The Arrangement (12 page)

“So, just like that, you fell in love?”
It all seemed too easy.

“Not exactly,” Leigh Anna explained. “At first we both agreed to pray about the decision our parents wanted us to make. We took some time to get to know each other and talked a lot about what we expected from marriage. We both wanted friendship and passion in our relationship.” She crossed her arms and walked back to the bed to sit beside Evie. “Honestly, the friendship part came much easier than the passion. Most relationships start because of an initial attraction and then the couple begins to wonder if marriage is in the future. We started out with the idea of marriage and prayed for the attraction to come.”

“Did you ever get the passion?” Evie asked, even though her heart cringed at the thought of the possible answer.

“Yes.” She spoke softly, her voice full of emotion. “He sent me flowers on the anniversary of Ted’s accident. The card read,
I’m sorry your heart has been broken, yet thankful God has allowed me an opportunity to be part of the healing.
Something about those words made everything different. I loved him, and I couldn’t wait to tell him.”

“So that’s how it’s been.
Pouf,”
Evie exclaimed, motioning with her hand, “and you were in love?”

“No, Evie.” She shook her head. “We built a friendship first. We were honest and upfront about our past and our expectations of the future. We had our arguments, but we always went back to the place where God directed us to each other and knew we had to work out our disagreements. No argument has ever been important enough to risk our relationship.”

Honest.
The word tightened the knots in her stomach until she thought she would cry out from real, physical pain. Had she ever really been honest with Eli? If she were honest, would he still want her? Her first love still lived and breathed. For the first time Evie realized she harbored hope for her relationship with Eli deep in her heart, but she knew that hope could not take root and grow as long as she carried on her relationship with Ben.

Evie stood and began to put away the stain remover. She had no intentions of continuing a relationship with Eli for one minute longer than she had to. He was a tool, she reminded herself. She dated him simply to satisfy her parents and convince them she could never be happy with anyone but Ben. “We better get back. Taylor will think I’ve kidnapped you.”

Leigh Anna picked up her stained shirt and started to the door where Evie stood. “Pray for God’s guidance, Evie, and he’ll help you get through this.” Leigh Anna’s gentle words only inflamed Evie’s festering conscience.

Evie barely noticed the increasing crowds as they walked back to the football field. Her mind replayed the words of her sister-in-law. Leigh Anna really believed God could work out anything, even after he allowed her to lose the man she thought would be her husband. But how did God fit into Evie’s situation? She had certainly never asked for his opinion on who she should marry, much less who she should date. She resisted the urge to laugh out loud at the thought of her father asking God to guide her to a suitable husband. She knew about God, and she knew He didn’t care a lot about money, not like her father did anyway.

Eli.
Was he the one in the midst of this whole mess praying? He was the only one Evie could imagine would actually pray about something like this. So what was God telling him? Why would he continue to call her or date her if God had already said no?

Evie’s heart rate quickened.
If he is acting based on God’s direction, does that mean…

No, she and Ben had been together for a long time and would stay together. She forced herself to breathe deeply until the lightheadedness disappeared.

By the time Leigh Anna and Evie reached the Barretts’ tailgating party, the crowd was busying themselves gathering their stadium seats and blankets before heading to the football field for the game. Evie stood near the abandoned food tables and nibbled as she watched the flurry of activity. Her eyes locked with Eli’s, and he wasted no time returning to her side. She stiffened as he slid one arm around her shoulders. She didn’t want to think about how warm and comfortable it felt. She didn’t want to smell the barely discernible scent of his cologne. She didn’t want to stand close enough to hear the rhythmic beating of his heart. A shiver ran though her as he gently raked his fingers though the bottom of her blond hair. She tried to think of Ben, but all she could imagine were a pair of brilliant blue eyes that did not belong to the man she thought she loved.

