exhaled. He was right to change the subject. If they were going to be friends, they couldn’t linger in times like this. “By angel… you mean a real angel? With wings?”
“No.” He smiled. “His name was Beck. He looked like a person. Like a police officer, maybe. Or an athlete. He showed up out of nowhere when I was taking a break on a trail near a lake.”
Then he told her how he’d been flying down the trail on the rented mountain bike, asking God question after question. “About life and my family.” He hesitated. “About you.”
She wanted desperately to know what he had asked God about her. But that could wait. “Is that when you took the break?”
“Yes. I sat on this hill overlooking the water and all these stories kept coming back. Things my parents had taught me from the Bible.”
The words hit hard. She had been raised in the same type of family. A mother who told Daniel and her stories from the Bible.
Jack continued, about how suddenly Beck had shown up. “He knew my name.” Jack moved the swing forward again. “Then he told me something no one could know. He said my family was doing good.”
“Your family?” She felt a chill run down her arms. “Did Beck maybe have you confused with someone else?”
“No.” Jack looked out at the night sky. “He knew my name, Eliza. And he knew my parents and my brother. He knew they didn’t live here. But he told me they were more alive now than ever. Because they had trusted Jesus.”
The words filled Eliza’s heart. More alive than ever? Was that how her mama and Daniel were? Running and playing and working in a city beyond the sky? Counting the days until she might join them? Was that where she’d be now if she hadn’t been rescued from the ocean that day?
Jack brought the angel story to life, every detail. Beck had told him that his family wanted more for him. Same with God. And that’s why he had come to talk with Jack. “And at the end he told me God was only a whisper away, and to forget the past.” Jack turned to her. “He told me God wanted me to love again. Then he disappeared.”
She didn’t move, didn’t speak.
“Eliza. I think he meant you.” He took her hand once more, and his eyes stayed on hers. “I have no one else to love… no one to care about… except you.”
And she had no one to love but him. But she didn’t say as much. This wasn’t the time, alone here on the rooftop, with him so close that all she wanted was for him to kiss her. He had moved nearer in the telling of the story. She didn’t trust herself another minute longer, so she eased her hand free and stood. “It’s beautiful up here.”
“It is.” He joined her, taking the spot beside her. But he didn’t touch her, didn’t take her hand. “Where you’re going… East San Antonio High. It’s dangerous, Eliza.”
“I know.” She faced him. The moonlight in his eyes was something she would remember forever. “You, too.”
“I always know I might not come back. With every mission.” He didn’t look away. “And that was always okay. Because I had no one waiting for me. Back here.”
She could feel his arms around her even though he was a foot away. She searched his eyes. “And now?”
“I don’t know what tomorrow will bring. Or the next year or the year after that.” He held out his hands to her. “I only know I want to come home. I want to see you again.”
How could she do anything but take his hands? And as she did he closed the gap between them and eased her into his arms. “Be careful,” he whispered near the side of her face. “Please, Eliza.”
“I will.” She pressed her cheek against his. The heat of his body made her tremble. “You, too.”
He took a step back, but it was like pulling steel from a magnet. The connection between them remained. “I… I asked Jesus to forgive me.” He took a slow breath. “I’ll never know who Beck was or why he found me in that exact moment. But I do know something for sure.”
“You know God is real.” She could see it in his eyes. “That’s it, right?”
“Yes.” His expression changed. Like he was imploring her. “You know it too, right, Eliza?”