Lily Fields (Garden of Love 1) Read online

  Lily Fields

  by Melanie Wilber

  Lily Fields

  © 2002 by Melanie L. Wilber

  Revised and updated, 2011

  All Rights Reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogues are products of the author’s imagination. Except for well-known historical and contemporary figures, any resemblance to actual events or persons is entirely coincidental.

  Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

  Also:

  Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

  Scripture marked (THE MESSAGE) taken from THE MESSAGE. Copyright © by Eugene H. Peterson, 1993, 1994, 1995. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Rita, Sherry, Paul, Becky, Carolyn, Mary, Tami, Dorie, Wes, Wendell, Sue, Rob, Nancy, Tracy, John, and other teachers, coaches, and resource workers for your loving devotion to Silas. He has been blessed to have you as his teachers, mentors, and aides. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. May God bless you richly for the love you have shown.

  Family and friends ~ For all your support. Thanks for reading, being my copy editors, praying for me, and for your encouragement. I am blessed to have all of you in my life.

  Kevin ~ For loving me faithfully for twenty amazing years. I love you more than all the romance books in the world could possibly say.

  My Savior and My God ~ You are forever faithful. Without You none of it means anything. May I know You more each day. This is my greatest desire.

  DEDICATION

  For Silas, Kayla, and Karinne:

  My three priceless treasures.

  And,

  For Kevin: My husband and best friend.

  I still can’t believe you’re mine!

  When you came down long ago, you did awesome things beyond our highest expectations. And oh, how the mountains quaked! For since the world began, no ear has heard, and no eye has seen a God like you,

  who works for those who wait for him!

  Isaiah 64:3-4 (NLT)

  CHAPTER ONE

  Lily Sullivan entered her apartment quickly and shut out the cold December air. Flipping on the light and leaving her black flats by the door, she stepped onto the hardwood floor in her stocking feet and removed her white scarf. Meow greeted her as usual, rubbing his silky black fur against her leg. She hung her wool coat on the rack and reached down to scratch his head. He soaked up the affection like a typical house cat who had been home all day by himself.

  Scampering beside her to the kitchen, Meow quickly forgot his need for human affection and exchanged his welcoming mews for incessant cries of hunger.

  “Okay, I hear you,” she said, scooping the cat into her arms and strolling to the cupboard, pulling a can of premium cat food from the corner shelf. “Have I ever not fed you?”

  Meow laid his warm paw on her chin. “Meow.”

  She laughed. “Five more seconds,” she said, pulling the tab and removing the lid from the can. Stooping down to dump the contents into the blue plastic dish, she set Meow down and tucked a loose strand of light copper hair behind her ear. Meow began attacking the food as if he hadn’t eaten in days.

  “What’s the matter? Tweet wouldn’t let you have her for lunch again?”

  As if hearing her name, the yellow parakeet began chirping from her cage in the living room. Lily left her ravenous cat and went to say hello to her feathered friend. From her elevated view of the sky-lit living room, Tweet chirped and walked back and forth on her wooden perch, cocking her head this way and that to say hello.

  “Well at least someone around here eats like a bird,” she said, seeing Tweet’s food bin still half-full. “Anything exciting happen around here today?”

  More chirps and side steps made Lily smile. “Yeah, me too. Today was a pretty good one. I had a major breakthrough with Max. I’ll tell you all about it after I change.”

  Lily retreated upstairs to her bedroom, turning on the small lamp by the door of the somewhat darkened space, giving the room a cozy, warm glow. The smallest and most reclusive part of her spacious loft apartment always gave her a sense of familiarity and security.

  She had decorated the small bedroom with painstaking detail until she loved everything about it: the antique brass finish of her scrolled bed, the floral comforter with soft yellow and light red hues, the restored antique bed stand in the corner beside the window, the honeycomb blinds that blocked the view of an old brick building next door, and the larger window that overlooked a small city-block park behind her building.

  Removing her rayon skirt and white blouse, Lily exchanged her work attire for some comfy flannel pajama bottoms and a baggy sweatshirt. Stepping into the adjacent bathroom, she removed the clip from the base of her neck and brushed out her light red hair, planning to let it flow freely for the remainder of the day. Removing her necklace with the cross pendant hanging from it, she laid the simple chain in the top portion of her jewelry box and headed back downstairs.

  She’d had a light lunch today and felt ready for an early dinner. Despite this being Friday night, she had no plans to leave the apartment for the rest of the evening. She would spend tonight like most, curled up in her overstuffed chaise by the window with a good book to enjoy. Solitude had become the norm for her in the last few years. Since graduating from college four years ago and taking a job as a special education teacher at an elementary school, Lily had lived alone in this apartment on Portland’s west side. The owner of the building was one of her father’s patients, and she had gotten a great deal on the prime loft space in a safe, quiet area of town near the Portland State campus.

