The Prodigal Comes Home (13 page)

“For me?” Matt looked at her in astonishment. “Why would it?”

Instead of answering the question, Zoey suddenly leaned forward and pointed to a slight figure walking down the sidewalk ahead of them. “That looks like Haylie, the girl I was telling you about.” She pulled over to the side of the curb and rolled the window down. “Haylie?”

The girl paused at the sound of Zoey’s voice. Her face twisted into a grimace as a gust of wind almost knocked her off her high-heel boots. Zoey waved her over and Haylie reluctantly approached the vehicle.

Matt took one look at the teenager’s face and knew that her puffy, red-rimmed eyes hadn’t been triggered by the weather. Without missing a beat, Zoey hopped out of the car and opened the back door.

“Hop in. We’ll give you a ride home.” She bundled Haylie into the backseat before the girl could protest.

Matt turned up the heat and adjusted both vents until they pointed directly at their shivering passenger.

Zoey got back in and unearthed a travel-size package of tissues from the console. “Here, take a couple of these. The rain made my mascara run, too.”

“Thanks.” A soft but unmistakable sniffle followed the word and a hand reached between the seats to take the package Zoey offered.

Matt couldn’t help but be impressed by Zoey’s sensitivity.

She didn’t put undue pressure on Haylie by asking embarrassing questions or trying to distract her with idle chatter.

When he’d stopped by the Grapevine for breakfast on Monday morning, Kate had mentioned again how the teenagers had gravitated toward Zoey even though it was the first time she’d served as a volunteer. Now he knew why. She didn’t try too hard or make demands, which only made her more approachable.

“Haylie, the guy riding shotgun is Pastor Wilde.”

Taking his cue from Zoey, Matt twisted around in his seat and gave her an easy smile. “It’s nice to meet you.”

Haylie mumbled a response and huddled deeper into the shadows.

“Where do you live, Haylie?” Zoey checked for traffic and pulled back onto the street.

“Keep going until you get to Oak Street and then take a right onto Silver Birch. It’s by The Pines.”

Matt wasn’t sure if Zoey was familiar with that area. “Do you remember where that is?”

She kept her eyes fixed on the road.

“I remember.”

Z
oey’s fingers tightened around the steering wheel.

How could she forget?

The trio of towering white pine trees that bowed over a narrow strip of shoreline had become a familiar local landmark. Because of its isolated location, The Pines had been a popular spot for impromptu beach parties.

In the two years Zoey had lived in Mirror Lake, she’d only been invited to one.

She turned off Main Street onto Silver Birch Drive and Haylie stirred in the backseat. “It’s at the end of the road. The white house on the left.”

The Pines loomed ahead of them. In the dark, it looked as if the road ended at the base of the trees.

Did the one in the middle still bear a scar from the impact of Tyler’s car?

Help me, God.

Zoey was surprised that Matt couldn’t hear her bones rattling around inside of her body.

One of the front tires hit a pothole and the Jeep lurched. Zoey realized she must have made some kind of sound because Matt shot a questioning look in her direction.

“Okay?”

Not even close, Zoey thought.

Haylie’s seatbelt retracted before the car came to a complete stop in the driveway. “Thanks for the ride.”

“I’ll see you at practice tomorrow?”

“Bye, Zoey.” The girl pretended not to hear the question, which, Zoey thought, was an answer in itself.

As Haylie ran up the sidewalk, a motion light came on, briefly illuminating a person standing on the porch.

Zoey wasn’t one hundred percent certain, but she thought it looked like Rob Price. But if it was Rob, why hadn’t he given her a ride home instead of making her walk almost five blocks in the freezing rain?

Thinking about Haylie momentarily shifted her thoughts from the accident. Until she looked up and saw the tree in the middle, its branches shaking as if it were still feeling the impact of a car…

Her fingers convulsed around the stick shift, and Zoey felt Matt’s hand close over hers.

“Are you going to tell me why you’re upset?”

She tore her gaze away from the tree.

