And the Greatest of These Is Love: A Contemporary Christian Romance Novel (19 page)

“So, what do you think?” Andrew asked to anyone who cared to answer.

“Well, Andrew, I for one am impressed,” Mr. Harwood said. “These children seem very well behaved, and it’s clear to me at least that this center deserves a chance to stay open.”

Andrew’s heart soared, and he had to physically stifle the grin.

“I really need to be going now, but call me tomorrow. I’d like to meet with anyone else who is interested in helping so we can work out the details,” Mr. Harwood said, standing. He shook each hand in turn.

“I’ll call you first thing,” Andrew said, standing Antonio off his knee and shaking Mr. Harwood’s hand.

“That goes for me, too.” Mr. Marris stood as well. “Give me a call. I’d be happy to help.”

“Let me know.” Mr. Jacobs followed the others up. “I can’t tell you how impressed I am, Andrew. I really appreciate you thinking about my company.”

“Well, I certainly appreciate you all taking the time to come and experience the place,” Andrew said with a smile. “I’ll call you, but please, don’t be strangers. Feel free to drop in and see us anytime.”

The three men started to leave, but just then Mr. Harwood stopped and turned slowly.

“Oh, and good-bye, Mr. Antonio Walls, it was very nice to meet you.” Mr. Harwood extended his hand to the child.

Antonio smiled the brightest smile Andrew had ever seen on his face and reached out and shook the man’s hand. Each of the others shook his hand as well, and Antonio looked like he was about to burst with pride.

“Well, Bryan,” Kevin said, looking at his partner after the others had gone. “I have to say I’ve changed my mind about the project. I think this is exactly the kind of thing Turner and Clark should be involved in. Why don’t you take it from here? You can let me in on the particulars as soon as you get it set up.”

Kevin shook his partner’s hand, then Andrew’s hand, and finally Antonio’s hand. Then he smiled and made his way out of the gym.

Andrew waited for Bryan to sit down, and then he lifted Antonio back onto his lap.

“Well, I have to say I’m impressed, little brother,” Bryan said as he stared out across the crowded gym. “I thought you were crazy the other night when we talked about this, but I have to hand it to you. This place is everything you said it was. And Gabi... she’s pretty incredible.”

Andrew smiled in spite of the tiny piece of foreboding in his heart. Where was all this leading anyway?

“She’s the one Greg can’t stop talking about, right?”

“Yeah,” Andrew said, not daring to look at his brother.

“So are you two an item?”

Andrew searched his mind and heart trying to find an answer to that question. “It’s complicated.”

Bryan swung his gaze over to his brother. “You like her, right?”

“Well, yeah.”

“So, what’s complicated?” Bryan leaned back on the stands, looking at his brother in challenge.

“I told you we’d find them here,” Gabi said, walking up right in front of them before either of them saw her.

“Oh. Hey.” Andrew uncertainly lifted Antonio to the ground and stood to greet her.

“Mrs. Hopkins is here to take Antonio home,” Gabi said, smiling at him.

Just then he felt the little fingers curling and clutching at his pant leg.

“Hey, Antonio, Mrs. Hopkins is here to take you home.” Andrew sat next to the boy as both Gabi and Bryan watched.

Antonio shook his head slowly and clutched harder at Andrew’s pant leg in fear.

“Aw. Come on, Buddy, it’s all right. I’ll see you again tomorrow.” Andrew tried to pry the little fingers from his trousers, but Antonio had a fierce grip. “I promise. You can come back tomorrow. I’ll be here.”

“No go,” Antonio said, and they all stopped dead. Andrew looked at Gabi, who looked back at him in astonishment.

What was the protocol for this situation? Andrew had no idea. He leaned down, putting his hand on the boy’s back. “Antonio, listen to me. I will be here first thing in the morning when you get here, and we’ll color some more. Okay?”

“No go,” Antonio repeated, shaking his head, and the fear and desperation in his eyes were evident.

Andrew let out a breath. “How about if I walk you out to the car?” He did not want to make a scene in the gym. When Andrew stood, he reached down for Antonio who immediately wrapped his tiny body around Andrew’s, and Andrew carried him out of the gym with the other adults in tow.

They walked out to the car, and Andrew sat the child in the back car seat gently. When Antonio finally let go, Andrew looked at him, and his heart melted. The tears in the little boy’s eyes shimmered on his lashes, and he looked utterly helpless.

“It’s gonna be all right, Buddy.” Andrew reached out and hugged the boy to him once more. “I’ll be here when you get back tomorrow.”

Slowly he released the child and stepped away from the car. After a momentary check of the car seat latch, he shut the door and stood frozen to the spot watching as Mrs. Hopkins drove away. Gabi was right, it wasn’t hard to love the kids — the hard part was letting them go.

“Are you okay?” Gabi asked at his elbow.

Andrew glanced down at her and nodded because he was supposed to. This was silly, he told himself. Here he was a grown man, with every material thing he’d ever wanted in his life, yet the only thing he really wanted, really needed, he’d denied himself by burying his head in work. Somehow he’d missed out on the most important thing — the only thing that made everything else worthwhile. Somehow he’d missed out on finding — on feeling — love.

“I think it went well.” Gabi worked, straightening her desk and classroom as Andrew sat on the stool watching the fish swim back and forth across the tank. He’d said only a few words since Antonio had driven off, and she was getting worried about him. “What did Bryan think?”

Silence.

“Andrew?”

He looked over at her, and the sadness in his eyes stopped her mad intent to look busy.

Leaving that, she went around the desk and leaned there. “Talk to me.”

“I don’t know where to start,” he replied as his gaze went back at the fish and stuck there.

“Okay. Well. Start somewhere,” she said simply. “Come on, Andrew, this is Gabi you’re talking to. What’s going on with you?”

