Cadence of Cranberries - Valerie Comer Page 0,43
he didn’t look back.
Headed to Seattle to see Katri. Sorry to miss Christmas Day with you. XO
It had been a chicken text. Charlie knew it. But when his daughter had phoned last night, gulping enormous sobs, he had no choice. He’d barely been able to make out the gist of it. Katri and Dominic had had an argument, and he’d come to Spokane early, without her. She was terrified she’d lost him forever. She hadn’t meant to drive him away with her worries and concerns. She hadn’t meant to let everyone down.
Julia had a lot to answer for.
Charlie’s hands tightened on the ’Stang’s wheel as he sped westward down I-90. Katri wouldn’t be off work until seven o’clock. Since it was Christmas Day, there’d be no way she could have called in sick unless she arrived at the hospital in an ambulance. There was no hurry to turn up in Seattle, but he’d be there when she got off-shift. He’d fix this. It’s what dads did.
Charlie could have stopped by Winnie’s for an hour or two this morning as they’d planned, but everything between them was just plain off since Dominic’s call to his mom last week. The same Dominic who had fought with Charlie’s baby girl then run off home crying to mama.
Yeah. Charlie wanted to take the boy and dunk his head in some ice water for hurting Katri. Or maybe Katri was better off without the doctor wannabe. She deserved a man who’d come home for dinner every night. More than that, a man who’d cook the dinner on nights his wife worked until seven. A man who’d adore her and treat her like a princess.
A man with a nine-to-five job who still made enough money to give Katri everything she’d grown up with.
A man who was better husband material than Charlie had been twenty-eight years ago. Better husband material than he was now.
Enough of those thoughts. He cranked up the radio to hear a woman’s voice launch into the chorus of “O Holy Night.”
Fall on your knees! Oh hear the angel voices! O night divine! O night when Christ was born. O night, O holy night, O night divine.
It was hard to stay glum listening to the uplifting challenge.
He knows our need, to our weakness no stranger! Behold your King! Before Him lowly bend!
And here Charlie had been carrying it all on himself. Sure, he’d prayed for Katri and Dominic. He’d prayed about his relationship with Winnie, but all of it had been assumptions that he already knew what was best and that God would just smile indulgently, pat Charlie on the head, and grant him his desires, like three wishes from a genie.
He knew better than that. Of course, he did. But he’d spent more than fifty years running his own show and less than four living in expectation of what God wanted to do in him and through him.
In other words, he was guilty — again — of going his merry little way and expecting to get a gold star for it.
“Lord?” He reached for the volume knob and turned it down a little. “It’s been all about me. I’m sorry.”
Katri had introduced him to Jesus. He’d been attracted to the gentle Savior like a small orphan longing for a place to belong. For the first time in his life, it wasn’t about what Charlie could bring to the table. It wasn’t about his looks, or his smarts, or his ability to make money, or any of the other expectations he’d been striving to meet — no, surpass — since he’d been young.
With Jesus, it was all about love. All about what Jesus had done for Charlie, and there was nothing Charlie could do in return to make Jesus love him more. Nothing he could do to make Jesus love him less.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining, ’till he appeared, and the soul felt its worth.
Yes. Charlie took a deep breath and let it out long and slow.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn; fall on your knees—
Christmas Day. A time to celebrate Jesus’ birth because that was the new and glorious morning the weary world needed. The thrill of hope Charlie needed today. Needed every day.
Winnie was way ahead of him in the faith department, but if their kids had truly broken their engagement, what would it do to his relationship with Winnie? They’d have to take sides, wouldn’t they? Wouldn’t