by Amanda Tru
A few minutes later, Camden groaned. “Bailey, he’s a devout Christian, and she’s a Christian in name only.”
“What? How do you know that? It doesn’t say that!”
“You have to read between the lines. Gage is a Christian who attends church at least once a week. He lists someone who shares his faith as a top priority. He recently moved to Crossroads, so I haven’t yet met him, but I do recall that this isn’t his first visit to the church. Sasha listed Christianity as her faith, but she indicates church attendance as only occasionally and doesn’t place a high priority on finding someone with a similar faith. Taking all of that into consideration, Gage and Sasha aren’t compatible at all.”
Bailey shook her head. “She can’t be that incompatible. She lives in Brighton Falls, but when I emailed both of them about the possibility of attending church together, she seemed eager, even with the drive.”
“Bailey, did you look at their algorithm scores? They aren’t compatible spiritually, but it’s more than that. The numbers show they aren’t a good match on other issues as well. I don’t even think they will like each other much.”
“You’re definitely entitled to your opinion,” Bailey said stiffly. “I saw their differences but thought them just enough to light a spark. On the appearance side, they make a striking couple.”
Camden groaned again. “Physical appearance and attraction don’t matter if you can’t stand who a person is!”
“Like I said, we’ll just have to see.” Before Camden could protest, Bailey pushed the door and slipped back into the sanctuary to find her seat once again.
The rest of the sermon passed quickly, and unfortunately, quite painfully. After Camden’s interpretation, Bailey now keenly noticed Sasha repeatedly dabbing her eyes with a crumpled tissue while Gage shot her helpless looks of concern and shifted uncomfortably as if his chair were situated on constantly shifting roller skates.
No matter how she looked at it, Bailey couldn’t shake the reality that Camden was right.
She’d made a horrible match. Her mind sifted through different possibilities for how she could salvage the situation, but every potential solution reflected badly on both her and the website.
They stood for the final prayer and song. Despite sitting through the entire service, Bailey couldn’t recite a single thing that was said, let alone remark on the spiritual significance of the message.
The second the pastor dismissed the congregation, Camden turned to Bailey with eyes blazing. “Stay here with Mom. Don’t move. Don’t try to fix anything. Just stay.”
Without waiting for a reply, Camden made a beeline across the sanctuary. Following him with her eyes, Bailey saw him heading to where his sisters sat at the back. Bailey hadn’t noticed them before and figured they must have snuck in late after the other seats were occupied.
Lydia busied herself speaking to some friends, and didn’t seem to notice Camden’s exit and Bailey’s preoccupation.
Bailey looked back to Gage and Sasha, seriously considering whether she should just walk up, introduce herself, and apologize. She wished there was something she could do to fix it. Gage and Sasha still sat in their seats talking, but judging by the frequent use of Sasha’s tired tissue, she couldn’t manage to stop crying. Gage awkwardly patted her back, looking like sitting in a dentist’s chair would be preferable to his current task.
Just as she decided she just couldn’t take it anymore and stepped forward to talk to them, two women approached the couple from either side of their row.
With a start, Bailey realized that the women were Camden’s sisters! Geneva immediately approached Gage, and Brooke sat next to Sasha. Gage stood to meet Geneva, his expression one of pure relief at the welcome interruption. Sasha’s face remained turned away from Bailey, but she did see the woman melt into Brooke’s arms as they quickly came around her in comfort.
“Let’s go,” Camden said, appearing again at her side. Bailey blinked and looked around to see Lydia had already left and was making her way up the aisle to the doors at the back.
“Shouldn’t we do something?” Bailey asked, extending a hand to Gage and Sasha before letting it drop helplessly.
“No, Geneva and Brooke will take care of it.”
After making it to the back of the church, Lydia introduced her to several people, and Bailey managed to smile in all the right places. They eventually made it to the car and drove home. Though Camden kept up a conversation with his mom, Bailey remained silent, berating herself over the unfortunate match and analyzing what she could have done differently.
