Read Online The Breaking Point by Karen Ball - Free Book Online

throat.
    He looked down at his hands and sat in silence for a moment … then two … then he looked up. “I’m sorry, hon, what was the question?”
    She let out a huff. “For heaven’s sake, Oren! I was talking about that voice. Did you or did you not hear that voice?”
    He leaned toward her, the very image of sincere concern—or he would have been if he’d been able to erase the snicker from his tone. “What’s the, uh, the voice saying?”
    “Ohhh, you!” She stood and went to look out the window, muttering all the way. “I
know
I heard it, but why did it sound like Renee? I know it couldn’t have been her.”
    “Grace …”
    She ignored her husband’s oddly hushed comment and pulled back the curtain, peering outside. Maybe one of the neighbor children was hiding outside. “Most likely it’s that imp, Jimmy Bell. He’s a sweet boy, but I can’t even begin to count the times I’ve had to shoo the little barefoot dickens off of my pansies.”
    “Grace …”
    She hesitated. No, not Jimmy. The voice had been a woman’s. Or maybe a girl’s. “Well, then, it must have been little Robin Lee. You know, Oren, how such an angel-faced child could come up with so many pranks is simply beyond me.” She pressed her nose against the glass, trying to see if anyone was hiding just below the window. “Now, don’t get me wrong, dear, I love it that the children enjoy coming to visit, to tease and have fun, but my poor pansies—”
    “Grace!”
    She studied her husband. What on earth was he getting so worked up about? But something about the look on his face—like a man suddenly recognizing someone he hadn’t seen in a long time—made her stop and turn back to him.
    “Hon,” he said slowly, as though working the words past whatever was rolling around in his mind, “exactly what did the voice say?”
    She clasped her hands in front of her. “Pray.”
    “Pray? Are you sure?” Oren wasn’t laughing now. In fact, every vestige of humor was gone. Instead, his eyes were wide and rueful.
    Grace frowned. “Yes, pray. That’s it. Just …
pray,”
Her husband leaned back in his chair, and Grace could
tell
he knew something. So he
had
been behind it! She planted her hands on her hips—something she usually avoided because it only reminded her how they’d spread over the past few years, but right now she didn’t care about that. “Oren, what are you up to—”
    “Hon, I heard it.”
    That stopped her cold. He’d heard the voice? She marched back to the table. “Then why did you say you didn’t?”
    “Because I heard it outside, in my shop.” His gaze met hers. “Just before I came in for lunch.”
    Grace stared at him; then, her knees suddenly too weak to support her, she pulled out her chair and plopped down on the seat. “Outside.”
    He nodded, those generous lips twitching. “Before I came in.”
    Oh, dear. “Then that means …”
    She saw in his expression that the same understanding filling her mind had come to him. “We did it again, didn’t we?”
    He sighed and lifted his shoulders in a hapless shrug. “I figured it was just kids playing.” “So did I.”
    “Well, hon—” he folded her hands in his—“at least we can rest in the fact that God is patient with us.”
    She looked down at their joined hands, loving the way his huge paws covered hers, the way her fingers nestled in his as though every aspect of the two of them had been made to fit together.
    Even their stubborn weaknesses.
    Just a few months ago they’d asked God to speak to them, to move in their minds and hearts until they came to know His still, small voice with such intimacy they wouldn’t hesitate to obey. It had been a bold request, but they truly wanted it. God had brought them through so much, and they wanted to give back. To Him. To His people. What better way to do that than to pray for others?
    They waited, sure a response would come. But nothing happened. Not in the way they expected, anyway.
    Of