Page 15 of A Heart of Little Faith
“Hello?”
“Lily?”
His voice sent shivers running up her spine. “Hey, Gideon.” Lily opened the refrigerator and took out jelly. She frowned at the sound of a drawn breath. “Are you okay?”
There was a short pause. “Why?”
“You don’t sound like yourself. Is everything all right?”
“Yeah,” he rasped. He cleared his throat. “Yeah,” he said firmly. “I’m having a bad day is all.”
“Already?” she laughed. “It’s only seven in the morning!”
He cleared his throat. “I know. I didn’t get much sleep last night.”
Her first inclination was to offer sympathy, but with Gideon, she hesitated. Her stomach twisting, she relented. “Can I do anything?” Lily winced and mentally ducked, as she waited for his tirade and hoped she hadn’t offended him. Talking to him was like disarming a bomb: you never knew which “wire” would cause him to “blow.”
“No thanks. I have to reschedule our dinner tonight, though. Tell Claire I’m sorry.” His voice dropped and he audibly swallowed.
“Oh, okay. I’ll talk to you later.”I’m better off.She stared at the phone. She squelched her disappointment and concern and went to wake Claire.
On her way out the door, her cell phone rang. “Hi, Samantha.”
“Hi,” she said, tone sharp. “I am so annoyed!”
Lily stiffened. “What’s wrong?”
“Tyler called me this morning and quit. That means I’ll have to start working Saturdays again, starting this week, and three evenings a week until I can find another assistant.”
“That sucks. Why’d he quit?”
“I don’t know. He gave me some story about a great opportunity, blah, blah, blah. The least he could have done was give me notice, but no. And I really thought he was great. Shows how much I know!”
“Oh Sam, I’m sorry. Is there anything I can do?” The corner of her mouth turned up—she’d asked the same thing of both siblings within minutes of each other.
“Do you know any good art gallery assistants you can recommend?”
“Unfortunately not.”
“Darn. Well, I guess the rest of my weekends and evenings are gone.” Dejection dulled her words and Lily hoped she hired a replacement soon.
They hung up and after dropping Claire at school, Lily went to work.
As soon as Lily walked into her office, Anne appeared, as if she’d been waiting for her. “What happened yesterday after I left?”
“What do you mean?”
“You and Gideon stayed to talk. What happened?”
Lily’s face heated. “The usual, of course. We argued again.”
Anne arched back, one eyebrow raised. “Because you thought he’d like you better if you did? I think maybe you need a refresher course on how to pick up men.”
Lily laughed. “I wasn’t trying to pick him up, Anne.”
“Obviously.”
“Really, it was no big deal and it ended quickly. Besides, it’s not like I want to start something.” Obviously, it wasn’t meant to be, even if she couldn’t get the sound of his voice out of her head, nor stop the zings of awareness that continued to slide up her spine.