The Merciful Scar by Rebecca St. James & Nancy N. Rue

Author:Rebecca St. James & Nancy N. Rue [James, Rebecca St. & Rue, Nancy N.]
Language: swe
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Christian, General, Contemporary Women, Family Life
ISBN: 9781401689230
Google: sVXRpkBxtAAC
Publisher: Thomas Nelson Inc
Published: 2013-09-17T04:28:54+00:00

Share this chapter with your friends!

I already believed in God. Now I had to accept that God believed in me. #TheMercifulScar

Chapter

TEN

Emma stood up like a pole beside me as my graying-blond, too-tanned father spoke with Frankie in words we couldn’t hear.

“I take it this isn’t a good thing,” Emma said.

“I don’t know yet,” I said.

Her grunt was almost sympathetic. “You want me to go up and see what he wants?”

“No.” I lowered myself back into the rocker. “I’ll just wait.”

“Okay,” Emma said. “I’ll wait with you.”

Bathsheba waited, too, until Sandy Petersen and Frankie started to make their way up the knoll. Then she untangled herself from under my chair and sailed off the porch without touching the steps. She was on my father’s heels before he got within ten feet of the house, snapping at the hems of his pressed jeans.

“Knife pleats?” Emma muttered. “Really?”

The group kept moving—Bathsheba snarling and nipping, my father attempting to kick at her and missing, and Frankie commanding, “Off, girl. Off.”

“That dog might be worth something after all,” Emma said.

I went down the steps and called to Bathsheba. She paused and looked at me, and then went back to setting up for a full attack on my father’s leg. I had to go over and grab her by the scruff of her furry neck.

“It’s okay, ’Sheba,” I said. “He’s not going to hurt me.”

Well, the jury’s still out on that.

Bathsheba grumbled and circled around to sit at my feet. Emma had been right about her worth: my father had been knocked slightly off-kilter by the whole thing, which gave me a moment to take the temperature, the way I always had to when I saw him for the first time in months. It was anybody’s guess what it might be—bone-chilling, tepid, or sunny and breezy. I didn’t hold out much hope for the latter at that point.

But to my amazement, Dad put his arm around me and tugged me into his side. I heard Emma mumble, “Gee, could ya spare it?” but in my show-no-affection family, a sidearm hug was like killing the fatted calf in anybody else’s. He added a disarming smile, too, but it was the eyes that got me. They were looking directly into mine, blue for blue, with no agenda to dart them on to the next thing. He was looking at me, and I melted.

“I’m sure you two could use some alone time,” Frankie said. “Emma, you want to come up and help with supper?”

Emma looked at me as if she was waiting for a go-ahead. I nodded to her.

But I also watched her and Frankie make their way down the knoll in the wind that was just kicking up. Frankie put one hand on top of her cap and linked the other hand around Emma’s elbow. I felt a tug inside.

My father was literally tugging at my hand. “Let’s go in and talk,” he said. “It’s a little gusty out here for me.”

This is nothin’, pal. You need to cowboy up.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.