Emerald Fire (Christian Romance) (The Jewel Series)

by Bridgeman, Hallee

  She dismissed him by sitting down and putting the earbuds of her MP3 player into her ears and cranking up Skillet singing about the monster in the closet. She turned to her computer and didn’t watch her employer leave.

  RATHER than battle the rush hour traffic that is nothing less than agonizing in downtown Boston on a Wednesday afternoon, Maxine chose to walk to Robin’s apartment after work. Inside, she still seethed over the impromptu lunchtime meeting with Peter. While she honestly felt like she had handled it reasonably well, the end result was that she now had over two months in front of her and wasn’t quite certain what to do with herself in all that time.

  She spoke momentarily with the guard at the big circular desk then took the private elevator to the top floor of the building. Without knocking, knowing the guard would have announced her arrival, she pushed open the outer door and entered Tony and Robin’s apartment.

  Smiling, Robin rushed to greet her. Robin reached her and hugged her. “I’m so happy to see you. What a surprise!”

  Maxine noted Sarah sitting on the big circular leather couch cradling Antonio Frances Viscolli, Junior – already nicknamed TJ – in her arms. Sarah looked up and grinned. “Are you here to cook us dinner?”

  Maxine laughed and returned Robin’s hug before she dashed to scoop the baby up from her little sister. “I can. What is mommy hungry for?”

  With a smile, she handed Maxine a burp cloth. “I think that anything Aunt Maxi makes will be fantastic. I’m just not sure what’s in there. I haven’t been to the grocery in weeks.”

  “I’ll dig around.” Maxine put her lips on TJ’s perfect little head and inhaled the fragrant baby smell. “I love him so much. How can I love him so much when I’ve only known him for two weeks?”

  Sarah smiled. “I feel the same way. I feel like moving back in here. Maybe if I go to graduate school, Tony will let me have my old room back.”

  Robin snorted. “Talk to me at feeding time at three in the morning and see if you still want to live here.” She looked at Maxine. “What’s up, Maxi? Everything okay?”

  TJ gave a little snort and started rooting at Maxine’s neck. She handed him over to his mama and watched while her big sister settled into a chair and started nursing him. Maxine sat on the couch next to Sarah. “I, ah, need to talk to you two.”

  Sarah pushed her glasses up further on her nose and shifted until she faced Maxine and had her back to the arm of the couch. “What’s wrong?”

  Maxine ran her fingers over the naked ring finger of her left hand. She cleared her throat. “When I went to Vegas …“ She paused and looked at Sarah then Robin then back to Sarah.

  Sarah leaned forward and touched her hand. “Maxi?”

  “Barry and I got married.” She blurted it out then froze. Both sisters just stared at her for a moment, then simultaneously, the words sank in and their eyes widened. Sarah was the first to speak.

  “You did what?”

  “It was just this spontaneous thing.” Maxine surged to her feet and paced around the circular room. “I didn’t think about it. We have always been such good friends. I don’t know. I’m pretty sure I’ve always loved him. Even when he was with her,” she paused as memories of Barry’s marriage to that awful woman played through her mind like a little movie. “And then we were at this wedding chapel watching this Elvis impersonator do a Blue Hawaii wedding and the next thing I know, I was saying, ‘I do.’”

  Another long silence stretched throughout the room. Maxine slowly walked back to the couch and sat down. This time, Robin spoke. “Well, that is some news.”

  “Indeed,” Sarah said. “Vegas was before the new year. What about since you came home?”

  Maxine shook her head. “I think he had divorce papers ready when I saw him the day TJ was born, but the baby coming and the big project at work has kept me distracted for the last two weeks.” She let out another breath. “I also took a leave of absence from my job today.”

  Robin repeated, “Leave of absence?”

  Maxine waved her hand. “Vacation, really. But I have months of vacation due so we’ll call it a paid leave.” She told them about the partnership and the work and the project. Oddly, she did not feel emotionally overwhelmed. She felt blank inside.

  Sarah scooted over until she could put her arm around her older sister. “What now, honey?”

  Maxine lowered her head. “I just don’t know. I am just waiting for God to tell me what to do. The break from work felt like the right decision. I don’t regret it. Now I just need to see what’s next.”

  Robin shifted TJ to her shoulder and leaned forward to touch Maxine’s knee. “We’re here for you, whatever happens. And we’ll be praying for you.”

  She leaned back and started burping TJ, but Sarah grabbed Maxine’s hand and put another hand on Robin’s thigh. “Let’s pray right now.” The three women bowed their heads and closed their eyes as Sarah prayed for Maxine.

  CHAPTER 16

  NEARLY a week later, Maxine sat at her drafting table in her studio, a blank sketch pad in front of her. For the first time in her life, she could not find the inspiration to draw out her feelings. For over a decade, she’d used her gift of art to purge the demons from her mind, a cleansing ritual that worked nearly every time. Now, though, the pencil lay still in her hand and the unblemished page stared back at her, a stark white, mocking blank space.

