This was the sort of place where rich women came every week to get pampered and petted. For Susan, it was a once-in-a-lifetime visit and she wanted to savor every moment and detail.

  Soft cushions in muted creams and tans were piled high on a comfy-looking sofa.

  She ran a hand along the lightly textured surface of the semicircular reception desk. The soft texturing was repeated on the walls.

  “Hello. You must be Susan,” a hostess said in greeting.

  Susan turned to face the woman, who wore a uniform of khaki slacks and a cream polo shirt with the Lily Pond logo. “Yes. I’m Susan.”

  “I’m a Susan, too. But most people call me Suzy. Won’t you follow me? I’ll show you where you can put your things and then you can change.”

  In a locker room, Susan stashed her purse, shoes and clothes and changed into a to-die-for plush robe. She checked the label, then giggled. “One hundred percent Egyptian cotton.” She loved the feel of the rich fabric on her bare skin.

  “Right this way,” Suzy said, appearing again, seemingly out of nowhere, just as Susan slipped her feet into a pair of flip-flops that had been with the robe. Suzy gave her a tour of the facilities. “We’d like you to drink plenty of water. Your masseuse today will be Annette. Your manicurist will be Elena…”

  Susan heard the words but didn’t register any of the names of the technicians who would give her a facial, manicure and the like. She was too busy feeling like Cinderella. Gabriel had been right, she’d been looking forward to this more than any other aspect of her fantasy date.

  Less than thirty minutes later she was on a massage table getting every last worry rubbed and stroked away, including ones she hadn’t even realized she’d had. She thought her body might just melt into the table.

  “Did I die and go to Heaven?”

  The technician chuckled. “I get that a lot. Is this your first massage?”

  “Umm,” Susan said, slowly drifting off.

  Before long, she heard her name being called. “Mrs. Carter?”

  Susan didn’t want the dream to fade away. In it, she’d been drifting on a cloud, sipping ambrosia.

  “Mrs. Carter?”

  “Huh?”

  “It’s time for your manicure and pedicure.”

  Susan lifted her head, glanced around. “It wasn’t a dream.”

  “No, ma’am. You’re still at the Lily Pond. Let me help you down.”

  By the time Susan floated out of the Lily Pond spa she truly felt like a princess. All she wanted to do was go home, sprawl on the sofa and stay there forever.

  But her fantasy date was only just beginning. Her dress for dinner hung on the closet door, but for the afternoon tours she dressed in slacks, an embroidered vest and a light turtleneck.

  When Gabriel arrived, he too was in casual wear.

  “Have you ever been on the gold-rush mining tour?”

  Susan shook her head. “I think it’s one of those attractions that you just never get to because you live here. It’s always on the one-of-these-days list. But every time there’s an opportunity to do something new, we never pick it.”

  “Then we’ll get to experience it together for the first time.”

  She looked at him, wondering if this was a real date or just an elaborate gesture on Liza’s part, and with Jessica’s coordinating, to get her out.

  “Gabriel?”

  He took his eyes off the road for a bit. “Yes?”

  What Susan wanted to ask him was who was paying for the date part. Was Liza Montgomery also picking up the tab for the spa package, the tours, the dinner and show? She couldn’t think of a graceful way to ask—is this real or just a public service on your part?

  “The spa was fabulous,” she said instead.

  He grinned. “So what, exactly, happens in the Lily Pond?”

  Susan held out her hand so he could see the nail polish. “My hands haven’t been this soft in I don’t know how long.” She inspected her nails. “I rarely wear nail color, and never red. It’s a little bold.”

  “It looks great.”

  She told him about the massage and the other services. “And guess what?” she said, practically bouncing in her seat.

  He smiled at her enthusiasm. “What?”

  “They let me keep the robe! And…” she said, waving her hands. “And I got a bag of goodies, some of the products they used, including an eye mask.”

  “Hmm, sounds like I’m going to have a rough time competing with that spa.”

  Susan glanced at him and grinned. “I think so, too.”

  The Cripple Creek and Victor Narrow Gauge Railroad was a scenic adventure into Colorado’s days gone by. More than 800 million dollars in gold had been mined in the Cripple Creek area during Colorado’s gold rush. In an old steam engine complete with pillaring smoke, the narrated railroad tour took Susan, Gabriel and other visitors along the route that gold miners used.

  “I didn’t think to bring a camera,” Susan said.

  “Neither did I.” But wearing miners’ hats, they had their picture taken at one of the stops on the route.

  At Seven Falls, they gazed dubiously at the long stairway leading up the mountainside.

  “Steps or elevator?” Gabriel asked.

  “If I climb all those steps, I’m going to need another massage to get all the kinks out.”

  Laughing, Gabriel led her to the mountain elevator that blasted them up through fourteen stories of granite to the Eagle’s Nest lookout.

  “The girls would love this,” Susan said when they arrived, taking in the view from every direction.

  “We’ll have to bring them one afternoon.”

  Susan glanced at him and nodded, then looked out at the landscape again. “This is awesome. God truly created a work of art.”

  Gabriel agreed. But his gaze was on Susan, not the spectacular view of plains and trees.

