The Summer of Me: A Novel

by Angela Benson

  “I noticed that myself,” she said, returning his smile.

  His smile grew wider. “What can I say? I’m out of practice.”

  Before Destiny could respond, Natalie glanced back at them. “What are you two whispering about?” she asked, a sly grin on her face.

  Destiny knew her friend was hoping for a love connection between her and Daniel but she wasn’t even ready to think that far into the future. The idea of getting to know him better appealed to her. For now, that was enough.

  “Whatever it was,” Gavin said, “you’re going to have to hold it till after the walk. They’re lining up the runners first, so Daniel and I have to get a move on.”

  “We’re not finished,” Daniel whispered to her. Then more loudly, he said, “I’ll see you at the finish line.”

  Natalie dropped back and put her arm through one of Destiny’s. “You two seem to be hitting it off. I knew you would.”

  “Don’t go marrying them off yet,” Bertice said. “Let them have a summer fling first.”

  “It’s too early to talk marriage or a fling,” Destiny said.

  “But you do like him?” Natalie prodded.

  “He seems like a nice guy,” Destiny said, not wanting to give away too much at this point.

  “Has he asked you out yet?”

  Destiny shook her head. Meeting at the walk wasn’t actually a date, was it? She wasn’t sure she was ready to start dating anyway. Not yet. There was also a small part of her that didn’t want to give Natalie the satisfaction of knowing her matchmaking efforts were working. The things Bertice had shared with her about the reasoning behind Natalie’s efforts still stung a bit.

  “Doesn’t matter,” Natalie said.

  Destiny was taken aback by Natalie’s reaction. Given the things Bertice had told her about Natalie’s determination to find her a man, she was surprised her friend had given up on her matchmaking so quickly.

  “Doesn’t matter?” Bertice repeated, voicing Destiny’s concerns. “I can’t believe you’re giving up your matchmaking efforts.”

  “Who said I was giving up?” Natalie said.

  “Uh-oh,” Bertice said. “What do you mean by that?”

  Natalie shrugged, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. “Daniel’s such a great guy. We’re so lucky he chose to move here and make Faith Community his church home. You’ll never guess what he wants to do for the church.”

  “Something tells me you’re going to tell us,” Bertice said, grinning.

  Natalie rocked into Bertice with her hip. “And you’d better not say anything to him or anybody else about it.”

  “Spill,” Bertice said.

  Natalie looked at Bertice again. “He wants to start two financial assistance programs, one for folks in a short-term bind and another for folks looking more long term. It’s awfully generous of him to want to give of himself this way.”

  “Is he a financial whiz or something?” Bertice asked.

  “Not exactly,” Natalie said, “but he’s had some good success in business.”

  “Well, you didn’t tell me he was rich,” Bertice said with a wry smile. “You should have introduced him to me instead of Destiny.”

  “I didn’t say he was rich,” Natalie said.

  “So where is the money coming from for these programs? Is the church providing the funds?”

  “In a way,” Natalie said.

  “You may as well tell us,” Bertice said. “I can tell you want to.”

  Natalie lowered her voice. “He doesn’t want everybody to know, but he’s donating the insurance money he received after his wife died.”

  “That’s pretty generous,” Destiny said, her esteem for him growing.

  “It’s more than generous,” Natalie said. “Daniel really has a heart to help people. He knows some folks are having a hard time and he wants to do more than pray about it.”

  “A man of action,” Bertice said. “I like that.”

  Destiny liked it, too. She had been one of those folks having a hard time, so what he wanted to do was even more special to her.

  “It gets better,” Natalie was saying. “We’re going to need somebody to serve as the face of the programs and Daniel doesn’t want that person to be him.”

  “Who’s it going to be?” Bertice asked.

  Natalie turned to Destiny. “I thought of you,” she said.

  “Me?” Destiny repeated.

  “Yes, you,” Natalie said. “It’s a part-time job, so it won’t pay a lot, but it has flexible hours and you’ll be doing some good. Besides the money, there’s the added bonus that the extra work will keep you from missing your kids so much.”