)

Evie finally collapsed on her bed sometime around eight that night. After the ballgame, she had gone to dinner with her parents and Eli and then made an appearance at a few parties before calling it a night. Most of her sorority sisters were still partying somewhere, but Evie didn’t have the energy. She tried to pinpoint the problem. Did she miss Ben? That must be it. They had barely seen each other in several weeks and without her he had no way of securing an invitation to the parties on campus. She knew she had no chance of running into him and the thought of enduring a frat party without him bored her.

She lay back on her bed and flipped on the television. The Saturday evening lineup was really suffering. Besides, she still could not shake the memory of her discussion with Leigh Anna. What had she said about God? That he wouldn’t give her more than he knew she could handle? If God said it, where did he say it?

She knew she could find the answer in her Bible.
Don’t be silly,
she chided herself.
Does it matter anyway?
Arguing with herself was always a lose-lose situation. She finally knelt on the floor to search under her bed. Feeling the thick leather of a book cover, she pulled out a dust-covered burgundy Bible. The pages crinkled from lack of use as she flipped through it.

“This is useless,” she murmured to herself. “How exactly am I supposed to find something if I don’t know where to look?” She turned her eyes toward the ceiling and then tossed the book to the end of the bed, causing it to bounce. She groaned when her cell rang and reached to grab it next to her bed.

“Hey, come downstairs.” Eli’s voice surprised her.

“What?”

“Come downstairs,” he repeated.

“What are you doing here?”

“Come downstairs and see.” Impatience crept into his tone the third time he made his request.

Evie hung up. She shuffled out the door toward the foyer in her flip-flops. Eli was standing there, a lock of his dark curly hair falling over his forehead and landing just above one eyebrow. He held two iced coffees. Against her will, excitement surged through her over seeing him again, and she had to hold it back.

“What are you doing?” she asked as she accepted the cup he extended to her.

“I don’t really know,” he answered. “You seemed like you had a lot on your mind all through the ballgame, and I wondered if you might want to talk.”

She sipped her coffee, enjoying the odd mixture of bitter coffee, sweet steamed milk, and ice. Maybe Eli could help her find the verse she needed. “Yeah, I might,” she agreed. “Do you want to come up?”

“Why don’t we take a walk?”

Evie nodded. “Let me change first.” She handed her cup back to Eli and bounded up the stairs. A minute later she emerged wearing her favorite yoga pants and T-shirt with her Bible tucked under her arm.

Eli blinked his eyes in astonishment when she walked back into the foyer. “Man, that was fast.”

Evie retrieved her drink from his hand and smiled, not bothering to try to stop her enjoyment at his surprise. “Ready?”

He opened the door so she could walk out in front of him. Evie shrugged on her jacket as the cool evening air chilled her arms. She felt the arm of the jacket lift as Eli held it to assist her. They walked until the hum of homecoming parties faded away. Finally Eli tugged on her arm and motioned to a bench. She followed him and sat, unsure what to do next. She and Ben never walked much at night. They went to the movies or out to eat or kissed. Heat raced up her neck at that last thought.

“So, did you want to talk?” Eli’s voice broke the silence.

“I don’t know.” Evie turned to look at him. His blue eyes peered into hers. Did he know she had been lying to him? Did he hope to find the truth? Or did he simply hope to see her true feelings, feelings she had not even admitted to herself?

Suddenly Eli motioned to the book in her hand. “What’s that?”

“Oh, I…Leigh Anna mentioned something today when she was changing clothes and I was trying to find the verse. I thought maybe you could help me.”

Eli smiled and held out his hand for the book. “Okay, I’ll give it a shot. What kind of something did she say?”

Evie took a deep breath. “She said God will never give us more than he will give us the strength to handle.”

“Easy enough.” He flipped through the thin pages. A second later he began to read, “Philippians 4:13: ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.’ Is that the one you needed?”

Evie felt a little disappointed. She wanted to suddenly understand where everything was headed, but this verse left so much unknown.

“What?” he asked. He seemed to study her expression.

“I don’t know. I think that’s the one she was talking about, and it makes sense for her, but I’m not sure how it applies to me.”

