Page 48 of To Believe In You
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The wedding grew exponentially lessinteresting after Lina wandered off. Tim spotted someone he wanted to catch up with and hurried away too, leaving Matt alone at the table. He could mingle, but as soon as he’d swallowed his last bite of steak, long before the dance routine, Tim had taken him around to a dozen of his contacts. Since Matt didn’t have a single completed song yet, he didn’t need to find more potential customers.
Instead, he plucked a stray penny from the swirling pattern of the carpet and tried to flick it into the wax of the floating candle in the centerpiece. Itsplunked into the water of the vase. Nobody seemed to pay him any mind, so he lifted the candle, fished out the coin, and sat back down to try again.
He probably ought to go home before he got himself in real trouble, but what was keeping Lina? A coat mix-up would’ve been set right by now. A valet might’ve scratched her car.
Philip must’ve gone for a water immediately after the dance routine and then made his way to Matt’s table, because the show hadn’t been over five minutes when the bassist took the seat Lina had vacated. “You did me a big favor this summer.”
Matt lined up another shot, using the edge of the table so he could hit the penny at a high enough angle to achieve the arc he needed.
The penny plinked against the vase and dropped into the floral wreath surrounding it. Matt folded his hands and sat back, not willing to dig out the penny with Philip there. “I did you a favor?”
Philip stood and plucked the penny from the greenery. “We’re aiming for the water?”
“The wax.”
“Ah.” Concentration marked Philip’s brow as he used one finger to hold the penny on its side. He looked from the coin to the target about a dozen times. “When you stopped by my house, what you said motivated me to start changing. I still had further to go, but you gave me my life back in a lot of ways. Everything’s so different now, it’s hard to believe it’s only been a few months.”
He let the penny fly. The coin bumped the candle and sank into the water.
Philip pulled a dime from his pocket and offered it to Matt.
He accepted it with a chuckle. “Raising the stakes.”
“Going all in. In more ways than one. I really can’t thank you enough for being a part of that.”
“Don’t give me that much credit. Only God can save a person.”
In his peripheral vision as he set up the dime, Matt saw Philip nod. “But He used you.”
“Helping others is one of the steps.” He flicked the dime. The coin grazed the far side of the vase and disappeared.
Philip rose to retrieve it. “Gannon and John talked to me before offering you the spot.”
No surprise there. “I don’t see how I can take it. Awestruck comes with too many opportunities to fail.” The slippery thought was hard to keep front and center.
“The band comes with a lot of opportunities to help too.” Philip sat with the dime between his pointer finger and thumb and rotated the coin slowly. “Not everyone listens closely to Awestruck’s lyrics, but some people do. When they recognize faith is behind the music, they ask questions that lead them—some of them—in the right direction. It took you to get through to me, and I think it takes Awestruck to get through to them.”
“I agree, but not everyone should have that platform. Some of us are a little more likely than others to misuse it.”
Philip set the dime on the edge of the table. “In part, I quit Awestruck to escape the environment, but …” He paused lining up his shot to lift his hand in something like a shrug. “For all the access I had with the band, being in Awestruck meant I had to work twice as hard to hide my bad decisions.”
Matt crossed his arms. “You’re not changing your mind, deciding to stay after all?”
“No. My kids need me.” Philip let the dime fly and groaned when he missed the centerpiece entirely. “The guys told me what you said about temptation, and maybe that is the right choice for you, but maybe not.”
The dime rolled in tightening circles and finally teetered to its side on the tablecloth. Before they picked up the game again, Philip’s daughter came for him. He left the dime, but Matt didn’t have the heart to try the game again.
Maybe he had been too quick to say no to the position. He’d take John’s suggestion to pray about it more seriously. As long as he kept God at the center, he could go against his nature—which had such a tendency to get him in trouble—and act with caution. Take one step at a time.
And right now? As he stood, his steps only wanted to carry him one direction—to see where a certain blonde in an emerald-green dress had gone.
14
In an action that contradicted the panic thumping through Lina’s body, Shane offered a soft smile. “I had to see you.”
Unexpected longing slammed her.
