Grace Alive: a Christian Romance (20 page)

“The greatest love is to lay your life down
for your friends, Jacob. Can’t you lay your life down for me? I’m
not supposed to be your wife.” I turned away from his begging eyes
and drank some more of my coffee. I had a gut feeling that this
discussion was going nowhere. He wanted me, and that wasn’t going
to happen at all.

“Jacob, I love Branson. That was then, this
is now. He’s a different man now. He’s not that man in those videos
anymore. He’s been born again.” I played with a silver ring on my
middle finger. I didn’t want to look at Jacob. Everyone judged
Branson’s past. Everyone. I couldn’t imagine facing that every
day.

“He’ll cheat on you, Zoe.” Jacob’s jaw
clenched together. The look he gave me said, this woman is a dumb
mule.

“No. He won’t,” I said.

Jacob rested his elbows on the table, and I
could tell he was fighting his inner thoughts. He knew he was
losing this battle with me, and that I wasn’t going to give up
Branson.

“Your dad is cheating with Mia,” he sneered.
I think he meant to hurt me with it, but I already knew. Thank God
I already knew.

“I know.” Tension spread throughout my body.
It was hard not to be angry about that situation. I was still
working on that in my heart.

“My dad was threatening to leave because of
that, I just put on the condition of you courting me. My dad would
keep his mouth shut if you would be my wife. That was our
condition. The people at Light on the Hill deserve to know that
their pastor is committing adultery. If I can’t convince you to be
with me, then Light on the Hill is done for.” He stood to his feet
and glared at me. I grabbed his arm.

“Please, Jacob, a lot of good people go
there. They will be really hurt when they find out about my dad.
Let him work it out in his own way. Love covers a multitude of
sins. Let my dad work this out between him and God.” I couldn’t
help it. Tears instantly pooled in my eyes. His scowl deepened as
he stared at me.

“I don’t know if my family can do that.
Either you court me, or we leave. That’s it.” I felt like his words
were a giant hammer. Man.

“Goodbye then, Jacob,” I said and stood to my
feet and walked toward the door. I turned once to look at him and
saw his face full of sorrow. He really did care for me didn’t he? I
felt a prick. I went to my car and drove home.

“We’re going on a what?” I asked as Branson
opened the door of Grace Alive Church.

“A treasure hunt.”

“A treasure hunt,” I said with a smile. What
were we pirates? Ay, Ay, Matey! The sanctuary was filled with about
ten other people. I recognized Alison, Jen, and Pastor Dom, but I
couldn’t really remember anybody else’s name. Pastor Dom came right
over to us and pulled us both into a hug.

“So glad you guys could come! Are you ready
to hunt for treasures?”

I had no idea what was going on, but everyone
seemed pretty excited about it.

“Okay, let me explain this since we have some
first timers in the crowd. We are hunting for God’s treasures.
We’re going to pray for about 20 minutes and ask God for details of
people He wants to touch tonight. Hair color, eye color, clothing
style, places, and all that good stuff. Write down everything you
hear, and I mean everything, on a piece of paper, and we’ll see who
we are going to go find,” Pastor Dom finished, and Alison handed
out some paper and pens. I was supposed to just pray and ask God
for descriptions? This might be interesting. We all found our own
little spot, and someone turned on soft worship music.

I closed my eyes.
God, who do You want to
touch today?
I just listened intently, and pretty soon I begin
to hear stuff.
Red shirt, blue eyes, shark.
Okay, weird. I
listened in to God again.
Purple dress, braid, black boots.
Café.
Whoa! This was so much fun! After our 20 minutes, I had a
few more descriptions jotted down. Pastor Dom motioned for us to
join him. We all held out our papers.

“Okay, guys, whatcha got? How about, Branson,
you go first.” He looked intently at Branson. Branson looked down
at his paper and began to read.

“Red shirt. Walgreens,” he said.

“I wrote down red shirt too,” I interrupted
because it shocked me so much.

“Good! Confirmation! What else did you write
in your descriptions besides the red shirt person?” Pastor Dom
asked.

“Blue eyes and shark?” I said with a
laugh.