  She wasn’t a total recluse, but her social life was limited to a few close friends whom she mostly saw at church and at Bible study on Tuesday nights. She preferred it that way. She had never been a big “get out on the weekend” type of girl. Books had been her best friends since kindergarten.

  Her family was close by, however, and she saw her parents and one or more of her siblings at least once a week. Mom and Dad still lived in the same house on Marquam Hill near the hospital where they both worked. Her dad was a doctor, her mom a nurse. Only her younger sister, Rose, still lived at home. Rose would be getting her degree in nursing in the spring. Her twin brothers, David and James, were in their fourth year of medical school and had an apartment together on the hill.

  And Camellia, her older sister, lived a few miles away in a west-side suburb with her husband and two children. Although she currently chose to be a stay-at-home mom with her three year old and eighteen month old daughters, Camellia had also chosen a medical career and planned to get back to her nursing soon.

  But Lily had been the lone duck, choosing a teaching career instead of a medical one, although her work with special education students often dealt with physical conditions that made her responsible for some nursing-like tasks. Currently she only had one student, however: Max Harris. She had been assigned to be Max’s full-time aide in his first-grade classroom in September, and she had fallen in love with the mildly autistic boy in three short months.

  Entering the kitchen once again, Lily opened the freezer door and pulled a frozen dinner from the cold chamber. Her phone rang as she hit the start button on the control pad of the microwave. It was her mom. Filling the watering can beside the sink, Lily turned to the jungle of plants in front of the patio door and gave her green friends a mild dousing while listening to her mother’s r
un-down of her life since the last time they had spoken a couple of days ago. After a few minutes of chit-chat, her mother got around to her true reason for calling.

  “Rose and Geoffrey are having dinner with us tomorrow night. You should come too.”

  Her mom tried to sound casual, but Lily knew exactly what she was up to. She had invited a med student or resident over for dinner again. Some unsuspecting soul who would find out he had been set up on a blind date with his coworker’s lonely daughter. The only one left. Camellia and Rose had both found their men that way. Camellia and Parker had married five years ago; Rose and Geoffrey would be married this coming June.

  “One of these days you’re going to give up on me,” she told her mother.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” her mom innocently cooed.

  “You know very well what I’m talking about,” she laughed. “Handsome doctors do not go for wallflowers like me. You may have found matches for Cami and Rose, but--”

  “I’m not listening to that, Lily. With that sweet smile of yours and personality to match, it’s only a matter of time before a wonderful young man with an eye for your inner beauty is going to sweep you right off your feet.”

  Lily forced another laugh. “Sorry to spoil your fun, Mom, but I can’t make it this time. The staff Christmas party is tomorrow.”

  Her mother tried to counter, but Lily stopped her.

  “My dinner’s beeping, Mom. I’ll see you soon.”

  Click.

  Lily tried to keep her feelings from reaching her thoughts, but before she had scooped the hot entrée onto a plate, tears were beginning to form.

  With that sweet smile and personality to match...

  Her mind revisited the countless times her mother had spoken those exact words. The first time had been at the age of thirteen. She remembered that day all too well. She had gone to her first school dance and had spent the entire two hours waiting for even one boy to ask her. No one had. Her mother had found her crying herself to sleep that night.

  “What’s the matter, honey?”

  She had refused to answer, too embarrassed to admit the horrible truth to anyone. She had been lying all night to her friends. “Who have you danced with, Lily?” She’d rattled off three or four names. No one had questioned her. They were too busy having fun to notice her lonely plight.

  “Come on, honey,” her mother had coaxed. “Tell me. I’m sure it’s not as bad as it seems.”

  She had told her the truth. She didn’t know what she expected or wanted her mother to say, but the response had only made her cry harder once her mother left the room.

  “Don’t worry, honey. You have inner beauty far beyond most girls your age. One of these days a boy worthy of it will see your sweet smile and personality to match and then it won’t matter that none of those other boys noticed you.”

  Her thoughts at twenty-seven were the same as they had been back then. Why can’t I have both? Inner beauty and outer beauty? Camellia and Rose have both, why not me? Why can’t I have golden blonde hair and perfect skin? Why do I have to be so ordinary?

  Her one unique quality was her light red hair, which she actually liked, but the rest of her wasn’t something most guys found noticeable. A content “meow” at her feet and the feel of her cat’s warm fur rubbing against her leg brought her out of the depressing trench she had begun to plummet into.

  “Okay, I won’t cry,” she told Meow. “What do I need a man for anyway when I have such a beautiful cat like you?”

  A chirp from the living room made her smile a bit more. “Yes, Tweet,” she called out. “I have you too. What more does a girl need?”

  Lily took her dinner to the couch and flipped on the television, catching an episode of I Love Lucy. Her comfortable, old sofa that she had found at a secondhand store when she’d first moved here was hidden by a textured ivory slipcover that gave the furniture an updated, classy look. She didn’t want to spoil it with a stain of spaghetti sauce and ate her food carefully.

