Page 69 of Waiting for Gilbert

“Hey.” At that one sweet word from Gilbert, a swirl of anticipation brushes the inside of my stomach. A grin follows, and I turn my back to Mark and amble into the kitchen. Sooo casual. Nothing to see here.

“Is everything okay? Shouldn’t you be on a plane?” I pour coffee into a yellow mug and liberally add cream and a scoop of sugar.

“Guess God has other plans. All planes grounded this morning because of the storm.”

My heart sinks. “You’re going to miss your audition! Can you reschedule? There’s no way they can hold this against you. You can’t control the weather. They have to know it’s not your fault. Can you get in touch with them right way?”

“Relax.” He sounds extremely calm over this, and I feel like I need to be double upset for him. “It wasn’t meant to be.”

“No, no, no. You can still figure this out. It’s just a minor difficulty.”

“God doesn’t make things difficult. When he closes a door. He closes it. This is what we needed. I was up most the night asking if this was the right thing—for God to make the answer clear. I know it’s right because when I got the alert from the airport that the flights were canceled—Cordelia, I had the best feeling about it. I sighed in relief and fell asleep.”

“But—”

“Babe, it’s fine.”

“I—” Words elude me. Did he say what I think he said? Did he justBabeme?

Silence. I turn back to the living room. There’s no way Mark heard that. But the look on Mark’s smug face makes me want to punch it.

Gilbert clears his throat. “Um, I was calling to see if you would let Royce in. He said he’d swing by this afternoon to run the final electrical inspection, so I can finally have the furnace and electricity through the house.”

“Sure. Anything else?”

“Nah. We’ll hang at the hotel until they get the interstate opened again. Looks like it’ll snow throughout today. Should make it back tomorrow afternoon.”

“Okay. Be safe.”

“Sure thing.”

I stare at Mark, who’s staring at me with a dumb smile from the other room, and down half a cup of coffee. Mark doesn’t have the chance to spill whatever he’s thinking because a stampede of children attempting to be quiet boils over instead.

Diana enters with Lisa holding her hand. “Morning. Lisa says Mark’s taking everyone for donuts. Hey, when did Jack wake up? And why is he chewing on—Mark, is that your key fob?”

“Yeah. He stole it from me.”

“Alright. I’ll have eggs and sausage ready when you get back.” She finds a rubber giraffe under the coffee table and replaces the keys. “Cordy, you going with the gang?”

Mark heads to the kitchen, dodging around the kids, who dig through a mound of snow gear. “She is.”

“I am?”

“Get your shoes on. I’ll be ready in forty-five seconds.”

Lauren sends me a look of panic then turns to her brother. “Hurry, Landon. Here’s your other glove.”

I tip back the rest of the coffee and stroll over to help. Kneeling on the carpet with the kids, I sort through the pile for Lisa’s gloves and toss them to Diana. In thirty-eight seconds I’ve got gloves on all the kids. “Did everyone go pee? If you’re ready, wait outside in the snow.”

Diana disapproves of my announcement.

I speak loudly for everyone’s benefit. “Better speak now or forever hold your pee.”

She rolls her eyes.

“Why you so proper, sis? How would you say it?”

“It’s just the way you yell it. ‘Use the restroom,’ would be better. Nevermind. You guys could take the van.”

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