The Arrangement Read online

  His mother paused, her eyes reflecting memories. “Of course, not every marriage worked out that way. Many of my friends, including Victoria, ended up in loveless marriages built on a common agreement to please their parents rather than a commitment to each other. While my father wanted me to marry someone worthy of the Elliott name, he also wanted this man to be a Christian who would honor his commitment to me.”

  Having recovered from his choking episode, Eli ate his chili as he listened to his mother. The process of an arranged marriage seemed less strange to him now, and Thomas’s words meant more. Thomas had lived out a life-long contract he had made between his family and that of his wife’s. The relationship meant nothing more to him than social status and money. Eli’s mother and father, however, built their relationship from their commitment to Christ. Neither had experienced the passionate love he thought he had found with Whitney, but then that love lasted no longer than her desire to seek God’s guidance.

  “I never knew your father arranged the marriage,” he told his mother between bites. “You always said you and Dad met at your father’s fortieth birthday party.”

  Eli held few memories of his grandparents, who had all died when he was still in elementary school. They had lived in Duncan, so Eli saw them regularly until his father moved to Washington. His mother’s father was a strong Christian who visited sick church members in the hospital every Saturday and donated his time to many other church ministries.

  His mother smiled. “We did meet at his birthday party. My parents invited him with the purpose of beginning the courtship. He was a handsome man with incredible charm. At first I thought he was the tiniest bit dull, but he proved otherwise as we got to know one another.”

  Eli watched his mother’s expression turn dreamy, so he allowed her several minutes to remember her late husband before he pressed for more information. But in that time he decided: if he were to marry Evie, or anyone else for that matter, it had to be for the right reasons…not simply because their families approved.

  He had always believed God had someone hand-chosen for him. By allowing Evie’s father to manipulate the situation, was Eli taking control from God’s hands?

  Did agreeing to an arranged marriage discount the faith he had in God’s plan for his life? And what if he agreed to date and marry Evie, and then God provided the woman he had chosen for Eli a year later? Surely divorce would never be proper, but neither would a constant affair. Would his eagerness and desire to escape the heartache place him outside of God’s will?

  “So how do I know if this will work?” he asked, drawing his mother from the past back into the present with his open-ended question.

  “You don’t.” She shook her head slightly and gave him a sympathetic smile. “Life comes with no guarantees. You pray about it. And I pray about it. And we wait for God to give us his answer. If God leads you and Evie and many of the people around you to believe marriage is the next step, then you take it. And you do everything possible to make that marriage work. Even the most in-love couple whom God has obviously called together will fall apart if they don’t work at their marriage.”

  “What do we do in the meantime? Do I date Evie Barrett, or ignore the situation until God gives the go ahead?” And what if she doesn’t really want to date me anyway? Is it right for her father or me to force her into a relationship she doesn’t want? He had thought God led him to Whitney, but when she continued to force him into politics before he was ready, he sensed God telling him to back away. He wished he had listened…earlier.

  “Do you like Evie? Is she a Christian? Someone you can respect and grow to care about?” his mother asked.

  Evie certainly had a spunk that made him smile and at the same time made him uncomfortable. He could not deny her beauty or knowledge. But he had no idea whether or not she was a Christian. If her parents were any indication, he leaned toward the “no” end of the scale. Victoria and Thomas Barrett attended church irregularly as far as he could tell, and their lifestyle outside of church pointed more toward the world than Christ.

  Her brother, Taylor, and his wife, Leigh Anna, attended almost every Sunday, but something unexplainable bothered him about their relationship. He had never seen Evie at church, but then she was away at school most weekends and might attend there.

  Don’t kid yourself, he thought. Whitney had pretended to share his interest in religion and Christ, but ambition and greed reared itself eventually, revealing her for who she was.

  “I don’t know all those answers, Mom,” he admitted.

  “Maybe you could talk to her, find out more about her. But, remember, God does not call us into contracts with unbelievers, so keep your heart open to his leading,” his mother suggested gently. “And God is a God of order, not of chaos. He won’t lead one of you to one thing and the other to something else. If he truly wants to see you two together, he’ll lead you both in that direction.”

  Eli scraped the remaining chili from his bowl and glanced at the clock. Most of his lunch hour had disappeared during their discussion, and he had just enough time for a piece of the fresh cake that had caught his attention when he entered the house.

  As though she’d read his mind, his mother rose from her seat, cut a large slice of cake, served it on a small plate, and slid it across the bar toward him. She smiled as he devoured the sweet treat.

  “Thanks, Mom.” He wiped his mouth and drained the last of his water from the glass.

  “I’d cook lunch for you anytime.” She smiled as she stacked empty plates and bowls on top of one another.

  “And not just for lunch.” After kissing her cheek, he headed out the door and back to his car. His mother’s words ran through his mind as he drove to the law office. He had never considered his parents’ marriage an arranged one. He’d always thought the practice had ended a hundred years ago. Yet the comparison of his parents’ marriage to that of Victoria and Thomas Barrett ended there. The arrangement made his parents’ marriage stronger, yet it barely held together the relationship—if you could call it that—of the Barrett family.

