Love Finds You on Christmas Morning (20 page)

But he had to admit, when he’d gotten the offer to consult on the building of an office complex here in Cary, he hadn’t worried much about what would happen between his girlfriend Isabelle and him. They’d dated for nearly a year and hadn’t really progressed to the point that either of them would miss the other terribly. They had become good friends. Nothing more. Their parting was practically businesslike.

Drew worried that maybe he lacked the ability to fall for a girl any harder than that.

When the pastor led the congregation in prayer, Drew went rogue and prayed on his own.

Lord, You’ve blessed me big-time with my family, my friends, my career, my health, and so many other things. My dog. My awesome dog. But if I’m messed up—I mean, if the reason I haven’t fallen in love yet is because I’m coldhearted or too wrapped up in myself—could You light a fire under me or something? I don’t want to end up a wealthy, lonely old man. I mean, I wouldn’t mind the wealthy part. Not that I only care about money—

His prayer abruptly ended when everyone around him said, “Amen.” He said it too. He figured the Lord understood the heart of his poorly worded request.

“So, what did you think?” Phillip stood, and his family followed suit.

Drew closed his Bible and tucked it under his arm as they all filed out of their row. “Loved it. Pastor’s cool. Music’s great.”

“Yeah, we’re really happy with the church. I think you’d fit right in. It’s a really good ‘family’ kind of environment. I’m afraid I can’t claim they have a terribly active singles’ group, though.” Phillip put his arm around Gigi’s shoulders when they reached the aisle. “Am I right, honey? There don’t seem to be all that many singles here.”

Before Gigi had a chance to answer, Drew caught sight of two young women about to leave the sanctuary through another set of doors. After the initial spark of attraction that one of them triggered, he realized he recognized her. Both women were beautiful and had long, dark hair and slim builds. But the shorter of the two—where had he seen her before?

Gigi broke into his thoughts. “I think
those
two ladies are single.”

Drew looked away from the women and at Gigi’s appraising scrutiny. He chuckled and lifted his chin toward her. “Good judgment, great hearing, and sharp eyes.”

“Well, I have to say, you have good taste.” She laced her arm through his and guided him out of the sanctuary, as if they might catch up to the women out in the fellowship hall. “I don’t know those young ladies personally, but I’ve seen them here for at least as long as we’ve been coming. The tall one, anyway. The shorter one showed up sometime this year. Sisters, you think? I have absolutely no qualms about meeting them at this very minute, if you’re so inclined.”

And then he remembered. The woman in the park. Running after her yappy dog. Yes, she had been a spunky one, he remembered that. And she was a Christian, apparently. That fact made him smile.

“Ah, you seem so inclined,” Gigi said. They had reached the fellowship hall, and she tugged him in the direction of the other set of doors.

“No, no, I don’t think so.” Drew didn’t feel prepared to meet her cold like this. He didn’t tend to shyness, but they hadn’t parted on the most impressive terms the first time they’d crossed paths. He preferred not coming across as a stuttering oaf the second time around. “If they’re regulars here, there will be other chances. I’d rather think about it first.”

“Gigi, unhand the poor guy.” Phillip gently pulled his wife away. “Sorry, man. My wife is the consummate romantic.”

“You betcha.” She clearly felt no need to apologize, and she patted her hand on her husband’s chest. “And don’t you love that about me? You
know
you do.” Still, she gave Drew an endearing smile. “I’m sure you can handle meeting them on your own if you decide to. You don’t need me. But you just let me know if you want me to act as your buffer, and I’ll be your gal. I’ve never met a stranger.”

“I can see that.” Drew returned her smile. “And I might actually take you up on your offer. See you all next week?”

Gigi nodded. “Same time, same station.”

“And I’ll see you at the site tomorrow,” Phillip said.

Drew gave him a quick handshake before he left the building. He couldn’t help himself, though, once he saw Phillip and Gigi turn away to talk with other congregants. He scanned the crowd inside and the people spilling out of the building with him. And there she was, walking with the taller woman, headed toward the other end of the parking lot. The taller woman said something and laughed and the smaller one shook her head, as if her sister’s comment were incorrigible. At least he assumed that was her sister. They were so similar, but his girl was definitely more…just more. He couldn’t place it, but there was something captivating about her.

