Will’s mind clouded over with visions from a regrettable movie he’d seen as a teen. Some poor guy’s stomach had burst suddenly open, and the monster within exploded out for everyone to see.

“You don’t believe me?” Julianne asked him, stepping back and looking him squarely in the eye. “You think I would lie?”

“No,” he finally replied, and his own voice sounded as frozen as a couple pounds of chicken legs tucked into the back of the freezer at home.

“Want me to prove it?”

All Will could manage was a slight shrug and an awkward smile.

“All right then,” she said confidently, and she crossed her arms as she glared at him. “You’re thinking how lucky you are to have a best friend like me.”

When the corner of her mouth twitched in amusement, Will snickered, more out of relief than amusement.

“And you’re thinking that this ginger ale is good, but not as good as a fruit punch and a plate of citrus shrimp from Vandella’s will be.”

The inward sigh of emancipation would have thundered overhead and rattled the windows had he released it.

“Jules the Magnificent,” he said with a nod. “You really are remarkable. Like the prophets of old.”

“Pastor Dean is treating the volunteers to a night out, remember? Let’s walk over, and I’ll be your date!”

“I’ll get my jacket.”

Several tables were pushed together, the only two seats available at opposite ends. Vandella’s had become a favorite for church fellowship. Tabletops vividly painted with renditions of various landmarks exclusive to the Cincinnati area displayed truly appetizing food on brightly colored platters. It was situated conveniently right near Fountain Square at the center of town. As everyone exchanged greetings, Will walked Julianne over to the far side and held out the empty chair next to Maureen Alden, the pastor’s wife. Once Julianne settled down into it, he made his way to the other end and sat between the pastor and Jimmy Rudd.

“You two look like you’ve been together all your lives,” Maureen said to Julianne as she offered a basket of warm tortilla chips.

“We almost have,” Julianne giggled, popping one into her mouth. “Will was my first crush back in grade school.”

“Have you ever dated?” Maureen asked curiously.

“For about a minute in high school,” she replied. “But we were always best friends. Nothing more.”

“What a shame,” Maureen commented softly, and Julianne wondered for a moment what she meant. There was no shame in what she and Will had settled into. Their friendship was one of the most valuable relationships of her life.

“Hey, everyone!” Jimmy Rudd announced from the other end of the table. “Will and Julianne have opened their law office.”

“Yep. We’re all moved in to the brand-new digs,” Will told them, and he cast a quick smile at Julianne.

“Well then,” Maureen said sincerely, raising her glass of raspberry tea. “Here’s to a long and lucrative partnership.” Leaning toward Julianne, she whispered, “If only in the practice of law.”

The evening was great fun, just as they all were when this group of men and women got together. Julianne adored her pastor, and she enjoyed watching his interactions with others. Pastor Dean Alden, one of those very unusual combinations of true wisdom and absolute humor, always seemed to exude love and understanding, no matter what the challenge or situation.

She especially enjoyed the exchanges between the pastor and his wife. Their mutual love and respect almost crackled in the air around them, and it trickled down to even the tiniest parts of the church.

“Julianne?” Beth Rudd said as she walked up behind her at the bathroom sink after dinner wrapped up.

Julianne tugged a paper towel from the dispenser and dried her hands with it as Beth said, “I was talking to Maureen. And, well … you really aren’t attracted to him in the least?”

“Who?”

“Will!”

“Attracted to Will?” she clarified. “That would almost be like incest, Beth! Will is my best friend. You don’t cross over lines like that one.”

“For goodness’ sake, why not?” she asked through the reflection in the mirror, fussing over her helmet of ebony hair. “I’d have given just about anything if Jimmy and I were friends from the start. It took us years, and no small amount of turmoil, to find that part of our marriage.”

Julianne’s amused chuckle was cut short when the bathroom door slipped open and Linda Barnes poked her head inside. “Are you riding with us?” she asked Beth.

“I’ll be just another minute,” Beth replied with a nod. Turning to Julianne, she said, “The reason I’m asking is … I don’t want to step on any toes. You know what I mean?”

“Not entirely,” Julianne admitted with a smile, and she tapped the used towel down into the bin. “What are you getting at?”

“I was thinking of setting up Will and my younger sister, Alison. You remember, you met her at the Christmas pageant?”

Julianne thought back and shrugged. “I’m sorry. That was such a crazy night. I had twenty-seven crazy junior choir kids to look after.”

“Oh, well, Alison has just broken up with her boyfriend of three years, and I know Will and Holly split last year. Anyway, she’s just not meeting any nice Christian men, and I was thinking … if you wouldn’t mind …”

“Oh! Well, of course not!” she replied, stunned. “It’s not like that with Will. Really. I mean, fine. Go ahead.”

