“Hi, Reverend Holbrook.”
“This is a nice place you’ve got here,” he said, folding his thin arms in front of him. There wasn’t a twinkle in his eye. His mouth was pulled into a straight line. He was unshaven, white beard standing out against his tanned skin. God only knew what the man was thinking.
Jake nodded slowly. “I bought it. For Claire and me.”
“And the baby.”
Jake’s chest tightened. “Yes.”
“My wife called me, in Africa, distraught because our daughter was pregnant. Thankfully I was already finishing up my work and was able to get back home a week early. I need you to explain how this happened, Jacob.”
Jake took a deep breath. He’d been dreading this day since the moment Claire had told him she was pregnant. How could he look this man in the face and explain that he’d betrayed him? The only thing he had left was to explain that he was in love with her, that he wanted to marry her and raise a family with her. “I take full responsibility. It’s my fault.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Is it?”
Jake nodded. Reverend Holbrook had always had that uncanny ability to make him question his perception of the truth. He’d tried so many times to convince Jake that what had happened to his mother was not his fault, despite the blame his father placed on him. “I never should have, uh…” How the hell was he going to explain this?
“My daughter is a grown woman,” he said with a sigh. “I imagine she had her own part in this.”
Reverend Holbrook walked over to the fireplace, running his hand along the mantel that Jake had just finished sanding. “Do you love her?” he asked, turning to look at Jake in the eye.
“I do.” His throat tightened with emotion and he stared into his eyes.
“You want to marry her?”
“Yes. There’s a little problem with that, though.”
“What’s that?”
“Claire doesn’t want to marry me.”
Her father gave a slight nod. “That sounds like my girl.”
“I can appreciate where she gets her conviction from,” Jake said, a smile tugging at his mouth when he thought of her. And he had thought of her, every damn second of every hour since he’d dropped her off at home.
“You could use some of that conviction, son.” His hand came up to grip Jake’s shoulder, as it had so many years ago. “She doesn’t know I’m home. I needed to hear from you. I need to know that I can count on you.”
“Always.”
“When you came into my church all those years ago, I didn’t know what to make of you. I knew you were in trouble and I knew you’d lost your way. But when you finally let me help you, I prayed that you’d find the strength to love yourself, to finally rid yourself of a shame that you did nothing to deserve. The man you have become is one I’m very proud of, but you need to own it. You need to believe it. You can’t go into a marriage, into fatherhood, broken.”
Jake stood still. His throat was clogged with emotion. He nodded, searching for the words. “Thank you” was all he could muster up.
“You need to tell your family, Jacob.”
He ran his hands through his hair roughly. “I told Claire everything.”
“And?”
Jake’s eyes darted over to the place in the living room where he and Claire had made love the other night. He needed to get her father out of this room. “Let’s go sit on the porch,” he said, ushering him away from the wall.
“When I said family, I was thinking of your brothers. I’m glad you thought I was talking about Claire.”
He paused in the doorway. “She is family. She didn’t look at me differently. She accepted me.”
Reverend Holbrook smiled. “You know, as much as this isn’t the order in which I’d want things to go for you and Claire, I’m glad it’s you.”
Jake stared down at the floorboards for a moment, before looking up at him. “That means a lot to me.”
“Marriage means a lot of sacrifice and needs a heck of a lot of love. I haven’t been the perfect husband or the perfect father. I’ve often neglected issues in my own house, putting the needs of my church and community before my wife and daughter’s. But I have faith that you and Claire are both stubborn enough to make it work.”
“Thank you,” Jake said, opening the front door for Reverend Holbrook to walk though.
“I’m happy to welcome you into my family, Jacob.”
…
Claire cut another white tulip in her garden. They had almost finished for the season. She sat on the damp grass, crossing her legs as she added the last stem to the bunch in her lap