Special Delivery (Mountain Meadow Homecoming 1) (31 page)

Could it be that simple?

They kissed. It began as healing and ended in passion. He groaned as Holly touched him and caressed him, and he gave back to her. He stroked, listening to her sighs of pleasure, and then his lips followed a path across her breasts to the rounded curve of her belly until he lifted her hips and opened her to his most intimate kiss. As she cried out, he rose above her and sheathed himself, moving in a rhythm that brought peace and passion. As they climaxed, they clung. He gave Holly his touch, his strength, and drew the same from her.

They held each other for a long time, whispering until he fell back asleep, and at last experienced some of her peace, faith, and hope.

* * * *

Ernie Jones looked at Jake as the younger man sat in the chair across from him. “Jake, go home. Be with Holly. Dilby is going to lie low. You and I both know it.”

Jake rubbed his hand across his eyes. In addition to working on leads during the day, he had been on the Internet at night sending e-mail and faxing both Noelle’s and Dilby’s pictures to every law enforcement agency he could think of. Ernie was right, though, and Jake knew it. He stared at the Internet page in front of him. They could try this last ski resort Monday. After coming up empty at every other place, he’d started looking at the resorts they might have visited when Tyler had seen them. Maybe Spence had returned to the same place.

“I so wanted to be able to bring her home for Christmas, and even worse, Ernie, today’s Holly’s birthday.”

When his voice cracked at the end of the sentence, Jake looked away in embarrassment. He had always presented a stoic front to everyone, but the truth was he was as close to the edge as he had ever been, even more so than from the aftereffects of combat.

“Son, there’s no shame in showing your emotions for those you love.”

Jake crossed to the window. “I’ve tried to be strong, but I’m beginning to lose hope. Yet every time I look at Holly she tells me to have faith.” He studied his mentor. “How can she still trust? How can she still believe?”

Ernie put a hand on Jake’s shoulder and squeezed. “Go home, Jake. Take Tyler and Holly and go to church tonight. You may find that faith you’re seeking.”

Jake nodded, but in his heart he didn’t know what good that was going to do.

* * * *

Tyler expressed the same doubts to her just a short time later. “How can I celebrate Christmas when God let Spence take Noelle? I’ve prayed and prayed, Holly, but God’s not listening.”

“He listens, Ty,” she told him softly. “Sometimes we just have to be patient and wait for the answer.” Holly stroked his hair and glanced at the tree in the corner of the room. Her chin trembled, but she wouldn’t let Tyler see, nor would she let Jake see. They were as torn up over Noelle as she was, but if she let them see how close she was to breaking, none of them could handle this.

Tyler was smart. It hadn’t taken him long to realize Holly had been shopping for him when Spence snatched Noelle. He carried an inner guilt she couldn’t erase. And Jake? He’d been working like a dog, trying to be strong for them, and it tore him up inside. She wasn’t in much better shape. She sought refuge in routine, but in those moments when she had nothing to occupy her mind, hopelessness took root.

They needed church tonight, needed to watch the children’s pageant, to sing songs of joy and hope, Holly’s favorite part of the Christmas season. She needed Jake at her side. Tyler would be in the pageant as one of the three wise men, so Holly had invited Evan and Jenny to go with them. She wanted loved ones around her, and if they couldn’t have Noelle tonight, they could remember her and pray for her safe return.

“Come on, Holly. Pastor Joe would understand if I don’t want to be Melchior.”

Evan lounged in the doorway to the living room watching as Holly put the finishing touches on Tyler’s outfit.

Holly gave Tyler
the look
and he rolled his eyes. “You made a commitment,” she reminded him. “They’re expecting you. What would the manger scene be with two wise men instead of three?”

“A lot like the one outside the church?” Evan suggested. “Which also happens to be missing Mary, Joseph, the camel, the shepherd, and all the sheep. Or was that the Presbyterian church?”

“No,” Jake said wearily. “The Presbyterian church is missing Jesus, Balthazar, Gaspar, the donkey, the shepherd, and all his flock. I think. I’m so tired I can’t remember anymore.”

