AN: Sorry the update took so long. I had trouble picking a direction for this to go. I think there might end up being an interesting dynamic between Elizabeth and Henry's mom that we don't usually see. Hope you like it. Thanks for the kind reviews. Words of encouragement are always appreciated, and I don't mind ideas to make my writing better. I'd love to hear your thoughts, so please review.
Chapter 4
For the next month, Henry and Elizabeth continued to see each other. They spoke on the phone, ate lunch together, went to the movies, took walks and a couple of times woke up next to each other in the morning having fallen asleep watching TV together in Elizabeth's dorm lounge. There hadn't been a day that passed since they met that night in October that the two hadn't been together for at least a few hours.
Now, it was the Monday afternoon before Thanksgiving and Elizabeth was packed and ready to go home to her grandparents on their farm in southern Virginia. Henry was leaving the following morning to go to his home in Pittsburgh. It would be six days before they saw each other again, and they stood before each other in the lounge of Henry's dorm, Elizabeth's car left running in the no parking zone out front. "I hope you have a nice visit with your family," Henry said.
"Yeah, you too." Elizabeth took a deep breath and exhaled quickly. "I'm already missing you."
"Yeah. I feel the same way. You have the phone number for my parents' house, right?" Henry asked, reaching out and grasping her fingers.
"Uh huh. It's in my purse. You have mine too?" Elizabeth took a step closer to Henry. She was close enough that he felt her breath fan across his face as she spoke.
"Yeah. I'll be back Sunday afternoon. I'll call when I get back on campus and we'll eat dinner together," he said.
"Let's plan on that. God, this is so much harder than I thought it would be. I feel like I'm being so dumb." She leaned into Henry and pressed a kiss to his lips. Before she could pull back, Henry snaked his arms around her back and held her prisoner against his body. Sinking his tongue into her mouth, she nipped at it and he moaned. He felt Elizabeth's lips curl into a smile against his mouth, and pulled away.
"You aren't. I'm feeling things with you that I've never felt before. I don't think it's dumb at all." He pushed the few stray hairs behind her ear and ran his thumb along her cheek. "Drive safe Elizabeth," he said. "I'll see you Sunday."
Elizabeth pressed her hands to Henry's chest and pecked his lips one more time. I'll see you Sunday," she whispered and then pushed off of him and went out the door.
Elizabeth made the hour drive back to her grandparents' house. She pulled into the house at 2PM. Will was still in school, her grandfather, Joseph Adams, was at work, and who even knew where her grandmother was. She couldn't keep up with Grandma Elaine's charity work. Having some alone time was completely okay with Elizabeth. She carried baskets of her laundry to the laundry room and started the first load. Then she ran up to her room and changed into her riding clothes. Stopping by the kitchen, she picked up a banana for herself and a handful of carrots before heading to the barn. Making her way down the stalls, she gave each horse a carrot. She stopped at her horse's stall. "Buttercup! How are you boy?" She leaned in and hugged the horse's neck. "You wanna ride? Come on." Elizabeth fed her horse a carrot and opened the stall door. She saddled him and led him out of the barn. The air was cold, but the sun was shining and the ground hadn't frozen yet. Elizabeth smiled widely and mounted her horse. Nudging his sides, they took off down the drive before she diverted them through the open gate and into the pasture. "Come on boy. Let's go!" Buttercup took off with Elizabeth.
They galloped for a long while. Elizabeth finally slowed Buttercup down to a trot. As they rode, Elizabeth told Buttercup all about her friends, her classes and Henry. They made a wide loop and rode back into the barn a couple hours later. After brushing and feeding Buttercup and wiping down the tack, Elizabeth went back to the house to meet up with Will and her grandmother.
Together, the three chatted while they all prepared dinner and had it ready to put on the table when Elizabeth's grandfather arrived home from work. The four sat at the table and talked about their days and what Will had been doing in school and what charity Elaine had been working with. Elizabeth talked about her classes and upcoming finals. She thought about telling her family about Henry, but decided against it, thinking that they were too new, even though her heart ached longed for him. After dinner, the family played a game of Scrabble and got ready for bed early, and Elizabeth was thankful.
She had just climbed into bed when there was a knock at her door. "Come in," she said, as she reached over and turned on the lamp on the bedside table.
"Hey Lizzie." It was Grandma Elaine. "How are you doing?"
"I'm okay. What's up?" Elizabeth asked.
"So,who is he?"
"Who's who?" Elizabeth asked, wondering if she really knew and how she knew.
