Was it really a good idea?
No, how could it be?
But maybe it would work out. She was different. What was the harm in asking?
Aiden needed to hurry up if he intended to ask her on a date. Lex only had the leg press left. He’d taken too long waffling. She sat in the machine but stared out the big picture window without seeing. Here was his chance. “So, Lex — ”
“Where do you meet girls?” She didn’t turn to look at him.
He blinked. “What?”
“You know. Where do you pick up chicks?”
He gave her a blank stare.
She glanced at him with raised eyebrows. “Going cruising? Scop-ing out? I’m running out of phrases here.”
“I’m trying to decide if I want to laugh at you or increase the weight for your sets.”
“No, don’t up my weight. I really want to know.”
“Why?”
“Well . . .” She had a hard time meeting his eyes.
Aiden suspected she was searching for a lie to tell him. He reached for the weight key.
“No!” She put her hand out to stop him. “I need to meet guys.”
“Your grandma’s supplying those pretty well, don’t you think?”
“No, I mean nice guys. Ones who don’t need Berkeley tickets.”
“That’s all?”
“And Christian.”
He surprised himself by rolling his eyes rather than keeping his habitual calm, expressionless face. “That again?”
“It’s important. Do you know how many divorces are the result of mismatched religions?”
“No, do you?”
“No, but I’ll bet it’s a lot.”
Aiden folded his arms and stared down at her. “You’re not working hard enough.” He snatched out the weight pin and moved it down a slot.
“Hey!”
“You should be sweating too much to ask dumb questions.”
“It’s because of my grandma. She’s going to pull funding from my junior high girls’ volleyball team if I don’t find a nice Christian boy to date. And marry.”
“That’s the dumbest story I’ve ever heard.”
“It’s true. Grandma’s nuts. You’d think she doesn’t already have tons of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She’s such a control freak.”
“Pot, meet kettle,” he murmured.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You don’t understand. I’m desperate. And he’s got to be someone I can trust, because . . . well, you know. The touching thing.” Red stained her cheeks, but not from the workout.
And suddenly he realized how difficult this must be for her. A Christian boy would be safe — no French kisses or heavy petting in the backseat of the car.
But a part of him wanted to shake her. She was already comfortable with him. Why some boring, hypocritical Christian guy?
“Hi, Lex, Aiden.” Mary walked past them on her way to the women’s locker room.
A stunning smile appeared on Lex’s face. “Hi, Mary. How’s your shoulder feeling today? Any better from last week?”
“Oh, yes. I iced it a lot this weekend, just like a certain handsome physical therapist told me to do.” Mary winked and nudged Aiden, then disappeared into the locker room.
Lex finished a set and sat there panting. “Maybe I should go church-hopping. Are there any Christians-only non-alcoholic bars?”
Aiden snorted. “Why don’t you just camp outside a seminary?
Hold up a sign, ‘Will work for date.’ Or better yet, ‘I’m unsaved. Take me on a date.’ ”
Her glare could have burned the hair off his body. “Ha. Ha.”
She finished her last set, and they headed back to the patient area for her ice and stim. “You’re lucky. The doctor gave me the okay to drive as of tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” He let her walk ahead of him down the ramp.
“He said three weeks. Tomorrow is three weeks.”
“I better stay off the road.”
“Oh, you’re just so clever. I could always smear something nasty on your car seat today when you take me — ” She came to a grinding halt. Aiden knocked into her from behind. She tipped forward, so he grabbed her waist to keep her from falling.
She didn’t even notice. Ike, a regular at the gym, had captured her attention. He wore a bloody pierced-hand Christian T-shirt with “Consider this an engraved invitation” scrawled across it.
If anything, Lex wasn’t shy. “Hi, Ike. Nice shirt.”
“Thanks.” Ike flashed his girl-magnet grin at her. Aiden’s hand, still on Lex’s waist, tightened.
She stepped away from him. “So . . . you’re a Christian?”
Oh, no way. Aiden crossed his arms.
“Yeah, I go to Valley Bible Church in Sunnyvale.” Ike stepped forward to exert his charm.
“Oh, perfect.”
“Huh?”
“I mean, that’s great. I go to Santa Clara Asian Church in Campbell.”
