Page 38 of With All My Heart, Joy

What had Joy told her sister about Zak? He didn’t ask. It didn’t matter. “Yes. I stepped down as Joy’s counselor today. Nothing inappropriate happened in any way, but I wanted you to know the truth.”

The line was quiet, then Lucy said softly, “I’m so sorry, Isaac. Joy has issues with an age gap.”

And theirs was no small age gap.

He pulled into his driveway. Paisley would be home from school any moment. What a blessing that a special education bus provided transportation each day when she left her after-school care program. Mrs. Randall usually watched her during school breaks, and he was taking the week after Christmas off, anyway.

“I have no designs on Joy. Rest assured I will not be pursuing this.”

“But you’d be so good for her! I mean. If you were…” She trailed off, and he finished the words for her.

“If I were younger.”

Silas took the phone back and was saying something about keeping his chin up, praying about it, yada yada. The kind of stuff Isaac was usually tellinghim.

“I don’t want to interrupt your honeymoon a moment longer. I’ll let you go.”

“Hey.” Silas’s voice was insistent. “I’m here for you. Any time, night or day. You know that, right?”

Isaac chuckled to cover the emotion tightening his chest. He might not deserve a good woman in his life. He might not deserve Joy. But he sure was glad to have a best friend like Silas McIntyre. “I count on it. See you next week.”

Then he went inside to prepare something for dinner. He hoped it would be edible, but he didn’t have any appetite anyway. Not when Joy was scheduled to arrive on his doorstep in an hour and a half.

* * * * *

Joy consulted her GPS and turned onto a narrow residential street marked with a green sign as Ruby Lane. Isaac lived in central Silver Lake City, not far from TJ’s workplace, Reliant Tidings Publishing. It was an older part of town, quiet and safe.

“One-five-nine, one-five-seven,” she counted down the odd-numbered houses on the left side of the road, braking carefully. “One-five-five.” She’d made it.

What had compelled her to volunteer for this? Her heart hammered as she put her car in Park along the street. Isaac’s house was a one-floor ranch-style with a small front yard and a covered front porch. Bare pine bushes coated in snow edged the driveway. They could use some Christmas lights. The whole house could.

“You can do this, Joy,” she murmured, stepping from the car. The temperature had slipped into the teens, but the wind was less noticeable on this side of town, farther from the lake.

She missed Lucy. She missed her daily check-ins. But she didn’t want to bother her sister while on her honeymoon. She’d taken to a minimally honest check-in with her dad. Mom wanted too much information. Dad took whatever she gave him.

But today, she wouldn’t be giving him what she most needed. She needed to talk to somebody about Isaac. Instead, here she was at his house.

“Hi, Joy.” He was waiting on the porch when she got there, hands in his jeans pockets. She’d never seen him in jeans before, or the casual long-sleeve T-shirt that cloaked his upper body. An upper body that bespoke a healthy amount of strength training.

She stepped onto the porch into the illumination of the outside light. Here, out of the office, Isaac appeared younger. His familiar scent filled her senses.

“I was concerned about your safety on the roads.” The words sounded stiff and picked over, like he was choosing the most formal words he could find.

“It’s not too bad. Sorry if I’m early. I wasn’t quite sure of where I was going.”

He opened his front door for her. It was oak with frosted glass panes. Perfect for a beautiful Christmas wreath. “Go ahead.” He held out a hand for her enormous shoulder bag as she stepped through the door. “What do you have in this thing?” he grunted, hauling it upward before it pulled his arm to the floor.

“Strategies for a successful evening with any ten-year-old girl on the planet. You’re okay with nail art, right?”

Inside, her eyes took a quick sweep of the home’s interior. Nary a Christmas decoration in sight. Her first impulse said to tease him about it, but considering the events of the day, she thought better of it and turned back to him, still awaiting his answer. She wasn’t prepared to find him staring at her with stark longing in his eyes. The sight sent tension in a downward spiral through her belly, terror and delight twined together like a DNA strand.

Red crept up Isaac’s neck, disappearing beneath his beard, as he quickly jerked his gaze from Joy. “Nail art is fine. Paisley will love it. And here she is.”

Joy gave Isaac her back, facing a short girl with dark brown hair like her father. She practically danced in place as she rose onto her toes and dropped to the floor again, over and over, her hands clasped before her in anticipation.

“This Joy? This Joy?” she crowed, her face glowing. Her wide face and slanted eyes told the tale of her chromosomal disorder, but there was no denying her beauty. Joy held out her hand as they met in the middle of a plain, characterless living room.

“Yes, I’m Joy. It’s nice to meet you, Paisley.”

---