Page 53 of Not So Very Sensible

Great.

“You.” Mum beamed at her youngest child. “Ellie is concerned that this Jason fellow might be taking advantage of you—”

“Mum!” That was hardly helpful.

“Ellie!” Katie screeched. “Don’t you trust me?”

“Exactly what I said,” Mum said, completely missing the point of what they’d talked about before.

Mum smiled sympathetically at her. “I think Ellie might even be a little bit jealous, am I right?”

“Jealous? Of Jason? No way.”

“I really don’t understand why you don’t like him,” Katie snapped.

And they were back to this. Saying she didn’t trust the man when she had nothing to go on but a feeling didn’t seem like a recipe to be heard. She found a tight smile and stood. “Sorry for upsetting people. I need to have a shower and go to bed.”

“Are you not going to do the sister chat tonight?” Katie snipped.

Oh glory. The sister chat. “I forgot. I’m really tired.”

“But it’s the only chance EJ—I mean Emma-Jane—has this week before she goes away. And I really want to tell her about Jason so she doesn’t feel like she has to throw Dream Match at me again.”

Dream Match. Emma-Jane’s matchmaking website for Christians where, as she constantly reminded them, she could find them a perfect match for free.

“Fine. I can talk a little while, but not too long.”

Thanks to time zone differences, they had to catch Liv in the early evening hours while they were all awake. Complicating matters was Emma-Jane’s Dream Match workload, which often saw her schedule meetings at strange hours of the day.

Ellie heaved out a breath and turned on her computer, settling on her bed with her laptop on a pillow on her lap.

Her nose wrinkled. She really didn’t want Emma-Jane throwing Dream Match at them, like she thought them all dating castaways who needed a lifeline in the sea of life.

And while they’d all resisted—and even Emma-Jane had found happiness herself with her childhood best friend, Jordan Knight—it was more a pride thing than because she didn’t think it would work. Hundreds of people had married over the past few years thanks to Dream Match. Even their cousin Annabelle had suggested she might give it a go since the pool of viable Christian men in Wattle Vale and surrounds was low to zero.

But not Ellie. She’d rather move to the city—or England—instead of feeling forced to give Dream Match a try. And with Ethan, she’d really thought she might’ve found a man who could be a potential dating candidate.

Oh, she hoped he was doing okay and not overrun with work. Lord, be with him.

For a moment, a smidgeon of peace settled on Ethan’s soul, before the horror of what he’d just heard rolled in again, like a king tide hitting the shore.

“Are you for real?”

Far from being an opportunity to bring comfort, the evening had quickly progressed into one that felt more like a snare had been set. And he was the fly caught in the spiderweb of obligation.

Lucinda smiled again. “It would make Mum so happy. You know that this is what both your mum and mine wanted.”

He barely refrained from shaking his head. No. No, he did not know. Mum might’ve mentioned something about wanting him to find happiness and to look after Lucinda, but had she really meant what the Steeles obviously believed?

He glanced at Christine now. Well, if she was going to embarrass him by insisting on this, then he had every right to ask difficult questions. “Christine, do you remember talking with my mum about salvation?”

She blinked. “I, er, don’t know if now is quite the right time to talk about this.”

“It is if we’re going to be continuing this other discussion.” He didn’t want to embarrass her, not on such a fateful day, but neither would he let himself be manipulated into something that was not what he wanted to do. “You know that God is real, right? You’ve seen Him answer prayers.”

“He didn’t answer prayers to heal my mum,” Lucinda sniped.

He ignored her. “Christine, now is the time to really lean into God, to ask Him to give you peace and comfort and strength for what lies ahead.”