“I was thinking about Haylie.” It was partly the truth. “The weather is terrible. I wish she would have told me that she needed a ride.”

Matt didn’t say anything, but Zoey could see he didn’t believe her.

She eased her hand away from his, her fingers trembling as she fumbled to turn the key in the ignition.

If Matt had the ability to read her thoughts so easily, did he know that she was falling in love with him?

Matt glanced up when he heard a quiet tap on the door of his office. Ever since he’d arrived at the church that morning, his thoughts had been more centered on Zoey than the notes from the mentoring meeting he’d attended the night before.

He pushed the papers aside. “Come in.”

Walt Jenkins, who served as one of the elders in the church, shuffled in. “Mornin’, Pastor.”

“Hey, Walt.” Matt smiled. “Have a seat.”

Walt walked over to the window instead, his gaze bouncing around the room as if he’d never seen the inside of Matt’s office before.

The man’s behavior struck Matt as odd. “Is everything all right?”

“That’s the question I was hoping you could answer for me,” Walt said cryptically.

“I afraid I don’t follow.”

“I got a call last night. Thought I better get your side of the story.”

His side of the story?

“A call? From who?”

“The woman who called asked to remain anonymous.” Walt’s lips pursed, as if the word had left a sour taste in his mouth. “Seems she heard a rumor that you hired Zoey Decker to fill in as the church secretary when Cheryl goes on maternity leave.”

“What?”

“You know decisions like that have to be approved, Matt,” Walt said. “Rose Williams’s niece already volunteered to take Cheryl’s place and we were planning to vote on it at the next meeting.”

“We’re still going to vote on it.” Matt raked a hand through his hair. “I have no idea where this
anonymous
person came up with that idea, but it’s not true.”

Walt released a sigh. “Someone told this person that Zoey answered the phone. In
your
office.”

Someone told…Matt wasn’t so naive that he denied the existence and efficiency of the local grapevine, but he had never found himself tangled up in it. Until now.

“That was after hours,” he explained. “We were in my office and Zoey picked up the phone because I asked her to.”

Matt saw the grim look on Walt’s face and realized he’d just made it worse. “Zoey was here for the cantata practice. We happened to be leaving church at the same time. I didn’t offer her a position as my secretary and she wouldn’t accept it even if I had. She’s only here for a few weeks—until Liz gets a clean bill of health from Dr. Parish and the cantata is over.”

Walt swept the ball cap off his head and studied the Wisconsin Badgers logo embroidered on the brim. “That’s another thing, Pastor. The cantata. You asked Zoey Decker to take over as the director without consulting anyone first.”

Matt stared at him, unable to believe what he was hearing. “I didn’t think I had to.”

Walt cleared his throat. “Some people are…questioning her involvement, that’s all.”

It was clear that Walt, one of the men who went fishing with him on a regular basis, was one of those people.

“What’s this really about?” Matt struggled to keep his frustration in check.

The silence between them deepened.

“People are talking,” Walt finally said.

“About the cantata?”

“The cantata—and about you and Zoey Decker. The two of you seem to be spending a lot of time together.”

“We live next door to each other,” Matt pointed out. “Her grandmother is a good friend of mine. And if someone has a problem, I wish that person would talk to me and check the facts before spreading rumors.”

Walt’s wind-burned cheeks deepened in color. “It’s just that you don’t know Zoey Decker like the rest of us do,” he muttered.

“You’re right,” Matt agreed. “I think I know her better.”

Matt was late.

Zoey glanced at the clock and then walked over to the kitchen window and peered outside. There was no sign of his truck in the driveway. No lights on in the carriage house.

Matt had talked to Gran earlier that morning and promised to be there for pizza night.

The day had dragged along as Zoey counted the minutes. She needed to talk to him.

And that, she acknowledged ruefully, would no doubt come as a shock to Matt, given the way she’d resisted his last attempt to coax her into telling him what was on her mind.

