Rekindled Hearts

Startled back to the moment he reached for the spray bottle of water and squirted the flaming coals. A quick glance over his shoulder and he saw Lexi turn to smile at him.

Lexi smiled as she watched Colt with the spray bottle, putting out the fire that had erupted in the grill. She liked seeing him not in control of a situation. He got a little scattered when it happened, because it happened so rarely. When he looked back at her, she nodded and turned away. Happy, because she had been the one to scramble his self-control.

She skipped away to the area where children of all ages were playing with all different types of bubble-blowing contraptions. In the open lawn area of the church others were flying kites and throwing Frisbees.

“Why the frown when you were smiling a few minutes ago?”

Jill. Lexi glanced at her friend who had left the small group she’d been talking to and was now at Lexi’s side.

“I didn’t mean to frown.” Lexi looked around the lawn at the people, and past to the buildings that were still damaged. “If you could focus on just this one spot, on the people having fun here, you could fool yourself into believing the tornado never happened.”

“I know. Sometimes I look out my window and it’s like I live somewhere else, somewhere other than the town I grew up in.” Jill smiled at a little girl who ran up to them with an unopened bottle of bubbles. “Do you need for me to open it?”

The child nodded, and Jill opened the bubbles and handed them back. The little girl scooted off, and Lexi didn’t know where else to go with the conversation, not when her mind kept turning back to the six hours in her basement with Colt holding her close.

Six hours that had given her hope that maybe, just maybe, she and Colt could work out their problems and rebuild their marriage.

As the workers dug them out that night, Colt had stayed by her side. He had held her close, whispering reassurances. He had stayed with her until they loaded her into the back of the ambulance. Alone, it had been hard to remain optimistic, believing his whispered promise.

She could still close her eyes and see his face in the window of the ambulance and hear the hand that had hit the door, giving them the okay to pull away. And when she woke up in the Manhattan hospital, it had been her mother’s face, not Colt’s.

Nothing had changed in that basement.

Let it go, she told herself. Today was a day of rebuilding, not reliving the past. Moving forward, that was the sermon’s title. Moving forward, knowing God is still in control and still able to answer prayers.

She had to let it go, because she still wanted more than Colt could give her. She wanted to be somewhere on the top of his list of priorities, not the person that came after everyone else.

She didn’t want to be the person waiting, wondering if he would come home.

It was hard to put that into words. In their marriage, she had failed to explain it to him. It had come out as accusations. She knew that, now. Too late.

“Come on, let’s play horseshoes.” Lexi’s friend Jill nudged her from the memories.

Jill, in her prairie skirt and boots, was a cowgirl. The real deal, not the city kind, like Lexi. Jill could rope, shoot a gun and make cheese. Of course she would beat Lexi at a game like horseshoes.

“I’m not sure about horseshoes,” Lexi admitted. “I’m better at blowing bubbles.”

Jill reached for a bottle of bubbles on a table. “Go for it, then. But I see a certain cowboy that I’ve been after for about ten years. You blow bubbles and I’ll see you later.”

“Watch out for that cowboy,” Lexi warned. “He’ll break your heart.”

Jill shrugged and danced away, her skirt swishing around her legs.

Lexi dipped the plastic wand into the bubbles and drew it out. Rather than blowing, she waved it in a circle. Huge bubbles flew through the air, floating and then landing on the grass, some popping midair.

Children ran around, hands out, trying to catch the illusive bubbles. Little girls with pigtails and boys with crew cuts.

“Lexi, I need to ask a favor.” Michael Garrison walked toward her, weaving his way through the crowd of bubble-blowing children, who now saw him as a target. He laughed, swatting at bubbles and ruffling the hair of the children surrounding him.

“Okay, a favor.” She felt a little sick to her stomach, because he had that smile on his face. He was up to something.

“We’re trying to match pets with people. I know you’re about full over at the clinic, and a few other folks in town are taking in strays, so I thought this might be a way to match up lost pets to owners, or adopt them out. We might even do a rabies clinic while we’re at it, just to make sure the pets are immunized.”

It sounded good, but that mysterious twinkle in his eyes was another matter altogether. Lexi looked from Reverend Garrison to Colt, and wondered if there was a connection between them and this pet-matching project.

“If you’re too busy…” Michael Garrison caught a bubble and it popped.

“What day and I’ll make sure that I’m not.”

“Next Saturday.”

“Here at the church?” She looked around, and it didn’t take long to realize that this was about the only place in town for a project like this one.

“Yes, at the church. We’re trying hard to make this a comfortable place for people, so they feel good about coming and bringing their families. We all need to heal.”

“Yes, we do.”

“Oh, and don’t forget the lost-and-found room. It’s been filled up and emptied two or three times since it started. I know you lost so much….”

Lexi nodded, and she didn’t cry this time when she thought about the house she and Colt had picked and furnished together. Most of her belongings had been destroyed, everything but a few pictures and a box of jewelry that had been her grandmother’s. Even her wedding pictures had disappeared.

And her wedding ring set. She tried not to think about the engagement ring that Colt had put on her finger so many years ago, or the wedding ring they had picked out together. They’d been in a box in the hall closet.

Michael was still standing next to her.

“No sign of the Logan ring?” Lexi placed her bottle of bubbles into the hands of a little blonde with large blue eyes and dimples.

“Nothing. Some jewelry has shown up, but not the ring. Or Tommy’s dog.”

Tommy. Her gaze lingered on the boy, whose hand was held by the strong and powerful hand of Gregory Garrison. Now that was a wonderful tribute to God’s care for the little ones.

“I know. I’ve had my eyes out for that dog.” Lexi turned her attention back to the reverend. “Is it wrong to pray that a dog comes home?”

Michael shook his head. “I don’t think so. Remember ‘All Creatures Great and Small.’”

“‘The Lord God made them all.’”

“And not only does He care about that dog, He cares about broken hearts.”

Lexi looked up, shocked by the words. Her surprise must have registered. Michael smiled. “Tommy’s heart, Lexi. That dog was his family when he didn’t have one. I know he has one now, but the dog is still important to him.”

“Yes, of course.”

Michael shifted, looking away for a moment before looking back at her, a reverend again, not a young man, uncomfortable with the conversation.

“Don’t give up.” He said it with conviction and she was lost, because there were several things she could tag with that saying.

“Give up?”