  Destiny shot a hopeful glance at Bertice, counting on her quick-thinking friend to come up with a reasonable response. She couldn’t take on another job now, could she? Not with the HR Solutions gig, school, and her day job already on her plate.

  “Destiny’s summer schedule is filling up fast,” Bertice said.

  “What’s Bertice talking about?” Natalie asked Destiny.

  Destiny shrugged. “I’ve decided to go back to school,” she said, withholding the information about HR Solutions.

  Natalie hugged her friend. “I’m so happy for you, Destiny. I think it’s a good choice for you.” When she pulled back, she added, “This job is so flexible that it shouldn’t interfere with school or your day job. It’s perfect.”

  “I don’t know,” Destiny said, sending a silent plea to Bertice for help. “School is going to keep me plenty busy.”

  Natalie put a hand on Destiny’s shoulder. “Come on, Destiny. This job is perfect for you. Your pride won’t let me help you in any other way, so let me do this. I know you still want that house in Gwinnett. This job can help with that.”

  Destiny glanced from one friend to the other. These two women loved her and wanted to help her. She’d taken help from Bertice, so how could she turn down help from Natalie? Besides, there was the added benefit of getting to know Daniel without the awkwardness of dating. “Okay,” she told her friend. “I’ll do it.”

  Chapter 13

  DANIEL AWOKE THE NEXT MORNING TIRED AND RESTLESS. Though he had done a good job of hiding his reaction, meeting Bertice at the cancer walk had shaken him. Bertice was the woman who had unknowingly captured Phil’s heart. Phil said she was innocent, but how innocent could she be? And what about Destiny? Did she know her friend was involved with Phil? Was she involved herself? She didn’t strike him as the kind of woman to fall for something like this. But Natalie had hinted that her friend’s financial situation was shaky. Destiny was involved with Phil’s scam. He knew it in his gut. What was he going to do? He couldn’t talk to Gavin or Natalie because of the promise of secrecy he’d made to William and George before agreeing to take on the case. There was no point in calling them either since he knew they would tell him to keep quiet and let the situation play itself out. He just wasn’t sure he could sit by and let the women get themselves in deeper. That’s why he was seated at this Waffle House waiting for Phil. He had a plan.

  “Hey, man,” Phil said when he joined him at the table. “What’s so urgent that we had to meet this morning? Nobody’s up for breakfast this early on Sunday except preachers, lovers, and truck drivers.”

  Daniel didn’t even smile at Phil’s teasing words. “Thanks for meeting me,” he said.

  “No problem,” Phil said, taking a seat. Almost immediately, the waitress came over, poured him coffee, and took his order. Unlike him, Phil didn’t settle for coffee. No, he also ordered the Hungry Man breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and sausage.

  “That’s a heavy breakfast,” Daniel said.

  Phil took a long swallow from his cup of coffee. “I’m sure you didn’t get me down here this early in the morning to discuss my breakfast caloric intake.”

  “No, I didn’t,” Daniel said. “Did you sign up a Destiny Madison in the last few days?”

  Phil nodded. “Bertice brought her in. She’s one of her friends. I did
n’t want to do it but you told me I had no choice. I had to keep doing things the way I’d always done them.”

  “Yeah, I remember,” Daniel said. “But we have a problem, so we have to make some adjustments.”

  “What kind of problem?” Phil asked.

  “I know Destiny. She’s a close friend of close friends of mine and so is Bertice.”

  Phil sat back in his chair. “You’re joking, right?”

  Daniel shook his head. “I wish I was but I’m not.”

  “So are you going to tell them what’s going on?”

  “You know I can’t,” Daniel said. “If they knew what they’d gotten themselves into, they’d want out and right now they can’t get out. If we’re going to catch these guys, we need to keep the status quo.”

  The waitress brought Phil’s food and then returned to the table and refreshed both their coffees. After nodding his thanks to her, Daniel said, “We’re going to have to keep a close eye on them. If they find themselves in trouble because they were victims of the identity theft part of the scam or some other scam that we don’t know about, I need to know.”