Their paths had crossed only a few times since the night they’d taken Haylie home. Zoey alternated her time between practices at the church and making sure that Gran wasn’t overdoing things at home.

In between those responsibilities, she did her best to dodge Matt while trying to ignore the expanding hole in her chest when he wasn’t around.

But she couldn’t avoid him tonight.

She’d been encouraged when Haylie showed up for practice on Tuesday night and thrilled when the girl had shyly informed her that she played the violin.

Zoey had kept a watchful eye on Haylie throughout the evening. In spite of all the commotion that came from assigning parts, listening to the selections and answering questions, she tried to stay in tune with the dynamics of the group.

It hadn’t taken very long to figure out that Haylie didn’t fit in. The rest of the girls, though polite, didn’t go out of their way to include her. And some of the boys would nudge each other, glance Haylie’s way and make comments under their breath. Zoey had assumed Haylie and Rob were dating, but at the last practice, he had all but ignored her. The girl had looked close to tears by the time practice ended but left before Zoey had an opportunity to talk to her.

And now she’d missed the last two practices.

Zoey had left a message on her cell phone several times, but Haylie hadn’t returned her calls.

“No Matthew?” Liz shuffled into the kitchen.

“Not yet.” Zoey’s face heated at having been caught staring out the window. “It’s been half an hour. Maybe we should start without him.”

“I suppose so.”

Neither of them moved.

“I’m surprised he didn’t call to let us know that he couldn’t make it,” Zoey murmured, almost to herself.

“I think we should pray,” Liz said briskly, taking Zoey’s hand between her own.

Zoey closed her eyes.

“We don’t know what’s going on, Lord, but You do,” Liz said quietly. “Whatever situation has kept Matthew away tonight, we know he’s not alone. You’re with him. Whatever strength or encouragement he needs, we trust that you will provide it. Amen.”

“Amen,” Zoey echoed.

The next half hour crawled by. Gran asked questions about the cantata while they chopped up vegetables and prepared the crust, but Zoey recognized it as a means to distract her.

When the phone rang halfway through the meal, they both froze.

“That’s probably Matthew now, calling to see if we saved him a slice of pizza.” Liz was closer to the phone so she got to it first. “Hello?”

Zoey watched the color drain from her grandmother’s face and her heart clenched. She pushed to her feet, her hands gripping the edge of the table for support.

“Yes, I’ll call Delia and let her know. And please…” Liz’s voice cracked. “Tell Matthew that we’re praying.”

Zoey was at her side in a moment. “What happened, Gran?”

Tears welled up in Liz’s eyes. “Derek Cornell, one of the boys in Matthew’s mentoring ministry, was playing with some friends by the lake this afternoon. They walked out onto the ice and Derek fell through.”

“Oh, Gran, no,” Zoey breathed. “Did he…is he all right?”

The night the knitting group came over, she remembered Emma Barlow talking about the mentoring ministry that Church of the Pines had started the previous summer. Her son, Jeremy, had been matched up with Jake Sutton, which was how the couple had met.

“According to Cheryl, Matthew has been with Derek’s mother for the past hour, waiting at the hospital for the Flight for Life helicopter to get there.”

Zoey’s heart sank even farther.

If the local hospital wasn’t equipped to handle the situation, it could mean that Derek’s condition was critical.

Her own legs were shaking, but Zoey managed to guide Liz back to the table. “Sit down for a minute, Gran.”

“But I have to pass the message on to Delia,” she said in a voice that wobbled. “She’s next on the prayer chain.”

“I’ll call her.” Zoey gave Liz a quick hug and sent up a fervent prayer of her own. For Derek and his mother.

And for Matt.

B
acklit by the setting sun, The Pines didn’t look as threatening as they had the night Zoey took Haylie home.

Zoey put the car in park and closed her eyes, struggling to replace the memory of shattered glass and twisted metal with the concerned look in Matt’s eyes. The warm pressure of his hand closing around hers, offering her strength.

She wished he was with her now.

