Fred chuckled and shrugged.“I’ve never not known what to do before.”Because nothing had been this scary to get wrong before.
“Do you really think that Steve is going to make her happy?”Eddie asked.“Does she seem that way?Didn’t you say that it looked like she wanted to cry when Sean called her your former best friend?”
“No.Maybe.And yeah.”It had taken a great deal of strength to not ask her if she was okay Friday night.To not find a way to make her smile.To not tell Sean to take it back.To not say she was still the other half of his whole.He scrubbed his face.“So, I’ll give this gift to her?”
“Yeah, I think you should.”Eddie turned to take the food out of the oven just as Henry came rushing back into the kitchen with his pants up but not zipped, his belt hanging loose, and his shirt tails hanging out.He tossed his sweater on the counter.
“The lost sheep,” he said as he tucked his shirt into his pants.“The shepherd left the ninety-nine to go find it.Or the lady with the lost coin who swept her house looking for it.”
Fred cast a concerned look at Eddie.“Do you know why he’s spouting Bible stories?”
Eddie shook his head.
Henry grunted.“If you’d let me explain, you’d know.”He was now buckling his belt.
“Those things were of great value to them just like Esther is to you.”His last words were slightly muffled by the sweater he had over his head.“They didn’t just throw up their hands and say, ‘oh, well, guess I should do without.’They went after those precious items.”
“But God didn’t tell them to step back from those things.”
Henry stilled in his process of straightening his sweater so he could glare at Fred.“Do.You.Love.Her?”
Fred nodded.“I have since grade four.But to love her, I have to give her a choice.I can’t just go toss her over my shoulder like a lost lamb and cart her off to marry me.”
Henry laughed.“I suppose you’re right there.So maybe my analogy isn’t as good as it sounded a minute ago in my room.”
“No,” Eddie inserted.“It’s not bad.The idea that something precious is something you search for and attempt to reclaim isn’t totally off.And I think you can let Esther know that you still care for her and step away.”
He had pulled out his phone and was swiping at something.“The story after the lost coin is the one about the lost son.”He showed his screen to Fred.“I’m pretty sure that the father seeing his son a long way off wasn’t just an accident.I bet he had been watching for him, so he could run to him when he did come home.”
He rubbed his neck.“I’m not sure Dad would use these passages in the way we are, but I don’t know.There was love there and determination.This is like what you did with Sean.”
“What did he do with Sean?”Henry asked as peeked at the food in the oven.The food that Eddie hadn’t yet taken out to flip because Henry had distracted him.“Want me to flip these?”
“Sure.”Eddie stuffed his phone back in his pocket.“You want to tell him about Sean, or should I?”
It was Fred’s turn to take out his phone.“I’ll do it.”He tapped Sean’s name in his messages app.“The other day, Sean said something to me at work about God and said, ‘If God wants me to know Him, why doesn’t He call me up and tell me?’So, I sent him this.”He slid his phone across the island so Henry could read the text he had sent to Sean.“So, we’re going to read a Bible plan together after Christmas using the Bible app.I haven’t picked it yet though.”
Henry smiled as he read the text message on Fred’s phone.“Way to go, little bro.”He slid Fred’s phone back to him.“And, as always, Eddie is the smartest.This is exactly what you have to do with Esther.Put the option out there – just like you did here – and then, let her make her choice.”
“I don’t know.”
“What?You doubt Eddie?”Henry teased.“He’s never wrong.”
Fred gave him an exasperated look.“There was that whole romance is garbage thing that wasn’t true.”
“I never said romance was garbage,” Eddie retorted.
“Maybe not in those words, but you were still wrong about it.”He shook his head.“I don’t want to be wrong about this.Not even a little.I don’t want to completely lose her.”
“From where I’m standing,” Henry said, “you already have.If you don’t do something, she’s going to choose someone who isn’t you.It might be Steve.It might be someone else.Man up, dude, and get in the game – or you know what the Great One says, at least according to the poster in Mr.Lively’s room in grade six.‘You miss one hundred percent of the shots you don't take.’I spent so much time staring at the posters on his wall.Wonder if he still puts that one up?I should ask Esther.”
Fred drew in a silent breath as his head bobbed up and down.He’d take a shot.“So, I’ll give her this gift.”
“That’s a start,” Eddie said.
“And maybe…” Fred’s heart was beginning to rev up its rhythm.“Maybe, I’ll include a choice.”
Chapter 12