“I didn’t know you were Christian.” Ike shifted from “mildly interested” to “intently intrigued.”
“Yeah. I’ve been wanting to visit Valley Bible Church for a long time.”
Did she actually flutter her eyelashes at him? Give me a break.
Ike responded favorably to the fluttering. “Why don’t you visit this weekend? You can sit with me and the rest of the Singles Group.”
“Oh, that would be terrific.” Lex sounded like it would be more fun than beach volleyball.
As they discussed time and directions, Aiden tightened his jaw.
Lex knew guys. Was she really falling for his act? Aiden had heard Ike and his friends in the gym locker room after their workouts. He knew who they really were, what they thought about women.
She’s a grown woman. She can take care of herself.
But then again, Lex was desperate. What wouldn’t she do if she needed to accomplish something?
“Thanks.” Lex gave him a dazzling smile.
“See you Sunday.” Ike headed up to the weight machine area.
“Valley Bible Church?” Aiden couldn’t keep a hint of derision from his tone.
“Don’t knock it.” Lex’s look snapped from charming to chilly. She continued down the ramp.
Aiden’s friend Spenser went to Valley Bible Church. He’d ask him to keep an eye on Lex this weekend.
“Why not?” Aiden strained through another set of bicep curls.
“I’m not your servant. Come to church yourself.” Spenser got on the bench for barbell triceps press exercises.
“But you’re already going to be there. All I’m asking is for you to look out for her, not be her bodyguard.” Aiden set down his free weights.
“So, why can’t you come?”
“She’s going to see me there, and then what?”
“Naw, it’s a big church.”
“With my luck, she’ll see me as soon as she walks in. She knows how I feel about all this church stuff. She’ll think I’m stalking her.”
“Which you are.”
“No, I’m asking you to stalk her. Big difference.” He flashed a grin.
Spenser glared. “I’m not stalking her, even for you.”
“You’re going to be at church anyway.”
“Why can’t you pretend?” Spenser dropped his barbell and turned to face him.
“She won’t believe me.”
“She’ll believe me.” Spenser’s voice had that strange tone to it.
“What do you mean?” Aiden wasn’t going to like this.
“I’ll go up to her and tell her what you asked me to do.”
Visions of lots of blood and guts flashed in front of him. Lex wouldn’t stop there either. “You wouldn’t.”
“I would. I’m being truthful.”
Aiden wanted to slug the smug smile off his face. “Forget it.”
“Nope. Too late.”
“Why does it even matter? This is stupid. I’m not going.”
“It’s only for one Sunday.”
“She’s a grown woman. I don’t need to protect her. Besides, Ike isn’t going to do anything. Just deceive her a little about how morally upright he is.”
“And women just love being lied to. Just like she’ll love when I tell her the little white truth about what you asked me to do for you.”
“Okay, okay, I’ll go.”
Ike met her at the front of the church, just as he said he would.
Another thing for her to add to her Ephesians List: Someone who keeps his appointments.
“Hey, Lex.” Ike beamed at her.
She gave a weak smile in return. “Hi.” She blamed her testy mood on the slight headache buzzing at her forehead.
“Let’s go inside.”
The large church overwhelmed her a little, but she soon realized she was only another face in the massive crowd. Ike led her to a middle section already half-filled with young adults. They sat down.
“I’ll introduce you after the ser vice when we all go out to lunch.”
She glanced around at the guys. Most okay-looking, although a few were kind of strange, like that pale kid with the shock of red hair, and the bug-eyed goldfish-looking guy.
Then she noticed a few hostile stares from the women. Well, she sat next to a very cute bachelor. Although Ike’s arm across the back of her seat annoyed her. He didn’t touch her — just let his arm hang out there, over the seat edge.
The ser vice started with a Bible reading. At that point, Lex realized they sat right under the speakers, and the buzz and vibration bumped her headache up the Richter scale. The words pounding out over her also made her realize she hadn’t read her Bible in a while.
Well, she’d start up again as soon as she got rid of the pain pulsing behind her eyes. She searched through her purse. No ibuprofen.
The worship music, although loud, drew her in. She knew most of the modern songs. For those few minutes, she checked her baggage at the door and rediscovered the joy of just being with Him. He didn’t speak to her, but she felt happy singing to Him. She almost forgot her headache.
