And the Greatest of These Is Love: A Contemporary Christian Romance Novel (9 page)

“Okay,” she finally managed to say, “it’s time to go. Everybody get a buddy.”

The children jumped to their feet, and in no time they were paired up and ready for the journey back to the room. Andrew waited only a brief moment before realizing how little time he had to get the babies back. He wished with every part of him that he could talk to her, but they each had work that had to be done. Talking would have to wait.

“Irvin! Why don’t you come over here and join our game?” Andrew called the second Irvin stepped into the gym. Suddenly this young man held many keys of information he desperately needed.

Slowly almost distrustfully, Irvin made his way over, trying his best to look cool and tough, which was only barely working because of how curious he looked.

“You talkin’ to me?” he asked, in his best tough-guy voice, but Andrew knew his secret now, and he wasn’t about to fall for the act.

Lifting his chin, Andrew smiled. “Yeah, how’s it going?”

The mask on the teenager’s face dropped for a heartbeat, and then he was Irvin tough guy again. “So, are we gonna play or what?”

“Yeah,” Andrew said, holding smile from coming too bright, “we’re gonna play.”

They were in the middle of a game when Irvin decided it was time to go. Without warning or words, he simply walked off the court.

“Hey, Irvin, where ya going?” Andrew called in surprise and alarm as the others continued to play.

“I got an appointment,” Irvin said, “and I don’t wanna be late.”

Andrew remembered, got the message, and waved him on.

“Hey, Miss T, you busy?” Irvin asked when he ducked into her room just after 6:30.

“No, Irvin,” she said immediately beaming at him, glad he had in fact chosen to come. That spoke volumes. “Come on in.”

The three remaining children looked at him in awe and grew very quiet.

Taking him over to them, Gabi put her hand on his back. “Irvin, I’d like you to meet Bobby, Kevin, and Devon. Boys, this is Irvin.”

Irvin knew this drill by heart. He remembered being the one in the seats not so long before and being formally introduced to adults for the first time in his life. Slowly he went to each boy and shook his hand as if he was the CEO of Exxon. It was important to him to show her he hadn’t forgotten.

Gabi watched him, amused and touched. She, too, remembered when Irvin was a shy ten year old, sitting in the chairs, trying to blend into the woodwork and doing everything he could to be noticed simultaneously. Finally Irvin made his way over to her.

“So, how’s things, Miss T?” he asked, extending his hand to her, which she accepted.

“Good, how about you, Irvin?”

He shrugged, one shoulder going up more than the other. “I’m hangin’.”

“How’s school?”

“Well, I was kind of hoping you might be able to help me on this paper I have coming up. It’s in English.”

“What’s it on?”

“We could do any topic we want, and I thought about doing mine on kids and guns.”

She was impressed. “Good topic.”

“Yeah, except I don’t know where to start.”

“Well, let’s see what you got,” she said, sitting at the only big table in the room and indicating the chair next to her which he took without question.

The gym had emptied out in one fell swoop it seemed, and Andrew made a quick check of things and then turned out the lights. It was odd being the last one here. He walked out into the hallway and made his way down to Jerry’s office where the pane of glass awaited him. Carefully, he hoisted it onto his shoulder and made his way back down the hall to her room. The light was still on, and just seeing it made his heart jump like skittish jackrabbits.

Gabi and Irvin were deeply immersed in laying out the paper when the knock sounded on her door.

She looked up and shock swept over her. Instantly she jumped up and ran to open the door. “Andrew, what in the world?”

He smiled that smile her heart now beat only to see. “You didn’t think I’d forget, did you?”

“I...” Thinking really wasn’t her strong suit with him around.

“Now which window is it?”

“That one,” she said, pointing, barely able to scrape her chin up off the floor. Never had she expected him to actually replace the window.

“Cool. Carry on. This should only take me a minute,” he said and went over to examine the window.

Absolute shock settled over her. He was crazy, insane, certifiable. Where did this guy come from anyway? She quickly decided her best line of defense was to pretend that nothing was weird about this situation at all thought that wasn’t entirely easy.

“Now, where were we?” Going back over, she sat back down with Irvin, who was looking at her with the most puzzled look she’d ever seen, but she forced herself to ignore it. “Oh, yeah. I really think you should include that Jefferson quote you were talking about in the introduction.”

Irvin took his cue from her, but concentrating on the paper was very difficult for either one of them with Mr. Fix-it man in the room. He wasn’t loud by any means; in fact, he was too quiet. Alternately, Gabi and then Irvin would sneak glances over at him to see what he was doing, but Andrew didn’t notice, he was having too much fun.

This felt real to him. This work wouldn’t be thrown away with the afternoon trash. This was permanent and lasting, and he loved it. He examined the entire window and then decided on his best strategy. He glanced at his watch — 7:00. Yes, he had time to get this done and still make it back to the paper before nine.

“Do you think I should put the statistics in the first part of the paper or more toward the end?” Irvin asked as he worked sketching his outline on the paper.

“I don’t know.” Gabi considered the options. “I think it really depends on what you have…”

Crash! The clatter of shattering glass sounded more like an exploding bomb, and both Gabi and Irvin jumped to their feet in utter panic. They stopped in the next instant, seeing Andrew standing there next to the now non-existent window with shards of glass undulating off his feet.

“Sorry,” he said sheepishly as he gritted his teeth together. “It slipped.”

“Slipped?” Gabi asked with instant concern. “Are you okay? What happened?”

“I’m fine. Thank goodness that was the old window,” Andrew said, looking around him for a place to start extracting himself from the mess. He stepped over and then over again before getting to clean floor.

