Dom’s fingers spread over her stomach, and he pulled her deeper into the shadows. Madison just stayed where she was, pressed against him as close as she possibly could.
And listened.
21
He’d needed a quiet moment.The crowds…crowds were not something Melvin had ever been easy with. Especially in these kinds of…situations. He had stood in these halls so many times before, or ones just like it, through the last forty years. He never forgot each one. Each…face. Each brother-in-blue. Or sister, though he was certainly conflicted about those.
Women were to be…protected from the evil that was out there.
He had never fully agreed with women on the lines. Administrative, of course. Men were supposed to be the protectors of women. But if they put on the uniform, they did deserve the same protections and loyalty when the cards were down.
This was one situation he did not fully understand yet. He had known what was happening with that Opal Joy would lead to trouble. And it had. He had known, he hadwarnedpeople to watch themselves. That getting in bed with that problem would only lead to more heartache later.
And now they were walking on eggshells, just hoping…
Melvin was praying the injured would survive. Go home to their families. All of them.
But now, too many things were coming to light that so many people wanted to remain buried. Including him. He would be a hypocrite if he denied that.
He had done things, things in the past that he was far from proud of. Secrets that he had thought long behind him. Secrets…that by only grace would the ones involved find redemption. He had spent many hours now, studying the Word when it came to the concept of redemption. He was far from perfect. He understood his own flaws. He had studied them his entire life, after all. He was a changed man now.
He wasn’t the same as he was years ago.
“Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.”He said the words to himself almost silently.It was from Amos. He would have to look it up to find the exact chapter and verse. He knew what it meant, though. It was wise for him…to keep his secrets now that he could.
But…his crimes were more those of omission, were they not? And he had found grace and redemption. He had repented. He was trying to do good now, to right what he had wronged.
He had first become a TSP officer over forty-five years ago for one reason: to help others. Melvin knew he had lost the way long, long ago. But he was getting back to that now. It was just taking time.
The miracle was that God had found him and saved him. And…that meant he had earned his way into Heaven to see his beloved Anita once again.
Maybe that was it, what was making him hurt so much tonight. Hospitals meant Anita. She had been sick for months. And it had almost destroyed him to watch how the gentle perfection that was his wife had just…faded into nothing. That would always hurt him. Haunt him.
He had loved that woman heart and soul.
Melvin stayed where he was, as Danny and Ernie and Joe discussed Heather Coleson and what kind of trouble that woman just somehow kept finding. She stumped them all. No one quite knew what to do with a woman like her.
Melvin certainly didn’t.
Heather Coleson. Melvin had dealt with her so many times before. That beautiful, amazing, incredibly complicated young woman had given him fits the entire time she had worked under him. He had vented about that girl to his Anita so many times. Anita would just laugh and say how much she admired that girl when she’d see her at the station. He had been relieved when he had been able to sign off on her transfer request. He had thought…getting her away…from Wichita Falls would begoodfor them all, especially Heather. He’d hoped it would give her a new start, with family around her in Finley Creek.
He’d thought he was helping.
She…was one of his secrets. One of his biggest regrets.
He had failed her, before. But…he was a different man now.
That was in the past. His sins had been erased. Even though it was hard to look at that woman, or her children. He was different now. He just wished Anita had lived to see it. She had told him time and time again to deal with Heather Coleson with grace. Sometimes, he thought that was exactly what he had not done. It had weighed on him—but he hadn’t told Anita the full truth. He had kept that secret, so he would not upset her back then.
His Anita had been so sensitive to the darkness in the world.
He would always miss her. He had not been a good man when he was married to her; that would be his largest regret of all time. Anita had not gotten the man God had wanted him to be.
He had lied, he had cheated. He had done things fully for his own profit and desire. His greed. Those were things he was not proud of. But that was behind him now.
God had washed him with the waters.
Melvin was a new man now.
