by Patt Marr
“No! Like two people who were very tired and… rather emotional from such a big night.”
“Meg, you don’t have to justify anything to me. I’m thrilled that you and Ry are together.”
“We are not together! It’s only been a month since he came back into my life. It’s little more than a week since he’s moved back here. We are not together.”
“Well, you looked pretty ‘together’ to me. A bug couldn’t have crawled between you.”
“That’s disgusting.”
“I thought it was kind of nice. And it’s not too soon, not for you two. You’ve known each other forever. I’ve never seen a couple more in love.”
Wild hope covered Meg’s face, just for an instant, before worry took over. “You’re not kidding? Did I really look like I was in love with Ry?”
“Oh, yeah,” Beth said, bolstering Meg’s confidence just like the old days when they were kids talking about boys.
“But Ry didn’t see that, did he?” Meg said, her eyes worried. “Beth, if he thinks I’ve fallen for him, you know what will happen.”
“Sure I do. He’ll put a ring on your finger, and we’ll be sisters for real.”
Meg seemed to crumble. “That’s not going to happen. If Ry thinks I care, he’ll leave. Who knows if he’ll ever come back?”
“Meg! How can you think that?”
“Because we know him. As soon as Ry realizes a woman is in love with him, he’s gone and out of her life. We saw it over and over.”
“That was when we were kids! Ry’s a grown man who knows what he wants and, boy, does he want you.”
“Beth Brennan, you will say anything to prove you’re right.”
“That’s true, but my brother is crazy about you.”
“You’re doing that smirky smile thing, Beth.”
“Well, it’s hard not to smirk when I’m this right.”
“Nobody likes a smirker.”
Beth laughed out loud. Meg hated to lose an argument.
“For your information,” Meg said, fire blazing in her blue eyes, “I have followed my New Year’s resolution to the letter, and Ry has been a big help. I’m actively pursuing Mr. Right, and I’ve had a whole bunch of dates with eligible guys.”
Poor, poor Meggy. Wasting her time. Ry wouldn’t be about to let Meg fall for anyone but him. But Beth played the game and said, “Good for you. All first dates, Meg?”
“No! As it happens, I’m having my fourth date this week with a great guy who’s our children’s pastor.”
Beth didn’t like the sound of that. “Does Ry know?”
“Of course,” Meg said with a smirky smile of her own. “He’s known about them all, and he handpicked the children’s pastor as the keeper of the bunch.”
Beth couldn’t hold back a loud guffaw. As a play-maker who’d quarterbacked high school and college football teams to championships, her brother would certainly know how to eliminate the competition. If Ry had endorsed the children’s pastor, that guy was no keeper.
Ry began the drive home from work feeling more hopeful than he had since J.T. was born. Today, he’d seen Beth at the hospital, and she’d said it was only a matter of time before Meg admitted she was in love with him. He prayed his sister was right. It seemed like a long time that he’d been waiting for her to see that he was her Mr. Right. Maybe it was because he’d been waiting all his life for someone to love.
Valentine’s Day was coming up in a week or so. Maybe by then, she’d have the confidence to believe his love was real. He’d never been a patient person, and this one-sided love was no fun at all, especially as he watched how Meg had escalated her search for Mr. Right. She’d dated one guy after another until he’d begun to think she really did see him as just a pal.
Her date today was with the children’s pastor, which didn’t really worry Ry, though he probably ought to stop by her apartment and get a report on the date. Pastor Kevin seemed harmless, but just being around Meg could make a guy lose his head. He knew that from experience.
The evening rush-hour traffic was as much of a hassle here in L.A. as it was in Manhattan, though the freeways had more lanes and traffic moved faster. A couple of women in a mystic-blue Beamer kept pace in the lane on his left. He’d noticed the car before he’d noticed the woman on the passenger side. About Meg’s age, she held a piece of paper to the window with a phone number on it.
