Grace Alive: a Christian Romance (3 page)

“We really enjoyed your sermon today,
Pastor,” Kyle Whitmen said as we all headed toward the dining room
table. The food was already set out and looked amazing. My mouth
started to water. I found a seat, and Jacob sat across from me.
Perfect.

“Would you say a prayer, Pastor?” Mr. Whitmen
smiled at his family. My dad prayed a very lengthily prayer. Pretty
sure the food got cold by the time he was done. After we’d all
finally said amen, we began to pass around the food. It smelt so
good! Baked chicken, fancy potatoes, corn, and a healthy looking
salad rested on my plate. I started eating right away. My parents
and Jacob’s parents discussed church people, business, and lots of
really boring stuff. Jacob kept looking at me and smiling like he
knew something I didn’t know. What?

“Pastor Mike is having another mixer this
Friday. Are you coming, Zoe?” he asked as he bit into his chicken.
I knew he’d asked that because my parents were sitting there, and
I’d skipped the last one. Butthead.

“Ummm…” I threw some potatoes in my mouth to
keep from answering right away. I didn’t want anything to do with
the mixer, but my dad suddenly turned and paid attention to our
conversation. Dang it.

“Of course. What time does it start?” I asked
in a sickening sweet voice.

“Seven, this Friday. We’re going to play
board games!”

Wow board games. How exciting could you get?
Lovely. My dad smiled at us.

“I’m glad Pastor Mike has been reaching out
to our young adults. He’s been getting a pretty good crowd to
join,” my dad said.

Like five people? How was that a crowd, Dad?
I wanted to say something but kept my big mouth shut. Friday huh.
So I had five days to prepare for boredom.

***

Monday. Wahoo! Probably the only good thing
about today was I was going to hang out with Mia. Tomas was taking
the kids to the park, and Mia and I were going to go to lunch. I
usually worked around one o’clock, so we set up lunch for eleven. I
guess it was more like brunch than lunch. We pulled into the
parking lot of Bob Evans. One of my favorite places ever! As we
headed toward the restaurant, Mia was chattering away at me in the
passenger seat.

“Zoe, you’re kind of lucky. I mean being
picky isn’t always a bad thing. I do love Tomas, and your dad has
really helped me a lot with our marriage, but sometimes I just want
to scream at him!”

I fidgeted. It was hard hearing this stuff
sometimes. I just wanted my best friend to be happy. I didn’t
really understand all the marriage woes she had.

“Yeah, right, I’m being picky, Mia.”

“Well, Jacob seems to kiss the ground you
walk on. I know you think he’s disgusting, but he is wealthy.” She
elbowed me in the ribs, because she knew saying that would make me
flip out.

“If he was the last man on the planet, I
would marry a rock instead.” That made her laugh. We pushed the
doors open to Bob Evans. The hostess led us to a booth, and we sat
down. The waitress came over a few minutes later and gave us some
menus.

“I’m Stacy; I’ll be taking care of you this
morning. Can I start you off with some coffee?” She gave us a big
smile.

“I’ll take a mocha, Stacy, thanks,” I said
even though their mochas weren’t real mochas. They still had tons
of whipped cream, caramel, and a butt load of chocolate.

“Me too!” Mia said. The waitress walked away
to put in our drink orders. Mia grabbed my hand, and her eyes lit
up.

“Guess what?” It didn’t take much for Mia to
get excited.

“What?” I said, and a smile teased my
lips.

“I got promoted at work to manager!” she
gushed and squirmed in her chair happily.

“That’s so awesome!” I winced inwardly. I
couldn’t help it. At least she was going forward in her job, unlike
me. I’m so whiny sometimes. I smiled at her. I was happy for
her.

“Yeah! They are bumping my pay up too! Tomas
hasn’t really been making that much lately with construction, so I
was happy that I could be more helpful.”

“What about the kids? Weren’t you only
working part time?” I asked with slight concern.

“Their grandparents are going to start
watching them more.” The waitress came back with our mochas that
had mountains of whipped cream, chocolate, and caramel.

“Yummm!” I said. “Thank you, Stacy.”

Mia cupped her coffee, and I latched onto
mine, and we drank it together.

“Tell me what’s happening with you!” Mia said
as she wiped whipped cream off her face.