“Do you want to tell me about your discussion so maybe I can help?”

Evie took a long sip of her coffee as she pondered how weird the conversation might get. But she had no intentions of marrying Eli, so maybe he could help her sort out the whole arranged marriage thing without feeling pressured.

“She told me about meeting Taylor. After her boyfriend was killed in a car accident, she spent two years putting her life back together. Then her dad and my dad decided she and Taylor should date with the idea of marriage in the future.” As she spoke, Evie wiped away the condensation on the outside of the cup.

It was an arranged marriage, she explained. She’d never imagined people still did such things. Years ago, maybe, when women had no options but to be a wife and mother. But now, she and Leigh Anna could very well support themselves without a husband. So why did their fathers think they needed a man to take care of them?

“How did she feel about that?” he asked.

Evie finally forced herself to look at Eli. “She hated the idea at first. She wasn’t ready to move on yet. But she agreed to one date because her father asked her to go. She said her father was afraid other men would take advantage of her sorrow, and he wanted to know she was with someone who would really care about her,” Evie reminded herself as she told Eli.

“What happened then?”

“She and Taylor became good friends, and then they fell in love.”

“So where did the Bible verse come in?”

“Oh, when Leigh Anna told about her almost-fiancé dying, she said she knew God would not put her into any circumstance he would not give her the strength to handle.”

“She’s right.”

Tears burned the back of her eyes. For the first time since this whole mess started, she felt torn. She loved Ben. Didn’t she? But neither of them was ready to give up the perks that came with being the daughter of Victoria and Thomas Barrett. And now she had feelings for Eli. He cared about her. He wanted to hear her ideas and thoughts and struggles. Yet she had built their relationship on a lie.

She thought she would return to Ben, but she felt so comfortable, so in place with Eli. And now that Leigh Anna and Eli, himself, threw God into the mix…well, God had never played a part in her relationship with Ben. They did what they did for themselves without the help of anyone else. Yet Eli and Leigh Anna believed the only way they could handle life was with God’s strength. She shivered and pulled her jacket tighter around her.

“Is it Ben?”

Eli’s words drilled through Evie’s spine, leaving a tingling fear in its wake. She jerked her head up to look at him.

“You broke up because of your parents, not because you stopped caring about him, right? And now you maybe regret it, or you are finding it hard to move on.”

Tears spilled one at a time onto her cheek. She nodded. He put his arm around her and drew her to him. She rested her head on his shoulder and let the tears wet his shirt. “Isn’t this weird for you, Eli?” She half laughed through her tears.

“Yeah, it is a little weird. But I’m not sure God is calling me to be anything other than your friend right now. I care about you, Evie Barrett. I care about you a lot. But I’m not rushing into marriage just because your parents think we would make a good match. I think God has put you in my path because you need a friend. I want to be that for you. Eventually you will have to choose which kind of life you want. Either you want a life centered around God and the things he wants for you, or you want a life centered around you and what you want for yourself.”

Evie wiped her tears on the sleeves of her jacket and pulled back to face Eli. “What do you mean? You think a life with you is what God wants for me, and a life with Ben is what I want for me?”

“No, God may not mean for you to be with either one of us—and I’m okay with that. When you get ready to date again, you have to decide what kind of man you want to have in your life. But, first, you will have to decide who you will follow—God or yourself.”

Evie stood in a huff and started to walk away. Eli caught her sleeve and gently drew her back onto the bench next to him.

“Wait a minute. Let’s go back to what Leigh Anna was telling you. She’s a great example. She didn’t want to date your brother probably because her life was destroyed when her boyfriend died. She didn’t want to go through that again. But her father, who really wanted the best for her, asked her to go. She could have gone her way and not ever dated again, but she chose to go God’s way and follow her father’s request. She knew it could lead to a broken heart, but she also knew God would never leave her to deal with that alone. He would always be there to give her the strength to keep going. And she probably also knew God only wanted the best for her. Just like he only wants the best for you.”