But Dani couldn’t be unhappy her life. Not when she saw the rampant betrayals going on around her. Even her own father. That still twisted in her gut in ways she couldn’t quite put into words. However, though bedtime was often a mixed bag of times for them, they were both here every night, and she hoped that would always be the case.
“Good night,” she said, letting her gaze trail over him as latent love washed through her.
He hardly glanced over. “Night.”
A second and she ducked and rolled over. So she had traded smoldering romance for safety and security. She was thirty years old. It was time to get used to the fact that reality would never be what her fantasies of it had always whispered it should be. And with that, she let her mind spin through the coming day and the weekend after that. So much to do. So little time.
Behind her, Eric clicked off the light, plunging the room and the world into darkness save for the streetlights beyond the ample window. “Night.”
“Night,” she whispered, feeling him settle into his own world behind her. With a determined sigh, she closed her eyes. Be happy, Dani. It could be so much worse.
The next morning, Dani was up before the sun. She had to run Jaden to Mrs. McGuire’s by seven so she had any hope of making the meeting with the rights team at eight. “Ja, baby! Come on! Mommy’s going to be late!”
At the table Eric sipped his coffee and swiped over his NotePad, presumably checking through his own day’s craziness.
“I was thinking about it,” she said, gathering her things at the edge of the island. “If you’re going to be back before six or seven, you could get Ja from Mrs. McGuire’s.”
“Oh. Not sure about that. I’ve got to go over to Greensboro later. We’re scoping out the third phase today.”
Overwhelm slithered over Dani. “Today?”
“It’s gotta be done, babe. You want to eat next year, don’t you?”
She didn’t bother to respond with more than a shake of her head. Nothing to be done about it now. “Ja! Baby! Come on! It’s time to go!”
Coming from the hallway, Jaden verily dragged her feet. “I don’t feel good.”
“Oh, you’ve got to be…” Dani went over and felt the child’s forehead. “You’re hot.” She thought through her options. “Okay. Let’s give you some medicine right quick. That should make you feel better.”
She flew over to the cabinet and retrieved the medicine. “If things run too late for me, I may have to call Carly,” she said, dosing and giving the medicine with little thought to any of it. “I’ve got to get those groceries tonight. Tomorrow’s already Christmas Eve.”
Eric nodded. “K.”
With a sigh, she grabbed up her stuff and Jaden’s hand. “Okay. We’re outta here.” Racing over, she gave him half-a-kiss. “Have a good day!”
“You too. Bye, baby.”
“Bye, Daddy.”
The day never so much as found a lower gear. Dani called her brother at three to verify that he and his wife, Kim, would in fact be coming. They talked a bit about her parents, but not for long as Scotland called, and she had to go. In fact, she never really thought about home much again until she was headed out of work at six to go to the grocery store.
The place was an absolute madhouse. She knew she should have done this before now. Throwing things into the cart as she sped down the aisle, she calculated her estimated time of arrival back home. It wasn’t looking good. No. As she got to the frozen dinner rolls, she finally had to admit she was not going to be to Mrs. McGuire’s by seven.
Are you on your way home? Can you get Ja, or do I need to call Carly?
She pushed the cart a little farther and decided to grab a frozen pizza for the night. It wasn’t great, but they had to eat. Her phone beeped, and she grabbed it up.
Just leaving GB. Long day. Tell you about when I get there. Probably need to call Carly.
This sight actually hurt. Recalculating her time, she decided to instead call Mrs. McGuire. Maybe she could watch Jaden for just a few more minutes. “Hi, Mrs. McGuire, this is Dani. Hi. Yes. I’m just calling to say I’m going to be a little late to get Jaden. I was wondering if that’s going to be a problem. Oh, you can?” Relief. “That’s wonderful. I should be there by 7:15, 7:20 at the latest. Okay. Thanks so much. Okay. Bye.”
