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Her heart giggled. The message said:

Hope you slept well. Was thinking about you, so I thought I’d check in.

He was thinking about her? The giggle didn’t want to stay in her heart.

She texted back.

I’m okay. Ran into Ernie, so feeling a little off.

Not thirty seconds after she sent the text, her phone rang. It was Will. She answered it before the first ring had finished.

“Hey.”

“What happened? Are you sure you’re okay?”

She told him about the incident. And while she couldn’t quite hear him grunting over the phone, she was pretty sure he was.

“Do you want some company?” he asked.

“I would really like that.”

“I’ll be there in five.”

She hung up and held the phone to her chest. Not only did she need company, but she needed his company. She sent a prayer of gratitude for Will to the Lord. And prayed about her unsettled spirit until a knock sounded on her door.

She jumped up and rushed to it as if something horrible would happen if she didn’t let him in immediately.

After checking through the peephole that it was indeed him, she opened the door.

Wearing shorts and a not-quite-fitted T-shirt and with his dark hair tousled, he looked amazing, but his smile stopped her heart.

When he met her eyes, he reached out and pulled her against his chest.

She buried her face in his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist as his arms encircled her.

“That encounter shook you up more than you let on.” It wasn’t a question.

She nodded, not an easy task with her head so tightly smashed against him.

She could stay tucked in his arms forever but maybe not out on her doorstep for all the neighbors to see.

Pulling out of his hug, she tugged him inside.

He pushed the door shut and threw the bolt.

Her past careened forward into her mind. With Will in her life, she hated to think about how often she’d pulled a man into her apartment.

“Where’d you just go?”

She snapped her attention back to Will. “I guess there’s a reason Ernie thinks I’d be open to the things he suggested. I’m not your sweet little church girl.”

“How long have you been a believer?”

“Like a year.”

“That’s not very long. I would never have expected you to have lived a Christian life before you were a believer. Most believers struggle to live a Christian life.”

“I guess. But I kind of expected that being in relationship with Christ would change things more. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t go out drinking and sleeping with whoever I want. He’s truly changed my heart and my life, but sometimes my old life rears up and reminds me of …” She couldn’t find the word.