The Forever Husband. Kathryn Alexander

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СКАЧАТЬ so you can make it to school on time.”

      He glanced up at Hope, surprised to see her still standing there in the doorway, watching them. “If you see Cassie before I do this afternoon, tell her I’ll be there later today,” he said, looking into her fathomless blue eyes a moment longer than he should have.

      “Give me a kiss, honey. I’ll see you at school later.” She kissed her daughter, then glanced at Eric again. “Thank you. I need to get there early to look over the lesson plans,” she said before leaving through the back door.

      Eric’s presence, his helpfulness and kindness, could be difficult to accept, she knew, but it could also be the Lord’s way of showing them His will for their lives…something Hope hadn’t felt very certain of lately. For years she’d believed that she was following the right course, living in the center of God’s will, and that the love He’d blessed Eric and her with would go on forever. She’d given her heart to the Lord at the conclusion of a Sunday School class one day when she was only six years old. The teacher had asked if anyone wanted to pray for salvation, and Hope had raised her hand. So her heart had belonged to God even before it belonged to Eric Granston.

      She climbed into her van and started toward Beechmore Elementary, still lost in thought. Eric was now with her again, but only because he didn’t think she was capable of handling everything by herself while Ed and Grace were away. And he was probably right, she lamented. She needed his help to get Beth to school on time and to be there with her at night while Hope slept at the hospital. She stopped for a red light. Yes, he was being helpful and considerate, almost friendly. But where was the Eric she’d married and loved? He certainly wasn’t the man who was at this moment sharing breakfast with their six-year-old daughter. The Eric she used to know would have kissed her good morning, said a prayer over their breakfast and shared a cup of coffee with her.

      The blaring horn of the automobile behind her returned Hope’s attention to the traffic light, which had changed to green. She continued on her way as her thoughts went in another direction. Eric wasn’t the only one who’d changed since Cassie’s accident, she realized. She’d never kept secrets from him before, not until that summer day at the pool.

      Entering the familiar school parking lot, she carefully pulled into the first available space. She’d been convinced years ago that the Lord had brought Eric into her life. And He had blessed their union in many ways. Could He have done all that—given them such happiness for so many years—only to let them mess things up like this? Now that Cassie was better and life held such promise? Hope didn’t have all the answers, but somehow, some way, there had to be more in her future with Eric Granston than a divorce decree—if only they could find their way to it.

      “How did you meet Mom?” Cassie asked between bites of cherry-red gelatin from her lunch tray later that day. Eric had finished up earlier than expected at a closing and had stopped in to see how his daughter was feeling.

      He leaned back in his chair. Meet her? He could barely remember a time when he hadn’t known Hope Ryan Granston. “We met in kindergarten, I guess. We went through school together, graduated from high school and then college together.”

      Cassie grinned from ear to ear. “So you were childhood sweethearts?”

      “Yes, you could say that,” he responded quietly, reflecting on earlier days. “We were friends for a long time before it became a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship during high school. Your mother was very popular in school, you know. She was pretty and smart, and fun to be with.”

      “Don’t you think she’s all those things anymore, Dad?”

      “Yes, I do.” He answered her question before his mind went back, momentarily, to envision the teenager he had fallen in love with. Hope’s blond hair had been short then, in an almost boyish cut, but the style had looked good on her. She was thin and athletic, an excellent student and a sports fan.

      “So, it wasn’t like they say in the movies? Love at first sight?”

      Eric smiled. “You’re very nosy today,” he remarked. “But I guess with your mother and me, it was more like friendship at first sight. The love part kind of caught us by surprise.” Very much by surprise, he recalled as he thought of that long walk home from the high school one day.

      It was years ago. Several inches of snow had fallen during the afternoon. After school, he and Hope had trudged through the fresh snow, both of them loaded down with books and gym bags. Eric was carrying Hope’s clarinet case. They were cutting across the field that adjoined the property owned by Hope’s parents when Eric tripped over something in his path, falling facedown in the snow. The books flew to one side and the gym bag and clarinet case to the other as he hit the ground hard. And although the fall hurt his shoulder a little bit, nothing hurt as badly as his fourteen-year-old pride.

      But Hope hadn’t laughed. She certainly could have been amused by the sight of him clumsily plunging into the white depths. But she hadn’t. “Eric!” Hope had called out his name, in a typically feminine, almost maternal, manner. “Are you all right? Did you hurt yourself?” She dropped her belongings on the ground and knelt beside him as he sat up, slightly stunned by the incident.

      Eric wiped snow from his face. “I’m okay—just embarrassed,” he replied, as Hope pulled off her red gloves and brushed more snow from his face with warm hands.

      “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about,” she’d responded, pushing strands of hair away from her friend’s forehead in a tender touch. Friends. That’s all they were, wasn’t it? In that moment, it didn’t feel that way to Eric. Hope knelt only inches from him in that field, with her jeans getting wet from the snow, while she looked for a long moment into the dark eyes that viewed her with new interest. “A fall like that—” she hesitated before lowering her luminous blue gaze to look away from him “—could happen…to anyone.” She stumbled through the sentence. Then, she cautiously looked back at him to find that his eyes hadn’t strayed from her face. She smiled a little, and Eric thought for the first time how beautiful she was. Awash in unfamiliar thoughts, he slowly leaned forward, his mouth brushing hers in a soft kiss that she returned, tentatively at first, then, gradually, with a little more confidence. They finally broke apart abruptly, each of them settling back into the snow and gasping for breath—

      “Dad,” Cassie interrupted the private memory, “tell me about how you fell in love.”

      The straight line of Eric’s mouth showed no hint of the emotion behind his memories. “It’s difficult to tell anyone about the precise moment you know you’re in love, Cass. You’ll understand that when you’re older.” But in fact, Eric knew exactly when it had been for him: that afternoon in the snow. During that warm kiss that caused him to forget about his fall, his sore shoulder and the books lying where they had dropped. After that kiss, Eric and Hope had belonged to each other.

      He cleared his throat. “Did you know your mother was the only girl on the high school golf team in those days? There wasn’t a girls’ team yet, and she played well enough that she was invited to join the boys.” He laughed quietly at the memory he always had whenever he thought about her golfing days—Hope surrounded by males.

      “Weren’t you jealous?” Cassie asked as she took another bite of the meal she’d been picking at. It was as though she could read his mind. “Mom being around all those other guys?”

      “You bet I was. I didn’t like it at all, and I wasn’t a good enough golfer to make the team, so she was on her own.” Just like now, he thought briefly.

      “What if she gets married again someday? It won’t matter to СКАЧАТЬ