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Lisa shifted the bag of groceries from one hip to the other and knocked on her mom’s front door. After several moments, she boosted herself up on her toes and tried to peer through the tiny window that decorated the top of the door.
“Mom?”
She rolled her eyes, put the sack on the porch, and tried the knob. Locked. Lisa huffed and dug her keys out of her pocket. She pushed open the door, leaned in, and looked around the cluttered living room. “Mom, I picked up your groceries.” No response.
Lisa collected the bag, stepped over a stack of magazines, detoured around a table laden with quilting supplies, and entered the kitchen. It too was empty. She put the bag on the cluttered bar, knocking a stack of mail to the floor in the process. As she stooped to retrieve the envelopes, Lisa pulled out her cell phone and found the message her mother had sent earlier.
Swamped here. Could you run by the store for me? List to follow.
The list was short, and since Lisa had needed to shop for the kitten, she’d been glad to oblige. But where had Mom gone?
She crossed to the door leading out to the garage. Mom’s car was MIA. Lisa smirked. She probably went to the store to get the things she sent me after. She dialed her mother’s number, not the least surprised when the ringtone sounded from somewhere in the living room. Oh, well. She put the milk and lettuce in the fridge, left the rest in the bag for her mother to deal with, and retraced her steps to the front door. She needed to get the kitten settled and fix something for both of them to eat. Her phone rang before she reached her mom’s front door.
A glance at the screen made her smile. She swiped the call open. “Hey, Jemma.”
“What’s going on?”
“Not much. I brought some stuff over to Moms. Thought I might beg dinner, but she isn’t here. Guess I’ll go home and heat up a can of soup.”
“All the way home?”
Lisa grinned. When Mom made the decision to stay in Harrison, she’d bought a duplex. She lived in one half, Lisa in the other. “Hey, a lot could happen between her door and mine. I could stub my toe or get a mosquito bite.”
“Wimp.” Jemma chuckled. “In the mood for a better offer?”
“Such as...”
“Thought about trying out Harrison’s new restaurant. You want to come?”
“Harrison has a new restaurant?” Probably some barbeque place. Lisa grimaced. She disliked the sweet red sauce that Texan’s insisted on pouring over every cut of meat. “I don’t—”
“It’s Sushi...”
Lisa stopped. “Sushi...in Harrison? This I have to see. I don’t promise I’ll eat it, but I have to see it.”
Jemma’s laughter rang in her ears. “I’m right there with you, but I have to check it out. Thirty minutes?”
“Sure.” Lisa remembered the kitten. “On second thought, I’m gonna need an hour.”
***
DAVE DROVE BACK TO Yellow Veil, turning his confrontation with the lovely Lisa Garcia over and over in his mind. She’d gotten a little weird after he’d patched up her finger, but that was nothing compared to the cat thing.
He’d only been trying to help. You didn’t just pick up a stray animal and take it home. He liked animals, but before he’d adopted a pet he’d spent weeks reading and researching breeds and temperament.
But you’re not regular people. Dave acknowledged that with a shrug. He knew his desire for neatness and structure could put some people off. The majority of the people he interacted with did not share the a-place-for-everything-and-everything-in-its-place mindset he’d left the orphanage with. But after five years of living on his own, the control issues bred by his institutional upbringing were beginning to lessen. At least he’d thought so until today.
Now, his idiosyncrasies had caused one of his volunteers to bail on him after only a day. That was a shame. There was something...mesmerizing about Lisa Garcia and Dave would have enjoyed the chance to know her better.
He pushed Lisa to the back of his mind as he turned off the blacktop onto the dirt road that led to his house. It struck him, as it always did, that if you didn’t know what lay at the end of the road, you’d dismiss the property as worthless. But Dave knew better.
Despite the layer of dirt that coated his truck after every trip up and down the road, despite the swamp the drive became when it rained, despite the way those things clashed with his nearly OCD personality, the rented house that sat in the middle of the three lush acres had become his home.
At the base of the hill he turned a final corner and grinned. Chester, the black lab his research had netted him, crouched in the grass along the side of the road. The dog had an ear for the sound of the old pickup and never failed to be waiting. Dave honked, and the race to the end of the road was on. Chester sprinted for home, a mere three-tenths of a mile away, tongue out, legs pumping. Dave eased down on the gas pedal, kicking up dust as he gave the dog a run for his money. As always, Chester beat him. The dog didn’t have to slow down to take the sharp turn into the drive.
Chester waited for Dave to open his door before rushing over with his toothy dog-grin. Dave laughed at the victory he saw in the dog’s eyes. He stooped to rub the black head, clasping both ears in his hands and tugging. “Beat me again, didn’t you?” Chester’s response was a tail wag that shook his whole body.
Dave gave the dog a playful shove, unlocked the door to his workshop, and began to unload his tools. Each item received a thorough inspection and wipe-down before being placed in the exact spot he’d removed it from that morning. Once the shop was re-organized to his liking, he headed to his house. Inside, he hung his keys on the hook by the door, toed off his tennis shoes, and lined them up next to his boots. He noticed that the rug in the entry was a bit crooked and bent to straighten it. Then stopped. He stared at the rug. His fingers itched to make it rest perfectly parallel to the door. He walked away just to prove that he could.
