JOHN 14:13

CHAPTER 9

SETH CHRISTIAN

I turn to hide my smile in the glass of scotch that I raise on my lips and buy time while feigning a sip.
This woman is highly intelligent, it's so out-of-the-world intelligence.

Wow! If I wasn't sure before that I would be the world's number one idiot if I let her go. I am now.

She doesn't mind?
She is okay and respects me for the home God enabled me to create.

"Did it overbear you?" I ask when she hasn't reacted to what I had said.
She looks at me and shakes her head, then she reaches for her drink.

"Seth, you are amazing,"

"No, I'm not." I quickly deny it because I'm not. "Nothing that I do, I can do on my own, how can I be amazing then?"

She chuckles and it leaves me confused. "You never take compliments, do you?"

"How can I?" She shakes her head while laughing. It's a good thing.
We are at peace, the night is calm and beautiful. Adding Elliana's laugh I realize it is not perfect until she graces me with that laugh.

"Seth taking compliments is not a bad thing. We all know what we are, and what we have is all God's Grace. Not even a single hair on our head we can grow ourselves but on some point, you have to take in some of the compliments that come your way."

"No, I can't,"

"Wow!" She smiles.
"Can't is a big word." I nod. I know what I just said. I really can't.

That's something that isn't in me. I mean how can I? When even the little things as breathing in and out doesn't happen by my capability.

"Tell me how you grew this family," she raises her legs and curls them behind her thighs.

"Well, I took in Brielle and then like six months later. Oh, Brielle's mother died a month later after handing her to me."

"What?"

"Yes, so I lived a year with Brielle then one day at a church we got this tragedy that took life to thirty people in general, including mothers, fathers, grandparents, and kids. It was the most horrific thing ever."
I say and relieving that time in my mind makes me feel sadness all over again as I think about it.

It shattered me.
They were just at church to pray.

"What happened?"

"A truck."
She looks confused for a moment and then her lips form an O as a gasp falls from her mouth.

"Oh my God, a truck came over and ran over them? That was at your church?" I only nod.

"Eighteen lost their lives at the spot, five on the way, six at the hospital and others were injured for life."

"I'm so sorry,"

"I don't think I'm the one to be receiving that, but thank you." She bites on her lower lip.
I can tell she looks lost.

"So, that's how we opened the home we have today. It was my pastor's idea. But Mateo and I are in charge of it." She nods her head.

"Then my little twins, Layla and Tristan. I adopted them from a teen couple three years ago."

I reach for my glass of scotch and take a sip. When I turn to Elliana.
She is smiling at me while shaking her head.

"You...you blow my mind, Seth."

"I do now?"

"You are amazing," I can't help but smile at her. I take a sip again drowning the whole glass before turning to Elliana. I hold her gaze for a moment before I reach for her hands. They are soft and beautiful like their owner. I hold them in mine and she lets me. I raise my eyes back up to hers.