No Wasted Tears (14 page)

Two hours later, after their family prayer she was on her way to Tina’s house. Her daughter, Taylor, probably had grown so much since the last time she’d seen her. Destiny thought about her god-daughter as she maneuvered through traffic. The directions were pretty straightforward and easy to follow. She was excited about seeing her. They really were more like sisters, having been roommates for the entire time they were in college. That’s how she’d met Willie, who she lovingly called Uncle, in actuality he was Tina’s uncle, but Destiny had spent so many weekends and holidays with the family she began calling him by the same term of
endearment.

When she thought about Tina, it was easy to get emotional because Tina knew her history. Tina and her husband Richard were both there to support her. They had not judged her; they just loved her and supported her decision as difficult as it was at the time. Destiny parked in the driveway as per Tina’s instructions. She checked the address again, took a deep breath, and then turned off the ignition. Exiting the car, her heart was beating a mile a minute. Focusing on her surroundings, she turned her attention to the gorgeous house. Destiny sucked in a breath of cool air as she climbed the front steps. She was only on the second step when the door opened to an excited Taylor yelling, “Auntie Destiny!” But that alone wasn’t enough for little Miss Taylor. She jumped up in Destiny’s arms; hugging her with all her might, the force alone caused Destiny to stumble back to the first porch
step.

“Hi, Auntie Destiny. We’ve been waiting on you for a long time. And guess what? I made a picture just for you. Do you want to come see
it?”

Just as quickly as Taylor had jumped in her arms, Destiny couldn’t believe she was now jumping down and dragging her by the arm toward the front
door.

Destiny couldn’t believe how beautiful Tina looked pregnant. She was smiling as Taylor led her to the front door. Dropping Taylor’s hands, Destiny studied her friend, searching for something, maybe she needed to see the happiness that she hadn’t seen in her own eyes so many years ago. Tina held still until, seemingly satisfied, Destiny lowered her eyes gently rubbing her swelling stomach. Destiny threw her arms around her best friend. It had been so long since they had seen one another. Releasing her, Destiny saw the shimmer of glistening tears in her
eyes.

“Girl, it’s so good to see you again. You look good. How’s my auntie, and what do you think of
Seattle?”

Destiny chuckled because Tina had not changed a bit. She was a little bigger around the middle, but other than that, she looked good. She was always the talkative one, so Destiny knew before she left she would be drilled on everything from Stanley to her trip to
Seattle.

“To answer your first question, Auntie sends her love. And I can’t believe how much you have grown,” she said, rubbing Tina’s stomach again, “and Taylor as well. She’s
beautiful.”

“Come on, you guys. Let’s go eat lunch before all of my hard work in the kitchen goes to waste.” Tina was heading for the door. “Come on, Destiny. We have a lot of catching up to do. We may as well get
started.”

After a satisfying lunch,
Tina sat with Destiny in the family room as they both looked out over the gorgeous view of her backyard. It was everything Tina had told her and
more.

“So tell me about Pastor Adam Wheeler,” Tina said, breaking the silence between them. “You sat next to this handsome brother all the way from Charleston to Seattle. For you to visit his church and join, he had to have made a great
impression.”

Hearing a noise, Destiny looked around to see if Richard had returned. Seeing no one, her attention went back to Tina. She’d told Tina about meeting Adam while they were cleaning up the kitchen earlier. “I’m a little nervous, Tina. I really like him a lot, but I don’t know about dating a pastor so we agreed to be friends for
now.”

Tina scratched her head. “Girl, being a pastor is what he does, but a natural born man is what he is. His title does not change the fact that he is like any other man. He just has a calling on his life to do God’s
work.”

They both looked at each other and laughed as they gave each other high fives. “I know that’s
right!”

“So you’re nervous, huh?” Tina
asked.

“I guess it’s just that I want to do everything right, Tina. I don’t want to mess this up. I believe that I deserve to be loved by a good man. But I’ve had so many mess-ups in my life that I’m a little scared. I did do one thing I’m proud of.” She paused for a second.
“On Sunday, I gave my life to the Lord.” Destiny used her hand to wipe the tears that were
falling.

“Oh, my God, I prayed that you would come to know Jesus and the true nature of his love. He won’t fail you, Destiny. He’ll be there every step of the way on your journey to discovering yourself.” Tina took her time and looked Destiny right in the eyes while placing her hands on Destiny’s
heart.

“You have the Holy Spirit within you, Destiny, to help you become more and more like Jesus. When we have an experience with the power of God like you did on Sunday, our lives begin to change. You, Destiny, are now empowered to walk in authority like Jesus. That’s why you were able to walk away from the place you were in because when you discover who you are, you can move from where you are to where you need to
be.”

She breathed out a sigh of relief because her sister understood what she was feeling without her having to explain. “I’ve never felt like this, Tina.” She closed her eyes and laid her head back on the sofa where they were sitting, her body relaxing before she looked over at Tina. “This morning I woke to the phone ringing, and do you know who it was? It was Adam. He said he was calling to pray with me and to give me a scripture to meditate on for the day. It was just what I needed. Listen to this—” Destiny pulled a sticky note from her pocket—Psalm 66:17-19. Sitting upright again she read, ‘“I cried out to him with my mouth; his praise was on my tongue. If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; but God has surely listened and heard my voice in
prayer.’”

“And then we prayed together. Can you believe it? I have never prayed with a man on the phone before. I feel free for the first time in my life. I know that my life is going to be different. I’m so ready for God to show me what to do next in my walk with him. I started going to church last year in Charleston, and my bishop was great. His preaching gave me the courage I needed to leave. I feel better than I have in years but I still have a ways to go. God, I’m so
happy!”

