More Than This: Contemporary Christian Romance Novel (24 page)

She tilted her head. “Why not? You could take a creative writing class or something. Even if it wasn’t full time. The college has a great Continuing Education Program. I’m sure they have something…”

Jake shook his head, batting away the absurdity of the idea from his heart. “I don’t think so.”

“Why not?”

Why not. Why not. Yeah, Jake-y, why not?
His mind mocked him just like the other kids had so long ago.
“Uh, well, for one, I don’t have the cash. For two I don’t really have the time.”

“Most of the Continuing Ed classes are like one night a week. What? Are you afraid you’ll miss your coffee fix?” Liz angled her steps into his, and only because she was so much smaller than him did he not get thrown off balance.

“I know.” He lifted his gaze, taking in the bustle of the city around him. Everyone seemed to be going somewhere, so why did he feel so stuck? Suddenly they were upon the ferry entrance. “Oh, here we go.” He turned their steps toward the ticket booth and the ferries that were slicing through the harbor beyond. The sunlight glinted across it making the waves look more like diamonds. He went up to the window and handed over the money. “Two please.”

She didn’t protest, and he was glad for that.

Tickets in hand, they headed for the boat that was loading. The statue in all her glory stood out in contrast to the waves that lapped and jostled the boat.

“Wow. I can’t believe I’m actually here,” Liz said, and he heard the awe in her voice.

He looked down at her as passion and peace filled his. “Me either.”

The whole ride across the harbor Jake stood behind her on the deck, shadowing her every move. As intimidating and strange as that should have felt, it felt neither. Instead, it felt right, as right and natural as anything ever had. Leaning into her, he pointed out how the folds of Lady Liberty’s dress flowed down the length of her, and Liz had to force the air to go into her lungs at the feel of him being so close.

“That is so cool,” he said, and when his hand came back down, it rested on her arm sending shivers up and down her. He was so strong, so sturdy, so real.

“It’s so beautiful out here,” she said, brushing the breeze from her hair that slipped across her face. She looked up at him, and he was so near. Somehow that surprised her though it shouldn’t have. When he glanced down at her, her eyes captured his or his captured hers, she couldn’t quite tell which, but she felt that look go all the way through her.

Serenely, slowly, his gaze drifted down to her lips and then back up to her eyes and held there. She was caught somewhere in the middle of him with no way to get out. It didn’t matter. She didn’t want to get out… ever. He leaned down to her, shifting only slightly as his arms cradled her into him. Her eyes slid closed as the beauty of the day ceded control to the awe of him. The first touch of his lips was soft, a request, an invitation which she gladly accepted.

Under her, the boat swayed or maybe it was the clouds. She couldn’t really tell. Suddenly all in life that mattered was his lips on hers and hers on his. It was as if her body was falling through a dimension of time into another, and she grabbed onto him lest she fall completely off the planet. His arms tightened around her as the kiss between them deepened. How had she ever lived to this moment without feeling this kiss? His kiss? Jake’s kiss. It was more than she could have hoped, more even than she remembered. This one had a solidity to it, a belief that this wasn’t a fluke that would never happen again.

Gasping for breath when the kiss broke, Liz wanted only to ask, no to beg, for more. When she opened her eyes, she found his searching hers… for what? Permission? Assurance? Hope? She smiled softly up at him, answering all his questions with no actual words. Gently she slipped her arms under his jacket and laid her head on the sweater covering his solid chest. She breathed in the day and him. Never had she experienced a moment of such utter perfection.

They held each other just like that the rest of the way across the harbor until the boat docked. Liz was sad to see the trip end but glad when he didn’t let her hand go. Instead, he guided her with the rest of the passengers and held on tightly to her as they disembarked, checking to make sure she made the journey safely. It seemed such a short distance across the harbor yet it felt like she had embarked on the journey as one person and disembarked as someone else. His girlfriend perhaps? The thought made her heart jump with hope. Could he really think of her that way? Or was she misreading the signs? She had misread so many to this point, fear whispered this might just be one more.

Pushing all those doubts away and determined to simply enjoy the day with him, she followed, glad for his hand that never let hers go through the crush of humanity around them. They stepped onto the concrete surrounding the Lady, and Liz shielded her eyes from the onslaught of the sun to look up. The statue that had once looked so small towered above her. Jake mirrored her actions, and she held onto him as her balance swayed beneath her.

“Wow,” she said, breathing the word.

“Amazing,” he echoed as he shook his head. “Did you ever think you would see her?”

Liz glanced up at him, happy she was here, but even happier to be here with him. “I’m glad I waited.”

His look down at her was filled with surprise and then joy. “Me too.”

“So, what do you think?” Jake asked when they were inside the visitor’s center. “You want to go up to the crown?”

“Well, I didn’t come all this way to stay on the ground.” She laughed at the look on his face. “Did you?”

“Well, no…”

“Great. I’ll race you.” Grabbing the steel handrail, she started up.

Jake followed, hoping the contents of his stomach would stay in him. Somehow in all the excitement of going, he had never quite factored in the height of Lady Liberty. Heights had always done strange things to him, and unfortunately that hadn’t magically disappeared with that toe-tingling kiss on the ferry. It was best not to think about the climb, so he didn’t. Instead, he let himself remember her, how beautiful she was, how soft, how trusting. He vowed as he climbed the steel-mesh innards of the statue that he would never violate that trust. That vow was followed by one that said he would never allow anyone to hurt her ever again.

Finding her was like finding a precious diamond hidden in the dirt. In all of humanity, in all of the chaos, how could he ever have believed such a thing as her was possible?