His girl.
What was he thinking? With that frame of thought, he was certain he would have made an awkward impression on her today. He was glad she hadn’t seen him.

Nikki had seen him. She’d pretended otherwise. But Hannah hadn’t been fooled.

They arrived at church early enough that they were able to find seats fairly close to the front of the church, where Nikki preferred to sit. So she didn’t notice that Freddie’s owner had come into the church until they all slowly filed out of the sanctuary. She couldn’t believe she remembered the dog’s name, more than a week after he chased Riley into the park.

As she and Hannah walked toward the sanctuary’s exit, she looked away, heat running up her neck, the moment she spotted him and sensed he was about to look at her. She wasn’t completely sure why she reacted that way, but Hannah happened to look at her, ready to comment about something, and she noticed.

“What’s wrong?” Hannah frowned. “Did something just happen?”

“No.” Nikki heard an almost defensive tone to her quick reply. “Why would you say that? Nothing happened.”

“Because I know your nervous look.” Hannah pointed at Nikki’s face. “And that’s it.”

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous.” She straightened and lifted her chin.

Hannah gasped. “And that’s your pretty stance.”

“My what?”

“Your pretty stance. Come on, we both do it, so don’t even bother to deny it. It’s a guy.” Hannah immediately surveyed the crowd of people leaving the sanctuary.

“I hate it when you do that.” Nikki nudged her sister with her elbow. “Stop!”

Hannah laughed. “When I do what? Read you like a book? Where is he? Tell me, and I’ll stop looking for him.”

Nikki nearly dug her nails into Hannah’s arm. “All
right.
He’s on the other side, in the aisle, with that really big guy and his—”

“Ooh la la!” Hannah’s eyes widened.

“You said you’d stop looking for him!”

“Yes, but I’m not looking for him anymore. I’m looking
at
him. And I must say, hubba hubba.”

They had reached the doorway into the fellowship hall, and Nikki tutted at Hannah and tried to turn her away. “Really, Hannah. Who says stuff like that anymore? ‘Hubba hubba.’ ”

“I do. Grandma used to say that when she teased Grandpa, and I always thought it was adorable. And speaking of adorable, do you know that guy, or what? I’ve never seen you get all bothered like that about a stranger.”

Nikki met eyes with a friend from an old Bible study class and waved before answering. She sighed. “His dog chased Riley when Riley was chasing a squirrel a week or so ago. Yeah, it was last Saturday, because that’s the last time I walked Riley for Jackie.”

“If anything, I would think you’d walk the little stinker more often now. So you met over dogs. And?”

“And nothing. We didn’t really meet. I was a little snippy with him, and he was snippy back.” Although, when she really thought about it, he wasn’t
snippy
so much as
saucy.

“Hmm. He doesn’t look like the snippy type.”

Nikki realized Hannah had found him again in the crowd. “Please stop, Hannah. He’ll know I told you about him if he sees you checking him out like that.”

Hannah looked back at her. “And what would be so horrible about it if he knew you talked about him? You’re single. It looks like he might be single. He’s not with a woman. It’s not as if you’d have to do a lot of reshuffling on the old dating calendar to make room for him. I believe you have copious openings, no?”

“Thanks so much for that word of encouragement.”

“All I’m saying is, you need to get out of that old man’s house once in a while and join the land of the living. I can’t believe you’re too shy to go say hi to the guy. It’s like you’ve forgotten how to talk with people who weren’t around during the Depression.”

“Don’t talk about Harvey that way. He’s a sweetheart, and he’s never required me to spend as much time at his home as I do.”

“Fine, then. For whatever reason, you’ve become all about the job and not at all about your personal life. Let’s get over there before Mr. Snippy leaves.” Hannah grabbed her and pulled her along. “Come on! Look, he’s leaving!”

