“Scoot down one more. Paige is coming today.” Jackson pushed against Ben’s shoulder.

Ben shook his head and slid down the pew a bit further. “That enough room, or do I need to move up a row? Honestly, why can’t the two of you just sit on the other side?”

“’Cause I like the aisle. You know that. And I don’t think Paige is coming to our church instead of hers so that she can sit by you and Zach.”

“Listen to the guy with a steady girlfriend getting all high and mighty.” Zach rolled his eyes and sat next to Ben. “Maybe the two of us should find the loser section of the sanctuary.”

“Hey, guys.”

Paige’s perky voice brought an involuntary smile to Ben’s lips. It wasn’t hard to see what Jackson saw in her. Though what she saw in him...that was a whole other story. Ben filed that away to use later when it was time to rag on Jackson some more. The truth was, the two of them were perfect together and, when he wasn’t dwelling on his aching heart or the fact that he hadn’t heard from Rebecca since Thursday, he was happy for them. “Happy Sunday. What’cha got there?”

Paige grinned. “Your church has all those Christian living and family life magazines for people to take. Mine quit doing that last year. It was getting too expensive and people didn’t really take them. So I snagged the ones I’ve always enjoyed. That’s okay, right?”

Ben shrugged. “I’d imagine so. That’s why they’re there, right?”

“That’d be my guess as well. If it makes you feel better, you can just pretend I grabbed them and you took them before I could look at them.” Jackson slipped his arm around Paige’s shoulders.

“I’ll do better than that. When I’m finished with them, I’ll leave them at your place so you really can read them. Who knows, you might find out something interesting.”

Ben snickered. The chance of Jackson actually reading any of those magazines was slim to none. None of them were likely to read the things. The few times he’d browsed the display, they’d all looked like mommy mail. Why would Paige even be interested? Maybe there were recipes or something. Who knew? He pulled his attention back to the service that was starting.

When the singing was over, he pulled out his phone and opened his Bible app to follow along with the pastor as he read. His finger hovered over the text icon. Should he make sure Rebecca was okay? Two days with nothing...though admittedly it was the weekend, so it was unlikely she’d be working on the plans for the open house downtown. Not that there was much to do anyway. Paige’s catering proposal had been so much better—and more affordable—than any of the other options he’d sent her, she’d jumped on it. With that done, all they really needed to do was get the invitations printed and mailed. He still needed the donor list from the mission for that—or did they want to mail their own? That was something to ask...but not during church.

Zach’s elbow in his side dragged him out of his thoughts and, after a quick glance at Zach’s Bible, he navigated to Matthew 25. One of the things Ben loved about Pastor Brown’s sermons is that he didn’t shy away from the hard topics. This looked like it was going to be another to download once they got it on the church website. Practical ways to give a cup of water to the least of these—maybe they should see if the pastor would speak at the open house. Not everyone wanted to believe that the food and water in the passage could, in fact, be taken literally.

Sure, it was good to help in less concrete ways, too. But how many people stopped at taking their castoffs to the thrift store or sending Bread of Heaven a check? Not that a check was a bad thing, but they could use bodies, too. People who would go overseas for a week or two and help with the food distribution, or assist in digging a well and building a shelter for livestock. Or, if leaving the country was too scary, why not go downtown and help organize the shelves at the mission or man the desk on distribution days? Hmm. That was something they should add to the open house—tangible ways to help both organizations that went beyond money. In fact, maybe that should be their primary focus? If they tied it in to being Jesus’ hands and feet, instead of just being His checkbook...he’d run it by his boss. If he was on board, he’d see what Rebecca had to say.

Ben eased his leg up onto the coffee table and stretched his head to one side, then the other, letting out a soft “Aah” when the bones in his neck cracked. What a day. Bread of Heaven wasn’t typically a place where meeting after meeting ate up your time, but today it had been. And very few of them had been worth the time. He hadn’t even had five minutes to catch up on his email from the weekend, and that just wouldn’t do for the self-proclaimed Email King. Maybe he’d spend some time later tonight doing that. Jackson was at a campaign rally all evening and Zach said he’d be at a late faculty meeting. So he had the house to himself. And he was going to work? Lame.

What else did you do on a Monday night though? He drummed his fingers on his knee. Should he call Rebecca? See if she wanted to grab a bite? It would probably count as the date he’d been threatening to ask her on—and that was a mark in the negative column. He wanted their first official date since college to be memorable. But...given her reaction to the idea of dating, he wasn’t positive there was ever going to be a first official date. At least not one that heralded the start of a relationship. He pulled his phone from his pocket and stared at it, then dialed.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Sara?”

“Yes. Who’s this?”

“It’s Ben. Ben Taylor? From Phys—well, Rebecca’s friend? You gave me your number when we were meeting at the theater, in case we couldn’t find one another?”

“Oh, sure. Hi. What’s up?”

He wiped damp palms on his pants. “This feels a little high school...but I was wondering if you had a minute to talk about Rebecca?”

“Just a little high school?”

He scrubbed a hand over his face as his stomach clenched. “Yeah, okay, maybe more than a little. Look, this was a bad idea. I’ll let you go.”

“No, no, no. I was just teasing you. I love Rebecca and am happy to tell you all about how wonderful she is. Though I won’t promise I’m not going to tell her you called.”

Ben mulled that over. It was fair. Probably. He hadn’t planned to ask her not to say anything. “All right, seems reasonable.”

“Excellent. So...shoot.”

He cleared his throat. “I’m guessing you know about summer camp?”

“Maybe not the whole story, but pieces, yeah.”

