Anointest My Head With Oil Read online

  Anointest My Head With Oil

  Other Books by Debbie Viguié

  The Kiss Trilogy

  Kiss of Night

  Kiss of Death

  Kiss of Revenge

  Sweet Seasons

  The Summer of Cotton Candy

  The Fall of Candy Corn

  The Winter of Candy Canes

  The Spring of Candy Apples

  Witch Hunt

  The Thirteenth Sacrifice

  The Last Grave

  Circle of Blood

  Salty Tale Mysteries

  The Spice of Life

  Anointest My Head With Oil

  Psalm 23 Mysteries

  By Debbie Viguié

  Published by Big Pink Bow

  Anointest My Head With Oil

  Copyright © 2019 by Debbie Viguié

  Published by Big Pink Bow

  www.bigpinkbow.com

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Dedicated to Patricia Maddox and her wonderful daughter.

  1

  Rabbi Jeremiah Silverman always felt a bit tired on Wednesdays. Because of his schedule it was a little like the end of the week since he had the next day off, but then it was followed by the two busiest days at the synagogue: Friday and Saturday. For a long time he’d been fine with having his two days off a week be non-consecutive. Having Thursdays and Sundays off made sense for his job. However, it was starting to make less sense for him, especially with Cindy in his life now. It would be nice if they could have two days off together like most couples. Unfortunately, that wasn’t likely to happen anytime soon.

  He glanced at the clock. It was almost noon which meant it was time to pick up Cindy so they could head to their pre-marriage counseling session with Rabbi Ezra who was going to marry them. He got up swiftly and left his office.

  “I’ll be back after lunch,” he told Marie who looked at him disapprovingly. As the keeper of his calendar she knew very well where he was going. At least she was keeping her disparaging remarks about Cindy and him getting married to a minimum the last few months.

  Something had happened between the two women when he’d been arrested for murder. Neither of them had ever told him what, but there was some new kind of understanding between them. He had decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

  He made it to the parking lot just in time to see Cindy leaving the church building next door. She waved to him and he waved back.

  “Who’s driving?” she asked.

  “I will,” he said.

  She nodded and quickly crossed over to the synagogue’s parking lot through one of the paths in the hedge that separated the two lots. She climbed into the passenger seat of his car and he slid behind the wheel.

  He wrapped both hands around the steering wheel. He was only just starting to regain a lot of feeling in the two fingers of his left hand that had been severed and reattached six months earlier. Every day as he worked them out he reminded himself how lucky he was to be alive given everything that had happened.

  “How is your hand feeling?” Cindy asked.

  “Better,” he said, smiling.

  Improvement was moving at an incredibly slow pace, but the truth was he could tell a difference between now and last month so it was better.

  “Good.”

  “You excited about our first meeting with the rabbi?” he asked.

  “Yes, you?”

  “Very,” he said.

  Rabbi Ezra Abram was someone that Cindy had met while she was serving on a jury for a murder trial. The man was a Messianic Jew and Cindy’s suggestion that they use him to marry them had made a lot of sense. Jeremiah had only had the opportunity to briefly speak with the man a couple of times, but he seemed nice and very knowledgeable. It should prove interesting.

  “Is it weird that his last name is Abram?” Cindy asked.

  “A little, but as long as I don’t accidentally respond when someone else calls him Rabbi Abram I think we’ll be fine,” he said, trying to keep his tone lighthearted.

  What he didn’t tell her was that every time he heard Ezra’s last name he winced because it made him think of his family back in Israel and how they could never be part of his life let alone his wedding celebration. Whenever he started to feel melancholy about that, though, he reminded himself of the amazing family he had built here.

  Mark was more of a brother to him than his blood brother ever had been. He was going to ask the detective to be his best man.

  A Jew and a Christian get married and have an atheist for a best man, he thought to himself. It was like the setup to a bad joke. All they needed was Mark’s sister-in-law the Wiccan to be maid of honor and they’d have the oddest religious hodgepodge of them all. Then again, he wasn’t so sure Mark could really call himself an atheist anymore. The detective was becoming more of an agnostic. He claimed that Jeremiah and Cindy had been bad influences in that area. And there was, of course, no way that Traci’s little sister was going to be maid of honor. That position was going to be filled by Geanie.

  Kyle had stopped by for a couple of short visits in the last six months. Jeremiah couldn’t decide if he really was just trying to make amends with Cindy or if he was angling for a groomsman’s position. Either way Kyle had been polite to him both times. Too polite.

  Jeremiah was working hard not to be suspicious of the other’s motives, but it was hard, especially given their history. It was nice, though, that Cindy was beginning to enjoy spending time with her brother. For her sake he hoped it continued in the way it was going.

  “Penny for your thoughts?” Cindy asked.

  “Just looking forward to our meeting, the wedding, all of it,” he said.

  “Quarter for your actual thoughts?” she pressed.

