Gail Sattler - Changing Her Heart

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 birthday!” everyone chorused behind him.

As Bryce disappeared from her side to go to the desk, Randy shuffled in to take Bryce’s place beside her.

Bryce picked up the large card, which Randy had set on top of the keyboard, and opened it. While Bryce read the card and responded to everyone as he read their comments, more people continued to squeeze into the small bedroom to watch.

The more the room filled up, the closer she and Randy had to move together, until he was pressed into her from her shoulder to her knee.

She looked up to his face to see if she could judge his response. Almost as if he could sense her movement, he turned his head and looked down at her.

His voice lowered to a husky whisper. “Hi,” he muttered, and at the same moment as he spoke, his fingers intertwined with hers, and he gave her hand a gentle squeeze.

Lacey blushed. She didn’t know what to do, and she didn’t know if they should be holding hands, but she didn’t want to let go. She also had to accept his action as a signal that something was happening between them, and that he felt the same way she did.

The room quieted as Bryce lowered the card. “Thank you, everyone. I don’t know what to say.”

Everyone started talking at the same time, offering their suggestions, mostly about taking turns using the new computer.

Lacey raised herself on her tiptoes and leaned toward Randy so he could hear her. “Do you want to show him how to work everything?”

He leaned back down to reply. “It’s just a standard computer. He’ll know what to do. I’ll help him set up his e-mail and configure the settings later, when he’s not the center of attention.”

“I don’t know. He looks a little flustered.”

Bryce chose that moment to look directly at Lacey. His lost expression made up her mind. She tightened her grip on Randy’s hand and led him a few steps forward, until they were standing beside the chair where Bryce sat.

“Bryce, this is Randy. He’s the one who helped me buy the computer.”

Bryce stood. As he caught a glimpse of their joined hands, he raised his eyebrows. He looked up and shook Randy’s free hand. “That must have been a challenge. Lacey is afraid of computers.”

“Am not,” Lacey retorted.

Bryce looked at her, but spoke to Randy. “She is.”

Randy grinned. “But she’s learning.”