Redemption Read Free Page B

thick clumps around her face. She pulled them back with one hand and leaned closer, studying her eyes and the corners of her mouth. She saw no visible lines, even with her face scrubbed clean of the thick pancake foundation she had worn for her shoot that day. Kari modeled part-time for department-store catalogs, and today's shoot had been for evening wear. The heavy makeup was a must for sessions like that. But without it, she looked even younger than her twenty-eight years.
    She examined her cheekbones and chin and grabbed at her loose-fitting T-shirt, tightening it behind her so she could see her figure. Well, maybe she had put on just a little weight in the past months, but not enough to cost her any jobs.
    Surely not enough to ...
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    She closed her eyes, and Tim's face came to mind. You're gorgeous, baby, gorgeous. 1 can't get enough of you. He'd said it as long as she'd known him, since her senior year at Indiana University-the year she and Ryan Taylor had finally agreed to go their separate ways.
    The image in her mind changed.
    Ryan .. :
    Kari gave a slight shake of her head. Just that morning she'd gotten word that he was back in town, had taken a job coaching at Clear Creek High School.
    No, Kari, don't go there, she ordered her heart. Memories of her old boyfriend were better left to yesterday. Especially now when her marriage, her entire life, hung on the validity of a single phone call.
    Kari opened her eyes and gazed once more into the mirror, as if it could tell her what she needed to know. Was there really someone else, someone he was seeing on the side? Her stomach clenched in response. It wasn't possible. Tim Jacobs? Leader of his high school's Young Life club? President of his university's Fellowship of Christian Athletes? Onetime campus Bible-study leader?
    He would never cheat on her . . . would he? She remembered the caller's voice and knew there was only one way to find out. She closed her eyes again and prayed for strength.
    Are you there, Lord?
    Don't be afraid. I will supply all your needs.
    The words were part of a radio message she'd heard driving home from her photo shoot hours earlier. At the time the words didn't seem particularly profound, at least not for her. Kari wasn't fearful or needy, after all. She loved the way her life was turning out-great family, great church, great job, great husband. .
.
    But that was before the phone call.
    Her chest pounded, and she tried to swallow the anxiety building within her.
    Don't be afraid. . . .
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    The thought hung itself on a hook in Kari's heart and swung there for a moment.
    All I want is for the caller to be wrong, Lord. I love Tim, really. Help me understand what's going on.
    Don't be afraid. ...
    Peace, warm and certain, eased over her, and she felt the muscles in her neck relax. It was a mix-up of some kind, or a mean trick. It had to be.
    The phone in the next room was beeping a protest at being left off the hook. She returned to the bedroom to hang it up. Her arms and legs were still trembling, and her stomach ached. A bagful of possible scenarios spilled across her soul, and as she examined them, fear crept back to taunt her. Did Tim really have a conference this weekend? What about the other conferences- had he really attended them? If not, where was he . . . ?
    Then she remembered. He'd scribbled the details about the conference on a piece of paper somewhere. In the kitchen, where she'd kissed him good-bye? Kari ran downstairs and searched the kitchen desk, moving stacks of papers and mail, desperately looking for Tim's handwriting. She hadn't paid attention because she hadn't thought she'd need the information. He'd called her the night before, and she'd been certain he'd call her again sometime today.
    "Come on," she muttered. In her haste she knocked over a stack of magazines.
    Finally her eyes fell on a yellow sticky note with a hotel name and phone number written in Tim's handwriting.
    Kari picked up the receiver and dialed the