"Come on. You took Buttercup out for a long ride. You didn't say much at dinner and during Scrabble, we had to tell you it was your turn five times in an hour. So, who is he?"
Elizabeth smiled shyly. "Okay, there is someone, but we haven't been dating long, so I didn't want to bring him up in case, you know."
"You know, what?" Elaine asked.
Elizabeth made a face. "In case we decide to go our separate ways. I don't' need my family questioning every move I make."
Elaine laughed. "He's special. I can tell by how you light up when you talk about him. Even when you talk about maybe breaking up with him." Elizabeth blushed.
"You're a little too observant. You know that?" she said, half joking, half not. "What do you want to know?"
"Oh come on. Just stuff. Girl talk isn't very fun when I have to drag it out of you."
"Alright fine," Elizabeth began. "His name is Henry Patrick McCord. I thought I might like him before I even met him. He was holding this study session for midterms and our religion professor said he'd never received less than an A."
"So he's smart then." Elained confirmed.
"Yes, very. He's a junior, a religious studies major and he's articulate both in writing and when speaking. He's an excellent communicator and there's something about his voice. To be honest, I was so intrigued by him before we even met, that looks were a non issue." Elizabeth felt like her grandma had pushed the floodgate open and now she couldn't stop talking about Henry.
"So looks don't matter?"
"Well, no. Looks don't matter, but he is very handsome." Elizabeth giggled. "I totally sound like I'm in junior high, pining after the cute basketball star or something. Anyway, Henry is very nice looking. He's tall, maybe 6' 2" and very muscular. He's in ROTC, so he has to work out quite a bit. He has sandy brown hair and brown eyes. He's so kind and considerate. He just makes it easy to be open. I told him all about mom and dad on our first date, and he wasn't freaked out. He was really supportive and shared things about his relationship with his dad that are tough and he's just so easy to talk to."
"He sounds like a great guy. Why are you so hesitant about it working out?" Elaine inquired.
"Henry's life path might make dating me a little dicey." Elaine frowned. Elizabeth took a deep breath and continued. "He is discerning the priesthood."
"Whoa, yeah. I don't suppose we're talking an Episcopal priest?"
"Nope. Catholic all the way."
"I can see where having a girlfriend may be problematic. Why is he even dating it he's going to be a priest?"
"It's all part of discerning your vocation. He has to live his life to be sure that the priesthood is the direction he wants to go."
"Sounds like you may be the one that gets hurt in this equation." Elaine commented, taking Elizabeth's hand. "You need to approach this with caution."
"I know. It's easier said than done though. I tell myself that, but then I'm with him, I can't see anything beyond the two of us. Together." Elizabeth was a little shocked at her own words. She'd never voiced her feelings for Henry out loud. It scared her, if she were honest with herself.
"Grandma, did you ever think you were in love and weren't?"
"Once, but I was very young and loved him for all the wrong reasons. He broke my heart, but when I met your grandfather, I knew right away that he was the real deal. Have you talked to Henry about it?"
"Not yet. We've only been seeing each other a little over a month. I didn't want to scare him with that kind of talk," Elizabeth said.
"Well, I don't know him at all, but I do know you. The longer you wait, the more invested you will become. It isn't fair to you, to let yourself fall head over heels for this guy if he knows he has no intention of a long term commitment. I think it helps that he's older than you. Theoretically, he's more mature. If he's seriously thinking about becoming a priest, he will surely not want to lead you on." Elaine was talking more to herself than Elizabeth, but these were all thoughts that Elizabeth had had at some point as well.
"You know I love you, right?" Elizabeth asked.
"Yes, Lizzie girl, and I love you too. Are you going to talk to him?" Elaine asked.
"Definitely. I just need to decide if I'm going to do it over break when he calls or when we get back and do it face to face."
"If it were me, I'd go with face to face, just because you can miss things like body language when you are talking on the phone. This isn't really a conversation where you want to have a misunderstanding."
Elizabeth nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly. "I think I'm ready for bed now. Love you Grandma, and thanks for talking me through it."
"Love you too Lizzie. Good night."
The next morning, Elizabeth emerged lazily out of her slumber, but refused to open her eyes. She hoped she would be able to drift back off. She was dreaming about Henry and she didn't want it to end. After laying still for a few more minutes, she knew she wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep. Finally she exhaled and opened her eyes. It hadn't even been a whole 24 hours yet and she missed him terribly.
