A Heart's Desire - Book 1 of the Crossing Midian Series - A Christian Romance

Chapter 4

When Wesley and Ruth left the church, Wesley drove the truck over to Coop's house. Ruth was planning to go grocery shopping and so Wesley thought it would be the perfect opportunity to talk to Coop about enlisting.

In a way, Wesley thought telling Coop would be like a practice round. If he could finally man up enough to tell his best friend, it should be easy to tell James.

Wesley knew what the problem was. He should have told James before he had done it. He knew immediately afterwards that he had messed up. Not because he had joined, because Wesley was sure that he had made the right decision. But because he had joined without even asking for anyone else's input. Without giving a second thought to what this would mean for his family.

And so Wesley would tell Coop first. He would tell Coop and then, when the time was right, he would tell everyone else.

That pesky voice in the back of his mind reminded Wesley that there likely would never be a right time to break this particular news, but Wesley ignored the voice as best as he could and instead focused on one problem at a time.

Coop winced as he banged his hip against the side of the counter where he stood, making himself a turkey sandwich.

Duke, who sat contentedly next to the table, looked up at him but made no move to leave his comfy spot.

Coop was exhausted. He had spent a long night tossing and turning as he thought about the letter. Coop had taken it back out of the trash can and it now sat tucked away in his desk drawer. He hadn't told anyone about it because he still wasn't sure how he felt about it.

To make matters worse, his leg hurt so badly that he couldn't even stand to wear his prosthetic, and so he was using crutches. Something he hated ever having to do. They were uncomfortable and a pain to use on the steps in the house.

He heard Wesley's truck pull up into the front yard, and he sighed. Not that he didn't want to see his best friend, but more like he didn't want to see anyone.

Not like this.

Not when he knew he looked like death warmed over. His head felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer to it, and the mere thought of actually eating the sandwich that he was making made him feel nauseous. He had seen how pale he was in the bathroom mirror when he had gotten up a little while before. That, paired with the dark circles under his eyes, made him look sick. He sure felt sick. He hadn't even put his contacts in yet and his glasses slid down his nose a bit before he pushed them back up with his free hand.

His clothes were a wrinkled mess from sleep and with shorts on, you could see the end of his stump. This was something else that he usually tried to avoid.

Coop knew Wesley didn't care about any of that stuff. He had seen it all plenty of times before and there were no secrets between them. Wesley was well aware of how Coop felt about his leg and also how he felt about pretty much every other subject, but Coop still didn't like it.

"Hey, Lucy!" Wesley called as he opened the front door and walked into the living room. "I'm home!"

"I'm in here!" Coop called back as he spread mayonnaise on his sandwich before topping it with the other piece of bread.

"Want one?" he asked when Wesley came into the kitchen.

Duke got up and met Wesley at the door, earning him an affectionate scratch behind the ears.

"Yeah, but I got it." Wesley said as he walked over. Then, just like he'd done a million times before, Wesley picked up Coop's finished sandwich and took it over to the table so that Coop was free to use his crutches, unhindered.