An ache burned in his chest for what she’d lost. “Your parents? Grandparents?”
Pain reflected in her eyes, her voice soft and faraway. “Only me now. Has been since my grandma passed two years ago.”
“I’m sorry.”
She nodded, and he reached out and rubbed her forearm. A fleeting smile passed over her face.
He cleared his throat. “Let’s explore the natural area behind the church and see if we can spot some deer or turkey. I’m pretty sure there’s a nature trail back there.”
“Do you hunt?”
“Not much anymore, but I enjoy wildlife.”
They picked their way through the nature trail leading from the back of the church and through the lightly wooded area of oaks and elms. Brown leaves crunched under their feet as they walked.
“The youth group has campfires back here.” Drew reached for her elbow and helped her step over a log.
“It doesn’t look like anyone’s been back here in a while.”
“It’s been too hot, and then school started back.”
Carly stooped to get under a low-hanging branch and then emerged onto a clear walking trail where Drew came alongside her. “If you like hiking, maybe you’d like a moonlit walk through Riverbend Park one evening.”
She stopped short and turned to face him.
***
Her breath caught. Was he asking her out?
“We missed the harvest moon last month, but this one will be as beautiful, I’m sure.”
“Like a date?”
Drew smiled. “Yeah, but no pressure. I sense that you’re not ready for anything serious.”
“You’re right.” Carly tilted her head and considered. “I love the park. I’ve taken my sketchbook down there and spent hours sitting and soaking in the scenery. It’ll be even better at night when the stars are out.” She laughed softly.
“What?”
“I was remembering how my mom and I used to sit under the stars, and she’d point out the constellations when I was little.”
He nodded. “Good times.”
“Yeah, they were.”
“Since you’re busy this weekend, how ‘bout we go tomorrow evening? I’ll grab takeout, and we’ll have a picnic.”
Twirling the end of her ponytail between her fingers, she considered. “Sounds very low key, which is the way I like it.”
“Good.” He extended his hand.
She slipped her hand into his sure, callused one and walked next to him. Was she rushing things between them? Frowning, she thought back over the last two weeks. She’d not been the pursuer. He’d somehow managed to turn up mysteriously each time she had come to the church. Was it a mere coincidence that first time? And what about the second time when he happened to drive by and see her vehicle?
Hmm. Warning bells screamed in her mind. She stopped abruptly and pulled her hand away.
His eyes widened. “What’s wrong?”
She summoned her courage. “I have to be honest, Drew. Even though it may seem otherwise, I don’t trust easily. Something doesn’t add up here. If you have any skeletons, now’s the time to speak up.”
With a grim set to his mouth, he nodded. “I see. I guess I’d better come clean.”
Chapter Five
Carly’s heart pounded so hard she thought she might faint. Duped again. Okay, I can handle this. Somehow.
Drew leaned in, his eyes gleaming with mischief. “I have one that I put out in my front yard on Halloween.”
Gasping, she covered her chest with her hand. “You’re awful.”
His laugh bellowed through the woods. “Sorry, I couldn’t resist.”
He wasn’t exactly mocking her, but she didn’t care. The ease with which he diffused her fear comforted her. She grinned. “I guess I had that coming.”
“No, actually you didn’t. And, by the way, I don’t have any skeletons—metaphorically or otherwise. Just a bad attempt at humor.” He sobered. “I can’t make you trust me, Carly. I only ask that you don’t lump me in with whoever’s hurt you in the past. Quit looking for ulterior motives, and give me a chance to prove myself. I want to be friends. We’ll see where that takes us, okay?”
“It was hilarious, but you’re right. Let’s forget all this right now and look for those turkeys.”
Smiling, he motioned to a log and sat beside her. “If we sit for a minute and get perfectly still, maybe we’ll hear something.”
She cocked her head and waited. A faint rustling in the dense underbrush drew her attention. Her eyes widened, and she looked at Drew.
He put a finger over his lips.