“So, I got conned into going to Pastor Mike’s
next mixer,” I said with a slight frown.

“Oh, Zoe! That sucks!” she said with a laugh.
She took a big gulp of her coffee.

“Yeah, it does. What was I to do though?
Jacob asked me in front of our parents. He knew I would have to say
yes. He just wants to play monopoly with me or something. My gosh
could he get any worse?” I moaned. I sounded like a whiny baby
right now.

“You’ll make it. You never know, maybe Mr.
Right will be there.” As she said those words, I heard giggling
nearby. Those little voices sounded familiar. I turned around and
saw Branson and his kids sitting at a table just a few tables down.
They were by themselves. No wife? Or…was she using the
bathroom?

“Oh my gosh, look at those cute little girls!
That guy is cute too! Lucky woman whoever snagged that man!” Mia
said in an excited whisper. Her whisper was like one volume though.
Loud. I wouldn’t be surprised if Branson heard her. The waitress
came up to him and took his order. He gave his little baby a toy to
play with, the two little girls he gave crayons and a place mat to
color on. I couldn’t seem to keep my eyes off him.

“Earth to, Zoe. He’s probably taken. Let’s
just focus on getting you a good Christian guy who’s rich. But not
Jacob.”

“Not. Jacob.” My eyes flashed. Stacy came
back over to us.

“What can I get for you ladies today?”

“I’ll take your sausage biscuits and gravy
bowl,” I said and handed her my menu.

“I’ll do your blueberry pancakes,” Mia said.
Stacy took our menus and walked away.

“Please tell me there is at least one decent
man left in the world for me,” I said. I felt a little hopeless
about this subject and was ready to change it.

“There are plenty of good guys out there. You
just gotta find them.” We chatted awhile longer about girly stuff,
until our food came. Even Mia, who loved to talk, would be quiet
when she was eating. She kept glancing over at Branson and his
kids. I turned a few times. No girl ever came.

“Maybe his wife ditched him for some fat rich
guy.” Mia raised an eyebrow.

“Right. Who would leave that?” I said. I
still didn’t want to tell Mia I had already met Branson at my work.
We finished our meal and got ready to leave. I started to pass
Branson when he caught my attention.

“Zoe, right?”

“Yeah, that’s me,” I said a little
awkwardly.

“I’m Branson, in case you forgot. It’s really
nice to see you.”

“You too,” I said and saw Mia’s look. She was
going to give me an earful later.

“Zoe! We helped you pick up cans! Remember,
Evie? Remember that?” one of the little girls said with a grin.

“Yeah, you sure did! You did a good job too!”
I said.

“It was nice seeing you again. I’ll probably
see you next time I run out of milk.” Branson laughed as he ruffled
CC’s hair. She hugged his arm.

“Bye,” I said and then waved at his little
girls.

“You know that guy?” Mia pulled me toward the
cashier to pay for our meal.

“I met him at work. I knocked over a whole
stack of cans, and he and his little girls helped me pick them up,”
I explained as the cashier rang up my meal. I handed her my
card.

“That’s so cute. His girls are adorable. His
wife is lucky.” Mia paid for her meal, and we headed out the
door.

“Yeah, lucky,” I repeated as we left.

After Mia and I had our breakfast/lunch, I
got ready for work, my mind bouncing around with images of Branson.
It was like he was one of those popular songs that played in my
head over and over. I brushed my teeth, attempted to braid my hair
and gave up. Instead, I curled it really fast and hair sprayed the
heck out of it. When I was finished, I bounced down the stairs and
came into the kitchen to say goodbye to my mom. She was sorting
stacks of paper, or something like that. I don’t know what she was
doing, but that’s what it looked like to me.

“Hey, sweetie, off to work?” she asked, and I
got a glimpse of her papers. They were flyers for different events
our church hosts. There are other people who can do stuff like that
for her at our church, but she likes to keep busy.

“Yeah, I’m heading out right now. Are you
doing anything special today?” I leaned and kissed her cheek. My
mom shoved her papers in a neat little pile.

“No, just organizing this stuff. My big
ladies meeting is coming up on Friday. Are you and Mia planning on
being there?” she asked. I knew she really, really wanted me to go.
Mom’s meetings are great and all, but they are more geared toward
50-year-olds. I usually go anyways just to support her. Mia only
goes because she gets a break from her crazy kids.

