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“You don’t seem like the shopping type.”
“You’re not wrong about that,” Garrett chuckled. “But I can learn new things, especially with good company.”
Elise felt her cheeks flush with heat at his compliment. Would she get used to him like this? She tried not to think about it as they wandered in and out of a few more stores. She wasn’t really looking for much of anything, and if she admitted it, she wasn’t much of a shopper either. She had always known she and Garrett were a good match.
When they ran out of things to look at, they returned to the hotel room. Garrett had suggested that they stop for snacks, so they entered the room with arms laden with chips, cookies, and soft drinks.
“Want to watch a movie?” Garrett asked.
“Sure,” Elise responded. “What kind of movies do you watch?” she asked with a furrowed brow.
Garrett sank into the couch and turned to look at her. “Well, as a matter of fact, I don’t really watch very many movies.”
“You don’t say,” Elise teased him.
Garrett grinned. “Well, you know in all my leisure time.”
Elise laughed as she took a seat on the couch next to him. “I haven’t watched many myself lately unless it’s a cartoon that the boys want to watch. Honestly, by the time they go to bed, I’m too tired to focus on anything for very long.”
“I know all about that. But this is supposed to be a vacation. And it’s still pretty early.”
Elise nodded. “Yeah, maybe I can manage to stay awake.” Her insides churned at the thought of going to bed and what that would entail. It made her want to watch as many movies as possible to stay awake.
After scrolling through some options, they agreed on a comedy, and Garrett started the movie. “Do you mind passing the chips?”
Elise handed him the bag. “Do you like chips? You don’t keep them in your house.”
“I do like them. A little too much actually. That’s why I don’t buy them regularly.”
“Oh, I see. Got to keep up that cowboy figure right?” Elise said.
Garrett chuckled. “Not so much for looks, but my horse appreciates it.”
Elise smiled as she reached into the bag to grab her own handful. “I try not to buy them either, not because I have a horse to ride, but because if I buy a bag of chips, the boys eat the entire thing in one sitting. It’s too expensive for me to keep up that habit.”
“If you can manage to keep them out of my reach, I’ll be happy to supply the boys with the chips. Growing boys need something to fill their stomachs.”
“So far, your mom is helping with that. I’m planning to ask her to let me come learn to cook from her when we get back.”
“Of course she will. She used to be really big on keeping all her recipes a secret, but now that she has daughters-in-law to share them with, she seems to be happy to let them go.”
“I’m happy to learn. My mom was a decent cook, but she made simple meals, and she didn’t ask me to help very much. I don’t think she meant to, she was just concerned about letting me do my own thing and focusing on school. But I think she would be very happy, no, make that probably a little jealous, that I am learning to cook from the Great Lydia Macklin.”
“I know she would be proud of you,” Garrett said.
Elise smiled at him and settled in, and they fell into comfortable silence as the film began. When Elise felt like they had consumed their proper amount of chips, she took the bag and set it far away from Garrett. He didn’t say anything, but gave her a smile and a wink. Just as Elise moved to sit back on the couch, Garrett stretched his arm out across the back. Elise’s heart raced as she leaned back into his arm, and he placed his hand on her shoulder. She told herself to keep breathing in and out as her eyes locked on the screen, but she couldn’t focus on the movie anymore. How many times had she wished to sit on the couch with Garrett Macklin in this exact way? Was his heart pounding in the same way that hers was? Did he feel the same thing that she felt? Was this what he wanted, or was he forcing himself to be close to her?
They stayed like that for a while, until Elise excused herself to go to the bathroom. Just like earlier this afternoon, she stared at herself in the mirror. Did she even recognize who she was? Six months ago she was working on her college degree. It had all seemed so stressful then. Now it sounded easy. Her parents were helping her with college, she didn’t work a job during the semester, and she truly had no other responsibilities besides going to class and studying.
How had she thought that all of that was so hard? When now she was solely responsible for two tiny humans, a household, and so much more.
And more than that, she was a wife. An unconventional one, maybe, but a wife nonetheless. And now her husband, the man she had always dreamed about being with, actually wanted to be a real couple. She leaned her elbows on the bathroom counter, and let her face fall into her hands.
“God,“ she whispered, “help me. I don’t know that I have asked for help very much over the last few months. Maybe, at first, after my parents died. Back then I didn’t know which way was up, and I begged and pleaded with You to help me get through every day. But since then, I’ve been trying to do everything on my own, and that didn’t go so well. The boys and I were struggling, and the finances were not good.
I know I prayed for help that day, and You sent me Garrett. He was an answer to prayer. But all those years ago, when I was a teenager, I prayed that he would like me, that he would want to be more than friends with me, and that didn’t go well either. Now here we are, we are actually married. And it’s nothing like I ever would’ve imagined it would be. But, God, You created marriage, and we made a commitment to each other to be married, and to stay married. We will keep that commitment before You, but, Lord, if You have more than just a commitment, more than just an agreement on a piece of paper for me and Garrett, then help me to follow You. I locked up my heart against Garrett Macklin a long time ago, so it seems a little bit hard to let him in now. But if that’s what You have for us, if You have a love for me, and for Garrett, I pray that You would open my heart again to him. Please protect my heart, Lord. I’ve always wanted this, and now it seems scary. So help me, please help me, God, to know what to do.”
Again, she stood and looked at herself in the mirror. She looked the same, but she knew that something had changed her heart. She could only hope that something was changing in Garrett’s heart too.
