A Moment Like This: A Contemporary Christian Romance Prequel Novella (The Grace Series Book 4)

by Staci Stallings

  They hadn’t done that in years…

  Her attention swung to the other side of the church, and her heart catapulted into her throat when she caught sight of none other than the woman herself. Her grandmother. Instantly Dani’s head and heart started frantically writing a list of excuses as to why she was here and hadn’t bothered to go to see the woman. She was older now, much older than Dani remembered. However, there was still the spark of happiness in her eyes though it too had dimmed.

  “Well, hello there,” her grandmother, the woman everyone in Ridgemount called Ms. P, said. She looked somewhere between shocked and confused though she was clearly trying to hide both. “This is a surprise.”

  “Hi, Grandma,” Dani said, and she leaned in for a barely-touching formal hug. “It’s great to see you again.”

  “You too.” Her grandmother’s eyes slipped down to the little child now huddling back into Dani’s skirt. Not moving even a centimeter, her grandmother smiled down at her. “Well, look at you, child. Oh, my stars. What a beautiful little girl.”

  “You remember Jaden,” Dani said, nudging her daughter from her leg though the child was clinging there as if her life depended on it. Realizing Jaden’s fear, Dani sat on the little pew and put her arm around her daughter. “Jaden, this is your great grandma. She’s my mama’s mama.”

  The little dark eyes slipped up though the body did not move.

  “You should give Great-Grandma a hug.” Dani tried to get her daughter going that direction, but the reluctance was obvious.

  “Oh, you don’t have to do that, child,” her grandmother said. “I’m just happy to get to see you again.” True to her word, she simply gazed at the child for a long minute. Then, it was as if she had remembered where they were and why. “So, what brings you here? I didn’t know that you knew Caleb and Rachel.”

  Well, the same could really be said for Dani too although it was her grandmother who had hooked her up with Mr. James and his now wife in the first place. “Oh, well. We’ve been working on Attabury with them.” Dani stood and straightened her skirt. “Just getting a feel for what we can do with it. We were out here yesterday, and they mentioned needing a photographer. Eric volunteered. You know he used to take pictures when we were in college.”

  “Oh, yes. I remember that well. So that was Eric then? The one taking pictures?”

  “Yes, Ma’am. That was him.”

  “And how are the two of you doing? Are you still in Raleigh?”

  “We are. We’re doing well. Eric has a good job with the state, and I’m working at a law firm there.”

  Her grandmother smiled, hints of pride and sadness sprinkled on her face. “I knew the two of you would be good together.” Her gaze slipped back down to Jaden. “And what grade are you in by now?”

  Dani’s gaze went down as well. “Can you tell Great Grandma what grade you’re in?”

  “Second,” came the quiet, reluctant answer, and Dani was proud of her daughter’s bravery in answering the question.

  “Second grade. My. My. My. Well, you are about the prettiest little second grader I’ve ever done seen.”

  The smile was shy. “Thank you.”

  “Dani!” Eric’s hushed but excited call jerked her attention to the back. “I’m going over to the community center with them.”

  “Okay.” She waved to him. “We’ll be right there.”

  “Oh, my goodness,” her grandmother said hurriedly. “I did not mean to keep you all.”

  “No, you’re not…”

  “Why Ms. P,” the pastor said as he came striding down the center aisle back up to the front, “a very happy New Years to you.”

  “Happy New Year’s, Pastor.” She nodded at him and then popped up. “Oh, Pastor, did you have a chance to meet my granddaughter?”

  He stopped on a dime and spun their direction, coming right over and putting his hand out. “Why no, I haven’t.”

  “Pastor Steve, this is Danisha Richardson, my granddaughter.”

  “Hello,” the pastor said, and his manner was filled with nearly as much joy as he had displayed during the wedding. He shook Dani’s hand.

  “Please call me Dani,” she said.

  He nodded. “Dani, it’s nice to meet you.” His gaze slid down and caught on Jaden. “And this beautiful little girl is?”

