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Her gaze made a quick sweep around the room before settling solidly on Zeke. She lifted one eyebrow, as if asking a question.
He didn’t know the answer, so he shrugged.
Apparently, that was the answer she was looking for, because she grinned like a cat and beelined for him as if he were the proverbial mouse. With the gleam in her eye, he thought he just might be. He slung his hammer into his belt and accepted her friendly hug.
“I’m glad you’re here,” Lakeisha burst out excitedly. “You’re just the right man.”
Zeke frowned, furrowing his eyebrows low over his eyes. “Thank you.” He paused and grinned thoughtfully. “I think.”
“It’s a compliment,” Lakeisha assured him. “Where’s your coat?”
“Are we going somewhere?”
“Just outside. Julia needs your help.”
His heart jump-started with a vengeance, and his scowl deepened. He was elated, but he didn’t want Lakeisha to pick up on that.
“At your service, ma’am,” he said, shrugging into his lined jean jacket. With a grim half smile, he gestured Lakeisha out the door ahead of him.
Zeke spotted Julia’s car immediately, parked just out the door, pulled in backward with the trunk open. Julia leaned negligently against the rear bumper, her arms crossed in front of her. Her black jeans and pink sweatshirt only served to make her cheeks look flushed and beautiful, even in the muted light of the parking lot.
Her eyes widened noticeably when she saw him. He grinned, wondering if that was good or bad.
“See, I told you,” Lakeisha crowed from behind him.
Julia glared at her over his shoulder. Lakeisha just laughed.
“Told her what?” he asked, wondering if he really wanted to know. Clearly, whatever they’d been discussing involved him, either directly or indirectly.
“It was nothing,” Julia muttered immediately.
Again, Lakeisha chuckled.
“What can I do for you ladies?” he asked, changing the subject, hoping to quell the internal power struggle going on between the roommates. It was friendly tension, but tension none the less.
He swiftly decided he really didn’t want to know the cause.
“I was going to haul these boxes of baby things into the church so I can wrap them up for distribution,” Julia explained, gesturing toward her trunk. “Lakeisha, however, thought we needed a man’s help. Scarlett O’Hara and all that.”
Comprehension unfolded around him in waves, and he smothered a grin. “If we all go in together, I’ll bet we can get this stuff in one trip,” he suggested quietly, careful not to look at Julia, lest she see the gleam of amusement in his eye.
Julia didn’t let him off the hook that easily. She took his arm and pulled him around to meet her gaze. She studied him carefully, and Zeke put all his energies into counseling his features and swallowing the huge lump in his throat that formed when he stared into her beautiful eyes.
He was about to break away when suddenly she smiled. Zeke’s heart stopped cold.
“Where’d you get this stuff?” he asked, ignoring his scratchy throat.
Taking refuge in activity, he loaded Lakeisha’s arms with boxes, then turned to do the same with Julia. He was careful not to overload them—he could easily get the bulk of the boxes himself.
He didn’t want to insult Julia in the process, so he made sure he gave her a decent armful.
“These are all from local community bins,” Julia said over her shoulder as she moved toward the door.
Zeke was impressed by the quality and quantity of items the community gave.
He followed the women into the church and down a long hallway, into a vacant Sunday school room. From the look of the pictures on the wall, he thought it might be a younger grade. Lots of bright colors, depicting major Bible characters with round, smiling faces and rosy pink cheeks.
“What are you going to do with this stuff now?” he asked, dumping the load in his arms into one corner.
“We’re going to wrap all these gifts up in pretty baby-shower paper,” Lakeisha said brightly, a cunning gleam in her friendly black eyes. “I don’t suppose you transport and gift wrap?”
Zeke chuckled loudly, as much at the way Julia cringed as by the question itself. “I think I may surprise you.”
Lakeisha took him up on his boast. “This I’ve got to see.” She immediately began digging around in the Sunday school cubby for scissors and tape.
