Miss Match (12 page)

I pull onto Nick Amery's street and park beneath the barely glowing
streetlight. Spooky. I have deep fears about this street. I never let anyone
female in gender walk out to her car by herself. I always go with her. And
Brandon goes with me.

Cute, Charming, Coquettish, and Courageous.

Hannah grins as she gets out of the car, obviously recognizing my
mood has lifted and my attitude is hack in place.

Bless Hannah.

We run the short jaunt to the open garage door, squeeze past the avid
game of pool going on, and go in through the kitchen.

The scent of baking chocolate and percolating coffee hits me square
in the nostrils as I go through the door, and I become a Pliable, Pathetic,
Pitiful addict.

"Hey, Laurie. And ... Hannah, right? Good to see you," Nick says.

"I smell chocolate." I stick one gloved finger in the air as I declare
this blatantly obvious fact.

Nick starts nodding. "I'm sure you do. Ruby made-"

"And coffee," I interrupt.

He's still nodding. "Ruby has the lava cake in the oven and the
coffee, uh, making."

"Percolating, Nick. It's called percolating," Ruby says from behind
him. "Hi, girls. Laurie, I recognize that look. Fear not, young one.
The chocolate will be ready in thirty minutes. The coffee in five. In the meantime, snack on these." She hands me a package of Oreos, her
eyes twinkling.

Given chocolate, I once again become the new me. Cute, Charming,
and whatever that other stuff is.

"Thanks, Ruby." I shove two Oreos in my mouth. "You're
an angel."

"I know."

It isn't Ruby who speaks, however. It's Nick. Ruby turns the color
of her Christmas-red sweater. Nick does too, actually, which makes it
even funnier.

I hate it when something like this happens and my mouth is full. I
have a witty comment for it too.

But, alas and alack, the moment is lost. Ruby excuses herself to the
coffeepot, Nick to the rest of the group, and Engaged Couple Numbers
Four, Five, and Seven walk into the bustling kitchen.

Apparently, the little seventh-grade crush Nick had is back in full
bloom. I can't help the grin.

I hide the Oreos under my coat and go to save a seat on the sofa. But
the seats are already gone, so I resign myself to the floor.

Slyly, I slip an Oreo into my mouth.

"I saw that," a voice whispers from behind me. I jump, whirl, and
face someone I don't know sitting on the couch behind me.

I swallow. "Saw what?"

He narrows his eyes at me. He is pretty good at it too, considering he
is male and all. Males aren't good when it comes to eye rolling, speaking
with their eyes, or narrowing them.

"The cookie." He points. "You've got Oreos under your coat."

"Are you the chocolate police?" I immediately close my eyes. This
is not the most intelligent comment I have ever made in my life. Good
grief. How is it I can be completely at ease with Ruby, Hannah, Nick, Brandon, and any female and be so totally whacked-out with anyone else
of the male species?

He looks at me like I'm a kid Dorie's age. "Uh, no."

I don't know what else to say. Apparently, neither does he. So he sits
in complete silence and I sit in crunching silence. I may be embarrassed,
but I have never been too embarrassed to eat Oreos.

Not in this lifetime.

Ruby comes over with a mug full of steaming coffee. A fluffy mound
of whipped cream floats on the top.

"Here you go, Honey."

Honey? Did Ruby Palmer just call me Honey?

I guess I'm beginning to rub off on Ruby. At least someone finds me
Cute and Charming.

"Thanks." I grin, touched. "You even put whipped cream in it."

"And sugar. And milk." She shakes her head. "Basically, it's a liquid
candy bar."

"May the Lord bless you and keep you, and may His face shine upon
you." I am in blissful ecstasy, the guy behind me forgotten.

Ruby laughs. "I'd better leave before you quote the whole benediction." She looks up. "Oh hey, have you met my brother Ryan?"

I turn around and encounter Mr. Narrow Eyes again. "Uh, sort of,"
I fumble. Cute, Charming, and Coquettish. Remember?