Hmm. He’d assumed Rebecca would’ve told her friends every last detail. Though maybe since they weren’t friends at the time it was happening she’d only shared a basic overview? Did it matter? “Okay, so I get that she went by Marie that summer instead of Rebecca. I’m not really clear why she did it, but I don’t necessarily care beyond curiosity. So I thought that once we figured all that out and realized that our feelings were basically the same that we could move forward. But now she’s just backing away and telling me it’s complicated.”

“Is there a question in there?”

Ben gave a short laugh. “What am I supposed to do? My mom always said if a woman tells you to back off, you back off. But I really don’t want to let her go. I’ve tried that—tried to move on, find someone else. It always feels like I’m settling for second best. At the same time...I don’t want to be with someone who’s only around because it was either go out with me or get a restraining order. You know?”

Sara snickered. “Yeah, that’s never a good thing. Look. Rebecca has reasons for brushing you off. I’m not sure I’ll go so far as to say they’re good ones, but they are to her. On one hand, she’d pull away from any guy she cared about with the same reasons. She’s convinced they’re insurmountable. On the other hand, too many people have given up on her too easily in her life. So my advice? Do what you can to stay part of her life, even if it means letting her friend zone you for a while.”

Ben winced. The friend zone. The ultimate kiss of death to any relationship.

“I know you’re thinking you can’t get out of there once you’ve been put in the zone, but I promise, with Rebecca, you’re better off starting over as just friends than trying to push for more right now.”

“You’re sure?”

“As sure as I can be. I’m not Rebecca. And sometimes she does things I’d never predict but...it’s the course of action I’d take, if I was you.”

That was probably as good as he was going to get. Even if it wasn’t the assurance he was hoping for. “Do you know details about whatever it is she thinks is so complicated?”

There was a long pause before Sara spoke. “I do. But it’s for her to explain. Even if I disagree with keeping it quiet, it’s not for me to tell.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to. But it helps to know she’s told someone. So...maybe there’s hope that down the line she’ll decide to tell me after all. Thanks, Sara.”

“Sure. Have a good night.”

“Yeah. You too.” Ben ended the call and dropped his phone on the coffee table. Friend zone. That probably ruled out calling her up and asking if she wanted to grab a bite to eat. At least for now. He got up and rooted around in the kitchen, finally giving up and putting together a sandwich from assorted leftovers in the fridge. Carrying his plate, a bag of chips, and a big glass of iced tea, he went back to the living room.

He took a bite of the sandwich, tugged a magazine out from under his plate, and flipped it open. Might as well see if there was anything of interest, since they were sitting here.

“What are you still doing up?” Jackson draped his suit jacket over a chair and sagged onto the couch next to Ben. “I figured everyone’d be in bed by the time I got home.”

“Zach just headed back. He’s probably still up. Let me ask you something.” Ben slid the magazine with the article about Dr. Roland MacDonald and his latest parenting book so Jackson could see it and tapped the photo. “Does this look like an older version of Rebecca to you?”

Jackson frowned and studied the picture. “I don’t know. Maybe? Why?”

Ben sighed and slapped the magazine shut. “I’ll admit I could be losing my mind, but that woman looks a lot like Rebecca’s mom. I thought at the time how Eleanor and Rebecca shared a striking resemblance.”

“Yeah, but a lot of women look like younger versions of their moms. My sister could definitely be confused with some of Mom’s younger pictures. What does that have to do with anything? That photo is of the MacDonalds. Isn’t Rebecca’s last name Fischer?”

“Yeah. I just—you know what, never mind.” Ben rolled the magazine into a tube and stood.

“Nuh-uh. Spit it out.”

Ben wet his lips. He’d been thinking the words all night, since he first read the article. Saying them aloud though...that made it more real somehow. “What if she changed her last name too?”

Jackson’s eyebrows arched. “That’s...a stretch, don’t you think?”

“I don’t know what to think. All she’ll tell me is that it’s complicated. We’re over before we really have a chance to start because it’s ‘complicated’.” Ben made air quotes. “Makes me wonder.”

“Okay, sure. I’m still not seeing the relationship to the MacDonalds though.”

Ben unrolled the magazine and flipped back to the article. He turned to the next page and tapped the sidebar. “Read this.”

Jackson skimmed the page before pushing it back toward Ben. “Huh.”

“That’s it? Their daughter is named Becky. You don’t think—”

Jackson held up a hand. “I’m not sure. There are some possible coincidences, certainly. And seeing this, I think Dr. MacDonald spoke at one of our youth rallies when I was in high school. If Rebecca really is his daughter, then...well, she’s got some issues. Serious, serious issues.”

“What do you mean?”

“Dude. All I remember is leaving his speech thinking I’d made it easy on my mom my whole life. The guy went on about the various problems they’d had with her—finding guys in her bed, staying out all night, that kind of thing.”

Ben frowned. That didn’t sound like the same girl he’d met at camp. They’d talked for hours every day, about all kinds of deep things. Including the fact that they were both virgins and were committed to staying that way until they were married. That didn’t necessarily preclude having someone in your bed all night, but it seemed unlikely. Her conviction on the topic was even stronger than his own. “What if...what if it wasn’t true? If he made it up just to have a good lesson to share?”

Jackson scoffed. “That’s reaching, man. Look, if you think there’s something to it, why don’t you poke around online and see what you can figure out?”

“I’m not a computer guy, you know that. I email, that’s it. Sometimes I can find what I need with a search engine, but even that’s iffy. I tried hunting for Marie for the last ten years and came up with nothing. What makes you think I’ll have better luck now?”

“Hmm. Tell you what. I’ll email my friend David. He’s into computers. Maybe he’ll have some ideas of how to look or, if he’s bored at work, maybe he’ll do some digging for you.” Jackson shrugged. “Worth a shot, right?”

“Yeah. Thanks, man.”