Gabi grabbed the trash can and set it next to the mess.

“I’ll help,” Irvin said, coming over.

“No,” Gabi commanded firmly. “You stay over there and work on your paper. We’ll get this.”

At her insistence, Irvin stayed where he was though he didn’t look particularly happy about that.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked again, eyeing Andrew with worry. She didn’t see blood, which was a good thing as far as she could tell.

“Yeah.” Sitting on his heels, he picked up one of the larger pieces and put it in the trashcan. “I’m fine. No, big deal. Just go back to what you were doing. I’ll get this.”

She stood there, towering over him with her hands on her hips. “Are you sure? I can help.”

“Nah, I can get it,” he said, picking up several more pieces and dumping them into the trash. “You go on. Irvin needs you.”

Gabi there stood a moment more watching him, trying to decide what to do, and then she went back over to Irvin, who gave her another puzzled, worried look. She shrugged as if to say
I have no idea. He’s insane
, and Irvin stifled a giggle. She, too, had to keep from laughing.

“Now, where were we?” she asked, forcing herself to act normal, which wasn’t at all easy with the clinks and clanks of the broken window sounding behind her at odd intervals.

“Statistics.”

“Oh, yeah. Statistics. Well, my first inclination would be to put them first, but on the other hand, they might be kind of dry and take away from the punch of the paper. What do you think?”

“I think most of the stories speak for themselves, but maybe if I put a few in at the end, I could show that the stories aren’t just anomalies.”

“Oww!” Andrew gasped suddenly, and when Gabi’s gaze jerked over to him, all she saw was the blood coming from his hand.

“Andrew!” In one breath she was next to him as he held his hand with the other, the blood running through his fingers. “Are you all right? What happened?”

“The glass,” Andrew whispered, holding his hand and closing his eyes to squeeze out the pain.

Gabi reached for his hand. “Let me see.”

“No, it’s okay,” he said, pulling it away from her.

“Let me see it.” She took hold of his hand and turned it over, gently removing his other hand. Bright, red blood poured from the cut that she couldn’t see between his thumb and index finger. “We need to wash this off.”

He took his hand back and pressed the other one to it. “No, it’ll be okay.”

“Don’t argue with her, man,” Irvin said from behind her. “That don’t look good.”

Andrew looked up through the pain and with one breath surrendered. Taking his sleeve, she led him over to the small sink in the corner and turned on the water.

“This might sting a little bit,” she said as she placed his hand under the water.

He let out his breath slowly and clenched his teeth as the pain washed across his face.

“You’re doing good,” she coached as she looked at the cut under the water. “Do you think the glass is still in it?”

“No, it just sliced it,” he said through gritted teeth.

Gabi looked up at him, and her first thought was he was going to pass out.

“Irvin, get him a chair,” she instructed, not sure what they would do if he did faint. Irvin didn’t so much as question it, and when the chair arrived, Andrew sat down and let out a breath. Gabi looked down at him assessing their options. “Okay, now we’re going to wrap this up in a clean towel, and I’m going to take you in.”

“In?” he asked as if he hadn’t so much as thought about that.

Grabbing the paper towels and winding several to quasi-bandage the thing, she didn’t look at him at all. “To the emergency room.”

“No, that’s not necessary,” he said, but the protest was weak and hollow. “Really. I’ll be fine.”

“Yeah. You look great.” Gabi shook her head. “Get me a towel, Irvin. There’s some in that cabinet over there. Yeah, right there.”

In seconds Irvin returned with a cloth towel.

“Now,” she said, wrapping it slowly but tightly and then holding it there, “we’re going to go out and get in my car.”

“Really this isn’t necessary.” Although the words sounded tough, he still sounded about two seconds from passing out.

“Yeah, well, we’ll let the doctor be the judge of that,” she said, looking down at him still sitting in the chair that was ten sizes too small. However, there was no humor in her at all. “Can you walk?”

He looked at her in annoyance. “It’s my hand not my foot.”

“Okay, wise-guy,” she said, helping him to his feet. He swayed ever so slightly, and she wondered again what she would do if he passed out because the fact that she was now under his arm and against his body, trying to hold him up with hers only registered the impossibility that would be if he keeled over. “You all right?”

“Yeah,” he said, regaining his balance but only with effort.

“Good, now we’re just going to go get in my car.” She wrapped her one arm around his waist and steadied him in front with her other hand. “Irvin, grab my purse in the bottom drawer. It’s got my keys.”

Irvin did as he was told and then came to follow them out. “What about the window?”

“I’ll worry about that later,” Gabi said, walking right next to Andrew, assessing, and thinking through what came next with each step. The three of them made their way out to the parking lot. The October chill had set back in, and with no coats, it was decidedly colder even than normal. At the car, Gabi managed to glance at Irvin as she unlocked it and helped Andrew in. “Thanks, Irvin. I think we can take it from here.”

“You sure?” he asked with concern as Andrew got in and put his head back on the seat, pain ripping and scrawling across his face.

She didn’t have time to chapter and verse her charge into believing they would be okay. “Yeah, we’ll be okay. Thanks. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Take care, Miss T. You too, Mr. C,” he said, bending down to window height.

“Thanks, Irvin.” Andrew waved weakly with his good hand as Gabi closed the door.

The pain was increasing in waves, and he was quickly becoming sick to his stomach. Without moving, Irvin stood there as she got in, and he watched them drive away.

“How are you really?” she asked, the extreme concern never leaving her voice.

“Okay.” It was far more that he wanted to be than that he really was.