“Yeah? Well, you haven’t made nearly as many mistakes as I have.”
She smiled. “The fact that you label them mistakes is a starting point. But God doesn’t put a limit on our remorse. It’s never too late to humble yourself and turn things around.”
Zach squirmed in his seat. “I’m still not sure that applies to me.”
She scooted closer and kept talking. “When I apologized to you for what I said, did you forgive me?”
“Yeah,” Zach said.
“And when you apologized to me for what you did all those years ago, did I forgive you?”
Zach narrowed his eyes. “I think so.”
“I did. And isn’t our relationship better for it? Look at us. We’re closer than ever, even though we mademistakes.” She pulled her phone out of her back pocket and started typing.
She was right. He hadn’t stepped back to take a look at their relationship, but there was no doubt they were stronger now than ever before.
She held up a finger and read from the screen. “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountain and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.”
“Why are you talking about sheep? Maybe you need to call it a day and get some rest.”
“That’s from the book of Matthew, but it’s also in the book of Luke. That’s what the Bible says about God’s people who are lost. We’re the sheep. Do you know sheep are incredibly stupid and have zero defenses against predators? Yeah, that’s us. We’re the sheep and the Lord is our Shepherd. When one of us is lost, He notices and goes after us. When we’re found, He doesn’t chastise us for running off. He rejoices.”
Zach didn’t move. Her explanation sort of made sense, but it was also too good to be true. Every bad deed required a punishment, and Zach knew that truth better than Lauren’s sheep story. “You got all that from a paragraph about a sheep?”
She slid her phone back into her pocket andgrinned at him like she’d just won a spelling bee. “Yep.”
Zach stared into his dark coffee. She had a radiance that refused to be ignored. Where did she get that kind of confidence and happiness? “You make me wonder if there’s more to life than just surviving, angel.”
“There is,” she said quickly.
Man, she actually believed everything she was telling him. Lauren was ten times smarter than him. Maybe he should try things her way, but maybe that life wasn’t meant for him. Being cast back down to the bottom of the barrel would be so much harder the further he climbed up.
He took a deep breath and faced her. “I’m messed up, but… please don’t give up on me. Everyone else has.”
She smiled and shrugged one shoulder like she hadn’t just shaken everything he believed in. She wore a smile like a loaded gun, and he was lucky to be her target. “I’m not the type to give up.” She picked up the remote and restarted the documentary. “I really want to see this. Stop distracting me.”
Zach couldn’t look away from her. He wanted more of her. He wanted every scrap that would fall from her table because he didn’t deserve a seat beside her.
If there was a God, He wouldn’t allow a man like Zach to end up with a woman like Lauren.
24
Lauren
Lauren gripped the phone pressed to her ear. Her heart was pounding so hard her ears throbbed with the pressure.
Asa’s voice held a tightness that mirrored the pulling in her own chest. “Promise me you won’t do anything. We need to keep this investigation clean.”
She typed furiously on her laptop, pulling up a map of Winchester. The town was only a few hours away. “I promise.”
“I mean it, Lauren. We’re giving this all we have, but it’s useless if anyone gets tipped off.”
“Okay. Okay.” What did he expect her to do? She didn’t have access to the same systems and database as law enforcement officials.
Well, not yet, at least.
“You’re our best resource, Lauren. We need you in this, but you have to be a team player.”