Zoey hadn’t seen Matt since he’d driven to Milwaukee to sit with Derek’s family. Over the past few days, it seemed as if the whole town was holding a collective breath, waiting for word about the boy’s condition.

Zoey had been tempted to cancel practice for the cantata, but Liz and Delia talked her out of it. She had understood the wisdom behind their reasoning when she saw that shared concern over Derek’s condition continued to strengthen the bond between the members of the newly formed choir. They prayed about the situation after every practice. The faith of the older women encouraged the teenagers to trust.

Haylie, however, hadn’t been there to experience it.

Zoey got out of the vehicle and walked slowly up the sidewalk.

I know you’re with me, Lord. Give me the right words to say to her.

The curtains on the bay window quivered as Zoey rang the doorbell. A few minutes later, a little boy about five years old with a hank of gold hair and eyes the same shade of blue as Haylie’s opened the door.

“Hi.” Zoey took a deep breath. “Is Haylie here?”

“Nope.” The boy tucked his chin and offered a shy smile.

“My name is Zoey.”

“Ben, close that door and get back in here…” The woman whose face was an older, careworn version of Haylie’s pulled up short when she saw Zoey. Her eyes narrowed. “Who are you?”

Ben took advantage of the distraction and darted away.

“I’m Zoey Decker. Haylie and I have been working together on the Easter cantata at Church of the Pines,” Zoey explained. “I just wanted to talk to her a few minutes.”

“She took off about an hour ago.”

“Do you know when she’ll be back?”

Either Haylie’s mother heard the note of desperation that crept into Zoey’s voice or she didn’t want to deal with the possibility of a future visit, because she pointed down the road. “Sometimes she takes a walk down by The Pines. There’s a rock she likes to sit on.” The woman rolled her eyes. “Don’t ask me why.”

Zoey didn’t have to. She had claimed her own places of solitude when she was seventeen.

“Thank you, Mrs. Owens.”

“If you find Haylie, remind her that she has to take care of Ben tonight. I’m working third shift.” The door closed with a decisive snap between them.

Zoey dipped a hand into her pocket, her fingers curling around her cell phone. She could call…

But Haylie wouldn’t answer.

A breeze ruffled Zoey’s hair as she pivoted toward the three trees that stood like sentinels on a narrow strip of land that followed the curve of the road.

She started walking, her steps slow, her heart racing.

Haylie was there, just as her mother had predicted. But she wasn’t perched on one of the granite boulders scattered along the shoreline. She sat right at the foot of the three massive pine trees Zoey had been doing her best to avoid.

It was the girl’s posture, arms hugging her chest, chin resting on her knees, that prevented Zoey from retreating to the safety of her Jeep.

She lowered herself onto the damp, spongy ground next to Haylie. “Hi.”

“What do you want?”

Zoey tried not to take the girl’s attitude personally.

“I missed you at practice yesterday.” Haylie shrugged.

“Will you be there tomorrow?”

“I don’t think so.” Haylie leaned back, hooked her thumbs through the loops on the waistband of her jeans and looked bored.

Zoey, who had perfected the “and-you-can’t-make-me” pose when she was Haylie’s age, wasn’t intimidated. “Why not?”

“Maybe I don’t want to.”

Except that she did.

Zoey could see the battle going on in Haylie’s eyes, a reflection of what was happening in her heart. Having fought on the same field, she recognized the signs.

“Did something happen?”

“I don’t belong there, okay?” The words burst out of Haylie.

“There?”

“At church.” Haylie snapped the words, as if Zoey should have known that’s what she meant.

“Why would you say that?”

“Are you kidding me? The only reason I went there in the first place was because of Rob. We’ve been…hanging out for a couple of months and he kept talking about how cool it was. How much he liked it.”

Zoey knew that Haylie was watching her closely—looking for signs of shock or disgust that she’d come to youth group because of a boy.

Haylie didn’t know it yet, but she wasn’t going to get rid of her that easily.

