Page 81 of A Whim and a Prayer

“What?!” This time there was no question about the harsh profanity, something she’d never heard from Beck Campbell’s lips before. “And you let her go?”

Tears seeped from her eyes while panic seeped into her voice. “Yell at me all you want later, Beck, but right now I’m sick with worry, so can you go find her—please?”

More questionable mumbling ensued before he snapped out an order. “Give me the address.”

“Number 1 University Road.”

“Got it. I’ll bring her back to your house. But Abby …”

“Yes, Beck?”

“If we’re not there by three-thirty, go downstairs and wait by the phone so I can call you, understood?”

“W-What? W-Why? You don’t think something’s wrong—?” The fear in her mind immediately bled into her tone.

“No, Abs, I’m just not sure how long it will take, so if we’re not right back, I don’t want you to worry, okay?”

“O-kay …” she said, but she was anything but.

“Gotta go—”

“Wait, Beck?”

“What?” His tone was terse, and she sure didn’t blame him.

“I promise you—I will never, ever do this again because no matter what she says, Winnie needs a babysitter.”

Beck issued a grunt that sounded more like a growl. “Winnie needs a bloomin’ guard dog with sharp teeth and I’m just the guy for the job because right now?” He blasted out a noisy gust of frustration that matched hers to a T. “I plan to take a big bite out of both him and her.”

——

Beck was tempted to slam the phone down, but the last thing he wanted to do was wake his parents, so he carefully laid it back on the receiver with a knuckle-white grip.

“I’m gonna rail on both of them but good,” he muttered as he returned to his room to get dressed. “First him, then her, then him again.” He traded his pajama bottoms for trousers and snatched a clean shirt from his closet, convinced Winnie may excel at grades, but the girl was as stupid as they get when it came to common sense or any fear of danger. A guard dog? He grunted as he put on his shoes. No, the brat needed a warden to lock her up and throw away the key. And yeah—he was just the man for the job.

Slipping his coat on in the foyer, he grabbed his keys from the hall table. With a grit of his teeth, he carefully opened the front door since it was known to squeal, then closed it again with a slow expulsion of relief while he locked it once more.

It was times like this that Beck wished he wasn’t in love with the little brat because sweet mother of Job, she sure made his life difficult. But then she’d done that from the moment he’d first laid eyes on her at The Boston Children’s Aid Society, almost an exact duplicate of the little sister he’d loved and lost. Only Jenny had been soft and sweet—never a lick of trouble in her five short years. Unlike Winnie, whose middle name was “Trouble,” and unfortunately for Beck, he hadn’t been able to resist her.

Because she needed him and he’d always been a sucker for that. And now, after years of friendship, he found that he needed her too. Sliding into the front seat, he started his car as silently as possible, suddenly realizing he’d forgotten to pray for her. He rammed the stick shift into gear, immediately chastising himself for not doing that first. It should have been his number-one priority, but Abby’s call had caught him by surprise and riled him something fierce.

“Lord,” he said as he veered the car into the street, the urgency of the situation suddenly intensifying in his brain, “please take care of Winnie and help me to bring her safely home. Your Word says that ‘all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to Your purpose, and I know that’s not Winnie right now, but it is me and her family, so I’m asking that You work this out for Winnie’s good and ours.”

Slapping his blinker on, he turned and set a course for Boston University, refocusing on his prayer as he traveled streets blessedly empty of most traffic. “You also said that ‘Folly is joy to one void of wisdom, and regrettably that’s Winnie, Lord, so please open her eyes to the folly of her whims and bad decisions. And especially to the lies she’s believed all her life that she’s not worthy of love or even able to love at all.”

He slowed as he approached a stoplight, the yellow caution light flashing on the deserted street reminding him that Winnie didn’t know the first thing about “caution.” And oh, how he wished he could teach it to her, to get her to think about consequences before she went off half-cocked with all of her whims and crazy ideas. But then the Good Book said, “The fear of the Lord was the beginning of wisdom,” and unfortunately, Winnie had neither fear of the Lord nor fear of danger. So Beck ended with the prayer he’d been saying every day of his life ever since he met the little brat. “Lord, please bring her to You so that her orphan heart can truly be healed.”

He yawned as he neared University Road, shaking his head while glancing up at the sky with a twist of a smile. “And so I can finally get some decent sleep.”

Chapter Fifty-Five

“Brayden, I … I don’t … feel so good …” Turning away from the couples they were chatting with, Winnie rubbed her temple with the pads of her fingers, feeling dizzy. True, they were all drinking alcohol, but she wasn’t, so why did she feel like she was the only one getting drunk?

“What’s wrong, doll?” Brayden hooked an arm over her shoulders, the caress of his thumb against the bare skin at the base of her neck suddenly not warming her like it had before.

Winnie blinked several times, trying to correct her focus which had suddenly gone blurry. Just like those migraines she’d had in her old grade school. “I don’t know. It feels like a bad headache is coming on, so maybe you better take me home.”

He glanced at his watch with a frown. “But it’s only midnight, doll, and I can’t take you home sick. Maybe if you lay down for a bit, it’ll clear. I have aspirin powder upstairs, so let’s get you some, all right?”