Elizabeth sat up and crossed her legs in the middle of her bed. Her grandma had said some things the previous evening that worried her. How serious was Henry about the priesthood? He sure didn't kiss her like he wanted to be a priest. She blinked hard. Even thinking about it took her breath away. He said he had feelings that he'd never had before. Did he have the same feelings for her, that she had for him? Yes, she most definitely needed to talk to him over dinner Sunday night. Rolling out of bed, she picked her riding pants back on, tossed on a t-shirt with a sweatshirt over it and headed out to the barn. A ride would do her good.
She returned close to lunch and found that she'd missed a call from Henry. Since it was lunch time, she decided that she would wait a bit to return the call. She didn't want to interrupt a family meal.
Her family had a quick lunch and separated into their own spaces to get a few of their own things done. Elizabeth settled down on the couch in the living room to do some reading for class. She didn't get much done because she kept checking the time. At 2, she decided she could safely call Henry and not be in the middle of anything.
She unhooked the phone from the wall in the kitchen and moved it to the dining room where she pulled out a chair and got comfortable. She pulled Henry's number from her jeans pocket and dialed it. She was uncharacteristically nervous as the phone rang on the other end of the line.
"Hello," came a woman's voice on the other end of the line.
"Is this the McCord's?" Elizabeth asked.
"It is."
"Hi. Is Henry there?"
"Is this Elizabeth?" The woman's voice was short and had taken on a certain level of coldness.
"Yes ma'am. Uh, Mrs McCord. Henry called me earlier and I was returning his call."
"He's gone." Mrs. McCord replied. Elizabeth felt the chill come through the phone line and she shivered.
"Okay. Can you please let him know that I returned his call? Happy Thanks-" The line went dead. "giving," she finished as she let the phone receiver drop in her lap. Elizabeth sat stunned, glued to her spot for quite a while. The persistent buzzing of the phone brought Elaine Adams into the dining room.
"Lizzie," she said and when Elizabeth didn't respond, Elaine placed her hand on Elizabeth's shoulder. "Lizzie, what's wrong?" Elizabeth placed the receiver back in the cradle and looked up at the older lady. "I don't know why, but Henry's mom hates me." With that, the tears that had been welling up, overflowed down her cheeks and a sob came bubbling up and out.
Elaine pulled a chair close and took Elizabeth's hands. "Lizzie, I doubt that is the case. Have you ever met Mrs. McCord? What would make you say that?"
The sobs just kept coming. "I-I-I just talked t-t-to her," Elizabeth finally got out.
"Shh, honey, Come here. Let's go sit in the living room and talk this out.
Elaine led Elizabeth to the couch in the living room and they sat down next to each other Elizabeth buried her head in her grandmother's shoulder. "I don't know what I did. I just returned Henry's call and when she knew it was me, her voice completely changed and she said he wasn't there and she hung up on me."
"Hold on before you go too far down this path. Maybe it isn't you. Maybe something else happened. You have no idea what happened before you called. Just try to calm down. Henry will call and then you can talk about it, alright? I know you know how it sounded, but that doesn't necessarily mean what you think it means."
Elizabeth took a shuddering breath and wiped her eyes. "Okay. I'll hope that it was just bad timing. If not, I can't imagine what I would have done to make her dislike me when I haven't met her." She rested her elbows on her knees, hands clasped together and rocked gently back and forth. "I wonder if she will even tell him that I called."
"Stop that," Elaine called from the kitchen where she was making them both some tea. "Speculation will only cause you to worry."
Elizabeth begrudgingly agreed as she took the cup of steaming tea from her grandmother. "I will relax and not worry about it," she said, forcing herself to sit back in the chair and attempt to relax.
Several hours passed and Elizabeth worked on her studies, visited Buttercup and the other horses, and helped Will prepare dinner. The four had just sat down to to a late dinner when the phone rang. Elizabeth looked pleadingly at her grandmother who would normally refuse to let anyone answer the phone during a meal. She barely nodded and Elizabeth was up and in the kitchen grabbing the phone. "Hello?" It was a question more than a greeting.
"Hey babe," Henry said.
Elizabeth was so relieved to hear Henry's voice that she slid down the wall and sat cross legged on the floor. "I wasn't sure you'd call back," she said.
"Of course I would. Umm, we need to talk." Elizabeth's heart started beating wildly. She was afraid that he was going to tell her something terrible.
"What is it?" she asked. Henry felt bad. He could sense the tension in her voice.
"Do you think I could come and see you?"
"What? You're in Pittsburgh."
"I left. I'm back at school."
"What? Why?" Elizabeth's mind was reeling. "Are you okay? Is this why your mom is mad?"
Henry let out a shaky breath. "You talked to my mom?"
"Only briefly before she hung up on me."
