LITMIR.BIZ

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lot. Grace Church had opened its doors to the struggling ministry, given the small, dedicated staff of HeartBeat a place to assemble, and main offices where they could conduct the nonprofit business of benevolence without having to pay a high rent for the space.

      The pregnant women who came for help often needed shelter. HeartBeat owned and maintained three houses in the neighborhood, where women in need were encouraged to stay and prepare for their little blessings to arrive.

      After their babies were born, they often stayed around until they’d arranged, with HeartBeat’s help, new lives of their own.

      Julia’s heart welled when she thought of the brave women who sought help here. It took courage to admit they needed help, and wisdom to fight their way through to new lives.

      Julia opened the trunk and surveyed with pleasure the hodgepodge of gifts—pink, blue, green and yellow baby blankets; fuzzy-footed sleepers; bottles and big cans of formula. The back seat of her car was full to overflowing with diapers, which was a good thing. If there was one thing HeartBeat could never have enough of, it was diapers.

      It was a remarkable baby shower, there in her trunk, and that’s exactly what it was meant to be.

      “Hey, girl, what took you so long?” Lakeisha’s sudden speech nearly jolted Julia out of her shoes.

      Placing a palm over her chest to still her racing heart, Julia whirled on her friend. “Do you mind not sneaking up on me that way? You nearly scared the wits out of me.”

      Lakeisha laughed and waved her hand as if brushing away the comment. “You don’t have any wits to scare out of you.”

      “Thanks for the compliment,” growled Julia affectionately. “Did you come out here to give me a hard time, or to help me with these packages?”

      Lakeisha’s black eyes grew wide. “Well, I’m not carrying all this stuff inside, if that’s what you mean.”

      “That’s exactly what I mean, and you know it. Come on, hon, it’s not any worse than carrying groceries up to our apartment.”

      Lakeisha grinned, her eyes gleaming. “True. But at our apartment, we don’t have a smorgasbord of handsome men to choose from. Men willing and able to carry these meager boxes in for us poor damsels in distress.”

      Julia hoisted a box from the trunk. “Lakeisha, you are too much.”

      “Put the box down,” Lakeisha suggested. “I’ll run and get that mighty conqueror of baby boxes, just to prove it to you.”

      “Make it Father Bryan,” Julia suggested, giving in to the inevitable. She might as well get something out of this charade.

      Lakeisha snorted. “Like Father Bryan would condescend to carrying boxes.”

      Julia shrugged. She was probably right. “I wish you weren’t so dead set against Father Bryan.”

      “It’s not that I don’t approve of Bryan, exactly,” Lakeisha explained. “I just don’t think he’s the right man for you.”

      “He is,” Julia muttered, folding her arms tightly across her chest. “He just doesn’t know it yet.”

      “Don’t worry,” Lakeisha assured after an extended silence. Her voice was unusually bright and cheerful. Clearly feigned. It was an open disagreement between them. “I’ll bring back the best man for the job,” she assured. “And if he’s good looking, so much the better, huh? It’ll only take a minute.”

      Julia sighed and slumped against the back bumper. It would take more than a minute to find the best man for the job. Such a man as Lakeisha painted with her words didn’t exist. Not in this world, anyway.

      It was a busy night in the HeartBeat office as groups of volunteers worked on mailings. The church’s new janitor was even mopping his way around the compound. And Zeke was right in the middle of it, making wood frames for signs, his hammer swinging as fast as his thoughts.

      But his busy hands couldn’t take away the excruciating stillness of his heart. He’d seen everyone but Julia, and he was dismayed to find how very much it mattered to him that she wasn’t there.

      Fortunately, at that moment, Lakeisha came bursting in the door, her brown cheeks flushed pink from the crisp air, and breathing as if she’d been running.

      Her gaze made a quick sweep around the room before settling solidly on Zeke. She lifted one eyebrow, as if asking a question.

      He didn’t know the answer, so he shrugged.

      Apparently, that was the answer she was looking for, because she grinned like a cat and beelined for him as if he were the proverbial mouse. With the gleam in her eye, he thought he just might be. He slung his hammer into his belt and accepted her friendly hug.

      “I’m glad you’re here,” Lakeisha burst out excitedly. “You’re just the right man.”

      Zeke frowned, furrowing his eyebrows low over his eyes. “Thank you.” He paused and grinned thoughtfully. “I think.”

      “It’s a compliment,” Lakeisha assured him. “Where’s your coat?”

      “Are we going somewhere?”

      “Just outside. Julia needs your help.”

      His heart jump-started with a vengeance, and his scowl deepened. He was elated, but he didn’t want Lakeisha to pick up on that.

      “At your service, ma’am,” he said, shrugging into his lined jean jacket. With a grim half smile, he gestured Lakeisha out the door ahead of him.

      Zeke spotted Julia’s car immediately, parked just out the door, pulled in backward with the trunk open. Julia leaned negligently against the rear bumper, her arms crossed in front of her. Her black jeans and pink sweatshirt only served to make her cheeks look flushed and beautiful, even in the muted light of the parking lot.

      Her eyes widened noticeably when she saw him. He grinned, wondering if that was good or bad.

      “See, I told you,” Lakeisha crowed from behind him.

      Julia glared at her over his shoulder. Lakeisha just laughed.

      “Told her what?” he asked, wondering if he really wanted to know. Clearly, whatever they’d been discussing involved him, either directly or indirectly.

      “It was nothing,” Julia muttered immediately.

      Again, Lakeisha chuckled.

      “What can I do for you ladies?” he asked, changing the subject, hoping to quell the internal power struggle going on between the roommates. It was friendly tension, but tension none the less.

      He swiftly decided he really didn’t want to know the cause.

      “I was going to haul these boxes of baby things into the church so I can wrap them up for distribution,” Julia explained, gesturing toward her trunk. “Lakeisha, however, thought we needed a man’s help. Scarlett O’Hara and all that.”

      Comprehension unfolded around him in waves, and he smothered a grin. “If we all go in together, I’ll bet we can get this stuff in one trip,” he suggested quietly, careful not to look at Julia, lest she see the gleam of amusement in his eye.

      Julia didn’t let him off the hook that easily. She took his arm and pulled him around to meet her gaze. She studied him carefully, and Zeke put all his energies into counseling his features and swallowing the huge lump in his throat that formed when he stared into her beautiful eyes.

      He was about to break away when suddenly she smiled. Zeke’s heart stopped cold.

      “Where’d you get this stuff?” he asked, ignoring his scratchy throat.

      Taking refuge in activity, he loaded Lakeisha’s arms with boxes, then turned to do the same with Julia. He was careful not to overload them—he could easily get the bulk of the boxes himself.

      He

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