Despite a subtle physical struggle, Nikki was unable to bring Hannah to a total stop, not without making a scene. “You are
insane!”
But she did manage to force her to leave the church through the doors on the other end of the fellowship hall, putting distance between them and “Mr. Snippy.”

“That’s enough now!” She spoke through tight lips, and Hannah stopped with her on the sidewalk outside. “Hannah, I made a bad impression the first time, if you must know.”

“But you can fix that. If he sees you here, he’ll probably cut you some slack, since you’re a good Christian girl.”

“A
pushy
Christian girl is more like it.”

“No, I’m the pushy one. You’re a sweetie pie. Please?” Hannah tilted her head and made a beseeching face that made Nikki laugh.

“Okay, look. If he’s here next Sunday, I’ll approach him and introduce myself. How about that?”

“Why wait a week?”

“Because it will give me time to think about a better approach than what I used before, which was pretty much just being a smart-mouth.”

After a pause, Hannah sighed in resignation. “All right.”

The two of them headed toward Hannah’s car, and Hannah made one last comment.

“But, personally, I think you’re at your most charming when you’re a smart-mouth.”

Nikki gave her a sideways glance, which made her laugh.

Even though Nikki shook her head about her sister, she loved that Hannah cared that much about her romantic happiness. It was simply easier for Hannah to get out there and date around. She had always been the one who invested less emotion in every nuance of a relationship. She flitted from one boyfriend to the next without either party getting too ruffled at the relationship’s end.

Nikki had dated very little, but she took each experience seriously. Just as she did her job. And maybe every other aspect of her life. She wondered if that might be her problem.

The following weekend Drew jogged down the sidewalk without having to make way for anyone. Freddie ran beside him, his tongue lolling to one side. For a Saturday morning, the shopping area was rather quiet. Drew had expected the early spring weather to bring people outdoors, especially after the rainy week they’d just experienced. Without breaking his stride he checked his watch and frowned. This was exactly the time he and Freddie came through here two weeks ago—when he nearly ran down that noisy little dog and his pretty owner. Maybe he should feel embarrassed for deliberately retracing his path…but he didn’t.

He planned to attend church again the next day, but it would certainly be more comfortable to strike up a conversation out here in the open than among all those people in the fellowship hall of Cary Community Church. So he circled back around when he and Freddie reached the end of the shopping vicinity, and they retraced their steps again.

By the time they repeated the process a second time, he started to see faces he’d seen his first two times around. Now he
did
feel a little embarrassed, especially after one café owner, who had been setting up tables for outdoor dining, laughed and called out to him.

“If you’re waiting for the shops to open, they’re already open. Come have some breakfast!”

He smiled and waved. “No thanks. Just jogging through.”

So now he had to actually jog
through
to avoid seeming a bit stalker-like. The tempting smell of bacon and something baked wafted outside from the café, but Drew hadn’t brought money with him. He’d wait until he got home.

“Okay, Freddie, let’s move on. I guess it’s not happening today.”

They ran past the shops and into the residential area. Everywhere Drew looked, he noticed new growth sprouting from the manicured landscapes. His spirits rose over the cheery freshness of the lush colors. He wasn’t a huge fan of winter just yet. He had enjoyed the
look
of the perfect white snow covering everything, but not the necessary navigation of it. Still, if not for North Carolina’s winter, he might not appreciate the spring renewal as much as he did this morning. He didn’t experience this feeling so much in San Diego. He decided he would like living with the change of seasons.

The garden apartments gave way to town houses, and the town houses eventually gave way to lovely old single-family homes mixed with some more contemporary houses.

As an engineer, Drew had explored plenty of modern structures, but he didn’t have a lot of experience with older buildings. He loved the unique style the older homes showed, each different from the other.

Eventually he passed one that seemed to call out to him. He studied it as he ran by, and then he kept thinking of it as he got farther away. He turned around and gave Freddie’s collar a gentle tug.

“Come on, boy, let’s head on back.”

He approached the house from a different angle and noticed that there was a lot more house than had been obvious from the front. It looked as if new sections had been added over time to extend the depth in back. Sometimes that kind of addition was a nightmare, aesthetically, but this was tastefully done.