The Trouble with Angels (Angels Everywhere #2)(20)

"Bethany will have me over, I’m sure,” he said in answer to his son’s question.

"There are a dozen or more people in the church who would fight to have you spend Christmas Day with them.”

"Of course,” Paul assured Joe. What he didn’t explain was that he wasn’t interested in squandering Christmas with church friends. He’d looked forward to spending this precious holiday with his only son. He’d thought about various activities for the two of them. Hiking. Maybe they’d fish a while. A few panfried lake trout were sure to cure what ailed him.

"We’d like your blessing on our marriage,” Annie said.

Paul smiled. She was such a pretty thing, he could well understand his son falling for her. He was being selfish to want to hold on to Joe himself.

"You have my heartfelt congratulations, my blessing,” Paul offered. "And my love. This calls for a celebration. Grab a jacket, I’m taking everyone out to dinner.”

Joe and Annie’s young faces brightened with wide smiles.

Several hours later Paul tossed and turned, unable to sleep. Sleeping was becoming more and more of a problem of late. He never had much trouble drifting off, but he’d soon jerk awake and spend fruitless hours fighting to go back to sleep.

He threw aside the blankets and reached for his robe, then climbed down the stairs to the kitchen. He took a glass from the cupboard and was pouring himself some milk when Joe joined him.

"Hi.” Joe rubbed a hand down his face and yawned.

"Did I wake you?”

"No, I was up, thinking about, you know, life.”

"Life?”

"Mine and Annie’s.”

"Ah.” Paul scooted out a chair at the cluttered kitchen table, and Joe soon joined him.

"Was it like this with you and Mom?” Joe wanted to know. "Did you love her so much that you wondered why it took you so long to realize you were in love?”

"Yes,” Paul said, and chuckled. "Your mother was the one who defined our relationship.”

Joe straightened and pressed a hand over his pajama-clad chest. "It’s the same way with Annie and me. I don’t know what I was thinking we’d do after we finished school. I guess I wasn’t thinking, because one day she asked me straight out what I was going to do after graduation. I told her and then she started to cry and for the life of me I couldn’t make her tell me why.

"The next afternoon she returned everything I’d ever given her. I’d telling you, Dad, you could have knocked me over with a Popsicle stick. Here I thought we had a wonderful relationship, and for no reason I could understand, Annie wanted to break it off.”

"That was when you decided to marry her?”

"No,” Joe admitted. "First off I had to know what I’d done that was so terribly wrong. I don’t lose my cool often, but she really ruffled my feathers. I met her in the library one evening and asked her point-blank what I’d done, and Dad, I swear her answer tied me up in knots so tight, I didn’t think I’d ever get my head straight again.”

"What did she say?”

"That’s the crazy part. She assured me I hadn’t done anything.”

"But why did she break up with you?”

"That’s what I insisted upon knowing. It was her answer that turned my life around. She looked at me with those big, beautiful eyes of hers and said she realized after our talk that she wasn’t going to have a part in my future.

"I wanted to argue with her right then and there, wondering where she’d ever come up with anything so stupid, but she wouldn’t let me. She was close to crying by then, so she asked that I let her finish. She said she realized when I told her about the job in Seattle that I had no intention of including her in the rest of my life.”

"Did you?” It sounded to Paul as if his future daughter-in-law might be guilty of a little manipulation. He wondered if his son realized this.

"That’s just it. Of course I did. I naturally assumed that Annie would be there with me. I can’t imagine what my life would be like without Annie. She’s a part of me now. That’s why I took it so hard when she severed the relationship.”

What Paul noticed, and what hurt more than he dared show, was that not once during this painful time had Joe sought him out for his advice. Not once had his son contacted him to talk about this special young woman he loved.

Paul didn’t think his son was looking for him to comment, and if he had been, Paul wasn’t sure what he would have said. He might have said something wholesome about the benefits of love, something he could have used in a sermon one day. Fortunately he was saved from having to say anything. The phone rang.

"Who’d be calling this time of night?” Joe asked.

Paul didn’t wonder anymore. Calls this late almost always meant unwelcome news. He walked into his small office and reached for the receiver, not wanting to disturb Annie, whom he presumed was sleeping.

"Hello.”

"Reverend Morris?” Bernard Bartelli’s voice trembled from the other end of the line. "I’m sorry to wake you.”

"I was up, don’t worry about it, Bernard. Now tell me what’s happened.” A part of Paul prayed that Madge had been released from her physical agony, yet he understood better than some how devastating that would be to those she’d left behind.