With an audible sigh, Julia moved to one of the boxes and pulled out the gift wrap. “You did this to yourself,” she reminded him, handing him a tube of baby-blue paper covered with big, fluffy white clouds and brown cows jumping over orange crescent moons.
Lakeisha placed the scissors and tape on the table, then retrieved a baby monitor in a rectangular box and set it before him.
“You’re not even going to challenge me?” he asked, with a wink at Julia. “How can I prove real men gift wrap if all you give me is a box?”
Julia laughed, the high, bell-toned chime like the ones that filled Zeke’s dreams. “Here. Try this one.” She shoved a stuffed monkey into his arms. It was brown and tan and held a half-peeled banana in one hand. “No more straight edges and square corners for you to deal with. But don’t squeeze the banana.”
Zeke, of course, squeezed the banana.
The monkey let out a screech worthy of its real-life jungle counterpart, and Zeke laughed. “That’s more like it. Now watch, ladies, and learn at the hands of a master.”
Lakeisha and Julia burst into laughter, and he waggled his eyebrows.
Without another word, he measured, cut, folded and taped with the accuracy of years of carpentry and the dedication of his loving mother’s early training.
The women watched, wide-eyed and slack-jawed. He struggled not to grin. It served them right. And he had to admit he liked this, being the center of female attention, most particularly Julia’s.
“I beg your pardon, Zeke,” Lakeisha said as he finished. “I have misjudged your talent and ability with gift wrap.”
He held up his big hands. “It’s an easy mistake to make.”
“I wasn’t talking about your hands,” Lakeisha admitted.
“The hands of an artist,” Julia acknowledged softly, and Zeke stood a good two inches taller.
“You know,” Julia continued, “you’re just the sort of person I need for my planning committee. The special dinner is coming up, you know. Would you consider it?”
Zeke swallowed hard. He tried to force clumsy words through his dry throat, but nothing would come.
“You really should,” Lakeisha encouraged. “I certainly underestimated your…”
“Artistic skills?” he provided hoarsely.
“Gender,” Julia said with a laugh. “Don’t ask.”
“My gender,” Zeke repeated dumbly.
“You’re a guy,” Julia explained, rolling her eyes at her roommate and friend. “You know—all bulk, no brains.”
Zeke backed up a step and put a dramatic hand to his chest. “I’m wounded. Mortally wounded.”
Julia laughed. “Well, don’t take it too hard. Maybe Lakeisha has learned her lesson. Women can tote boxes. Men can wrap presents. There is no happily ever after.”
Julia’s words shocked Zeke far more than Lakeisha’s insinuations ever had. “What’s this? No happily ever after?”
“Julia insists that Prince Charming lives only in storybooks,” Lakeisha explained lightly, though the look she gave Julia was anything but light. “No white steeds, no shiny armor. Nothing.”
“She’s wrong,” Zeke responded without thinking. His angel didn’t believe in love? What kind of nonsense was this?
He whirled to her. Her golden hair swirled about her like a halo, and his breath caught before he could speak. He forced words through his tight throat. “You’re wrong.”
“Am I?” she asked, sounding genuinely surprised. Or confused.
He wanted to take her into his arms and prove it, but he could hardly act on those feelings. Nor could he leave it quite alone.
He reached out and gently swiped a thumb down her cheek. “You are wrong about love. And if it takes me forever, I’m going to prove it to you.”
Chapter Four
“What do you think, girl?” Zeke asked the dog wryly as he scrubbed a hand over her soft muzzle. “Am I a fool for hoping?”
Tip merely nuzzled into his hand, bumping his palm with her nose to indicate that, in her opinion, he wasn’t done scratching yet.
Zeke laughed and continued petting her with one hand, and squeezing the steering wheel with his other as he maneuvered his truck down the highway.
He was feeling introspective today. He had more free time on Saturday. Without work to keep his mind occupied, it was easy to get caught up wrestling with his thoughts. Having Tip with him helped him to not get bogged down thinking.
