Caught in the Current (Pacific Shores Book 2) (11 page)

Marie stood on jellylike legs. She was glad she hadn’t given in to the temptation to eat one of the cinnamon rolls this morning as she pulled them out of the oven, or someone on the front row would likely soon be wearing it.

Breathe. Just breathe.

Thankfully Reece had been called away by his rather perturbed mother just after the main service had come to an end, and Marie had cut and run for this room without him following. She’d be even more of a nervous wreck if he were in the room, because he, of all people, knew intimately some of the journey she planned to share.

She stopped behind the much-too-skinny podium, smoothed out her notes, then white-knuckled the edges. She forced a smile and eye contact. “Good morning, everyone. First, I’ll ask you to say a quick prayer for me—and for yourselves, because I don’t want anyone to leave wearing my breakfast.”

A chuckle rippled through the room even as Marie felt her face heat. Why had she said that? It certainly hadn’t been in her notes.

She glanced down at the paper. Focus. “Seriously, when Brad asked if I’d be willing to do a Sweet Inspirations slot, I totally didn’t want to do it, but I told him I’d think about it. All that week, so many little things happened that reminded me of how far God has brought me, and I really felt this strong sense God wanted me to do this.” Her gaze landed on Dakota. A friendly face! Thank You, Jesus. “So the next time Brad asked, I said yes…reluctantly, very reluctantly…but Brad got his yes, nonetheless.”

Another chuckle. Maybe she wasn’t going to bomb this as badly as she’d feared.

“For my treat this morning, I made cinnamon rolls.”

“And they’re great too!” Graham Sanders called from the back of the room with a full mouth.

Marie smiled as a rumble of humor spread through the room. “Thanks, Graham. Anyhow, I wanted to relate those to the woman at the well we read about in John chapter four. Cinnamon rolls wouldn’t be much without the filling. If there was no butter or cinnamon and sugar wrapped up inside all the dough, they wouldn’t be much to speak of. But just adding those few ingredients sort of brings them to life, you know?”

Several nodded. At the back of the room, a few people were still dishing rolls onto paper plates and grabbing coffee from the dispenser. This was casual. She could do this. She took a breath.

“Before I met Jesus, I was a lot like the woman at the well. I’d had a lot going on in my life. Had searched for true, real, lasting love for a long time.” She swallowed. “My mother chose to leave my father and me when I was ten years old for another man. I haven’t ever seen her since she walked out the door. She ruffled my hair, said she was going to the store for a few minutes, and never came back. My father found out from one of her friends that she’d moved across the country with a man she’d been seeing for quite some time.” Marie paused to regain her composure. “My father turned to drinking. He was in and out of jail, and I often stayed with my aunt, who resented having to take care of me. She had her own two problem children.”

She met Dakota’s eyes and saw so much pain there it was like a punch in the gut. She needed to lighten this up.

“Anyhow, the long story short, my dad was arrested when I was just sixteen for breaking and entering with intent to harm. He got seven years. I was on my own. My aunt said she wouldn’t take me, that I was old enough to take care of myself.”

Several tsks reached her ears.

Marie pressed her lips together. She was about to get to the hardest part. But this was important. God, use my patheticness to reach someone. To keep them from traveling so far down the path I traveled. “I was all alone and I felt so…needy. I had this hollow ache inside I knew I needed to fill or die trying. But I had no idea where to look.”

At the back of the room, one of the blonde Blackburn twins rolled her eyes and fiddled with one of the three diamond lip rings in her upper lip. Her expression said she was having a hard time believing Marie’s story. Either that or Marie shouldn’t have let it control her life.

Marie pressed on despite the knot which formed in her stomach. “So I looked pretty much everywhere. I looked in drugs. But thankfully I didn’t like the feeling of waking up and not being able to remember where I’d been or anything that had happened the night before. Maybe it was God’s way of sparing me from that road.” She shrugged. “I looked in alcohol. But again, my father had always been such a drinker booze never appealed to me much. About that time our landlord figured out Dad was gone, and he kicked me out of the house we’d been renting. That was when I turned to…men.”

She felt warmth crawling up her neck. Why had she thought this was a good idea? Didn’t a lot of people in the church already look down on her enough because she’d had a daughter out of wedlock?

Dakota offered a little nod of encouragement and Marie could have run over and hugged her.

“At first it was just to get a little money or have a bed to sleep in for the night. And then, it just sort of became the thing I did. I knew it wasn’t right. And I knew it wasn’t filling me up. But I didn’t know where else to turn.”

She flipped her notes over. “About that time I was walking through town when I happened to see Mom’s Gym was hiring a receptionist.” She laughed. “Many of you know Taysia Sumner owns that place, and I have to tell you, I have no explanation for why she hired me other than she told me years later she saw a lost soul and knew giving me a job was a way to help.”

Great, now she was going to cry. “The woman at the well had had five husbands. I was like her in a way, only worse. I’d tried everything. Every guy who would have me. I was still hollow. No butter. No sugar. No cinnamon. But slowly over that first year I worked for Taysia, I saw something in her…something I knew I was craving, but just didn’t quite know how to get my hands on. She started bringing me to church and got me a Bible, which I barely read.”

More chuckles relieved a bit more of her tension. She was almost through.

“I was still doing my thing, but oh man, how I wanted the inner peace, joy, and kindness I saw in her. The Bible says people will know us by our love, and let me tell you, Taysia did a LOT of loving on me. She helped me get into a place and probably gave me more chances when I goofed up at work than a Dalmatian has spots. It wasn’t until after I got pregnant with my daughter, Alyssa, that I finally was hit one day by what a rotten sinner I was. It took that long for my eyes to be opened. I know Taysia did a lot of praying for me. And the Holy Spirit was working on me.

