Christy Miller Collection Vol 4 Part 15

"Wait!" Christy squealed as she heard the camera click. "The paint goes on the bookshelf, not me!"

"Oh, right. Now what exactly does a bookshelf look like? Oh, here's one." With that, Todd dabbed a bit of paint on the end of Christy's nose.

"That's not a bookshelf! This is," Christy said. And with that she dotted Todd's right cheek. "Oh, that wasn't a bookshelf. That was a dimple. Now where did that bookshelf go?"

"I don't have any dimples," Todd said, touching his cheek.

"Oh, yes you do. I noticed it the first time we went to Balboa on the tandem bike. Remember? We bought Balboa Bars."

"That's right," Todd said. "And you got a streak of chocolate right there on your face." He outlined the memory with a stroke of the paintbrush. "And it stayed on the rest of the day!"

"You asked for it, dude!" Christy teased. "This is for never writing to me ever!" She painted a stripe up his arm.

Click went the camera.

"Hey, I sent you a coconut!"

"And this is for all the times you've thrown me in the ocean!" Another stripe went up his other arm.

"Whoops!" Bob said. "That was the last shot. Guess you'll have to call a truce."

Christy and Todd looked at each other. They each had their paintbrushes poised and ready to strike.

"Truce?" Christy suggested.

"Truce," Todd agreed, and as if they were slapping high fives, they whapped their paintbrushes together and were instantly showered in a spray of tiny polka dots.

"Look at us!" Christy cracked up at the sight of Todd with paint in his face, hair, everywhere. "Do I look as funny as you?"

"No, funnier."

After they finished laughing and wiping the paint from their eyelashes, Todd and Christy set to work. Within an hour they had transformed the bookshelf into a white home for all of Christy's mementos.

Standing back to admire their work, Christy said, "I don't know. A dusty rose would have been nice."

"White is good," Todd a.s.sured her. "After it dries, you'll see."

Todd drove the few blocks to his house to shower and change while Christy went to clean up in the bathroom off her guest room. Little flecks of paint clung to her arms and her eyebrows. It was a tedious process, getting herself back to normal, and she needed an extra dose of lotion when she was done. She changed into a pair of jeans and a white cotton s.h.i.+rt, rolling up the long sleeves.

Todd was already downstairs, watching TV with her uncle. "Did you check on it yet?" Christy asked.

"Check on what?"

"The bookshelf. I want to see if it's dry."

"It won't be dry until tomorrow," Bob said. "Did Marti tell you we're going out to dinner in about an hour? She made reservations at a new place in Huntington Beach."

Todd rose from the couch. "Sounds like we have enough time for a walk on the beach."

Christy smiled at the good-looking, bronzed young man walking toward her. His short, sandy blond hair was still wet. His blue eyes met hers, and he held out his hand, inviting her to take a walk. She slipped her hand into his, and they walked together out the sliding door. Kicking off their shoes, they let their feet sink into the cool sand.

"It's going to be quite a sunset tonight," Todd said. "See how the clouds are sort of puffing up there on the horizon? Wait until the sun hits the ocean. They'll all turn pink and orange."

"The dust beneath His feet," Christy said.

"You remembered." Todd squeezed her hand. "Yeah, those clouds are going to turn into some major mounds of dust tonight. Looks like G.o.d has been busy walking around our side of the earth today."

They made their way through the sand, hand in hand, down to the firm, wet sand along the sh.o.r.eline and walked together in silence. Todd's thumb automatically rubbed the chain on her Forever bracelet.

That reminded Christy that she had never asked him if he knew who paid for her to get it back. "Todd, I want to ask you something. You had some stored up questions for me this morning; now I have one for you. I guess the first thing I should ask is did you know that Rick sort of stole my bracelet?"

Todd stopped walking and faced her. "What do you mean?"

Christy explained how she had taken off her bracelet, left it in her purse in Rick's car, and then thought it was lost. She later found out he had used it as a trade-in on a new bracelet-a clunky silver one that said "Rick." Christy figured out he had taken it, and after breaking up with him, she tried to buy it back from the jewelry store where he had hocked it.

"I didn't know any of this," Todd said, still standing in one spot as the tide rose and lapped up, burying their feet in the sand.

"My next question was if you had been the one who paid the balance so I could get it back. All the jeweler would say was that it was some guy."

"It wasn't me. I didn't even know. Do you think it was Rick?"

"I did for a while, but the more I think about it the more I doubt it."

"Your dad maybe? Bob?" Todd suggested.

"Maybe. Although I don't think either of them knew about the whole incident. I guess it'll remain a mystery."

Todd wiggled his feet out of the sand and started down the beach, holding even tighter to Christy's hand. "I don't mind it being a mystery as long as you have the bracelet back."

"I guess I can live with a little mystery too." Christy said. "The whole thing only makes me madder at Rick."

"Wait a second. Wasn't that part of the regrets we tossed out to sea this morning?" Todd motioned out to the ocean. "You want to try swimming out there and gathering up all the ashes again? It's not worth it, Christy. Let it go."

"You're right." Christy nestled her head against Todd's shoulder. Then after a brief pause she added, "I wish I could let this whole thing with Katie and Michael just go too."

"That's different," Todd said. "You can't let that go. You have to hold on tighter than ever."

"But when I tell her he's not a Christian and she should drop him, she turns on me. I hate causing all this conflict."

"So are you going to change your opinion on dating non-Christians?"

"No. I can't. I feel too strongly about it," Christy said.

"Then what can you change?"

Christy thought. She wasn't sure. When Todd said change, it reminded her of when he had said. "How do the leaves know when it's time to change?" His answer had been that it's something supernatural that G.o.d brings about in a natural way.