  If he married Evie, which marriage would they reflect? Would he constantly have to ignore her indiscretions? Would her long-time boyfriend, Ben, be a third person in their relationship? Could he stand to live his whole life in politeness in order not to offend the other partner? The coolness of such a relationship sent shivers through him. He had long dreamed of falling deeply in love with a woman who wanted the same things from life he desired—an opportunity to serve others, a family filled with children, and a love others would envy.

  When Whitney walked out on him, he thought his chance for that dream had disappeared with her. But Evie held unknown treasures and mysteries. She could either become the partner he longed to have or simply a business associate of the home.

  He drove into a parking space determined to push thoughts of Evie Barrett to the back of his mind and get something accomplished with his afternoon.

  His plan worked well until 3 p.m., when his boss rapped his knuckles on Eli’s office door. “Eli, I have a client in Summerton who needs some help setting up a trust fund. Tomorrow is the only day this week he can meet, and I’m tied up in a real-estate deal all day. Can you take it for me?”

  Eli stared blankly at Richard Witherspoon for a moment. The man barely reached over five and a half feet tall, and his slight frame would make him an easy target for most bullies, but Eli had seen him in court. Many young, stout lawyers relaxed until he attacked like a bulldog. In the office, however, Richard had been kind and patient in showing Eli how office protocol worked and gradually assigning him larger accounts and clients.

  A trust fund project would not take very much time, but Eli recognized the client must be an important one to the firm, which meant someone needed to go on his timetable and do the work in person.

  “Sure,” Eli replied, the word sticking in his throat. What had Thomas said to his boss to make Richard send Eli all the way to Summerton
—the college town where Evie lived—to see a client? He reached for a bottled water on his desk.

  “Great, I’ll have Alice drop the file you’ll need by your office this afternoon so you can read up on it. He’s been a client since we opened the firm thirty years ago and has grown with us even when he could have used more experienced attorneys,” Richard informed Eli. “The appointment is at 2 p.m.”

  Eli waited until he walked out the door and back to his office before turning his head back to the paperwork scattered on his desk. He fingered paper after paper for several minutes. No matter how hard he tried to concentrate, he couldn’t remember where he was in the work or what he was supposed to be doing. He looked at the clock. Would it be too late to call Evie and ask to meet for coffee tomorrow afternoon? He had no illusions about their meeting being a date. In fact, he had not yet decided whether dating Evie would be a wise choice or not. But getting to know her a little better certainly would not hurt.

  He extracted his cell from his pocket and scanned his contacts. Not finding her name or number, he dropped the phone onto his desk and squinted. He knew he had her number somewhere….

  At home. He had put his home number on the card with the flowers. It was uncharacteristic for him. I must have been rattled. He shook his head. So her number had to be on the caller ID there. He sat back in his chair and let his head flop backward until he looked at the ceiling.

  “Nothing I can do about that now,” he muttered. “Get back to work. You can call her when you get home.” He rubbed his eyes and leaned back over his desk.

  True to his word, Richard’s assistant, Alice, brought by the client’s file an hour later. Eli gathered his current projects into neat stacks on his desk. He would deal with some of it the next morning before he left for Summerton, and some of it would have to wait until later in the next week. He flipped through the new file, reading Richard’s notes, and made some of his own about how the trust should be created. He had not set up a trust in years, so he scanned a couple of law books to refresh himself.

  Soon the hum of computers and chatter of legal aides slowed and eventually stopped. He glanced at the clock: 6 p.m. He had no idea he had been working that long on this one case. He had no evening plans, but thoughts of calling Evie to invite her for coffee the next afternoon had bounced through his mind all afternoon. He packed the file for the trust fund meeting in his briefcase for the next day and set it beside his desk before turning out the light and locking his door.

  As Eli drove home that evening, the spacious new subdivisions with sprawling homes faded into older neighborhoods where children rode their bikes along city sidewalks and finally into open farm land with homes scattered far apart. Eli’s hands had never cupped the loose, rich soil. He held no memories of tossing seeds into carefully spaded holes, covering them, watering them, and waiting for the green leaves of life to sprout. Even the idea of milking cows and grooming horses enticed him to stay far away from both creatures.

  Yet watching the rolling hills of land he could call his own gave him peace and satisfaction. He’d bought the land because he loved the country and the community his father served for so many years. He wanted to own a little piece of it even if he never worked the soil or reaped a harvest from the vast fields surrounding his house.

  Minutes later he padded sock-footed through the house. He listened to a message, reminding him he had volunteered to help repaint the church nursery this Saturday, then scrolled through the caller ID on his home phone. He did not have to search long before he recognized Evie’s number.

  “Hello?” She sounded breathless when she answered.

  “Evie?”

  “Yes?”

  Eli could tell she didn’t recognize his voice and knew he’d caught her off guard. “It’s Eli Wheatly.”

  “Oh.” Her voice dropped. “Hi. I-I didn’t expect to hear from you today.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said swiftly. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

  “No, it’s no problem. I was just…studying.”