“That’s great! So we are going to look for
someone with a red shirt, blue eyes, and a shark at Walgreens. What
else, guys?” Everyone began to read their papers, and more than one
matched our red shirt person, and my other description that I
assumed was a girl. We broke up into teams of three and headed out.
We got into Alison’s car and started heading toward Walgreens.

“You are going to love this, Zoe, it’s so
awesome!” Branson said. We peeled into Walgreens and climbed out of
the car. Branson smiled at me and reached for my hand. I took it.
We walked into Walgreens, and right away I saw a guy wearing a red
shirt with a shark on it. Whoa! We bee lined toward the guy.

“Hi! I’m Alison, and me and my friends are on
a treasure hunt,” Alison started to explain. The guy nodded his
head up and down.

“I love those things. What do you need?” he
asked.

“It’s a little different than what you think.
We start off asking God for Him to show us His treasures. And
buddy, you were on our list. Red shirt, shark, Walgreens,” Branson
said while showing him the stuff we’d wrote down.

“Wow, that’s awesome.”

“We wanted to tell you that you are God’s
treasure, and that He values you so much. Is there anything we can
pray with you about?” Alison asked.

“Yeah…my mom just went into the hospital last
night, and I’m really worried about her,” he said.

“Do you mind if we put our hands on you and
pray for your mom?” Branson asked.

“Go ahead, man.”

We all laid our hands on this guy right in
Walgreens and began to pray over his mom. After we’d finished, the
guy looked at us with tears in his eyes.

“This was so awesome. What church are you
guys from?” he asked as he wiped a tear from his eye.

“Grace Alive,” I answered for them.

“I’m going to have to check that place out.
I’ve heard of it. Isn’t it in a barn?” he asked with a smile.

“Yeah, it is,” Alison said and patted the
guy’s shoulder. “What was your name?”

“David.”

“It’s nice to meet you, David,” she said as
we said our goodbyes and headed back toward the car.

“Zoe, you wrote down café right?” Branson
asked as he looked at his paper in the car.

“Yeah, café, purple dress, braid, and black
boots. Branson, let’s go there next,” I said.

I watched the city zip by as we headed to
Espress’ Yourself Café. We pulled into the parking lot and went
inside. Immediately I saw a familiar face. Purple dress, brown
braid, black boots. Mia. I gulped. Oh no. No. It couldn’t be Mia. I
don’t think I could face her right now. I started backing out of
the café.

“Whoa, Zoe, where are you going? She’s right
there,” Branson said in a whisper.

“That’s my best friend Mia. I just…can’t do
this.” It wasn’t that I didn’t want to minister to Mia. I just
didn’t know how I’d react to being around her. I hid around the
corner where Mia wouldn’t be able to see me. Branson eyed me with
an upraised eyebrow then headed over to Mia. I was a coward for
hiding from her. I heard Alison and Branson talking to her, and
suddenly I noticed she started to cry.

“I’ve been going through a really rough time.
Yes, I’d love some prayer.” They laid hands on her, and my heart
lurched. I should be over there with them. I walked over to them
very quietly and put my hands on Mia as well. When the prayer was
over, Mia looked at us with tears in her eyes. She blinked in shock
when she saw me among them.

“Zoe? Hi.”

“Hi, Mia,” I said and averted my eyes. I
shifted in unease.

“Thanks for the prayer.” She smiled at us and
walked back toward the counter. I looked at Alison and Branson.

“Sorry I chickened out.”

“It’s okay, you still came over in the end,”
Alison said with a warm smile. “I’m sure that meant a lot to your
friend.”

We stopped at a few other places, and I was
amazed at how accurate our descriptions of people were. It was the
most fun I think I’d ever had.

“It’s over, Branson; Light on the Hill is
going to go under,” I said as I pressed my fingers into the sides
of my head. Yes, I was mad at my dad for what he did, but I still
loved the people who went to my church. I didn’t want to see them
wounded.

“You don’t know that, Zoe.” Branson was
bouncing Bree on his knee and making silly faces at her.

“Jacob’s dad is going to tell the church, and
my dad’s ministry will die.” I felt fearful for my family. What
would my dad do? He’d worked so hard to build that church. How
would he make money after it fell apart? Branson grabbed my hand
and kissed it.

“It’s going to be okay, things are going to
work out,” he reassured as Bree grabbed at his hand and stuck it in
her mouth.