Destiny jumped up from the sofa, danced around in a circle, and pulled Tina up to join her. They were both laughing and crying tears of joy. “I could shout it to the mountain tops!” Destiny lifted her hands, giving God silent praise for the wonderful things he had done and was still doing in her
life.

Tina grabbed both of Destiny’s hands, and, looking at her, she said, “Well, I might as well give you something else to celebrate. The baby’s a
boy!”

Destiny dropped Tina’s hands, jumping up and down with joy. This time she ran around the sofa and began to
dance.

“Oh, my God, oh, my God, you’re going to have a boy! I’m so happy for you, Tina!” Destiny flopped back down on the sofa, touching Tina’s
stomach.

“I have only five more months to go. Destiny, I’m so happy because now Taylor will have a brother and Richard will have a boy to share his love of football with, although Taylor thinks she’s the next Seahawks quarterback.” Tina grabbed a tissue from the coffee table and wiped her
eyes.

“Destiny, I want you to know that from the day Richard and I brought Taylor home from the hospital, we loved her just like she was our own. We had read every book, and besides, we went to all of the doctor’s visits so we were ready for anything. She is such a precious child, and I don’t know what our lives would be like if she weren’t in it.” Now the tears were falling from both of their
eyes.

“Tina, you know I didn’t know anything about the Lord when I got pregnant. I thought I would lose my mind, especially after finding out that I was pregnant after the rape. But you and Richard were truly angels sent to me by God. I knew I couldn’t destroy a life. She deserved to be here even though I didn’t deserve to be raped. God is a giver of life, not a taker. Remember that verse you quoted to me on the night I delivered her? Psalms 77:14: ‘You are the God who performs miracles. You display your power among the people.’ I never forgot that scripture because he used me to give you a miracle, and he showed both of us his power.” They both leaned in to hug each
other.

“I know that I’ll have to share what happened to me with Adam, especially if we are going to have a relationship. But I want to see how it goes first, and then I will tell him everything. But in the meantime, I’m going to develop a relationship with the Lord and let him take care of the rest.” Tina reached for Destiny’s hand and squeezed it
tightly.

“I’ve never been so proud of you, Destiny. You are going to be just fine.” Tina raised her eyebrow. “But you know that, don’t
you?”

“I know you and Richard love me, and it means the world to me. When we were in college, you, Shawn, and Uncle Willie were always family. I felt this way because you all showed me love unconditionally, and I’ll always love all of you for it. I cherish all of the time we spent together as a family during breaks, and those long weekends were great being able to share them with you all.” Destiny reached for her glass of iced tea that was sitting on the coffee table and took a sip as she listened for Tina’s
response.

“You know we enjoyed you as much as you enjoyed us; now enough about me. Tell me, what do you think of Cynthia and the boys?” she quizzed and waited for an
answer.

“Tina, I absolutely love Cynthia, and once you meet her, I think you will also. We connected the moment we met at the airport. The twins are the most adorable little boys. They are older than Taylor by three years. I have to give her credit because as a single mother she has done a wonderful job of raising them. They are very polite and well mannered.” Destiny reached over and touched Tina’s hand to emphasize her
statement.

“You know Auntie kept the twins when we were in Charleston,” she
stated.

“I remember Sara telling me about two boys.” Tina smiled at Destiny because she could imagine them both in her
mind.

“I spent time with them, but I never had the opportunity to meet their mother until we arrived in Seattle. Can you believe that we were on the same
flight?”

The shock of what Destiny shared showed on her friend’s face. “Oh my God, you have got to be kidding
me.”

“I wouldn’t lie about something like this, Tina. She was sitting in the seat in front of us. But, girl, this tops it all!” Destiny hit her legs with her hands. “Can you believe that the father of her twins is Adam’s brother, Marvin? The sticky part about all of this is that he doesn’t even know they exist.” Destiny could tell by the expression in Tina’s face that she was shocked by this
revelation.

“You mean to tell me that her twins are Marvin Wheeler’s?” She asked with alarm in her voice and questions in her eyes. “Richard and I met him last year at a fundraiser during the Christmas holidays. He’s a generous man and gives large donations to charities around the city. His generosity made such a great impression on us, and we became rather fond of him, friends actually. It’s not often that you find young, single, black males giving back to their communities, but I can truly say Marvin Wheeler is an outstanding individual. Is she going to keep the boys a secret?” Tina inquired with questioning
eyes.

“Heavens no. You won’t believe this, but there is another twist in this whole situation. When Cynthia left Charleston, she applied for a position with M and W Enterprises Real Estate Investors Inc.” Destiny chuckled when she saw the raise of Tina’s eyebrows in recognition of the company’s
name.

“Am I correct in assuming that she didn’t know that Marvin owned M and W?” Tina began to laugh uncontrollably. “The Bible says that my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. God is so awesome. He orchestrated this whole thing. Look at
this.”

Tina slapped her thighs with her hands. Then she lifted up her fingers to illustrate her point. “Number one, you and Adam meet on the plane.” She raised one finger. “Number two, Cynthia just so happens to sit in the seat in front of both of you.” The second finger went up. “Number three, Adam is the pastor of one of the largest churches in the city, and his brother just so happens to be Cynthia’s babies’ daddy and her new boss. Now tell me that God didn’t set this all up. It has his handy work all over
it.”

Tina threw both of her hands up. “Let me throw this in for good measure. Richard and I have been trying to decide on a ministry to join, and we had thought about Pastor Wheeler, but now I know why we waited. However, this Sunday, we will be the newest members of Greater
Community.

Tina looked over at Destiny and added, “Plus, he likes you, and you seem to like him as well. Am I correct?” Tina suggested in her usual helpful
voice.