"I guess I can't change anything. Only G.o.d can. I can ask Him to do something supernatural in a natural way."

Todd squeezed her hand again. "And you can ask Him and ask Him and ask Him again. Really good answers come from persistent prayers."

"But in the meantime, everything is different between Katie and me."

"Yes," Todd agreed.

"It's impossible for me to change how I feel about her dating Michael."

"Yes."

"I wish it wasn't so hard and that it didn't take so long for G.o.d to answer prayers."

"I agree."

"How can you take it so lightly?" Christy asked.

"I don't take it lightly. I've been praying for Katie and Michael ever since that night we met up with them at the movies. The only thing that gives me hope is that G.o.d said there is a time for everything. This is a time for Katie to make some major choices, and this is a time for you to stick close to her. Then, depending on how her choices go, you two will probably soon have either a time to mourn together or a time to dance. For me, it's a time to pray."

"Could we do that right now?" Christy asked.

Todd led her a few feet up to the drier sand, and the two of them sat close together, holding hands and praying for Katie and Michael. When they looked up, the sun had dipped its toes into the ocean. As Todd had predicted, the "dust of His feet" clouds were ablaze with California sunset colors-ambers, tangerines, lemons, and dusty rose.

Although Christy couldn't explain how, she felt that everything with Katie was going to turn out okay. Maybe it was simply because Christy had finally released the situation to the Lord as she and Todd had prayed. Or maybe it was because of the incredible sunset. It made everything else seem small compared to G.o.d's display of magnificence. If G.o.d could tell the sun when it was time to set, certainly He could tell Katie when it was time to break up with Michael, with or without Christy's input. Christy silently vowed to pray for Katie and Michael every day, and she hoped she would always be able to see things in perspective-from G.o.d's point of view.

Todd slipped his arm around Christy and drew her close. "You know what, Kilikina? I've prayed a long time about us being together just like this."

Resting her head on his shoulder, Christy said, "I've prayed the same thing, Todd. You know how the other day you said that for us, right now, this is a time to enjoy?"

"I remember," Todd answered, his voice sounding low and mellow.

"I think I know a better word."

"Yeah? What's that?"

"Cherish. For us, right now, this is a time to cherish."

Christy could hear Todd's echo of agreement from her snuggled-up position against his chest. "I like that," he said. "A time for us to cherish."

Together they watched the sunset, each hearing the other's steady breathing and feeling the warmth of being so close.

"Look at the color of those clouds," Christy said softly as the last tinges of pink faded from the sky. "Did you see it? It was a sort of dusty rose, wasn't it?"

Todd must have caught her hint. "White is good for a cloud too, you know."

"But don't you think dusty rose is more of a *forever cloud' kind of color?"

"You know what?" Todd grasped Christy's hand and led her back toward the house. "I think we have enough time to go to the paint store before dinner and buy ourselves a can of dusty rose paint. After all, what other color would you paint a *cute' five-dollar bookshelf?"

"Well, white is good." Christy teased him right back. "But not for this one. This one is a dusty rose."

"Because this is one to cherish."

"Right," Christy agreed, gazing into the great forever beyond the sunset. "This is one to cherish."

"And so are you, Kilikina." Todd stopped in the sand and wrapped his arms around her. "You are the one I cherish."

BOOK ELEVEN.

Sweet Dreams.

For my brother, Dr. Kevin Travis Jones.

"We need to have the team captains in the very front," Christy Miller called out to the girls lined up for the yearbook picture of the Kelley High volleyball team.

Flipping her nutmeg-brown hair over her shoulder and closing one eye, Christy sized up the group in her camera's viewfinder. This would be her last photo for the yearbook, and she was eager to finish.

"Where's Katie?" she asked. "And who's the other captain?"

"I am," said a tall girl kneeling in the front.

"Squeeze in on the right, you guys," Christy directed. "There, that's good. Does anyone know where Katie is?"

"She's not in the locker room." one girl said. "I was just there."

"She's probably off with Michael," a girl in the middle row observed.

"Yeah, well." said another girl, "if I was going to fall in love, that's who I'd want to do it with too."

"Did you see them today?" a girl with sandy blond hair asked. "They had on matching Save the Rain Forest' T-s.h.i.+rts. And yesterday Katie said Michael was applying to go on a trip to the Amazon this summer with some environmental group. I bet she goes with him."

Christy's heart began to pound faster. This was her best friend they were talking about. Katie wouldn't run off to the jungle without telling Christy about it. At least, six months ago she wouldn't have. But ever since Michael had entered Katie's life, Christy and Katie had grown farther and farther apart. It felt like a stab wound to hear these girls display more knowledge of Katie's life than Christy had.

"Just take the shot," one of the girls said. "We have to get back to cla.s.s."

"Okay," Christy said, focusing the camera. "Can you squeeze a little closer in the back row? Great. Perfect. Okay, you guys, smile!" She snapped the picture, and the girls immediately dispersed.

Hurrying back to her cla.s.s, Christy thought. This silence thing has gone on long enough. I'm going to talk to Katie today and do whatever it takes to get our friends.h.i.+p back on track.

In a few months they would be graduating from high school. They had had so many great times together. It couldn't end with this icy standoff between them.

Everything had changed the day Katie met Michael, and Christy had done little to hold on to their friends.h.i.+p. Of course, Christy had been busy with her own boyfriend, Todd. That was a relations.h.i.+p she had waited a long time for. Now, nearly every weekend she and Todd were together, and she hadn't felt the need to work things out with Katie until the girls on the volleyball team displayed their superior knowledge of the events in Katie's life.