Finding a Path to Happiness

“Okay, then,” Noah said with emphasis, “there will be no more Sirs or Mr. Hayes or even Young Man. I will be Noah and you will be Jon. Let’s go get Christy. We’ll work out the rest of the details later.”

Getting Christy to go along was a much harder task. When Noah asked her to come with them for lunch, she knew she was turning all shades of red.But even though she was really anxious to know all about this Jon Holcomb, she just couldn’t talk to another man so soon after her San Francisco experience. She had never before had a problem talking to a new acquaintance, but today it felt absolutely impossible. “Mr. Hayes,” she said, as she always addressed her grandfather as such when they were with clients, “I have a few errands I’d like to run on my lunch hour, so if you don’t mind, I’ll decline the lunch offer.”

“You can take all the time you need, Christy, after we eat, but I do want you to come with us now.” That meant it was not a request, but an order, so reluctantly Christy picked up her purse and started for the door. Noah didn’t understand his granddaughter’s mood at all, but she’d better not affect Jon’s acceptance to the offer. He knew, for sure now, that a little private meeting between the two of them was imminent.

Jon had sensed the strained feelings between the two as they left the office and then walked to the same restaurant where he had eaten the night before. He wished he could help relax the tension that enveloped them, but there was little he could do since he didn’t really know the cause. He was almost certain that Christy’s nervousness was not about this lunch situation with him, but something must have happened on that trip she’d been on and it was still bothering her. What could’ve happened that made her appear so afraid around me this morning? Did she have a confrontation with some guy and so now was afraid of all men? His curiosity was really aroused with that thought, and he decided to be very careful not to add fuel to the fire, if that was what had her so upset.