“Ouch! Bree Bree has quite a bite now!” He
laughed as he pulled the baby’s mouth off his hand. “No biting,
Bree,” he said gently and looked the little girl in the face. “No
biting.”

Her little lip trembled and big tears came to
her eyes. “Aw crap,” Branson said and gave me an apologetic
look.

“I’m going to Light on the Hill Sunday. Do
you want to come with me? Jacob messaged me that his dad was going
to tell the church Sunday, and I have a feeling Mr. Whitmen is
going to make a big show of this. I want to be there for my family
when it happens.” I fidgeted on the couch and looked at the clock.
“I better go to work. I’ll see you tomorrow then?” I asked. He
smiled at me and gave me a kiss.

“Yes! Say bye to Zoe, Bree Bree.”

Bree waved her arm back and forth and drool
dripped out of her mouth. I giggled.

“Bye, baby girl!” I kissed her cheek and
headed toward the door.

***

I walked into Little Bit of Everything, and
for once I was grateful for the distraction. What if everything
just exploded tomorrow morning? How was I going to take all of it?
I was kind of freaking out! I shoved my thoughts aside as I dusted
shelves, stocked some glitter, helped customers, and rang them up.
It was really quite productive. The bell rang above the door, and a
group of girls came in. Great. Tori and her little minions. Not the
cute little yellow ones either!

“Hi, Zoe,” she said, and I could picture her
spitting in my face. “Guess what?” She put her manicured hands on
my counter. I wanted to slap them off. I kept my annoyance
inside.

“I heard that your little boy toy made out
with his ex in the parking lot of Charlie’s last night.” She
watched my face for a reaction. What the heck. This girl was
reaching. She really wanted me to break up with Branson I guess, or
she just enjoyed spreading rumors about people. I was with Branson
last night, and he certainly didn’t make out with one of his exes
unless they saw me making out with him. I blushed. The only thing
Branson did last night was change a dirty diaper, watch a stupid
movie with me, and eat Chinese. If you called that making out with
your ex.

“Branson and I hung out last night, Tori, I
think your friend saw someone else,” I calmly explained. Tori
tossed her hair and made a kissy face.

“They recognized him from his video,” she
said and started laughing at the hurt look on my face.
God, you
better help me because I’m going to kill her.
How could someone
who called themselves a Christian be so incredibly mean to someone
else?

“Doesn’t he have like six kids or something?”
a girl named Carrie said with a condemning look. “Was waiting your
whole life for the perfect virgin all just a big joke to you, Zoe?
I mean seriously! He’s a player!” The other girls all nodded.

“You’re acting so stupid! Don’t you know the
wages of sin is death,” Tori said. “You should know that better
than anyone. Your dad is the preacher.” Her eyes flashed at me like
she was the smartest tootsie roll on the planet.

“Can I help you find anything?” I asked
through a forced smile.

“We’ll look around,” Tori said, and the group
of mean girls walked away. I felt their words in my chest. I’m
sorry, I’m human. What Branson did haunted me at times. I wish…I
just wish…he hadn’t done so much in his past. I closed my eyes. So
many people kept telling me about his videos. It made me want to
puke.
New creation in Christ,
the Holy Spirit reminded me. I
nodded trying to hold back my angry tears. I couldn’t let those
girls get to me. They came back around the corner eying me
evilly.

“Never mind, we don’t need anything
here.”

I watched them suspiciously as they went out
the door. I think they stole from my store. I clenched my fist. In
fact, I was almost positive they stole something. I went down the
aisle they had been down and looked around. I had just cleaned up
this aisle. Was anything missing? I saw a box of expensive makeup
not pulled forward. I had just straightened this aisle, and I knew
that was not like that before those girls came in. I’d have to tell
my boss to keep an eye on them when they came in next time.

The rest of the night was pretty uneventful.
I was nervous about church the next morning. I closed up the shop
and headed to Alison’s little blue house that had white shutters on
the windows. Alison’s car was parked in the driveway. I parked
behind her. I usually left before her anyways since I liked being
early to everything under the sun. I went inside. Alison was curled
up on the couch with a book. She smiled at me as I hung my purse up
and put my shoes next to hers.