Quickly she finished up the shopping, and as she stood in the checkout line, her mind started skipping through her life and all she hadn’t gotten done. The house. Attabury. She hadn’t called Mr. James. She really needed to see if he had made a decision on remodeling it for them yet. With a shake of her head and knowing life wasn’t going to give her the chance if she didn’t seize this one, she placed the call.
Chapter 7
Caleb & Rachel
Pebble Beach. It was the color they had chosen for the main walls in the house. Beige with just a hint of mauve, it was neutral enough to encompass a wide range of tastes for buyers while being just a hint on the daring side.
Painting had never been one of Caleb’s strong suits. In fact, he was always plenty glad to leave the premises when the painters showed up. But this one he couldn’t farm out to anyone else, so after working on Clyde Hodges’ roof all day, he was elbow deep in Pebble Beach when his cell phone rang.
“You need me to get that?’ Rachel called from the bathroom where she was refinishing the sink cabinetry. Distressed white. That’s what they had decided in there. Yes, it would take a little more than simply stripping and staining, but Rachel was sure it would be worth it when they got the surround on the tub-shower retiled early next week.
“Nah. I got it.” Leaving the long roller on the edge of the pan, Caleb ran for the phone on the kitchen cabinet, thrilled that there was at least one working room after all this time. “Hello?”
“Oh, Mr. James? This is Danisha Richardson. I hope this isn’t a bad time.”
He wiped his forehead before glancing at his watch. “No, Mrs. Richardson, not bad at all.”
“Good. I’m just calling to touch base with you on the remodel. We got the loan and title and everything through last week, but I hadn’t had a chance to get in touch with you to see if you’re still interested in doing the work on it.”
Caleb nodded even though he had to admit the job scared him witless. “Well, we’ve talked about it some, but things have been kind of crazy around here. I don’t know if I mentioned it, but I’m getting married next weekend.”
“Oh, goodness! No. I think I missed that. Well, congratulations on the wedding.” Ms. Richardson paused as if unsure of where to go from there.
“Can you tell me a little about your timeline on the project?” Caleb asked, knowing he probably should let it go but wanting to see if he could make it work.
“Well, it’s just for a vacation home,” she said tentatively, “so it’s not like we’re moving there or anything.”
Thinking that through, Caleb narrowed his gaze at the information. “It’s going to be quite a project. I know we’re going to have to get an actual architect and probably an engineer involved. There’s too much structural to go in and start ripping stuff out.”
“I understand. I understand. I’ll tell you what, you said you’re getting married, what? Next week?”
Across the room, Rachel came in with a worried look, and Caleb tried to carry on the conversation and let her know everything was fine. “Yes, New Year’s Eve.”
“Okay. And then you’ll be gone, what a week? Two?”
He choked back the laugh. “Only a couple days. We’ll probably be back by that following Thursday or Friday at the very latest.”
“I’ll tell you what, you have my number, if I don’t hear from you by say the tenth or so of January, I’ll give you another call.”
“All right. That will at least give me a little time here. If you want, I can see about contacting some local architects about the project, and we’ll see what we can do.”
“Fantastic, Mr. James. I’m looking forward to working with you.”
> “Same here, Ms. Richardson.”
“Enjoy your wedding. I’ll get back to you on the tenth.”
“Sounds good. Oh, and Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas to you too.”
And Caleb ended the call. He put the phone down and let out a long sigh. “That was…”
“Mrs. P’s granddaughter.”
“Right.”
“And she still wants to do the house?” Rachel filled tentatively in as she took a drink of water and surveyed him.
“Sounds like it. They’ve got the thing bought, the title transferred and everything. Looks like it’s a go.” However, he never really moved, and after a second, Rachel crossed the kitchen to stand toe-to-toe with him.
After a minute, she lowered her gaze when his didn’t come up. “Talk to me. What’re you thinking?”
