The Forever Husband. Kathryn Alexander

or wouldn’t do. He’d seen where that had taken him once before in life. Once was enough.

      * * *

      “Hi, princess,” Eric greeted Cassie as he entered the familiar hospital room. He gently grabbed a small foot through the soft yellow blanket covering her legs.

      “Dad, hi!” Her face lit up when she saw him, and nothing pleased him more.

      “So you want to spend a night by yourself, huh?” he asked, pulling her into a brief, but warm embrace. Then he reached for the old green chair he’d grown accustomed to sitting in during this hospital stay.

      “Isn’t Trudy here now? I can’t believe you want to stay all night alone if your favorite nurse isn’t on duty.”

      “She’s here. She just went to get me some cookies and juice for a bedtime snack. Go home, Dad. I’m ready to try it alone.” Cassie’s smile had a guilty edge to it.

      “What’s up with you?” he asked.

      “It will be good for you and Mom to both be home tonight. Together. In the same house. Don’t you think?” She giggled.

      “So, that’s the motive,” he responded, grabbing her foot and tickling it while she laughed. “I knew there was something going on in that smart little brain of yours. You think your mother and I need help with our relationship?”

      “Dad, I think you need all the help you can get.”

      Then it was Eric’s turn to laugh. Mostly in surprise. “Thanks a lot for your confidence in dear old Dad,” he remarked, then took more serious note of what Cassie was implying. “I can’t promise things will work out with us. Be patient. We’ll see how it goes.”

      “Do you still love Mom?”

      “Yes, Cassie. I’ll always love your mother.” He leaned forward to kiss her forehead. “Always.”

      Now, all he needed was a way to prove it—to the girls, and to Hope.

       Chapter Three

      “How can you let them treat you that way, Hope?” Eric’s words had been quiet, but firm. He’d returned home to find Hope in the middle of a long-distance telephone conversation with her mother. And he hadn’t liked the part he’d overheard. “You deserve better than that.”

      “You handle your parents your way, and I’ll handle mine my way,” Hope replied. Discussing her relationship with her parents was never easy with Eric. He always defended her too much, sided with her more than she felt he should. Didn’t he understand her motivation for any of this?

      Eric studied her determined expression. Her sapphire eyes were as fiery as her temper, and she was. just as beautiful angry as she was at any other time. He had to force himself to concentrate on the subject of their discussion: her relationship with her parents. “You let them walk all over you. Tell them what you think about their attitude. Tell them not to say those things—”

      “Don’t,” Hope said, and lifted her hand as if she could stop his words. “We don’t need to talk about this. It always upsets you.” She turned, thinking that leaving the room might be the best thing. She didn’t want to argue with him, and Eric didn’t seem to understand her reasoning at all. But as she moved to leave, she was stopped inadvertently by a surprised Grace, who had heard their exchange of words.

      “Excuse me, Grace. I’m going to bed,” she said. She longed to hurry past her mother-in-law and escape to the solitude of her bedroom, but Grace’s hand closed gently around Hope’s forearm.

      “Wait, just for a moment. Eric, why are you so hard on her?” Grace asked gently.

      “Don’t, Mom,” Eric warned. “This is something Hope and I have never agreed on, and you don’t want to get yourself into the middle of an old argument.” He looked at his wife, but she didn’t meet his gaze. “I’m sorry if I offended you, Hope. I just hate to see you hurt by them.” Then he looked back at his mother. “Her parents don’t like me. They never did,” he explained. “I guess that makes me overly defensive when they do something hurtful.”

      Hope stood silently beside Grace, listening to Eric’s comments. Her teeth sank into her lower lip as she considered her parents’ discontent with most areas of her life. It had been a long time since she’d thought of how unkind they had been to her husband over the years when he had been nothing but considerate and respectful to them.

      Eric continued. “I can accept their feelings toward me, but why Hope allows them to make hurtful comments about the way she lives her life, I really don’t understand. I think that if she stood up to them, just once, they’d be so shocked by it, they might back off for a while.”

      Grace released her gentle hold on Hope and pulled out a nearby kitchen chair to sit down. She looked from her son to her daughter-in-law, each standing on opposite sides of the kitchen, both looking as if they’d prefer being someplace else.

      “Eric, I’m sorry my mother and father have been so unfair to you.” Hope shook her head regretfully. “There was nothing much I could do about it. From the time we were kids—the more I loved you, the less they liked you.”

      Eric stared at her, clearly surprised by her admission. “I wasn’t looking for an apology.”

      “But you deserve one,” she replied.

      “I just want you to stand up for yourself once in a while,” he said. “Deference to their position in your life is one thing, but listening to their constant faultfinding is too much. You’ve been polite and kind to them for as long as I can remember.”

      Hope was about to respond when Grace intervened on her behalf.

      “Do you think it’s easy to be kind, polite, even loving to people who are hateful? People who pay little attention to your feelings, your choices in life? How do you think Hope feels when her folks take off on one of their tirades against Christianity, or against you and your marriage?” Grace’s questions stung; that was apparent from Eric’s downcast expression.

      “Mom, I really think she has a right to defend herself.”

      “And say what? That they’re narrow-minded, sharp-tongued people who ought to open their eyes and see her for who she is? A lovely, young Christian mother whose doing a fine job of raising two children, by herself?” Grace emphasized the last two words.

      Hope was tired of the struggle she’d known with her parents, but she certainly didn’t feel worthy of Grace’s compliments. She’d made more mistakes than she would ever want to own up to. Especially to Eric. “Grace, please—”

      “Let me finish, dear,” Grace interrupted. “Do you think it’s weakness that keeps her quiet when she is told how disappointed they are with her?” her mother-in-law asked.