Changing Her Heart

“What is it you’re practicing? Are you in a league?” Lacey asked.

“Uh…” Randy felt his cheeks flush. “Actually, it’s not sports, it’s music, and it’s my friends who are really practicing, not me. When we first started I tried to learn to play keyboards from a book, but that went about as well as you might expect, so they found someone else to do it. But Celeste is phenomenal. Maybe even the best piano player I’ve ever met. So now I work the sound system and do all the computer stuff, which is right up my alley.”

She smiled. “That sounds like fun. Does your band have a CD out?”

Randy laughed. “No. It’s nothing like that. It’s just the worship team for church.”

“Just? Don’t say that. The worship team is important. I think it’s wonderful that you’re utilizing your talents. I wish I could do something like that, but I don’t seem to be good at anything besides sewing.”

“That’s a skill not everyone has. Maybe you can…” His voice trailed off. “Wait—you go to church?”

“Yes, I do.”

Randy smiled. “Great! Would you like to join me in a short prayer before we eat? It’s always awkward to ask that in work situations, or when you don’t know someone very well.”

“I was just thinking the same thing. I’d like that.”

Just at that moment, the waiter arrived with their meals. Randy led with a short prayer, and they began to eat.

“So, did you move to Appleton recently?”

“No. I live downtown, where I just rent an apartment. Now that I have the new job, I think I’m going to move closer to it. Do you live near the mall?”

“Yes. I grew up not far away from here. It seemed natural to get a job in the neighborhood, too.” More than that, his friend Bob knew Tom, the store owner. Because of Bob’s reference, Tom offered Randy a job when no one else would consider him. He’d been there ever since, which was coming up on six years. And now he was the assistant manager.

“I’ll never move. I live within two minutes of my friends, within five minutes of my church and ten minutes from my job.” He didn’t know why God blessed him like this, especially when he’d once blamed God for so much. But now his life was in order, and he didn’t intend to ever change a thing.

Randy dunked one of his fries in the blob of ketchup, coating it just right. “Where do you go to church, then, if you live downtown?”

Lacey smiled, and her eyes turned dreamy as she spoke. “Every Sunday morning I drive back to the west end where I grew up and go with my family, and we spend the day together.”

Randy nodded. He spent a lot of time at church, but it was with his friends. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen his family. Usually it didn’t bother him, but today, watching Lacey smile at her private thoughts, it reminded him of the big hole in his life. For the past few years he’d been so busy with his friends that he hadn’t really noticed, but now that Adrian and Celeste were married and Bob was getting married, Randy had more time on his hands. Still, God always found things for him to do, and Randy couldn’t complain. “Lately I’ve been going to both the morning and evening services because I’m on the worship team, so that keeps me pretty busy on Sundays. It’s sometimes a lot of work, but at the same time, it’s also fun. And speaking of fun, I should tell you a little about the sidewalk sale that’s coming up at work next week. Or rather, I should warn you.”

Lacey’s fork froze halfway to her mouth. “Warn me?”

“You can see some really funny things with bargain hunters. There’s this one couple who always show up, and one of them always wears a disguise, as if we can’t recognize him. I hear everyone’s already making bets to see what he’s going to do this year. Last year, the guy pretended to be a rich Texan—big hat, the drawl, everything. He even pasted on a fake mustache. You could tell it was fake because it was a different color than his hair, and it was crooked. It was hilarious.” Randy grinned, remembering Carol’s reaction when the man called her “L’il lady.” He really thought Carol was going to kick him.

Randy sobered. “Seriously, though, you’ve got to watch out for them. He tries to distract the staff person at one end of the table while his partner, who is dressed normally, tries to steal something from the other end.” He leaned forward over the table, and Lacey leaned forward in response.

“She always puts smaller items in her bra so no one will challenge her to put them back. But last year when I caught her and started calling the cops on my cell phone, she dug everything out real fast and ran.”

Lacey gasped. “You’re kidding!”

“I wish I was.” Randy straightened. “But most of the time, the sidewalk sale is a lot of fun.”

Lacey glanced from side to side. “Have you noticed that we’re nearly the only ones here? I think we lost track of the time.”