Under different circumstances, Zoey wouldn’t have pushed. But where would she be now if Melissa hadn’t obeyed that nudge from the Lord and asked her some tough questions?

“What made you change your mind?”

Haylie scraped at what remained of the bright-yellow nail polish on her thumb. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

Zoey waited.

“The songs. Those verses that you have Tim Davis read out of the Bible. All the stuff about Jesus dying on the cross for people’s sins…” Haylie bit down on her lip to prevent the rest of the words from rushing out.

“You don’t believe it?”

Haylie looked down at her feet and Zoey understood.

“He didn’t just die on the cross for people’s sins,” Zoey said carefully. “He did it for me. And for you.”

“Not for me,” Haylie whispered. “I’ve messed up. You don’t understand.”

“Oh, I understand messing up.” They were sitting in the shadow of one of Zoey’s biggest mistakes.

A tear rolled down Haylie’s cheek. “Me and Rob…we were together before he started to go to church with Zach. I really like him, but the rest of the guys have been giving him a hard time, saying things about me. Rob is confused and he won’t even talk to me now. I guess after the things we did, I’m not…good enough to be there.”

Zoey read between the lines, and her heart ached over the decisions Haylie had made that were tearing her apart.

Give me wisdom, Lord. Help me find the words.

For the first time since the accident, Zoey could look at the trees. Really look at them. A wide gash in the trunk of the middle one had scabbed over like a wound.

She reached out to touch a cluster of tiny green shoots protruding from the center of the mark, overwhelmed by the simple but humbling reminder of what God could do. Not only with a tree, but a person’s life.

“We’ve all made mistakes, Haylie, every one of us,” Zoey said. “God knows we’re not perfect. But Jesus was. It says in the book of Romans that Christ died for us while we were still sinners. He doesn’t wait until we have our act together. We don’t have to clean ourselves up before we approach Him. We can’t. That’s where grace comes in. We need Him. And He loves us. He loves you. We can’t undo the past. But with God’s help, we can move forward.”

“I don’t know.” The wide blue eyes held doubt—and a flicker of longing.

“I do,” Zoey said, knowing it was time to tell her story. “Because He’s helping me.”

A combination of little sleep, hospital food and being there for Derek’s mom through those first, crucial twenty-four hours had left Matt with a chilling numbness that had seeped through his body. And his spirit.

Late Thursday night he had stopped home long enough to throw a few things into his suitcase. It was a long drive to the Milwaukee Children’s Hospital and knowing that Angela, Derek’s mother, was waiting there alone for word on her son’s condition, Matt hadn’t wanted to waste a minute.

The call had come in a few minutes before Matt had left for the day. Three adolescent boys had been playing on a large chunk of ice that had broken away from the shoreline. Derek had slipped off the side and fallen in. By the time his friends managed to get to shore and call for help, he had disappeared below the surface of the frigid water.

Jake Sutton had put a call through to Matt while on his way to the scene.

He’d been there when Derek was pulled from the water.

Matt dragged a hand through his hair and cracked open the car window. Fresh air poured in and stung Matt’s eyes. He almost welcomed the pain, hoping it would burn through the fog that had rolled over him.

Derek’s condition had stabilized during the night, so Matt reluctantly made the decision to return to Mirror Lake. He had two dozen voicemail messages that he hadn’t answered. A sermon to deliver the next day that he hadn’t written yet. And prayers that started out strong but quickly wilted like plants exposed to frost.

Matt was disappointed with God.

He knew it. He knew that God knew it. But at the moment,
knowing
it didn’t allow him to shed the feeling the way a person would an itchy sweater.

Angela had recently started to attend church. An abusive marriage had left her scarred, not only physically but emotionally, but the positive changes she’d seen in her son’s life through the mentoring program had made her curious.

Matt could only pray that after what happened to Derek, his mother would turn to God for comfort rather than away from Him.

Liz’s house came into view as he turned the corner. He owed both her and Zoey an apology for standing them up on Thursday night, even though he knew they would understand.

