LITMIR.BIZ

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will take him long to get a job. He’ll probably work for a while to pay off his student loans, and then move out when he’s financially stable. Maybe he’ll even get married. Mom says he’s been getting a lot of calls from a woman lately.”

      She expected Randy to make some kind of comment, but he was strangely silent. His eyes visibly widened, and he stared at her.

      She couldn’t figure out what he thought was strange about her story, although she couldn’t really remember talking to him previously about her mother, or about Bryce. Of all the things they’d talked about, family was something that had never entered a conversation, hers or his. She’d even had the impression that he avoided the topic. Thinking about it now made her suddenly curious.

      “I guess I didn’t tell you. My dad died when we were kids. My sister is older than me, and she’s been married for a while. I moved out when I got the job downtown. So now it’s just Bryce and Mom left at the house.”

      “I’m so sorry. Not about your brother. About your dad. That must have been awful.”

      Lacey swallowed hard. She’d almost told him about it at the booth in the mall, but she couldn’t bring herself to talk about it then. With the church service about to start soon, she didn’t want to talk about it now, either. Yet she knew she had to tell him something, so he wouldn’t accidentally upset her mother by saying the wrong thing, not knowing what had happened.

      She lowered her gaze to the floor. “When he died, he left Mom with three small kids. We had a lot of struggles but we made it, with a lot of help. After Bryce finished high school he worked for a couple of years, then managed to get a student loan for university. He’s been living at home, but Mom sees how hard the commute is, so she told him that for this last year, he should stay in the dorm. It’s going to be best for Bryce, but hard on my mom. When Bryce moves out next week, Mom’s going to be all alone for the first time. She’s devoted her life to us kids.”

      Randy cleared his throat. “So you must be older than, uh, your brother?”

      “Yes. I’m three years older than Bryce, and two years younger than Susan. Are you okay? Your voice sounds funny. Are you coming down with a cold?”

      He cleared his throat again and touched his fingertips to his neck. “No. I think I just have a frog in my throat. I’m fine.”

      Lacey tipped her head to the side. “I probably should have said something sooner, but we never seem to talk about family.”

      His whole body stiffened. “I don’t have much to tell. I didn’t live with my parents all the time. I sometimes lived at my best friend’s parents’ house.” He turned and began to play with some of the settings on the soundboard.

      She waited for him to continue, but he didn’t.

      Despite his claim that there wasn’t much to tell, Lacey suspected there was. She turned toward the sanctuary, which was starting to fill up. “Are any of them here? Can I meet them?”

      “Unfortunately, my parents don’t go to church, and Bob’s parents don’t go here. They go to the church across from the arena, where I used to go, as well. The associate pastor from there, along with Bob, Adrian, Paul and I, and a small group of other people, started this church. We’ve come a long way from twenty-seven people, don’t you think?”

      “Wow. I’m impressed.”

      “It’s God’s work, not mine, or anyone else’s in the ministry team.”

      The worship team stopped playing and left the stage and Randy switched to a CD, setting it to play softly in the background.

      “Are you going to join your friends? I mean, at my church, the worship team always prays before the service.”

      “Usually I would, but I don’t want to leave you here all alone.”

      “It’s okay. I’ll be fine. Go pray with your friends.”

      He turned to go, paused and then left.

      While Randy was gone, Lacey watched as the sanctuary continued to fill up.

      Even though it was her first time here, she felt comfortable. But that shouldn’t have been a surprise. It appeared that Randy hadn’t had a happy childhood, yet he had settled into a niche that was good for him. He’d found good friends, a good church, and he was happy.

      Lacey smiled. Randy was more than just happy; she thoroughly enjoyed his offbeat sense of humor.

      The past few days she found that she could hardly wait for the end of the day so she could see Randy again.

      Her smile dropped. After the party was over, she wouldn’t have any reason to see Randy. Unless, of course, she continued to give him a ride home every day.

      Lacey’s heart began to pound.

      If she had been trying to tell herself that she wasn’t attracted to Randy, she was only deluding herself. She did like him, and she was starting to like him a lot. But she needed to find out more about him, including how he felt about her.

      “I’m back. Did you miss me?”

      She had missed him, but she didn’t want to admit it, so she merely shrugged her shoulders.

      He grinned. “Good. I missed you, too.”

      Lacey quickly sent up a prayer of thanks to God for the answer to one of the questions she hadn’t yet dared to ask.

      Randy flipped a switch, and a screen floated down. He flipped another switch and hit a few buttons on a computer beside the soundboard, and the words to the first worship song appeared.

      Lacey focused her attention on the screen, and pushed all other thoughts out of her mind.

      This was not the time to think about what might happen between herself and Randy. She was at church and she was there to set some time aside to worship God, not think about her personal life.

      But after the party maybe, just maybe, she would have her answers.

      “Surprise!”

      Lacey watched Bryce’s face pale, then turn ten shades of red. All their friends and family laughed, then broke out into applause. Beside him, their mother squealed with delight.

      “We did it,” Lacey whispered to Randy. “Look at him! He’s really surprised.”

      “I think he’s past surprised. He’s gone into shock.”

      Lacey ran forward and gave her brother a big hug, which made everyone in the room cheer and applaud even more.

      “I don’t know what to say,” Bryce admitted as he glanced back and forth at the room full of people.

      Following her example, their niece and nephew, Kaitlyn and Shawn, also ran forward. Kaitlyn leaped into Bryce’s arms.

      “Happy birthday, Uncle Bryce!” Kaitlyn squealed with glee. “We all gots you a surprise!”

      Bryce smiled and gave Kaitlyn a hug. “Yes, I’m sure surprised,” he said, giving her a peck on the cheek.

      Lacey removed Kaitlyn from Bryce’s arms and set her on the floor. “Go see your mom, okay, Kaitlyn?” she whispered, then took Bryce by the hand and pulled him in the direction of his bedroom.

      “What are you doing?” His voice lowered. “Everyone is following us. I didn’t make my bed this morning.”

      Lacey barely suppressed a giggle. “Don’t worry. The next surprise is that I made your bed for you. Just don’t expect it to ever happen again.”

      That said, she shuffled behind him, and gave him a gentle nudge into the room, where Randy had set up the new computer on Bryce’s desk. On the monitor, the multicolored message “Happy Birthday!” rolled across the screen.

      Bryce’s mouth dropped open. “What have you done?”

      “Happy

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