When he didn’t break a smile or glance her way again, that should have said he wasn’t interested, but the driver moved her car dangerously close to his, and the passenger opened her window to yell an invitation he wouldn’t have accepted in his wildest pre-Christian days.
Soon he hoped to have a wedding ring he could hold up to show he was taken. For now, he reached for his black Bible, held it up for her to see and threw her a friendly smile, fully ready to be her brother in the Lord.
His potential new friend flashed a rude little gesture, and her pal, the driver, abruptly changed lanes and zigzagged out of his line of vision. That was fine with him, though he prayed he wouldn’t come upon them in a pile of mangled metal.
Those little sports cars didn’t stand much of chance in an accident. He wished he could talk Meg into driving something safer.
Meg. There he was thinking about her again. He glanced over at the empty seat beside him and imagined her there as she had been a few nights ago when they drove home from the hospital. He could almost see her in that pretty pink sweater and her pretty, weary smile. If she were with him now, he wouldn’t even notice how tired he was after working a thirty-six-hour shift.
Yawning, he rubbed the back of his neck and tried to shake off his exhaustion. This would be a good time to make his daily top-ten list of blessings. In his first week as a Christian, he’d been taught to do that, and it always made him feel better to focus on the good things of life.
Naturally, these days, every list began with Meg. How had he enjoyed life without her? If something didn’t make her happy, it just wasn’t worth it.
Beth made the list today for her encouragement about Meg and for admitting she was the one who’d sent the med school applications. He hoped he could make her glad that she’d gone to the trouble.
Third would be little J.T. Ry planned to be the best uncle any little boy ever had. Fourth would be Trey and Isabel for the future they could have in Christ. Fifth would be Dad. They still didn’t have much of a relationship, and maybe they couldn’t as long as Mom was a holdout.
Mom… Just thinking about her made Ry’s heart ache. She made the list because he wanted to love her, and there were a lot of years when he hadn’t. How sad, that his mother was still trying to please her father, though she had never received his love. Just as sad, she wouldn’t accept Ry’s love unless he pleased her.
That was one of the great things about being a Christian. When you felt the Lord’s unconditional love, there was a new sense of worthiness, a new ability to love because you felt loved yourself.
In the past, there had been some great women, real sweethearts, who’d tried to show him love and be part of his life. He’d felt bad, not being able to love them back, but, praise God, that had changed, and he’d learned to feel God’s love before Meg came back into his life. His love for her filled him completely.
She loved him, too. He knew it, and he could hardly wait for her to admit it. From the way she talked, she still saw him as a rebel who couldn’t be trusted to be there tomorrow. Why couldn’t she trust God enough to trust him?
There he was, dwelling on the negative again when there were more blessings on his list he could think about.
His new partner was a definite blessing. What Hector Gonzales lacked in know-how, he made up for in compassion and empathy. They’d worked together today as if they’d been partners for years, and their shift had been as demanding as any in New York.
There had been the young woman who’d fractured her ribs and clavicle when she was tossed from her horse. She’d been so spunky, Ry knew she’d be riding as
soon as she mended.
There had been the two-year-old who got his head stuck between the slats of his grandmother’s antique crib. The real patient was Grandma whose blood pressure had gone sky-high from blaming herself.
There had been the diabetic teenager who’d gotten tired of taking care of herself and the man who fell from a construction site onto concrete. There had been the drunk who’d tried to outrun the cops and the semi driver who’d fallen asleep at the wheel.
Being able to help those patients was a blessing, but the real blessing of the day was meeting Dr. Tebalo again.
When they brought in the semi driver, Ry had run into Dr. Tebalo, the man who’d helped Ry when he needed it most. If it weren’t for the doc, Ry still might be cleaning the man’s pool for a living.
Rebellious, angry with his family, Ry had turned down all college opportunities until Dr. Tebalo connected him to a full-ride football scholarship at UConn. Connecticut was a good school, but its greatest appeal was its distance from L.A. That scholarship meant Ry had no one to answer to but his coach until God came into the picture.
