Dad in Training by Gail Gaymer Martin

Author:Gail Gaymer Martin [Martin, Gail Gaymer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Steeple Hill
Published: 2009-10-19T20:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Brent sat in an easy chair in his great room, watching Randy and Rocket through the window. Molly had been right. Randy had finally come out of his bedroom. And out of his shell. They talked now, and Randy laughed more than he’d ever heard in the past. The look on his face touched Brent with a quiet kind of happiness, maybe comfort, that he’d never felt.

His deepest sadness now was Molly. He hadn’t been honest with her. She wasn’t sort of a friend. She was so much more. He’d heard her deflate like a punctured balloon. She’d opened his eyes to so many things, so what did he fear? She could open doors, doors he’d nailed closed…or tried to.

He lowered his head, knowing he’d failed. Now what? He’d walked to the phone three times since he got home from work to apologize, but he’d pulled his hand away, wanting to make a clean cut with Molly. Leading her on wasn’t fair. Clean cut? What he’d done had been a jagged slash that had hurt them both.

For the first time in his life, he sensed someone really cared about him. With all her bravado and spirit, he’d seen her heart filled with love and concern for others, a tenderness he’d never known, not even from his mother.

Though his mother had been a good woman, she’d marched under his father’s baton. Their church had been her priority, and the social clubs, important to his father, had also taken her time. Even then she struggled to make a good home but one that didn’t include sitting on the floor to play games with him or to read him a story at night.

Get over it. He slapped his hand against the chair arm. How long did he plan to drag around the old baggage? He knew the Bible said to lay his burdens at Jesus’ feet, but he’d felt rejected by the Lord, too. More than rejected. Punished.

Forgiveness. The word slammed into his defenses. What had Molly said about dogs? They gave unconditional love. They forgave before a person did anything. Isn’t that what God had done? He’d sent his son to wipe away sins before they even happened. He’d watched his faith flail like a drowning man in a stormy sea, and he ignored the life raft God had sent to save him.

Molly had said dogs always obeyed unless it went against nature. That was his problem. Too many things went against his nature. And Molly seemed to know. Her voice filled Brent’s mind. Dogs don’t look at you on the outside. They look in your heart. Is that what she’d done? Looked into his heart and thought he was worth saving?

He wrenched himself from his thoughts and strode to the window to watch Randy. The boy needed a real dad, not an uncle learning to be one. And if he were a good uncle, he’d go outside and play with them, but—

Before he could give an excuse, Randy and Rocket bolted past the window as if a circus parade had come down the street.

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