Page 104 of Love for a Lifetime

Dawson pushed around the chili he’d barely eaten. The gnawing in his gut about the viral reel was still too fresh. “I think you’re right, but I need things with Olivia and Anna to smooth over before I’ll sleep easy at night.”

Mr. Lawrence shifted in his chair and propped his elbows on the table, leveling Dawson with the fatherly look he’d seen the man give his own kids hundreds of times over the years. “The Lord has someone for all of us, and if it’s meant to be with Olivia, things will work out at the right time.”

“I hope so, sir. I’m trying to be patient, but I’ve been hung up on Olivia for a decade.”

The older man’s beard twitched to one side, and a smile crinkled the lines on the outsides of his eyes. “Did I ever tell you about how I got together with Martha?”

A wave of reverence relaxed Dawson’s shoulders. Mr. Lawrence hardly ever talked about his late wife. “No, sir.”

Mr. Lawrence blinked down at the table as he composed himself. Or maybe he was traveling back down memory lane.

“We went to school together. I’d known her all my life. Martha was always quiet, and she might as well have been another faceless person in my class all those years.

“But one day, I woke up. She walked into Deano’s with her friends, and I immediately noticed her. I stopped hearing anything my buddies said and walked right up to Martha and asked her if I could buy her breakfast.”

“I bet she liked that,” Jacob said.

Mr. Lawrence chuckled. “She did not.”

“What?” Jacob’s wide eyes moved from one man at the table to the next, trying to understand why a woman would turn down a free meal.

“Because she wasn’t interested in one meal. Martha knew what she wanted and what she didn’t want, and she wasn’t about to get our wires crossed over a plate of biscuits and gravy.”

Jacob scratched his head. “But you two got married,” he pointed out.

“We did, but it wasn’t easy. She was a stubborn one. She had her own thoughts about me before she got to know me, and I had a long row to hoe when it came to convincing her things with us could be more than just a flash in the pan.”

“I don’t know what that means,” Jacob said.

Asa patted his son’s shoulder. “She wanted a commitment, and she was afraid he only wanted a fling.”

The kid nodded. “Oh, okay. That makes sense.”

Mr. Lawrence stared down at his empty dinner bowl. The man probably had a million memories running through his head. Losing the woman you love had to be torture of the worst kind.

“She was beautiful, but that’s not why I noticed her. It had nothing to do with Aquanet or that smile that lit up a room. No, it was all about that woman’s heart. It was because she helped someone.”

Shoot. Dawson’s throat was threatening to close. There wasn’t anything as gut-wrenching as watching a man relive true happiness while realizing he’d never have it again.

Mr. Lawrence sighed. “There was an old man at the checkout counter at Deano’s. He’d stopped by the diner for breakfast, but he noticed his wallet was missing after placing his breakfast order.

“I knew enough about Martha to know her family was just as poor as the rest of us. She probably only had enough money with her to buy her own meal that day. I had to beg her to let me buy her breakfast, but I think I bought every meal she ate after that one.”

Olivia’s heart was just like her mother’s. She couldn’t sleep at night knowing she hadn’t done something for someone else, and she never asked for payment. She just worked extra hours to cover the costs.

Dawson had plenty of friends, but at that moment, he understood Olivia’s dad as if they shared the same mind.

“I was drawn to her goodness,” Mr. Lawrence said. “She made me a better man every single day.”

Nodding, Dawson met the man’s stare. “It’s the same with Olivia.”

“She picked up right where her mother left off. She needs a man who will support her like that.”

“You don’t have anything to worry about, sir. I’m behind her one hundred percent.”

Mr. Lawrence’s mustache crinkled. “I know you are, son. You two will figure it out.”

“Yeah, I think it’ll be okay too once the storm blows over,” Asa said.

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