As the Mist Scatters by Jill Penrod

Author:Jill Penrod
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: small town romance, Christian romance
Publisher: Jill Penrod
Published: 2017-03-27T00:00:00+00:00

“WELL, FIONA, WHAT DO you think of that?” Pearl asked. “Huck Deveraux asked me out. Like we’re teenagers. But I guess adults who are starting relationships have to date, too.”

She thought about that, and a wash of panic hit and filtered down her spine to her very toes. Relationship. The real thing. She was twenty-six and had taken more lovers than she could count, and yet she didn’t remember a relationship. Even her relationship with her mother had been difficult and broken.

For the first time in a long time, Pearl thought about her dad. She’d been almost twelve when he’d died. He’d gone to work that morning, just like every day, and then he hadn’t come home. He’d had a heart attack and died quickly, and she hadn’t been able to say goodbye. And for months and years after that, she’d been angry with him. He’d smoked. He’d been overweight. He’d not eaten well or exercised. In her mind, his death had been preventable, and if he’d truly cared for her and her mother, he’d have taken care of himself.

Now, though, she could see it differently. She’d gotten lost and done countless things she regretted. She knew her dad had loved her, that he’d simply made unhealthy choices because that was easier, and it didn’t mean anything about how he felt toward her or Mom. And even if he’d had a perfect lifestyle, she now believed life and death were in God’s hands.

“I miss him,” she said aloud. “I wish your grandpa was here to meet you, Fiona. He’d have loved you. He had a cheerful disposition just like you. I guess I’m more my mother’s daughter, prone to bouts of melancholy. But my dad was always smiling. You and he would just sit around and laugh at one another, I’m sure.”

With the thoughts came tears, and she wiped them away and felt very unprofessional cleaning and crying while Fiona cruised around the room giggling. She’d never considered before how similar her daughter and her father were, and the thought was bittersweet.

“Pearl?”

She whirled around, surprised to find Mac standing behind her. He took one look at her and shook his head.

“Now what did he do?”

She had to laugh. “I assume you mean Huck? Nothing. It’s okay.”

“I told him to make things right, but he doesn’t always listen to me. Never has. So, if it’s not Huck, what are the tears?”

She shook her head. “Memories. Thinking about my dad. I spent years thinking one way, and now that God is in my life, I have to think in new ways. Sometimes those new ways make me cry. I blamed my dad for dying and leaving us, but it wasn’t his fault. And I didn’t realize until right now that he and my daughter might be similar souls. That makes me happy and sad all at the same time.”

Mac nodded. “Life is full of those happy and sad moments, isn’t it? So Huck didn’t make it worse?”

She laughed again. “No. He asked me out.

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