Without really moving it, Caleb shook his head. “It’s a huge job. I mean, crazy big. There’s engineering stuff and probably architectural stuff. I mean you saw it, we’re going to have to practically gut the thing and start completely over.” He leaned on the wall, head down, his gaze never came up. “Not to even mention all the yard work. All those trees. They’re all going to have to come out. I don’t have a clue how to even give her a bid on the thing. I mean it could easily cost 200K, and I’m not sure even that will get it done.”
“Can Derek help you? With the bidding I mean? Could he come and look it over with you, help you with the estimate?”
Caleb’s gaze came up to hers then, vulnerable and overwhelmed. “I’d hate to ask him to do that. Bids on stuff like this can be really tricky because you never know what you’re going to find when you start busting down walls.”
Worried for him, Rachel never took her gaze away. “So what you’re saying is, we’re not sure it’s smart. It’s a big job. You need help, but you don’t want to ask for it.” She exhaled. “Well, then, about the only thing I know to do is pray about it. Maybe God’s got an answer we’re not seeing.”
For a split second, he looked like he wanted to argue. “That’s just it, I don’t even know what to pray for.”
“Well, neither did I when you went to California. I tried to pray for you to get the job, but my heart wasn’t even really in it.” Coming closer, she put her arms up over his shoulders. “So maybe we just pray that whatever God wants will happen.” Gently she laid her head on his chest, loving the soft rhythm of his heartbeat.
His hands came around her, sliding up and down her back. “Okay, God, I’m in. We’re in. Whatever You want, show us.”
Chapter 8
Derek & Jaycee
“Brent called today,” Derek said as he sat at the tiny round table in his California apartment going over the plans for the new season. Three days of meetings hadn’t settled anything in him. If anything, he was tilting on overwhelm in a bad way.
“Oh, yeah?” Jaycee sat at the peninsula, her own work spread out as she clicked through their options for the upcoming houses. She wrote down one of them and continued clicking. “Have they made a decision on Caleb yet?”
“Well, Brent said he hoped I have better luck than they did offering him the gig.”
Jaycee spun around. “No way. Seriously? They’re going to go for it?”
Derek’s gaze came up to her, sitting there with her hair still up from the day, her tailored suit looking like she’d just put the thing on. How she did that, he would never know. “If Caleb is game, the show’s his.”
Thinking through that, Jaycee’s eyes sparkled to life as she leaned down, her elbows on her knees. “And what do you think? You think he’ll take it?”
The sigh slipped through him as he turned the pencil in his fingers over and over again. Sitting back, he stared at it. “I honestly don’t know. I’m still a little in shock that he turned them down the first time.”
“But this is different. Right? This is you, and he can stay there, and Rachel could help.”
“I don’t know.” Derek’s gaze came over to hers and held. “A lot of things have to work out just right for this to happen. I’m not even sure what places there would be there to work on out there. And Brent’s not going to go the show-funding route like he did with mine. I mean, this is going to mean getting the homeowners on board with the cash, or helping them buy places or something. Not to even mention that he’s not even got a crew or much of anything out there. He doesn’t have tools. He doesn’t have contacts. We’d have to put together a new camera crew, and line up projects.”
Jaycee tipped her head in gathering concern not for the project but for him. “Are you worried about taking all of this on?”
He sighed, coming forward to put his forearms on the table before running his hand up and down his face. “I’d be lying if I said no.”
Half a nod, and she stood, came over two steps and slipped onto his lap where she laid her arms around his neck and hugged him to her. A second and his hand splayed across her back. Closing his eyes, Derek let her softness mesh into his overwhelmed soul. It felt better than he had ever thought it would. So simple. So profound. Not being in this thing alone.
Another second and she backed up and leveled her soft almond eyes at him. “Now you listen to me. You are amazing.” Her eyes held his gently. “With or without the show. With or without the producing thing. Okay? You only do this if it makes sense for you. If it doesn’t make sense, if it’s going to be too much, you can tell them no too.”
How did she know? A soft laugh and Derek smiled, feeling the answer land like a feather on the sand inside him. “No. I want to do it. I’m just not sure…”
Gazing at him, she waited until the words slipped into oblivion between them and faded completely. “Finish that. You’re not sure…?”
