The Arrangement (6 page)

For a moment Eli simply breathed in the homemade aromas. Since his father’s death and Whitney’s disappearing act, he and his mother had grown closer than ever. When he decided to move back to his father’s hometown, his mother heartily agreed it would be a fresh start for them both. She and Eli’s dad owned a house in the city limits, and she had moved back two months before Eli to prepare the place.

Once Eli arrived, he chose a twenty-acre plot of land ten miles from town and built a spacious, yet tasteful house for himself. He’d spent most of his life in the crowded intensity of the city and now longed for a country experience. Contractors handed over the keys to his new house six months after Eli purchased the land and he had enjoyed the country solitude every day since.

“Thomas Barrett stopped by to visit today,” his mother announced as Eli placed the first spoonful of chili in his mouth. He stopped chewing and blinked, partly due to the heat of the food burning his mouth and partly in shock over his mother’s statement. “He said he had introduced you to his daughter, Evie.”

Eli nodded and attempted to resume his chewing. The roof of his mouth and his tongue burned. The food seemed to grow larger the longer he chewed. Finally, giving up, he swallowed hard, coughed a couple of times, and chased the hot food with a drink of water.

“I haven’t seen Evie in years,” his mother commented. “He said she’s a junior political-science major at the university. He wanted to know what I thought about the prospect of working out a relationship between the two of you.”

Eli nodded again, still coughing.

His mother stopped her commentary and looked at her son. “Well?”

Eli took another drink of water and cleared his throat. He swiped his eyes with the back of his hand. “She’s a beautiful girl, Mom…”

“But…” His mother led him on.

Eli tried to ignore the continuous burning of his mouth and tongue. Leave it to his mother to want more information, more details. “Thomas stopped by to see me this morning too,” he confessed. “He wants to arrange an ‘agreement’ between Evie and myself,” he said as he used his fingers to place air quotes around the word
agreement.

“Marriage,” his mother translated.

Eli nodded. He stared for a moment at his mother. She had seemed happy all those years she was married to his father, following him across the state and the country to see him fulfill his dream of making a difference in their world. But the worry lines etched themselves across her face as she watched the nightly news every time he left on an exploratory trip to any number of dangerous places on earth.

Ironically, car bombs and fanatic voters did not end his father’s life. A heart attack brought on by years of stress left his mother a widow years earlier than she expected. His parents rarely displayed their affection for one another more than a peck on the lips for the ever-ready cameras that accompanied them on their many campaign stops. But they respected each other and what each brought to the relationship.

After his conversation with Thomas Barrett, Eli wondered if their marriage held much more than mutual respect after all. Had their marriage been a simple contract in order to provide a suitable spouse to children of wealthy, prominent families? Had he been part of that contract? Was his mother required to give his father one child? How did those terms fit into an arranged marriage? Was every part of his future to be mapped out on a legal pad and followed no matter what road God might choose for him later?

“Eli,” his mother said softly as she settled onto a bar stool next to him, “I loved your father very much. Not with a passionate, Hollywood kind of love, but with the love that comes from watching a Christian live out his promise to God, to me, and to his family. My father refused to allow me to date anyone he would not allow me to marry. Only your father lived up to my father’s expectations. At first I felt a little cheated, but as I watched other girls marry and live with less-than-devoted husbands, I felt better about my situation. As your father and I got to know one another, we grew to love each other and our dedication to our marriage and our family grew stronger.”

His mother paused, her eyes reflecting memories. “Of course, not every marriage worked out that way. Many of my friends, including Victoria, ended up in loveless marriages built on a common agreement to please their parents rather than a commitment to each other. While my father wanted me to marry someone worthy of the Elliott name, he also wanted this man to be a Christian who would honor his commitment to me.”

