Chapter Four
Lesley lay on her back, her hands supporting her head as she stared at the dark ceiling. Sleep was impossible.
The sounds of the typewriter had stopped, but Cole wasn’t asleep either. She could hear his movements on the other side of
the wall. It sounded as if he was pacing: walking to one side of the small living room, pivoting and strolling back . . .
again and again and again.
Lesley closed her eyes, and the mental image of Cole formed in her mind. He looked troubled and weary; at least, that was
how she’d seen him last. She wondered what he’d done with the hamburger. The thought was silly.
The pacing stopped and the night grew silent. But Lesley couldn’t sleep. About three, she tossed back the covers and climbed
out of bed. She never did have that glass of milk. Maybe it would help now.
The small lamp on the end table in the living room was all the light she needed.
Holding the milk glass, she sat on the sofa and brought her knees up so she could slip the warm gown over her feet.
The Bible she used for devotions sat beside the lamp.
Idly, Lesley flipped through the pages. Her parents had given her this purse-size edition when she turned sixteen.
The pages were dog-eared, the edges worn from years of use.
Important pieces of her life were tucked away in its flap: the newspaper notice of her grandmother’s death, a small card from
Terry and Robert’s wedding and Lisa’s birth announcement.
Long ago Lesley had learned that if she couldn’t sleep, reading God’s Word had a soothing effect on her. Opening the book
at random, she was surprised to see that it opened at Matthew, Chapter 22. Usually her Bible opened to Psalms, since that
book was directly in the middle.
The bold-phrased lettering seemed to jump off the page at her. A soft smile touched her face. “You shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” The greatest commandment. Lesley had read these words
a hundred times, but the second part of the commandment caused a tightening sensation in her throat. “You shall love your
neighbor as yourself.”
Lesley closed the book and laid her head against the back of the couch. Love thy neighbor. Was this coincidence, or was God
giving her a special message? But if He was sending her something with a profound meaning, it would be preceded by a blare
from trumpets, or at least an angel’s announcement. Not His word in the still of a sleepless night. Love thy neighbor, her
thoughts reiterated. Cole Daniels had not been an error. God had sent him to her. Lesley didn’t know why, nor did she question.
For now she would trust. But sometimes that was the hardest thing to do.
“I just can’t believe it.” Terry looped a strand of hair around her ear and pushed the grocery cart ahead so another shopper
could get by.
“I find Dale’s behavior just as unbelievable,” Lesley returned, placing several red Delicious apples in a cellophane bag.
“I didn’t think he’d do anything like that. You’re not still thinking about moving, are you?”
“No.” Lesley looked up, startled for a moment. She’d forgotten she’d even threatened as much yesterday. “Not anymore.” Although
she hadn’t told her sister about Cole’s intervention with Dale and Frank, after last night she felt assured God had her exactly
where she was supposed to be.
“Didn’t your neighbor hear any of the commotion?” Terry feigned engrossment in the Delicious apples.
Amused at her sister’s interest, Lesley successfully stifled a smile. Terry had an apple tree in her backyard, and the two
had spent one whole weekend picking fruit and canning applesauce.
“I’m sure he did.”
“And?” Terry prompted.
“And the police arrived.” Her fingers gripping the handle of the cart, Lesley pushed it farther down the crowded aisle.
“But you don’t think you’ll move?” Terry sounded relieved.
“I did a lot of thinking about it last night and decided that maybe God hadn’t made such a horrendous mistake after all.”
“I’m sure He didn’t.”
“I’m even beginning to believe there’s a reason God moved Cole Daniels beside me.”
“I think there is.”
Lesley paused long enough to turn around, her laughing eyes studying her sister. “Has anyone ever told you that on rare occasions
you sound like a parrot?”
Terry batted her eyelashes wickedly. “Polly want a cracker.”
They bath giggled like carefree friends and continued with their shopping.
After Halloween night, Cole avoided Lesley.
She didn’t see him for days, and once when she made up an excuse to knock at his door, he didn’t answer.
It was almost as if the duplex hadn’t been rented.
However, she knew he was there. And even though they didn’t communicate, her awareness of him grew.
She discovered that her early morning prayers often included Cole, and later recognized that he was dominating her thoughts more and more.
