Unexpected Wedding (29 page)

It was astounding how easy information was to come by. He’d left the university where the crime occurred and returned to his apartment in Waco, hours away. Arrogant criminals apparently didn’t worry about broadcasting personal information on social media. That, combined with the detective’s inadvertent disclosure, led Gia right to his home. His car served as her trap. She’d simply waited for him to appear. And appear he did. Ratty t-shirt, sloppy sandals, and a ragged pair of cargo shorts.

He wasn’t expecting company. She didn’t plan to stay for tea.

She left her car and approached his, not even bothering to close her door. She stopped at the low brick wall that separated the sidewalk from the parking lot. Close enough. She didn’t say a word.

“Gia.” His hand dropped from the car door handle to his side. First, shock on his face and then a tentative, smirkish grin. “What are you doing here? How did you…You haven’t answered—”

“I know what you did.” Her voice stayed steady and flat as tangled pain and seething anger released its grip. “The police know what you did. The mail you sent to camp will be examined and possibly used as evidence if it should happen to someone else. Don’t ever try to contact me again.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She set the brown paper bag on the wall. “This is for you. Pick it up after I leave. Use it. It’s your only hope.”

Gia returned to her car and drove away.

She’d never been more free.

****

Rocky called Max.

Max called Candi and Shade. Now they were all in his kitchen eating pizza.

“When was the last time you saw her?”

Rocky flicked his paper plate away. He wasn’t interested in food. “When I left for work yesterday morning.”

“But you have talked to her, right?”

“She came home during the day and left before I got home. We’ve been texting, but we’re not talking.”

Candi traced the crack in the table. “Has this always been here?”

“No.”

Shade snacked on a piece of crust Candi had discarded. “Did she say where she was going?”

“She said she had to see her dad, but she hasn’t been there yet.”

“She said she was coming back, right?”

“Yes.”

Max poured more soda into his plastic cup. “She’ll be back, then. She has to come back.”

“Sure she will,” Candi said. “She’s had a traumatic few days and probably needed to connect with her family, but she loves you. She’ll be back.”

Rocky tried to keep his terror to himself. There was so much his friends didn’t know. Candi said Gia loved him. How did she know that? Had Gia said something to her? ‘Cause she’d never said it to him. He’d never said it to Gia either—he assumed she knew how he felt, and that could very well be the most inaccurate thing he’d ever assumed. Now it seemed like such an easy thing to have said.

“We had a big fight. I lost it. I knew she was hurting, and I lost it.”

“You’re both hurting,” Candi reminded him. “You’ve suffered a loss, too. Don’t forget that.”

Rocky tapped out a heavy beat on the ruined tabletop. “Have you heard from her? I know you two have been talking.

“I have.” Candi pulled a fresh napkin from the stack. “She texted about our tentative plan to get together next week. There was nothing off about her text. I’m sure between the pain she’s in and the fight you had she’s gone a little nuts. Sad to admit, but women are emotional creatures. It happens.”

“It does,” Shade was too quick to agree. “Candi’s gone nuts before.” He waved his hands in the air, crossed his eyes, and made a disturbing face. “I stay away and not come back until I have a tub of ice cream with me.”

Candi glared at him. “You’re not helping yourself or Rocky.”

“All I’m saying is this is normal. We all go a little nuts. It’s how you know you love each other. Otherwise, what would be the point?”

Rocky looked away, unable to meet their concerned gazes as he admitted to his primal behavior. “I got so mad I nearly put my fist through this table.”

Shade ran his fingers across the damage. “Not bad. I got so mad at Candi one time I punched my truck. I know it’s not something you’re proud of but I’m willing to bet it won’t happen again. You’re learning to navigate the treacherous waters of relationship fights.”

“Do go on,” Candi said.

“Can’t. That’s all I got.”

“What is this,
Dr. Phil
?” Max asked. “Stop with all the relationship talk. Let’s pray about it and watch a movie or something. She’ll be back. You’ll work it out.”

“I can’t watch a movie. I have to try and sleep sometime tonight.”

