Anna Meets Her Match by Arlene James

Author:Arlene James [James, Arlene]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780373875498
Publisher: Love Inspired
Published: 2009-09-15T04:00:00+00:00

Gilli finally giggled herself to a happy ending. Anna closed the book and, following Reeves’s example, dropped a kiss on the little curly-top’s head. Gilli immediately folded her hands and started to pray.

“God is great, and God is good,” the girl began. Anna smiled, for Gilli had begun the mealtime blessing. With a nudge from her father, she started over. “Now I lay me down to sleep…”

After the usual rhyme, Gilli began to thank God. Her list was long, including her daddy, the aunties, grandparents, cousins, many other family members, toys, dolls, skates, books…Eventually she got to the whole earth, sun, sky, trees and so forth. At the very end, she shook Anna to the core.

“And thank You for Anna ’cause You love her, too, and she’s my goodest friend. Amen.”

“Amen,” Reeves echoed, but Anna found that she couldn’t speak around the lump in her throat.

Silently, she watched Gilli snuggle down and close her eyes. Slipping from the room, she keenly felt Reeves on her heels. It was as if Gilli’s prayer had awakened a new and sharper awareness of him in Anna. She stood, lost, in the sumptuous sitting room while he quietly pulled the door to Gilli’s room closed. Then he completely destroyed her with a casual touch, lightly sliding his hands over the knobs of her shoulders and down her arms about midway to the elbow. Those few inches of contact warmed, stunned and scared her. She felt fourteen again, craving his attention and understanding. She wanted him to like her, to approve of her, to love her.

Thank You for Anna ’cause You love her, too, and she’s my goodest friend.

Anna knew intellectually that God loved everyone, but she had never felt loved. Why, she wondered, was that, and how pathetic was it that her “goodest” friend these days was a three-year-old child? On Sunday, Anna had dropped by the Elkanors’ place with gifts, a small framed drawing and a bag of disposable diapers, for the new baby. She’d been gratified by the drawing’s reception. The proud parents had both exclaimed over it and carefully examined every detail, but watching them with their baby, Anna had felt very much as if she were on the outside looking in, as usual.

Somehow, at this moment she felt even more isolated than ever, isolated by a yearning for the impossible. Every moment at dinner she had been aware that she was not a true part of the family that gathered around the table, so she had done what she always did. She had teased and joked and showed off. She’d cast surreptitious glances at the man beside her like the lovesick fourteen-year-old she had once been and tried to read the answers to her hopes in every word and gesture.

She stood there in that lovely sitting room and admitted that her foolish heart had long ago set itself on something that could never be hers, and the pain of that suddenly threatened to overwhelm her. It was always best, Anna

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