A Match Made in Heaven (7 page)

“How about Wednesday? I have a light day, and maybe we could even do a little shopping. My favorite dress shop is having a sale this week.”

“Sounds great.” Barbara beamed at her.

Callie’s heart lifted. It had been the right thing to do. Whether or not Barbara commissioned her to do the design work, she needed a friend. Callie knew a lot of people in town. She could take her around and make her feel Heaven could be her home. And maybe the Lord would speak to Barbara, and the real heaven would be her ultimate home.

As they made their plans, Callie could feel Nick pulling away from her. She felt bad, but she couldn’t explain it to him. He wouldn’t believe her anyway.

“Do you need a ride?” Nick asked after a strained silence.

“No, I came with Gram,” Callie said.

“Oh, you go on with Nicky,” her grandmother said. “Mel can come with me. You two have a lot to talk about with this new house project and all. Barbara was asking me about your work, Callie. I told her about all the awards you’ve won. She seemed quite impressed.”

It was getting worse and worse. Nick’s expression was thunderous. Callie followed him to the truck. He opened the door, but he didn’t look at her. His lips were pressed together so hard they looked bloodless. His touch on her arm as he helped her into the truck was light and impersonal. He shut the door behind her then climbed in on his side and started the truck.

“It’s not what you’re thinking,” she said in a low voice.

Nick didn’t reply for a moment as he backed out of the parking space and turned onto the street. “Isn’t it?” he said slowly. “Then how is it? You come to dinner with me then worm your way into a deal with my clients. You push yourself forward at every opportunity. Your grandmother sings your praises until Barbara thinks you’re some kind of design diva sent to Heaven just for her.”

Callie’s eyes burned, and she stared straight ahead through the windshield. “Stop the car. I’ll walk to Gram’s. You shouldn’t be in the same room with me if that’s what you think of me.” It was hard to swallow past the huge lump in her throat. She knew it looked bad, but she hadn’t realized it would appear that heartless to Nick.

Nick sighed. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “I’ll take you to your grandmother’s.”

“I’ll take myself. Stop the truck!” All she wanted was to get away from him. She’d thought she was falling in love with him, but she had to be mistaken. What did she know of love?

“I’m not dropping you by the side of the road.”

She jerked at the handle, but the door was locked. “Let me out of here!”

He pulled the truck to the side of the road. “Look—I said I was sorry.” He took off his cowboy hat and ran a hand through his dark curls. “Can we start over? You explain, and I’ll listen.”

Callie’s vision blurred with tears. “You don’t want to know the truth. You just want to blame someone else for the extra work you see looming ahead of you.”

“Ouch. Okay, maybe you’re right. Before I met you, things were going great. But even so I’m glad I met you,” he said softly.

The words penetrated the wall Callie was busy constructing around her heart. She jerked her head up and stared into his earnest blue eyes. “Really?”

He nodded.

Callie blinked furiously. She hated to cry in front of anyone. “Okay, then I accept your apology. And I really wasn’t thinking of the design when I invited Barbara to lunch. She’s just so lonely. I could sense it. Women need good female friends. God made us that way. Barbara needs me as a friend and as someone who will share Jesus with her. I was just trying to do what your song said.”

Nick rocked back as though she’d slapped him. He pressed two fingers between his eyes. “I should have known,” he said. “Now I really feel like a heel.”

“You should,” Callie said. “Now let’s go eat. I’m starved.”

He grinned and put the truck in drive. “Is it beans on a tin plate?” he teased.

“You never know with Gram. One Sunday it might be roast and potatoes, and the next we might be lucky to get cold cuts.”

“I like your grandma. She was my first friend here, you know. I saw my shooting buddies every month since we all travel around to the different shoots, but she’s my first bona fide Heaven friend. And now I have even more reason to like her since she introduced us.”

“Don’t tell her that,” Callie warned. “You’ll have her homing in on matchmaking for my other two cousins.”

“My lips are sealed.”

As they parked in front of the pink stucco complex of the Heavenly Village Retirement Community, Callie marveled at the easy relationship between her and Nick. If they could just find a way to resolve the Miller design, this budding romance might go somewhere. She led the way to Gram’s apartment.

