“I’m glad the batting cages were a hit.I go there sometimes when I need to blow off steam.”
“You should have come with us tonight.Thomas would have enjoyed having you there.I know absolutely nothing about baseball except you hit the ball with a bat and run in a circle.”
I snort.“There is a lot more to it than that.”
“See, you should have come.”
“I appreciate that.Maybe next time.”I close my Bible and set it on the table.
“Do you read it every night?”she asks.
“My Bible?”I question when I see her gesture toward it.
“Yeah.”
“I do.Even if it’s just a random verse, I try to begin and end my day with God’s Word.”
“I love that.”
“You?”
“I don’t actually have a Bible anymore.”
“Really?Why?”
Her gaze darkens.“I don’t like to talk a lot about my past.It’s not a great story.”
“You don’t have to tell me anything.”
“I know.Maybe that’s why I want to.”She laughs softly, but there’s no humor in it.“Uh, he was not a man of faith.He didn’t like being told what to do or how he should live his life, so following God just wasn’t something he was interested in doing.”She closes her eyes.I want to know more, but pressing only gets people to lock up, so I remain silent as she opens her eyes and stares down at her hands.“Anyway, anytime I would pray, he’d make some rude comment or mock me.It eventually got so bad that...”She trails off, and her eyes fill.
“You don’t have to tell me, Katelyn.But I am here if you want to.”
She smiles at me and wipes her eyes.“I’m ashamed that I let him bully me into hiding my faith.”
I try to keep a level head as I imagine just what that “bullying” might have looked like.Did he physically hurt her, too?What damage did he inflict on this beautiful woman before she was finally able to leave?
“You shouldn’t be ashamed.”
“I asked for the Lord’s forgiveness for it.”
“Then that’s all you needed to do.”
She purses her lips together in a tight smile.“When I left, I didn’t take anything.No spare clothes, no supplies, no Bible.To be honest, I didn’t even know I was going to leave.I went out to take Thomas to his one-month checkup, and when the appointment was over, I just couldn’t bring myself to go back.I sat in that parking lot for three hours while my son napped and I tried to decide what to do.In the end, I took what I had on me, and I ran.As far and as fast as I could.”
Which explains why she stopped working in nursing.With a new baby to raise on her own and no money for child care, she’d have been forced to take whatever job she could that fit her circumstances.
“It sounds to me like you made a brave choice for the both of you.”
She nods.“I don’t regret leaving.You don’t even know the half of what he put me through.”Anger pushes through her tone now, and it mixes with that same emotion building in my chest.
I want to hunt him down and make him pay for the pain he caused her.For the pain he caused Thomas by not being a decent enough human being to be there for his son.
“I do feel bad for Thomas, though.Not having a dad hasn’t been easy on him.”
“You’ve done an amazing job with him, Katelyn, and I’m not just saying that.I work with teenagers all day long, and Thomas is exceptional.”
She smiles at me, an unguarded expression of pure delight, and that line she drew between us begins to blur.“Thanks for that.”