  “When did you become so good at reading my mind?”

  She waggled her engagement ring at him. “Fiancée. That means I now have super powers.”

  He couldn’t help but laugh out loud at that. She wasn’t that wrong about the timing either although he’d noticed it a lot more the last couple of months.

  “I was wondering how much longer Kyle’s going to play nice,” he admitted.

  “I’m trying not to look a gift Kyle in the mouth, so to speak,” she said. “I’m just enjoying the fact that he is.”

  “It’s novel, I’ll give you that.”

  “If he asks you to be a groomsman, tell him no,” she said.

  Jeremiah smirked. “I’ve been wondering if that was his angle.”

  “If he’s a very, very good boy then maybe he can be an usher.”

  “And if he’s not?” Jeremiah asked.

  “Then he’ll be lucky if he gets to come to the wedding.”

  He glanced at her. Fortunately, she was still smiling. He had been in the hospital when Cindy’s mom had gone crazy and stormed out of the restaurant over her Mother’s Day gift a few months back. As much as he wished he had been there he knew that it was a good thing that he wasn’t. He couldn’t have been held responsible for what he might have said or done, particularly in the frame of mind he’d been in.

  Cindy and her mom hadn’t spoken since then. Cindy’s dad, Don, had been cal
ling Cindy once a week since then to just talk and offer his support. In many ways he was taking on the role of the mom since he would make Cindy tell him every detail about the wedding.

  Jeremiah was grateful to Don for that. He didn’t know what he could do to help fix things with Carol, though. The woman had been unreasonable and unstable for years as he understood it. He himself was all too familiar with family difficulties.

  He sighed. As much as he had resigned himself to never seeing his own family again, he found that planning the wedding made him think of them often. He would have liked to discuss some things with his brother who had married years before him. He would have liked his dad to give him some fatherly advice, even if he never heeded it.

  “I know you miss them,” Cindy broke in, interrupting his thoughts.

  He wanted to make a joke or pretend that she was talking about her family, but he knew she wasn’t.

  “When I was a child I always assumed they’d be there when I got married. When I grew up I assumed I’d never get married. And now that I am, well, it’s hard sometimes. Twelve-year-old me doesn’t understand. Does that make sense?”

  “A lot, actually.”

  She reached over and put her hand on his knee, giving it a squeeze.

  “You realize that’s not a comforting gesture, right?”

  “It’s not?” she asked, sounding a bit surprised.

  “No, it’s… what’s the word I’m looking for… tempting… tant-something.”

  “Tantalizing?”

  “That’s the one,” he said.

  “Really, do tell,” she said, trying to keep her voice innocent sounding even as she let her hand slide an inch higher on his leg.

  “You want me to crash?”

  “No,” she said and let go.

  “You’re smirking. I can hear it in your voice,” he accused.

  “Maybe just a little.”

  He enjoyed the banter. The last few months had been largely drama free which had been a blessing, especially with all the work he’d been having to do with physical therapy.

  They finally arrived at their destination. He felt odd as he pulled into the parking lot of the Yeshua Messianic Synagogue where Ezra was the rabbi.

  “You okay?” Cindy asked as he parked.

  “Yeah, it’s just strange. I’ve never been to a messianic synagogue before,” he said.

  “Neither have I so it will be a new experience for both of us,” she said teasingly. He could see it in her expression and her body language, though, that this was really important to her.

  He still felt a little uneasy as they got out of the car. He had met Ezra briefly. The man seemed nice and it did make a lot of sense to be married by someone with an understanding of both his and Cindy’s traditions. Yet, he couldn’t help but feel that he was walking on unfamiliar ground. He wondered if this was how people felt when they went to a church or synagogue for the first time as an adult. He had practically grown up in his synagogue back home so he’d never had that experience of a synagogue being a foreign place. He certainly had it here.

  He followed Cindy toward the buildings and a minute later they were being shown into Ezra’s office. The older rabbi greeted them with a smile and waved them to a couple of chairs on the other side of his desk.

  “So, about a year until the big day.” Ezra said without preamble.

  Cindy nodded.

  “Yes,” Jeremiah said.

  “You two must be very excited.”

  “Absolutely,” Cindy said with a grin.

  “Yes,” Jeremiah added.

  “So, tell me why you want to get married.”

  “We’re in love,” Cindy said.

  “And?” Ezra asked.

  “And what?” Jeremiah said with a frown.

  Ezra looked at Jeremiah and made a clucking sound. “You’re a rabbi, you should know that just because a boy and a girl love each other it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll make a good match.”

  “Neither of us is a kid. We’re old enough to know our minds and to know what we want,” Jeremiah said, struggling not to feel hostility. He did have a sudden new-found empathy for couples who had come to him to be married.

  “Good, so tell me. Why do you want to get married?” Ezra pressed, undeterred by Jeremiah’s words or tone.