“We are both planning on it. We talked about
it earlier at lunch.” I gave my mom one final kiss and headed out
the door. I drove to work with my worship music blasting. I love
worship music. I’ve even written a couple songs that I kept buried
on my computer. I don’t really want to be on the worship team. I
pulled into the parking lot of Little Bit of Everything and headed
inside.

I punched in and waved to another employee as
she got ready to go. We usually don’t have more than one person at
a time that works here. It’s odd I know, but it’s a tiny craft
store. Most of the time, I just stand there waiting for customers
to come in. I straighten the store, but then after that there’s
usually nothing to do.

I started pulling things forward and making
sure we had our stuff in stock. Once in awhile, I pulled from the
back when I was working, but for the most part that’s the previous
girl’s job to do that. After a couple hours of straightening, I
headed back toward the counter to just wait for people. The store
looked really good already. This was the point where my mind would
start churning about crap. I’d start thinking about my family, my
church, and my lack of a husband. It got on my nerves. I’d rather
be busy doing something than be thinking about that kind of stuff.
The door dinged and in walked Jacob Whitmen. Jacob hates crafts.
Why the heck was he here except to bother me? I put on my good girl
Christian face. I really try not to bite his head off, but it’s
hard sometimes. He came right up to the counter and smiled at
me.

“Hi Zoe-Poey.”

Ah! Can’t this guy just call me by my name?
Zoe. It’s not that hard!

“Hi, Jacob,” I said and really wished some
random child would knock over a stack of cans, so I could excuse
myself from this conversation.

“You busy after work today?” he asked and put
his arms on the counter to look sexy maybe? I raised an eyebrow at
him.

“I don’t get out until ten. I’m going to be
exhausted after work.”

“Oh, okay. I just figured maybe we could grab
an ice-cream or a coffee after you got out.” He gave me one of his
famous greasy smiles.

“Thanks, but I think I’ll pass this time,” I
said and nodded to him. I slipped out from behind the counter to go
to the back to do something. Really I was just hiding from him, but
he didn’t need to know that. I got a glimpse of his face as I
practically ran. It was mean of me I know. I’m sorry! I just can’t
stand to be around him sometimes. He’s so pushy! I feel like he’s
trying to shove a wedding ring on my finger, and I’m just standing
there screaming, “NOOOO!” at his face. He doesn’t take the hint
that I’m not interested in him! Period!

After I figured he’d probably left, I snuck
back out of the backroom. I couldn’t be away too long. No one was
running the register. I breathed a sigh of relief. There was no one
in the store. I went back to the counter and let my mind wander
again. This time it dwelled on Branson. Why did it always go back
to Branson? Who was he? Where had he come from? He must be someone
who just moved into town. Or he’d just started frequently buying
milk.

Next, my mind wandered to my novel. How was I
going to find her happy ending? I’d tried so many times to give it
to her, but it always failed. Like my life. I could not go down
that hole here at work. I wouldn’t start thinking about all the
disappointments I’d had. If I started thinking of that, I probably
would just want to curl up in a ball and cry. That would be
awkward.

The door dinged, and in walked Branson,
toting his baby in his arms. He was bouncing her up and down and
singing. He had an amazing voice, even though he was singing
Old
McDonald Had A Farm.
He saw me watching him and waved his hand.
The baby waved her little hand along with him.

“Say hi to Zoe, Bree! We are here for our
milk!” He raced over to the milk section making Bree squeal with
laughter. He ran back toward me and stopped suddenly, making Bree’s
curls fly around her round face. She squealed again and clapped her
hands.

“Dadadada…” she said with a drooly smile. She
was wearing a purple tutu and a sparkly lion shirt.

“Did you need anything else tonight?” I asked
all professional like.

“Nope! Just milk!” Branson said with a
cheerful look in his eyes. I rang up the milk, and he handed me his
card. I slid it through, watching him sing to Bree. She made her
lips into an O, and it sounded like she said moo. Branson’s eyes
widened with surprise.

“Wow! New word, Bree Bree! Moo!” He grabbed
his milk and gave me a smile.

“Did you just move here, Branson?” I asked as
he kissed Bree’s neck.