The first snowfall of the year came the second week in November. Lesley woke early and responded with delight to the fluffy
white flakes that drifted to the earth like goose down descending from some glorious heaven. Her excitement dissipated with
the knowledge that she had to dress and get into town. Although only a few inches covered the ground, the white powder was
falling thick and heavy. She could have trouble getting out of the driveway.
After a hurried shower, Lesley dressed in dark wool pants and a thick pink ski sweater. The snow shovel was in the storage
shed in the back of the apartment with the garden equipment. Tying a scarf around her neck, she next slipped on her knee-high
boots and opened the sliding glass door to retrieve the shovel.
Halfway across the backyard, she noticed another pair of fresh footprints in the snow: a larger foot that made deep impressions
in the fallen crystalline purity. Cole’s, Lesley mused.
The shovel was missing. Blowing on her bare hands with her warm breath and rubbing them together, Lesley came around the side
of the house to find Cole busy shoveling the snow from the driveway.
“Morning,” she called, more than a little pleased to see him again. He looked well. His hair needed cutting, and the bronze
tan that had caused her to wonder at his penchant for the indoors had faded. But he looked vibrant, fit and all male.
Cole stopped shoveling and straightened. “I didn’t think I’d catch you up this early.”
In other words, he’d been hoping to get away without seeing her at all.
A smile broke out across her face as she ignored his lack of welcome. “You don’t need to do that.” He was clearing the area
behind her car so that she could back out safely.
He scraped the shovel against the cement and threw the snow aside. “I know that.”
“Were you afraid that if I got snowed in, I’d be around to pester you all day?”
He paused momentarily. “You could say that.”
That was a rotten thing to say. For days she’d taken pains to stay out of his way. If he didn’t want to see her, that was
fine. At least, that was what she’d been telling herself.
“Cole?” With an innocent lilt to her voice she called his name, mischief glittering from her eyes.
He glanced up expectantly just as Lesley threw the snowball and hit him squarely in the chest.
“How could I possibly bother you?” she challenged. “I haven’t seen you in weeks.” Her hands rested defiantly on slim hips;
her eyes sparkled brightly.
For an instant Cole looked stunned. “So much for Christian charity,” he murmured and tossed the shovel aside.
Lesley couldn’t keep from laughing. Stooping over, she packed a second snowball. “You seem to think I’ll let you get away
with insulting me. Ha!”
Cole leaned over and formed his own snowball as a smile slowly made its way across his face. “How did I insult you?” he asked
in a dangerously calm voice.
Her bare hands were freezing and she tossed her threat to the ground and rubbed the warmth back into her frozen fingers. “Peace?”
she asked hopefully.
“Oh no, you started this.”
“But . . . I don’t have any gloves on.”
“You knew that when you threw the first snowball.”
“But . . .” For every step he took toward her, Lesley took one in retreat. “Would it help if I apologized?”
“It might,” he said and advanced another threatening step. “And then again, it might not.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Don’t challenge me, Lesley.” His mirthful eyes pinned her.
“But you shouldn’t have said that.”
“Said what?”
“That I pester you.”
“You haven’t stopped since the day I first saw you.”
“That’s not true,” she cried indignantly.
“You have no way of knowing, my blue-eyed temptress.”
With bubbling laughter, she reached down, grabbed her snowball and threw it at him with remarkable accuracy. Intense satisfaction
raced through her when she saw she’d caught him completely off guard. Pivoting sharply, she ran toward the house. Ten steps
from her front door, Cole caught her.
Lesley let out a squeal as his hands gripped her upper arms and flung her around. Somehow she managed to elude him, but Cole
made a diving catch for her that sent them both crashing to the snow.
Laughing and breathless, she tossed her head to and fro as Cole attempted to hold her face. “I’m sorry,” she cried with bubbling
exhilaration.
“I just bet you are.”
“I’ll never do it again, I promise.”
Cole was lying halfway on top of her, his hands pinning hers above her head. Her deep smiling eyes met his as she heaved a
giant breath from her lungs.
The warm, smoldering light clashed with hers, and they both went still.
Slowly the laughter faded from him. Lesley noted that his gaze slid to her mouth, and it was all she could do not to moisten her lips in eager anticipation.
He was so close that all she had to do was lift her head.
His mouth hovered above hers for a timeless moment.
Lesley lowered her lashes, hungry for the taste of this man who had haunted her for weeks.