Read Online A Rose Revealed by Gayle Roper - Free Book Online Page B

remember that little bit, you’ll never remember other things.”
    I looked at Allie with her blonde hair and straight-toothed smile and knew she had deliberately not told me about the circle. It took me a long time to accept that God also knew about the circle, yet He not only allowed me to be late, He allowed me to sit next to Allie and ask her my question. Obviously He had other things besides cheerleading for me, and I gradually came to terms with that fact. Still every game as I sat in the stands and watched Allie jump and tumble, I fought my resentment. Now here she was right behind me, all smiles.
    The other image that flashed through my mind was of Ben the night I broke our engagement. I had come to realize that even though he was a Christian, he wasn’t the Christian for me. Something I couldn’t even define wasn’t right.
    “I’m sorry, Ben,” I said that night when he came to my mother’s house to visit me. It was my senior year in nursing school and I was home for the weekend. “You’re a great guy. It’s not your fault. It’s mine. I don’t love you as I should if I’m to be your wife. I just have to be fair to you and release you. You’ll find someone who will love you as you deserve being loved.” And I handed him my engagement ring.
    I’d worked long and hard to come up with lines that sounded as kind as I could possibly make them. Always Miss Nice Person, that’s me, even though I had begun to suspect he was not being faithful to me. But since I couldn’t prove it, I didn’t want to argue about it. I just wanted to break our engagement and be free of what had become his cloying and increasingly annoying presence.
    He chose to be nasty. He shouted. He ranted. He turned scarlet. Finally, in a great rush of anger, he ran out in the rain, across my mother’s lawn, and threw what had been my beautiful diamond ring across the street into a field.
    “Ben, what did you do!” I yelled in horror, staring at the plowed field. “You just threw away a diamond ring!”
    “If you won’t wear it, Rose, then no one should wear it!”
    He stormed to his car and roared off. I wasn’t even in the house before I heard the screech of tires and the thud and crash that turned out to be Jake’s accident.
    As these thoughts raced through my mind in a second or two, I stared at Allie and Ben. I became aware of Jake, sensing my consternation, looking on with great interest. Gritting my teeth, I smiled sweetly and made the introductions. Jake shook hands with Ben with great aplomb and smiled charmingly at Allie. But then he had no history with them.
    “Guess what?” Allie asked me while Jake turned to order our popcorn.
    I spread my hands, at a loss as to what to guess.
    Allie grabbed Ben’s hand and looked at me with a smug smile. I noticed that her teeth were still beautifully straight. “Ben and I are engaged!”
    I blinked. “How wonderful.” I think I managed to sound somewhat pleased. In fact I was pleased. They deserved each other.
    “Just look!” She stuck her left hand under my nose. I couldn’t imagine how I had previously missed the sparkling stone on her third finger. The solitaire sat on an S-shaped shank with a tiny baguette on each side of the central stone.
    “Very beautiful,” I said as I stared first at it and then at Ben, who was suddenly busy studying the candy in the display case.
    A giant tub of popcorn was shoved into my hands.
    “Come on, Tiger,” Jake said. “We need to get our seats.” He wheeled off and I had no choice but to follow.
    As I walked away, gnashing my teeth and screaming inside, I heard Allie say, “Tiger? Oh, please!” I’d never known anyone who could drip condescension like she could. The fact that I’d been thinking the very same thing only made me angrier.
    I stalked after Jake. I grabbed a handful of popcorn and shoved it into my mouth. Yes! Phony butter. Maybe the evening could be redeemed.
    Just outside the auditorium where our film was showing,