The Outer Edge of Heaven (16 page)

She smiled and relaxed against him. “You’re missing the spirit of the thing.” She paused for a second and then said, “You know you shouldn’t talk about marriage so casually. My parents may not understand the seriousness of it all, but you should.”

Just then he turned to avoid another couple and then looked down and met her eyes. “I wasn’t speaking casually, Charlie. They certainly couldn’t keep trying to marry you off if you already were.”

She gave him a lopsided smile. “You’re forgetting that he’s a divorce lawyer.”

Luke shook his head and laughed. “I guess there is that. Maybe we’ll have to figure something else out.” He looked all around the hotel ballroom and wondered aloud, “How long do you suppose we have to stay here to be considered polite?”

“Aren’t you having fun?”

“I’m fine, but doesn’t that deep conversation between your parents and Elroy look like a war party powwow to you. They’re cooking something serious up. Maybe we should discretely leave. Do you feel strongly about staying?”

Charlie shook her head and looked over to where her mother and father were in a decidedly serious looking conversation with Elroy that included numerous glances in her and Luke’s direction. None of them were looking too happy and she had to wonder if Luke wasn’t right.

He danced her over to the side of the floor and whispered, “Why don’t you act as if you’re headed to the restroom and I’ll tell Fo’s parents thank you and good night and collect the three little one’s. We’ll take them back to Dad and Angela’s suite and either get them ready for bed or take them down to the coffee shop and get desert or head for the pool. Where would your parents be the least likely to look?”

“It’ll never work, Luke. They’d call out hotel security looking for me if I didn’t answer my phone.”

“So just tell them you took something for your shoulder, which would be true and don’t worry about it.”

“Actually, they don’t know about my shoulder, but maybe lying low for the night would be fun. There’s a theater next door. I wonder if anything is playing that the little kids could see. I’d be hard to find in the dark.”

He looked surprised and asked, “You didn’t tell your parents?”

“No. I didn’t think I should.”

“I would have thought it would have been nice to have someone to talk to about what happened.”

She shook her head. “Me tell my parents I’d been assaulted in a pig barn feeding the runt in the middle of the night? No. They would have been horrified and simply insisted I come home immediately and raised a fuss. I talked to Fo. And a little bit to you. My parents wouldn’t have even wanted to know that one.”

The look he gave her almost made her feel guilty for not telling them, but he didn’t say anything else about it, just whispered to her as they neared a side door, “I’ll meet you at the rooms in a few minutes. See ya.”

She slipped out the door and it made her smile to think Luke was helping her elude her parents and their chosen betrothed. Maybe she should have been making it harder for them to find her all along. She was half way to her room before her phone rang.

****

Luke had joked with her about hiding from her parents and their intended in-law, but the tender kiss he’d seen Elroy give her on her temple when she’d been dancing with him hadn’t really been a laughing matter. That one little gesture had ticked Luke off and surprised him at the same time. He was usually pretty slow to rile, but somehow that kiss had been a wake up call. He’d known he cared a great deal for Charlie, but hadn’t realized how much until then. It had made him positively territorial and he’d been hard pressed to hide the slow burn he felt rise inside him. At least the kiss had made her move straight away from the guy. Luke’s smile came back when he thought about the look of total disgust he had seen on her face as he’d come up to them.

He collected the kids, bade Fo’s parents good night and made his way from the ballroom. He hated to encourage the rift between her and her family, but there was no way he could stand by and watch that pretty boy in the expensive suit and Italian shoes claim her. He didn’t understand her unwillingness to confront her parents and put a stop to all of this, but at least he could help ease her tension about them tonight.

Surprisingly, the kids were tired and were perfectly happy to head on up to the room to get ready for bed. Charlie peeked out of her own door as they approached and came across to his dad’s suite and helped him get them changed and into pajamas and get ready for bed. Their teeth were brushed and prayers were said when his dad and Angela showed up with both Fo and Chase in their wake. Tuckett was staying at Fo’s parents’ house with a cousin and he’d stayed downstairs, and Madge had actually struck up an acquaintance with one of the men from Fo’s dad’s company. She had stayed downstairs as well.

