The Random Acts of Cupid (Christian Romance) (8 page)

“I’ll take pictures for you, Tricia, “Elise called. “I’ll try to stop by next week to show you.”

Tricia looked back, her eyes once again filling with tears.

“Thanks, Elise. I think you must be an angel.”

As the door closed behind Tricia, Elise heard Ryan. “You know, she’s not that far off, Cupid.”

Ryan had been so quiet during the exchange, she had almost forgotten he was there. She packed the dress back in the garment bag, and moved to leave the room. She didn’t dare look Ryan in the eye to try to read his response to her latest endeavor. She had to fulfill the next phase of this mission, and she couldn’t waste time being distracted.

As they left the room, Elise finally replied. “No, I think for this task I deserve a different title.”

Since they were preoccupied getting back through security, Ryan lost the chance to question her about what she meant.

Forty minutes later, they stood at the front door of a two story house that looked as if it had seen better days. An elderly woman answered in response to the doorbell.

“Hi, I’m—”

“Elise Hutchins,” the woman finished, her eyes sparkling. “Patricia told me you would be coming. Thank you so much for what you’re doing for my daughter and granddaughter. Please, come in. I haven’t told Macy anything. The poor girl’s been moping around all day.”

As Elise and Ryan came in, the lady bustled partway up the stairs, not giving them a chance to get a word in. “Macy, come down here! You have guests!”

A pretty teenaged brunette appeared at the top of the stairs. Her brow wrinkled in confusion at the sight of the two unfamiliar people.

“Hi, Macy,” Elise said with a gentle smile. “You’re mom sent me. I’m your fairy godmother.”

“My mom actually sent this for me?” Macy asked, fingering the delicate material of the beautiful dress she wore. Elise was helping Macy try on the gown in the teen’s room upstairs.

“Yes,” Elise replied, zipping up the back. “I met your mom through a program my church offers at the prison. She told me how much she wished she could be here to get you a dress for the Valentine’s Day dance at your school. I think she mentioned that you’d just turned 16, and this was supposed to be your first real dance. I offered to bring a dress to you since she couldn’t. So she described exactly what she wanted for you, and I went shopping. I took the dress to show her earlier today.”

“I didn’t think I was going to get to go,” Macy said tearing up. “Grandma didn’t have the money for a dress.”

“Well, you are going to go,” Elise said, gently pushing her so she could see herself in the full-length mirror hung on the back of her bedroom door. “And see how beautiful you’ll look!”

Macy covered her mouth in shock as she stared at herself in the mirror. Tears now flowed in earnest down her face.

“It fits perfectly!” Elise said, pleased that the dress seemed to be tailor-made for the girl’s trim figure. Macy was so distracted that she didn’t even seem to notice the sound of the doorbell, which Elise was grateful for. Her job would be easier if Macy wasn’t aflutter with nervousness.

“Get all your tears out now,” Elise ordered gently. “We still have to do your hair and makeup, and we can’t have you crying away all my fairy godmother magic.”

Elise was by no means a beautician, but she’d had two younger sisters who had depended on her hair and makeup skills for all of their social functions in high school and beyond. Elise soon had her satchel of supplies spread across Macy’s bed and went to work curling hair and applying a subtle sheen of cosmetics that only enhanced Macy’s natural beauty.

“I’m almost done,” Elise soon announced, twisting one last brunette curl into place at the top of Macy’s head. “You should have plenty of time to get something to eat before the dance starts. And your mom left strict instructions that you had to be home tonight by 11:00.”

Macy suddenly paled beneath her makeup. “I can’t go!” she suddenly announced. “All my friends have dates. I told them I wasn’t going. I can’t show up alone! It would be humiliating to stand in the corner all night. Nobody’s going to ask me to dance. Everyone already has someone to dance with!”

“You aren’t going alone, Macy. I heard the doorbell ring before we started on your hair. He’s probably downstairs waiting for you right now. You two are going to dinner and then the dance. Afterward, he’ll bring you back home. He’s very nice and responsible. I’m sure you’ll like him.”

“I have a date?” Macy asked, her brown eyes wide. “Who is he? You didn’t get some old guy who thinks I’m a charity case, did you? Oh no. It’s my brother, isn’t it? You got Justin to take off work to help his poor, pitiful sister.”

“No, to all those questions. He goes to your school. Maybe you already know Jake. Jake Kendry?”

“Jake Kendry? My date is Jake Kendry?” Macy let loose an excited squeal of pure childish delight. “Tell me you’re not teasing me! Jake is a senior! And he’s not just any senior! He’s popular, plays on the football team, and is the class president! And he’s hot!”

Elise had a hard time controlling her laughter. “I see you already know Jake,” she managed to reply with only a slight grin.

“Know him? I practically love . . . well, I don’t know that you can say ‘love;’ I am only sixteen. But I am pretty deeply infatuated with him.”

Watching the play of emotions across Macy’s face, especially the look of false maturity as she’d diagnosed herself as being ‘infatuated,’ was almost Elise’s undoing. Macy’s biography of Jake, along with the squeal of joy and her own words, made it incredibly difficult to maintain a straight face.

Elise cleared her throat. “Well, I think you’re ready. Take a look at yourself in the mirror. And remember: no tears this time.”

Macy’s joy couldn’t be contained. She pirouetted in front of the mirror and did a little dance like she was a three-year-old girl wearing her first princess dress. “Wait a minute,” she said, coming to a complete stop. “Jake’s downstairs
right now
? What if he doesn’t think I’m pretty? What if he doesn’t like me?”