“I just don’t want to let anybody down. Not Brent. Not Caleb.” His gaze fell to the table for a second before he dragged it back up to hers. “Not you.”
Instead of whatever he had expected, she smiled. Her gaze went up to his hair, and she ran her hand over it. One moment and her eyes came back to his. “Let’s get one thing straight here right now. I did not marry you to tie you down, to make you feel like you couldn’t be the great Derek West. Okay? I want you to chase your dreams, and I want to share in those dreams, and for them to be our dreams. I know this thing is scary big. And believe me, if I didn’t believe in you so much, I would probably be freaking out. But I’ve seen you in action. I know what you’re capable of. I know your heart, and you are not going to do anything to let anyone down.
“That doesn’t mean we’re not going to have issues. That means when they come up, we’ll handle them together.” Her gaze burrowed into his. “Got it? We’re a team now, and I want that to mean something to you. I know it does to me.” Reaching down she took hold of one of his hands and pulled it up to her lips. “We’re headed out there tomorrow. You sleep on it tonight, pray about it. I think God’s got the right answer. Maybe we’re just not listening for it.”
His soft grin danced through him. “What would I do without you?”
She smiled and ducked. “Let’s not find out, okay?”
“Deal.” And he pulled her lips down to his.
Later as Jaycee sat at the little make-shift vanity in the bedroom, taking off her make-up and fighting to pray about his concerns, she remembered her conversation with Sage. Behind her, Derek was in the process of getting ready for bed, and she knew they needed to talk about this as much as all the rest of it. “Sage called today.”
“Oh, yeah? Is Luke cooking the turkey already?”
“I don’t think so. They’ve been trying to get Mrs. Murphy’s place ready for Caleb’s family next week. I think they’ve been over there like every night for a week.”
“Those two.”
“Tell me about it.” She put down her sponge. “In fact, Sage was telling me that Rachel is so busy with the house and Christmas, she doesn’t have any time to even plan the wedding. They’re ripping carpet out and painting and trying to get the lighting fix
ed and the bathroom redone.”
“And I’m sure Caleb has everything down to the centerpieces ready for New Year’s,” Derek said, clearly picking up on the rest of the story.
“I think he’s worse than Rachel.”
“I can imagine. So, what, are we all just going to show up at the church and hope they don’t forget?”
“Well, I think Sage is a little worried about something like that happening, and you know Sage. There is nothing she likes more than throwing a good party.” Taking the pin out of her hair that was wound up from the ponytail on her head, she let the ponytail sway down her back once again. “So she’s thinking about letting Rachel borrow the dress she wore in high school.”
“High school?”
“It really is an amazing dress. Perfect really. Sage was gorgeous in it.” With a shrug Jaycee put her gaze down onto the vanity rather than trying to hold her own gaze in the mirror. “Not that she’s ever anything other than gorgeous, but that night…” A second and she dragged in a ragged, ratty breath. “I always knew when I saw them that night that they were going to get married—Luke and Sage. She just…”
Without realizing he had moved, Jaycee glanced into the mirror and was surprised to see Derek standing right there behind her. “It must run in the family.”
Ducking again, she shook her head. “I wish.”
“You wish… what?” A second and his fingers twined up and through the ponytail at her neck, and he gently lifted it as he bent down to her.
“Der…” However, her protest got lost in the feel of his lips when they touched her just behind the ear, sending shivers the length of her. “What…” But that breath snagged in her lungs and then evaporated completely as his lips caressed their way across the back of her shoulder. Without warning, she was swept up by his hand now holding her other shoulder, pressing her back into his lips so she couldn’t have escaped if she had wanted to. Which she didn’t. At all. And with that, she forgot about the rest of the world and all its problems. They were just going to have to take care of themselves.
A Moment Like This: A Contemporary Christian Romance Prequel Novella (The Grace Series Book 4) Page 4