She stifled a yawn as she hefted her suitcase onto the sidewalk.
When she visited her father this morning, he'd had a lot more color and was eager to go home, so she'd left him with a very capable Helen while she visited DuPont Analytics. It had only taken four hours of impromptu meetings with Sam and Dirk and many of the department heads to remind her why she'd left the corporate world. She'd forgotten how much she hated meetings.
But I still like the idea of owning my own business. One that's not stuffy and boring.
Once again, she couldn't help but wonder what Esmeralda meant by her owning her own business. Especially since she got a job offer via email today from Avant Garde Home Decor. An offer that if it had come two weeks ago would have thrilled her. Now, she was just plain confused.
Why is God dangling this carrot in front of me when I've decided to do whatever it takes to make things work with Rudy.
After leaving work, she'd made the trip back to her dad's house to make sure he'd made it home from the hospital and was feeling okay. So of course, Helen insisted on feeding her again.
It was after seven now, and all she wanted to do was sink into a hot bubble bath.
She rounded the corner to her apartment and froze.
There on her front steps sat Rudy.
He was the last person she expected to see, so the sight of him took her breath away. It didn't help that he wore denim shorts and a light-blue polo shirt that hugged his biceps. He looked up, and eyes as blue as the Caribbean Ocean locked on her.
"What are you doing here?" Her voice squeaked.
He rose to his feet, all six foot-one of glorious perfection.
"You never called, so I had to come." He shrugged like it was no big deal, but the way he shoved his hands into his pockets reflected a hint of insecurity.
When Eden had finally checked her phone last night, she had two more messages from Rudy. Both asked her to call him. But she couldn't bring herself to do it. Instead, she'd finally sent him a text, saying her dad was going to be fine then turned her phone off.
Of course, there were another two messages and a missed call from him this morning, but she'd ignored them. If she was going to convince him to throw away his life plans and take a chance on her, she needed a game plan. She couldn't just race into this blindly and hope for the best.
Go for what you want. And put your trust in God.
Helen's words filled her head.
Eden took a deep breath and smiled as she approached Rudy. "How long have you been here?"
"Here on your doorstep? Or here in Spokane?"
She quirked an eyebrow. "Both."
"I've been sitting on your step for..." He checked his watch. "For about an hour and a half. And I've been in Spokane since about nine-thirty this morning."
She gasped. "You've been here all day? Why?"
"I told you. You never called. I had to come make sure your dad is okay." He pressed the toe of his tennis shoe into a crack in the sidewalk. "And I need to know if...we're okay."
The flutter of a thousand butterfly wings filled her stomach, and a lightness flooded her chest. Refusing to get her hopes up too soon, she mentally tamped down the flutters and said, "My dad is doing good. He's home now."
"I know." When she gave him a surprised look, he went on. "I showed up at the hospital this morning hoping to find you, but you'd just left. Your dad and Helen invited me to sit and visit for a while. Then when they discharged your dad, Helen insisted I follow them home so she could feed me lunch. I tried to refuse, but they told me you'd be busy all day at work, so I may as well hang out with them."
Rudy spent the day with Dad and Helen? She hated to think of the things they might have said to him.
"But I just came from there." And neither of them had let on that they'd spent the better part of the day with Rudy.
No wonder Helen wanted me to come back to my own apartment tonight.
"I got impatient waiting for you, so I finally left about four-thirty and drove to Dupont Analytics."
"Which is about the time I left. We must have just missed each other."