  “And how do you propose we keep an eye on them?”

  Daniel met his eyes and smiled. “You’re going to ask Bertice out.”

  Phil’s eyes widened. “No I’m not. I can’t.”

  Daniel nodded. “Yes you can.”

  Phil shook his head. “I can’t date her while I’m lying to her. I’d been holding out some hope of us getting together once your team gets to the bottom of all of this.”

  “It’s not ideal, I know,” Daniel said, understanding the man’s reluctance, “but it’s our only option right now. We have to watch out for them.”

  “You may be right,” Phil said. “But my asking Bertice out after all this time is going to seem odd.”

  “Not if she knows you’ve been interested in her for a long time.”

  Phil’s eyes widened. “And how’s she going to know that? I’m not going to tell her.”

  “I’ll mention it to Destiny,” Daniel said. “I’ll suggest that the four of us do something together. My friend and his wife have been trying to fix me and Destiny up since I arrived in town, so she won’t suspect anything out of the ordinary.”

  Phil forked some pancakes into his mouth. “What makes you think she wants to go out with you?”

  Daniel smiled to himself. “I feel pretty sure she will. We hit it off when we met. But if she won’t do it for me, she’ll do it for you and Bertice. I’ll tell her that you’re trying to find a way to get to know Bertice better and you need her help. She’ll go for it. Women like that kind of stuff.”

  Phil’s lips curved into a frown. “You realize we’re not teenagers, right? Your plan is sounding very high school to me.”

  Daniel agreed that the idea wasn’t particularly sophisticated, but it was the best he could come up with on such short notice. Besides, just because it was a simple idea didn’t mean it wasn’t a good one. “The matchmaking my friends are doing with me and Destiny is straight from high school and it hasn’t stopped them. Besides, like I said before, women go for this kind of thing. Believe me, it will work.”

  Phil took another swallow of coffee. “I’m not so sure it would work with the women I know.”

  “Let’s hope Destiny and Bertice are not like the other women you know,” Daniel said, thinking of Margo, who had initially gotten Phil involved in this scam, but deliberately not throwing her name in the man’s face.

  Phil gave a wry smile. “Good point, well stated.”

  Daniel finished off his coffee. “I’ll be meeting with Destiny sometime this week on another matter. I’ll lay the groundwork then. I’ll also tell her that I’m trying to get you to come to church. You and Bertice both. That might work even better than a traditional date. Don’t make any plans for Sunday. If things work out the way I hope they will, you and Bertice will be joining me and Destiny at church.”

  “Church?”

  “Yes, church,” Daniel said. “You do know what that is, right?”

  “Funny,” Phil said. “It’s just been a while since I’ve been to one. You sure did get hooked up with one quickly. You’ve been in town only a minute.”

  Daniel realized he hadn’t told Phil much about what he was doing in Atlanta, other than this case. “I’m one of the associate pastors at the church.”

  Phil’s eyes widened. “You’re a pastor? When did that happen? You weren’t a pastor the first time our paths crossed, were you?”

  Daniel shook his head. “A lot’s happened since then.”

  “A whole lot. So you’re a pastor and an investigator. What a combination.”

  “I’ve given up the investigator title. I’m just helping out on this one last case. I was reluctant at first, but I can see now why I was chosen to work on it. I needed to be here to protect Destiny and Bertice. And you, of course.”

  “I hear you,” Phil said. “But this whole thing gives me a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. Forgetting about Bertice for a minute, how do you think Destiny is going to feel when she finds out you’ve been lying to her? Heck, you’re a minister. How can you lie to either of them?”

  “I’m not lying to them,” Daniel said, though he knew technically he would be lying by omission. “Besides, I’m doing it for their own good. They got themselves into this mess. We’re only trying to get them through it with the least amount of scarring.”

  Phil laughed. “You haven’t dealt much with women lately, have you?”

  Daniel’s thoughts naturally went to Gloria. “No, not much.”