"Ryan, this is my friend, Laurie Holbrook. Laurie, this is Ryan
Palmer, my younger brother."

"Hi." I manage a charming smile.

He looks at me and then smiles back. "Hey."

Ruby leaves.

"So do you go to school here?" he asks.

"Nope. I work."

"Neat."

I pull the bag from under my coat, balancing Ruby's coffee creation
on my knee. "Would you like an Oreo?"

Ryan suddenly grins. He has rather plain brown eyes, but they sparkle conspiratorially. "Can I have the bag?"

"I don't know you that well yet."

"Trust me."

I go against my better judgment and hand him the Oreos. He lifts
the pillow resting against the arm of the sofa and tucks the bag behind it.
"There. Now the bag won't rustle every time you lean forward."

"Genius." I appraise him. "You must have done better on the logical
section than I did in the career placement tests."

"What career did they place you in?"

"Gluing the corrugation to cardboard boxes."

He laughs. A nice laugh, actually.

"What about you?"

"Interior design." He makes a face. "I dumped the results and went
for a major in construction management. How about you? What was
your major? Are you in the box-making industry?"

"No. My friend Brandon Knox's family has a photography studio
that I've been working at since I was fifteen. Since that's what I wanted
to do anyway, I just kept working and didn't go to college." I pause for a
second. then grin. "It's where Ruby works."

"So you take pictures, huh? Like families and stuff? Like what
Ruby does?"

"Yep„

"Say cheese? The whole bit?"

I nod.

"Cool. Sounds like a nice job."

I can make a comment about the crying babies and bratty teens, but
I don't want to whine. Besides, Hannah is sending me suggestive smiles from the other side of the room, and quite frankly, I want to end this
conversation before she gets any ideas about Ryan and me.

"It's okay." I help myself to an Oreo.

He leans forward, hands clasped between his knees. "Have you lived
here long?"

"My whole life."

"Wow. I was born here, but I just moved back last week. Mostly
because of Ruby but also because I found a good job."

"In construction?" I am in amazement. Construction isn't exactly a
booming industry in this little Colorado town.

"Yeah." Ryan smiles shyly.

Oh brother.

"Okay, guys, let's get things started," Nick announces, saving me
from the awkward part of the conversation where I'm supposed to say,
"Well, hey, want me to show you around?"

Hannah sits on the floor beside me. She doesn't say anything, but she
lifts her eyebrows and gives me a mocking grin.

Ruby sits on the other side of me. Smiles sweetly at Nick and then
affectionately at her brother. Then knowingly at me.

Knowingly? What does that mean?

I feel like a square of Saran Wrap. See-through.

Nick takes his authoritative stance at the front of the room. "A couple
of announcements before we get started, guys. Peter and Nancy here have
some news." He nods to Peter.

Peter takes Nancy's hand possessively. "We're engaged."

Everyone oohs. The singles like me ooh politely. The singles soon to
be married ooh excitedly. The couples already married ooh perceptively.

"We're getting married on May 11."

Nick nods. "Other news? Uh, Holly? Your wedding is the what?"

"Tenth of February," Holly supplies.

"Right. And you're looking for a couple of volunteers for serving and
cleaning up at the reception."

Holly nods. She's twenty-three, same as me. Well, almost. She's
got long, straight, thick, white blonde hair and a teensy, tiny waist and
always looks like she walked off the cover of Cosmo Girl. We grew up
here together, but it's always been one of those "Hi, how are you? Fine,
thanks. Well, bye" friendships. We never clicked. She always seemed
decades older than me.

Never more than now.

Luke sits beside her and slips his arm around her shoulders, kissing
her lightly on the temple. She dimples.

Nick watches them with a strange glint in his eye.

I know exactly what he is thinking: Gee, that would be nice.

The matchmaker inside me rises to the occasion, and I look over at
Ruby gazing at Nick. Seven months or less, I vow to myself.