“Are we ready?” Evan asked. “I’ll drive. We can all pile into the Tahoe.” He’d offered to drive for the last two days ever since he and Jenny bought his new replacement vehicle. He figured it offered plenty of room for car seats, and Jenny said it offered plenty of protection in case Evan missed any more curves.

They had to be there a half hour before the service was scheduled to start so the youth director could get everyone in their places for the manger scene in front of the altar. Evan’s eyes widened as one of the angels burst into tears when the littlest shepherd knocked her sparkly gold halo off with his crook.

Jenny leaned over and pulled Evan down to whisper in his ear. “Would now be a bad time to tell you I’m late?”

Evan smiled vaguely, “Late? We got here in plenty of time.”

“No, Evan,” she said patiently. “I’m
late
.”

His eyes widened as he stared at the angel now being soothed by Mary, a high school student, while Joseph, another high school student, instructed the shepherd to say sorry. Evan smiled in dawning comprehension at Jenny. “How late?”

“Just two days, but Evan, I’m
never
late.”

He grinned, feeling brighter and warmer than the star on top of the stable.

Once everyone was in place, the lights dimmed in the sanctuary. All the parents found seats and the rest of the congregation was allowed in.

Holly sat with Jake on her right and Jenny and Evan to her left. Jake put his arm around her shoulders, perhaps afraid the story of the Savior’s birth might bring too many reminders.

Jenny found Holly’s hand and laced her fingers through it. Evan knew she desperately wanted to share her news with her friend, but she was no doubt afraid it would remind Holly of Noelle.

Evan sat a little stiffly to Jenny’s left, his thoughts swirling from the disintegration of his own family, to tiny Hope on the hill behind Jenny’s house, to Noelle, and finally to the spark of life even now growing inside Jenny.

Life, he thought, was a series of beginnings and endings more than a circle. Connections and disconnections created a constant struggle to find harmony in so many areas. He now had new hope, and he even began to understand how Holly could sit there near the front of the church looking with such radiance at the cross.

Without conscious thought, he laid his hand protectively across Jenny’s stomach. When she stiffened, he removed his hand and looked at Holly. Shining green eyes met his. Her gaze fell to Jenny’s stomach and then back, and she smiled at them. She knew, and it was all right.

Pastor Joe stepped into the pulpit.

“Good evening, everyone. Peace and goodwill to all of you on this, the eve of our Savior’s birth.”

After an opening message from Pastor Joe, the children’s choir sang “Away in a Manger” and then Les Gardner’s son stood and went to the pulpit, his red head barely visible over the top of it. A small hand appeared and tilted the microphone. There was a rumble of laughter through the congregation.

* * * *

Holly glanced at Jake and smiled as she leaned into his shoulder. His arm tightened around her shoulders, and he stared at her in wonder. She no longer saw the doubt and despair that had filled him. Instead, his steady hazel gaze reflected the same hope to which she had been clinging. He smiled for what seemed like the first time in days, and warmth suffused Holly’s heart. It would be okay. She knew it.

“And it came to pass in those days, that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.” The young man began the familiar story in a very serious voice. “And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.”

The little boy continued the story to the part where the angels appeared to the shepherds. Rather than sharing tidings of great joy, the littlest angel seemed to be glaring at the smallest shepherd.

“And the angel said to them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy…” The angel stuck her tongue out at the shepherd and he changed his grip on his crook so it looked more like he held a light saber. “For unto us is born this day in the city of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord.”

There was a faint stirring at the back of the church, but the little boy continued resolutely, “And this shall be a sign to you; you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.”

Suddenly from the back of the church, someone spoke, “Glory be. We’ve been invaded by the Presbyterians.”

And sure enough, as they all gawked, there stood the Presbyterian minister and behind him what appeared to be his entire congregation, but Holly’s eyes were drawn immediately to the blond woman and the brown-haired man standing right behind the minister. She had no idea who the man might be, but Holly knew from her research, the woman was Celia Segal. Slowly, Holly stood. When she swayed, Jake jumped to his feet, too. Then Evan and Jenny stood. From the edge of the manger scene, Tyler set down his frankincense and left.