Lunch was a pleasant affair with Gram hovering as she always did and waiting on them hand and foot. When she said good-bye to Nick, Callie couldn’t wait for Saturday to come. She had a big plan in store for him.

The week flew by. Wednesday’s lunch with Barbara went well, but Callie was careful to keep the discussion away from her design. She didn’t want Barbara to lock her into anything yet. Not until she and Nick came to a compromise. They had lunch at Family Fixin’s. Chelsea and Kyle were there, so she was able to introduce Barbara to her cousin. Chelsea looked radiantly happy, and Callie longed for the peace and contentment she saw in her cousin’s face. Callie’s career was fulfilling, but something was missing from her life.

Their meeting Friday was postponed when Nick had an emergency meeting with another client. Callie couldn’t help feeling relieved that they wouldn’t be locking horns again. Next week she intended to ask to tour some of his other homes and see if she could find some compromise in another design. Until they resolved this, she was afraid to let her heart get involved. She couldn’t take another heartbreak.

Nick’s hair glistened from his recent shower. He grinned at his image in the mirror. Whistling, he quickly shaved and splashed on his favorite cologne. He couldn’t help but wonder what Callie had up her sleeve for the day. She’d told him he could wear jeans, so she must not be planning to drag him to some high-class art show or something like that. Though he’d go if she asked.

He finished getting ready then headed for Callie’s with a sense of anticipation. She kept him on his toes. He never knew what to expect from her. In her presence he felt alive and energized.

She was dressed in her old jeans and a cotton T-shirt with her hair stuffed up in her hat. Her smile went straight to his heart. His spirits lifted even higher when he saw her suppressed excitement.

“Follow me,” she told him.

He followed her through the house, admiring the warm, inviting decor as he went. Maybe she was right, and Barbara needed more than elegance and a showy floor plan. This home made him want to stay.

She led him through the kitchen and into the garage. “Think you can hook that trailer up to your truck?”

His eyes widened. The trailer held two Fat Cats, a kind of three-wheeled motorcycle with wide tires. He’d always wanted to play around in the desert on one of them, but none of his friends owned the vehicles.

A grin stretched its way across his face. “You know how to drive these?”

She held out her slim arm and flexed her muscle. “I can wrestle a Fat Cat through the worst cactus in the state of Arizona.”

He pressed against her rounded arm and winced. “You’ll put me to shame.” He slipped his arm around her and pulled her to him. “You are remarkable. I’ll bring the truck around. Let’s get to the desert while the getting is good.”

Callie pressed a button and opened the garage door. Nick jogged down the driveway. The scent of jasmine and eucalyptus filled his lungs and gave him another boost of well-being. What a great day this was turning out to be.

He backed the truck up to the trailer, and within minutes they were on their way. “Where’re we headed?” he asked.

“Bloody Basin Road, where else?”

“I couldn’t have picked a better place myself.” He turned the truck out of town and headed to the play area of movie stars and car mechanics alike. It was about an hour away, so they chatted about inconsequential things. Nick loved to hear Callie’s laughter. It enveloped him in a cocoon of warmth and joy.

It seemed only minutes later that they turned into the rutted track that was Bloody Basin Road. He found a parking spot and stopped the truck. The sun was high overhead, a roadrunner scrabbled in the dirt several yards away, and cactus dotted the landscape as far as he could see. A perfect day for off-roading.

He unloaded the Fat Cats. Their chrome sparkled in the sun, and he yearned to climb onto the wide seat of one and head out across the stark hills and valleys. “Which one is mine?” he asked eagerly.

“They’re identical,” Callie pointed out.

Nick rubbed his hands together. “Let’s go!”

They climbed onto their vehicles. The sound of the engines whined through the thin air. “I’ll beat you to the top of the mesa!” Callie shouted. She didn’t wait for his response but revved up her engine and tore between two clumps of prickly pear cactus.

Nick followed her, the tires of his Fat Cat kicking up the dust. They raced over mesas and ravines, through eerie landscapes of cactus and sage. Hours later they stopped back at the truck for lunch.

