CHAPTER 4
624 Words
CHAPTER 4
THE CHICKEN WAS BURNED, but neither of them mentioned it. She sat across from him at their small folding table, and every once in a while his bemused smile sent a flush spreading across her entire face.
“What?” she finally asked, almost choking on a bite of rice.
“I love you so much.”
She couldn’t raise her eyes to his.
“I still don’t know how I ended up with a woman like you.”
She stuffed a forkful of veggie casserole into her mouth.
Greg stretched his legs out beneath the table. “I can’t believe things worked out like they did. You should have seen the pastor’s face when I told him I was falling for one of the girls from my youth group.” He chuckled.
Katrina took a sip of milk.
He reached out and grasped her hand, twisting the simple band on her ring finger. “And now you’re all mine.”
She smiled behind her napkin.
“It’s gonna be our first real Christmas together, Mouse. You haven’t even told me what to get you.”
He had been pestering her for gift ideas for a month or more, and she still didn’t know how to answer. “I’ll need a new journal soon.”
He chuckled. “Another? How many do you go through in a year?”
She tried to match his smile, but her stomach flipped itself into a series of pretzel knots. A growing, gnawing emptiness with no hope for reprieve.
He was rubbing her hand. Smiling at her. The worry lines were gone. The phone hadn’t rung in over an hour. Christmas was less than a month away, their first Christmas together as husband and wife. It could be so perfect ...
He took a bite of chicken. Did he realize how dry it was? “If you need more gift ideas, I was thinking maybe Monday before the business meeting we could ...” A tinny, muffled ring. Color drained from his face. His eyes widened, and he thrust his hand into his pocket. “Shoot.”
Katrina wondered how many of his congregants would be appalled to hear their pastor make such an innocuous exclamation.
He jumped up from the table. “I left my phone in the bedroom, Mouse. I’m sorry. I’ll be right back.”
Katrina took another bite of casserole.
Greg was apologizing into his cell when he returned. “I understand completely. I’m terribly sorry ... No, I just left my phone in the other room, that’s all.”
Katrina paused with her cup of milk in her hand.
“I’ll be sure to let her know. Yes ... Yes, I understand the financial situation completely. I’m sure it was an innocent mistake. Of course she wouldn’t have ... Ok. Well, you too. All right. Good night.”
That familiar heaviness, the weary expression clouded Greg’s face. “That was Mrs. Porter.”
Katrina replayed Greg’s side of the conversation in her mind, paying careful attention to his tone.
“I guess one of the ladies left the lights on downstairs this afternoon. She and her husband were driving past the church and saw it on.”
“Why didn’t they stop and turn it off?” Katrina mumbled into her napkin.
Greg didn’t seem to hear. “Would you mind taking care of that after dinner?”
Katrina stared at the blackened chicken on her plate. “Fine.” She hadn’t meant to sound so terse.
Greg held up his hand. “Hey, if it’s a big deal, I’ll go do it right now.”
“No.” She reached out. “It’s not a problem. I’ll take care of it as soon as I clear the table.”
Greg shrugged her hand off his shoulder. “Never mind. I’ll handle it myself.” He grunted as he stepped into his snow boots. “Sheesh, it’s just a simple light. It’s nothing to get so worked up about.”
Just a simple light. Katrina wished more people at Orchard Grove Bible Church realized that as her husband clunked outside in his boots, slamming the door shut behind him.
- Writer