“This is quite the climb,” she said ahead of him, sounding winded.

He was winded too, but it wasn’t from the climb. “If you want to go back down…”

“Are you kidding? No way.”

“Just thought I’d offer.” Fear was starting to snake into him. Just how far up had they gone anyway? He tried to judge it, to use his mind to see out beyond the steel and copper of the statue surrounding them. Maybe, if he could just get a gauge, he wouldn’t be so blown over by it at the top. He was glad for the light breeze outside as the insides of him began to wonder what it was like in here on a windy day. Did the statue sway with the wind? His body started to sway and pitch with just the thought.

“I think we’re almost there.” Her climbing had slowed presumably for the steepness and length they had already climbed.

“Oh, good.” Clutching more than holding onto the rail, he willed his mind to steady. He could do this. Mind over matter. The power of positive thinking. As a man thinketh…  All the stuff his mother had said and taught him growing up trying to get him to believe in something other than failure.

“Hi,” Liz said to the guard standing there. “That’s quite the climb.”

“Yes, but the view is more than worth it.”

That’s when he heard her gasp, and his gaze jumped to her in alarm and then followed hers out to the world beyond. The sight nearly knocked Jake off the step he was on, and he grabbed for the railing, wanting to wrap himself around it and never let go.

“Oh, Jake, it’s beautiful!” She leaned toward the gaps in the crown as Jake fought to figure out how he would ever save her if she fell.

He would have liked to believe he would’ve been brave, put himself in danger to save her, but the sad fact of his life was, he was too terrified to even let go of the railing.

“Wow! Look! You can see the Empire State Building! Look how little the people look down there. They look like ants.”

Jake made it all the way to the top where she stood, but his body was in full-retreat mode.

“Isn’t it incredible?”

“Yeah,” he said weakly. “Incredible.”
Don’t hurl, Jake. Just don’t hurl.
He closed his eyes, willing his body not to feel how high up they were.

“Oh, wow. You can see her arm out this way.”

Nothing in him wanted to see her arm. Everything in him wanted to
get down!

“It’s amazing.” She shook her head in awe and looked over at him. This look, however, seemed to go deeper than all the others had. “Are you okay?”

“What? Yeah.” He swallowed hard and shrugged, as much as his hands latched onto the railing would let him. Though it was nearly winter, he felt like it must be the dog days of summer. He was sweating, and the heavy wool coat he wore wasn’t helping. “I’m… I’m fine.”

But worry covered her face. “Jake? Are you afraid of heights?”

How he wanted to say no, to act like a tough guy, let go of the railing and show her how unafraid he was. He wanted to, but he couldn’t.

“You are. You’re afraid of heights.” She came back from taking in the view and put her hand on his arm. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t want to spoil it for you.” His gaze begged hers to both understand and to get him down.

“Well, for the love of Pete, it’s not worth you having a heart attack. Come on. Let’s go.”

Jake wanted to thank her, but he didn’t have the lung capacity to do that, owing to the fact that the air was turning stale from not moving out of him. “Okay.”

All the way down Liz kept one eye on the steps and one on him. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” But his voice was shaky beyond belief. Why hadn’t she noticed this on the way up? Strange how she had always seen him as somehow indestructible, but the green on his face screamed something very different. He was clutching that handrail as if it might save his life.

“You really didn’t have to go up there,” she said as guilt seeped into her. “You could have told me no.”

He grimaced meekly at her, and she decided that brow-beating him for trying to make her happy probably wasn’t such a great idea.

“I think we’re almost down.” She angled her steps around the bend in the staircase. “You any better?”

“Trying to be.”

“Well, just think happy thoughts. Honey bees. Cherry blossoms. Field of daisies.”

His eyebrows arched. “Field of daisies?”

“Work with me here.”

“Okay. Okay.” He laughed softly. “But I’ve never seen a field of daisies. What does one look like?”

“You don’t know what daisies are?”

“Well, yeah. Aren’t they those little white things with the yellow in the middle?”

“That’s the one. Now just picture a whole field of them.”

“Field or hill?”

“Does it matter?”

“Well, yeah. A field is wide and flat. A hill would have more character.”

“Okay.” She laughed, thinking he must be feeling a little better. “Then make it a hill.”

“What time of day is it?”

At first she was going to make fun of him, but then she realized why this was helping. “Um, morning. The sun just came up.”

“Are these wild daisies or in a garden?”

“Wild.”

“Is there a breeze?”

“Yeah, a light one blowing out of the east.”

“You mean the west.”

That stopped her, but she recovered quickly. “Of course, the west. I’ve always been bad with directions.”

He smiled at her. “That makes two of us.”

She laughed at that, happy he was looking better, and even happier he was starting to joke around. “So we’ve got a hill of daisies at sunrise with the breeze blowing out of the west.”

“Right.”

“Is that it?”

“No, there’s an old wagon wheel in the middle of the daisies.”

“Oh, yeah. I missed that.”

His gaze jerked back to her. “You see it too?”

“What? Yeah, totally. Of course, I see it. It’s right there by the fence post, the one with the sagging barbed wire.”

“Oh, yeah, right. I didn’t see that, but you’re right.”

This was, by far, the most bizarre conversation she’d ever had with anyone. “What else is there?”

“I think maybe there’s a house on the other side of the hill. One we can’t see.”

“Oh? Who lives there?”

Jake didn’t say anything for a long time, and Liz’s panic meter went blaring.

“Jake? You okay?”

“What?” His gaze jerked back to her, and something had changed on his face other than it wasn’t pale, ghost white. “Oh, yeah. Yeah. I’m good.”