Love Finds a Way (5 page)

“I didn’t answer him.” Lorna frowned. “Now he’s here, pestering me to eat dinner with him.”

Chris moved toward the kitchen, with Lorna following on her heels. “Sounds to me like the guy is interested in you.”

Lorna shook her head. “He hardly even knows me. Besides, I’m four years older.”

“Who’s hung up on age differences nowadays?”

“Okay, it’s not the four years between us that really bothers me.”

“What, then?”

“He acts like a big kid!” Lorna shrugged. “Besides, even if I was planning to date, which I’m not, our personalities don’t mesh.”

Evan leaned his elbows on the table and studied the checkered place mat in front of him. He had always been the kind of person who knew what he wanted and then went after it. How come his determination wasn’t working this time?
Lorna

doesn’t believe me. She thinks I’ve been spying on her and came here to harass her. I’ve got to make her believe my coming to Farmen’s was purely coincidental
. He took a sip of water.
Although it could have been an answer to prayer. Somehow I’ve got to get Lorna to agree to go out with me. How else am I going to know if she’s the one?

A short time later, Lorna returned with Evan’s order, and he felt ready to try again. He looked up at her and smiled. “You look cute in that uniform.” When she made no comment, he added, “Been working here long?”

“Sometimes it feels like forever,” she said with a deep sigh.

“Want to talk about it?”

She shook her head. “Will there be anything else?” He rapped the edge of the plate with his knife handle. “Actually, there is.”

“What can I get for you?”

“How about a few minutes of your time?”

“I’m working.”

“When do you get off work? I can stick around for a while.”

“Late. I’ll be working late tonight.”

Evan cringed. He wasn’t getting anywhere with this woman and knew he should probably quit while he was ahead. Of course, he wasn’t really ahead, so he decided he might as well stick his neck out a little farther. “I’m not trying to come on to you. I just want to get to know you better.”

“Why?”

Evan reached for his glass of water and took a sip. How could he explain his attraction to Lorna without scaring her off? “I think we have a lot in common,” he said with a nod.

She raised one pale eyebrow. “How did you reach that conclusion?”

“It’s simple. I’m in choir—you’re in choir. You’re the pianist—I’m the page turner.”

“I’m not interested in dating you or anyone else.”

Evan grabbed his burger off the plate. “Okay, I get the message. I’ll try not to bother you again.”

She touched his shoulder unexpectedly, sending a shock wave through his arm. “I–I’m sorry if I came across harshly. I just needed you to know where I stand.”

He swallowed the bite of burger he’d put in his mouth. “Are you seeing someone else? You mentioned in class that you’re a widow, so I kinda figured—”

Lorna shook her head, interrupting his sentence. “I’m a widow who doesn’t date.”

Evan thought she looked sad, or maybe she was lonely. He grabbed the bottle of ketchup in the center of the table and smiled at her. “Can we at least be friends?”

She nodded and held out her hand. “Friends.”

L
orna awoke with a headache. She had been back in college a week, and things weren’t getting any easier. It was hard to attend school all day, work every evening at Farmen’s, and find time to get her assignments finished. She was tired and irritable but knew she would have to put on a happy face when she was at work, no matter how aggravating some of the customers could be. One patron in particular was especially unnerving. Evan Bailey had returned to the restaurant two more times. She wasn’t sure if he came because he liked the food, or if it was merely to get under her skin.

Lorna uttered a quick prayer and forced her unwilling body to get out of bed. She couldn’t miss any classes today. There was a test to take in English lit and auditions for lead parts in the choir’s first performance.

She entered the bathroom and turned on the faucet at the sink. Splashing a handful of water against her upturned face, she cringed as the icy liquid stung her cheeks. Apparently Ann was washing clothes this morning, for there was no hot water.

“Ed needs to get that old tank replaced,” Lorna grumbled as she reached for a towel. “Maybe I should stay home today after all.”

The verse she’d read the night before in Psalm 125 popped into her mind.
“Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever.”

“Thanks for that reminder, Lord. I need to trust You to help me through this day.”

“I don’t see how we’re ever gonna get better acquainted if you keep avoiding me.”

Lorna sat in her anatomy class, watching a video presentation on the muscular system and trying to ignore Evan, who sat on her left. She kept her eyes focused on the video screen.
Maybe if I pretend I didn’t hear him, he’ll quit pestering me
.

“Here, I brought you something.” He leaned closer and held out two cookies encased in plastic wrap.

