Grace Alive (A Christian Romance)

Part 4

Chapter 3

I climbed into my parents’ car thinking about the sermon my dad had preached. So much condemnation was on me, I felt like I could barely think straight. I never ever could do enough. I wasn’t good enough. No matter how many times I prayed, asked God to forgive me, there was always more, and my dad reminded me every day that I hadn’t done enough for God or him. I felt so weighted down, I could barely look at my parents as they got in the car.

“We are heading over to the Whitmens today for lunch,” my dad informed me as he started up the car. Great. Just great. I get to spend more quality time with Mr. Personality himself. It was hard enough that Jacob came onto me the way he did, let alone my dad pushing me toward a relationship. I didn’t feel any attraction toward the man at all! Why did my dad constantly want us together? It didn’t make any sense to me.

I got all moody after that, as we drove to the Whitmens’ huge house. Jacob’s dad owns some large business that pumps out tons of cash. I could see why my dad wanted me to marry Jacob. He was rich and a tither on top of that. We got out of the car and walked up to their door. Dad rang the doorbell, and a few seconds later Mrs. Whitmen answered the door. She was a short, pudgy lady, with a round face, and tiny eyes. The same eyes Jacob had. Mr. Whitmen stood behind her with a smile, his graying hair combed back like Jacob.

“Pastor! Mrs. Reed, Zoe, please come in! Edith has prepared a fine meal for us.”

Edith was their cook. It would be nice to one day have my own cook. No! I would not marry Jacob! I’m not a gold digger who marries a guy for his mulah! They ushered us inside, and Mr. Whitmen shook my dad’s hand with a smile. As we entered into the high vaulted ceiling room, Jacob came around the corner. There was a crystal chandelier hovering in the walkway and two tall windows overlooked the luxurious backyard. I could see a pool and a tennis court. Yup. They had some cash.

“We really enjoyed your sermon today, Pastor,” Kyle Whitmen said as we all headed toward the dining room table. The food was already set out and looked amazing. My mouth started to water. I found a seat, and Jacob sat across from me. Perfect.

“Would you say a prayer, Pastor?” Mr. Whitmen smiled at his family. My dad prayed a very lengthily prayer. Pretty sure the food got cold by the time he was done. After we’d all finally said amen, we began to pass around the food. It smelt so good! Baked chicken, fancy potatoes, corn, and a healthy looking salad rested on my plate. I started eating right away. My parents and Jacob’s parents discussed church people, business, and lots of really boring stuff. Jacob kept looking at me and smiling like he knew something I didn’t know. What?

“Pastor Mike is having another mixer this Friday. Are you coming, Zoe?” he asked as he bit into his chicken. I knew he’d asked that because my parents were sitting there, and I’d skipped the last one. Butthead.

“Ummm…” I threw some potatoes in my mouth to keep from answering right away. I didn’t want anything to do with the mixer, but my dad suddenly turned and paid attention to our conversation. Dang it.

“Of course. What time does it start?” I asked in a sickening sweet voice.

“Seven, this Friday. We’re going to play board games!”

Wow board games. How exciting could you get? Lovely. My dad smiled at us.

“I’m glad Pastor Mike has been reaching out to our young adults. He’s been getting a pretty good crowd to join,” my dad said.

Like five people? How was that a crowd, Dad? I wanted to say something but kept my big mouth shut. Friday huh. So I had five days to prepare for boredom.

***

Monday. Wahoo! Probably the only good thing about today was I was going to hang out with Mia. Tomas was taking the kids to the park, and Mia and I were going to go to lunch. I usually worked around one o’clock, so we set up lunch for eleven. I guess it was more like brunch than lunch. We pulled into the parking lot of Bob Evans. One of my favorite places ever! As we headed toward the restaurant, Mia was chattering away at me in the passenger seat.