This morning, when Dr. Tebalo asked about Ry’s life, Ry found himself confessing that he wanted to do more with his life now that he’d become a Christian, and that he’d applied to the New York med school and the school attached to that very hospital.
That seemed to make Dr. Tebalo’s day. He’d told Ry that he was a Christian himself. In his position, he could put in a good word for Ry here.
Blessings like that were pure gold. His family could have helped, but Ry wanted no obligations to them, not when he would never work with them at Brennan Medical.
He would love to tell Meg about his talk with Dr. Tebalo. She would be so happy for him. Darling Meg, his personal cheerleader and precious ally, might give him all the sass a man could handle, but she never let him doubt that she was on his side.
As he walked around the corner of their building and Meg’s apartment came into sight, his heart sank. Kevin, the children’s pastor, was kissing Meg. Not only that, Kevin was breaking the five-second rule.
A children’s pastor should know how to behave. Five seconds was the limit for a date kiss. He ought to know that. More than five seconds gave a fire a chance to flame. Follow it up with more kisses like it, and you were looking at the kind of feeling that belonged to the woman you loved, for the woman who loved you back.
Whatever Pastor Kevin felt for Meg, she did not love him back. She just couldn’t.
“Hi, there,” he said slow and easy, trying to keep a grip on his temper.
Kevin straightened and looked around, but he kept his arms around Meg. Meg looked like a doe caught in headlights. Good. She shouldn’t have let the wrong guy kiss her that way.
“How’s it going?” he said, offering his hand to Mr. Wrong with a friendly smile. “You’re the children’s pastor of my church, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” Kevin said, snapping into professional mode, letting go of Meg to take Ry’s hand. “I’m Pastor Kevin.”
Ry smiled inside. Excellent. That had gone well. “I’m Ry Brennan. Meg and I are old friends.”
His old friend Meg pulled her cell phone from her purse, checked her caller ID and said, “Excuse me. I need to take this.” She backed into her apartment, but left the door open.
“I didn’t hear it ring,” Kevin said.
“It was on vibrate,” Meg replied. “You two go on visiting.” She disappeared into her apartment.
Ry almost laughed. She’d made that up. He was sure of it. But that was fine. He could use a few private words with Pastor Kevin. “So what did you two do today?” he asked.
“Meg and I went to Disneyland,” Pastor Kevin said, rocking heel to toe, the picture of a happy man.
“Meggy,” Ry corrected. “Her friends call her Meggy.”
“Oh?” Pastor Kevin nodded his head as if he appreciated that inside information. “Thanks, man, I’ll remember that. Do you have any other tips to share?”
Since Kevin asked, Ry thought he might have a few. “You’ve probably noticed that Meggy is a very independent person. You don’t want to choose things for her, no matter what she says.”
“Get out! Today, she made me choose the rides, the food, everything. What was that about?” Pastor Kevin looked alarmed.
Kevin seemed like a very nice young man. “It was probably because you’re younger than she is,” Ry said, feeling only a twinge of conscience. Kevin was young. He would recover. “You haven’t been to Disneyland as many times, and she wanted you to have a good time.”
“I’ve been there lots of times,” Pastor Kevin protested. “I wanted Meg to have a good time.”
“Meggy.”
“Yeah, Meggy. Thanks. I’ve got to remember that.”
“And another thing, Meggy really likes it when a guy plays hard to get. Better let her make the next move.”
Pastor Kevin looked unsure. “But I want to see her again…soon!”
“If you push her, she might put you off.”
The man nodded. “She has been doing that. Should I, like, wait for her to call me?”
“Well, if the two of you are meant to be, it will be. You know how important it is to be with the right one.”
“Especially for a man in my position,” Kevin agreed.
“Especially.” Ry was doing Meg a favor, getting rid of this guy.
“This is going to take a while,” Meg called from her bedroom doorway. “Thanks for the nice day.” She waved and turned to concentrate on her telephone friend.
“The pleasure was all mine, Meggy,” Kevin replied.
