Page 70 of The Baxters
“No.” Elizabeth shook her head. She took a sharp breath. “I can’t go there.”
“Me, either.” John seemed to let the possibility fade. “Did you hear what Brooke told Luke? In the kitchen?” John took a sip of his tea. He watched her, waiting for her response.
“I was with Cole. I missed it.”
“Brooke told him that one of these days he’d have to get off his high horse.” John looked at her again. “Because no one can stay perfect forever.”
“Hmmm.” Elizabeth drank her tea and nodded. “She’s right.”
“Honestly? I’ve been worried about that for a while with Luke.” John set his cup down on the arm of the chair. “He’s young. Somehow I think he has a few big mistakes ahead. Lessons only God can teach him.”
“Let’s pray not.” Elizabeth never wanted to expect the worst with their kids. “Maybe he’s learned his lesson.” She paused. “I know God’s still teaching me.” For a while she didn’t complete her thought. The way she had early that morning, she pictured the little baby boy in her arms. She and John hadn’t been married, so her parents gave her no choice. But tonight she had even learned something about him. “Our firstborn… so often when I think about him, I feel… an urgency, I guess. Like I have to find him and help him, make sure he’s okay.”
A slow breath seemed to fill John’s lungs. “That’s me. Way too often.” His smile barely lifted his lips. As if the burden of not knowing their oldest son was too great to carry.
“The situation with Cole made me realize something.” Elizabeth leaned back, her eyes still on John. “God has the son we gave away. Just like He had Cole tonight. Wherever he is, whatever he’s doing. I can’t help him.” A supernatural peace soothed her heart. “Not if he were a million miles away or right here under the same roof with us.”
“God knows we want to meet him, find him.” John clearly understood. “And like everything else, that’s something we can trust Him with.”
“Exactly.” Elizabeth finished her tea.
Finally, John stood and helped her to her feet. “It’s been a long day, my love.”
“I needed this. Time to debrief.” She walked with himto the kitchen and they set their cups in the sink. The dishwasher was halfway through the wash cycle, the swishing sound a familiar part of their nighttime routine.
“It’s past midnight.” John faced her. “Which means it’s tomorrow.” He kissed her forehead. “We can put the good and bad of this day behind us.”
“Yes.” She pictured Kari, so beautiful in her wedding dress. “Tim and Kari are halfway to Seattle by now. If they didn’t get delayed.”
“I think they must’ve made it.” John smiled. “We were between storms when their flight was scheduled.”
Taking a red-eye hours after their wedding wasn’t something Elizabeth would’ve wanted. Better to have their first time together unrushed, at a nice hotel near the airport. But the honeymoon plans had all belonged to Tim, the late flight and the cruise to Alaska. Every detail.
“Did Kari ever tell you she wanted to honeymoon in the Caribbean?” Elizabeth leaned against the counter. “I feel like that’s all she used to say, how one day she wanted to visit the Bahamas or Aruba. Someplace sunny.”
John hesitated. “Yes, actually. I remember her saying that.” He looked long into Elizabeth’s eyes. “Instead they’re going on an Alaskan cruise.”
For a few seconds, they were quiet again, letting those simple facts sink in. Elizabeth closed the distance between them and put her hands on his shoulders. “You think she made the right choice?”
“It’s not the choice I expected.” John’s voice was rawwith honesty. “But it’s the choice she made.” He paused, searching her eyes. “And if I know our girl, she will make the most of her marriage to Tim. She’s in it for life. I’m sure.”
For life.Elizabeth smiled and nodded. “You’re right. She’ll work every day to make her marriage beautiful. And I’m sure… well, I hope he’ll do the same.”
John turned off the kitchen light and they headed upstairs to bed. Before Elizabeth fell asleep, she pictured the way Kari had looked, walking down the aisle toward Tim. Her eyes shining with love for her groom, her heart inclined toward him alone. And of course Tim, waiting for her, tears in his eyes. Those were reasons enough to believe Kari was making the right choice.
Definitely.
And something else, something she hadn’t spent a lot of time thinking about today. The wedding had been too beautiful to dwell on the uncertainty from hours earlier. Still, here in the dark it was the events of the morning that made Elizabeth even more sure about Kari and Tim.
Not just because of how they had looked at each other or the intensity of love in their vows. But for one more obvious reason.
Ryan Taylor had come to see Kari on her wedding day. And Elizabeth’s middle daughter had done something no one would’ve expected in a million years.
Kari had sent him away.
If her daughter could do that, then she could love Tim for the rest of her life.
Elizabeth closed her eyes and smiled. She was absolutely sure.
