A Baby for Easter
Authors: Noelle Adams
Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #Genre Fiction, #Holidays, #Romance, #Contemporary, #Romantic Comedy
A Baby for Easter
Noelle Adams
This book is a work of fiction.
Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s
imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events,
locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2014 by Noelle Adams.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit
in any form or by any means.
The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of
the following wordmarks referenced in this work of fiction: Tylenol and UNC.
Content Editing: Kristin Anders,
The Romantic Editor
.
As was the case with
Married for Christmas
, this book is
centered around a church, but it is not an inspirational romance. It is a
regular contemporary romance that features characters who happen to be
religious. It’s a distinction I want to be clear about because the expectations
for each genre are different. Because I assume some will be reading this book
who didn’t read
Married for Christmas
,
I’m going to repeat the explanatory note I wrote there.
Spirituality is an important aspect
of human experience and the lives of a lot of people, but it’s often
surprisingly absent from contemporary romances. Because of that, I thought I’d
write this note to prepare readers of this book. The point of this story is not
to present any sort of religious message, but faith is important to these
characters, and so the plot and character development turns on their spiritual
condition as much as anything else. In writing a story like this, the challenge
is that there’s likely to be too much religion for some readers and too little
for others. I don’t know if I navigated this difficult creative challenge
successfully, but I do believe it’s worth the attempt.
Daniel was a good man and a great
preacher, but he could sometimes be a frustrating boss.
“Alice,” he called out from his office. “Where’s Jobes?”
Alice Grantham was sitting at the desk in the outer office
at First Presbyterian Church in Willow Park, North Carolina, but Daniel’s
booming voice carried easily through rooms. She looked up from the bulletin she
was putting together for Sunday. ”What?”
“Jobes. I need it. Weren’t you going to bring it to me?”
With a sigh, she stood up and walked over to the credenza
against the wall, on which were piled dozens of books. She was pretty sure
Jobes was an author’s name, since she remembered seeing it as she organized all
of Daniel’s books three months ago, when she first started working for him.
If the book was on the shelves in his office, where it
belonged, he would have gotten it himself, so she figured it must have ended up
in one of these piles. The credenza was like the island of lost books, where
anything he’d lent out, left in another room, or taken home and then brought
back ended up until Alice took the time to return them to his bookshelves.
She knew he was working on an adult Sunday School class on Hebrews
right now, so she scanned the spines for something by a person named Jobes
about Hebrews.
“Is it there?” Daniel called, after about forty-five seconds.
“I’m looking.” She had to speak loudly to be heard through
the office, but she did try to keep her tone from sounding impatient.
Working for Daniel twenty hours a week was better than
having nothing except the ten hours the local library was able to give her, and
being rude to her boss was probably not the best way to commend herself to him.
Six months ago, she’d been living in Asheville. She’d had a
nice apartment, a good job at a university library, and a fiancé. After six
years in college and graduate school and one failed engagement, she’d thought things
were finally lining up very nicely for her. She was preparing for a happy,
comfortable life.
Then Bill, her fiancé, dumped her because he decided she
wasn’t what he needed in a wife.
Then, two months later, she’d been laid off at work. They
liked her at the university, but she was the library’s newest hire, and the
budget cuts they were facing were too severe to keep her position.
So she’d had to move back in with her parents in Willow Park
and try to resurrect her life.
She was forced to cobble together part-time work while she
kept looking for another full-time job. First Presbyterian, the church she’d
grown up in, had money in its budget for a part-time assistant for the pastor,
so Daniel—who’d only started preaching at the church recently himself—had
offered her the job.
If things had gone as she’d expected, she would have been
married this coming Saturday, but instead she was back in her hometown, searching
for a random commentary for a sometimes exasperating pastor.
Whom she’d known since she was four years old.
She finally landed on a book by Jobes that had Hebrews in
the subtitle, so she grabbed it and brought it into his office. She held it up.
“Is this the one?”
“Yes,” Daniel said, looking up from the notes he was
scrawling on a yellow legal pad. He was around thirty, good-looking, and very happily
married. “Thanks.”
As she handed him the book, she was tempted to tell him he’d
never actually asked her to get it for him a first time, as he clearly
believed, but she decided it wasn’t worth the effort.
He was already opening up the book and flipping the pages.