The way his girl’s head snapped at the “Meggy,” Ry almost laughed. She might have hurt herself. Lucky for her, a paramedic was close by.
“Give me a call sometime,” Pastor Kevin called. He looked to Ry for approval.
Ry gave him a thumbs-up. “I’ll just stay and put in a good word for you,” he said, offering his hand again.
“Thanks, man.” Pastor Kevin waved as he walked away.
Ry’s conscience twinged again.
Lord, bless Kevin and help him find a good woman, a wonderful woman, and let him leave Meg alone.
There. Ry had put in a good word for Kevin. While he was about it, he prayed the same prayer for the rest of those Mr. Right guys. He really couldn’t take much more of them. As soon as Meg finished her pretend conversation, they were going to have a conversation for real.
Meg couldn’t remember when she’d been this embarrassed. She hadn’t meant to let Kevin kiss her like that. He was a sweet guy who would be a wonderful Mr. Right, but the chemistry wasn’t there. She’d promised to give love a chance to grow, but how long was it supposed to take?
After four dates, she didn’t blame Kevin for testing the waters with that kiss. She’d hoped that a real kiss would make her feel more like a girlfriend and less like a pal. But the butterfly troop sat on the sidelines and waited for the whole thing to end.
She’d felt so uninvolved that she’d peeked at her watch to see if it wasn’t about time for Ry to come home. That’s how she happened to catch Ry’s furious glare. Ry never got angry, but he was for a moment.
Then, before she could figure out why Ry was so upset, the moment has passed, and Ry was shaking hands with Kevin, the two of them best buddies. Had she imagined that look?
“Almost through with that call?” Ry asked from the living room, as if he knew she was talking to no one.
She walked out of her bedroom, still pretending. “Talk to you later,” she said to nobody, ending the call.
“So how was it?” he asked, not too differently than he had after all of her Mr. Right dates.
“We had a nice day,” she answered. Hopefully, he was referring to the whole date, not the last minutes.
“How was the kiss?” he asked, ending that hope.
There was something different about Ry today. He seemed more intense, less patient, not his easygoing self. “I’m not sure,” she said, not meetin
g his eyes. It wasn’t in her to lie, but she wasn’t about to confess that Kevin wasn’t in Ry’s league when it came to rocking her world.
“You’re not sure?”
“Well, I…I haven’t had a lot to compare it to lately,” she stammered evasively.
“Would that help?” He took a step toward her, his eyes locked on hers.
“Would what help?” she repeated breathlessly, watching him take another step closer.
“Comparison.”
“Comparison?” she murmured, trying to catch a breath.
“You said you hadn’t a lot to compare that kiss with.”
Had she said that?
He took another step, closer still, his eyes on hers.
“This is serious business, babe, finding Mr. Right.”
It felt terribly serious.
“Why don’t we establish a baseline—for comparison’s sake.” He ran one finger down her jaw.
This would be the time to step back if she wanted to keep up the pretense that all she felt was her old crush.
His eyes moved to her lips. “There are all kinds of kisses, Meg.”
His lips touched hers lightly, feather soft. She closed her eyes, the better to concentrate on the flood of sensation.
“That kiss said, ‘Are you interested?’” he murmured.
That would be a yes. A big yes.
“Now, this one is going to say, ‘Where is this going?’” His lips moved on hers just as softly, but with an intensity that made her cling to his shoulders. Wherever they were going, she was along for the trip.
He raised his head, just a bit, just enough to look into her eyes. Whatever he saw there made him catch his breath, and then he was kissing her as if she were his and his alone.
She’d never felt anything like this flood of sweet longing. It was everything she’d ever wanted, everything she’d ever dreamed of—one man to call her own, one love that would last a lifetime, one wonderful…
Hold on. Hold on.
What was she doing? If she let this go on, she would lose Ry for sure. She might as well help Ry pack his bags.
Ry would never intentionally break her heart, but neither would he expect her to take this seriously. How could it be, when the whole thing started as a kissing lesson?