  “Jaden,” Dani said, wishing her daughter was better at this. “Can you say, ‘Hi’ to the preacher?”

  “Hi.” But even in the quiet church, the syllable was hardly audible.

  Dani apologized to him with her eyes. “She’s really shy.”

  “Oh.” He grinned. “Totally understandable.” However, his gaze went back down to Jaden. “Thank you for coming, Miss Jaden. It’s very nice to meet you.”

  She smiled but ducked into Dani’s dress.

  Coming back up, curiosity slipped into his eyes. “Are you friends with the happy couple?”

  “Oh!” Dani started. “Well, no. Not exactly. We’re the ones who just bought the old Attabury house…”

  Instant understanding flashed into his eyes. “Ah. Well. I’m very happy you decided to join us this evening. Please feel free to visit any time you’re in town.”

  “Why thank you.”

  “You’re very welcome.” He looked back up to the front. “I’m sorry to rush off, but I have a few things that need…”

  “Oh, no worries,” Dani said. “Please, don’t let us keep you.”

  With a nod and a quick hug for her grandmother, the pastor went his way.

  “Such a good man,” her grandmother said, and there were tears in her voice with the words. A second and her gaze snapped back over to them. “Well, since you’re in town, you could always come over for a bit if you’d like.”

  “Oh,” Dani said, and the syllable was five. “We aren’t really planning to stay. I’m sure Eric is going to want to get back as soon as possible.”

  Her grandmother smiled. “I’m sure.” She nodded slowly. “Well.” Her sad, accepting eyes traveled back down to Jaden. “You take care.”

  Jaden just looked at her with wide and wary eyes.

  “You too,” Dani said although she knew the statement was not directed at her. “It was nice to see you again.”

  “Nice to see you too.”

  Eric had followed the action from the little church across the parking lot to the community center building. Although technically he was the hired help, everyone was making him feel like part of the celebration. He liked that about them. There wasn’t a pretentious one in the bunch.

  “I’m so thankful you could do this for them,” Dee, Caleb’s mother, said to him as they trekked across the cold nearly-January parking lot.

  “I’m glad you asked,” Eric replied and at the other side, he opened and held the door for her and her husband.

  “Oh, thank you.”

  “Thanks,” the man said, and Eric ducked inside behind him.

  “Wow,” Eric said with a shiver. “They could have picked a warmer night.” His attention slipped to the little celebration room just beyond, and he ducked. “Excuse me. I’d better get in there or I’m going to miss something. Heading that direction, he readied his camera because he had learned with this group good pictures tended to happen all on their own. Sure enough when he got into the room, Caleb and Rachel stood with their friends talking, still holding the two little ones.

  It was difficult to explain how easy and right they made being a family look. Click. Click. He took a few more shots.

  “Well, they’ve got you hard at work, I see.” Sara, Caleb’s sister, came in and right over to him.

  Checking those pictures, he took another. “I’m enjoying it.”

  “That’s good. I’m glad you’re here. I would never have been able to take good pictures for all the tears.”

  Eric laughed as he lowered the camera. “You guys must be pretty close, huh?”

  “Ah, not as much as I would like to be,” she said softly. “But don’t tell Caleb I said that
, I don’t want him to get a big head.” She paused and shook her head. “You know, I think that’s what nobody tells you when you’re young. You fight with them and tell on them, and you think that’s going to last forever. And then all of a sudden you’re married with three kids and they’re married with two kids, living a few thousand miles away. And you just wish you could tell Mom they’re not putting their things away like she told them to.” Sara paused again before smiling at him with tears in her eyes. “I guess it teaches you not to wish the moments that are here right now away so easily because they’ll be gone in a heartbeat.”

  Mesmerized by her words, Eric’s heart fell into them and held. He was pretty sure he was supposed to say something back, but he wasn’t sure just what that was. Worse, his mind had traveled back to that little house at Mt. Airy with Yvonne yelling at him and his brothers that if they didn’t get the house cleaned right now, she was going to tell Mom on them. A heartbeat. That’s about how long it felt from that moment to this.