It was only nine o’clock and Luke was stumped as to why his dad and Angela had come up so early, but from the less than happy vibes he was getting he wondered if Angela hadn’t been up to her usual antics and his dad had called her on it. At any rate, his father took his parenting seriously and would have been up sometime relatively soon to be with his small children anyway. That was probably bothering Angela as well. She hated that sort of responsibility.

With the kids settled in, the four young adults headed next door to the theater to find out what was playing and Charlie seemed to take an almost childish pleasure in turning her phone to silent and then putting it where she couldn’t feel it vibrate. She should have been doing this kind of thing for a long time. She seemed to feel like it was a bit petty, but it was still preferable to being dominated ruthlessly.

She smiled gratefully when Fo and Luke neatly sat on either side of her as they took seats in the darkened theater to keep Chase from hassling her. It was great to be able to watch over so smoothly. Fo had always looked out for her, but now Luke helped and it was like being her own personal Guardian Angels. As they sat and shared popcorn and milk duds back and forth, the only thing he wished for was that cowhide couch back home that let her lean comfortably against his shoulder.

****

When they got out of the movie, there were several messages waiting for her from both of her parents and Elroy. The last one was from her mom demanding Charlie call tonight no matter how late it was and she didn’t sound very happy. Charlie sighed knowing that tomorrow she was in for one of the discussions she had come to dread. She wondered if the confrontation Luke had asked about was finally going to happen, but she turned off her phone for the night anyway. She owed that to the Langstons. This wasn’t their problem; the least she could do was spare them the dramatics tonight.

She was still feeling that way the next morning at breakfast when she took the inevitable call from her mother. Charlie let her vent for a moment or two and then calmly said, “Mother, I appreciate your feelings, but I’m in the middle of a family meal just now. So we’ll have to finish this later. Please forgive me, but I have to go.”

Norma Evans wasn’t amused. Her voice could be heard by everyone at the table as she replied, “Charlene Marie Evans, I will not be treated like this! You and I have some things to discuss and we will do it right now!”

Again Charlie calmly said, “No, mother. We won’t. I have to go. Love you.” With that, she pressed the end button and then completely powered the phone down. Turning to the others, she apologized and tried to feign that all was well. “Sorry about that. So what are you doing today, Evie and Elsa?”

Luke was looking at her with that deep, quiet way he had as the little girls began to enthusiastically tell her their plans for going to the ocean. Inwardly she sighed. It would have been great to go with them today, but she knew she had about twenty minutes before her very irate mother would appear to demand her discussion. She had to protect this good family from the inevitable theatrics that resulted when her power monger mother felt thwarted and Charlie hurried to finish her breakfast and then excused herself. On the way out of the room, she asked Richard if he could manage without her for the time being and then went to wait at the curb for her mother. At least if she was inside a vehicle to vent her wrath, everyone else wouldn’t have to be subjected to her as well.

Charlie was surprised when Luke pulled up beside her in one of the rental cars. He rolled down the window and looked at her for a minute with concern and then asked quietly, “How can I help you, Charlie? Do you have to face her? Will it do any good? Or can we keep dodging her until we get on the plane tonight? Will she be mad enough to follow you back to Montana?”

Charlie tried to smile, but it wasn’t working very well as she replied, “I don’t know how you can help me, Luke. It won’t do any good to face her, but I don’t know what else to do. I’ll go to law school to avoid dealing with them, but there’s no way I’m marrying someone to please them. I can’t do it and I won’t.”

“Then get in.”

She hesitated and he went on, “If facing her won’t help anything then don’t. If she catches up to us before we leave tonight, I’ll take her on with you. Get in.”

For another second or two, she wondered if this was wise and then she opened the door and slid into the seat beside him and he smoothly pulled away just seconds before she glimpsed her mother coming the other direction in her Lexus. She thought to herself,
blessed be the peace makers.

They rode in silence for a few minutes and then Luke volunteered, “Fo said she was tough. He wasn’t kidding.”

Charlie felt she needed to defend her. “She’s not as bad as she sounds. She doesn’t very often decide something that I go absolutely against. And when I’m clear across the country it’s much less confrontational.” He gave her a sad smile and she went on lamely, “Her hardness has helped her become very successful professionally.”

