Counting Miracles: A Novel by Nicholas Sparks

Author:Nicholas Sparks [Sparks, Nicholas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance, General
ISBN: 9780593449592
Amazon: 0593449592
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2024-09-23T22:00:00+00:00

III

Jasper dozed but didn’t sleep. He kept the windows rolled down, listening with half an ear for the sounds of any approaching vehicle.

Dusk arrived, then, finally, darkness. Though his nighttime vision had faded over the years, Jasper figured it wouldn’t matter. Approaching headlights, or a spotlight, would be impossible to miss in the forest.

He poured the last of the coffee from his thermos. He fed Arlo another sandwich. Every now and then, he got out of the truck and walked to the other side of the berm, but aside from the hoot of an occasional owl, the forest seemed empty.

He stayed until just half past ten, by which point he figured the white deer—and other deer—had bedded down for the night. It took a series of cranks to fire up the engine and he slowly inched his way back through the forest to the off-road trail, and then to the fire road and finally the exit. Once he was back at the cabin, he set his alarm clock for very early in the morning.

Tuesday turned into Wednesday as he lay in bed, and maybe it was the coffee, but he couldn’t sleep. Instead, he stared at the ceiling, his thoughts wandering back to the early years of his marriage, after he and Audrey had become parents. They’d named their oldest son after King David, one of the writers of the Psalms, and he remembered the exhausted pride on Audrey’s face as she’d held their son in her arms. When he bent lower to kiss her, she’d whispered, “Look what our love has made,” and his eyes had filled with tears.

He remembered working with Ned as they began construction on the new house, and the way Audrey insisted on visiting the site every afternoon, so she could follow the daily progress. He recalled the almost casual way Audrey rolled over in bed one day, and let him know that she was pregnant again. Mary—named after Our Savior’s mother—was born in June 1965, three days after they’d moved into the new house. Though Audrey should have been exhausted, she immediately threw herself into decorating, adding her personal touches and flourishes, even while taking care of two children who were still in diapers.

Through all of that, Jasper continued to expand his business, selling Bradford pear trees in states as far away as Tennessee. He leased more land and hired employees, eventually topping out at more than a dozen. He owed nothing on his house and had money in the bank. But because he worried about what he’d read in Matthew 19:24—that it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it was for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven—he donated the funds necessary to renovate the church and supported the local food bank. For the most part, he kept only what he needed to support his family, and though his generosity sometimes made Audrey nervous, Jasper assured her that they would never lack for anything that mattered.

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