A Soldier's Devotion

“He has every right to be angry. I shouldn’t have come.”

He knelt. “Maybe. Maybe not.”

Why did the compassion in his voice cause hers to clog? “Give Sarah my regards. And tell her thank you.”

Aaron eyed the DZ then Val. “You could tell her yourself.”

Val eyed her clock. Two minutes more and she had to leave. She shut off the ignition. “What are you proposing?”

“Sarah’s also new to town. She could use a friend.”

“How do you know I’m new?”

“West Coast accent for one thing. For another, your license plates are out of state. Saw your car when I took Vince to check on his bike.”

She nodded. “How’d he swallow seeing it?”

Aaron grinned. “How do you think?”

“Probably like a big bowl of razor blades.”

He laughed and handed her a business card with caricatures on it. “Give Sarah a call. And give Vince time. His bark is worse than his bite. Most days, anyway.”

She laughed. “And that’s supposed to make me feel better?”

He smiled. “There are barbecues every weekend at my place or Joel’s. Sarah’d love to bring a friend. All the other guys’ wives and girlfriends have a good friend. Though they include her, Sarah is shy and feels like a fifth wheel. That she spoke to you at all proves she felt a connection with you.”

“Interesting. I felt that with her, too.”

“I’ll let her know you’ll be calling.”

She shielded her eyes from the southern Illinois sun and met his gaze. “Why do I get the feeling you want me to try to get through to Vince?”

A confident gleam entered his eyes. “Probably for the same reason that I get the feeling you can.”

His words paused her heart and soul.

Get through to him she wanted to. But only God could move the mountain of this man’s anger toward her and all that she stood for. Vince’s face flashed in her mind.

No matter how hard, she would obey.

“I’ll give Sarah a call.”

“And I’ll give her a heads-up that you’ll be coming to the barbecue.”

“Hey, now. All I said was that I’d call.”

“Prayerfully consider it. It’ll mean a lot to her to have another woman to pal around with.”

“How do you know I pray?”

He snorted. “Trust me, Vince let us know.”

“Speaking of Vince, will you be warning him that I’m coming? You know, in case he wants to stay home or fling himself in front of a moving planet or otherwise orbit himself out of his misery.”

Aaron chuckled. “What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.” He knuckled her door frame. “Besides, he drowns his misery in Michelob.”

“Ah. The old alcohol vice.”

“Yeah, he pretty much never leaves home without it. He always drinks at the barbecues, which means he’s normally more subdued, which could be good for you. And as long as he doesn’t try to drive himself home, we don’t give him too much grief. We know God’ll change him when Vince finally gives himself over to Him.”

“If I show up without warning he’ll know he’s been set up.”

“So be it. But you have no less than seven third-degree black-belted bodyguards, guaranteed.”

She laughed. “That should make me feel better.”

His grin faded and his face turned serious. “He might scare the daylights out of you. But he’d never in a million years hurt you. At least not physically.”

What did that mean? Vince was a heartbreaker?

“Well, I have no intention of getting close to him that way.” He’d never let her, for one thing. For another, he far from acted like a Christian.

Petrowski studied her so carefully that the urge to win the case of convincing him overpowered her.

“Trust me. You don’t have to worry about me falling for the guy or him falling for me. He strikes me as the type who goes from zero to mad in three-point-five seconds. And I’m so laid-back I’m horizontal.”

She shook her head and started her car. “The Mississippi would move backward before the two of us would fall for one another.”

Petrowski laughed. “It’s happened before, you know.”

“What? A woman like me falling for a man like Vince? Or a man like Vince falling for a woman like me?”

“I meant the Mississippi running backward.”

“Really, now?”

“Yup. During an earthquake along the New Madrid fault.”

Even so, it was going to take something stronger than her to run the river of this man’s rage away from her rather than toward. After arriving home, Val set down her briefcase, called to check on Elsie, left Sarah a voice mail then climbed into bed.

Creator of heaven and earth, move the mountain of this man’s anger.

The next day at the hospital, violent shaking rattled Val’s water glass off the table beside Elsie’s bed. She shot up, eyeing Val with fear from her transfer chair.

“It’s okay, Elsie.” At least Val hoped so. The floor swayed several inches left and right and left and right. She pushed Elsie toward the doorway barely comprehending what this was.

Earthquakes in southern Illinois? She’d experienced—even expected them—in California. Never in her wildest dreams would she have thought they’d have them here.