But online was a completely different story. BJ was safe because he wasn’t entirely real, so she didn’t have to be nervous when they chatted. She could share her enthusiasms and talk freely with him, sometimes even flirt a little. As a result, she felt closer to him than to most of the people in town she’d known all her life. People like Ben Atwood.
She may not have met BJ in person, but she knew he was kind and thoughtful with a heart driven toward helping others. She didn’t have to see him face-to-face to know all of that.
She also could see exactly the kind of man Ben was. He was right before her eyes.
A heartbreaker.
Chapter Two
Dear BJ,
I’m still working on the script for our project. I haven’t had time this week to do much more than try to keep up on the reading assignments, much less work on the draft. It’s that time of year again. My schedule is filled to the brim with flowers, flowers, flowers.
I love planting seeds in the springtime. Winter has borne down upon the land, harsh and unforgiving, but seeds hold the fresh promise of spring inside them. It’s humbling to hold such future magnificence in the palm of my hand. And then to clip the blooms and arrange them into beautiful bouquets—could there be anything lovelier?
On another topic, what are your thoughts about the Sacred Heart Mission to America? I’ve been researching them and I’ve learned that they’re usually right in the middle of the action, building shelters and offering both physical and spiritual aid for folks affected by hurricanes, tornadoes or floods.
I don’t know about you, but that’s what I’m looking for—to be where people need me. I can’t imagine anything better than to minister to others during their hardest struggles, and I know you share the dream. I’m sure your skills in the medical field will be highly valued.
I’m anxious to hear your thoughts—school wise, mission wise, and anything else you care to add.
Faithfully waiting,
Veronica Jayne
Ben snapped his laptop closed and grinned. He could always count on an email from Veronica Jayne to have him smiling from ear to ear. Beautiful Veronica Jayne, his refined, gracious flower girl, his very own My Fair Lady. Even her name was feminine and graceful. He didn’t have to see a picture of her to know she was exquisite. Her elegance shined through every word she wrote. In a word, she simply charmed him.
He’d finished his morning workout early in his rush to get home and see if Veronica Jayne had replied to his email, so he decided to use his extra time to walk over to his folks’ house to see how they were faring. He’d missed the previous weekend’s Sunday dinner because of an emergency call. Though his parents were in perfect health, they were getting up in years and Ben still worried, despite their protests. He wanted to make sure everything was going well—and maybe catch a bite to eat, if he timed it just right.
As he strode the short distance to his parents’ residence, he mused about last night, when he’d been kicking back with Vee Bishop at the firehouse. He was surprised at how much she’d had to say to him—usually she went out of her way to keep her distance. But last night, she’d opened up—just a little. Her cryptic response to his question about what secrets she wasn’t revealing intrigued him, even knowing it was none of his business whatsoever.
Frankly, he was surprised she hadn’t told him so herself.
When he’d started mindlessly carrying on about the theme of secrets, he’d half expected her to blow him off completely. That or blow up at him. He was fairly certain she didn’t particularly like him, although exactly why that was he couldn’t say. She’d been short with him on more than one occasion in the past.
But in this instance, she hadn’t blown him off, nor had she become angry. Instead, she’d gracefully sidestepped the whole subject, which intrigued him far more than if she’d become annoyed. What she did or did not care to share with him was none of his business. They might have lived in the same town all their lives, but in truth they didn’t even know each other particularly well.
While he was fairly certain he’d rattled her with his tactless digging, for once he seemed to have avoided making her angry. He wished he knew how he’d dodged the bullet this time—usually it seemed like everything he did upset or offended her, even if she rarely vented her feelings out loud.
He increased his pace as a shiver ran through him. He’d be the first to admit he had trouble speaking to women. They were a complete enigma to him in every way, and he put his boot in his mouth more often than not. His appalling trail of failures with the list of women he’d dated proved that point in a major way.
The only consolation was that his very cluelessness usually convinced his ex-girlfriends that he hadn’t meant any harm. In most cases, he’d been able to charm his way back into being friends. But any attempt to charm Vee only seemed to make her angrier.
Vee was a tough nut to crack. She intimidated him with the way she pulled her hair back into a stark bun that defined her cheekbones into sharp lines, not to mention the incessant way she was always scowling at him with a permanent frown etched into her features whenever he was around. That he’d gotten her to laugh once or twice during their exchange the night before was definitely the exception to the rule. Maybe he was making some progress.
“Progress” just made him think of the other projects in his life—like his plans for mission work, for example, and the online Spanish class he was taking to prepare.
But most of all, he thought about the plans to meet and hopefully date his beautiful Veronica Jayne.
No one in Serendipity knew of the developing relationship with his internet classmate. Not his paramedic partner Zach Bowden. Not his friends. Not even his parents. He supposed that deep down he just wasn’t ready to share her yet.
What a sweet secret to have.
Ben grinned to himself as he reached the one and only intersection off of Main Street, glanced both ways and crossed over to the other side. Serendipity, with its population of less than a thousand, didn’t even merit a stoplight and just barely bothered with three-way stop signs. There was seldom traffic to watch out for, and today was no exception.
In fact, it was an unremarkably quiet day in Serendipity, with most folks going about their business as usual. Even the three retired men in their matching bib overalls who usually congregated in front of Emerson’s Hardware in their wooden rocking chairs were nowhere to be seen.
With nothing interesting to view on the horizon, Ben’s mind shifted to Veronica Jayne and the unlikely development of their cyber relationship. It had started innocently enough, emailing each other back and forth about their combined class project. After a while the conversation had drifted to chattering about weekly assignments, and before he knew it, they were talking personal issues—sometimes very personal issues, especially when they’d discovered they had the same plans for stateside mission work.
He’d been praying for his future wife for some time now, and if he was being honest with himself, the thought that Veronica Jayne might be that woman had crossed his mind more than once, even if they’d agreed they wouldn’t pursue anything romantic until—and if—they met in person.
Frankly, it was easier keeping Veronica Jayne at a distance, on the other end of cyberspace, where he wasn’t as apt to screw things up. He didn’t exactly have a stellar track record where women were concerned.
He’d been a skinny, awkward teenager who was often embarrassed and humiliated by school bullies, a boy who hid in his uncle’s auto garage to avoid having to deal with his callous peers, never mind girls his age, who would either ridicule or ignore him. Girls simply weren’t interested in boys like him. His mother had told him not to worry, that his day would come, but