The more time he spent with Julia, the more he lost his focus. When she was around, there wasn’t room for anything else in his mind and heart.
If he was completely honest, he’d admit he was terrified out of his wits at what he was feeling. She made him feel such a hodgepodge of emotions he wanted to run away when he saw her, yet he was drawn to her with all his heart, every fiber of his being.
Was God in this?
That was the question that beleaguered him now. That, and the fact he just couldn’t shake the feeling Julia needed him somehow.
For one thing, she didn’t believe in happy endings.
He desperately wanted to know why, what had jaded her. He knew beyond a doubt she was a Christian, and had a personal relationship with Christ. That story ended well, didn’t it? And if it worked for the Creator, why not for His creations?
He flipped his blinker and moved his truck off the highway. He didn’t know what he could do for Julia, or what God would have him do for her. He cared for her, but he was hardly in a position to offer her any type of assistance or comfort.
He was determined. She’d done something for him no one else had ever done.
She’d looked past the carpenter and saw a man beneath. Hey—maybe that was the answer.
She’d asked him to sit on the planning committee for the quarterly special dinner the staff and volunteers at HeartBeat put on for the women currently in their care.
No one had ever asked him to sit on any kind of committee before.
He was the man people called to get the job done, not design the plan. He’d served a year’s worth of dinners for HeartBeat, filling in whenever he was needed and doing whatever needed doing.
He hadn’t been sure what to do with Julia’s invitation. He’d been surprised, and honored. He turned his truck back onto the highway, in the direction of Julia’s apartment. He knew where she lived. He’d made it his business to know, even if it was none of his business, technically speaking.
God help and bless him. His decision was made.
“Come on, Tip. Let’s go see Julia.”
“There are bound to be some dry times in a Christian’s life,” Julia muttered to herself, closing her Bible with an audible thump.
Maybe it was just that she was reading through the minor prophets.
Maybe it was just that she was distracted.
Zeke the Carpenter and Tip the Wonder Dog. Lakeisha pushing her to drop her Great Scheme and concentrate on true love, whatever that was.
And in the meantime, God felt far away, as if an invisible barrier had been erected between heaven and earth, leaving her all alone.
Julia remembered with longing the times when she just couldn’t read enough of the Bible. Now it seemed she had to struggle through each paragraph, fight to understand each word.
“Lord, what am I doing wrong?” she whispered in misery.
Julia walked outside onto the small balcony and leaned as far as she could into the redwood railing to see around the corner of the building and get a glimpse of the rising sun. The wood under her hands had eroded from the elements and she had to be careful for splinters, but it was worth the discomfort to feel the heat of the sun on her face.
Besides, it had been her habit since childhood to watch the sun rise. She breathed deeply, letting all her stress go for that one moment. The warmth on her face was like an instant connection with the Son, a reminder that in His arms was true warmth.
It was her favorite time of the morning, where the world was still fresh and clean, not marred by the contents of the day. As always, she wondered what this day would bring. Only God knew.
Lakeisha was a late sleeper, so early morning was Julia’s special time with the Lord. It was a good thing she had this time alone, because she sometimes talked aloud when she prayed.
Like this morning.
“I’m not doing enough, am I?” she asked, looking up at the cloudy sky as if waiting for an audible answer, though of course she knew better than that. Oh, that life was so easy.
As she looked back down at her worn burgundy leather Bible, she traced the gold lettering that graced the front. As much as she’d like her answers face-to-face, she settled for knowing she could take Bible 101 when she got to heaven and have all her questions answered to her satisfaction.
The telephone rang, and she raced to the kitchen to grab the phone off the wall. She juggled and then dropped the receiver in her haste to answer before the ring disturbed Lakeisha.
Swiping up the receiver from where it dangled near her feet, she cleared her throat and muttered a greeting.
“Julia.”
Once again, the receiver hit the floor, this time sliding right out of her limp hands.