Bailey helped Lydia prepare a quick lunch of sandwiches while Camden set the table. They had just sat down to the table and said a prayer when they heard the front door open. A few seconds later, Geneva and Brooke walked into the kitchen.
Geneva marched up to Camden, clicked her heels together, and saluted. “Mission accomplished,” she said officially.
Camden grinned up at her. “What is your official report, agent?”
Right then, Lydia’s phone rang. “It’s your dad,” she said, her tone sounding slightly disappointed. With one last look that said she really hated to miss any of the action, she resigned herself and hurried out of the kitchen to take the call.
Geneva took a seat at the table and snagged a half-sandwich off Camden’s plate. She shrugged. “I did what you said. I introduced myself to Gage and invited him to the singles Bible study at church. He seems like a good guy. I then introduced him to several of the other singles in the group.”
“Did you manage to escape without him falling halfway in love with you?” Camden asked, munching on a few chips.
Geneva nodded. “It shouldn’t be a problem. A few of the others invited Gage to go out to lunch with them at La Bonita Sombrero. I begged off, saying I was coming home for lunch. I think he’s more Melody’s type anyway. With any luck, she’ll snag him before they’ve finished the chips and salsa.”
Geneva reached for some of the chips on Camden’s plate, and he playfully slapped her hand away. “Get your own food, Gen. Just because you did a favor for me doesn’t give you permission to eat all of my lunch!”
Geneva sighed dramatically and stood. “Fine. I’ll make my own sandwich. All of my good deeds are completely wasted on you, Camden.”
“Thank you, Geneva,” Bailey said, speaking up for the first time. “Camden was actually trying to fix my mistake, and I appreciate you ending the situation on a good note.”
“Of course!” Geneva said, smiling graciously before turning to rummage through the refrigerator.
“And what do you have to report, Brooke?” Camden asked as Brooke slid a plate of salad that she made onto the table and sat in Geneva’s vacated seat.
“Sasha got saved,” she said casually, spearing some lettuce with her fork before bringing it to her mouth.
Camden dropped the chip in his hand and looked at his sister in surprise. “Are you serious?”
Brooke nodded. “She was already there at the gate. That’s why she was so emotional. She just needed someone to listen to her and hold the gate open so she could walk through.”
“What exactly do you mean, she ‘got saved’?” Bailey asked, feeling like she was missing some vital information. “Sasha was already a Christian. I read it on her profile.”
“She may have said she was a Christian, but she’d never had a personal encounter with God,” Brooke explained. “She’d never repented of her sins and recognized that Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross paid for those sins. I guess she’d been doing things her way, and now she accepted God’s plan of salvation, giving her life over to Him and letting Him be in charge of it.”
“She got all of that from listening to the sermon this morning?” Bailey asked, awed that she’d sat there in the same room and completely missed something that had been so life-changing for someone else.
“I don’t know that the sermon made the difference,” Brooke clarified. “It was a good sermon, but it was God who called Sas
ha’s name. And she answered. Sasha realized this morning that she was woefully inadequate to be deserving of heaven. She also realized that God really is real and that Jesus died on the cross for her sins. Many people know the story of the Bible, but until you personally encounter the living God and come away changed and belonging to Him, you don’t really know it at all.”
“So, what did you do, just talk to her?” Camden asked.
“By the time I sat down, she was already ready and desperate to find peace. I don’t want to tell any of the personal details she mentioned, but she told me she wanted God to save her and asked me to help her pray so she would belong to God. That’s exactly what I did. We talked for a while afterward, and I took her to meet the pastor. We exchanged phone numbers, and I’ll follow up with her. When she left, she said she’d never felt so at peace. She is eager to learn more about God and is planning to come back to church on Wednesday night for the Bible study.”
“Should we find her a church in Brighton Falls, so it’s closer to where she lives?” Camden asked in concern.
