“God, I can’t write something like this without You, but I feel like You and I need to have a talk.” She stood and walked over to the stove, turning the heat on under the kettle. “I just don’t know how to bridge this gap I feel. Obviously, I’m the one in the way.” She grabbed a mug covered in three dimensional white and yellow daisies and tossed a tea bag into it. “I guess what I’m asking is that You place someone in my path who will help me reconcile whatever it is going on in my heart and mind that’s keeping me away from You. Because I know that You have not set me aside. Your word tells me that that wouldn’t happen. So, I know it’s all this guilt and angst that I feel over my current situation. But that’s hardly Your fault, is it?”
Steam wafted up out of the cup as she poured the boiling water over the bag. Daisy wished her stress and anxiety would waft off her and just dissipate into the air above her life.
Daisy took a deep breath and resolved to try to work even though she still felt this gap. She set the tea on the table. Just as she started to sit down, the doorbell rang.
She glanced up at the ceiling. “I assume this is somehow an answer to my prayer.”
Finding Ken on her front porch did not surprise her. She grinned. “Hi.” She opened the door wider and stepped back. “Come in.”
He slipped his keys into his pocket and stepped through the threshold. “Just left my brothers. We had dinner down the road.”
“Hey, do people stare at you when you guys are in public together?”
He shook his head. “People stare. They always have, so we’re used to it. Once in a while, I realize it, and it bugs me. But most the time, it just is what it is.”
She rolled her eyes at herself. “I’m sorry. That was probably rude, but I’m just very curious. I bet it’s when you’re just with one of them, too, isn’t it? Tall, handsome twins?”
He shrugged. “Usually.” He gestured at the table. “I disturbed you.”
“Actually, I was just getting set up. I hadn’t actually started anything, so no disturbing.” She led him into the kitchen so she could grab her cup of tea. “Would you like one?”
He gestured over his shoulder. “I can go. I don’t want to interrupt your Bible time.”
She waved her hand in the direction of her Bible and made a pfft sound. “I had Bible study this morning, and we finished our unit. I was going to outline a new study, but I hadn’t fully fleshed out my idea yet. So, I’m letting it marinate a little bit longer.”
She carried her tea into the living room and sat on the couch, nestling the corner against her back. “Did you get moved out?”
He nodded. “I was going to the new place, but I’ve never been there before. Since it’s already dark, I figured I’d wait until daylight.”
She raised both eyebrows. “Where are you staying?”
“At my parents’. Could have stayed in an empty apartment, but my parents’ is easier, and they already have coffee made in the morning.”
With a grin, she said, “So, here is Ken Dixon with no work to do tonight. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that Ken Dixon before.”
He gave her a one-sided toothless grin. It looked like the left side of his mouth twitched. “Want to watch a movie or something?”
With a shrug, she grabbed the television remote and turned it on. She accessed a streaming network and clicked her way through to available movies. Once she had access to that menu, she handed him the remote. “You pick the movie. I’ll go make popcorn.”
In the kitchen, she tossed a bag of popcorn into the microwave, leaned against the counter, and then watched the bag rotate around and around through the filtered door. “I’m guessing You want me to talk to Ken,” she muttered to God. “I hear You.”
She huffed out a breath and dug through her cupboards to find a bowl big enough to accommodate the snack. As the buttery smell of popped kernels filled her kitchen, she put two glasses of ice on a tray, sliced some lemons, and pulled two bottles of sparkling water out of the cupboard. Once she poured the popcorn into the bowl, she balanced that on top of the two glasses and carried it all back into the living room.
Ken had chosen a dramatic biography of Neil Armstrong. “Oh, I’ve wanted to see that,” she said, setting the tray on the coffee table and moving the bowl off of it. “Good reviews.”
“I remember,” Ken said.
“You remember?”
Ken studied her, and his half-grin slowly transformed into a full grin. “You mentioned it once.”
He took the offered glass from her, and she tried to remember mentioning the movie. That’s right, over dinner on their first date, she tried to describe the type of movie she liked but couldn’t narrow it down. She’d mentioned it then.
As he poured the water into his glass, she watched his profile. Honestly, he was the perfect man, especially for her. Attentive, attractive, giving. Without thinking about it, she reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. He turned and glanced at her, a pleasant expression on his face.
“I’m really glad you’re here,” she said.
“Yeah?”