Lorna could feel his warm breath on her ear, and she shivered.

“You cold?”

When she made no reply and didn’t reach for the cookies, he tapped her lightly on the arm. “I made these last night. Please try one.”

Lorna didn’t want to appear rude, but she wasn’t hungry. “I just ate breakfast not long ago.”

“That’s okay. You can save them for later.”

“All right. Thanks.” Lorna took the cookies and placed them inside her backpack.

“I’m going biking on Saturday. Do you ride?” he asked.

“Huh?”

“I’d like you to go out with me this Saturday. We can rent some bikes at the park and pedal our way around the lake.” “I told you … I don’t date.”

“I know, but the other night you said we could be friends, so we won’t call this a date. It’ll just be two lonely people out having a good time.”

Lorna’s face heated up. “What makes you think I’m lonely?”

“I see it in your eyes,” he whispered. “They’re sad and lonely looking.” When she made no reply, he added, “Look, if you’d rather not go, then—”

Lorna blew out her breath as she threw caution to the wind. “All right, I’ll go, but you’re taking an awfully big chance.”

“Yeah, I know.” He snickered. “A few hours spent in your company, and I might never be the same.”

Lorna held back the laughter threatening to bubble over, but she couldn’t hide her smile. “I was thinking more along the lines of our fall weather. It can be pretty unpredictable this time of the year.”

Evan chuckled. “Yeah, like some blond-haired, blue-eyed woman I’d like to get to know a whole lot better.”

Evan studied the computer screen intently. Brownie Delight was the sweet treat Cynthia Lyons had posted on Tuesday, but he hadn’t had time to check it out until today. The ingredients were basic—unsweetened chocolate, butter, sour cream, sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, salt, and chopped nuts. Chocolate chips would be sprinkled on top, making it doubly delicious. If the brownies turned out halfway decent, he would take some on his date with Lorna. Maybe she’d be impressed with his ability to cook. He hoped so, because so far nothing he’d said or done had seemed to make an impact on her. She hadn’t even said whether she’d liked the chocolate peanut butter cookies he’d given her the other day. Lorna was probably too polite to mention that they’d been a bit overdone. This was Evan’s second time with these cookies, and he was beginning to wonder if he’d ever get it right.

Evan still hadn’t made it to any of the online chats Cynthia Lyons hosted. Now that he was in school all day, his evenings were usually spent doing homework.

Oh well. The chats were probably just a bunch of chitchat about how well the recipes had turned out for others who had made them. He didn’t need any further reminders that his hadn’t been so successful.

Evan hit the P
RINT
button to make a copy of the recipe and leaned back in his chair while he waited for the procedure to complete itself.

A vision of Lorna’s petite face flashed into his mind. He was attracted to her; there was no question about that. But did they really have anything in common? Was she someone who wanted to serve the Lord with her whole heart, the way Evan did?

The college they attended was a Christian one, but he knew not everyone who went there was a believer in Christ. Some merely signed up at Bay View because of its excellent academic program. Evan hoped Lorna wasn’t one of those.

And what about children? Did she like kids as much as he did? Other than becoming an elementary school music teacher, what were her goals and dreams for the future? He needed to know all these things if he planned to pursue a relationship with her.

The printer had stopped, and Evan grabbed hold of the recipe for Brownie Delight. “Tomorrow Lorna and I will get better acquainted as we pedal around the lake and munch on these sweet treats. Tonight I’ll pray about it.”

The week had seemed to fly by, and when Lorna awoke Saturday morning, she was in a state of panic. She couldn’t believe she’d agreed to go biking with Evan today. What had she been thinking? Up until now, she’d kept him at arm’s length, but going on what he probably saw as a date could be a huge mistake.

“Then again,” she mumbled, “it might be just the thing to prove to Evan how wrong we are for each other.”

Lorna crawled out of bed, wondering what she should wear and what to tell her in-laws at breakfast. Not wanting to raise any questions from Ann or Ed, she decided to tell them only that she’d be going out sometime after lunch, but she would make no mention of where. Her plans were to meet Evan at the park near the college, but she didn’t want them to know about it. They might think it was a real date and that she was being untrue to their son’s memory. She only hoped by the end of the day she wouldn’t regret her decision to spend time alone with Evan Bailey.

At two o’clock that afternoon, Lorna drove into the park. The weather was overcast and a bit chilly, but at least it wasn’t raining. She found Evan waiting on a wooden bench, with two bikes parked nearby.

“Hey! I’m glad you came!”