“I’ve been needing this.”
“Then you should have gotten up to get it yourself,” came a
female voice from the doorway.
Because she was watching, Alice saw Daniel’s face change as
he processed the voice and raised his eyes to see who was now standing in the
office.
It was impossible not to see it—that softening, that
transformation from focus into pleased surprise at the arrival of his wife.
Jessica was grinning as approached the desk, carrying what
was obviously a lunch she’d prepared for Daniel.
Despite his evident delight at the arrival of his wife, he
must have listened to her words. His eyes flicked back to Alice. “Sorry. Was I
being rude?”
She shook her head. It was absolutely impossible to stay
annoyed with the man. “No. It’s totally fine. Only, you hadn’t actually asked
me for the book in the first place.”
His dark eyes widened. “Oh. Sorry. I thought I did.”
Jessica shook her head and gave Alice a long-suffering look.
“You deserve a reward for putting up with his absent-minded pastor routine.”
“Hey!” Daniel objected. He’d gotten up, and now he reached
an arm out to pull Jessica against him. “I thought you liked absented-minded
pastors.”
Jessica’s face softened the way his had earlier. “Only one.”
When he leaned down to kiss Jessica, Alice turned to leave
the office, since she was feeling a bit like a third-wheel now.
She liked Daniel and his wife. She generally didn’t mind
working as the church’s administrative assistant. She was even glad to be back
in Willow Park, since she’d always wanted to eventually move home again.
But, for the last three months, she’d felt like she was on
the fringes of existence, without a real place in the world, desperately trying
to establish her life again.
She was only twenty-six, but she’d already had two failed
engagements, the one with Bill and one with the boyfriend she’d had all through
college who finally said he’d just outgrown her.
She’d never been particularly career-driven, but she’d
enjoyed working in a library and felt like she was good at it. Her dream was
for the local library in Willow Park to be able to hire her full-time, but they
hadn’t yet been able to fund the position.
She hated feeling at loose ends this way, and she was
determined not to let it continue. Although she’d never actually believed she’d
had to be married to really start life, she’d spent too long acting like that
was true. She wasn’t looking for a husband anymore—she’d given herself a set of
rules so she wouldn’t be stupid about men again—and she was trying reorient her
priorities. She thought about it as resurrecting her life, since Easter was
only a few weeks away.
She’d always loved Easter with its promise of hope, healing,
and new life—even more than Christmas—so it seemed fitting that it should be
the landmark for her newly shaped life.
Despite her resolution, little things like seeing how secure
Daniel and Jessica were in their relationship just reminded her of what she
didn’t have.
“Did you want a sandwich?” Jessica called after her. “I
brought one for you.”
Alice turned around in surprise. “Oh. Thank you.”
She took the sandwich and the bottle of water Jessica handed
her, thinking it was really nice to be remembered, even drifting on the fringes
of life.
She’d gone back to her desk and was busily typing up the
bulletin, occasionally taking a bite of her sandwich, when another voice
surprised her.
This one was male. Deep. Pleasant. Very familiar. “Hey,
Alice.”
She almost choked on her bite and had a rather embarrassing
moment as she attempted to swallow without coughing or spitting out the
mouthful.
When she managed to get the bite down, she looked over to where
Micah, Daniel’s brother, was standing in the doorway.
He was two years younger than Daniel and just as
good-looking.
Better
looking, Alice
thought, with his vivid blue eyes and warm grin.
Not that he was grinning now. For some reason, he never smiled
at her the way he smiled at everyone else.
His expression was sober as he stepped into the office.
“Sorry if I surprised you. Are you all right?”
“Yeah. I’m fine.” She was embarrassed, and her cheeks were
flushed hot, but she managed to keep her composure. She nodded toward the inner
office, with its partly closed door. “Daniel’s in there with Jessica.”
Micah stopped by fairly often. He was a deacon in the
church. Plus, he genuinely seemed to like his brother.
“Okay. Thanks.”
She’d gone back to her computer, since she didn’t want him
to think she was staring at him or hoping to talk to him. She was always very
careful about that.
She was afraid that Micah thought she was interested in him
romantically, so she always went far out of her way to make sure nothing in her
behavior affirmed this belief.
When it felt like he was lingering, she glanced up again.