“Jesus told the woman, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’

“I have to tell you, I’d never experienced such joy, such peace, such fulfillment, as I felt in the weeks after finally surrendering my life to God. We aren’t made to thirst after the empty junk in this world. All of it will leave you craving for more. And all of it is the devil’s counterfeit to what God wants to give us. True satisfaction. True ecstasy. True love. The water in Taysia’s life welled up and splashed over onto me, bringing me eternal life. And I hope to be the type of person who will splash a little love and joy and peace and Truth onto those I encounter. So while the filling in the cinnamon rolls isn’t quite the same, I’d like you to remember the next time you eat one that the butter and sugar and cinnamon are a little bit like God’s love in our lives. We wouldn’t be much without it. And if we pass it around, we can make everyone we encounter a little bit sweeter. Thank you.”

She’d made it. She grabbed her notes and hurried to her chair. God, use my words for Your glory.

Standing in the hallway near enough to the open doorway to hear Marie’s words, Reece breathed deep, thankful she’d made it through. He stepped forward and peered up toward the seat Marie had just taken. He’d kept out of sight as he listened, and prayed for her as she talked, but now his heart was beating about two hundred times faster than normal. His mouth was dry. And his palms were sweaty. Because he knew he’d just been listening to the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. Dan Jackson could just find himself another woman.

Marie waited for Reece by his truck after service, determined to weasel out of the lunch invitation. She recalled the way Darlene had glowered at her after the service, and shivered. Sitting through that meal would be torture.

She’d planned to use Dan as an excuse, but he apparently hadn’t shown up to church today. At least, if he had, she hadn’t seen him. Not even at the quick pickup game in the gym. But her salvation had come in the form of Mr. Novak. He’d ambled up to her in the foyer and mentioned he’d seen her car parked at the Thrift and Save and asked if everything was alright. When she’d told him it died like the traitor it was, he’d offered to take a look at it for her. For free. Miracles never ceased. She’d hugged him and promised she’d meet him at her car at one o’clock this afternoon. And she’d been practicing her lines for Reece ever since.

The church’s double doors opened, spilling Reece and Dakota from the entryway. Reece said something, and Dakota laughed and smacked him on the shoulder with the back of her hand.

Marie swallowed and glanced down to where Alyssa had busied herself drawing a picture on the pavement with a white chalky rock. Today she had sketched Reece’s truck. Marie recognized it by the big roll bar on the top even if the wheels were slightly misshapen.

“Hey there, Superwoman!” Reece lifted a hand of farewell to Dakota as he squatted down to study Alyssa’s drawing.

“Mr. Reece!” Alyssa leapt up and flung her arms around his neck.

“Whoa!” Reece caught his balance and checked out her drawing over her shoulder. “Wow, kid.” He set her back and ruffled her hair. “You are going to be an artist someday.”

“I like to draw!”

Reece smiled and bopped her on the nose with one finger. “And you’re good at it, too. Ready for lunch?”

“Yes!” Alyssa thrust chubby arms above her head and danced like a native around a ceremonial fire, her chalk rock still clutched firmly in one hand.

Marie took a breath. “Actually…”

Reece darted her a look.

She offered a squint of apology. “We’re going to have to take a rain check. Mr. Novak said he could help me with my car this afternoon, and since he’s offered to do it for free, I really couldn’t turn him down.” Of course she didn’t mention that he’d said he’d be free all week and could meet her anytime.

But there was a knowing expression on Reece’s face as he regained his feet and Alyssa returned to her art project. He took a step nearer. “Mr. Novak, who retired last year and spends most of his week fishing off the pier? That Mr. Novak? And he could only meet you this afternoon, huh?”

Marie dropped her gaze to her fingernails and hoped she didn’t look too guilty. But she wouldn’t lie. That was another old habit she’d vowed never to return to after she gave her life to the Lord. She would just avoid the question. She swallowed and peered back up at him through her bangs. “Do you think you could give me a ride to Thrift and Save? I’m to meet him there at one.”

A grin dimpling his cheeks, Reece advanced on her with such swiftness she retreated until her back was pressed to the passenger door of the blue dodge.

Her attempts to control her expression and not offer him a smile of encouragement failed. So, with both hands, she clutched her purse in front of her like a barrier.

Purposefully, he placed a palm to the glass on either side of her head, then bent down to study her face intently. His expression slowly turned serious, and he held his silence.

Her own smile fell away. She tried to focus on her purse, but her disobedient eyes kept rebounding to his every few seconds until they finally just refused her wishes altogether. She wet her parched lips.

The years had done nothing to hinder his good looks. If anything, the loss of any remaining boyishness had made him even more handsome. There were very slight laugh lines at the corners of his eyes now. And his angular jaw already showed the beginnings of the stubble he’d shave off tomorrow morning. A shock of hair had fallen across his forehead, and her fingers itched to reach up and brush it back, maybe trail over his cheek to the place his dimples had been only moments ago.

She gripped her purse more firmly.

Finally a hint of humor returned to tug at the corners of his eyes and ticked up one side of his mouth, revealing one of the dimples. “Thanks for not lying to me.”

So he knew she could have met Mr. Novak anytime this week. She felt heat suffuse her face.

“I just have one question for you.”

She arched her brows in question, wishing his cologne wasn’t tantalizing her to lean in and inhale her fill.

“Am I really so repulsive to you that you would choose car repair over lunch with me? Or is there something here I’m missing?”

She puffed out exasperation. Why was it so hard to do the right thing here? She really didn’t want to hurt him. “Reece, you are a wonderful guy. And I’m sure if things were different, I’d love to get to know you again. But there’s Dakota…and Dan.” She hated that Dan had come as almost an afterthought.