  “It doesn’t sound like you have. This plan of yours could really blow up in our faces.”

  “Stop being so negative,” Daniel said. “You wanted to get closer to Bertice and now you get the chance. Don’t think it to death.”

  Chapter 14

  DESTINY WAS LATE LEAVING WORK ON MONDAY, WHICH meant she was going to be late for her five-thirty appointment with the campus career counselor. She checked her watch as she pulled her car into the parking lot of the Career Center. It was already 5:30. She grabbed her purse off the passenger seat, opened the driver’s-side door, and got out. As she half-trotted to the Career Center front door, she realized she didn’t remember the name of the person she was supposed to meet or the meeting room number. She slowed her pace while she rummaged around in her purse looking for her appointment card. She found it just as she reached the revolving glass entry doors.

  She greeted the receptionist and handed her the appointment card. “Sorry I’m late,” she added.

  “No problem,” the young woman said. “You don’t meet with Mrs. Robinson until six fifteen.”

  “I thought my appointment was at five thirty.”

  “It is, but you’re scheduled to complete some computer assessments before meeting with the counselor.” The young woman stood. “If you’re ready, I can take you to the computer lab.”

  Destiny took a deep breath. “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”

  “Good,” the girl said, “then follow me.”

  Destiny followed the young woman, who she guessed was a work-study student, down a short hallway to a computer lab with about twenty workstations.

  “You can take a seat at any computer,” the girl said. “If you press the space bar, a page with the words Career Assessment will appear. After that, just follow the on-screen instructions.”

  Destiny did as the girl directed. “Well, I got the career assessment screen so I guess everything is all right.”

  The girl nodded. “The on-screen instructions are really clear,” she added. “If you have any trouble, just ask me. I’ll be back at the front desk. We usually have a student working back here who answers questions but she’s out sick today, so I have to cover both the front desk and back here.”

  “No problem,” Destiny said, already making her way through the on-screen instructions.

  “Oh yes,” the girl added, “these tests are not like entrance exams, so y
ou’re free to go to the bathroom or to get some water as needed. When you’re finished, you can come back out front and I’ll get Mrs. Robinson for you.”

  When the girl left, Destiny took a deep breath. She didn’t like tests because, in the past, she hadn’t been good at them. As she read through the items on the career assessment, she relaxed a bit. All she could do was her best, so she committed to doing that. After what seemed a short time, she reached the final screen that signaled the completion of the assessment. “That wasn’t so bad,” she said aloud, feeling pretty good about what she had just accomplished. It was a start, she thought, as she got up and made her way back to the reception area.

  The young girl turned as Destiny made her way back to reception. “Perfect timing,” she said. “Mrs. Robinson is ready for you.” She pointed down a hallway to the left. “Her office is down that hall, the second door on the right. Good luck!”

  “Thanks,” she said, finding the girl’s enthusiasm contagious. Destiny was beginning to feel a bit excited herself. Who knows? she thought as she made her way down the hall. Maybe she’d enjoy college a lot more the second time around.

  Destiny stopped outside Mrs. Robinson’s office, took a deep breath to fight back her returning anxiety, and then cleared her throat to make her presence known. She could do this, she told herself.

  An older woman with graying hair looked up from the desk where she was seated. “Come on in,” the woman said with a smile. “Welcome to Hillman, or maybe I should say welcome back.”

  “Thank you,” Destiny said. Calmed by the older woman’s warmth, she took a seat in the chair in front of the woman’s desk.

  Mrs. Robinson turned her attention to the computer monitor on her desk. “The results from your assessment were sent directly to my computer. Let me print a copy for you and one for me. It will take a couple of minutes. The printouts go down the hall. Somebody will bring them to us when they’re ready.”

  Destiny nodded and back came her anxiety. She reminded herself that she’d taken a career assessment, not an achievement test. There was nothing to worry about.

  “I like to use this time before we get the paperwork to get to talk a bit more informally,” Mrs. Robertson said. “Are you okay with that?”