“Really?”

“Sure,” she said with a shrug. “Yes. I mean, if Will wants to.”

“Oh, I think the two of them will be perfect for each other!”

Julianne hated to admit to the little scratch of irritation she felt right in the hollow of her chest at the thought of Will being set up with someone. She wondered why, but recalled how long it had taken to get a handle on his devotion to Holly. Whatever the source of the irritation, it settled in as if it might plan on staying awhile.

That Vandella’s had developed a following among the legal community over the years went a little sour for Julianne as she exited the ladies’ room just in time to find Lacey James standing with Will near the front door.

“Ready to head out?” she asked Will as she reached them.

“Oh, William, you don’t have to leave just yet, do you?” Lacey asked him as if Julianne hadn’t entered their airspace.

“I do. I’m in court first thing.”

“Oh, how disappointing.”

“You take care, Lacey,” Will said kindly, and he turned to Julianne. “Ready?”

“More than.”

She had to run to catch up to him at the crosswalk.

“What’s up with you? Did she get to you?”

“Who?” he asked as the light signaled them to cross.

“Lacey!”

“Lacey? No,” he said, shaking his head. “She’s all right. She gets to you way more than she gets to me.”

“Oh. Well, could you slow down? I can’t keep up with you!”

He glanced down at her four-inch heels and grimaced. “Well, they’re not much for walking, are they?”

She clicked her tongue. “Then don’t make me run, Will.”

He paused and looked at her seriously before his face melted down to a smile that cut straight to her heart. “Sorry.”

“You know what? Let’s head down to The Wall,” she suggested. “Can we?”

Will didn’t respond with anything more than a shrug, but he changed course, up the street toward the river.

One of her favorite places in the area, Julianne came to The Serpentine Wall as often as she possibly could. A huge construction of what looked like perfect concrete stairs leading straight down into the Ohio River, she and Will had been going there together for years. Whether for a quick lunch, or a jam-packed Fourth of July celebration for fireworks over the river, it was one of their most beloved spots. They’d been seated right there on the third stair from the top, in fact, when they planned the opening of the law partnership.

A party seemed to be going on at one of several riverboats moored at The Wall, and lively Dixie music wafted gently up toward them from the river below.

“You’re not yourself tonight,” Julianne commented once they’d settled into their regular spot. “Please tell me you’re not having second thoughts about going into business with me, Will. I want you to know—”

“No,” he interrupted. “You know better than that.”

“Well, I thought I did. But you’re behaving so strangely. Like someone kidnapped your dog.”

“I don’t have a dog.”

“Maybe that’s the problem. You want me to get you a dog, Will?”

“You’re all the family pet I need,” he quipped.

“Smarty pants.”

After a moment, Julianne looked into Will’s glazed eyes. She saw something unusual there, something she didn’t think she’d ever seen before.

“Talk to me. What is it?”

“Ah, nothing. Too many taquitos,” he remarked with a lopsided smile.

“Come on, Will. Don’t joke. If there’s something on your mind—”

“You know what’s on my mind?” he interjected. “I’m exhausted. Let me enjoy a few minutes with my best girl, and then we’ll head out and I’ll get some sleep.”

With both hands on her shoulders, Will guided her around until she faced the river. The water glistened like glass under a perfect, full silver moon, the kind of moon a girl made wishes on. The kind of moon that caught those wishes like stardust and held on to them until the time was right.

“I wish I could sleep until noon tomorrow,” she said on a sigh.

“Me, too.”

“Hey, you were a killer in there today,” Benton Rhames declared as he hurried to board the elevator behind Will, slipping in just before the doors slid shut.

“You had your chance to settle before you dragged your client into litigation, Bent. I gave you every opportunity.”

“Blah, blah,” he replied as the steel doors yawned open. “I’ll see you on appeal.”

“New day, same decision, my friend,” Will told him.

“No mercy. I’ll remember.”

On the walk over to the office, those words spun around inside Will’s mind several times.

How could it be, he asked the Lord, that You could have created me to be such a formidable opponent in the courtroom and yet such a lame excuse for a hunter on the field of romance?

“Talk to me,” Jules had said to him the night before down on The Wall, but he hadn’t even spent a moment trying to summon the words. Because those words were buried deep, covered over with layers upon layers of excuses and justifications and, truth be told, fear.

He’d known her since they were kids, but it had taken him until freshman year of high school to work up the courage to ask her to LaRosa’s for pizza.

