Oh God, I prayed, spare her, heal her, give her strength and courage and let her survive. Give her peace; let her feel Your grace and protection.

She sniffed. “Thank you.”

I let go and sat back, smiling sympathetically. “What for?”

“For praying for me.”

“How did you know?” I clapped a hand over my mouth. “I wasn’t praying out loud, was I? I didn’t mean to!”

She laughed. “No, don’t worry.” She shrugged. “I could just feel it. There’s a power, almost, that just seems to kind of”—she made ocean wave motions with her hands—“flow out of you.”

I blinked, embarrassed. “Really?”

She shrugged and reached for a napkin on the table, dabbing at her eyes. “It’s cool. I’ve never met anyone who was that close to God before.”

“Oh, Zoe,” I sighed, laying a hand on her arm. “It’s only by God’s grace that I’m close to Him. It hasn’t been that long that I’ve even cared about God, much less been close to Him. But it’s so amazing.” I smiled. “Jack and I have had the most incredible experiences because of it.” Something prompted me to cut the conversation short, and I stood suddenly and moved toward the kitchen. “And I’ll tell you all about it sometime if you want, but first we have to feed you because you can’t beat cancer on an empty stomach.”

Zoe laughed, the bright, deep laugh I was used to hearing from her. She wiped the tears from her eyes and finished her coffee as I rummaged through the cabinets. “Sadly, I don’t cook, and Jack only does when he’s really motivated, so unless you can work magic with eggs, celery, and oatmeal, we’re going to have to go out. Why don’t you run and freshen up, and I’ll loan you some clothes. How does the pier sound for lunch?”

“Sounds good. You rock.” She came over and hugged me, a tight embrace that told me we had crossed to a new level of friendship. She retreated back upstairs, and after I heard the shower start, I went to my closet, praying through tears for this girl who had become so precious to me.

JACK

ZOE’S UNFORTUNATE NEWS turned out to be only the first in what seemed to be a sick demonstration of just how much life can suck. The onset of filming—the most stressful aspect of the whole process—brought an onslaught of tragedy. One cameraman lost his baby daughter to SIDS, the head of costume design lost her mother in a car accident, and a member of the lighting team fell off a scaffold and broke both legs. It seemed as though every day brought another depressing story or tragic event. But in the midst of it all, Grace and I became the rocks to which everyone wanted to anchor their floundering boats.