A tan-and-white doe and her spotted fawn emerged from the woods onto the path. The mother flicked her ears, and her nose twitched in the air. Her large brown eyes surveyed the area. Drew and Carly remained frozen and watched. The baby ambled forward a few steps and looked around, then stuck his nuzzle in the browning grass and leaves and searched for food. The mother didn’t lower her head. Suddenly, a bird screeched overhead. The doe jumped, and the fawn bounded away after her.
“Oh, that was so beautiful,” Carly whispered. “I love nature. It’s so pure and simple.”
“True.” Drew offered his hand, and they stood. “Let’s follow this trail back around to the campfire. I want to make sure there’s no debris around it. I heard Larry mention that the youth may be up here over the weekend.”
“Okay.” She walked side by side with Drew, lost in thought about his comment about everyone being part of the same church. He certainly had spent a lot of time here in the last week. “Tell me about the activities at your church.”
“We’re a larger church, more members, and our programs are pretty set with volunteers.”
“Is that why you’re over here?”
He smiled. “Still wondering about that?”
Her cheeks warmed. “Kinda.”
“I help out with the men’s quarterly oil change that benefits single mothers and widows, and I help with the homeless food bank once a week. Wherever I’m needed, I’m willing to help.”
“Wow! Sounds like you spend a lot of time volunteering.”
He stepped over a large puddle on the trail and offered her his hand. “Not really. Don’t look too close, or you’ll see my halo isn’t quite as shiny as you think. My brother and I go a couple of rounds at least once a week.”
She chuckled. “Sounds normal.”
They stopped in front of the campfire, and Drew picked up a couple of empty cans. “Sorry to cut this short, but I’m meeting with a potential client tonight. I’ve done work for him before, so it’ll be pretty casual. But I still have to go home and shower first.”
“Oh, sure, that’s fine.” She certainly couldn’t expect him to hang around indefinitely to keep her company. “I could stand to go open the shop for a few hours this afternoon. Maybe I’ll have time to catch some customers heading home from work this evening.”
After helping her carry everything back in the church, he locked the door behind them and followed her into the parking lot. He fished his keys from his pocket. “I’ll pick you up tomorrow around five o’clock, if that’s okay.”
Her pulse raced. He was coming to her house? Again, the fears that she was moving too fast with him flared inside her. Besides, she’d be working at that time. “Actually, could I meet you at the shop?”
“Sure…no problem.” He smiled. “I meant what I said, Carly. No pressure. Friends first.” He climbed into his truck.
She sat in her car and watched as he drove away.
Aside from his comments about Keenan, why did Drew seem too good to be true?
Again, she considered praying, but if God existed, why would he care about someone who’d doubted him her whole life?
Pulling from the parking lot, her grandmother’s words flooded her mind.
“When you reach the end of yourself, child, maybe then you’ll realize that Jesus is the best friend you’ll ever have.”
***
Dre
w spread the blueprints of the massive ten-thousand square-foot home on his drawing table with Austin Rutherford leaning over his shoulder. He plunked his finger onto the middle of the page.
“Right there, Drew. That’s where I want the new sauna. An atrium’s already there with a workout room to the left of it. A storage closet is on the other side. Shouldn’t be that much work to fit that in.”
“You’re right. We’ve gotta make sure it’s up to code. Your house was built ten years ago, correct?”
“Uh-huh.” Austin stood with his feet planted shoulder-width apart and arms crossed. Even so, he towered over Drew, sure and sturdy like a linebacker on Sunday afternoon, his ruddy weathered complexion matching his copper hair. “Are you interested?”
“Sure.” Drew rolled up the prints and put them into a tube. “Give me about a week to come up with some preliminary drawings.”
“Sounds good.” Austin shook his hand. “If this works out well, I might have you design my new office down in North Augusta, South Carolina. ‘Course, what I really need is someone to oversee the whole thing. I’ve bought several hundred acres I’m going to subdivide and put houses and shops on—kind of like a mini-village.”
