Free Blue Like Elvis by Diane Moody Page B

to live abroad as he made a career with the Navy. I told him how hard
I’d fallen for Will and how much I had loved him.
    “However, you
couldn’t marry him,” he interjected, as if making a statement we both
understood.
    I looked down at
my skirt, running my fingernail along the pleat. “No, I couldn’t. I thought I
could. I wanted to. Well, at least I thought I did.”
    “What was it about
your romantic young sailor that made you change your mind?” he asked, resting
his elbows on his knees, his hands clasped together.
    “Dr. Love, I hate
to take up too much of your time like this. It’s no big deal.”
    “First of all,
you’re not taking my time. You made the appointment. This is your time.
And second, if it’s no big deal, then where did those tears I saw Sunday come
from? I doubt you were just overly excited about our lovely library.”
    “No, of course
not. But I—”
    “Miss Colter, I knew
your daddy well. He’s a good man. And your mother is as sweet as they come. I
know you come from good stock. Solid folk. So maybe I’m going out on a limb
here, but could it be your sailor wasn’t all you wished for deep in your heart?
Is it possible he may have been quite the romantic, but missing some of the
things you’d always yearned for?”
    My head snapped up
as I looked into his eyes. “How could you possibly know that? Why would you ask
me something like that?” I suddenly felt uncomfortable, wondering who had
talked to him. Had he called Dad? Had Rachel told him something?
    “Because I’ve sat
in this chair a hundred times asking the same question to a hundred others not
unlike you. Miss Colter—Shelby . . . you haven’t once mentioned
if your fiancé was a believer. Was he?”
    I looked down
again. “No, he wasn’t.”
    “And was he
comfortable with the fact that your faith is important to you?”
    “No, he wasn’t. I
thought I could handle it. I thought somewhere down the line, he’d want what I
had. Then we could raise our kids in a Christian home. It’s what I’ve always
dreamed of.”
    “Yet your heart
fell for someone promising you the moon but not willing to share your belief in
God.”
    “Exactly,” I
answered, though it came out more of a croak. The tears returned. “All my life
I wanted someone who would love me, someone who would be excited to share a
life with me. I was always that girl who never got the guy she wanted because
he always had eyes for someone else. The girl who got stuck with the guys who
were nice enough, but never set her heart to pounding. The girl who was serving
punch at the prom instead of dancing with the cute guy from her history class.
I didn’t want to be that girl the rest of my life.
    “But when I met
Will, I wasn’t that girl anymore. He fell head over heels in love with
me. It was literally love at first sight. For both of us.”
    “Where did you meet
him, if I may ask?”
    “The first week of
my senior year at Samford. He was a friend of a friend. He was on leave from
the Navy and had flown in from San Diego for a couple of weeks. He showed up at
this party and . . . oh, you don’t need to hear all this.”
    “No, no. Go on.
Please.”
    “He showed up at
this party and the minute my friend introduced us, it was like he was smitten
with me. I’d never had that experience before. I mean, he couldn’t take his
eyes off me. He wanted to know all about me, about my family, my
childhood . . .” I caught myself smiling, remembering the night.
“We ended up talking all night. We never left my friend’s apartment. Sat right
there on his sofa and talked all night long.
    “I couldn’t
believe it. Here was this handsome, articulate, intelligent man—interested in me ? ”
    “Wait. Why do say
that—‘interested in me’? Why shouldn’t he be interested in you? You’re a
beautiful young lady, you’re obviously articulate and intelligent. Yet you say it
as though no one in his right mind would be attracted to you. Why is