She’d looked like an angel that night. Her honey blonde hair hung halfway to her waist back then, and she’d curled it up into wavy spirals of spun silk and golden threads of light. She’d been waiting outside her house when he’d walked across the lawn to pick her up, and the lamp on the porch backlit her as if she were posed for a portrait. She looked to Will like one perfect white candle standing on the steps of a cathedral, and he remembered losing the air from his lungs when he saw her there. He supposed he’d fallen in love with her long before that moment, although he didn’t get around to admitting it to himself for a good many years. He’d never been quick on the draw when it came to love.

Will let a chuckle escape from his throat as he crossed the lobby and pressed the button to summon the elevator to go up to their new offices on the seventh floor. Julianne had remained the pristine portrait of perfection hanging on the wall of his life, the bar against which all other women were measured.

You couldn’t just yank a painting off the wall and take it for a spin, after all. Once he went that direction with Julianne, there would have been no turning back. Gambling with a friendship as important as theirs wasn’t an option, and so the dice were simply packaged away, the wheels of chance forever silenced. Friendship with Julianne: a sure thing. Love? A risk with too high a cost, if they lost. Holly had been the one and only woman who ever came close; but that ended in disaster, too.

Will punched the panel before him once more, and this time the elevator doors glided shut.

“Seven’s a good number in the Bible, isn’t it, Will?” Julianne had exclaimed when she’d originally found the office for rent on the seventh floor. “It’s a sign, Will! It has to be.”

Julianne saw signs from God around every corner of the world, Will thought with a smile. Every song on the radio was a message just for her, every rainbow a handwritten note to her from Him, posted on the sky like one of those sticky notes framing the screen of her computer.

If he were to read the map of their relationship in the Language of Julianne, Will believed he might certainly come away convicted of their ultimate destiny, the great State of Meant-to-Be, in the County of the Land of Soul Mates. All the signs were there, if one were the type to look for them.

And Julianne had always been the type.

So why had it never crossed her mind? She had prayed about everything from going to law school to teaching the kids at church how to sing when she clearly could not hold a tune herself. So why hadn’t He ministered to her or even whispered into her ear about Will?

Or perhaps You have, Lord.

Will’s heart thumped at the possibility as he recalled how drastically she had changed after those few dates they had in high school. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead and both palms. But … what if he weren’t the only one feeling it? What if, all these years later, Julianne had actually, on occasion …

Don’t be ridiculous! She’s still searching.

And just for an instant, the idea burned at his insides like a bad case of indigestion. Maybe she just needed to be shown the general direction in order for her to ponder the actual journey. He wouldn’t have to let on the intensity of his feelings, just the possibility of their focus.

“Why don’t we go out on a date,” he might suggest to her casually. “No pressure, or expectations. Just a date, to see if there’s something here.”

The appeal of the idea was alarmingly refreshing, like an ad he’d once seen for a chocolate and peppermint candy where the partaker was blown backward off the side of a cliff.

Will wondered for a moment if he’d begun to mentally unwind. He hadn’t entirely decided yet when he opened the office door, greeted by a frantic Julianne excitedly hopping from one foot to the other, squealing incoherently.

“I’m … so glad … you’re … back!” she cried.

“What’s going on?” he asked, looking at Phoebe over Julianne’s shoulder.

“He called!” Julianne sang. “He called!”

“Who?”

“Paul Weaver,” Phoebe stated, and Julianne backed up like a rush of wind had driven her.

“That’s his name. Paul Weaver.”

Will didn’t know what to say. He just looked at her expectantly, nodding tentatively, awaiting the rest of the story that might fasten it all together.

“Paul Weaver,” she repeated insistently. “The angel.”

The angel.

“With the dog?”

The dog.

“The work boot? And the toolbox?”

The—Oh … no.

“He saw the ad!” she cried. “And he’s coming here at six o’clock today!”

“Six o’clock,” Will repeated, and he glanced at his watch.

In two hours.

“Two hours,” she squealed. “Come on!”

She tugged Will’s sleeve and started for the door.

“Where?” he asked, confused.

That’s right. We’ll just leave Phoebe to meet him. She can return his toolbox, fall madly in love, and ride off with him into the sunset. And—

“I need new shoes!” she cried. “I can’t meet him in these shoes!”

And with that, Julianne snatched Will’s briefcase from his hand and flung it at the sofa across from Phoebe’s desk.

“We’ll be back in an hour,” she declared, and she yanked Will behind her as she headed toward the office door.

“Oh, no, I won’t, Jules,” he said while pulling his arm from her grip. “You’re on your own. I draw the line at shoe shopping.”