Having recovered from his choking episode, Eli ate his chili as he listened to his mother. The process of an arranged marriage seemed less strange to him now, and Thomas’s words meant more. Thomas had lived out a life-long contract he had made between his family and that of his wife’s. The relationship meant nothing more to him than social status and money. Eli’s mother and father, however, built their relationship from their commitment to Christ. Neither had experienced the passionate love he thought he had found with Whitney, but then that love lasted no longer than her desire to seek God’s guidance.

“I never knew your father arranged the marriage,” he told his mother between bites. “You always said you and Dad met at your father’s fortieth birthday party.”

Eli held few memories of his grandparents, who had all died when he was still in elementary school. They had lived in Duncan, so Eli saw them regularly until his father moved to Washington. His mother’s father was a strong Christian who visited sick church members in the hospital every Saturday and donated his time to many other church ministries.

His mother smiled. “We did meet at his birthday party. My parents invited him with the purpose of beginning the courtship. He was a handsome man with incredible charm. At first I thought he was the tiniest bit dull, but he proved otherwise as we got to know one another.”

Eli watched his mother’s expression turn dreamy, so he allowed her several minutes to remember her late husband before he pressed for more information. But in that time he decided: if he were to marry Evie, or anyone else for that matter, it had to be for the right reasons…not simply because their families approved.

He had always believed God had someone hand-chosen for him. By allowing Evie’s father to manipulate the situation, was Eli taking control from God’s hands?

Did agreeing to an arranged marriage discount the faith he had in God’s plan for his life? And what if he agreed to date and marry Evie, and then God provided the woman he had chosen for Eli a year later? Surely divorce would never be proper, but neither would a constant affair. Would his eagerness and desire to escape the heartache place him outside of God’s will?

“So how do I know if this will work?” he asked, drawing his mother from the past back into the present with his open-ended question.

“You don’t.” She shook her head slightly and gave him a sympathetic smile. “Life comes with no guarantees. You pray about it. And I pray about it. And we wait for God to give us his answer. If God leads you and Evie and many of the people around you to believe marriage is the next step, then you take it. And you do everything possible to make that marriage work. Even the most in-love couple whom God has obviously called together will fall apart if they don’t work at their marriage.”

“What do we do in the meantime? Do I date Evie Barrett, or ignore the situation until God gives the go ahead?”
And what if she doesn’t really want to date me anyway? Is it right for her father or me to force her into a relationship she doesn’t want?
He had thought God led him to Whitney, but when she continued to force him into politics before he was ready, he sensed God telling him to back away. He wished he had listened…earlier.

“Do you like Evie? Is she a Christian? Someone you can respect and grow to care about?” his mother asked.

Evie certainly had a spunk that made him smile and at the same time made him uncomfortable. He could not deny her beauty or knowledge. But he had no idea whether or not she was a Christian. If her parents were any indication, he leaned toward the “no” end of the scale. Victoria and Thomas Barrett attended church irregularly as far as he could tell, and their lifestyle outside of church pointed more toward the world than Christ.

Her brother, Taylor, and his wife, Leigh Anna, attended almost every Sunday, but something unexplainable bothered him about their relationship. He had never seen Evie at church, but then she was away at school most weekends and might attend there.

Don’t kid yourself,
he thought. Whitney had pretended to share his interest in religion and Christ, but ambition and greed reared itself eventually, revealing her for who she was.

“I don’t know all those answers, Mom,” he admitted.

“Maybe you could talk to her, find out more about her. But, remember, God does not call us into contracts with unbelievers, so keep your heart open to his leading,” his mother suggested gently. “And God is a God of order, not of chaos. He won’t lead one of you to one thing and the other to something else. If he truly wants to see you two together, he’ll lead you both in that direction.”

Eli scraped the remaining chili from his bowl and glanced at the clock. Most of his lunch hour had disappeared during their discussion, and he had just enough time for a piece of the fresh cake that had caught his attention when he entered the house.

As though she’d read his mind, his mother rose from her seat, cut a large slice of cake, served it on a small plate, and slid it across the bar toward him. She smiled as he devoured the sweet treat.

