Song of Hope

This is a sequel to Spiritual Networking. Although Paul and Millie will be in this story, the main characters will be Sydney and a new character Austin.  I will not be posting any chapters for a few weeks until I get more written. I just wanted you to know what I am working on.

Thanks for all of your support!! It means more to me than you will ever know!!

Anita

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Prologue

The church looked spectacular! Every pew was decorated in fall colors and bows of crimson, orange and browns. The smell of the fragrant flowers permeated the entire sanctuary. Millie had walked down the aisle moments ago and the look on Paul’s face was one of pure love and excitement of the life they would share. Standing under a gazebo built out of love, that would be donated to the church’s new Prayer Path, they exchanged their rings and said, “I do!”

They did it! They were married. Her best friend married someone and that someone was not her! Sydney knew that one moment when they kissed a year and a half ago, that she and Paul did not have “it” and would only ever be friends. Yet, the ache in her heart as she sang “When God Made You”, HER song, the one SHE always wanted sung at HER wedding. Her heart broke as she sang her song for the man that she had been in love with for one third of her life, and someone else, anyone else was standing beside him not her!

He loved Millie and believe it or not, Millie was great for Paul! They were a perfect match. Over the past year, Sydney had gotten to know Millie and as Millie overcame and confronted her fears, she had blossomed and now enjoyed time out with the girls, becoming a close friend and confidant to Sydney. It even surprised her one day as she realized that she and Millie were even better friends than she and Paul had been.

Then why did she feel like her heart just broke as they each committed their lives to each other with smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes? Probably because she was tired of waiting for her turn! Every friend she knew from high school and college was now married. Everyone had thought she and Paul would get married one day. But with Paul marrying Millie, what was left for her? Who would she hang out with? Everyone, EVERYONE was married except for her.

The tears she shed as the couple under the gazebo kissed should have been for them, she should have been happy, but these tears she knew all too well. They were the same tears that came late at night while she lay alone in her bed, wishing for someone to share her life and her love with.

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Austin sat in his pew with his parents. Aunt Mary had been adamant that he attend this wedding. He had always been close to Millie and felt terrible about missing Alexis’ wedding four months ago. But, couldn’t they understand? This was the first wedding he had been to since Sonya died eighteen months ago. He did not want to be here watching someone else pledge “Until death do us part.”

Sonya, the love of his life, the person who changed him from a geeky, scrawny teenager that first walked onto the campus at Georgia Tech, to a sensitive and caring, yet still a little scatterbrained computer genius, had died eighteen months ago after a year long battle with cancer. Why couldn’t Aunt Mary understand that he just wanted to be left alone?

On top of that, he was missing Lacey something fierce. This was the longest he had been away from his daughter and wondered how she was doing? He knew Tucker and Emma Sue doted on their only grandchild, so she would be in good hands. Yet, he was her father and six hours away from her. He should have brought her and had planned to so his parents could visit with her, but she had just started recovering from an ear infection before he left and knew she was not in any mood to travel.

If he hurried, he could leave as soon as the cake was cut and be home by morning. However, his parents would not want him driving all night, and if he was honest with himself, he was not looking forward to the idea either.

‘Just get through the reception and it will all be over!’ he told himself repeatedly as the wedding vows were being spoken. The couple on the stage, they had no idea how badly this could turn out. One minute the love of your life is vibrant and well, then the next thing you know the doctor is telling us, “I’m sorry, there is no easy way to say this, you have stage four breast cancer.”

Sure he smiled and was happy for Millie and her new husband Paul as they walked by, out of the church and towards their life together. He just hoped that they had more than five years together before the ‘til death do us part’ kicks in.