He hadn’t even had time to call. The world had shrunk to the size of the ICU waiting room. It had reminded him of a medical no-man’s-land, inhabited by strangers who had nothing in common except for the fact they’d been thrown together by a crisis.

Matt had done what he could, not only for Angela, but also for the handful of weary people camped out in the uncomfortable chairs and on the floor, all of them waiting for news, good or bad. Matt had handed out cold drinks. Distributed snacks from the vending machine. He’d even occupied a rambunctious two-year-old while his weary mother took a short nap.

Matt unlocked the door and dropped his duffel bag on the rug before collapsing in the recliner.

He should have been ready to sleep for a week, but while every muscle in his body screamed for rest, his mind refused to shut down.

He closed his eyes and tried to pray again, but the words continued to dance out of his reach.

A faint knock on the door roused him just as he started to doze off. Matt considered ignoring it. He had called Cheryl before leaving the hospital and asked her to put the latest news about Derek on the prayer chain. He hadn’t told the secretary what time he planned to return to Mirror Lake, only that he would be back in time for the Sunday morning service.

Matt wasn’t sure he was ready for visitors.

Stumbling toward the door, he opened it and found Zoey on the front step, George cradled in her arms.

“Hey…” Matt’s brain felt as sluggish as if it were only firing on two cylinders.

“Hi.” Zoey’s gaze swept over him, and Matt knew exactly what she was seeing. A rumpled cotton shirt, wrinkled khakis and bare feet. “I saw your truck in the driveway.”

“I just got back about an hour ago.”

Zoey continued to study him. “I brought George over so you’d have someone to practice your sermon on.”

The sermon he hadn’t started writing.

Spots floated in front of his eyes, but Matt couldn’t seem to blink them away. He was a little embarrassed that Zoey was seeing him like this.

Weak. Discouraged.

“I was trying to take a nap.”

“No, you weren’t.”

“Look, Zoey.” Matt released a sigh. “I don’t mean to be rude, but I’m not really…up to company.”

“I understand.” Zoey transferred George into his arms and walked past him into the house.

Zoey held her breath, waiting for Matt to stop her.

Maybe she should have taken his not-so-subtle hint and left him alone. One look at his face, however, told her that although it might be what Matt wanted, it wasn’t what he needed.

For the past two days, Zoey had been watching for his pickup truck. When she’d glanced outside and saw it parked in the driveway, her heart had tilted like an amusement park ride.

As far as she knew, Matt hadn’t told anyone that he was back.

She had waited for him to drop in and say hello.

But he hadn’t. He hadn’t called either.

For the next half hour, Zoey tackled every chore that gave her a view of the house next door. Dusting windowsills. Dusting the knickknacks
on
the windowsills.

As the afternoon sun began to slip below the trees, she waited for the lights in the carriage house to come on.

Nothing.

Finally, Zoey hadn’t been able to stand it any longer.

“Gran?”

Liz, who been channel surfing and stumbled upon her favorite musical, barely glanced in her direction. “Mmm?”

“I’m going out for a few minutes. If you need anything, call my cell phone, okay?”

Liz waved a tissue, which Zoey took as an affirmative.

Covering the distance between the two houses in record time, she’d rapped on Matt’s door. The house was so dark that Zoey had started to wonder if he had walked over to the church.

Until she’d heard the slow, heavy tread of footsteps on the other side. The door opened and Zoey saw a stranger. A gray-faced, exhausted stranger.

It was obvious Matt hadn’t slept much in the past forty-eight hours. But there was something else that concerned Zoey even more. He looked…discouraged.

Now that she was inside the house, Zoey wasn’t sure quite what to do.

With hands that shook, she dumped out the remains of the coffee and rinsed it out before putting on a fresh pot. In the refrigerator, she found the ingredients to make a simple ham and cheese omelet and dug a skillet out of the cupboard.

When she finally scraped up the courage to glance over her shoulder, Matt sat slumped in a corner of the sofa, George curled up in his lap, as if arguing with her would have used up too much energy.