Bamboo and Lace (22 page)

Lily laughed a little but still asked, “Was it awful for you?”

“At times, yes.”

“What was the worst?”

“How sick I got from the treatments and being so tired all the time.”

“Was there a particular verse that helped you?”

Without hesitation Gabe quoted, “I love the Lord, because He hears my voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I shall call upon Him as long as I live.”

“The first two verses of Psalm 116,” Lily said when he paused.

“That's right. The next two verses go on to talk about the cords of death and asking God to save us, but I just claimed verses one and two. I had no guarantees that God would heal me—it might not have been His will—but I wanted to call on Him for as long a time as I had, knowing He would listen.”

“Thank you for telling me, Gabe.”

“You're welcome.”

Again silence fell between them. Gabe glanced at Lily's face, which gave nothing away this time, but he was coming to sense more than see when she had something on her mind.

“What? No more questions?”

Lily laughed but did feel free to ask one more.

“It was Hodgkin's lymphoma, right?”

“Yes.”

“What do they do to give you a clean bill of health?”

“They take a blood test and an X-ray.”

“Is it uncomfortable?”

“No, but because of my treatment, I'm allowed only two Xrays a year.”

As she usually did, Lily caught on quickly and said, “So you don't want to break a limb.”

“Exactly.”

“Thank you for explaining it to me.”

“You're welcome.”

They arrived back at the house before Lily noticed where they were.

“How long have we been out?”

Gabe looked at his watch. “Almost an hour.”

“It goes so much faster when you run with someone, doesn't it?”

“Yes, it does,” Gabe said as he held the door for Lily to go inside.

All was still quiet, but Lily was hungry. She thanked Gabe for running with her and made her way to the kitchen. Gabe didn't follow. At least, not right away. Something had come to mind that surprised him. He turned back to the patio door, his eyes on the beach, but his mind was on something else altogether.

The test Bailey took the next morning was positive. Evan held his wife in his arms while she cried. The children were sure to be looking for them at any moment, but right now they needed this time alone.

“Are you all right?” Evan finally asked.

“I would be better if I wasn't so faithless.”

“Why were you faithless?”

“I thought I was too busy and tired right now to conceive. I was sure it would never happen.”

Evan smiled down at her.

“Why do we think that it's only our faith that makes things happen?”

“Arrogance.”

“I think you're right.” Evan gave her another hug and asked, “When shall we tell the kids?”

“Not until we're ready to have everyone know. I'm not sure CeCe can keep this under wraps.”

“How about the guys and your folks?”

“Today if we get the chance. That way if I act weird, they'll understand.”

“I'll call my dad tonight.”

These small details out of the way, the two went back to morning preparations, but Bailey did everything on automatic. Her heart was pondering this small new person in their life and the day they would finally meet.

“Okay, the tune we're using this morning,” Pastor Stringer said as the morning service began, “is ‘Jesus the Very Thought of Thee.' You'll find the words on your worship sheets. Let's stand and sing.”

The music piped up as Lily found the song, but she never got past the first few words of the second line. Her eyes looked in horror at the words on her paper, not needing an explanation to understand the pastor's intent.

Jesus the very thought of Thee,
Bores me, I must confess;
Putting You first in all my life
Int'rests me even less.

I'll give you time on Sunday morn—
Then I will sing and praise;
But after that, my time's my own—
Mondays through Saturdays.

Demand no more of me, O Lord—
There is so much to do;
I have a life, I can't afford
To waste it all on You.

“It's not exactly what you thought it would be, is it?” Pastor Stringer asked softly when the music died down and his congregation stood soberly before him. “But it's often the way we think. In no way do I wish to mock the original song, but I know for my own life that sometimes I need these wake-up calls. Please be seated.” Pastor Stringer gave everyone a moment to settle.

“We're going to keep talking about God's expectations for us this morning,” he went on, and Lily opened her Bible to the passage where he directed. She had only a vague sense of his preaching in this book before and, with that sense, Lily felt disgusted with herself.
What have you been doing each time you've sat in this church, Lily Cathleen?
That this was only her second time to attend a Sunday morning service did not immediately come to mind. She was determined to be hard on herself, and that was the end of it!

