Page 90 of A Twist of Faith
Jana had taken the one thing he held above everything else, family, and twisted it until it limped into an unrecognizable form. He’d pieced back together what fragments remained of their life, but underneath it all he struggled with questions and fear. Deep inside, in a place he didn’t visit often, he knew he just wasn’t good enough for the likes of her … or Dee.
How could his mother and sister take her side? Wasn’t the truth plain enough? The obvious patterns? Was he the only one seeing things straight?
He marched down the hill in the direction of Dee’s house, a stack of logs calling for a good beating. He’d oblige. His muscles ached to beat something. The cool wind brushed up against his bare face and sent a shiver through him. Stupid. He’d even shaved a perfectly warm beard for the likes of that woman.
His mind flitted to Dee. The look in her eyes when she’d seen him at the party sure didn’t look like the eyes of a two-faced liar. In fact, there seemed to be a whole lot more between them than an accent, with or without the hair on his face. Idiot. She’d acted so well, he couldn’t even figure truth from pretend anymore.
And her kisses? All the more proof he wasn’t thinking with his brain, but something altogether less trustworthy.
Haus welcomed him into the yard with a grin. The dog looked plum happy … and clean? He stared at the grinning, clean dog for the longest time, until Haus must’ve got tired of grinning, because he turned around and walked to the house. Without another look back, he curled up on the porch and Reese did a double take. Was that dog sleeping on a pillow?
Who on earth bought Haus a dog pillow? Mama was too levelheaded to buy something so fancy for a dog, and Rainey would have laughed at the notion. Emma might consider it. She was sort of prissy that way, but it didn’t seem likely on her waitressing pay.
And Trigg? No.
Dee’s scent drifted on the breeze toward him. Dee? She hated dogs, didn’t she?
He looked back down at Haus, who nuzzled the pillow.Traitor.
Reese stepped into the garage in search of his grandfather’s axe, but stopped. On the shelf stood a bottle of dog shampoo, a dog brush, and a little book entitledHow to Take Care of Your Dog. The hard edge on his emotions shifted a little. Slips of paper stuck out from the book in all directions, very uncharacteristic for the tight-lipped professor. The thought of her lips distracted him from his anger for a moment and he flipped through the book. His name on a page caught his attention.
Reese says Haus likes bacon. Try some bacon-flavored dog food.
He looked at the dog food bag nearby and sure enough, bacon-flavored. He huffed in annoyance and went back to the notes.
Lou said it would be nice if Haus had a collar so he would feel like a real somebody.Reese leaned back out the door and sent a glance to the porch. A blue color snugged in against Haus’ dark fur. Reese’s smile unhinged and a different kind of warmth rumbled in his chest. He stepped back into the garage. Crazy woman, spending good money on a dog pillow and collar.
He flipped the page of the notebook and a thin slip of paper feathered to the floor. More notes, except these didn’t have anything to do with Haus. It looked like one of Dee’s familiar to-do lists.
Send a thank you note to Grace Mitchell. That woman is amazing.
Well, the notion was common knowledge, but at least it showed the good sense Dee housed in her pretty, conniving brain.
Make sure Brandon has a new stuffed monkey. His old one has a hole in the back.
Reese had tried to replace the monkey three times without success, but the fact she wanted to take care of his boy stretch the warmth through his body and made him about cry. Stupidity jumped right back into his head – and it’s what got him into trouble in the first place.
Buy Rainey lunch as a thank you for the clinic work. I’ve never had a friend quite like her.
I guess that’s something to thank God about like the pastor said.
Reese coughed through the tightening in his throat. Was God answering his prayer for Dee? Through all of his crazy life and even in the middle of his hurt, had God found Dee?
His name on the next line caught his attention.
Work up the courage to tell Reese the truth.
Reese reread the statement. All that anger he’d aggravated to volcanic proportions suddenly puttered into embers. She’d planned to tell him … like she’d tried to say last night. What started as a silly game for advancement turned into something deeper.
He blew out a long breath and hitched a hand at his waist as he looked upward. “Is that what you’ve been up to all this time, Lord? Trying to force me to see what an idiot I am?”
Rainey and Mama had been right. Of course there was no need to admit it out loud to feed their egos, but in the quiet before God, he humbly accepted the truth. Clearly, Reese wasn’t good at playing God?
He shook his head and gently placed the paper back in the notebook. A mist gathered in his eyes. He’d stuffed the anger so deep, it only took the right trigger to boil ignite. No, he’d never really forgiven Jana. He’d said all the right things in church and covered it over with smiles for the family, but old scars waited for the right moment to reopen and spill out on the woman … he loved.
Unshed tears blurred his vision and he sighed, releasing the hurt along with the last threads of his anger. God was trying to get him to see straight—and he needed to start looking in the right direction.Heavenward.
Scenes and conversations rammed through his head from the past three months. He couldn’t match her actions with Jana’s. The arrogance wasn’t there or the selfishness. The wager wasn’t Dee’s best choice, but it didn’t deserve his outburst at the Ball or his leaving her alone on the sidewalk. She wasn’t a manipulator or heartbreaker. She was a kind, beautiful, smart, lonely woman trying to find her answers, her peace, in the wrong ways.
