“And on the way to rescue you, O’Shea gave me a little talking to about how terrific you were and how deeply you embraced your faith.”
“O’Shea said all that?” She thought of her taciturn partner.
“Well, yeah. He said it in about five words, with a lot of grunting, but I got the message.”
“That sounds like him,” Keren said fondly.
“Anyway he said enough. And I knew the truth of those words I’d said so many times, ‘To live is Christ and to die is gain.’ I gave you up to God. I quit worrying. We still drove at top speed, don’t get me wrong. But the point is, I still felt all the strength of my anger, but it wasn’t out of control. I need to respect it, even use it once in a while. I had finally healed enough that I could quit fearing that part of myself.”
“I’m glad.” Keren leaned forward until she rested her forearms on her knees in a replica of Paul’s pose. She turned her head to look at him. They were inches apart.
He erased those inches when he kissed her.
A very sweet minute later, Paul said, “You did lean close like that so I could kiss you, right?”
“Right,” Keren whispered.
“The thing is, I’m always going to run the Lighthouse. It’s a calling, and I can’t turn my back on it.”
Keren nodded. “And I’m always going to be a cop. It’s a calling,
and I can’t turn my back on it.”
“But I wouldn’t necessarily have to
Keren’s smile widened until she laughed just a little. She never took her eyes off him. She was afraid if she blinked, her dreams might disappear.
He laughed back, just a little, and he kept his eyes on her, too.
“If that is a marriage proposal, it’s the worst one I’ve ever heard.”
“Oh yeah? Well, how many of them have you heard?”
She waited and watched and loved. “A couple. One was really romantic.”
“The guy who dumped you when he found out you had a spiritual gift he didn’t like?”
“Yeah.”
Paul arched one eyebrow. “A lot of good all his romance did you. You want poetry? Marry Robert Frost.”
“I don’t want him, I want you.”
Paul reached across the inches between them and clasped her hand in his. He looked at her until she felt like he had taken her inside of himself. He lifted her hand and kissed it. “I love you, Keren. I’ve been waiting until I got myself centered in my faith before I came to talk to you.”
“Your faith was never in danger, Paul.”
Paul gave a quick jerk of his head. “Absolutely not. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t get pretty mixed up for a while. Not about believing in Jesus. But about where I was meant to be, what I was being led to do with my life.” He bounced their hands gently between them. “What I was supposed to do with you.”
“Had trouble with me, did you?” she asked.
Paul shrugged and let go of her hand and reached into the pocket of the dark blue sweatpants he was wearing. He pulled a little velvet box out of his pocket. “Not so much trouble that I didn’t go out and get you this.”
He handed her the box and she glanced from the box to him and back to the box about five times before she regained control of her eyeballs. Then, she still wasn’t in control of them because they started leaking.
He brushed his thumb across her cheek and murmured, “I hope those are happy tears.”
“V–e–ry.” Her voice broke. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Very happy.”
“Will you marry me, Keren? I love you. I think you’re so wonderful. The perfect woman for me. But more than that, I think God had you in mind for me from the moment of our births. I feel like I’ve found the other half of myself. I can’t imagine my life without you.”
“That’s the most beautiful proposal I’ve ever heard.”
“Really?”
Keren nodded. “You’re really getting better at it.” She took a swipe at her tears. “We’ll probably fight. We have been almost from the moment we met.”
“What we were fighting was this.” Paul leaned over and kissed her again. A real kiss, the kind of kiss a Christian man shouldn’t give a Christian woman if he wasn’t planning to marry her.
Her arms went around his neck. He lifted her off her chair and settled her on his lap. He pulled away first, to give her a chance to open the velvet box.
She smiled and opened it.
“It’s not very big, Keren. I’m not a rich man and I never will be. But we’ll have enough. The Lord will provide.” He lifted the solitaire diamond out of its velvet bed. “And it’s offered with love.”
She extended her hand so he could slip it on.
He said, “Not yet. You haven’t said the words yet.”
Keren looked away from the beautiful ring and smiled at him. She said with a sassy arch of her eyebrows, “And exactly what words are those, Rev.?”
“How many times have I told you not to call me Rev.?”
“Try ‘I love you,’“ a groggy voice broke in.
Paul and Keren jerked their heads up and looked at the source of that advice. LaToya, her eyelids heavy, gave them a weak smile.
“LaToya.” Keren jumped off Paul’s lap, not all that sure how she’d gotten there.
Paul rounded the bed so they were on opposite sides of her.
LaToya said, “Don’t let me interrupt. I was enjoying being a Peeping Tom. Then you started getting sidetracked, and I thought you needed help.”
“You’re awake.” Paul reached for her hand. He held it gently. “We’ve been so worried about you.”
LaToya’s eyes fell shut. “You didn’t look all that worried to me.”
“Where’s the CALL button? We need to get a doctor in here.” Paul looked along the side of the bed.
“I’ll go find someone.” Keren disappeared out of the room.
“She seems nice.” LaToya squeezed his hand.
“Yeah, and I was about to have her all sewn up, when you started talking.”
From behind him, Keren said, “Don’t give up. You can sew me up, yet.”
Paul turned just as two nurses came rushing into the room. He let himself be shoved out of the way.
“You’d better hand over the ring,” Keren said. “Before we forget what we were talking about.”
“We won’t forget.” Paul turned to her and pulled her into his arms. “I think I’m going to enjoy shutting that smart mouth.”
As his head dipped to kiss her, she gave him the words he’d been fishing for. “I love you, Paul. I want to marry you and send our children to that little Christian school. I want that ring.”
“It’s not big,” he warned.
“It’s a beautiful ring.” Keren poked him in the shoulder. “I don’t ever want to hear a word against it.”
“Yes ma’am,” Paul said.
“I want to spend my spare time helping at the mission.” She thought they might as well talk a few things through.
“I’d really appreciate that.”
“But the thing I really want is… you.”
Paul hesitated long enough to get the ring on her finger, then he kissed her.
Rosita chose that moment to appear for her daily visit. When she saw Paul and Keren in each other’s arms and LaToya awake, she looked like she didn’t know who to talk to first.
Keren stepped away from Paul.
“Don’t quit on my account,” Rosita said, with the first genuine smile Keren had seen on her face since she’d been kidnapped.
“Do you have any interest in a long engagement, Kerenhappuch?” Paul asked.
“Not on your life.” Keren shook her head. “I’d like my folks to come and I’d like my pastor to marry us.”