***
LISA STARED AT THEIR plates. Jemma’s Lucky Lady roll was a little lopsided, but her own Crunchy Crab looked pretty good. The avocado was the perfect shade of green, and the crab meat looked juicy and tender.
“Meet your L.A. expectations?” Jemma asked.
“Visually.”
Jemma twisted her plate this way and that, her expression doubtful. “I know this was my idea, but...I think this needs some serious blessing before I can eat it.”
Lisa laughed. “It isn’t raw, you know.”
“Yeah, well.” Jemma bowed her head and muttered a quick grace. “Better safe than sorry,” she said when she straightened.
Lisa moved half of the crab roll to Jemma’s plate and accepted half of the Lucky Lady in return. “Try it before you decide.” She motioned to the center of the table and the remains of their appetizer. “There’s always the crab rangoon if this doesn’t work out.” She picked up her chopsticks and lifted a small bite to her mouth. Jemma’s gaze followed the action expectantly.
She chewed thoughtfully, comparing this to the L.A. offerings she missed so much. Oh my... She swallowed and grinned across the table. “It’s really good.”
Jemma picked up her fork, cut into a slice of the Lucky Lady, closed her eyes, and popped it in her mouth.
Lisa watched as her friend’s eyebrows rose. Jemma’s eyes opened, and she looked at her plate.
“Oh man...sushi, where have you been all my life?” She cut a piece of the Crunchy Crab and forked it up, motioning to Lisa’s chopsticks. “We’re going to come here...a lot. You’re going to have to teach me how to use those. I don’t want to look like a rookie.”
They ate in silence for a few minutes, Lisa enjoying a treat she hadn’t had in the six months since moving to Harrison. Jemma was totally wrapped up in the tastes and textures of something new.
When Jemma forked up her last bite of sushi and the crab rangoon was nothing but a shared memory, she waved at the placard sitting on the back of the table. “Talk to me about dessert. The almond biscuit, rice pudding, and egg tart are pretty self-explanatory, but what is Tong Sui?”
Lisa studied the picture. “It’s sort of a warm, sweet soup. There are lots of variations, but this one looks like a thin custard.” She pointed to another picture. “I’m having the rice pudding.”
“I think I’ll try the Tong Sui. I might as well go for the whole experience.”
While they waited for their desserts Lisa leaned back in her chair. “What did you do today?”
“We had softball practice, and I’ve gotta tell you, I’m pumped. We have a great team of kids this year. After that I went home and worked on my message for youth group tomorrow. You?”
“I worked with one of the groups doing a Christmas-in-April project, and I adopted a kitten.”
“I think you get the prize for most interesting day. You didn’t tell me you were thinking about doing the Christmas-in-April thing.”
“Oh, you know me. It was an impulse. I didn’t really decide until last night, didn’t know if they’d take a last-minute volunteer.” Lisa studied her friend. Jemma was Praise Tabernacle’s youth pastor. Dave held that spot in Harrison. Did they know each other? As much as she didn’t really want to know Dave any better, there was something compelling about him. “I...um...met someone you might know. Dave Sisko?”
Jemma sat back as their dessert was placed on the table. She eyed hers for a second before picking up her spoon. “David Elijah Sisko. Hunk city and a very strange bird.”
Lisa frowned, still more than a little angry over their final confrontation. “Agree to the first. The man is serious eye candy. And strange?” She related the story of the cat. “I didn’t appreciate his interference.”
“You’ll have to know some of Dave’s history to appreciate him.”
“I don’t want to appreciate him, and I don’t need gossip.”
Jemma brushed her objections aside. “Everything I’m going to tell you is common knowledge.” She paused, obviously ordering her thoughts. Her eyes came back to Lisa’s with a question. “Do you know what God’s will for your life is?”
“I wish. I’m looking, I’m praying, but...” She lifted her hands in surrender. “That’s the only good part about this move. It gave me an excuse to take time away from college and the endless search for my niche in the world. I’ll be twenty-two in October. Maybe God will answer that prayer for my birthday.” She spooned up a bite of her pudding. “What does my future have to do with understanding Dave?”
“Just drawing a comparison. You’re still looking, but Dave says he’s known that God intended him for the ministry all his life. Called from his mother’s womb—my words, not his. He’d never use that phrase since he never knew his mother.”
“He—”
“He was raised in an orphanage.”
Some of Lisa’s irritation faded. “That’s awful.”
“You’d think so, wouldn’t you? But instead, it’s almost as if Dave is God’s own personal example of the lemon-lemonade cliché. Don’t get me wrong, he’s got quirks. He’s obsessively neat, organized to a fault, and thinks others should be the same.”
The cat thing began to make sense. The spontaneous decision to take the kitten home probably made him crazy.
“He can be a bit of a pain, but on the flip side, he loves the kids in his youth group with a dedication you don’t find in a lot of twenty-three-year-olds these days. He’s funny, he’s smart, and he lives a life of service because he wants to follow Christ’s example.” Jemma pushed her empty bowl aside and studied Lisa with a sly smile. “You got your eye on Yellow Veil’s most eligible bachelor?”
Lisa snorted. “Please. We did not enjoy each other’s company. Besides, you and I have had this talk. You can recite my history almost as well as you can Dave’s. There’s no aspiring minister in my romantic future.”