Page 56 of Wish You Faith
“I have to fly out to Seattle sooner than expected.” Might as well tell her as it is.
“Is everything okay at home?” Rosie walked with her phone to the living room. All was quiet there. Maybe Sonya had gone to bed. It was almost nine o’clock in the evening.
“Mom and Dad are quarreling again. My brother and I usually mediate.”
“He’s all by himself then. You need to go help.”
“That’s not all. My sister-in-law is on bedrest, and Connor is in charge alone. I was his VP until I quit.” He didn’t tell her that they didn’t hire his replacement because they thought he’d be back in January.
“Then all the more reason for you to go home.”
“Home is Savannah now. I don’t want to leave you.” Evan hoped his voice didn’t sound like he was whining.
“How long will you be gone?”
“I’m not sure. A week, two weeks?” Evan wanted to come home by Christmas, but he couldn’t promise. When dealing with Mom, it could take days. But he had to help Connor at the office also.
“Have you prayed about it?” Rosie asked.
“Not yet. I just got off the phone with Connor.”
“Let’s pray about it and see what God says.” Rosie sat down on an armchair. “I’m thinking that you need to go. Your family needs you. Your parents are not saved. You have an opportunity to show them the love of Christ. What better time than at Christmas?”
“Good point.”
“Go.”
“But I’m going to miss you.” Evan could feel the separation already.
“I will miss you too, but we have a lifetime to get to know each other,” Rosie said.
A lifetime?
Evan’s heart warmed.
CHAPTERELEVEN
Family matters called Evan home abruptly two days after he had claimed Rosie’s hand in public at the tree farm, and that left her lonely in Savannah.
She couldn’t complain about it because Evan had to fill in for his older brother whenever he skipped work to stay home and take care of his pregnant wife on bedrest and to solve some family quarrels between their parents.
Rosie kept busy the rest of the week during this Christmas season and hardly had time to miss Evan?—
Not!
She missed him so much—his warm hugs, his gentle kisses, his company. The way he rubbed her arms and held her hands. The way he whispered in her ear and told her all the right things.
She missed spending time with him, carpooling to church with him, seeing him at work all day, having lunch with him in the tree farm cafeteria.
Chatting with him on video calls wasn’t the same as being with him in person. And she knew that he felt the same way because he’d told her.
She missed Evan so so so much that by Friday, she found herself feeling weepy at random times and at odd hours. She cried herself to sleep and woke up too early in the morning, thinking of Evan.
How could a man preoccupy her mind day and night?
However, by Sunday morning, after a good dose of church sermon from Pastor Flores about focusing on the Christ of Christmas, Rosie snapped out of her pining and yearning. She was beginning to think that all that lovesickness was unbecoming of a thirty-year-old supposedly mature Christian career woman.
The weekend came and went, and Rosie was busy again at the Christmastown Tree Farm on Monday. She kept her phone on full volume in her apron pocket, just in case Evan texted. And texted her, he did—although not as frequently as Rosie would have preferred.