Drew froze. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah, but it would mean you’d have to move down there.”
Leave Hickory? Or more importantly, Bethlehem and Carly? Drew laid the tube on the desktop, trying to think of a way to stall the conversation—and decision. “Wouldn’t it be easier to hire a contractor?”
Austin grabbed his jacket from the coat rack. “Easier, maybe. But I don’t know anyone down there. I’ve worked with you. Problem is, I won’t be around much the early part of the year. I’ll be traveling. Gotta have someone I can trust to stay on top of things.”
“Let me get this finished, and then we’ll see about the next project, okay?” How could he turn down work that could push him into a whole new realm of business leads? Austin was connected, and likely it would be only the beginning of projects he could pick from.
Austin shrugged into his jacket and adjusted the collar. “The sooner the better.”
“You’ll hear from me by the end of next week.”
“Good enough. See you then.” Austin grabbed his briefcase and left.
Drew dropped into his desk chair. Tapping his pen on the desktop he considered what leaving for such a long period of time would mean. Was Keenan responsible enough to check in on Mom regularly down in Concord? As it was, Drew drove down once, sometimes twice, a month. If he were in North Augusta working, the drive would still be doable, but would he have time? Certainly not that often.
He rubbed his temples. Too many questions without answers. The best thing to do would be to stall, but Austin wasn’t the stalling type. As soon as Drew finished the drawings for his sauna and the contractor took over, Austin would be ready to move to the next project.
Drew flipped through his calendar. The work was scarce through the end of the year, and he didn’t anticipate much through the winter. If he worked with a firm, he’d have security, but he’d chosen this route to have freedom and flexibility in his schedule. After all, his mission work came first, and God had always provided him a way to accomplish that. The responsibilities of Mom and Keenan weighed heavy on him, but he also felt a connection with Carly he hadn’t had in a long time with anyone. Being a bachelor hadn’t been a goal, yet here he was. Alone. Until he’d walked into that tent in Cashiers a few weeks ago. He couldn’t get her out of his mind and certainly didn’t want her out of his life.
But it wasn’t only for him. He’d noticed a blossoming of her personality as she worked alongside Lottie. Whatever Carly’s angst with religion, Lottie had been the salve to start the healing. Yet, he couldn’t shake the idea that perhaps God had brought them together. Carly had finally begun to open up to him. Would leaving jeopardize everything?
He looked up.
Lord, what would you have me do?
***
Thursday afternoon, Carly straightened the canvas on the wall and glanced back over her shoulder at Jenna, her part-time employee and friend. “What do you think?”
Jenna tilted her head, her shoulder length, blunt-cut auburn hair falling into her face. Carly always wondered how it could be so straight and out of control at the same time. Her friend put her hands in her pockets then bent forward, aligning her gaze with the picture. “Looks straight to me.”
Carly fastened the hooks on the picture. “Good. You don’t know how good it is to have you back from vacation. How was hiking the Appalachian Trail, anyway?”
“Long.” Jenna dropped into a chair and reached for her bottled water. Her large loop earrings jingled as she took a swig and recapped the bottle. “I have the blisters to prove it.”
Carly snorted. “As long as you got something out of it.”
Jenna rolled her eyes before growing serious. “Now that I’m back, could you give me more hours? I could use the extra income.”
Carly turned to face her. “The only way I could is to have the shop open more. I really can’t afford for both of us to be here at the same time very much. Not with our current operating hours.”
“Of course.” Jenna nodded. “And with Christmas right around the corner, it’s the perfect time to extend the hours.”
“You’re right.” Carly measured apple cinnamon potpourri into the burner and lit it, sending a thin trail of smoke into the air. She motioned to the boxes in the corner she’d pulled from storage. “Help me with these Christmas lights, would you?”
Jenna got up, took the round ball of white icicle lights from Carly, and held them while Carly climbed onto a stepladder. She stretched them out and then tacked them around the edge of the room.
