The Fiery Ring (40 page)

“You are a nosy female,” Chase said, grinning. He seemed lighthearted and happier than she had ever seen him. The trip had been good for both of them. Now he reached over and playfully tweaked her hair. “Ask me no questions, and I’ll tell you no lies.”

Joy was mystified at his attitude and even more puzzled when he pulled up in front of a small stucco house on the beach.

“What place is this?” she asked with surprise.

“I told you, ask no questions.” Chase got out and walked over to her side and opened the door. “Use your crutches.”

“I don’t really need them,” Joy protested. He started to speak, and she said quickly, “All right, all right, I know. You’re the doctor.” She got the crutches, and he accompanied her as they walked up to the front door. He pulled out a key, opened the screen, and unlocked the door. He shoved it back and stepped aside to hold the screen. “Come on in,” he said.

“This is breaking and entering, isn’t it?”

Chase laughed but said nothing else.

Joy stepped inside the house and immediately noticed that a large window facing the ocean gave a beautiful view. She gazed at the blue-green sea stretching out to infinity and was delighted to see a row of dolphins as they arched their way along, breaking the water in a line.

“What a wonderful house!”

“Do you like it?” Chase asked. He leaned up against the wall, crossed his arms, and watched her.

“Yes, but why are we here?” She looked around almost with envy at the white walls, and from where she stood she could see a screened-in porch with a table and chairs. The furniture was nothing special, but the house itself had a warm feeling. “It’s beautiful. Whose is it?”

Chase shoved himself from the wall and stood directly in front of her. He took her hands in his own. “It’s yours,” he said gently.

Joy stared at him, thinking she had misheard him. “What are you talking about, Chase?”

“I’ve been meddling with your business. I looked at this house when we were here last summer. It was for sale then, and I called back last week and found out it was still for sale. I made a down payment on it.”

“But that means it’s your house.”

“No, it’s for you. I haven’t exactly kept you up to date on all the news. I got a call two weeks ago from Tom Winslow. Tatum has decided to pay up. The money’s in some sort of legal limbo now, but half of the money is yours. Ten thousand for you and ten thousand for Travis. It’ll just about pay this place off, and also you can get the furniture and the personal things that belonged to your parents.”

Stunned by Chase’s words, Joy freed herself from his hands and made her way to the screened-in porch with her crutches. She stepped outside the door and heard the murmuring of the surf, a sound she had always loved. The wind blew her hair, for it was strong coming off of the ocean. She heard Chase come up behind her, and she turned and looked up into his eyes. “How thoughtful of you, Chase, to do all this for me.”

“Well,” he said, and he flashed a grin at her, “that’s not all of it. I want to live with you in this house.”

“Why, you know we can’t do a thing like that! It’d be wrong,” Joy responded as her cheeks grew red.

“Not the way we’ll work it.” He pulled Joy into his arms
and bent to taste the sweetness of her lips. “This is the way it’s going to be. I’m going to stay in my trailer at the circus, and every day I’ll come here courting you. I’ll bring you flowers, and we’ll walk on the beach, and I’ll tell you how beautiful you are, and sooner or later you’ll fall in love with me and decide that you can’t live without me. And then,” he smiled, “you’ll marry me and let me live in this house with you.”

Joy felt secure in his arms. She held him tight for a moment with her face against his chest. When she lifted her head, she said, “It’s like coming home, Chase.”

“You mean to this house?”

“No,” she whispered and, pulling his head down, said, “it’s like coming home to you.”

GILBERT MORRIS spent ten years as a pastor before becoming Professor of English at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas and earning a Ph.D. at the University of Arkansas. A prolific writer, he has had over 25 scholarly articles and 200 poems published in various periodicals, and over the past years has had more than 180 novels published. His family includes three grown children. He and his wife live in Gulf Shores, Alabama.