She remembered in time to be hard on herself later and not to miss a word of the sermon again.

Sunday dinner was a feast. Lily bit into the ham, which tasted of pineapple, and let her eyes slide closed. For a moment she didn't even want to chew.

“Lilyee's praying!” Celia announced in a voice that would not have helped her had it been true.

Lily's eyes came open as she stopped herself from laughing. Seeing the merriment in her eyes, the other occupants of the table joined her.

“I take it you think the ham is good?” Ashton questioned.

“It's delicious,” Lily answered once her mouth was empty.

“Thank you,” Bailey said with a smile. “It's my mother's recipe.”

“Speaking of our mother,” Gabe put in, his own plate giving evidence of how much he liked the meal, “did anyone mention to you, Lily, that we'll be going to visit Mom and Carson in ten days?”

“No, they didn't. Is there something I can do while you're away, or do you just want me to keep things going as usual?”

“You're going with us” at least three people said at the same time.

Lily's eyes got a bit round over this announcement, but no one bothered to elaborate. Evan wanted to talk about the sermon, and the table talk was soon off on that.

When everyone had commented, Evan added, “I especially liked what Pastor did with that song.”

“That was an eye-opener, all right.”

“He has perspicacity,” Lily said quietly, thinking how much she had enjoyed the service too. She kept eating after this, so it didn't come to her attention that everyone at the table was staring at Gabe, and that Gabe was staring at her.

Since some time in high school, Gabe had loved to use that word. And for years, whenever any of his siblings or Evan teased him about getting married, he would say that he would marry the first woman he found who knew what “perspicacity” meant.

“What was the word?” Peter asked, causing everyone to feel rescued.

Lily assumed she was to answer.

“‘Perspicacity' means acute mental vision or keen discernment. And what that means, Peter, is that Pastor Stringer is able to see things very clearly. He's able to explain things he has in his mind very well. If he has a thought, he's able to tell someone about it in a way that he will understand. Did that make sense?”

Peter nodded.

Lily then noticed that everyone was looking at her.

“I'm sorry,” she said right away, her eyes dropping. “I should have let someone else answer that.”

Everyone at the table denied it, but because this event had been somewhat unsettling to all of them, they changed the topic. They ate together for another ten minutes while the children shared what they had learned in Sunday school, and then Evan rose and moved Peter and Celia to the kitchen for their dessert. This rarely happened, so Gabe and Ashton were watchful. Lily felt a little tense but couldn't have explained why.

“We have news,” Evan said when he came back, not wasting any time. “Bailey's expecting.”

“That's great,” Gabe said, immediately pushing away from the table and going to give his sister a warm hug. Ashton was next, his smile huge as he hugged his sister and then Evan.

“Congratulations,” Lily said to both of them, but other than that, she remained quiet. She had been sorry she had spoken up on the matter the night before when Evan and Bailey turned in early. Lily didn't know them well enough to broach such a private subject, and she had been bothered by it ever since.

“Have you called Mom?” Ashton asked.

“I was going to, but I think it will be more fun to wrap a baby bonnet for her birthday.”

The men loved this idea, and before it was over, the suggestions grew outrageous.

“How about a bassinet? Do you think she would catch on then?”

“I know,” Ashton put in, “let's have a diaper service pull up while we're there. She won't be able to miss that.”

The children heard the laughter and came to the door, albeit quietly, since they had been told to stay put, but their father motioned them out. That the subject had to be changed immediately did not occur to Evan right away, but thankfully the children were too young to notice how many shared glances were exchanged as the cleanup crew went to work on the dishes.

Lily was having a great time but still wished she had kept her mouth shut. For the rest of the day she prayed for a time when she might ask Bailey to forgive her.

On Monday morning Lily sat at the bottom of the front steps and forced her feet into the in-line skates that Evan and Peter had handed her. She already had a helmet on, along with elbow and knee protection. Peter had tried to give her his wrist protectors, but they were too small.

“Okay, Lily.” Evan skated over from where he'd been circling the driveway to see how things were going. “How do they feel?”