Max leaned in and closed his eyes. “Let’s get serious and pray about this, then.”

They prayed. It wasn’t fancy. Shade was short and to the point—Lord, please bring Rocky’s woman back. Max tied the whole thing up in a neat little package with an amen bow, and Rocky couldn’t concentrate on any of it.

“Text us when she gets home,” Candi said at the door.

“Yeah, dude,” Max added. “And get some sleep.”

Fat chance.

He checked his phone and parked himself at the door to her bedroom. It was cleaner than it’d ever been, right down to the scent of fabric softener wafting from the freshly laundered sheets and towels. He stared at the boxes by the door.

“I don’t know, Lord. If she’s coming home, why does it look like she’s moving out?”

****

Gia waited outside her father’s office at the church. The cleaning crew buffed a floor in the foyer as the echo of voices from various meetings up and down the busy church hallway floated to her ears. It was best she talk to him there. If she’d gone to the house, her mother would hear. That would not do, especially since they’d rekindled a kind and supportive relationship. She’d learned a lot about her mother the last few weeks. Much of it surprised her.

Her father rushed around the corner with keys in hand and in full panic mode. “Gia, what’s wrong?”

“I’m fine,” she said, swept away in his giant hug.

“Why didn’t you come to the house?” He unlocked the door, flipped on the lights, and pulled out his phone. “Rocky’s beside himself. I need to tell him you got here.”

“I already did.”

The office was the same except for a new leather couch and two stately wingback chairs. A bittersweet flash of memory sideswiped her. As a child she remembered curling up in the corner with a book and a blanket, then the harsh slap in the face as a teen when her father let her down.

“How are you feeling, pumpkin?”

“I’m fine. A little tired, but all right.”

“I’m sorry again for your loss. I know I didn’t start out as the biggest supporter of your marriage, but I did know how excited you and Rocky were about the baby. My prayer is that you’ll be able to make it happen in the future.”

She dropped into one of the new squeaky chairs. “I intend to make it happen. One way or another I intend to have as many children as possible with my husband. The man is natural father material.”

He dropped his phone on his desk and slipped into own seat. “What do you want to talk about, Gia? I know there have been too many things left unsaid between us. I hope this visit is the beginning of a new era for us.”

She nodded and almost felt sorry for him. He looked small and vulnerable, not like the ugly tyrant of her past life. Had he changed or had she?

“Your mother is excited about your party here in a couple weeks.”

“We are, too.”

“She is heartbroken for you about the baby. She had every intention of retiring from ministry and being a plain old civilian grandma.”

Gia smiled. “I got that impression. Tell her to keep her resignation letter handy. I’m going to need her help.”

“I’ll do that.” He drummed his fingers on the desk. “Why are you really here, Gia? Your husband is worried sick.”

She stood and wandered around the matching chairs, running her hands along the smooth surface as she moved.

“My husband doesn’t know how much I love him. I stink at this relationship thing. I made him so mad he cracked a kitchen table almost in half with his bare hands. Make that one hand. I’m crazy about him, but I have trouble expressing that because I’m afraid he’ll reject me, which is ridiculous because he’s shown me over and over and over how much he cares about me.”

“It’s clear he loves you very much.”

“I made a lot of irresponsible mistakes as I was growing up. Horrible choices. I don’t know why God let me live through some of them but He did.”

“Your mother and I spent most of your life on our knees on your behalf. I believe your life today is an answer to prayer and because you have a greater purpose. Nothing has been wasted on you, Gia. You’ll use every lesson you’ve learned as you find your ministry.”

“Probably.” She returned to the chair. “I did a lot of sinful things and was in the process of completely disintegrating until I woke up one day at school and said enough is enough. I thought things would get better. Instead they got worse because now I was aware of all I’d done and was overwhelmed with shame. And bad things kept happening to me. Then something good would happen—like Rocky—and I thought I was in the clear. Then something bad again—like the loss of the baby—and I began to think I was never going to be truly happy because I had to pay for my sin. I thought God was punishing me.”

