Page 41 of Too Late

Chloe spoke before he could formulate the question.

“I hope Poirot is okay.” She laid her head down on his shoulder.

“I’m sure he is. You know Gabe will make sure he’s fine.”

“I don’t even know where I was taken from. Was Poirot with me? Is he trapped somewhere? Did the guy who took us hurt him?”

Josh rubbed her arm. “Stop. You have to trust God with him. With all of it.”

“Easier said.”

“I know, but no matter how hard it is, we still have to. It really makes life more tolerable.”

“I can attest to that. I’ve been there. Trusting Him with what was next, but I guess over the years, the anxiety has taken up residence. I don’t know what to do about that.”

He wasn’t sure what to say. He’d never struggled with anxiety, definitely not in the paralyzing way Chloe did.Give me words, Father.

One word came to his mind. “Surrender?”

“Right. I guess that’s what’s missing. But surrender means not being in control. And that’s scary.”

“Are you really in control now?”

She half giggled-half sobbed.

“You said you were ready to go a little deeper with me. Is that true?”

“Haven’t I already?”

“Indeed you have. But I don’t know if this question is going to be out of bounds.”

“Ask it. The worst that can happen is I can yell at you and run out into the rain and die.”

It was his turn to laugh. “That’s a little extreme.”

“And unlikely to happen. I honestly can’t think of anything that would make me so mad I’d leave your arms right now.”

He let the patter of the rain fill the space as he worked up the courage to ask.

He tried really hard to keep his voice soft and gentle. “Who’s Owen?”

Chapter Fifteen

Chloe’sinsidesshookatJosh’s question. It was time to tell him. It was only fair.

She lifted her head from Josh’s shoulder but stayed close. “Owen was my high school boyfriend—no more than that. He was the guy I was supposed to grow old with, my soul mate, if you will. We had big plans. With only one year of high school left, we thought we had our whole lives before us. But we were wrong. We got lost in the woods while on a trip with our youth group. We split up for just a few minutes and were supposed to come right back to our spots. But Owen didn’t.”

Josh gently rubbed her back while she spoke. He couldn’t possibly understand how much that helped her, but then again, she wasn’t sure she understood either. It just did.

She continued. “A SAR K-9 unit found me, five hours after I saw Owen for the last time, and thirty hours after we’d taken a misstep off the path.”

“What about Owen?”

“Five days of searching. Five days before we had answers.”

Josh waited.

These were the hardest words to speak. “Owen fell. Probably slipped as he tried to spot a familiar place by looking off the side of the cliff. He was fearless. Thankfully, they said he died instantly.”

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