Reckless (Christian Fiction)

Chapter 2 - The Memory

16 years later, Grace Kendrick sat in her minivan waiting on her daughter Lorali to get out of school. Her cell phone rang and she saw her husband's name come up on the screen. She pressed ignore and looked back up the steps to the front door of Cape Ellis Elementary School. Lorali was barely six years old and everyday had a new opinion about her first grade year. Yesterday she was sure she would never go back to Ms. Shirley's class, and if her EX best friend Jasmine even tried to talked to her again she'd just die! If there was one thing Lorali was, it was dramatic. One of the only traits she inherited from her father. Grace knew he was only calling to tell her he'd be working late tonight. It would be a short conversation in which he would tell her he had a big case come up and he would try to be home before 9, which later turned into midnight. Sometimes it would be the next morning before he would be home. It was a traditional Friday night. She didn't have a problem with his crazy hours, after all, his job was important. What bothered Grace more than anything was his tone everytime they talked. He always assumed she was angry and was defensive before she even picked up the phone. She just didn't see the point in stressing herself out before she got to see her daughter for the first time all day. She was an RN at the Corbin County General Hospital. She had been on the night shift for the last 2 weeks and the afternoons of her nights off were the highlight of her week. She missed so much time with Lorali. She didn't want to spend the time she did have reeling from an exhausting conversation with her husband that consisted of him accusing her of an attitude she didn't have and her apologizing for the tone she didn't take. He was an FBI agent working out of D.C. which was an hour drive from the place she grew up and their current home, Cape Ellis, VA. He started his career right out of high school in the U.S. Army. He had done several deployments in Afghanistan before being injured and then honorably discharged from service. Lorali came down the steps with a wave of other elementary students. She came straight to the car and hopped in the backseat. The teacher working at the pickup line helped her buckle in. They were barely out of the line before Lorali started telling Grace all about her day. It turns out Jasmine wasn't actually trying to be mean yesterday when she didn't sit by Lorali at lunch or play with her at recess. She just got distracted by the new kid in class and wanted to be nice to him. She began describing the events that took place in science lab when Tommy Butler accidentally let Fred, the beloved pet of the science lab teacher Mr. Weaver, out of his cage. Fred was a frog and Grace could only imagine how chaotic that must have been.
Grace began to let her mind wander as Lorali talked and thought back to last year when Noah had come home from an overseas business trip. He seemed more stressed out than usual, but was kinder than she had seen him be to anyone other than their daughter in over a year. She remembered a couple of nights after he came home she walked into the house to roses and music and dinner on the table. He had called his sister Mindy to babysit Lorali for them. He had waited patiently for her to shower and change out of her scrubs and he held her hand all through dinner as she told him about her day. They laughed and talked all night. She had gone to bed with a smile and was sure things would be different from then on... she never did figure out why they weren't. When she woke up the next morning he was packing to go on  another business trip and wasn't sure when he would be back. She felt hurt and overwhelmed, and couldn't stop the tears when they fell from her eyes and hit her pillow. This made him angry and he left without so much as a kiss goodbye. He was cold to her since that day and she never understood what had changed. Lorali's sudden shriek brought her back to reality as she pulled into the driveway of their 2 story family home. "Daddy's home!!!" she exclaimed with pure joy and innocence. Grace had a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach. Half nervous, half hopeful. "Yes, I see that! Why don't you go play on the swings or the tree house and me and daddy will come find you after we talk?" Grace asked. "Awwww.... but I want to see daddy!!!" Lorali whined. "You will, darling. But me first." Grace smiled as she said it. It was a tradition in their family that mommy and daddy were first, always. Lately so much had changed, but that was too important to Grace to let go of.
She helped Lorali out of the van and walked up the front steps to the porch. When she walked in the house Noah stood at the back door watching as Lorali ran through the back gate and to the tree house. Their home was surrounded by woods, and their back yard had a fence around both sides but the back of the yard was completely open to the forest. This made it easier for Noah to go back and hunt when the season was right without having to go very far. Lorali knew she couldn't go further than a certain point and had never so much as tried to break that rule.
"You're here..." said Grace. "Let me make you some coffee. I didn't know you'd be home early, I haven't started supper yet." She walked to the coffee pot and was pouring the old pot out when she felt the warmth of his strong arms around her. She tensed up at first because she didn't expect it, and then allowed herself to relax and breath into him. She turned around and looked up at his face. There were tears on his cheeks and a look she had never seen before in his eyes. "Noah... wha..." he kissed her suddenly. But it was different. The weight that filled the room was enough to take her breath away. She knew there was something he wasn't saying, but she had no idea what was about to happen. He loosened his grasp on her and looked her in the eyes. "Grace... baby... I've lied to you long enough. I'm so sorry. I have to tell you the truth. Please forgive me Grace... please..." his voice broke and with the next sentence her heart did too.