He pulled onto the freeway. “I’m sure it has.” After another short pause he said, “You’ve done a great job at turning out more gentle and undemanding. That can’t have been easy.”

After thinking about that she admitted, “Thank you. I didn’t want to turn out like her. You’re right. It hasn’t been easy. I would have died without Fo. He has always understood and helped me. And my mother adores him, so that comes in very handy. I think she thought we would get married after our missions and she’s been very disappointed. I suppose that’s the reason for Elroy.”

“Why Elroy? What is it about him that they like?”

“I honestly don’t know unless it’s that he has that respectable occupation they crave, but he’s still manipulatable. That’s the only thing I can figure. The whole idea of marrying a divorce attorney is bizarre to me. Even if I was madly in love with him I wouldn’t go there. As it is though, he just gets on my nerves. I’m sure he’s a nice guy and that I only have a bad attitude because they’re pushing him.”

“He doesn’t have to go along with their scheming. Even if he wasn’t a divorce lawyer, you couldn’t marry someone that has no backbone.”

“Maybe he has a backbone. Maybe he truly is attracted to me. Who knows? He doesn’t even know me, but I guess there’s a chance.”

Luke sounded skeptical when he said, “There’s a lot to like about you, Charlie, but are you sure he doesn’t think you’ll come with a chunk of Momma and Papa’s cash and cash equivalents?”

She shook her head and smiled at his bluntness. “That was harsh, Luke. I’m not that undesirable. Am I?”

“Of course not, Charlie, but don’t sucker into this even a bit. This is not how eternal marriages are forged.”

“I know that.”

“Good. Don’t forget it when the tough old bird gets militant and the chips are down.”

He was so earnest he made her laugh. “You sound just like Fo when he gets wound up. I can finally see some resemblance.”

“Well, are we right?”

“Yes, you’re right. I don’t question whether you’re right. I just have the hardest time with that whole families are forever concept. It’s hard for me to figure out how to follow the prophet about families, and then follow the prophet about everything else when my family has a slightly different take on so many things like women’s roles, and succeeding in the home and worldliness, and seeking first the kingdom. When I say it out loud like this it’s easier, but when I’m actively trying to avoid my family I feel so guilty. It feels as if I’m going backwards or something.”

His voice softened. “I can see what you’re saying, Charlie, but you aren’t responsible for the choices they’ve made. Remember that pro-active stuff? You need to do what you think is right, regardless of what they do or don’t do. And you need to remember you aren’t a little girl anymore. You’re a grown woman who is wise and strong and good and soon you’ll be the matriarch of your own family and leading them is much more important than obeying your mother when she’s a few degrees off course. I don’t mean to be disrespectful of your mother, but from the little I’ve seen, you are by far the wiser woman and better disciple. Trust yourself here. You’re so confident when you’re helping others. Trust that same whatever it is that has helped my family so much for yourself.”

He paused for a few minutes and then said gently, “It’s your gift. It’s precious and valuable. Don’t hesitate to bless your own life with it, Charlie.”

The incredible strain this whole mess brought her and his gentle tone, coupled with the respect he was voicing was more than she knew how to process and she was embarrassed when she started to cry, but there wasn’t a thing she could do about it. She pulled a tissue out of the little box on the floor of the console of the rental car and tried to turn her face to the window so he wouldn’t see her emotion.

They drove in silence for a moment and then he pulled the car onto a turnout and stopped and killed the engine. He put a gentle hand on her arm. “Don’t turn away from me and cry, Charlie. It’s okay. None of this is your fault. I knew you were having a hard time of it, that’s why I came for you in the first place. Come here.”

She turned to him and he pulled her into a hug and stroked her back as she cried. He put a gentle hand onto her head and said, “You know what helps me, Charlie, when things feel overwhelming and I wonder why God gave me the set of issues that He did? Sometimes if I count my blessings and then remember that even though my deal doesn’t seem very fair, it’s better than what some others have, then I’m actually grateful for my portion. You know, your mom may be tough, but at least you have her. My mother passed away, which is heart breaking, but Tuckett’s took off without a forwarding address. Can you imagine? At least your mother cares enough about you to get militant. Tuckett struggles with feeling completely unlovable.”