Rooms - James L. Rubart [104]
She wanted to believe Micah’s going back to Seattle was good. Why couldn’t it be? He could recover some of the life he’d lost and figure out the connection between that world and this one. But her heart was breaking because she knew the choice was wrong. She tried to convince herself she wasn’t living by faith, that she needed to trust God was in control. But the thoughts were hollow and slipped through the fingers of her mind like wind through the trees.
She staggered toward the waves and stepped into them till the water lapped around her shoes.
The first time Sarah had met Micah, her heart surged. She knew he was the answer to what God had spoken years ago. But the battle of how much of her heart to give him started the moment she handed him his Pralines & Cream ice cream cone four months earlier. Because she’d also known last night’s conversation would come.
She pulled out her cell phone and dialed Micah’s house. She had to try one more time. No answer. He was already gone. Must have left last night.
Sarah watched her hand drop to her side as if it were someone else’s. Her cell phone spun loose and dropped to the sand. Waves raced up and smothered the phone, and the icy September water found its way through her shoes and bit into her feet.
From the beginning she had feared he would choose the life without her. Despite their love, he would listen to voices other than the Holy Spirit’s, and it would take him away forever. She’d tried to steel her heart for the moment when he left and even believed she could change his mind, but none of her practiced anticipation prepared her for this kind of pain.
She slipped to her knees and dug her hands into the saturated sand, trying to hold on to the grains. But the water swirled around her and washed away her hold. And she continued to add her tears to the ocean.
Then she heard a voice. Soft. Strong. “Sarah?”
Hope against hope she turned and looked up. But it wasn’t Micah.
Rick stood ten yards down the beach at the edge of the waves. She stared at him, deciding whether to answer or get up and walk away. “Micah’s gone. Back to Seattle,” she sputtered.
“Yes, I know.”
“You’re not going to quote some verse about this being for the best for me, are you?”
“No, nothing like that.”
“Then what?”
Rick walked to her and pulled her up and into his chest like a dad. She shuddered as she fell into him and held on with everything inside. Again the tears came.
“Let’s get you into some dry clothes and grab some coffee. There’s some things we need to talk about.”
“Like?”
“Where you go from here.”
Sarah nodded and trudged alongside Rick, leaning into him, needing him to be a rock because she couldn’t be. Rick would try to speak words of comfort, would try to tell her it would be okay. But it wouldn’t. It just wouldn’t.
Because Micah was heading into a world where she didn’t exist.
“Let’s get you into some dry clothes, get you a new cell phone, and grab some coffee. There’s some things we need to talk about.”
CHAPTER 38
Micah stutter-stepped toward Shannon’s office on Monday morning and strained to keep a scream from bursting out. Calm. Composure. He was positive ripping the Andy Warhol pictures off the walls wouldn’t set the right tone for his return. But RimSoft was his opus. Was. Now he’d be proposing a plan to a woman who two and a half weeks ago had been his secretary.
That was a cheap shot. She’d always been far more than a secretary. If anyone was worthy of running the company in this parallel universe, it was Shannon. But that didn’t abate the strangeness of this role reversal, or his fear she would wrap an anchor around him and his proposal and drop-kick them into the Pacific.
He approached the woman who sat in the exact desk Shannon used to sit in. “I’m here for a 9:00 with Shannon.”
“Hi, Micah.” She flipped her red hair off her shoulders. “She’s running a few minutes behind. I hope your trip was a good one.”
Trip? He stared at her. Did he know her? Early twenties, slightly heavy, dark blue eyes. He would