“Does it ever get any easier?” he asked, never taking his eyes off the fish, and in that breath, she knew. She shook her head slowly.

“No. I wish I could tell you that it does, but I can’t,” she said slowly. “But you’ve got to believe that just because it’s not easy, that’s no reason to give up, Andrew.”

“But how do you do it? I mean letting them go over and over again?”

“Well, I’ve learned I have to trust that what I give them while they’re here will help them face whatever they come up against out there.”

“But what if it doesn’t? What if it isn’t enough?”

She exhaled slowly. She’d had this very conversation with herself a million times over the years, and the answer still eluded her.

“Andrew, let me tell you a little story.” She put her hand gently on his thigh to get his attention, which worked. When his gaze came to hers, she leaned back against the desk again. “I knew a little girl once who was about as lost as Antonio is right now. She thought everyone was against her. She hated home, and the only place she really felt safe was a place very much like this one. So, every day she came — just to hang out. You know? Because it was better than home.

“Then one day it was time for her to leave, but she didn’t give up. The things she’d learned in that place — about caring for people and giving everyone a chance — never left. In fact, she carries them with her even today.”

Andrew looked at her, puzzled.

“It’s worth it, Andrew. It may not seem like it at the time, but every time you love a child, it erases some of the bad stuff. It makes a difference.”

“But there’s so much bad stuff,” he said sadly.

“Every child that walks in here has a story — some terrible, painful experience they’ve been through, and most of them we’ll never know about. But we can’t take the painful stuff away from them. That makes them who they are. All we can do is love them while they’re here, and trust that that’s enough.”

“Is Antonio going to be all right?” Andrew asked, sounding very distant, and the way he said it ripped her heart out.

“Well, if you’d asked me that a week ago, I’d have probably said he’s young, and he may still have a chance, but…”

Andrew looked at the floor and braced himself against his worst fears. Antonio’s case was hopeless. There was nothing any of them could do to change that — to make it better. He was four years old and lost for good.

“But then I saw him with you,” she continued smiling at him gently with real admiration. “That little boy senses something in you, Andrew. A strength, a goodness. Safety even. It may be the first time he’s ever felt that in his life, but when he’s with you, it’s obvious how much he loves you.”

Andrew’s gaze yanked to hers. “Loves?”

“Yes,” she said with a smile. “Antonio loves you, Andrew. He trusts you — more than he trusts anyone else.”

“So, he’s not hopeless then?”

“No, he’s not hopeless. I saw him make two gigantic breakthroughs today all because of you. You give him a sense of security that makes him able to spread his wings and venture out of his shell — if only for a moment.”

“Like you do with Irvin,” he said lost in thought.

“What do you mean?”

“He was so good with the guys today. He even wanted to be introduced to Antonio who thought that was like meeting the king.”

Gabi nodded. “Irvin’s come a long way.”

“Thanks to you.”

“Thanks to all of us,” she said. “They know. They can see what you do for all of them every day you’re here. They all have it, Andrew — the dream, the desire — they just need the means to fulfill it, and that’s what you’re giving them. Or trying to, anyway. I think what you did for them today took a lot of guts — and a whole lot of love.”

Andrew shrugged. “I didn’t do anything special.”

“Yes, you did. You gave the kids a piece of your world. The world outside of Collins. Just giving Irvin a glimpse of it helped him see the possibilities. Come on, Andrew, I’ve been here six years, and I haven’t done for them in all that time what you’ve done for them in a week.”

“I can’t take all the credit.”

“Why not? You deserve it.”

“No. I had help,” Andrew said slowly looking over into her puzzled eyes. “I had you.”

The smile on her face at that moment radiated through his soul, and all the distance between them disappeared. Without willing it to happen, he leaned toward her, and his lips met hers and held for a briefest of moments. Warm. Soft. Right. When he slipped backward, he held her with his gaze. “You’re my inspiration, Gabriella Treyvillion. You have been ever since I first saw you in the park — sitting by the tree drawing your marvelous sketches.”

“The tree?” she asked instantly puzzled.

“Yeah. When I saw you there that first day, I knew I had to meet you. But you got away before I had the chance. Then I got roped into this story, and here you were,” he said, brushing the hair from her cheek. “I must’ve been the luckiest guy in the whole world.”

Gabi smiled at him. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“When I’m with you, Gabi, being me is easier,” he said softly. “I feel like I can do anything. I feel like I can be the real me — not the reporter out to get the hot story — but the man I’m supposed to be.”

She looked at him and shook her head.

“What?” he asked.

“I thought you were such a jerk that first day,” she said, feeling the touch of his hand on her cheek as it melted all the hard places in her heart and spirit.

“Gee, thanks.”

“No. It’s hard to explain, but you seemed like you wanted no part of the center or the kids. I figured you’d get your story and be gone.”

“You were right,” he admitted, dropping his hand and remembering his reluctance at taking the assignment. Then he stopped and looked right at her. “Except for one thing. I wasn’t planning on meeting the woman of my dreams.”

Gabi shook her head and looked away. It had been a very, very long time since anyone had said things like that to her, and something inside her forced her to stand from the desk and walk back around it.

“What?” he asked immediately. “What’d I say?”

“Nothing.” She straightened the papers there to look busy. “It’s just been a really long day, and I’ve got to be up early again tomorrow.”

“Are you sure, Gabi?” he asked standing and coming over, concerned. “Look, we’ve come this far. The last thing I want to do is ruin it now.”

“You haven’t ruined anything, Andrew.” Looking up at him, she smiled gently. “I just need some time to get used to this. That’s all.”

With that and gathering her things up, she walked to the door and turned off the lights, and he followed her out.

“So, I’ll see you in the morning?” he asked, wondering suddenly how he’d make it through the next few hours without her.