“He will like you. And you are beautiful,” Elise reassured. “Now, let’s go. You don’t want to keep him waiting.

Elise urged Macy back downstairs before the girl could torture herself more with nervous second thoughts. Thankfully, Macy was so excited, she hadn’t even bothered to ask how Elise had managed to get Jake to take her to the dance. Elise knew it would make Macy feel more special if she didn’t know Jake was doing it as a favor to his cousin.

Macy’s entrance was all the fairy tale a teenage girl could dream. She floated down the staircase to meet her handsome (or hot, as she’d put it) date. He looked up. They made eye contact. He smiled and held his hand out to assist her the last few steps.

“I don’t know that we’ve met officially, Macy, but I’m Jake.”

“Hi, Jake,” a bright-eyed, pink-cheeked Macy replied. “Thanks for taking me tonight.”

“It’s my pleasure. I should be thanking you for going with me. With the way you look in that dress, I’m going to have some serious competition by the end of the night.”

Macy beamed.

Grandma was openly blubbering into an old-fashioned handkerchief. Camera at the ready, Elise snapped some pictures both of Macy alone and Macy and Jake together.

Elise felt movement at her elbow and turned to find Ryan’s presence pulling her down to reality. She didn’t want to think about how he was interpreting this scenario. She just wanted to enjoy that she had made a girl and her mother happy even if for just a little while.

But after a few moments of ignoring him, Elise realized she had to know what Ryan was thinking. He had waited downstairs the entire time she’d helped Macy. Now knowing the full extent of her plan and the results, did he still find it deceptive and unethical?

She darted a glance up to find him already looking at her. Was she just imagining it, or did his gaze hold a trace of admiration and . . . respect? With a slight smile, Ryan slowly, deliberately bent down, moved Elise’s dark hair ever so slightly away from her ear, and whispered, “Good job, Cupid.”

Elise’s heart immediately shot off in a hundred meter dash. She looked up at him, trying to find any trace of sarcasm. But before she could make a complete assessment, Macy and Jake were saying goodbye, eager to be on their way.

With one last hug for her grandma, Macy was soon out the door. Suddenly, she paused on the steps, turned, and ran back to Elise, enfolding her in a quick, fierce hug. “Please tell my mom ‘thank you,’” she whispered.

This time, Elise was the one struggling to hold in the tears as she watched Cinderella ride away in Jake’s little blue Toyota pickup truck.

Ryan spoke quietly. “What happens when Macy figures out you bribed your cousin to take her to the dance? Won’t she be hurt?”

They were sitting in a booth at a diner. After gathering her supplies and leaving Macy’s house, Elise had driven here. Having not taken time for lunch, she was really hungry. But if Ryan was going to play twenty questions, she didn’t know if she would be able to eat.

“I didn’t bribe Jake,” she explained. “Yes, he agreed to do it as a favor to me. But he’ll like Macy. I did my homework on her. She’s a nice girl who makes good grades. Though she and her siblings have had a rough few years, they’re going to church now with their grandma, and I have a feeling their mother will soon come home changed for the better.”

“Macy has siblings?”

“Yes. Her older brother was at work, and I think her younger sister was at a school basketball game. I wish I could have done more for the others. I know they’ve all got to be hurting with having such a difficult past and their mom being in prison. Somehow helping Macy doesn’t seem enough.”

“I don’t think Macy and her mom feel that way at all. From what I saw, you did a very special thing for them today.”

Elise looked into Ryan’s eyes, trying to find the sarcasm or reproof she knew should be there. But she found none. She only saw honesty and could it be . . . admiration?

Did he actually admire her? Did he agree with her actions? Had she won him over?

Before she had time to search out the answers to her questions, they were interrupted with the arrival of their food. Elise had ordered tonight’s special of grilled lemon rosemary chicken with rice and steamed vegetables. Ryan had ordered the chicken fried steak. One of the reasons Elise liked this diner was that they had rather a wide variety of unique, but delicious, meals on their menu. Elise felt they did a good job of having upscale food at a casual price and atmosphere.

They ate in silence for a few moments, but soon Ryan took up where he left off in twenty questions.

“So do you do this kind of thing often? I mean, is this the first time you’ve done something like you did for Tricia and Macy?”

“Yes and no,” Elise said, contemplating his question. “I haven’t done anything exactly like this before, but I have done other small favors for inmates involved in our church’s ministry. I’ve sent flowers for Mother’s Day—that sort of thing. Usually in the Spring I have a lot of fun working with a charity that helps underprivileged teenage girls get dresses and makeovers for Prom. It’s like I get to be a fairy godmother for that one too. But I guess this is the first time I’ve ever combined the prison ministry with a Cupid scenario.”

Elise looked at Ryan and grimaced. “That sounds really bad, doesn’t it?”

Ryan grinned and shrugged. “You don’t normally mix matchmaking with convicts, but I must admit, this time it seemed surprisingly successful. Now will you follow up with Macy and Jake? I know you said before that you leave people on their own after your initial help.”

“I’ll take the pictures to the prison to show Tricia. And I’ll ask Jake about it, but I won’t interfere anymore in his relationship with Macy. If Tricia or Macy needs help with something else, I’ll do what I can. This isn’t really a typical Cupid scenario. But I guess every match I make is unique in some way. If there wasn’t something special about each case, I wouldn’t bother trying to help.”