A Baby for Easter Read online

  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.

  Contents

  Author’s Note

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Excerpt from Married for Christmas

  About the Author

  Author’s Note

  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.

  One

  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 en
joyed 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—fro
m his real self to the serious man he always became when he talked to her. But it happened every time. “Yeah?”

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

  “It’s fine. I was just focusing too much, I guess.”

  He handed her two cookies in a plastic baggie. “I was told to give you these.” The action and tone were strangely intentional for such a casual gesture.

  She blinked in surprise and looked down at the chocolate chip cookies, which Jessica must have baked. “Oh. Thank you.”

  Alice assumed he would walk out now, since his assigned task was accomplished, but he didn’t. He just stood there. In anyone else, she would have thought he felt awkward, but this was Micah.

  Even as a kid, he’d always been the king of every room.

  “How’s it going?”

  She frowned in surprise but answered easily enough. “Fine. I’m just finishing up the bulletin for church on Sunday.”

  “Oh. I meant…I meant in general.” He cleared his throat and fiddled with his keys. He must be making an extra effort to be polite with her instead of so standoffish. “Do you like working for the church?”

  She finally realized what he was asking. “Oh. Yeah. It’s fine. I’m happy for any job at this point.”

  “Would you rather work for a library?”

  “Of course. I’d love it if I could get a full-time job at a library, but there just doesn’t seem to be anything available.”

  His eyes were resting on her face as if he were really listening, but he still wasn’t smiling. “But you have a Master’s, don’t you?”

  “Yeah. In Library Science. But tons of people have the same degree, and there aren’t that many available jobs. University libraries aren’t able to add many positions these days, so most jobs are replacements, when people move on or retire. And other candidates have PhD’s, or double Master’s degrees, or a lot more experience, so I’m just not a top candidate.”

  “So are you looking at public libraries then?”