  “Well, God,” she muttered, “I’m here. And I’m trying to be still. But I honestly just don’t know how.” She grabbed her remote control and pushed the button for music. Instantly, the sound of the Newsboys filled her studio. The speakers lining the ceiling flooded the surround sound of a ticker tape parade falling like a million pieces. She had spent a good portion of the last week purging her secular music collection and trying on different bands and different sounds. She loved hard, thumping music, and found herself pleasantly surprised at the different Christian offerings.

  A restless feeling had sent her into her studio this morning. This was day three that she had holed up in her apartment. By noon every day, after baking some amazing bread or dessert, or cooking some rich stew that she promptly froze because no one else was around to eat it, she wandered into her studio. Inspiration never came, though, so she found herself going through her paintings and drawings, cataloging them, remembering times she painted them, reminiscing over her life.

  She knew one thing. She would not passively allow an annulment. She loved Barry, deeply, truly. She longed to be the wife he deserved, the wife he may not even know he desired. How to go about that, though?

  Her mind wandered, and she thought of ways to communicate to him, writing him a letter, sending him an e-mail, showing up at his office. Nothing appealed to her, though. As she thought, her hand moved of its own accord and she very quickly recognized what she drew. Barry’s house. She filled in the bricks, added the trim, drew his Jeep in the driveway. One word went through her mind as she worked. “Home.”

  THE next day, Maxine found herself back in the front pew where she had spent so many hours praying that day not too long ago. Today, she waited for her turn to join Robin and Tony on the chancel stage as they dedicated baby Tony to the Lord. She still found herself waiting for an answer from God about what she should do, but the more time she spent in solitude with Him on her knees in prayer, the more confident she felt that He would answer in His good time.

  As pastor called the family, she and Sarah climbed the steps of the chancel stage. As she walked toward Robin and Tony, she was pleasantly surprised to see Derrick and Barry walking toward them from the other side of the chancel. Unlike Robin, Tony had no family. He treated Derrick and Barry like brothers as much as if they had been born to the same mother. The O’Farrell’s, the youth minister of the church and his wife, also joined. They had fostered Tony through his early Christian life, rescuing him from the streets and providing a home for him.

  Going through the dedication ceremony, Maxine could not help observing Barry. His face remained ver
y stoic, and she silently prayed that God would take advantage of his presence for this ritual to convict him about his withdrawal from God’s love. He seemed unaffected by any of it and refused even to meet her eyes. After the ceremony, after the family returned to their seats, she watched him leave the sanctuary. Unlike the day of his wife’s funeral, she did not follow him. Instead, she listened to the sermon and felt a door in her heart open up. After the sermon, she found herself joining the wave of people going to the front of the church and fell to her knees before God and felt more doors open and His answer poured into her heart.

  MAXINE rushed home from church, skipping the family lunch. She burst through the door of her apartment and tossed her purse and keys atop the desk next to her phone. Taking her Bible to the couch with her, she sat with her back against the arm and spoke to God. “I know what I think You want, but since I’m a little unschooled at listening to Your voice, I sure would like some confirmation. I hope I’m not doing something wrong by asking. Thank you for answering my prayer. Now, just to be sure, please help me confirm. Thank you.”

  She closed her eyes and opened her Bible, then opened her eyes and read at the first passage she saw. She read of Ruth, who mustered up her own courage and went to Boaz. In that moment, Maxine knew that what she felt stirring in her heart had come directly from God.

  SIX o’clock Monday morning, Maxine rang Barry’s doorbell. She waited a few moments and rang it again. And again. Finally, he answered. He wore jogging shorts and a sleeveless shirt. His muscles bulged against his sweaty skin and she knew she’d interrupted his morning workout.

  “Hi,” she greeted with a smile.

  “Maxi,” he said with a surprised look on his face. He looked past her, to her car in the driveway next to his Jeep, then back at her. “What are you doing here?”

  “Freezing, for one.” She stepped forward and he stepped backward until she crossed the threshold and shut the door behind her. “That’s better.” She peeled her red knit cap off and shoved it in the pocket of her gray wool coat. Her gloves followed, then she unbuttoned her coat and slipped it off her shoulders. “Did I interrupt you?”

  He looked down at his attire then shrugged. “I was just finishing up.” He turned and started walking away. “I’m not really set up for company right now, Maxi.”

  “I’m not exactly company, Barry.”

  He nodded with a half shrug. “Care for some tea?”

  “I’d prefer coffee,” she said, trailing behind him. She stepped into the large great room, with its huge stone fireplace and plush furniture. The stairwell leading upstairs flowed to her left, and the balcony above revealed three closed doors. Barry continued walking through the room and through a swinging door into the kitchen, and Maxine followed right behind him.

  A breakfast nook overlooked a snowy backyard. Stone floors and three walls of windows made the room kind of chilly. The large granite island, the commercial sized gas stove, and the double ovens in the wall made Maxine want to get cooking.

  Barry pulled a cup from the cupboard above and filled it with water hot from the kettle on the stove. “I don’t have coffee,” he said. “I have tea. If you want some I’ll be glad to make you some.”

  Maxine waved her hand. “No thanks.”

