Page 118 of A Whim and a Prayer

Her mother’s smile was tired, but tender. “Always, sweet girl, you know that.”

“I do, Mama,” Winnie whispered as she scurried up the steps behind the others, her gait much faster than theirs. Ducking inside the bathroom, she quickly brushed her teeth before heading back to her room, almost giddy as she sat down at her dressing table to freshen her makeup and add a touch of perfume.

By the time she’d changed into her favorite blouse and skirt, Mama knocked on the door and peeked in. “All ready for—” The whites of her eyes expanded as she eyed Winnie sitting on her bed fully dressed, reading her Bible. “Uh, I see you’re ready, but not for bed.” Mama closed the door behind her and came over to sit beside her. She tipped her head in question, but Winnie didn’t miss the gleam in her eyes. “What’s going on, sweetheart? And please tell me it’s what I hope it is …”

“Oh, Mama!” Tears burning, Winnie grasped her mother’s arms with a sob that bloomed into a giggle. “I love him, Mama, and I always have.”

“We all love him, Winnie,” she said with a pat of her daughter’s back, her voice as teary as Winnie’s. She suddenly pulled back, hands braced to Winnie’s arms as she hiked a brow. “Please tell me we’re talking about Beck before I go any further.”

Winnie gave a weepy nod. “I was so afraid I’d abandon him or him me if we went down that path, Mama, but now that God has set me free”—she swiped at the wetness in her eyes—“I think maybe I can love him the way that he wants.”

“No ifs, ands, or buts about it, darling. Beck is your soulmate, Winnie, and Daddy and I”—she shrugged with a bit of a smirk that made Winnie grin—“well, mostly me, of course—we have known that from high school on, sweetheart.”

Winnie gave her mother a quick hug, so grateful to be crying tears of joy instead of sorrow. “I love you, Mama, and I consider you the greatest gift God ever gave to me.”

Mama withdrew a few inches with a small smile twitching on her lips. “More than Beck?”

“Yes, even more than Beck because without you, Mrs. D”—she cradled her mother’s beautiful face in her hands—“there would have never been any joy, any healing, any family, and most definitely not any Beck.”

“We’ll see,” Mama said as she pressed a kiss to Winnie’s forehead. “But my sixth sense tells me, darling, that that’s going to change, and from the looks of you, very soon.” She skittered closer to Winnie on the bed to sit Indian style, so much of the imp in her smile that Winnie swore she was a teenager in disguise. “So … what’s the plan?”

“Well, I talked to Beck’s mom tonight and he’s on a date with Cari Lee, of course”—she couldn’t resist wrinkling her nose—“but I asked her if I could come and wait in their living room for Beck so we could talk when he got home.”

Mama nodded wisely. “And she said yes, of course, because she wants this as much as I do.”

Winnie tugged on the edge of her smile with her teeth. “Yes, she did. Said to use the key under the planter to let myself in, and she’d have cookies and milk waiting for me.”

“I always liked that woman,” Mama said with another slow nod.

“But, Mama?” Winnie’s smile faded as she picked at her nails. “As you know, he’s on a date with Cari Lee tonight, and it’s getting serious according to Abby, so … so what if”—she took a deep breath that quivered in her chest—“what if he doesn’t love me that way anymore?”

“Impossible.” Mama brushed a stray curl out of Winnie’s face. “Because I’ve seen the look in that boy’s eyes whenever you’re around, Winnie, and I promise you—the man is too far gone for any other woman. Besides,” she said with a secret smile, “I’m the—and I quote—‘the relentless “yenta” who loves matchmaking,’ aren’t I?”

Winnie gaped with a hand to her mouth. “Oh my goodness, Mama, you heard that?”

“Several times, darling, and we all know it’s true. So trust me on this one because I’ve been planning this match since your first tube of lipstick.” She glanced at her watch and rose. “Okay, sweetheart, you better get going, and I better get to bed because I’ve got a lot of praying to do before I nod off.”

“Thank you, Mama, soooo much! I’m going to need all the prayer I can get.”

“No you won’t, darling,” Mama said with a scrunch of her nose, “but after being around your Aunt Faith all these years”—she shrugged—“it’s a habit I just can’t seem to break.”

Chapter Eighty-One

“I … think I’m in love with you, Beck.”

Nuzzling Cari Lee’s neck, Beck instantly went cold, eyelids snapping up as paralysis claimed every limb in his body.

“I … I know I shouldn’t have said that so soon,” she whispered, a hint of regret in her tone, “but I can’t help it.” Distancing a bit to cup a hand to his stubbled jaw, she bit on the edge of the very lips now swollen from too many kisses. “But you are the kindest, sweetest, most noble man I’ve ever met—”

Beck stifled a groan as his eyes lumbered closed. Yeah. So noble that I’m necking up a storm with a woman I can’t say if I even think … I might love her back.

Yet.

He buried a grunt. But a few heated sessions like this in the front seat of his car, and he didn’t doubt he’d be well on his way. Which meant he had a decision to make sooner rather than later.

“Do you think … that … well …”

He opened his eyes to see that beautiful throat duck hard several times, and he knew she was struggling, something he truly hated to see. Cari Lee was a good woman, and the answer to the question he knew she wanted to ask—could he love her back—was a definite yes. But he hadn’t planned on telling her this soon ...