Thirty minutes later, the buzzer on the oven goes off, and Ruby
gets up to rescue the lava cake from all of the salivating bachelors in
the house.

"Man, it smells good," Nick says when he is done preaching.
"Let's eat."

He is the first one over there. Hannah and I exchange a WhatDo-You-Know? glance as he starts helping Ruby serve it instead of digging in.

"Hannah, have you met Ruby's brother, Ryan?" I ask, turning slightly
to include our young guest.

Hannah smiles. Ryan smiles. I smile.

"Nice to meet you," they say at the same time and laugh politely at
the jinx.

Ryan looks over at Nick. "What do you guys know about him?"

Hannah shrugs. "Ask Laurie."

I tick the points off on my fingers. "He's nice. He's a good teacher.
He's very polite."

"He seems to like my sister."

I like the protective gleam in his eyes. Good brothers always have
protective gleams in their eyes when it comes to their sisters.

I stand up to go get some lava cake, not realizing my backpack has
wound around my legs during the teaching. That's what happens, I guess,
when you play with the strap throughout the lesson.

When I try to take a step, I go crashing down to the floor, landing
hard on my shoulder.

"Oh my gosh!" Hannah and Ryan, the new Speak Twins, exclaim
together.

My fall does garner the attention of the whole Bible study.

I sit up, tossing the offending backpack behind me, muttering that
I'm okay.

I will have a nasty bruise tomorrow.

"Wow," Ryan says, helping me stand up. "Are you okay?"

"Fine."

"Nice landing, Holbrook." Brandon walks over with a bowl of
steaming chocolate.

My stomach growls loudly.

Brandon grins at me and passes me the bowl. "Eat."

Wow. Now two people have given me chocolate in one night.

Either this is the last night of my life, or I look exceptionally pathetic
tonight. I lick the chocolate off the spoon. "Thanks."

Ryan looks at Brandon curiously, and I feel the call for an introduction. They shake hands politely.

This has been a polite night.

After Bible study, I walk outside to snow.

Lots and lots of big, fluffy snowflakes drift peacefully from the sky like they have nothing else in the world to do. I love lazy snow. It's so
much better than the teensy, tiny snowflakes that blaze down from the
heavens like they are on a life-or-death mission to annihilate the planet.

"Wow, look guys, it's snowing!" I yell.

A few people stick their heads out. "Cool," they say, uninterested,
and go back inside.

"But it's good snow!" I yell again.

No one appreciates the simple things in life anymore. I get a few
shrugs.

Brandon comes outside holding a coffee mug. "Relax, Laurie. It's
only frozen water dumping down." He goes back inside.

I look up, letting the snow hit me in the face, saddened by all the
work the snow is doing with no one even noticing.

"Whoa! It's snowing!"

Hannah waltzes outside, holding her gloved hands out, a huge smile
on her face.

There is hope for that girl yet.

"It's so pretty!" she exclaims.

"I know, I know!" I shout back, even though we are standing two
feet away from each other.

She sticks her tongue out. "I heard the first snow of the season always
tastes and packs the best," she declares.

"I think so. The rest of the time it tastes grainy and is so powdery it
doesn't pack."

I grin at Hannah.

Will wonders never cease?

Instead of immediately turning off the light after I've changed into my
pajamas, I sit in bed and pull out my Bible.

Ephesians 1, Laney said earlier today.

I start reading, and when I finish with the chapter, I pause.

Wow.

Is it possible to have been a Christian my entire life and not really
have even thought about God's sovereignty?

I turn the light off and snuggle down in the covers. My eyes are shut,
my breathing relaxed, but there's a tight spot right below my stomach.

I have a lot to think about.

It's Monday night. I hold my peppermint mocha closer and sigh
dreamily.

Richard Gere and Julia Roberts are about to kiss for the first time.

I live vicariously through my movies. It's a hobby, a habit, and a way
of life.