  “Well, thanks again,” Sara said. “I can’t wait to see all the pictures.”

  “Oh, well, thank you for letting me take them.”

  “Oh, hurry, baby-girl. Wow. It’s cold out here.” Dani hurried Jaden across the parking lot and into the door on the other side. She remembered this little building from the wall-to-wall people it had held when her grandfather had died. Into and through the first room they went before emerging in the second, bigger room. With one sweep of the room with her gaze, she saw their designated place. “Oh, look. It’s Daddy.”

  Instantly Jaden left her side and raced to her Eric’s side.

  “Oh!” Dani picked up her hand to stop her child from doing something so improper, but it was too late. She dropped her hand and glanced around, hoping no one had noticed. Thankfully they were all too taken with the celebration to see the indiscretion. Drawing herself up and lifting her chin before putting a smile on her face, she walked slowly over to where Eric stood. He was still taking pictures.

  “Oh, hey,” he said by way of greeting though he didn’t leave the camera for more than a second.

  “Hey.” She wrapped her arms in front of herself, feeling very out-of-place. In the church had been all right because they could sit farther back and blend in with the dim light. Here, there was nowhere to hide.

  “Dani,” the man she remembered as Gregory Lawrence said, coming over to her as he made his way across the space.

  “Mr. Lawrence.” She put out her hand and her very best smile.

  “Please, please. Call me Greg.” He shook her hand before holding his other out for a woman coming the other direction. “Em, I’d like you to meet Dani Richardson. She and her husband, Eric, are the ones doing the Attabury project.”

  “Oh, yes,” the woman he had called Em said, her face breaking into sunshine like the dawn.

  “Excuse me,” Greg said and left the two of them to talk.

  “Gregory speaks so highly of the two of you,” Em said without pause. “He is just fascinated with this project. He talks about it all the time.” She waved as if that was hilarious. “And how are the two of you? Greg said you’re from Raleigh?”

  “We are,” Dani said, anchoring her arms again. She glanced around, but Eric and Jaden had slipped off to the festivities on the other side of the room.

  “I’m sure our little neck of the woods is quite a shift down from the excitement of the big city,” Em continued.

  “Here you go,” Gregory said, returning with two small glasses of punch.

  “Thank you.” Em took just a small sip of the punch. “Mmm. This is wonderful. I bet Dee made it. That woman can do just about anything. I guess that’s part of being Texan, or so I hear.” She took another sip. “I think I’m going to go get her recipe. This is just too good. I’ll see you, Dani. It was nice meeting you.”

  “You too.” Dani waved, kind of, and she was back to just her and Greg, Mr. Lawrence, Gregory. It was incredibly difficult because she wasn’t at all familiar with these people and yet they seemed to want her to act as if she was.

  “That Emily,” Greg said, taking a sip of his own punch, “she is a whirlwind. Has been ever since I met her back in high school.”

  Dani nodded, politely, having no clue where the boundaries or rules of this conversation stood.

  “So, Eric said you two met in college,” Greg said, taking a detour Dani somehow missed.

  “Hm.” She cleared her throat, willing her business self to snap over her real self already. Life had always been so much easier as business Dani. “Yes. He was in graduate school at the time. I was a junior at Wake Forest.”

  “Wow. Wake Forest? No slouching there.”

  “Definitely not.” She smiled at the compliment. “I was pre-law. Lot of water under the bridge since then.”

  “I hear you there.” Greg took another sip. “It’s hard to believe it sometimes. I look at them.” He tipped his cup across the room. “My girls. All grown up and married now. Where does that much time go?”

  A soft wave of sadness brushed over her. “Jaden’s already in second grade. It’s hard to fathom sometimes.”

  “Well, take it from someone who knows, cherish every minute you have with her. Before long, she’ll be out on her own, and you’ll wonder where all that time went.”