  Later, they sat across from each other at one of Colorado Springs’ best restaurants, adjacent to the theater where they were to see an eight-o’clock performance. Candlelight flickered between them. Dinner dishes had been cleared and they were waiting for dessert and coffee to arrive.

  “This day has been the best,” Susan said. “Just the best. Enough for three dates. Thank you.”

  “It’s been fun spending it with you.”

  “I’m glad Liza set it up,” Susan said as she reached for her water goblet.

  Gabriel stayed her hand. “Liza didn’t do this,” he said.

  Susan’s gaze met his steady one, though her voice wasn’t controlled when she asked him, “What do you mean?”

  “When Jessica first approached me about being a bachelor in the auction, I declined. I didn’t think it was appropriate.”

  “What changed your mind?”

  “A few weeks later she came back,” Gabriel said, smoothing the immaculate white linen tablecloth. “By that time, I think there was some matchmaking afoot.”

  Susan had never shied away from anything in her life. But now that the situation was about her, things were a little different. She felt tongue-tied.

  “The proposal had changed,” Gabriel said. “She wanted to know if I would set up a date just for you.”

  “Just for me?”

  He nodded. “She and Liza Montgomery wanted to do something nice for you.”

  She relaxed a bit, sat back in her chair. This part made sense. It was just Jessi and Liza deciding she had been working too hard and needed a day to play. “So they arranged for the spa, the tours, this?”

  He shook his head. “I did that.”

  Susan’s mouth dropped open.

  “Why are you looking so shocked?” he asked.

  “You…you set all this up? You’re paying for it?” She put her hand over her mouth. “That sounds callous, I know. But…”

  He reached for her hands, clasped them in his. “Yes, Susan. Each bachelor set up and financed his own date. But this one, knowing you’d be the only woman who’d win, I created it especially for you.”

  “Why?”

  “Here we are,” their server said, interrupting with two very large slices of berry-covered cheesecake. He placed the desserts in front of them, added forks and then offered additional berry sauce.

  Susan tasted the cheesecake, which was rich and delicious, but her mind was on what Gabriel had said. He’d set all of this up…just for her?

  She put her fork down.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “This picture is wrong,” Susan told him.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t get the game, Gabriel. And I don’t like being the object of jokes.”

  He carefully placed his own fork on the dessert plate and regarded her. “What are you talking about?”

  “This,” Susan said, hoping she would be able to explain.

  Until Gabriel Dawson had come along, upsetting her equilibrium, Susan had thought she had a liberal dose of self-esteem. Dealing with Gabriel had somehow managed to get her insides all twisted. He made her confront things she’d rather keep buried. The main thing being her fear that she couldn’t trust her own judgment. After all, Reggie too had wined and dined her. He’d made her feel like a cherished queen, only to turn the tables just when Susan let down her guard and opened her heart.

  She couldn’t take that chance again. Too much was at stake. Not just her own heart—which she didn’t think could withstand another fracture. She had the girls to think about.

  When Reggie was alive, the girls had been too young to know what was happening. Now, however, was a different story.

  “I don’t understand any of this,” she told Gabriel. “I don’t get the why? You. Me. I just don’t get it.”

  Though he’d never given her any reason to doubt that his words and actions weren’t true, Susan had a healthy respect for self-preservation. Gabriel had too many things in common with her late husband. They were both good-looking men who knew how to use words and promises to woo and entice. Susan couldn’t afford to make the same mistake twice.

  “What’s there to understand?” he said. “I enjoy spending time with you.”

  “But why?”

  For a moment, he looked confused. “Because I like you.”

  “Why?”

  His eyes narrowed. “Susan, what’s going on here?”

  She blinked, trying not to get emotional, fearing that she’d been played for a fool—again. “That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”

  Gabriel found himself at a loss to figure out just where the evening had gone off track. They’d had a nice time all afternoon and throughout dinner. Then, out of nowhere, Susan starting shutting him out.

  He’d feared that he was moving too fast, sweeping both of them up in the vortex of his own emotions. Throughout his life, Gabriel had always relied on the quiet conviction of the Holy Spirit that he felt within. Some people heard from God through prayer or meditation or even in the voices of other people. For Gabriel, it had always been a quiet knowing, a sureness that guided his actions.

  The moment he’d met Susan Carter, he’d felt a connection with her, one that had been stronger and surer than anything he’d ever experienced. Doubting himself for the first time, he’d hesitated in taking any steps toward getting to know her. Maybe he’d waited too long.

  “You’re seeing someone else?”

  Too late he realized he’d blurted out the question.

  “What?”

  Susan shook her head and held up her hands.

  “Wait. Just wait,” she said. “We need to start all over. At the very beginning. Because frankly, I think I’m missing something.”

  “Me, too,” Gabriel said.

  Susan pushed the cheesecake plate away, folded her arms. “All right, you go first.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  “I was going to say, ladies first.”

  She leveled a gaze at him. Gabriel realized it was a look normally reserved for the twins, and had to smile.

  Maybe his waiting to seriously approach her had been for the best. Time merely cemented his feelings. Now all he had to do was make Susan realize he was serious. “These last few weeks with you have been terrific,” he said.

  “But?”

