LITMIR.BIZ

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       “Hey, Gabi girl,” he called, his weathered face lit with a grin. A small man, built like a jockey, he moved with brisk intent. Snagging the coffee pot from the burner, he grabbed a cup in the other hand and strode, with his bowlegged gait, to the table and poured her a cup. “What were you a doin’ out thar in the middle of a tornado anyway?” he asked, studying her sternly as he poured.

      So much for a reprieve! Gabi realized she was in for it as all eyes zeroed in on her.

       “It was tur-a-ble out thar. Jest tur-a-ble,” Sam continued, crossing his arms, letting the half-full coffee carafe dangle at his elbow.

       “Terrible is the right word,” Esther Mae gushed, turning in the booth seat so she was facing Gabi. “I’m so glad Jess found you. I can just see that handsome hunk of cowboy rushing in to pull you out of the raging waters. This would make a wonderful story for Molly’s column.”

       “What!” Gabi gasped. She’d called Adela after she’d gotten back to the clinic, wanting to make sure Adela had made it through the storm okay, too. How did they know about Jess pulling her from the flooded ditch?

       “You all right, thar?” Sam asked, patting her gently on the back.

       A vivid image of an overblown story about her and Jess meeting in a violent storm with a tornado bearing down upon them popped into her imagination. Molly was a local writer who did a syndicated newspaper article about the little town, the cowboys and the matchmakers. It was hugely popular and she was a fan herself. But… “No—no article,” she stuttered, choking on coffee. “Seriously—no.”

       Norma Sue hooted, slapping the table with her hand. “We’re just having some fun with you.”

       “That’s right,” Esther Mae chuckled. “No need to get all choked up. Who do you think we are?”

       “The Matchmaking Posse, that’s who!” Gabi blurted out. Squinting her eyes she gave them all a teasing, but firm warning. “Gram, please tell them I’m off the market.”

       “That’s totally understandable after what you’ve been through,” Adela said, her smile sympathetic.

       “It sure is,” Esther Mae cut in. “I can’t believe that man broke up with you because of your faith.”

       “Hmmph,” Norma Sue snorted. “You’re better off without him.”

       “Unequally yoked isn’t a good thing,” Adela said. “God has plans for you with a good Christian man.”

       The conversation was bouncing around more than a pair of wet sneakers in a hot dryer. Unwanted, a sense of loss for Phillip stabbed Gabi’s heart. Sadly though, Norma Sue was right. Six weeks ago she and her fiancé had called off their engagement after she’d given her life to the Lord. Looking back now, Gabi knew the relationship had been doomed in the first place. But still, she hadn’t expected the man she’d thought she loved to leave her because he didn’t care for her newfound faith. But then, she knew there was more to the story. More to it than the ladies or even her Gram knew.

       A tight knot filled Gabi’s chest. Her gaze dropped to her empty ring finger and the slow boil of anger and embarrassment bubbled inside of her. “Come on, y’all. You know I’m not here looking to build a relationship with a man. I’m here to build my relationship with God. I’m going to make up for lost time and try to make a difference in someone’s life. I’m here to learn how to do that from y’all, not have y’all match me up with one of your cowboys.” And work on herself—the Lord only knew she had a lot of work to do on herself.

       “And God will use you,” Adela assured her. “I’m so glad you’re safe and you’ve at last made the decision to let Him be the Lord of your life.”

       “Me too,” Gabi agreed, understanding how close she’d come to disaster—both with the car accident and her life in general. “Every time I think about slamming into that telephone pole and how totaled my car was.” She paused, her heart catching. “I just can’t believe I walked away with minor injuries.”

       It had been a horrible wreck…. Gabi pushed thoughts of it aside, not wanting to think on it.

       “I agree,” Esther Mae said, her glass of sweet tea paused in midair before taking a sip. “God’s got a plan for you. He has a plan for everyone and I just love watching Him work.”

       “God still wants you ta use yor head, though. The next time a tornado is coming, you need ta not head out with a load of cattle,” Sam continued admonishing her, not letting go of his role as her protector.

       “Sam, I wasn’t expecting that storm to blow this way.”

       “It wasn’t supposed to.” The frown deepened on his weathered face—Gabi was surprised that it could get any deeper. “Out here, you got ta remember that you jest never know. Like Jess said, ya need ta be more careful. And that means don’t be trying to traipse off across a pasture in the middle of a lightning storm.”

       “Jess told you that?” She hadn’t said anything to Adela about going across the ditch for help. What had the cowboy been saying? Sam’s next sentence confirmed her suspicions.

       “Yup, came in right after he’d dropped your truck and trailer off at the clinic. The boy was still wet.”

      Boy. Jess Holden was a man, not a boy—the fact distracted her for a moment. Over six feet tall, arms like iron and strength to carry her easily up the hill, heart-stoppingly blue eyes, square jaw, dark hair curling with the rain. There had been nothing about the handsome cowboy that reminded her of a boy. Jess’s smile flashed across her mind’s eye—okay, so he did have some boyish charm.

       She was grateful to him for what he’d done, but coming in here and talking about it was not good. “What exactly did he say?”

       Adela smiled gently and worry creased her eyes. “He said you were falling into the ditch full of raging water when he first saw you. That you got swept off your feet and towed underwater before he could get to you. Just a few more seconds and he might not have seen you fall in or go under. He was thankful, and so are we, that he’d managed to be there when he was. God’s taking care of you again, my dear.”

       Good deed though it was, Gabi was having a hard time getting past the fact that Jess had been in the diner talking about rescuing her. Was he bragging? He hadn’t really seemed the type.

       What mattered to her was that he’d been telling details she’d rather have kept silent so as not to worry her Gram. There was no call for that. None at all. And it bothered Gabi more than he could possibly know. She’d put her Gram through enough worry over the years and was determined to protect her from any more. That meant not making her worry over Gabi’s frustrations with the cowboy.

       “Yes, Gram, you’re right,” she managed to say, trying to hide her displeasure at Jess, while also being truly grateful for God’s protective hand being on her life. “God has had His hands full looking out for me.”

       It was so true. Gabi’s life had spiraled out of control before she’d given her life to the Lord. The drinking and partying lifestyle she and her fiancé had been living had been an empty one. Even more empty than she’d realized. And then she’d almost had a head-on collision with an oncoming car. She was still so thankful to the nurse who’d shared her personal testimony with Gabi and awakened her to the dead-end path she was taking with her life.

       “I’d have been all right, with or without Jess’s help. Honestly, it wasn’t as desperate as he’s obviously made it sound.”

       Sam looked less than convinced. “Jess said you were in the water b’cause you were on yor way fer help across the pasture. Gabi girl, you might have made it out of the water, but nothing about any of that’s smart. Par-ticularly, traipsing in the middle of the worst electrical storm we’ve had this year.”

       Gabi took a slow, deep breath. “I was fine. I just did what I needed to do.”

      

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