Lily changed out of the outfit she’d worn to church and slid into her favorite jeans and a comfy shirt—one she’d been told made her hazel eyes look green. The doorbell rang and she wiped her palms on her jeans and went to answer the door.

She wasn’t sure why she felt so nervous about this date. Being with Gage usually only ignited excitement in her. Maybe it was just that she hadn’t seen him since Tuesday. In the scope of their relationship, that was almost a lifetime. The realization brought a wry smile to her face, but it faded quickly.

Gage had called at the last minute to cancel their lunch on Thursday, and he’d seemed a little…reserved—cool, even—when they’d talked yesterday to confirm plans for this afternoon. He’d told her his boss asked him to work overtime on Thursday, and she believed him. But he hadn’t even asked for a rain check. Something seemed off.

She opened the door and couldn’t help the smile that came, seeing him standing there looking almost shy. “Hi. Do you want to come in, or are you ready to go?”

“We can go ahead if you’re ready. Can I carry anything?”

“Nope, I’ve got it all right here.” She picked up the soft-sided cooler she’d packed for their picnic.

He reached for it. “I’ll get that.” He turned and headed back to his car with the cooler, while she locked the front door behind her and jogged to catch up with him.

After putting the cooler in the trunk, he went around to open the passenger door for her. Some of her friends would have been offended by the gesture, as if he was implying she wasn’t capable of opening her own car door. But Dad had taught her to expect guys to treat her like a lady, and she liked that Gage did.

Before she buckled up, she looked expectantly in the back seat. “Where’s your guitar?”

“Oh… I didn’t bring it.” He offered no explanation.

“So where are we going?” she asked, once they were on the road. “You have a big secret destination in mind?” She was grasping, trying desperately to find a topic of conversation that would bring the man back to life. Or at least bring a tiny grin to his face. She’d settle for a smirk about now.

“I thought we’d just go to the park, if that’s okay.”

“Sure.”

She gave up trying to drag words out of him, and they drove in silence the rest of the way. The park was crowded with picnickers and kids and they drove all the way through and back on the narrow lane before Lily finally spotted an open table. “There’s one. We’d better grab it.”

Gage slowed the car, but didn’t park.

“Do you want me to go save us a spot while you park?”

“It’s awfully crowded. I’ve got a blanket in the trunk. What if we go sit down by the water?”

“Sure. That’d be fine.” It seemed strange that he seemed intent on finding an out-of-the-way spot. Gage had been a perfect gentleman the entire time she’d known him—okay, so that was only two weeks—but still, she trusted him.

They took the road that wound around the small lake in the center of the park. Gage seemed to grow more distant by the minute.

“Is everything okay?”

“Why?” His tone said her question irritated him.

Lily felt sick to her stomach. This was starting to feel too familiar. “You just seem…preoccupied.”

He parked the car and turned off the engine, then turned in the seat to face her. “I am preoccupied.” He released a heavy sigh. “There’s something I need to tell you, and I don’t think you’re going to like it.”

“Okay… What’s going on?” She tried to keep her hands from shaking, but she wanted to weep, and she didn’t even know why. She only knew that something was very wrong. The Gage she knew had been replaced by this man who felt like a stranger.

He sighed again as if dreading what he was about to say. “I got a call after I left your house last Tuesday. It was a job opportunity. No, a job offer. Something I’ve been wanting a long time. I thought I had the job a couple months ago, but they ended up giving it to someone else. Turns out that guy backed out of the deal, so they called me.”

That was it? A job? Here she thought he was going to confess a secret wife stashed away somewhere. She felt her shoulders relax a little at the realization. A job was a good thing…wasn’t it?

“That’s great, Gage.” She wanted to feel relief, but she knew she didn’t have the whole story yet. And she had a horrible feeling she knew where this was going. “You said it’s something you’ve been wanting?”

“The job is in Omaha, Lily. And they want me there by the first of August.”