  He leaned forward. “There is no ‘but,’ Susan. There never has been. When I arrived in Colorado Springs, I came here with a mission to build Good Shepherd into a church that was a beacon in the community. After meeting with the various boards and committees, I knew the plan I had was a solid one. There was one piece missing, though.”

  “What?”

  “You.”

  “Excuse me?”

  He shook his head. “Not you specifically at the time. I mean…a wife.”

  Susan’s eyebrows lifted high.

  Gabriel waved a hand, trying to clear the air and his thoughts. “Let me explain. Most ministers arrive at a pastorate with families. Being a single man, I counted myself blessed to have been called to Good Shepherd. Members gave me about a month to get settled, then the matchmaking started in earnest. Susan, you just don’t know. I’ve been propositioned in ways that would make your hair stand on end.”

  She lifted a springy curl. “It already does.”

  Gabriel smiled and felt the tension between them dissipate a bit. “Even as the parade of women kept getting longer, I was only interested in one. And she was someone who didn’t seem to like me very much.”

  Susan waited.

  “That would be you,” he said.

  “It’s not that I didn’t like you. What I didn’t like was the way you were ignoring the community most affected by Good Shepherd. The sphere of the church’s influence was neglected while you were off chasing city council members and state legislators.”

  He knew where she was coming from this time, so the barb didn’t hurt the way it had before.

  “Susan, if you must know the truth, I was avoiding you. Whenever my secretary gave me a message from you or someone at Galilee, I would conveniently put it in a to-be-done pile—a pile that never got answered or addressed.”

  It was Susan’s turn to look confused. “Why? What did I ever do to you?”

  “It wasn’t what you’d done,” Gabriel said. “It was what I felt toward you. I believe there are rules. Boundaries shouldn’t be crossed between a minister and parishioner, especially a single minister and his single, female members.”

  “If boundaries aren’t crossed sometimes, how is someone like you, a single pastor, ever supposed to find a mate?” She looked away for a moment, then, blushing, quickly added, “Hypothetically, of course.”

  Gabriel sighed. “That’s why many ministers marry while they’re still in seminary or shortly after graduation. When a pastorate comes along, they have a wife and possibly children. It’s different for associate ministers of a church. The boundaries, at least in my estimation, aren’t as stringent for them because they aren’t in the senior leadership position.” He met her gaze. “With you, I wanted to cross those lines.”

  “You never said anything. You never even gave any indication that you knew I existed.”

  “Trust me,” he said, his tone sardonic, “I knew.”

  He could tell she was digesting his words. Susan was a smart woman, and Gabriel’s new fear was that she would take the next mental leap and realize just what he had on his mind. He’d had months to think about all of the what-ifs. For Susan, this was all new.

  “So tonight—” she began, then shook her head. “The night of the gala, I mean. So that was what—a public declaration?”

  She’d made the leap.

  “Do you mind terribly?”

  Susan frowned. “That depends,” she said, drawing out the word. “I’m starting to feel like a marionette in some sort of drama you’re orchestrating. When do I get some say in this?”

  Her cautious tone was far from the loving one he’d hoped for, or even the playful one that delighted him. Gabriel closed his eyes for a moment. This wasn’t going at all the way he’d planned.

  “I’m a big-picture man, Susan. Whether it’s the church, my own life or even my military career, everything is like a chess match where I think three, four or five moves ahead.”

  One of those arched eyebrows lifted and he saw steam gathering.

  “So now I’m a pawn in your little chess game of life. Is that it?” Susan plucked her napkin from her lap and dropped it on top of her uneaten cheesecake. “I’m ready to go.”

  A line had been crossed and she’d shifted from cautious to caustic. He reached for her hand. “You don’t understand. I’m not making myself clear.”

  “Oh, you’re making yourself pretty clear, Pastor Gabriel.” She put her elbows on the table and held out one hand. “First,” she said throwing out her thumb. “You’re looking at forty and beginning to wonder how long you can play the single-minister role before people start wondering about you. So you start scouting for a suitable pawn to play. Second,” she said, lifting her index finger. “You spot a civic-minded widow in the congregation. ‘Ooh,’ you say, ‘she’ll be desperate,’ so you saunter on over and put into play your little scheme that includes cozying up to the widow’s pet cause. Third,” her middle finger shot out, ticking off the next charge against him “—oh, look, the widow comes with two little kids. Twins at that. Perfect for the picture Christmas card to send to all the church members.”

  She threw the words at him like stones, her nostrils flaring with fury. “And fourth, you set up this elaborate date thinking I come so cheap that I’ll just fall slobbering into your lap because you pay me a little attention.”

  Susan stood up, snatched her small evening bag from the table. “Well, let me tell you something, Pastor Gabriel. There will be no fifth move in your chess game, ’cause this little chess piece is declaring checkmate on you.”

  Gabriel rose. “Susan, that’s not it. You’re blowing this way out of proportion.”

  She eyed him with disdain. “You know what, Gabriel? You’re worse than my late husband. He might have been a liar, a cheater, a wife beater and a drug addict, but at least he was honest about what he wanted from me. You’re a sneak, and in my book, that makes you worse.”

 

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