Every few feet, Carly climbed down and moved the ladder. “We’ll need to get the tree out before the weekend and put it up.”
Jenna fed the lights up to her. “I’m glad you opted for an artificial one last year that already had lights on it.”
Carly leaned back and assessed the effect of the lights before moving to the next section. “You and me both, although they don’t have the same pine smell of a fresh one.”
“That’s what they make Christmas candles for.”
“True.” After stowing the stepladder in the back room, Carly came back to the front.
Flipping through a magazine, Jenna lounged in a wicker settee with new green-and-red cushions. “So who’s the guy that’s been coming around?”
Carly shot her a glance then poured herself a cup of coffee. “What guy?”
“Mike from the Dollar Store said he’s seen the same black F-150 parked over here a couple of times in the last few weeks. Longer than normal for a customer. You’re not dating someone from the mob, are you?”
Coffee spewed from Carly’s mouth, and she grabbed a napkin. “Why do you do that to me? I think you enjoy seeing me wear this about once a week.”
Giggling, Jenna rose and grabbed a dust rag from behind the counter. “Because it’s so fun? Anyhoo, you didn’t answer my question.”
“His name is Drew, and he lives down in Hickory. He’s been helping me with a project at the Methodist church.”
Jenna’s eyebrows shot up. “Church?” she almost screamed. “Since when do you go to church? Man, what has happened around here since I went hiking? Did aliens snatch your brain, too? A boyfriend and church.” She shook her head.
“Could you be any more melodramatic?” Carly didn’t like the innuendos, even though she’d felt the same way not more than a month ago. Something had changed since she’d started hanging around the church with Drew and Lottie.
“Just sayin’.”
Carly sipped her coffee. “Well, don’t. Drew’s a friend, and I agreed to help Lottie. You know, the older lady who comes in here? She needed help with the set for the Christmas program.”
“I see.” Jenna rolled her eyes. “Doesn’t hurt having a man friend thrown in for good measure, huh?”
Heat flushe
d Carly’s chest. Drew would be here any minute to pick her up, and the last thing she needed was Jenna making some oddball remark to him. Best to nip it in the bud before it got started. She set her coffee on the counter. “There’s a painting that needs wrapping in the back. Could you handle that, please?”
“Sure thing.” Jenna laughed as she strolled into the back room. “I can take a hint.”
“And another thing. I’m leaving in a few minutes, so lock up when you leave, okay?”
“Okay,” Jenna called back. The sound of scissors swishing through the heavy brown wrapping paper filled the air.
Drew’s truck pulled into the parking lot. No way could she let him come in with Jenna in one of her moods. “See you later.” Carly grabbed her jean jacket and purse and ran outside without waiting for an answer.
“I’m not too early, am I?” Drew opened the door of the truck and waited for her to climb in.
“Not at all. Your timing was perfect, actually.”
He came around, climbed in the driver’s seat, and pulled from the parking lot. “I’ve got a surprise for you.”
“A surprise?” No one had gone to any trouble for her in a long time. Her stomach fluttered.
He glanced at her, a smile lighting his eyes. “Yes, and you’ll have to wait until after we eat to see what it is.”
She clasped her hands in front of her. Why did he make her so giddy every time she was around him? She hadn’t known anyone so attentive or thoughtful. Ever.
They crossed the Hickory River as the road wound through the countryside and over the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. After crossing the river a second time, Drew pulled into the park. Moments later, they climbed from the car with Drew carrying the picnic basket.
They found a picnic table.
He gestured to the contents of the basket. “I hope you like Panera Bread.”
Carly peeked inside. “Oh, I do.”
He unloaded roast turkey, apple, and cheddar sandwiches, grilled cheese panini sandwiches, containers of autumn squash soup, chocolate chip cookies, and strawberry parfaits.
“I wasn’t sure what you liked. I guess I could’ve called from the restaurant.”
Silent Stars of Bethlehem (O Little Town of Christmas) Page 4