“Oh.” He may as well have knocked the breath out of her. “Omaha? That’s like…seven hours away.”

“Eight, actually.”

“And August? That’s only four months away.”

“I know. The timing stinks. The location stinks.”

“But you took the job anyway.” It wasn’t a question. She knew he had. And he should. This was important, and no matter how quickly she’d developed feelings for him, they were still so new. There was no way of knowing if what they had would ultimately turn into anything…

“I did take it. It’s getting late for school jobs like this—and they don’t come around very often. I was lucky that guy backed out.”

But girls like her were a dime a dozen? Was that it?

“And my sister is there. Cara’s pretty excited that I’ll be living close by.”

How was she supposed to respond to that? She couldn’t argue with family. She, of all people, knew how hard it was when family lived far way.

“Lily… I almost called and cancelled our date today. I didn’t want you to think I was leading you on when things are about to”—he shrugged—“come to an end.”

“So…this is a break-up date now? Is that it?”

He looked confused. “I guess I didn’t know we had anything to break up from. But yeah, I guess you could say that. I wanted to tell you in person. It didn’t seem right to tell you over the phone, or in the two minutes I get to see you whenever I make a delivery.”

“So that’s why you didn’t bring your guitar?” It was a silly thing to say, but everything was coming into focus now. She swallowed hard, struggling to hold back the tears that threatened. “I’m not going to lie, Gage. I’m feeling…really sad. I feel like I’m losing a good friend. More than a friend. And I know that probably sounds dumb to you because, you’re right, we’ve only known each other for a short while. But… I thought there was something good between us. Really good. Something that wouldn’t let a little thing like distance…end a friendship.” The last words came out in a whisper, and she turned away so he wouldn’t see the tears that she couldn’t stop now.

She felt the warmth of his hand on her arm. “Lily. Look at me, Lily.”

“Give me a minute, okay?”

He took his hand away, and she felt like the temperature in the car dropped twenty degrees.

After a long silence, he spoke, his tone tentative. “I’ve thought about this a lot, Lily. To be honest, I haven’t been able to think about anything else. I think maybe it’s a blessing that I found out about this job now, at the point where we can each walk away mostly unscathed. Instead of after we’d gotten too serious about each other. Too involved.”

She wrenched around in her seat to face him, wondering if he was really that clueless. Her vocal chords felt paralyzed, and the words came out in a monotone. “Well, I don’t know about you, but it’s a little too late for me.”

“What do you mean, too late?”

“Too late for not getting too serious, too late for not getting too involved.” Did she have to draw the man a picture?

“Lily, we’ve barely known each other two weeks. Whatever you feel for me—”

“So you’re saying you don’t feel about me the way I feel about you?”

“I don’t know how you feel about me, but since you’ve only known me two weeks, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say you couldn’t be too smitten.”

“Sorry about your fall.” If she didn’t make jokes, she’d burst into tears.

His brow furrowed. “My fall?”

“From that limb you went out on.” The sarcasm came out thicker than she’d intended.

“Lily… Listen, I like you a lot. If you want to know the truth, I thought you might be…the one.”

“Well, if a job could change your mind, I guess I wasn’t the one.” She chalked quote marks in the air.

“The timing just isn’t right. If I’d known I was going to get this offer, I never would have started…this.” He motioned between them.

“Just for the record, you didn’t start…this.” She mimicked his motion.

He drew back. “I’m not sure I like your sarcastic side.” But he couldn’t hide a little smile that said he did kind of like it. “So if I didn’t start it who did?”

“Well it sure wasn’t you that ordered baking supplies in small batches.”

“Well, it sure wasn’t you who purposely waited until you…er, someone came to the door to pick up those packages, when they could have just dropped them on the porch and left.”

She stared at him. “You did that?”

“I did that.”

“Do you remember what you said to me the day you invited me to our sunrise service?”

A sad look came to his face. She’d never seen him look that way before and it tugged at her heart. “Lily, I remember every single word we’ve said to each other since the day we met. I…I’m not sure I’ll ever forget.”