Randy looked around, confirming that she was indeed correct.

“Yeah. I guess we should go.”

While he signaled the waiter for the bill, a strange sense of loss came over him. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d enjoyed himself so much. He was at an age where most of the women he knew were sizing him up for a husband, so those situations quickly became awkward. God had shown him that he wasn’t husband material, and he never would be.

But Lacey was marriage material. Randy couldn’t help but think that her boyfriend was indeed one lucky man. Tonight, Randy had thoroughly enjoyed himself, but for tonight he was on borrowed time, and the lender had called in the loan. It was time to go home.

When she dropped him off in front of his apartment building, a surge of melancholy for what could never happen coursed through him.

Once inside, instead of settling down, Randy walked to the patio door to his balcony and looked out the window. They’d stayed at the restaurant so long that it was dark, and all the city lights were on. His suite faced downtown, so he had a good view from the seventeenth floor.

Randy stepped out onto the balcony to take in the city below. He couldn’t make out specific details, but he could see the brightly colored lights of the mall in the distance.

He gazed over the expanse of the city, paying particular attention to the high-rise towers in the downtown core, wondering which building was Lacey’s.

Chapter Two

“I’ll be back in two hours, Kate,” Lacey called as she stepped into the mall.

As she began walking toward the mall center, Lacey glanced into the computer store on her way past, but she didn’t see Randy at work.

Randy.

Being out with him had almost felt like a date, except it wasn’t. He was only helping her select the right computer for Bryce. Yet, after going out with him only once, she couldn’t help but like him. In fact, he was almost too good to be real.

Lacey had learned the hard way that when something seemed too good to be true, it usually was.

She pushed thoughts of the charming salesman out of her head as she continued walking toward the mall’s feature display of the week. The police department had set up a display to raise public awareness of the dangers of drinking and driving and Lacey had volunteered to help give out information at the booth.

Drunk driving had ruined her family and she didn’t want to see it happen to anyone else.

Lacey didn’t remember her father being a heavy drinker, but at the time, her perspective had been that of a child. Most of his drinking would have been at night, after she had been put to bed. Most of her memories of her father were good, doing typical family things together. Usually their family was happy, but she did remember her parents arguing after her father had been out with his friends. She remembered him acting rather strangely when he came home, but she hadn’t known why. The only thing she knew then about her father’s drinking was that he “went out for a drink” with his friends after work on paydays. On paydays, he always came home acting more strangely than other days.

It was on one payday that her father never came home again.

Because he died in an accident that he’d caused, and because he’d been drunk, no insurance would pay on the policy—not the auto insurance, nor the life insurance, and there was no life insurance on the mortgage. Slowly and painfully, over the next year, their home was foreclosed on, their savings were eroded and their extended family was torn apart. As she grew up, Lacey’s most vivid memories were of her mother, crying, all alone, after she thought that Lacey and her brother and sister were sleeping.

Lacey didn’t want the same thing to happen to anyone else, yet she saw it happening to Susan, her sister. No matter what Lacey said or did, she couldn’t get Susan’s husband, Eric, to see the risk he was creating for his family, and that if he died, the same thing would happen. Eric also wasn’t taking into account the strangers who would be innocent victims if he continued on his path to self-destruction.

Eric insisted that he wasn’t a serious drinker because he didn’t drink every day. He often accused Lacey of trying to cause trouble between himself and Susan. Eric didn’t know about the countless times Susan had called her in the middle of the night, worried because Eric still hadn’t come home when she knew he was out drinking with his friends. On other days, Susan said she shouldn’t have let the moment get to her, that Eric’s drinking wasn’t that bad.

Since those whom she loved wouldn’t listen, the only thing Lacey could do was to try to help strangers.

As Lacey approached the display, a police officer was talking to the volunteer who would be working with her, as well as a woman who was packing up a few things, ready to leave.

Lacey’s breath caught when she saw who she was to be her partner for the next hour.

“Randy. Hello.”

The officer smiled at her. “I see you two already know each other. That’s great. I’ll leave Randy to show you what to do, and I’ll get back to my area.” He returned to the Breathalyzer and other equipment that was only for police use, leaving her alone with Randy.