The brown-haired man searched the congregation as he stepped forward with the blonde and the blanket-wrapped bundle in her arms. As the bundle began to move and squirm and squall, the man spoke. “I’m looking for Holly Morgan?”

Holly pressed her hand over her heart, sure it was going to beat right out of her chest.

“
Noelle,
” she whispered, and then she and Jake rushed down the aisle as the combined membership of the Baptist and Presbyterian churches looked on at the unfolding of their very own Mountain Meadow version of the Christmas Story.

Seely held the baby out. As opposed to the Internet pictures that had shown an immaculately groomed woman in stylish clothes, this Celia Segal was sans makeup and looking like she had borrowed clothes from the guy she was with.

“Holly?” Seely’s voice shook. “I’m so sorry. Spence took your baby and…and he wouldn’t let either of us go.”

Holly knew that look of fear. She’d felt it, too.

She took Noelle into her arms and laughed. The baby instantly quit crying and smiled. All of the pain and fear of the last few days disappeared. It was gone, as though she had snapped her fingers, and God had granted her dearest wish.

Jake was there with his arms around them both. Tyler shoved back his cardboard crown. “Is she okay?”

Jenny hurried up the aisle. “Buck Harris? What are you doing here with Noelle?”

The brown-haired man laughed. “It’s a long story.” And he put his arms around the blonde’s shoulders.

Holly rocked her baby and whispered to Pastor Joe, “Could we finish the service? Do we have room for all the Presbyterians?”

Pastor Joe smiled, his blue eyes twinkling. “We’ll make room.”

Holly raised her head just in time to see Evan look beyond the group gathered around Noelle, as though he was searching for someone. His gaze stopped on an older woman with silver-blond hair that glinted in the subdued light. Some wordless communication seemed to pass between them. Realization dawned on Holly. It had to be Evan’s mother.

Evan tugged at Jenny who caught the direction of his gaze. She smiled at Catherine Richardson and pulled Evan forward. It seemed it was a night for mothers to reunite with their children.

Holly cradled Noelle while she sat next to Jake, finally feeling like the Christmas angels he called them. No longer on their own, they had family, friends, and a cocoon of love surrounding them. Seely and the guy named Buck slipped in next to Jake. Jenny and Evan made room for Catherine Richardson, and the healing began. Around the altar, Tyler and the rest of the children enacted their parts in the birth of the baby Jesus, while to the side the two real shepherds—Joe and the reverend—watched over their combined flocks.

Everything was finally right.

* * * *

Holly unwrapped her infant daughter and touched every part of her as soon as they returned home. She had prayed for a Christmas miracle and gotten exactly that. While Jake called Sam and relayed what had happened, Holly sat in the living room with Noelle and their guests.

She looked at Celia and said, “I can never thank you enough. You know, when Spence first tried to convince me to give her up while I was still pregnant, I wanted to hate you, to hate the woman who wanted to take my baby.”

“It was never that way,” she said. “But I was so jealous of you. You were able to have a child, while I can’t. But what Spence couldn’t seem to understand was Noelle belongs with you…no one else.”

Jenny sat next to Evan on the couch, studying Buck who stood quietly near the fireplace.

“I guess I should explain. Buck and I go way back. In fact, we were in medical school together. While I opted for being a family practitioner, Buck decided on an OB/GYN practice. I have to know, Buck. How on earth did you end up involved in this?”

He grinned. “I followed the most daring skier I have ever seen down the slopes behind my house. Do you know that’s how Celia got away from Spence? She tucked the baby inside her jacket, rode the lift up the mountain, skied to the woods, and waited for Spence to go by before she came to my house.”

Holly looked at them all. “I want to hear the whole story if you’ll excuse me for nursing in front of everyone?”

Evan chuckled. “Holly, the only male in here who hasn’t already seen your bare breast is an OB/GYN, and he’s probably seen more bare breasts than Jake and I have in our whole lives combined.”

Buck winked as he tilted his glass of brandy at Evan, but his eyes watched Celia carefully as Holly put her daughter to her breast. Noelle latched on greedily, her little hands kneading and patting. A certain wistfulness colored Celia’s expression, but she seemed all right.

“Celia,” Buck said, “why don’t you start.”