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woman’s cheeks, relieved to see that Liz appeared more well rested than she had in weeks.
    Liz scooted a plate of cookies on the coffee table closer to him. “I know that.”
    Matt regarded her steadily. “Then why didn’t you ever mention a granddaughter?”
    The laughter in Liz’s eyes faded as if a curtain had been drawn over them.
    “I might not have talked about Zoey, but I never stopped praying for her,” she said after a long pause. “Sometimes things happen that are too painful to talk about with anyone but the Lord. Some people we hold so close in our hearts that it becomes difficult to share them.
    “You’re young,” she continued. The words were said with a hint of envy rather than condescension. “I know you might not understand that.”
    Matt felt a hitch in his breathing as an image of his former girlfriend Kristen’s face rose in his mind.
    Unfortunately, he understood all too well. No one but his college roommate knew what had happened between him and Kristen. Matt pushed the memory aside. This was about Liz, not him.
    “But you’re all right with Zoey being here?” He had to ask.
    “Zoey being here is an answer to prayer,” Liz said simply.
    Matt couldn’t argue with that. He’d been praying for Liz, too. He just hadn’t expected a young woman with a captivating smile and eyes filled with secrets to be the answer.

Chapter Seven
    “P astor! Do you have a minute?” Kate Nichols leaned out the door of the Grapevine, waving a white dish towel to get Matt’s attention.
    Matt glanced both ways before he crossed the street, more out of habit than concern for traffic. Once school let out for the day, a person could practically shoot a cannon down Main Street and not hit anything.
    “Is everything all right?” Something told Matt that this time, the color in Kate’s cheeks hadn’t come from working over a hot griddle.
    “Abby called a little while ago and it seems she’s having a bit of a family…situation,” Kate explained breathlessly.
    Matt frowned. “What’s going on?”
    Abby Porter, who had opened a bed and breakfast on Mirror Lake the summer before, was fairly new to his congregation, but Matt already counted her and her fiancé, Quinn O’Halloran, as good friends. Quinn owned a local security company and volunteered with the mentoring ministry Church of the Pines had started for boys from single-parent families.
    “Abby is fine,” Kate huffed. “It’s the wedding plans that are the problem.”
    “Planning a wedding can be stressful.”
    “Especially if the wedding involves a bossy big brother.”
    “Alex has been voicing his opinion again?”
    “That’s a nice way of putting it.” Kate scowled. “I told Abby that I would stop over after work today to provide a little moral support, but then I remembered that I promised Liz Decker a piece of pecan pie today. I’ll throw in an extra one for you if you don’t mind playing delivery boy.”
    “That’s not necessary.” Having an excuse to see Zoey again was incentive enough.
    Not that he planned to share that bit of information with Kate.
    Since his move to Mirror Lake, he’d become the target of more than one well-meaning matchmaker. Not only did the members of his congregation want to feed him, it appeared that they also wanted to see him happily married and settled down with a family.
    There’d only been one woman Matt had asked to share his life.
    For the second time in less than an hour, he thought about Kristen.
    Matt drew in a careful breath, wondering if there would ever come a time when the memory of that brief college romance would no longer feel like a knife sliding between his ribs.
    Not even his closest friends knew about his relationship with Kristen. It was a hurt Matt kept well hidden, but it was always there. Like a bruise just below the surface of the skin.
    “If it’s a problem…”
    Matt realized that Kate had misunderstood the reason for his lengthy silence. “No, it’s not a problem.