He’d started toward Daniel’s door but was still looking in her direction, and
his eyes conveyed that same serious hesitance that was so uncharacteristic of
him.
“Did you need something?” she asked, pleased when her tone
sounded appropriately professional.
He shook his head. “No. Thanks.”
She gave him an empty smile and typed and typed and typed at
the bulletin until he stepped into the office.
Then she released a sigh and slumped in her chair.
She’d known Micah all her life. They’d lived in the same
neighborhood and had both been raised in this church.
He was two years older than her, so they’d never really been
close. Until one summer when she was sixteen and they were both working at a local
summer camp sponsored by the church.
They’d spent a lot of time together that summer, because of
their respective responsibilities, and they’d gotten in the habit of making rounds
in the evenings together, which had given them time to talk.
They’d talked about everything—dreams and fears and faith
and life. She was quiet by nature, but she’d opened up to him in a way she’d
never done with anyone else. He’d always been one of those guys who’d laughed
off everything serious, but he’d opened up to her too.
She’d fallen for him hard, and she’d genuinely believed that
he’d felt the same way.
She’d started to hope. She’d started to dream. Then he’d
started to hold her hand as they’d walked in the evenings. And one evening he’d
kissed her—softly, gently, almost tenderly—under the full moon, and she’d
thought her dreams were coming true.
But nothing else happened. No date. No words spoken about
feelings. No request to keep in touch. The summer ended, and he left for
college.
And nothing.
Micah had gone wild in college. He started to party and
drink and sleep around—things he’d never done in high school—and it just got
worse when he graduated. He’d done handyman work to make a living, but he
mostly just hung around and looked for a good time, any way he could get it. By
that time, Alice had left town and gotten engaged—twice—so she’d only heard
about him secondhand. But it always made her sad to think of the sweet boy
she’d known in high school and how far he’d drifted from what he’d believed.
Eventually, almost despite himself, Micah had built a
successful business as a contractor, but it wasn’t until just over a year ago that
he’d turned over a new leaf in his personal life. He’d come back to the church.
He’d stopped his habits of carousing in bars and one-night stands. He’d seemed
to finally take life seriously.
Alice had been happy when her mom told her he was changing
his ways, but, as soon as she returned to town, she’d been surprised and
disappointed by how he acted toward her.
Micah was always really standoffish with her now, and she
could only think of one plausible explanation for why.
He must think she was still holding a torch for him, from
all the way back in high school, and he didn’t want to encourage her. There
could be no other reason for why he was never warm and friendly with her the
way he was with everyone else.
It hurt. A lot. He was such a nice guy, and she would have
liked to be friends with him again. But he never even smiled at her.
Maybe, after her two failed engagements, he thought that she
was desperately husband-hunting and he was next in line for her attack.
She could hear him talking and laughing with Daniel and
Jessica in the office now. His warm voice resonated as much as Daniel’s did.
He was always teasing and laughing. Everyone in town loved
him. And he seemed to like everyone he encountered.
Except her.
He was in the office for about fifteen minutes. She heard
them chat about work on one of Daniel and Jessica’s bathrooms that they wanted
Micah to help out with. And she heard them talk about a family in the church who
didn’t have money to fix their car transmission, so Micah, being a deacon, was
tasked to reach out and see how the church could help. And she heard Jessica
inviting him to dinner on Easter, which was coming up in a few weeks. Jessica
added, with a lilt in her voice, that Micah could bring a date if he wanted.
He must have responded with a look rather than words, since
Alice didn’t hear the response. She’d even stopped typing to listen for it.
When the silence continued, she realized all of them must
have lowered their voices. It was evidently a private conversation that she
wasn’t supposed to hear.
She wondered if Micah was dating someone. She hadn’t heard
that he was, and she assumed she would know, since gossip flew like wildfire in
a town as small as Willow Park.
As far as she’d been able to tell, he hadn’t dated much at
all since he’d come back to the church.
“Alice.”
The male voice startled her so much she actually jumped.
So she was embarrassed again as she turned to face Micah,
who’d left Daniel’s office without her realizing it.
“Sorry,” he said, his expressing sobering and his voice
changing from the warm, laughing tone he’d been using with Daniel and Jessica.
She hated that transformation—from his real self to the
serious man he always became when he talked to her. But it happened every time.
“Yeah?”
