Part 10 (2/2)

She'd bring him to youth group, and all the other girls would be jealous.”

”Yes.” Ashley smiled at the memory.

”I feel guilty for saying this-” Mrs. Mosby lowered her voice ”but I always rather hoped Ryan would marry your sister.” '

A smile tugged at the corners of Ashley's mouth, and she stared at the number she'd written down. ”Yes, Mrs. Mosby. Me too.”

”You know-” the older woman's voice was wistful ”I think we all did.” Then she hastened to add, ”But I was happy she married a nice Christian man.”

Ashley didn't answer that one. ”Well, I'd better go.” She suddenly was in a hurry to get off the phone. She wound up the conversation and punched in the numbers Mrs. Mosby had given her. Then she closed her eyes and waited.

Ryan Taylor lived in a well-appointed two-bedroom cabin on a ten-acre ranch. The place was minutes from the country club, less than a mile from the boat docks at Lake Monroe, and only three miles down the road from the house where Kari grew up, the house where the senior Baxters still lived. His career in professional football had paid off financially. He had a savings account he could never deplete and owed nothing on any of his material goods, including the ranch and his loaded silver Chevy truck. Someday he planned to build his dream house near the front of his land, but so far he'd had no reason to break ground.

The cabin suited him perfectly. He had never planned on having the privilege of playing professional football, but now that those days were behind him, he knew there was only one thing that could fill the decades ahead.

That thing was coaching.

When the a.s.sistant position at Clear Creek High School became available at the beginning of summer, he knew it was the

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opportunity he'd been looking for. The opportunity to come back home.

Things weren't exactly the same, of course. Back when he'd grown up in Clear Creek, he was just one of the gang, a favorite son who was welcomed everywhere he went. Now, after his eight years with the Cowboys, people treated him like a celebrity. They stared at him in supermarkets, asked for his autograph at the movie theater, and wouldn't let him have a public meal in peace.

Sometimes he even wondered whether he might have made a mistake in thinking he could settle down in Clear Creek. But then it was still his favorite place on earth, the place where he'd grown up, where his mother and his sister and her family still lived. All his life he'd imagined settling down here.

He just hadn't imagined doing it without Kari Baxter.

He'd had plenty of opportunities to date when he returned from his stint with Dallas. Everyone had a daughter, a friend, a sister who wanted to meet the area's newest eligible bachelor. A time or two Ryan had actually followed through and asked one of them out. But he always stopped after a few dates when he found himself comparing each woman to Kari.

It wasn't that the women he saw weren't wonderful in their own right. They were mostly beautiful and bright and would have made great wives, no doubt. But they hadn't sat cross- legged next to him on a summer's night the year he turned fourteen and told him the secrets of their hearts the way Kari had. They hadn't stayed beside him all day fis.h.i.+ng on the sh.o.r.es of Lake Monroe the summer he was seventeen or run for cover with him the afternoon the tornado siren sounded across the county.

The other women he met hadn't shared with him a first kiss or a first dance or that first taste of love. And they hadn't shown him for the first time what it meant to love G.o.d. To really love G.o.d and want to please him.

Ryan understood very well that Kari was married; clearly she 82 was not the woman for him. He simply wasn't in a hurry to find one who was.

”I don't know, Ryan, you're getting awfully old,” his mom would say to him every other Sunday when they got together for dinner. ”At this rate, I'll be toothless in a rocker before you give me some grandbabies.”

Ryan would laugh and pat his mother on her shoulder. ”You're stubborn enough to live a hundred years, Mom. At fifty- three you're young enough for anything.

You'll probably outlive us all.”

Practice had finished up early that day, and for some reason Ryan felt lonelier than usual, as if a piece of his heart weren't fitting quite right. He slipped on his work boots. A few hours outside in the yard would help clear his head.

He tackled the bushes in front of his cabin first and was inside getting water when the phone rang. Max, his white Lab Puppy c.o.c.ked his head and stared at the receiver as Ryan picked it up. ”It's okay, Max, boy.” He whispered the words and stooped to scratch Max's ears before clicking the b.u.t.ton and answering the

call.

”h.e.l.lo.” Max whined and gave two high-pitched puppy barks. ”My goodness, Ryan, I didn't know you could sing.” The voice was Kari's, but the tone was Ashley's.

Subtly sarcastic and mixed with a teasing they'd always shared.

He smiled and cleared his throat. ”I'm working on that number. Takes me a while to warm up.”

She giggled. ”Bet you don't know who this is.” ”The voice police? Calling to tell me I'm under arrest?” Another peal of laughter erupted on the other end.

”Ah, yes, same old Ryan. You never change, do you?”

”Nope, Ashley, not really.” He hesitated, curious. Ashley had never called before. ”Okay, what's up? No, wait, let me guess.

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Kari's husband left her high and dry, and she's pining away for me but couldn't bring herself to call.” He grinned at the audacity of his statement, certain Ashley would be doing the same.

Instead, her laughter died, and there was silence.

”Ashley?” Ryan's heart beat twice as fast as before. ”Ashley, talk to me. What is it?”

Her voice lacked any teasing. ”Kari's husband left her high and dry, and I don't know if she's pining away for you, but either way, I had to call.”

Now it was Ryan who was silent. His mind reeled at what she was saying, trying to determine if she could possibly still be joking. ”Be serious, Ashley.”

”I am.” She hesitated. ”Tim's having an affair. He moved in with one of his students.” She paused, and he felt the wood floor give way beneath him. ”Kari's spending a lot of time at my parents' house. She's been here the past few days.

I thought you should know.”

Ryan found the nearest chair at his small dining-room table and sat down. His knees were trembling. ”Is she ... is she okay?” It was the first thing he could think to ask. His emotions were bubbling within him-pain and sorrow, rage and revenge. How dare he do that to you, Kari girl? How dare he- ”She's pretty messed up, Ryan. She says she doesn't want a divorce; she's praying for Tim to come around.”

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