  Most of the furniture and decor surrounding her had come with little expense. Her friends often commented on her artistic flair for interior decorating and selection of antique-looking furniture that gave her apartment a unique charm, but most of her treasured belongings had been another’s discarded junk: an old lamp picked up at an estate sale in a turn-of-the-century home; the coffee table she had found by the dumpster that only needed a good polishing; the antique photos of her grandparents and other relatives amongst modern day portraits of her family.

  The only thing she owned that had come from an antique store, she hadn’t bought for herself. Her parents had given her the dark-wood armoire with an oval mirrored door last year for Christmas. Her mother had one in her bedroom, and Lily had always loved the piece tucked away in a corner of her parents’ large home. She had wanted hers in the living room for all to admire.

  The comic story line of the rerun she had seen at least a dozen times lifted her spirits somewhat. After finishing her dinner, she lit some vanilla-scented candles scattered around the room and selected a well-loved novel from one of her shelves. Opening the cover and flipping to the first chapter, she thought again of the good day she’d had with Max. Whenever she began to feel lonely or think about what she didn’t have, reminders of all the good things in her life often came to mind. And a wonderful job that she loved couldn’t be ignored for long.

  She had been teaching special education students at a Portland elementary school for the last four years. She found the work rewarding, and the children touched her heart in a way she couldn’t describe. She’d had her share of challenging students and days, but even difficult times had blessed her with a sense of being needed, like she had a special purpose.

  The last three months had been absolutely delightful, through difficulty and triumph alike. Today Max had done something that others might not find all that significant, but she did. Max had referred to himself as “I” for the first time. Usually he spoke in third person: “Max went on the slide,” he would say; or “Max did it!” But this afternoon before the final bell of the day, she had said, “You did great today, Max.”

  “Yeah,” he said, laughing in his adorable little way. “I did great, Miss Sulwivin.”

  It was a simple thing, but his words brought tears to her eyes. Yes, she had a special job--a special purpose: To teach a little boy how to read and write, to speak and to understand. People often said she had a gift in working with special needs children, and she always responded: “The children are the gift.”

  She didn’t think of her mother’s words again until after she went to bed. Remaining awake for a little while, feeling the chilly winter air seeping through her thin windows, Lily snuggled beneath her down comforter feeling blessed, and yet wondering if she would ever have someone to share her life with.

  Her last relationship, one that only lasted a few months, had ended nearly three years ago. Besides that short-lived dating experience, her romantic life had been limited to a two-year relationship during her early college days. Marty Graham had been her first boyfriend, and she had fond memories of him and their time together.

  They had been too young and too uncertain of their futures back then to continue dating on a long-term basis, but she thought of him often and wondered if she might have the chance to see him again someday. The last she’d heard he was living in Kenya as a missionary. She hadn’t heard if he had ever married.

  Somewhere in the midst of her thoughts, she managed to fall asleep. On Saturday morning she braved the mall to do her final Christmas shopping. She had already bought something for her sisters and her mom, but the men in her life were more of a challenge. Her dad and brothers always asked for strange things she had no clue about, like tools and computer games and techno-gadgets. She did manage to find a DVD that David had on his list, and a video game for James. She ended up going with the classic shirt and tie for Dad.

  She picked up a few things for her nieces, and gift cards for he
r brother-in-law and for Rose’s fiancé. She had paid at the register of the music store when she turned around and saw a familiar face. One of her male coworkers was flipping through some CDs on a large display rack. Her heart began to beat faster at the sight of him.

  She’d had a huge crush on Devin Taylor since she had first laid eyes on him two years ago. She admired his pleasant features for a moment: his soft blonde hair, smooth skin, and athletic build. If he were looking her direction, she would be drawn to his searing blue eyes and dimpled smile.

  He glanced up and noticed her before she had a chance to decide whether or not to go over and say hello.

  “Hey,” he said, flashing his nice smile and strolling her direction. “Out doing some Christmas shopping?”

  “Yes,” she replied, holding up several bags. “I think I’m finally done.”

  “You want to help me?”

  She laughed and felt tongue-tied. Devin worked at the same school she did. He taught second grade. Last year one of her students spent the mornings in the special ed classroom and the afternoons in Devin’s class. Every day she wheeled Adam down the hall as the kids were coming in from recess. Seeing Devin had never failed to make her heart thump a bit wildly.

  He was super nice, great with kids, and had a smile to die for. Whenever she was around him she always felt like she was back at Lincoln High, swooning over the most popular boy in school. Feeling a bit more spunky than usual, Lily decided to take a chance.

  “If you have any women on your list, I might be able to help. Otherwise, forget it. I’m done shopping for men this year.”

  Her words appeared to amuse him, bringing forth a partial smile. “You know, every year I ask Santa for a woman, but he hasn’t brought the right one along yet.”