Buddy, if you’re going to break up with me, just break up with me. Don’t sit here and whisper sweet, romantic nothings in my ear. “Okay, so if you’re so smart, what did you say?”

“I’m not sure which part you mean.”

“You said, ‘What are we going to do about this?’” She gestured between them again. “Meaning our mutual admiration society.”

“What are you getting at?”

“I just want to know what we’re going to do about this? Are you thinking we’ll be friends and stay in touch, maybe call each other every so often? Or are you trying to make a clean break?”

He looked at his lap. “I don’t really think it would be fair to ask you to wait for me.”

“Or for me to ask you to wait for me. That’s what you really mean isn’t it.”

“No. I don’t think you understand what my job entails.”

“Omaha is only eight hours away. I could drive up for a weekend once in a while.”

He shook his head. “I’ll be traveling with the teams on weekends. Weekends will be my busiest time.”

“Then you could come back here during the week. On your days off.”

“But that’s when you’re the busiest, and besides I have to finish my—”

“But we could talk while I work. And I could start work earlier so I’d have more time in the evenings.” She knew she sounded desperate. Because she was desperate.

“Lily. Shh.” He pressed the tips of his fingers gently to her mouth, shushing her. His voice turned husky, soft, as if he were speaking to a child. “I can’t come back during the week. Not when it would be a full day’s drive each way. I have to finish my degree. It’s a requirement of the job offer. I’ll be going to school or studying every spare minute. And even if I could, I’d barely be able to afford the gas to get back. It’s not like I haven’t thought this out.”

She stared at him, completely out of ammunition. He’d made up his mind. That was clear.

He took her hand across the console, held it between both of his. ”I wish it was different, Lily, I really do. If we’d known each other for more than a minute, I’d ask you to come with me. If I thought it made an ounce of sense for me to ask you to leave the thriving business you love and the town where you grew up and move where you don’t know a soul, I’d do it. But not for a guy you’ve known all of two weeks. Especially not when I won’t even be around most of the time.”

Her heart sank and she pulled her hand away. She didn’t think he was feeding her a line. Maybe he really would have asked her to follow him to Omaha if it made an ounce of sense. Why did he have to be so stinking practical?

Fine. She wouldn’t make this harder for him than it already was. “Would you take me home now?”

“We haven’t even had lunch.”

“I’m not very hungry. You can take it home with you.”

“Lily…”

“Let’s not drag this out, Gage. Please. It’s hard enough.”

He bit the corner of his lip, looking miserable. “If I don’t take that job, I’m a deliveryman for the rest of my life and I…respect you more than that. Maybe that’s not what you want to hear, but it’s the truth, Lily.”

“I’ve never wanted a lot of money, Gage. That’s not important to me.”

“I’m not talking about money. I’m talking about a man who would settle for a job that’s merely a job to him, especially when he’s been offered something that feels like a calling. It would be different—I promise you—if we’d been dating for a year, if we knew that God was saying to each of us, ‘she’s the one, he’s the one,’ …that would be different. But you just don’t turn down your dream job because of a girl you’ve known two weeks. No matter how much you like her. That just wouldn’t even make sense.”

Since when had love ever made sense? But of course, she couldn’t say that out loud. Because deep down, she knew he was probably right. It didn’t make sense. They had only known each other for a short time. And as much as it hurt, she had to let him go.

She stared at him and tried to figure out how she would ever stop loving him. He was right. It sounded crazy. She knew what the Bible said about the heart—deceitful above all things and all of that—and she believed that. But this felt like so much more than a heart matter. This seemed—and it had from the first time she’d seen Gage Simmons smile—like it was something more.

But she couldn’t force him to see things her way. You couldn’t force a man to love you enough to do whatever it took to be with you.

“Just take me home. Please.”

He started to say something, but closed his mouth, turned the keys in the ignition, and backed out of the parking space.