  Tipping her gaze over to her daughter who was shadowing Eric as he positioned the happy couple next to the wedding cake, Dani nodded. “I already do.”

  “I’d like to make a toast to the happy couple,” Derek said, standing. It wasn’t a strictly formal affair, just a few tables and some sandwiches. However, with everyone in their finest, it could have passed for a seven-course meal at a fancy restaurant.

  Eric snapped a couple pictures as the others settled down.

  Coming over to Rachel, Caleb took her hand and met her gaze with his. Snap.

  “As most of you know, Caleb and I have worked together for about four years now,” Derek said. Snap. “In that time we’ve spent a lot of hours together, fixing things, trying to figure out how to fix things, dealing with things that weren’t working like we’d hoped they would or thought they would. And one thing I’ve learned about Caleb, he never gives up. He is the first guy on the job and the last one to leave. He stays with things even when to be honest, it would be far easier to just quit and go home.”

  Derek’s words slowed a bit. “When I met Rachel, I knew pretty quick that she had the exact same spirit. Life did not deal her an easy hand, but she stuck with it, against pretty much every obstacle that got thrown at her. The more I have seen them together, holding onto love even when it really looked all-but impossible, the more I’ve come to see that love is not so much something you feel that’s great and fun. It is more what you are willing to sacrifice for, go for and hold on to with all your heart. It is loving the other person no matter what, good times, bad times, all the time.

  “The more I’ve watched them, the more I believe there was a plan for this couple way before any of us knew it. Like the pastor said, their relationship is about showing the world what real love looks like.” He smiled at them and nodded. “So tonight with all of you here, I just want to say, ‘Caleb and Rachel, thank you sincerely for teaching me what love really is.’” He raised his glass to them. “To Caleb and Rachel.”

  “Caleb and Rachel,” the others said, and Eric snapped more pictures.

  The music on the little speakers wafted out over the few dancing couples—Caleb and Rachel, Gregory and Emily, and Luke and Sage.

  Dani sat with Jaden off to the side as the waning night began to catch up with her little one. As Jaden tucked herself closer to her mother, Dani’s gaze picked up on Jaycee West coming her direction. Unless she was going outside, which with the style of the top of her gown and the weather outside was not likely, then she was coming to talk. Fear pummeled Dani as she glanced down at Jaden whose eyes were now closed.

  However, Jaycee just smiled and sat in a chair that wasn’t quite perpendicular to Dani’s. “
Wow. What a night,” Jaycee said. “I’m sorry I haven’t been over to say hello.”

  “Oh, that’s okay. You were busy.”

  Jaycee’s smile took in Jaden. “Long day.” She puckered her lips. “She is so sweet.”

  “Thank you.” As with every, single person here, Dani had no idea where to go from there.

  “Listen,” Jaycee said, picking her gaze up. “Derek and I have been talking. This is kind of a long story, but we know you and Eric will be coming to work on the house the next couple of months, and well, there’s not a lot of housing options around out here.”

  “Oh!” Dani’s eyes went wide, but Jaycee held up her hands.

  “I just wanted to let you know that we’re actually in the process of buying a house. It was Rachel’s mom’s old place, out on a farm not too far from town. It’s less than ten minutes from there to Attabury, and if you guys want to stay there when you come, you’re welcome to.”

  Dani couldn’t even get an ‘oh’ out as her eyebrows reached for the ceiling in surprise.

  “Derek’s already talked to Caleb about it, and he has the keys for the place. I’m not vouching for what shape it will be in when you come because we’re kind of trying to remodel it when we’re here. But it’s got a good kitchen and a working bathroom. There are three bedrooms. You and Eric could have the second and Jaden could have the third. We’re still working out the furniture thing, but we should have that ironed out before you really start being here a lot.”

  Finally Dani found a question in all of the others. “You know.” She glanced around. “Not that now’s a good time or anything…”