Page 202 of Share with Me

Chapter Sixty-Three

That was Ivan. As clear as day, it was Ivan.

Brinley couldn’t focus on what Tristan Rao was rambling about as he drove them to lunch. Something about a duet. No, she didn’t want to do a duet with Tristan when her heart belonged to someone else.

Someone who is now back on St. Simon’s Island.

It should be a happy day, but Brinley didn’t feel it. Why did Ivan stand there down the hallway? Why didn’t he come to her and say hello? He was still wearing something on his left wrist, but it looked more like a brace than a cast.

Thank You, God.

Ivan would never know that she had been praying every day the last three months for his wrist to heal. Sometimes she’d been in tears that it had been her fault, but God had comforted her through His Word.

So much she had yet to learn. She wished Yun McMillan were still alive to guide her through the Bible, but she had been enjoying Pastor Gonzalez's wife’s weekly Seaside Chapel Women’s Bible Study. Olivia Gonzalez had been quite insistent that the Holy Spirit of God was her real teacher.

So all was not lost.

Not that lost, anyway.

She could picture Yun in heaven now without her walker or her titanium hip. She would be carefree and loving life with Jesus. She could just see the Lord Jesus telling Yun, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Here are your rewards.”

Brinley thought of her salvation as Demere Road came into view. People cycled on the sidewalks under green trees. The McKinnon St. Simon’s Island Airport was to the left. Small planes were landing and taking off.

The sky was clear and blue. It was a perfect spring morning. Easter was next Sunday, and it would be Yun’s first Easter in heaven. It would be so much more perfect than this.

Southern Soul Barbecue was packed as usual. Brinley remembered getting takeout from here that day so long ago after Ivan’s wrist accident on the day he told her to get lost and never come back to that house.

How ironic it was that she had bought that house when it went into foreclosure to save it from being razed down for rampant oceanfront development. She had rescued the house for future McMillans. No matter who Ivan eventually married, she could only wish him God’s blessings.

She could not bring herself to hate him in spite of all that he’d spewed at her that day.

You ruined my career, my life, everything!

“Quiet, aren’t you?” Tristan said after they ordered and as they waited for an empty table. His hands were in his pockets.

“I saw someone at church after the service today.”

“Someone from your past?”

Well, Brinley wasn’t sure if he was still in the past. Ivan and she had some unfinished business and until that was resolved, neither could move on.

“The man who broke my heart.”

“You still won’t tell me his name.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“We want to be transparent with each other if there is to be the possibility ofus.”

“There is nous, Tristan. We’re only going out to lunch.” They had met in Sunday School, the one that Ivan had been in until he left town.

As if on cue, Brinley’s iPhone pinged, saving her from further talk about being an item with Tristan. “It’s Helen. I’ve been waiting for this.”

“Good news, I hope.”

Brinley was still texting when she followed Tristan to a table vacated by customers. They waited for the server to wipe the table before they sat down. Their food came soon afterwards. Beef briskets for her and whatever it was for Tristan. Tristan said the blessings and they dug in.

“What did Helen say?”

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