The Trouble With Angels Page 0,21

him, pressing against his heart. This was supposed to be his time with his son.

"I'll need another year of school for my teaching degree," Annie explained in a small voice. "I've already inquired about doing my student teaching in the Seattle area, and it doesn't look like it'll be any problem."

"It seems you've got everything all figured out." Although he knew he was being selfish, Paul didn't want to share his son. Not this Christmas. Not when he'd been looking forward to this time with Joe.

Joe and Annie gazed wistfully into each other's eyes. Ah, young love. How well Paul remembered the days he was courting Barbara and how they'd struggled to make ends meet while he was in seminary. Each Sunday they'd traveled to a different outlying church. Barbara would play the piano and lead the congregational singing, and he'd preach a rousing sermon. God had smiled down on their efforts and blessed them abundantly - for a time. And then the blessings had been abruptly cut off.

"You don't mind my being gone for Christmas, do you, Dad?" Joe asked.

Paul shook his head. "Don't you worry about me, son, I'll be fine."

"You won't spend the day alone?"

Given that he couldn't be with Joe, Paul preferred his own company. It seemed people crowded him from all sides. He loved his daughter, but when he visited, he found himself making excuses to leave after only an hour.

"Bethany will have me over, I'm sure," he said in answer to his son's question.

"There are a dozen or more people in the church who would fight to have you spend Christmas Day with them."

"Of course," Paul assured Joe. What he didn't explain was that he wasn't interested in squandering Christmas with church friends. He'd looked forward to spending this precious holiday with his only son. He'd thought about various activities for the two of them. Hiking. Maybe they'd fish a while. A few panfried lake trout were sure to cure what ailed him.

"We'd like your blessing on our marriage," Annie said.

Paul smiled. She was such a pretty thing, he could well understand his son falling for her. He was being selfish to want to hold on to Joe himself.

"You have my heartfelt congratulations, my blessing," Paul offered. "And my love. This calls for a celebration. Grab a jacket, I'm taking everyone out to dinner."

Joe and Annie's young faces brightened with wide smiles.

Several hours later Paul tossed and turned, unable to sleep. Sleeping was becoming more and more of a problem of late. He never had much trouble drifting off, but he'd soon jerk awake and spend fruitless hours fighting to go back to sleep.

He threw aside the blankets and reached for his robe, then climbed down the stairs to the kitchen. He took a glass from the cupboard and was pouring himself some milk when Joe joined him.

"Hi." Joe rubbed a hand down his face and yawned.

"Did I wake you?"

"No, I was up, thinking about, you know, life."

"Life?"

"Mine and Annie's."

"Ah." Paul scooted out a chair at the cluttered kitchen table, and Joe soon joined him.

"Was it like this with you and Mom?" Joe wanted to know. "Did you love her so much that you wondered why it took you so long to realize you were in love?"

"Yes," Paul said, and chuckled. "Your mother was the one who defined our relationship."

Joe straightened and pressed a hand over his pajama-clad chest. "It's the same way with Annie and me. I don't know what I was thinking we'd do after we finished school. I guess I wasn't thinking, because one day she asked me straight out what I was going to do after graduation. I told her and then she started to cry and for the life of me I couldn't make her tell me why.

"The next afternoon she returned everything I'd ever given her. I'd telling you, Dad, you could have knocked me over with a Popsicle stick. Here I thought we had a wonderful relationship, and for no reason I could understand, Annie wanted to break it off."

"That was when you decided to marry her?"

"No," Joe admitted. "First off I had to know what I'd done that was so terribly wrong. I don't lose my cool often, but she really ruffled my feathers. I met her in the library one evening and asked her point-blank what I'd done, and Dad, I swear her answer tied me up in knots so tight, I didn't think I'd ever get my head straight again."

"What did she say?"

"That's