"Shit. I'm sorry babe. Look, she's mad at me. I'm sorry she took it out on you."
"Anyway, can I come see you?"
"Now?" she asked him, trying to figure out what had happened and what might be happening.
"I really need to talk to you and I would prefer to do it in person." Henry's voice was near pleading.
"Just a second. Let me check on something. Don't go anywhere, okay?"
"Alright."
Elizabeth stuck her head back into the dining room. "Grandma can I talk to you for a minute?" Elaine gave her granddaughter curious look, but excused herself from the table.
"Are you alright Lizzie? You look like you might be ill."
"I might be. I don't know. Henry left his parents' house and he's back at school. He wants to know if he can come to see me. He said he needs to talk to me and he needs to do it in person. Can he come?"
"It's late. Can he come tomorrow?"
"Truthfully, I don't know that I will be able to sleep if I don't know what's going on. If he's going to end things, I want to get it over with and if he's not, I need to know that too." Elaine didn't look convinced. "Grandma, he left his family on Thanksgiving, to come back and stay in the dorms. Something big had to have happened."
"Fine. But tell him to pack a bag. He's not leaving here in the middle of the night to drive back to school."
"Thank you Grandma. I love you!" She gave her grandma a quick hug and picked up the phone that was dangling by the cord against the kitchen wall. "Henry? Sorry to keep you waiting, but I had to make sure it was okay with my grandparents. You can come, but Grandma said you had to bring a bag because she wasn't letting you drive back so late."
Henry chuckled. "I think all grandmas must be the same!" Elizabeth gave him directions and Henry said he would leave right away.
Elizabeth couldn't bring herself to eat, but instead paced the floor in front of the living room window for the next hour and ten minutes. She was physically ill by the time she saw headlights turn and head down their long drive.
She tugged her heavy coat on and grabbed a big quilt from the quilt rack in the entryway and taking a deep breath, she headed outside into the chilly night air. She tossed the quilt on the porch swing and stood on the top step of the front porch and waited for Henry to pull up and get out of the car.
The car stopped suddenly when he shoved the gear shift into park before the car had come to a complete stop. Leaping out of the car, Henry was up the steps and pulled her into his embrace before she was able to speak. "I missed you so much."
"Henry, I missed you too, but it's not even been two days yet. What is going on?"
"It's a long story," Henry began.
"Come on." She took his hand and directed him toward the porch swing. He helped her unfold the quilt. They sat down and wrapped it around themselves. "Okay, so what happened?"
"Well, after you left yesterday, I couldn't stop thinking about you. About me. And about us." Henry looked away from her. "I didn't plan on this happening. It wasn't supposed to happen. You were pretty and smart. God you are so smart. It was just coffee, right? What could that hurt? Then I found out how funny you are and strong and you are so easy to talk to." Henry was still looking over her shoulder instead of at her, purposely .
"What are you trying to say Henry?" she asked.
"I tried to sleep last night and I couldn't. I just kept thinking of how it would be a lie to go home and play the part I was supposed to play and be a different person here with you. I couldn't stand laying there thinking about it anymore and finally got up. I left at 3AM to go to Pittsburgh. I drove straight through and was sitting on Father Mark's doorstep this morning." Henry spoke almost as if it were painful to remember it. Elizabeth reached out and took his hand in hers, letting him know she was there, but waiting for him to finish.
"We talked for a long time. He helped me sort some things out. Then I went home to talk to my parents. That's when it all went south. I tried to explain, but they wouldn't hear it. My mom especially, I don't know that I've ever seen her so angry. Lots of things were said, and I had enough. I left. I drove around town awhile trying to calm down, but as I calmed down, I realized I couldn't go back. At least, I couldn't go back yet. I just came back to school. I didn't know what else to do."
Elizabeth just sat there. She felt like she was missing a key piece to this puzzle, but she wasn't sure what exactly was going on. "I'm definitely missing something. If you got everything worked out with Father Mark, why are your parents so upset?"
He looked Elizabeth in the eye. "I ended the discernment process this morning. Well, I guess I should say that I finished the discernment process this morning. I decided not to pursue to the priesthood. Father Mark understands why. My parents, however, do not."
"Oh. Henry are you sure? That is a huge decision. One not to be taken lightly."
Henry ran his thumbs over her knuckles, "I know. I didn't take it lightly. I've been praying about it since I first saw you in the study group. It was just in the wee hours of the night, I realized that when I went home, I would have to pretend to be someone I was not anymore. I didn't want to do that. I didn't want to lie or lead them on." He shook his head sadly, and let our a sharp laugh. "It appears that the term discernment means something different to my mother, who was already planning my ordination."