“I mentioned that to her,” Brooke said thoughtfully. “She said she’d look, but she also said she doesn’t mind the drive and felt comfortable here in Crossroads. Who knows? Maybe she’ll decide to move to Crossroads. I’ll keep track of her and make sure she gets plugged in somewhere. I really don’t think it will be a problem. There’s no way Sasha will ever want to go back to who she was yesterday.”
Bailey felt a strange twinge of longing. Maybe she really should have paid attention to the sermon. After all, it seemed to have directly led Sasha to find an enviable peace. The whole situation made Bailey feel somehow empty, and she tried to tell herself it was simply because she’d screwed up the match so badly.
“Thank you, Brooke. You really did an amazing thing today,” Camden told his sister warmly.
Brooke shook her head. “Nope. I don’t get the credit. It was all God. I just got to be there to open the gate. And that was an honor. Thank you for asking me to go check on Sasha.”
Lydia glided back into the kitchen having finished the call with her husband, and with the utmost politeness, insisted that both Geneva and Brooke repeat everything they’d just said. Not feeling up to hearing it all again, Bailey excused herself, quickly washed her dishes, and escaped to the office to hide. Though she felt grateful to Camden’s thoroughly amazing sisters, she still couldn’t help but think of herself as a failure. They wouldn’t have needed to step in if she hadn’t messed up the match. What was she thinking? Camden was right in that she’d been crazy to try to set up a date at a Sunday morning church service, even if she didn’t officially call it a date.
Maybe he was right about other things, too. Maybe she really was just a farce. She only impersonated a real matchmaker, and pretending to be one apparently wasn’t working nearly as well as she’d anticipated.
Bailey sat in front of her computer screen and stared without actually seeing it. She only roused when the door creaked open. Turning, she once again saw Camden stick his head inside the room.
With a smile, he held up one finger. “I have one point. You’re still ahead, but if I can score off your dates, then this contest should be over in no time.”
“I’m not sure what you’re talking about. You only get a point if you create a successful match. Obviously, Gage and Sasha didn’t work out, but you didn’t actually set them up to find another love. Maybe they’ll even still get together. If they’re both single and attending the same church, it could still happen. It’s too soon to tell. I admit it didn’t make for the best experience today, but you don’t get to steal a point. Nobody gets one on this attempt.”
“But I did facilitate a match,” Camden insisted proudly. “The best match there ever is! Sasha found her one true love after all.”
“Did your sisters say something after I left?” Bailey asked, confused. What did she miss? “I didn’t think Sasha found anyone.”
“Didn’t you hear what Brooke said? Sasha did find Someone. She found God—her one true love. There’s no better match than truly finding your Savior and realizing His amazing love for you. Though she didn’t find the romantic match she anticipated, today she found her ultimate match in God.”
Bailey opened her mouth to object, but then she closed it, completely speechless. Then she opened her mouth to try again. Still grasping nothing to actually mount a reputable argument, she aborted the mission yet again.
“I’m still ahead,” she finally insisted, resigning herself to reality.
Camden laughed. Then he flashed two fingers up, followed by one. And then again. “You may be ahead, but I’m coming for you!”
With a wink, he once again shut the door, leaving Bailey with an unfamiliar feeling. Bailey usually didn’t lack confidence in any task. If it was worth doing, she firmly believed herself capable of accomplishing it.
Now, for the first time, she doubted herself and feared that maybe she wasn’t as capable as she thought. Worse, maybe Camden and his methods were more effective than she’d given them credit.
With a sickening feeling, Bailey considered what it would mean if she lost this contest. Losing control of doing the website her way would be difficult. But if she really were wrong in everything she believed about herself and romance, she would be left not even knowing Bailey Whitmore at all.
Camden heard an insistent knock on the door and ignored it. He was so close to figuring out this one problem. Just a few more minutes, and he’d have it.
The knock sounded again. This time it banged louder, as if someone rammed the door from the other side.
“Camden! Open the door!”
Camden blinked, realizing the shout had included his name.