  He took a deep breath and turned slightly so he could see Cindy. He focused on her and suddenly the words just came flowing out.

  “Because she makes me a better person. Just being around her I want to be a better man. I am a better man. She supports me, but she also challenges me. She’s there no matter what and I know she’ll stay with me through the good and the bad. Because of her I’ve found a place in this world and a family. She’s seen me at my worst and loves me anyway.”

  “Sounds like she is a very important friend,” Ezra said.

  Jeremiah winced slightly. He could see how the other man came to that conclusion, but he wanted there to be no misinterpreting his feelings. He glanced at Ezra. “And because so help me I can’t keep my hands off her much longer.”

  “Aha! Good,” Ezra said, smiling and nodding.

  Cindy had turned bright red.

  “And what about you, my dear?” Ezra asked her.

  “I want to rip his clothes off at least three times a day and it’s killing me.”

  Ezra started laughing as Jeremiah blushed. He thought of her hand on his leg just a few minutes ago and wondered if physical contact like that was just as intense and tempting for her as it was for him.

  “That’s good to know, but aside from raw animal passion, why else do you want to marry this man?”

  “Sorry,” Cindy said, “my mind just went straight there.”

  “So, you two haven’t-”

  “No!” Jeremiah and Cindy both said forcefully at the same time.

  Ezra laughed again. “No wonder your minds are going there so quickly. Cindy, what else draws you to Jeremiah?”

  “He makes me feel safe in every way. I can tell him anything, talk to him about anything and I know he cares and he listens. When my brother was in the hospital and the doctors said he was dying Jeremiah stayed with me all night praying over him until he recovered.”

  “A miracle,” Ezra said.

  She nodded. “He doesn’t try to change me and yet just knowing him has changed me, made me a better person, a braver one. I used to be afraid all the time but through knowing him I’ve learned that life is an adventure and there’s no one else I want beside me on that adventure. He’s smart and principled. He’ll make an amazing father someday and I know God brought us together.”

  Jeremiah reached over and squeezed her hand. “You think I’ll be an amazing father?” he asked, feeling an unexpected surge of emotion.

  “I know so,” she said, smiling at him.

  “How many children are the two of you planning on having?” Ezra asked.

  “We haven’t really discussed it,” Jeremiah said.

  “You don’t know. Okay. And how do you plan on resolving your religious differences?” Ezra asked.

  “We’re not sure,” Cindy admitted. “Obviously we want to observe each other’s traditions, respect each other’s beliefs.”

  “So, you don’t know that either. How do you plan on handling money?”

  Jeremiah and Cindy looked at each other. She looked just as clueless as he was feeling.

  “Handle the division of chores?” Ezra asked.

  They both shrugged.

  “Resolve arguments?

  They both shook their heads.

  “I bet you don’t even know which one of you is going to get stuck driving to the pharmacy at two in the morning when you’re both sick with the flu.”

  “No,” Cindy said quietly.

  “So, basically you’ve discussed didley squat and are in no way prepared for what you are about to get yourselves into,” Ezra said. “Does that about sum things up?”
>
  Jeremiah wanted to be angry, but he knew that Ezra was right. He and Cindy weren’t prepared for normal, average day-to-day life together. He would have had the same concerns if his and Ezra’s roles were reversed.

  “I’ll drive to the pharmacy at two in the morning,” Jeremiah said.

  “I would prefer just having one child,” Cindy said.

  “That’s fine with me,” Jeremiah said.

  “Okay, that’s not really discussing. Jeremiah, how many children would you actually want if Cindy had no opinion?” Ezra asked.

  “Frankly, I never thought I’d be in a position to have any,” he admitted.

  “But now that you’re getting married?”

  “I would like a boy and a girl,” he admitted.

  “I could agree to that,” Cindy said.

  “I don’t want to pressure you. I know children are a lot of work. I think we can have one and then see what we think after that,” Jeremiah said.

  “See, now you’re talking,” Ezra said, slapping his desk. “So, let me give you some homework. Next month when you come back to see me be prepared to answer all my questions in these areas. Okay?”

  “We will,” Cindy said.

  Jeremiah nodded.

  “Good. I’ll send you an email with a list. In a very real way marriage is something you can’t prepare for, no matter how much you try to. But, the better the groundwork you can lay ahead of time for procedures, expectations, and even resolving disputes, the better.”

  “Of course,” Jeremiah said.

  “And right now take this golden opportunity that you have right in front of you,” Ezra said.

  “What’s that?” Cindy asked.

  “Figure out how you’re going to celebrate Hanukkah… together,” he said.

  “We will,” she said.

  They got up, shook Ezra’s hand, and then left his office as quickly as they could.

  Once they had made it to the parking lot Jeremiah turned toward Cindy. “You really think about ripping my clothes off three times a day?” he blurted out. He was embarrassed the moment the words came out.