  Eli wondered what she was really doing. “I know it’s short notice, but I found out this afternoon that I have to come to Summerton tomorrow to visit a client, and I was wondering if I might convince you to have coffee with me.” He paced in the kitchen, waiting for her answer. Spying a pair of old boat shoes sitting next to the door, he slipped his feet inside and walked out onto the deck behind his house.

  “What time?” Her voice sounded unsure.

  “Maybe around four? I have to meet the client at two, but it shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours.” He heard her shuffling papers and guessed she was checking a planner likely stuffed full of assignments and appointments. As he waited for her to find her schedule for the next day, he dusted off a patio chair and sat down. Ripples faded across a small pond several hundred yards from his house, sending ripples of calm through his body.

  “That should be okay,” she replied, this time her voice stronger.

  “You know the town, so you pick the place,” he offered. His pulse slowed as he realized she had actually agreed to sit and talk to him. No parents, no boyfriends, just the two of them.

  “Have you ever been to Roasted? They have the best blends, plus some great cappuccinos,” Evie informed him.

  “Sounds wonderful, but you’ll have to give me directions.” When he hung up, he reviewed the directions he’d scrawled on the back of a receipt he had in his pocket and placed it in his wallet so he wouldn’t lose it. The sound of her voice reminded him of their front porch conversation. She seemed more mellow tonight. Although he doubted she would admit it, she was meeting him to please her parents. Yet he knew this was his one chance to impress her and for her to show him some reason their dating each other would not be out of the question.

  He sat for another hour on the patio, watching the early fall sun disappear beneath the painted landscape. Trees towered beyond the pond. Most of their leaves were still green, but a few sprayed the scene with color as though the sun had swooped in and kissed them, leaving a yellow lip print.

  When he could stand the chill no longer, he wandered back inside and spent the evening watching television in an attempt to keep from overanalyzing the day’s events. From his first conversation with Thomas Barrett that morning to his mother’s discussion about arranged marriages and finally his “appointment” with Evie the next day, his thoughts churned with possibilities for the future.

  Better the future than the past, he told himself as he finally settled into bed that night.

  4

  )

  E

  vie flipped down the visor in her BMW convertible and checked the mirror. Pursing her lips, she reapplied a barely pink shade of lipstick. Her straight blond hair fell against her shoulders. Evie sighed. Could she really pull it off? Act interested in a man she had no intentions of pursuing?

  Then she thought of Ben. In two hours she would meet him in a secluded, cozy restaurant forty-five minutes away. Thinking of their clandestine meeting replaced the misgivings and brought a smile, one she hoped she could maintain throughout her coffee break. She flipped the visor up again and glanced in the rearview mirror in time to see Eli enter the coffee shop. She tugged at the corner of her khaki skirt and followed him.

  The afternoon sun lit the coffee shop. Evie waved and mouthed hello to several of her classmates as her eyes adjusted to the change in light and glanced around for Eli. He sat in a chair at a small, round table in a corner near the back, the light reflecting off his silver cuff links.

  Think of Ben, think of Ben, think of Ben, she repeated to herself as she waved in Eli’s direction. “Hi,” she greeted him with forced sweetness.

  “Good afternoon.” He smiled broadly at her. “Pick your poison.” He gestured in the direction of the coffee bar.

  Cheesy, Evie thought. How painful will this afternoon be? They studied the menu pasted above the bar and ordered before returning to the table.

  “So ho
w was your meeting?” Evie asked. If she had learned anything from her mother, it was the art of small talk. Victoria Barrett could break the ice in the Arctic Circle.

  “Boring,” Eli answered. “A man with too much money wanted to set some aside for his newest grandson’s college education. The kid isn’t even off formula yet, and his grandfather has already paid for an Ivy League education. Not that there’s anything wrong with planning ahead, but I can’t help but think the kids who work here would love to have just an extra $500 to put toward their tuition.” Eli looked up at Evie and blushed. “And now I’m babbling, sorry.”

  The kids of which he spoke could easily include her Ben. He worked two jobs merely to pay for tuition every other semester and his living expenses, even though he shared those with three other guys. She could understand Eli’s frustration.

  “So when you are a congressman, what great plans do you have to help these kids get that $500, or maybe even more to help pay for their college education?” She settled into her chair.

  Eli’s perfectly straight, white teeth showed through his grin. “I’ve actually given that problem some thought….”

  Evie’s mind wandered as he talked about how to help hard-working kids from hard-working families pay for a college education so maybe they could pay more on their own children’s education.

  He cocked his head to one side as he wrapped up his explanation. “Enough political talk. I’m sure you get that at home. Your father seems to be very involved with politics for a doctor. So, now it’s your turn. Tell me about this boyfriend of yours, the one who cares nothing for your family’s things, yet doesn’t warrant the approval of your parents.”

  Evie blinked as her breath stopped for a minute. “He…I…we broke up,” she admitted, casting her eyes downward, hoping he couldn’t see the sweat popping out on her forehead.