Can't Wait for Love by Debbie Macomber

Author:Debbie Macomber
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MIRA Books
Published: 2020-06-13T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOUR

Lorraine’s nerves wouldn’t allow her to wait quietly for her father. She couldn’t sit still, and as she paced the school hallway, her heels clicked against the hard stone floor. A framed document on the wall, written in both Spanish and English, stated that the school was financially supported by a group of Texas churches. It listed the headmaster’s name, plus the three teachers. And it explained that the children’s uniforms were sewn by the Women’s Missionary Society. She read the information twice, then paced some more. Lorraine had arrived in El Mirador half an hour ago—it was nearly six now. She’d known her chances of catching Thomas Dancy at the school this late in the afternoon weren’t good. Jason had wanted her to check into the lone hotel with him, but she’d decided to look for her father first.

As it turned out, the school building was open, and when she mentioned her father’s name to a young man in a school uniform, he’d nodded vigorously and even managed to ask her a few questions in English. He’d suggested she wait inside while he went to get her father.

For a moment Lorraine had felt light-headed with relief—at least her father was there. Then the real anxiety had begun, the jittery nervous fear. The almost sickening excitement.

At the sound of footsteps behind her, Lorraine turned. Thomas Dancy stood in the doorway, framed in bright sunlight.

“Raine,” he whispered.

“Thomas Dancy?” she asked hesitantly, then, “Dad?” He’d called her Raine in his letter, too, but her mother had always insisted her name not be shortened.

The look in his eyes was answer enough. Deep blue eyes, the same color as hers. He came slowly toward her and she could see that he was indeed the man in her mother’s photograph. He gazed at her for a full minute, an awed expression on his face. Then he smiled, and his eyes shone with an intensity that hinted at tears.

“Raine,” he said again. “If only I’d known…”

“You didn’t get my letter?” she asked.

“No…no.”

“I phoned, too.”

He frowned. “I didn’t get the message.”

“Then you didn’t know I was coming?”

“No…but I thank God you did.”

They stood a few feet from each other, and he continued to stare at her. “How like your mother you are,” he whispered. “So beautiful…” Thomas raised his hand as if to touch her face, then apparently changed his mind and let his arm fall. The love in his eyes was unmistakable.

At the mention of her mother, Lorraine felt her own eyes fill with tears.

“Raine, what is it?” He stopped short of taking her in his arms.

“Mom was killed April first,” she told him shakily.

His eyes widened with shock and then slowly, as though his legs would no longer support him, he staggered toward a chair. “Killed? How? Dear God in heaven, tell me what happened.”

“She was on her way home from work. It’d been raining that day and no one knows exactly why, but her tires lost traction and her brakes locked—and she skidded into oncoming traffic.

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