The sermon spoke to her about her tepid prayer life. Yeah, she really should pray more. Listen to God more.
During the announcements, she massaged her temples, and her attention wandered. There were mostly Caucasians in this church.
No — one Asian couple sat near the front.
Since when had she become so ethnocentric that she couldn’t feel comfortable not surrounded by her yella-fellas? It couldn’t be because of the attack, could it?
He was so much larger than her Asian guy friends or her cousins. His pale wrist, smashing her clenched fist against the carpet, lay inches from her face. She couldn’t stop staring at it as he fumbled with his belt . . .
A touch across her shoulders.
“Aaaah!” Lex jumped in her seat.
Ike jerked away from her, snatching back his arm. The worship leader paused in telling about the church picnic next week.
Everyone stared at her.
Oh, God, just open the ground and swallow me now.
The worship leader smiled kindly at her. Lex gave a weak smile back. He continued reading the announcements.
The speaker boomed, and her head boomed with him in boluses of sizzling pain. When would he just stop talking?
“Thanks for joining us for ser vice today. God bless.”
Finally.
Ike ushered her toward the social hall in the back of the sanctuary, where the Singles Group apparently gathered. Young people started filtering into the small, empty space. And several of them were definitely young. How old were these kids, anyway? Lex suddenly felt every one of her thirty years.
Ike introduced her around. The good thing was that no one knew about her job.
“This is Robert.”
A bored-looking yuppie-type gave her a limp hand to shake. His massive gold pinky ring cut into her finger. “I’m in finance. What do you do?”
“I work for a website company.”
Robert rolled his eyes behind designer-frame glasses. “The dot-coms are bombing.”
“I like my job.”
“Good, because you won’t have it in another year.”
To add to the List: Someone who isn’t snide, nasty, and snobbish at first impression. His peevishness made her head throb.
Clark looked like a goldfish — he had buggy eyes, a pale yellow shirt straining its buttons over his round stomach, and a five-second memory.
“So what do you do, Clark?”
“I sell products door to door. I like it.”
“What do you sell?”
“I sell products door to door. I like it.”
“What kind of products?”
“Door to door. I like it.”
To add to the List: Able to hold a normal conversation.
“Hi, I’m Jaspar.” The tall, thin boy with thick red hair sprouting toward the ceiling had pale, almost translucent skin. He wouldn’t meet her eyes, just stared at the floor.
“What do you do, Jaspar?”
“I sell products door to door.” He aimed his mumble at her shoes.
To add to the List: No door-to-door products salesmen.
“That’s interesting.”
He sighed, as if his soul were falling into abject despair. “I suppose.” He was having a lovely conversation with her sandals.
To add to the List: Someone who will speak to my face and not my footwear.
“So do you have any hobbies?”
“Yeah.” His eyes rose to her shoulders. “I like going to movies.”
“What movies?”
His bright green gaze popped up and locked with hers. In a flash, his demeanor had gone from sad to spiffy. “Star Wars changed my life.”
“Uh . . . the movies?”
“I used to be really into Star Wars. Their light sabers are really cool.” He erupted into a few wild moves, swinging an imaginary sword — no, light saber. Then abruptly, he deflated back to his original, shoe-speaking self. “Now I’m into Jesus.” He ended with a depressed sigh.
Real Jesus freak, aren’t you? Her headache stomped with a vengeance.
The girls she met all showed their teeth when they smiled. Lex got the impression of bristling dogs guarding a bone — Ike, possibly?
Were there any normal people in the bunch?
Lindsay twined her bangled wrist in Ike’s arm as Lex approached.
That’s real subtle there, sister. “Where are we going for lunch?”
“Let me go ask some people.” Ike left her to the mercy of Lindsay.
The pretty woman stared at her like a piece of gum on her stilettos.
May as well clear the air. “So, are you or any of the other girls dating Ike?”
Lindsay’s eyes reminded Lex of a cobra she’d seen once on TV.
“He just broke up with a girl. He’s still getting over her. He and I are good friends.
”
Translation: Keep your grimy hands off my man, I have first dibs.
This had to be the worst Sunday ser vice she’d ever had.