  He added a tea bag to the cup and turned to face her fully. She slipped into a bar stool at the island and smiled at him. He stared at her for a moment then said, “Why are you here, Maxi?”

  “Well,” she began, excitement bubbling through her chest until she feared it would spill out of her and make her unable to form coherent words. “I’m here because I’m your wife. And as your wife, I should be living with you.”

  He stared at her for five long seconds. Finally, he blinked and took a sip of tea. “Really?”

  “Really.”

  “And what if I say I don’t want you to live here?”

  Maxine hopped off the bar stool and came around the island until she stood in front of him. “I’d say that if you didn’t want me here, or anywhere else for that matter, that you’d have moved heaven and earth to get those papers to me to sign. I’d say that I know how I feel.”

  She put one hand over his heart, the other hand on his shoulder. She watched his eyes flare at her touch and could see the physical restraint he had to exercise over himself. “I’d say that I love you as a wife should love her husband. That I’ve missed you like you wouldn’t believe these last three weeks, and that I prayed and prayed for God to tell me what to do, and every indication of an answer pointed me to this house and me coming to you. This is where I belong, Barry. Here. With you.”

  He put his hands on her shoulders, but didn’t pull her close. Instead, he kept her from stepping any closer. “We can’t be together, Maxine.” he said, but she cut him off.

  “We’re already together. We’re married. You haven’t changed that. I don’t want to change it. I want to live as your wife.”

  “People will say …”

  “People will always say, no matter what. Barry, listen to me.” Despite his resistance, she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his waist. She leaned forward until her head lay against his chest and she could hear his heart beat beneath her ear. “We are one. It’s that simple.”

  He didn’t wrap his arms around her. He didn’t pull her closer. He didn’t kiss her. He didn’t sweep her away. All of those things she secretly wished he’d do. But he also didn’t push her away, so she took that as a positive sign. She smiled as she stepped away from him. “I have movers coming this afternoon. They’re bringing some things I want from my apartment. Obviously I don’t need a lot of the furniture, but there are some pieces I plan to keep.” He merely raised an eyebrow as he took another sip of his tea. “I’m going to need a key. If you don’t have a spare, please let me borrow yours so I can get a copy made. I’ll be here when you get home from work tonight, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

  He stared at her for one heartbeat, then another, then pulled open a drawer. He rooted around until he found a key which he tossed on the counter. “That was Jacqueline’s.”

  “Wonderful,” Maxine said with a grin as she scooped up the key. “I assume that anything that was hers I can dispose of?” She held up the key hanging from the bejeweled key chain. “Aside from this, of course.”

  He offered a stiff nod just as the cell phone on the counter started vibrating. Without speaking to her, he picked it up and pressed a series of buttons, read either a text or an e-mail, then put it back on the counter. “I need to run.”

  After he left the kitchen, Maxine clasped her hands together in glee and gave a little spin. Then she rushed out of the kitchen and back through the large front room. No sign of Barry led her to believe he’d gone upstairs to get ready for work. She rushed outside, careful not to slip on the patches of ice that lined the driveway, and retrieved a tote bag from the backseat of her car.

  She brought it back to the kitchen and unpacked the coffee maker and bag of coffee. She found the appliance a temporary home near the sink and determined that the first order of business for the day would be to scrub the kitchen. She wanted to learn where everything was and rearrange as needed to accommodate her left handed cooking methods.

  CHAPTER 17

  BARRY stood staring at his reflection until the hot water pouring out of the shower caused the mirror to fog up and obscure his view. Finally, he stripped and stepped under the hot spray and closed his eyes, letting the water beat down on his head.

  When had he lost complete control of this situation with Maxine?

  The crux of it was that he felt a small thrill at the thought of her living here, of her being here when he got home from work tonight. Another part of him could only see her fingers in the gentle embrace of that man in her office, and her face got replaced over and over again in his memory with the face of his dead adulterous wife.

  Maxine was right, though. If he truly didn’t want to be married to her anymore, he would have moved mountains to
get those annulment papers signed and filed. So what had held him up? What kept him from doing it?

  A skitter in his mind suggested that he pray about it, but he dismissed the thought. He prayed no more. Not since the answer to his prayer had been his wife’s death had he gone to God about anything. He certainly wouldn’t risk Maxine that way.

  Robotically, he slapped shampoo onto his palm and scrubbed at his scalp, then went through the motions to finish showering. The e-mail he’d received from Tony took an hour away from his morning. He wondered if his best friend beckoning him to the top floor of the Viscolli hotel and to his corporate offices had to do with business or Maxine.

  As he stepped out of the shower and dried off, Barry realized that he’d have to take this opportunity of an unplanned meeting to confess to Tony what he’d done. Maybe he wouldn’t have to worry about how he’d handle coming home to Maxine. Maybe Tony would just kill him and all of his earthly problems would be over.

  With a sigh, he moved into his bedroom and kicked a stack of dirty laundry farther into the corner and out of his path to the closet. He walked into the closet and moved toward the blue suits, mechanically matching shirt to tie to socks to belt to shoes. There would be no easy death to get him out of this. No. Tony would make him suffer.