Rekindled Hearts. Brenda Minton

reached for a bottle of bubbles on a table. “Go for it, then. But I see a certain cowboy that I’ve been after for about ten years. You blow bubbles and I’ll see you later.”

      “Watch out for that cowboy,” Lexi warned. “He’ll break your heart.”

      Jill shrugged and danced away, her skirt swishing around her legs.

      Lexi dipped the plastic wand into the bubbles and drew it out. Rather than blowing, she waved it in a circle. Huge bubbles flew through the air, floating and then landing on the grass, some popping midair.

      Children ran around, hands out, trying to catch the illusive bubbles. Little girls with pigtails and boys with crew cuts.

      “Lexi, I need to ask a favor.” Michael Garrison walked toward her, weaving his way through the crowd of bubble-blowing children, who now saw him as a target. He laughed, swatting at bubbles and ruffling the hair of the children surrounding him.

      “Okay, a favor.” She felt a little sick to her stomach, because he had that smile on his face. He was up to something.

      “We’re trying to match pets with people. I know you’re about full over at the clinic, and a few other folks in town are taking in strays, so I thought this might be a way to match up lost pets to owners, or adopt them out. We might even do a rabies clinic while we’re at it, just to make sure the pets are immunized.”

      It sounded good, but that mysterious twinkle in his eyes was another matter altogether. Lexi looked from Reverend Garrison to Colt, and wondered if there was a connection between them and this pet-matching project.

      “If you’re too busy…” Michael Garrison caught a bubble and it popped.

      “What day and I’ll make sure that I’m not.”

      “Next Saturday.”

      “Here at the church?” She looked around, and it didn’t take long to realize that this was about the only place in town for a project like this one.

      “Yes, at the church. We’re trying hard to make this a comfortable place for people, so they feel good about coming and bringing their families. We all need to heal.”

      “Yes, we do.”

      “Oh, and don’t forget the lost-and-found room. It’s been filled up and emptied two or three times since it started. I know you lost so much….”

      Lexi nodded, and she didn’t cry this time when she thought about the house she and Colt had picked and furnished together. Most of her belongings had been destroyed, everything but a few pictures and a box of jewelry that had been her grandmother’s. Even her wedding pictures had disappeared.

      And her wedding ring set. She tried not to think about the engagement ring that Colt had put on her finger so many years ago, or the wedding ring they had picked out together. They’d been in a box in the hall closet.

      Michael was still standing next to her.

      “No sign of the Logan ring?” Lexi placed her bottle of bubbles into the hands of a little blonde with large blue eyes and dimples.

      “Nothing. Some jewelry has shown up, but not the ring. Or Tommy’s dog.”

      Tommy. Her gaze lingered on the boy, whose hand was held by the strong and powerful hand of Gregory Garrison. Now that was a wonderful tribute to God’s care for the little ones.

      “I know. I’ve had my eyes out for that dog.” Lexi turned her attention back to the reverend. “Is it wrong to pray that a dog comes home?”

      Michael shook his head. “I don’t think so. Remember ‘All Creatures Great and Small.’”

      “‘The Lord God made them all.’”

      “And not only does He care about that dog, He cares about broken hearts.”

      Lexi looked up, shocked by the words. Her surprise must have registered. Michael smiled. “Tommy’s heart, Lexi. That dog was his family when he didn’t have one. I know he has one now, but the dog is still important to him.”

      “Yes, of course.”

      Michael shifted, looking away for a moment before looking back at her, a reverend again, not a young man, uncomfortable with the conversation.

      “Don’t give up.” He said it with conviction and she was lost, because there were several things she could tag with that saying.

      “Give up?”

      “On Colt.”

      She blew out a sigh and looked away. “We gave up two years ago, Michael.”

      But she could admit to herself that in the crumbled remains of her house—that night in the basement—she had wondered if they could work things out. She had wanted him to stay with her that night.

      And he had repeated history by sending her off in the ambulance alone. Alone.

      She didn’t want that to be the epitaph of her life: She Loved a Man, But Was Always Alone. Yuck, how depressing. But looking around High Plains with crumbled buildings and shattered lives, she put her marriage in that category. Some things couldn’t be rebuilt. Like her marriage, they were beyond fixing.

      “Where there’s faith, Lexi, there’s hope.” Michael still stood next to her, and his smile was soft but firm.

      “Of course.” She remembered Michael’s sermon of two weeks ago. God doesn’t make mistakes. He isn’t taken by surprise, either.

      Her marriage hadn’t been a mistake. She still believed that God had brought her and Colt together. The divorce was another matter altogether. But it hadn’t been her choice. She’d let Colt go, because she knew that she couldn’t force him to stay.