But as for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more.

      —Psalms 71:14

      Contents

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

      Chapter Six

      Chapter Seven

      Chapter Eight

      Chapter Nine

      Chapter Ten

      Chapter Eleven

      Chapter Twelve

      Chapter Thirteen

      Chapter Fourteen

      Chapter Fifteen

      Epilogue

      Questions for Discussion

      Chapter One

      The phone was ringing inside her apartment, but Rebecca McKaslin stepped out into the late-summer evening anyway. Thank goodness for caller ID. Why was Chris calling? He knew she wouldn’t talk to him ever again—mostly because she’d told him so. How many times would she have to let it ring before he got a clue?

      Exasperated, she yanked the door shut and the lock gave a metallic click. See, this was the reason she’d adopted her newly instated No Man policy. Men, they didn’t call when you wanted them to, but when you didn’t want them to call ever, then, voilà, the phone rang off the hook.

      Well, she was a free and independent woman these days and she wasn’t even going to let the thought of her ex-boyfriend bug her. It was too bad that he had regrets, because she didn’t, thank you very much. She went to hike her purse strap higher on her shoulder—

      Wait. No purse strap.

      No purse. How had she forgotten it? It was right there by the door on the little hallway table where the phone had been ringing with Chris’s number flashing away.

      No biggie, she told herself and lifted her hand to sort through her keys.

      Wait. No keys. She stared at her empty hand. Had she left her key ring inside, too? Oh, probably. Talk about being an airhead, Rebecca. If she wasn’t careful, she was going to turn into her sister Ava who, as adorable as she was, forgot everything.

      Okay, this was a major problem. How was she going to drive the car? Pick up the pizza? Get to her sister’s house in time to babysit?

      Good going, Rebecca. Way to start off the evening. She folded a stray lock of brown hair out of her eyes. She tried the doorknob just in case it wasn’t really locked and that click had been a figment of her imagination.

      Nope. The knob didn’t turn. Wasn’t that just her luck? If she had her purse, she would have her cell phone and so a quick call to someone in her family would fix this in a jiffy. If it wasn’t after five o’clock on a Friday, she could bother her neighbor Ephraim, but he was off at a church function.

      So who did that leave? Asking a neighbor she didn’t know to borrow a phone? She hadn’t lived in this complex long. She didn’t know her neighbors, other than Ephraim, but she was going to have to start knocking on doors. As she was shy, that was not something she was looking forward to. Although judging by the quiet stillness of the complex, most of them probably wouldn’t be home.

      On a brighter note, the phone inside her apartment had stopped ringing. Was Chris finally giving up? Getting a hint? Finding a clue?

      A girl could always hope. Because she was done with dudes for good—or at least the next decade. Prince Charming could come walking around the corner and she would be Fort Knox. Her affections impenetrable. Her No Man policy was unshakable.

      “You need any help?” A man’s voice came out of nowhere right behind her.

      Her heart jumped hard enough to make it to the moon and back. She turned around and clutched the porch rail to steady herself. There was a drop-dead handsome guy standing on her walkway—and not just everyday ordinary handsome, either. But twenty on a scale of ten. Really wow. She had to be dreaming, right? She blinked, but nope, the gorgeous guy was still standing there as real as could be.

      He was a big athletic-looking guy—not heavily muscled, but not lanky, either. He was tall with blond hair and a wholesome, guy-next-door grin. He wore a loose sport T-shirt and basketball shorts. Friendly looking.

      “I saw you lock yourself out.” He had a wholesome smile, too, one that brought out a dimple in his right cheek and an honest sparkle in his dark eyes. He was also carrying a cardboard box in the crook of his arm. “I wasn’t peeping or anything. I was unloading my truck and I couldn’t help noticing. I’m moving in next door.”

      “Oh, you’re Ephraim’s new roommate?”

      “Guilty. You must be Rebecca. He’s talked about you. Only good things, though. Said to look you up if I wanted to join a Bible study group.”

      “I’d be happy to give you the information, except—”

      “All your information is inside?”

      “Yep.”

      “Isn’t that always how it goes?” He flashed her a hundred-watt grin. “You look like you’re on your way somewhere.”

      “Yep, in a hurry without the keys to start my car.”

      “That’s gotta spell trouble.” He was, as her sister Ava would say, super-duper.

      But was she noticing? No. It was good to know her No Man policy was firmly in place. Talk about peace of mind. She crossed her arms over her heart like a shield. “Trouble? That’s the least of it. I’m running late, and now this. It’s just been one of those days of doom.”

      “Hey, I have those too now and then.”

      There was something about that friendly smile, Rebecca decided as she found herself smiling back. If there really was a Prince Charming, then this man would be him.

      “A pretty girl like you is probably rushing out for a date, right?”

      “I’m pleading the fifth on that one.”

      “I