The loud squeak of her father’s chair startled her as he practically leapt from behind his desk and hurried to her side. He dropped into the matching seat. “You know that’s not how it works, Gia. Sure, there are natural consequences to choices we make, but God does not wait around the corner to thump you on the nose when you’ve messed up.”

She shrugged. “Maybe not, but when that thought hit me I went right back to bad, impulsive habits, and contemplated ways I could run away from the pain. I started sabotaging my relationship with Rocky because I thought I didn’t deserve to be happy. But the truth is I love him more than anything, so I couldn’t afford to let that happen. I had to find a way to face things and forgive myself and others.”

“And that’s why you’re here.”

“That’s why I’m here. On top of my impulsive nature and horrid self-esteem issues, I’ve also held on to some anger against you. I’ve decided it’s not worth it. Even the Bible says to clear the air once in a while so I need to do that. I blamed you for a lot of things that went wrong in my life. I was angry because I believed you put this church before me and because I believed you put distance between me and my mother when you made her choose you and the church over me. I don’t care anymore if there’s any truth to that, but there was a day I feel you really let me down and it’s time for me to let go of that grudge. There was a day I stood here in this very office and told you I was being violated by someone I was supposed to be able to trust. You didn’t believe me. In fact, you made me go back there.”

“That is the one big regret of my life, Gia.”

“Yet you never bothered to share that with me.”

“There’s no defense. You were a child. I should have protected you. I should have investigated further. I have no excuse except I told myself if your mother found out, I would surely lose her and you. We were having a rough time then. I didn’t react like I should have because your mother was one heartbreak away from taking you and leaving forever.”

This was a surprise. They’d had tough spots, but her mother leave her father and the church? That was going to be one interesting conversation next time she talked to her mom.

“I didn’t know that.”

“Not many people do, but it’s currently not the point. I failed you, and your mother never knew.”

“Oh, I figured that part out a while ago. I never understood how you could both let me down so horribly. The man was a criminal. I couldn’t imagine how a fierce mama bear mother wouldn’t have ripped that guy to shreds with her teeth for what he was doing—let alone what he could be doing to other girls. Then I realized she didn’t know.”

“Again, I have no excuse. I’m sorry. What can I do? What can I say?”

There was nothing.

He could say he was sorry all day, and it didn’t change anything. She could say history repeats itself in the most appalling ways with the most despicable predators, but what would it serve to make him suffer further?

“You don’t have to say anything, Daddy. I’ve wasted too much time on it already. I choose to forgive you for that. I choose to move on.”

She stood to leave.

“Wait.” He stood, too, and scratched the back of his head. He clearly hadn’t expected the emotional hit-and-run and must have expected something more. “We can talk further about this,” he said. “Aren’t you coming to the house? It’s late. You need to rest. Your mother wants to see you.”

“I’m fine. As far as I’m concerned, this takes care of it. If you have something to take up with me, we’ll be back in a couple weeks and I’ll be ready to talk. Right now I’m going home to my husband.”

“Gia, stop.”

She paused with her hand on the door.

“You’re a beautiful woman, Gia. I love you, and I’m proud of you.”

“Thank you. I love you, too.”

She’d been wrong earlier.
Now
she’d never been more free.

19

Gia got home in the middle of the night.

Rocky was asleep on the couch with the TV blaring and all the lights on. He woke up when she took the remote.

“Don’t get up,” she said and clicked off the television. She tugged at the corner of the blanket. “Scooch over.”

“No.”

“No?”

“Not until you promise to never do that again. I mean it, Gia. Don’t ever run off like that again.”

Overwhelming love pulsed through her veins. He didn’t deserve to worry or doubt her. Not for one more second. “I promise. I’m sorry I worried you.”

“Me, worried? No...I was only a basket case. The whole band is up in arms praying for your safe return. Your doctor’s office called today to confirm your follow-up appointment on Friday, and I’m like I don’t know anything because she up and left me.”

“I’m sorry,” she said again. “And I didn’t leave you. I had some things to take care of, and I promise I’ll never do it that way again. Please move over.”