"Give her time. Give them both time, Henry. Look how long it took you to come to the conclusion. You just sprung it on your parents. It had to be quite the shock. They'll need some time to get used to the idea. It will be okay. They love you. They'll come around." Elizabeth leaned in with the intention of hugging Henry, but he took the opportunity to kiss her instead.
"I definitely missed that," he said and grinned at her.
"What exactly does this mean for us then?" Elizabeth wanted to know. So, he wasn't going to become a priest. That didn't necessarily mean she would be in the long term picture. She wanted to believe that was the case, but wasn't going to make that assumption.
"Truthfully?" Henry took a deep breath. "It means that I'm falling for you. It doesn't matter what scene plays out in my head, you are in it. If I imagine tomorrow, you are there. Five years from now, it's you beside me, and in 50 years, it's our kids and grandkids, with you and I in the center of it all." He studied Elizabeth, trying to gauge her reaction. "How much does that scare you?"
"I'd be lying if I said it didn't scare me at all, but I feel much the same way. It makes me uncomfortable that you ditched the priesthood thing for me though. What if we don't work out?"
"I don't think that will happen," Henry answered. "But, even if it did, I don't know that I could go back. I prayed about it and really think my vocation is to be a husband, and someday a father."
"I think you'll be excellent at both." She smiled. "So how much does you mom hate me?"
"Oh, I don't know that she hates you. Perhaps she dislikes you right now because she thinks you caused this, but you didn't. It wasn't supposed to be and she'll figure that out in time," Henry said.
"I'm pretty sure that it's not just dislike. Once she figured out who I was, it got pretty icy on her end. Think she'll ever forgive me?" Elizabeth asked.
"She will. It just might take a few years."
Elizabeth laughed, "Well that's something to hold on to. Let's get inside and you can meet my grandparents. Will is probably already in bed."
"Sure, but first I need to do something." Henry scooted closer and slid his hand around to the small of her back pulling her in closer to him. "Let me kiss you." he whispered against her ear, his breath sending a shiver down her spine.
"Please," she practically begged. His lips brushed against her ear and along her jawline until he'd worked his way to her mouth. He kissed the corner of her mouth gently. Elizabeth parted her lips and he ran his tongue along the inside of her lip, grazing her teeth. Her need was great and he was being entirely too gentle. She ran her hands up his arms and to his head. She held him in place while she leaned in and buried her tongue in his mouth, exploring, tangling with his. Becoming breathless, she inhaled through her nose and let Henry take over. She smiled into the kiss thinking about how skilled Henry was with his tongue. Her thoughts immediately went to other areas where a skilled tongue could be useful. She embarrassed herself at her own thoughts and she pulled back from Henry blushing. "Let's go," she said.
Henry went back down to his car and grabbed his duffle from the back seat and then returned to stand by Elizabeth.
"Hey, wait. Do your parents know that you came back to Virginia?" Elizabeth was suddenly aware that they could be worried.
"No. I was mad enough that I didn't think they needed to know," he said.
"Well, they do. You never want to be in a position of waiting and wondering if your loved one is dead or not."
"I suppose."
"No. Really I know this for a fact. If you are still too mad to talk to them, I'll call, just to let them know you are safe."
They quickly folded their quilt and entered the house. It was warm and inviting. Elizabeth introduced Henry to her grandparents and Elaine told Elizabeth that she had prepared the guest room for Henry's use. Henry thanked her and the older couple headed off to bed. Elizabeth busied herself with shutting off the lights and locking the doors. Henry picked up his things and joined her in the kitchen.
"Are you calling or am I?" she asked before they headed upstairs. He sighed. Elizabeth pulled the number for Henry's parents from her pocket and dialed it.
"Hello?" the voice on the other end sounded both rattled and exhausted.
"Mrs. McCord." Elizabeth swore she could hear the woman's nostril flare on her end of the line.
"I just called to let you know that Henry showed up here about an hour ago. He's safe. I would have called sooner, but I wasn't aware that you didn't know his whereabouts until just a few minutes ago. I'm sorry you had to worry. Good night." She started to hang up and she heard the woman's reply.
"Thank you for calling and letting me know."
"You're welcome." Elizabeth hung up.
"That went a little better than I thought it might." She smiled at Henry. "At least she didn't hang up on me mid sentence this time." Surveying him, she said, "Let's get you to bed. You look exhausted," She pushed Henry up the stairs. Giving him a quick kiss, she left him by his door and she stepped into her own room, closing the door behind her.
