A Long Bridge Home by Kelly Irvin

Author:Kelly Irvin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2020-02-11T00:00:00+00:00

23

Eureka, Montana

All of West Kootenai, Rexford, and Eureka had turned out for John Clemons’s funeral. Andy squeezed into a pew toward the back. Madison and the boys sat on the front row with Lois and her husband. The three boys’ heaving shoulders and surreptitious swipes of their noses made his own throat ache. The Baptist church had a big sanctuary nearing capacity. Folks poured through the doors in a steady stream. Many stopped to pat him on the back or shake his hand.

Everyone wanted to tell him it wasn’t his fault. Every time a person said that, another wave of guilt swallowed him, leaving him gasping for air. A texting driver had been at fault, but John would have been at Lois’s eating a second piece of cherry pie if Andy hadn’t asked for a ride back to the farm. He lowered his head and stared at the hat in his hands in hopes that people wouldn’t notice his red eyes and the dark circles around them. Nightmares involving car crashes kept his sleep company every night.

Knowing that Christine was nearby at Jasper’s uncle’s house didn’t help. Their conversation on the drive to Eureka hadn’t resolved much.

“Can we sit by you?”

As if his thoughts had crossed with hers in midair. He turned. Looking uncertain, Christine stood in the aisle, Jasper right behind her. Her confusion made sense. In Plain services, women sat on one side, men on the other. Here families sat together.

Christine looked back at Jasper. He shrugged. She slipped closer and sat, leaving a goodly space between them. Jasper swiveled to talk to some folks who’d come from Libby and sat in the row behind them. Christine’s eyes were red rimmed. She held a sodden tissue in one hand.

“I know I should rejoice for John. He was a devout believer.” She dabbed at her nose. It matched her red cheeks. “I’m really sad for his sons more than him. They’ll miss him so much.”

“So will I.” To his dismay Andy’s voice cracked. Embarrassment sent heat barreling through him. He cleared his throat. “He was a gut friend.”

Her gaze softened. Her hand moved from her lap to the space between them, close but not too close. “I’m sorry for your loss too. We’re to take joy when a bruder in Christ goes ahead of us. But that doesn’t mean we can’t mourn the hole that’s left behind.”

“Where do you get the words?” Strangled by emotion, he stopped and forced himself to breathe evenly. In, out, in, out, in, out. “It’s not the words. It’s the ability to know what to say. I don’t know what to say to his sons, Derrick, Logan, and Johnny Junior. Derrick’s only twelve. Johnny is the oldest at sixteen.”

“Don’t give him the man-of-the-house speech.” Christine sighed, a kind sound that soothed the pain in Andy’s heart without any physical touch. “Someone surely already has done that. Offer to take them fishing or hunting. They’d like that, I reckon.”

The desire to touch her blew through

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