Zane’s silence was the only permission his father needed. “I’m not here to give you advice. I don’t have any. You can figure out what’s best for you, and I believe in you a hundred percent.”
Zane waited for the “but.”
Reverend Taylor scratched his brow and lowered himself into a chair at the table.
“Involve the Lord. He’s given you the ability to choose your own life. As you know, it took me a long while to understand that your mom was the one. I was afraid of failing, afraid of things turning sour one day. I worried about providing for a family. I was really afraid of becoming a father and being terrible at it.”
His father leaned forward, his gaze serious. “Those fears had me stewing for a long time. It wasn’t until I surrendered what might happen. I had to say, ‘Lord, I’m only going to take this next step. I’m going to marry the woman I love more than anything or anyone in this world. I’m going to surrender to you what may or may not happen in the future.’”
Zane nodded and leaned on the back counter, his arms folded across his chest. He felt his heart rate increase, the blood swooshing in his brain, thrumming out a hope for the future.
The silence in the room stretched on, but it was comfortable.
Zane finally met his father’s gaze. “Did you catch the football game on Friday night? How did our boys do?”
His dad grinned. “They were pretty close to perfection. The Harvey kid—I think his name is Luke—ran for over two hundred yards.”
“Is he their starting running back?”
“He wasn’t at the beginning of the year, but looks like he is now. Reminds me of a certain kid I knew…”
“But I was always a starter, Dad. All four years.”
Reverend Taylor chuckled again. “That’s right; that’s right. You were pretty decent.”
And just like that, Zane and his dad were at sync again in their age-old play between father and son.
Chapter 22
Mabel had a side stitch as she arrived at the designated meeting place on Topaz Rock.Ouch.She had a hard time catching her breath. She may or may not have stopped behind a tree for a moment to wait for her breath to calm down to normal levels. The gasping-for-breath thing was something she’d rather not do in front of a bunch of people.
Okay, okay. She needed to exercise more. And maybe lay off some of the candy.Somebeing the operative word.
In her own defense, she’d come up the back way, which meant it was more of a straight shot—steeper and harder to climb. The only good thing about the hike was the brilliant fall colors of shining golds, burnt oranges, and flaming reds.
She joined Tory, who, besides the fine line of sweat along her hairline and the charmingly rosy cheeks, looked perfectly fine. How did she do that, pregnant and all?
“WTH?” Tory said to Mabel, her eyes scanning the small crowd gathered near the summit. The group of about twenty stood several feet away from the overlook, lying in wait for Weston and Ruby to come around that last bend through the trees. She pointed across theway to Zane, who stood holding the hand of his nephew, Styles. He’d even brought Chief.
Mabel squinted. Her heart did that drop-zing thing that it did every time she saw Zane. “Yeah, he brought Styles. What’s wrong with that?”
Tory was getting kind of spicy lately. Maybe it was the pregnancy.
“No, look.” Tory pointed across and down the trail, and that’s when Mabel saw her, Carolina, the woman from the picture on Facebook, picking her way through the crowd to stand near Zane. It was definitely her, her long dark hair shiny and perfect. She bent forward to give Styles a high five.
“Styles likes knuckles and hugs, not high fives.” Mabel was irritable. This Carolina character was an amateur.
“Why is she here?” Tory’s eyes widened, and she grasped Mabel’s arm. “Did hebringher with him? Did heactuallybring her up here?”
No. Mabel was not doing this right now. This moment was about Ruby and Weston. Ruby was one of her oldest friends. If Zane wanted to ruin things by bringingherto such a private event, then so be it. But she had to focus on Ruby and Weston, who could be arriving any minute.
Mabel peeled Tory’s fingers off her arm, but not before she saw a look of pity mixed with confusion and anger in Tory’s expression.
“Can we just…not?” Mabel swallowed hard. She’d had enough worry when looking at Marlene’s post the day before. The way Zane had been looking at the dark-eyed beauty in the photo was enough to make her stomach rage with jealousy.
Mabel hated jealousy. Especially when she had just started trusting Zane again.
That didn’t mean it wasn’t rearing up inside of her like a twenty-four-hoursuperbug.
