Read Online Matters of Faith by Kristy Kiernan - Free Book Online

that it?” she whispered.
    He nodded, but remained silent, waiting. There were always two at night. Unless the engineer saw that something was on the tracks. But usually it was just two. And there the second one was.
    As the sound filtered through the pines and palms, Ada closed her eyes and pulled him down toward her, letting him melt into her, responsive rather than passive now, staying quiet so as not to disturb Meghan. When she moved her hand down and pressed hard through his jeans, he nearly expired with sheer happiness.
    The whistle died away without him noticing, and as the sound of the engine faded she pushed him away. Clouds moved across the moon, and when he looked at her now, her eyes were dark and shadowed, her lips a deep, swollen stain.
    â€œCome on,” she said. They woke Meghan and got her into bed without waking his parents, and then, after enough time had passed for Meghan to enter a deep sleep, Ada came to him in his childhood room.
    When she left him, before dawn, he knew that there was nothing else he would ever want. Everything he had been looking for had been found.
    He found his life.
    He found salvation.
    And, oh yes, he found God.

Five
    THE kids were gone by the time I rose that morning, and the sun had already evaporated any traces of the cool night. Cal had been up for hours, as was his custom, and a half-pot of coffee was waiting for me. I poured a cup and padded across the yard to the outbuilding, pausing for a moment to check on the sunflowers, happy that the rabbits hadn’t yet found the tender shoots. Heavy white and green buds were nearly ready to pop on the gardenia. I could already smell them and knew that by this evening at least a few of them would be open, their lush petals as soft as velvet.
    I made plans to snip them off their bases and float them in a glass bowl in Meghan’s room, as a treat for Ada. I doubted she’d seen, or smelled, many gardenias in Nebraska, and it was a flower that Meghan tolerated beautifully. Brown thrashers, like tiny hawks with their spotted breasts and sharp yellow eyes, flitted away under the ficus hedge as I reached the door to Cal’s workroom, and I smiled at the sound of him singing along with the Eagles.
    â€œHey,” I said, stepping over the raised metal threshold. He smiled over a boat engine, his forehead lightly slicked with sweat. “You should have woken me.”
    â€œAh, I figured I’d worn you out last night. It was only fair of me to let you sleep.”
    â€œThe kids get off okay? Did they take something to eat?”
    â€œI gave them a few bananas and fifty bucks. They said they were going to stop at the store.”
    â€œThat was generous of you.”
    He shrugged. “Don’t want him to run out of gas again.”
    â€œOh, Cal, you didn’t say that to him, did you?”
    â€œNo,” he said, drawing it out as he wiped his oily hands on a pink rag and came around the engine to plant a kiss on my cheek. “I’m keeping our deal in mind. How about you?”
    â€œWell,” I said. “I watched the three of them leave the house last night long after midnight—”
    â€œWhat?” he interrupted me, his hands still wrapped up in the rag. “You let Meghan go out in the middle of the night?”
    â€œNot finished,” I teased him. He looked at me expectantly. “Of course not. They just hung out in the yard. Climbed up on the car, actually, but never got in it.”
    â€œSo spying on them out the window counts as letting them grow up? Hell, if I’d known that I’d have joined you with my binoculars.”
    â€œI wasn’t spying,” I protested. “I heard the door and looked to make sure they didn’t drive off. I saw them lie down on the car and then I got back in bed. I fell asleep before I even heard them come back in.”
    He appraised me thoughtfully and finally nodded his head. “Well, all right, Mom. Aren’t