He stood stiffly to his feet and rubbed his neck, wondering why his muscles cramped after sitting down at his computer for only a few minutes.
“Camden, it’s Bailey! I know you’re in there! If you don’t open the door right NOW, I’ll call the police to open the door for me!”
Camden swung the door open and rubbed his eyes, trying to get them to adjust from the bright glare of the computer screen.
Even as his vision cleared, he could clearly see Bailey was furious. Why was she mad, and more importantly, why was she at his apartment? She’d never been here before.
“What?” Camden asked with irritation. If she hadn’t shown up and interrupted him, he could have solved the issue and been done with it. “I told you I was working from home today.”
What he’d actually told her was that he couldn’t focus to get any real work accomplished with his mom’s constant interruptions and Bailey’s incessant berating. Though he hadn’t told the complete truth, at least he’d managed to achieve his goal of not working under Bailey’s watchful eye for the day.
Instead of getting easier, maintaining the website along with everything else was becoming more difficult. Bailey’s proximity still made him highly uncomfortable, and while the website’s popularity far exceeded their expectations, the workload involved in that success didn’t make fulfilling any of his other obligations and projects any less challenging.
“Yes, you said you were working from home,” Bailey said, eyes still flashing angrily. “You also said that you would meet me at your parents’ house at five o’clock sharp so we could leave for our date. By ‘our date’ I mean—”
Camden jerked his arm up, gawking at the time on his watch. Five-thirty. “Ugh! I’m sorry, Bailey,” he said with sincerity. “I didn’t realize the time. Is it too late? You didn’t tell me where we’re headed, but I can leave right now.”
Camden hurriedly patted the pockets of his shorts, looking for his wallet, keys, and phone. Bailey waited at the door, but with it now wide open, there was no way to hide the books and papers scattered across the floor and fast food wrappers crowding his desk. Hoping it didn’t look as bad as he feared, Camden spun around, frantically looking for what he needed before Bailey could make some snide comment. Revolving in a full rotation, he fina
lly spotted his things on the desk, snatched them up, and turned back expectantly to Bailey.
She looked him up and down in obvious disapproval.
“You didn’t tell me where we are going,” he said defensively. “If this isn’t appropriate, let me know, and I’ll go change. You could also just tell me where we’re headed.”
Bailey let out a long-suffering sigh. “You’re fine, but we need to leave now.”
Somehow Camden knew if they hadn’t been crunched for time, the words “you’re fine” would have never crossed her lips to describe his attire.
Camden obediently followed her out the door and turned around to lock it. Unfortunately, she’d already seen the chaotic mess that crowded his apartment, and shutting and locking the door now couldn’t remove that memory.
Camden opened the passenger side door of his SUV for Bailey before sliding into the seat on the opposite side and starting the engine. “My dad must have dropped you off,” he surmised, noting that Bailey didn’t have a car waiting out front. Obviously, he was her intended ride.
“Yes, he had to run to the store to get a few things for your mom anyway.”
“So, when I didn’t show up, did you just decide to come hunt me down?” he asked, backing out of his parking space and heading to the main road.
“I tried to call. Multiple times, but you didn’t answer,” Bailey replied stiffly.
Camden winced, feeling bad that he’d messed things up. “I’m sorry. I got busy trying to fix an issue and lost track of time. I didn’t want the interruption of a phone call either, so I ignored my phone entirely.”
“I’m not surprised,” Bailey shrugged. “When you didn’t show up, that’s exactly what your mom and I guessed happened. I was even more certain when we pulled up to your place and saw your car out front. I knew you were here.”
“I really am sorry, Bailey. Forgetting wasn’t intentional.”
“It never is.”
Camden sighed, wishing she’d make things a little easier for him. “So, are you going to forgive me, or will this be an attitude that lasts the entire evening? You’re free to go either way, but I’d like to prepare myself. And if you could let me know exactly where we’re headed, that would be great too. I’m not much for blind dates, even if the girl hunts me down and forces me to go with her.”
