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.”“Okay, Ted.I’ll talk to Dad.We’re not getting anywhere on it anyhow.”Lisa stifled a flare of panic at Dylan’s assurances.Ted was supposed to confirm her suspicions.Help her clear Gabe.This was not what was supposed to happen.What had she done?Dylan pushed himself to his feet and caught Ted by the hand.“Don’t worry about this anymore.It will be over soon.”Lisa closed her eyes.Dear Lord, this wasn’t supposed to be the outcome.What was she going to do now?Chapter TenShe couldn’t sleep anymore.What she had done last night flipped and spun through her mind, keeping her awake.She should have shown Dylan the memo right away before her emotions for this family interfered with her plans.But if she gave Dylan the memo now, he would wonder why she had kept it from him.With an exasperated sigh she tossed off the blankets, wrapped her robe around her.She pulled the offending piece of paper from a drawer in her room and left.She drifted down the stairs, making her way to the study.The door was half-open and she quietly slipped through it.The early-morning light was already creeping in.She hesitated a moment, glancing over her shoulder, then strode to Dylan’s desk, opened the file folder on the top and laid the memo inside, letting part of it show above the file folder’s edge.As she closed the folder she felt a tick of relief.Maybe it would make the difference.And maybe it would incriminate her.Either way, time was winding down.She couldn’t help Gabe anymore.Her fantasy with Dylan was coming to an end in spite of his whispered promises.Dylan would return to Toronto, and then he would leave Matheson Telecom for his new job.Pain, hard and sharp, surged through her at the thought of him leaving.She couldn’t stop it and she couldn’t change it.And she couldn’t go back to Toronto with him.She looked around and saw the shelf that held the Bible.With a cry of sorrow she stumbled toward it like a lost person seeking home.She snatched it off the shelf and held it close.What do you hope to find here?Panic clutched at her as the conversation she and Dylan had had with Ted spun up once more.Dylan was going to stop looking.Gabe was still seen as guilty.What was going to happen to him if she quit now? She knew from experience that if things didn’t get resolved she didn’t know what Gabe would do.But how could she convince Dylan to keep digging without letting him know who she was?She couldn’t tell him.Not yet.With a tired sigh she dropped into the large leather sofa facing the fireplace.She tucked her feet under her and snapped on the light, creating an intimate cone of luminance in the darkened study.She paged through the Bible, her previous question nagging at her.Did she want answers to her dilemma? A solution to the problems she had taken on?Was she hoping to recapture the connection she’d felt so strongly in church?She paged past the prophets to the New Testament, the Bible opening to the book of Peter.Her eyes skimmed the words, then stopped.“God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.Humble yourselves therefore under God’s mighty hand that He may lift you up in due time.Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.”Lisa read the words again.And again.They pressed against her, exposing her even as they gave her comfort.She knew that she had to let go of her plans, yet if she did what would happen to Gabe? To her?For the past few days she had allowed herself a fantasy.That Dylan really was her boyfriend and she was a part of this family.That together they would prove Gabe innocent.But it wasn’t going to happen once Dylan and his family heard the truth from her.And even if she didn’t tell them, Dylan was leaving the company.Would she go back to Toronto and pursue the faint hope Dylan had held out to her in his whispered promises last night? Would those promises still hold once he found out she had lied to him?Please, Lord.Just a little while longer, she prayed as the loneliness of the past few years and the sacrifices she had made for Gabe in her personal life nagged at her resolve.Let me hold on to this dream just a little more?But even as the prayer formulated in her mind, she knew God wouldn’t answer it.She knew what she had to do.She closed the Bible and set it aside.Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.Lisa pressed her hands against her face, her emotions warring with truth.Help me, Lord.Help me find the right time.The door to the study creaked open and Lisa whirled around, her hand on her chest.It was Dylan.His hair was still tousled from sleep and whiskers darkened his cheeks.He wore a loose T-shirt and blue jeans.And he looked even better than he had last night in a suit and tie.“Hey, there,” he said, his voice still sleep roughened.“You couldn’t sleep, either?”Lisa shook her head, her heart throbbing in her chest in a confused combination of fear and anticipation.Dylan walked into the study and stopped by the end table beside Lisa’s chair.“When I saw the light under the door, I thought you were my mother.She sometimes comes in here early in the morning and has her devotions.”“I’m…I’m…sorry.I’ll leave.” Lisa struggled to untangle her feet from her long robe to stand, but Dylan caught her by the shoulder and eased her down.“It’s okay.She doesn’t do it every morning.” Dylan came around the couch and hunkered down in front of her.He caught her by the hands, toying gently with her fingers as he smiled up at her.“I was thinking about you this morning.”In spite of her resolve, a soft yearning grew within her at his touch, at the intimacy of his lowered voice.Giving in to an impulse, she reached out and feathered his hair back from his forehead, letting her fingers trail down the rough stubble of his cheek.“I was thinking about you, too.” The words slipped past her defenses
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