“I’m not saying you haven’t. But … that’s a request you save for someone you’re serious about.”

The perfect setup. My audacity amazed me. I waited for him to state his intentions, whatever they might be. My tone had implied that I assumed he wasn’t serious; if he wanted out, he could easily admit I had come to the right conclusion.

His stare was so intense I nearly looked away. For a moment I thought he was blushing. He took a deep breath and said, “I am serious about you, Grace.” He dropped his gaze for a split second before recovering and saying, “I want to make this work.”

The words sent me reeling. He saw my incredulity and hurried to fill the silence. “I know it’s inconvenient, and that the God thing throws a wrench in the works, but it’s the truth, Grace. I didn’t see this coming, and I don’t want to hurt you, and … and the look on your face is kind of scaring me because I don’t know what it means, and I don’t know if I’ve just destroyed everything or … or what,” he faltered, his hand raking through his hair as his eyes roamed the room before coming to rest on my face again. He looked as panicked as I felt.

I swallowed and cleared my throat, stalling. A nervous laugh broke from my throat. “I don’t know what to say,” I squeaked truthfully. I’d wanted honesty, but now I didn’t know what to do with it.

“This isn’t a proposal or anything, Grace, I’m not asking you for a response—although I do want to know where I stand. I just wanted to make sure you knew how I felt.”

I took a deep breath and forced myself to look him in the eye. My thoughts were so scrambled I could hardly tell one from the other. But beneath all the chaos was a single impression that I knew in my heart was from God, and with what little presence of mind I had left, I flung up to heaven a prayer for strength.

“It’s not where you stand with me that is the problem, Jack. It’s where you stand with God.” Where the words came from, I didn’t know. But the chaos ceased as abruptly as it had begun, and I knew I was doing the right thing. “The ‘God thing does more than throw a wrench in the works. It doesn’t matter how much I care for you, or you for me; the bottom line is that without God in the center of it, it wouldn’t work the way a solid relationship should work. And I can’t allow either of us to subject ourselves to that kind of heartache.”