Nick had insisted on bringing the food. He loved to cook and had whipped up his favorite potato salad and made turkey sandwiches. There was a picnic table near the truck, and he spread a tablecloth over the weathered tabletop then laid out the food.

Callie’s smile was reward enough for his preparation. Her face was flushed from the sun, and her brown eyes sparkled. “You let me win,” she said.

He held up a hand. “You beat me fair and square. You’ve had more practice than I have with those things. How long you had them?”

“About three years. They belonged to my brother. When he moved to New York, he sold them to me. They wouldn’t be much use in the high-rise buildings.” She sat at the picnic table.

“What are you going to do with them when you go to New York?”

Her face clouded. “I hadn’t considered it.”

“You belong out here, Callie. I can’t imagine you in New York, never feeling the Arizona sun on your face, never smelling the sage and creosote. That perfectly turned-out image you portray isn’t the real Callie Stevens. This jean-clad sprite is the real Callie. You should let her run free.”

Twin lines appeared between her eyes. “People expect a designer to look a certain way,” she said.

“Kind of like an architect, huh?” He jerked his thumb at himself. “Look at me. I don’t look like the typical architect, but I’m not hurting for business. God made you like you are. When you pretend to be something you’re not, you throw His gift back in His face. You’re special just as you are. You don’t have to put on any fancy facade. Just be yourself. And you can do that right here. I think you’d be miserable in New York.”

Callie didn’t answer for so long that he was beginning to think she wasn’t going to answer at all. She slowly spooned potato salad onto her paper plate and took a sandwich from the plastic container. “Maybe you’re right,” she said. “But New York has been a dream for such a long time that I’m not sure I can give it up. And what’s wrong with striving to be better?”

“Nothing as long as you’re striving to be a better
you
and not something you’re not. I think you’re pretty perfect the way you are.” He said the words softly and realized as he did how much he meant them. He leaned closer until he could smell the scent of her hair. “I’ve never met anyone like you, Callie. You’re so caring of other people, so spontaneous when you let your guard down. I’d like to be more than friends.”

The soft brown of her eyes melted his heart. He reached out and touched her cheek. “I’m giving you fair warning, Callie Stevens. I intend to court you. I don’t care about the Miller house as much as I’m beginning to care about you.”

He cupped her cheek in his hand and leaned forward until his lips touched hers. The sweet scent of her breath touched his face. Warmth flooded him when she returned his kiss. When he pulled away, her lashes still lay on her cheeks. She finally opened her eyes, and their gazes locked.

“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered. “Inside and out.

She blushed and touched his cheek. “So are you, Nick.”

§

The next two weeks sped by. Callie knew she went around like some teenager with stars in her eyes. The first time Nick kissed her she knew she would never feel about another man the way she felt about him. It wasn’t infatuation because it wasn’t his physical appearance that drew her so much as his inner qualities. Integrity, compassion, and, most important, a love for God that showed in everything he did.

He wooed her in earnest, calling every night and taking her out at least three times a week. It was hard to keep her mind on her work.

But the deadline for the Miller house loomed closer. Callie knew she could never move to New York now, so she decided to give Barbara the design Nick’s house demanded. But every time she sat down to see what she could come up with, her mind was blank. Creativity hid its face from her like a child playing peek-a-boo.

She was going to have to withdraw from the project. Barbara would be crushed since they’d become friends, but interior designers were as plentiful as cactus. Someone else would find the inspiration she had lost for the project.

Stopping by Nick’s office, she paused outside the door when she realized he was on the phone. She sat on a chair in the waiting room and idly flipped through a magazine. His deep voice carried through the door, and her hand hesitated of its own accord as she started to turn the page.

“I know you promised she could do it, but things have changed. We don’t share the same vision. You’ll have to trust my judgment on this one. Another designer will work just as well. Better really. The new one has twice the experience she has. I promise you’ll be pleased with the end result.”

He could only be talking about her. Callie’s throat tightened. All the time he was professing he cared about her, he was making plans to replace her on the Miller project. She jumped to her feet and rushed toward the door. Dimly aware of Nick coming to the doorway and calling after her, she stumbled blindly down the steps and out to her car.