one.” She grinned even bigger.

“Family?” Alaina had always thought of Granny Mae as family, but never put together the idea of her being Ethan’s grandmother, too. What did that make the two of them? Weird. She noticed Ethan was thinking the same thing because an amused grin was playing across his features. He glanced up at her from the couch and flashed a quick wink. She tried to hide the blush in her cheeks and focused back on Granny Mae.

“So we’re going out?” Alaina said a bit hesitantly. “Ben, are you sure you’re up for that tonight? I can tell you’ve had a rough day. Are you sure you wouldn’t rather us stay here and catch up on Looney Tune’s reruns?
And let me tell you that there is basically no chance that you will survive this cancer and you probably won’t live long enough to become a teenager and experience all that life has to offer; like love and friendship and family and
. . . Maybe this going out thing wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

“Sis, I’m fine. Now let’s go! We’ve been waiting all afternoon for you to get home and we’re burning some serious sunlight time. C’mon!” With that, Ben was out the door and headed for Ethan’s rental. He could be heard inside the house from the front lawn. “No offence, Granny Mae, but we’re taking the cool car tonight! Give the clunker a night off!”

No one could hide their laughter. Granny Mae exited past her calling out to Ben, “That clunker is still in great shape I’ll have you know!”

Ethan rose from the couch and reached down to a bag on the other side of the couch arm. When he stood up, he caught her eye and the accusatory expression on her face. “What?” he asked innocently.

“What’s in the bag?”

He shrugged.

“You planned this didn’t you?”

His guilty grin gave him away. “Maybe.”

“Sometimes I don’t know about you rock stars,” Alaina said, “always sneaking around and planning stuff behind people’s backs . . .”

“Trying to do something nice for people we care about. . .” he added, closing the distance between them and causing a slight chill to roll up her spine. “Your right, we’re a despicable breed.”

His breath was hot against her face, his lips only inches from hers. She wanted to retort with some equally playful comment, but all she managed to squeak out was, “You care about me?” He’d told her before, but each time it just got harder and harder to believe.

His grin immediately erased and his expression became serious. He didn’t reply. Instead, he let the bag fall to the floor and reached his hand to the nape of her neck, entangling his fingers in her recently ponytail-released mess of hair, and pulled her lips to his. He was gentle and his lips matched perfectly with hers. Alaina let out a low involuntary sigh and fell into his kiss even deeper. Sensing her approval, his arms moved to the small of her back and he pulled in her body so that it fit perfectly against his. Alaina’s heart was racing . . . no it was about to reach light speed. In fact, it was a little much. Fighting every fleshly desire in her all too human body, she tried to force her muscles to pull away . . . but then she didn’t have to. Ethan released her with the gentlest of nudges, kissing the tip of her nose before completely letting go of everything but her hand. He gave her a guilty grin. “Sorry I got a little carried away.” With that, he reached back down to pick up the mysterious bag and led her out to the car to meet the others; all the while Alaina tried to catch her breath.

~~**~~

Ethan

The night was going better than Ethan could have ever hoped for. Ted had left early to map out the spot and couldn’t have done a better job. According to Granny Mae’s directions, there was a privately owned piece of land on the tip of a bluff at the outskirts of town. There was a single log cabin with a porch that extended out over the side of the cliff. It offered an idealistic, no competition view of the Bay and the most spectacular sunset she’d ever seen.

Problem was, it was extremely pricey to rent. But to Ethan, it sounded perfect. He hadn’t even made a dent in the allowance money his mother banned him there with. He wanted this night to be all about Alaina and Ben. Ben went on and on during their alone time together about how much he loved the ocean and the stars and how he never got to see them anymore because he was always sick. Alaina had once explained to him the beauty she saw behind God’s creation. In Ethan’s eyes, this was money well spent.

Ethan still wasn’t sure about his personal feelings toward the whole God thing, but he was sure about his feelings for Alaina. And if being in the midst of His creation caused the same twinkle that formed in her eyes the night she’d first talked to him about her beliefs, well, he could stand to hear a little more about it. Anything to see her look that alive.

Now, they were all seated on the porch, warning Ben over and over again to not lean too far out over the railing, and taking in the spectacular view of the setting sun out on the twinkling ocean horizon. Alaina was next to Ethan and reached her hand forward, taking his fingers in hers.