“Thanks, Mom.” He wiped his mouth and drained the last of his water from the glass.

“I’d cook lunch for you anytime.” She smiled as she stacked empty plates and bowls on top of one another.

“And not just for lunch.” After kissing her cheek, he headed out the door and back to his car. His mother’s words ran through his mind as he drove to the law office. He had never considered his parents’ marriage an arranged one. He’d always thought the practice had ended a hundred years ago. Yet the comparison of his parents’ marriage to that of Victoria and Thomas Barrett ended there. The arrangement made his parents’ marriage stronger, yet it barely held together the relationship—if you could call it that—of the Barrett family.

If he married Evie, which marriage would they reflect? Would he constantly have to ignore her indiscretions? Would her long-time boyfriend, Ben, be a third person in their relationship? Could he stand to live his whole life in politeness in order not to offend the other partner? The coolness of such a relationship sent shivers through him. He had long dreamed of falling deeply in love with a woman who wanted the same things from life he desired—an opportunity to serve others, a family filled with children, and a love others would envy.

When Whitney walked out on him, he thought his chance for that dream had disappeared with her. But Evie held unknown treasures and mysteries. She could either become the partner he longed to have or simply a business associate of the home.

He drove into a parking space determined to push thoughts of Evie Barrett to the back of his mind and get something accomplished with his afternoon.

His plan worked well until 3 p.m., when his boss rapped his knuckles on Eli’s office door. “Eli, I have a client in Summerton who needs some help setting up a trust fund. Tomorrow is the only day this week he can meet, and I’m tied up in a real-estate deal all day. Can you take it for me?”

Eli stared blankly at Richard Witherspoon for a moment. The man barely reached over five and a half feet tall, and his slight frame would make him an easy target for most bullies, but Eli had seen him in court. Many young, stout lawyers relaxed until he attacked like a bulldog. In the office, however, Richard had been kind and patient in showing Eli how office protocol worked and gradually assigning him larger accounts and clients.

A trust fund project would not take very much time, but Eli recognized the client must be an important one to the firm, which meant someone needed to go on his timetable and do the work in person.

“Sure,” Eli replied, the word sticking in his throat. What had Thomas said to his boss to make Richard send Eli all the way to Summerton—the college town where Evie lived—to see a client? He reached for a bottled water on his desk.

“Great, I’ll have Alice drop the file you’ll need by your office this afternoon so you can read up on it. He’s been a client since we opened the firm thirty years ago and has grown with us even when he could have used more experienced attorneys,” Richard informed Eli. “The appointment is at 2 p.m.”

Eli waited until he walked out the door and back to his office before turning his head back to the paperwork scattered on his desk. He fingered paper after paper for several minutes. No matter how hard he tried to concentrate, he couldn’t remember where he was in the work or what he was supposed to be doing. He looked at the clock. Would it be too late to call Evie and ask to meet for coffee tomorrow afternoon? He had no illusions about their meeting being a date. In fact, he had not yet decided whether dating Evie would be a wise choice or not. But getting to know her a little better certainly would not hurt.

He extracted his cell from his pocket and scanned his contacts. Not finding her name or number, he dropped the phone onto his desk and squinted. He knew he had her number somewhere….

At home.
He had put his home number on the card with the flowers. It was uncharacteristic for him.
I must have been rattled.
He shook his head. So her number had to be on the caller ID there. He sat back in his chair and let his head flop backward until he looked at the ceiling.

“Nothing I can do about that now,” he muttered. “Get back to work. You can call her when you get home.” He rubbed his eyes and leaned back over his desk.

True to his word, Richard’s assistant, Alice, brought by the client’s file an hour later. Eli gathered his current projects into neat stacks on his desk. He would deal with some of it the next morning before he left for Summerton, and some of it would have to wait until later in the next week. He flipped through the new file, reading Richard’s notes, and made some of his own about how the trust should be created. He had not set up a trust in years, so he scanned a couple of law books to refresh himself.