“This is the smaller bedroom, but it has the large walk-in closet and connects to the main bath,” he explained. He walked up to her and put his hands on her shoulders, then kissed her forehead. “We’re pleased with the unit and the location. I think it will be a good place for you to live and work while you’re here.”
“Thanks, Papa.” She pointed at the bed. “I’m just going to rest.”
“Best thing to do,” he agreed. “Try to sleep until tomorrow morning. We’ll explore the city then. Who knows? Perhaps we can even go see the Battleship Alabama if you feel like it. Send some pictures to your brother to make him jealous.”
CHAPTER 2
One Year Later
JOE Westcott enjoyed the gulf breeze in the early dawn. He had risen before sunrise and left his 49-foot sailboat, which he had christened Star Sapphire, anticipating a great bike ride all the way onto campus. He unlocked his bike and quietly walked it to the end of the dock, past his sleeping neighbors’ vessels floating in their still moorings.
As he walked, he accessed the audio Bible on his smartphone, plugged the earbuds into the headphone jack, and secured the phone to his arm with the Velcro athletic band. The deep voice of a narrator reading the second book of Kings filled his ears before he strapped on his brightly colored helmet.
When he reached the pavement, he hopped onto his bike and started pedaling, slowly enough to warm up the muscles in his legs without cramping, but rapidly enough to make good time. He left the scent of the sea behind him as he worked his way into thicker and thicker traffic. The temperature rose with the sun and sweat poured down his face. At a stop light, he straddled his bike and pulled a small towel out of the bag strapped to the center bar, using it to wipe the sweat out of his eyes while he listened to Jehu war with Jorab.
An hour later, morning rush hour in full swing, he avoided colliding with a hybrid car by hopping his bike onto the sidewalk. The woman driving it while talking on her cell phone never even noticed him. Without breaking pace, he maneuvered back onto the road and kept going.
Most mornings, he made it to the University of Southern Alabama’s campus in an hour and fifteen minutes. He had come to realize that he needed that daily time spent listening to the Word of God. Interestingly, he could read a passage then listen to the same passage and hear things he never picked up reading. As he approached campus, he waited until the current chapter came to an end then turned off the audio. He locked his bike in the bike rack by the Student Recreation building and went inside to shower.
By the time he had showered and dressed, the campus had woken up. The gym rang with the sounds of activity and his bike now had some companions in the rack. Knowing he had time before his morning staff meeting, he headed to the Student Center building.
After locking his bike, he turned and ran into a group of four Cru students going into the building. Of course, he recognized Madeline Viscolli. After talking with her privately the day of the meet and greet the year before, she always stood out to him in a crowd. No matter how many students he could count in attendance, one glance through the group and he’d spot her. She hadn’t participated in the summer program this year. He knew she’d taken classes all summer long. Partway through the summer it had occurred to him that he kept hopefully looking for her in the crowd until he consciously forced himself to stop.
This morning, she wore an olive green shirt belted at the waist with a leather belt and a pair of blue jeans. With large sunglasses covering her face and her long black hair pulled into a loose braid that fell over her shoulder, she looked like a woman about to command an army.
When he expected to see her, he could usually brace himself and control his reaction to her presence. The unexpected times, the chance meetings, those actually took his breath away and made him feel nervous, jittery, and uncharacteristically shy.
He had seen a lot of beautiful things in his life. He had experienced sunrises and sunsets on the horizons of crystal seas that would envelop every sense like a living symphony of light. He had seen longboats and yachts that had been handcrafted with the finest attention to the smallest detail soar over the water like sea breezes. He had seen real beauty in his lifetime. Even so, he had never seen anything as beautiful as Madeline Viscolli.
Maybe other men didn’t see her as beautiful. Maybe to them she looked just like any other girl with dark hair and deep blue eyes. Unlike those other men, Joe had to struggle not to let her beauty distract him.
Shaking his head at his inner thoughts, he smiled. “Morning, ladies,” he greeted, unhooking his helmet. “Early class this morning?”
The freshman from Tuscaloosa, Patsy Mitchell, put her hand on the shoulder of a young brunette he did not recognize. “Morning, Joe. This is my dorm mate, Barbara. She’s coming to our meeting tonight.” She looked at her friend. “Joe’s our Cru guy.”
He smiled and held out his hand. Barbara hesitated just half a second before accepting his offered handshake. “Nice to meet you,” she said shyly, not meeting his eyes.
“And you. Look forward to seeing you tonight.”
“She’s going to loooooooove it,” Sophomore Tamara Walters exclaimed in a singsong voice.
“Where you comin’ from, Barbara?” While he spoke, he secured his bike helmet and unstrapped his bag, then slipped it over his shoulder.
“Birmingham.”
Madeline slipped her sunglasses up off of her face and perched them atop her head. Her deep blue eyes stared at him frankly and she offered, “Join us for breakfast, Joe?”
“Sure. But just coffee.” Always looking for an opportunity to speak to new students, he gladly accepted. After glancing at his watch, he said, “I have about twenty minutes.”
Tamara opened the door to the Student Center. “Plenty of time.”
Joe took hold of the door to let the women lead the way, then followed them to the coffee shop. It took several minutes to fill every coffee order, but soon they all sat around a table. He pointed to a nearby poster depicting the head of a jaguar – the school mascot. “Did you know that jaguars are skilled swimmers?”
Madeline raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow. “Despite their feline-ness?”
“It would seem. Maybe no one told them cats are supposed to detest water.”
When Madeline smiled and laughed out loud, it seemed to Joe that the room suddenly grew about ten percent brighter. What was this fascination he had with her? He turned his attention to Barbara. “Did you always live in Birmingham, Barbara?”
She took a sip of her coffee while nodding. “I wanted to go to ‘Bama, but my boyfriend, Zach, got a soccer scholarship here.” As she looked around the student center, she said very weakly, “So here we are.”
Tamara reached over and touched her hand. “Hey! You should invite Zach tonight! My boyfriend will be there.”
Barbara looked around again. “No. He wouldn’t like that.” Her eyes widened and she stood abruptly. “There’s Zach. I’ll see y’all later.” She rushed away toward a tall blond kid in a sleeveless T-shirt and bike shorts. Joe watched as he gripped the girl by the back of the neck then gave her a harsh kiss. Joe felt himself frown and purse his lips as he watched the dynamics from across the room.
Madeline pulled him out of his inspection. “So, Mr. Westcott. How was your summer?”
“Fantastic. I managed to get about three weeks of downtime toward the end of the summer.” Looking directly at Madeline, he pushed thoughts of Barbara out of his mind. “It’s shaping up to be a great year. Our planning meetings have been exciting.”
“Any news on the summer mission trip yet?” Patsy asked.
Joe grinned. “Well, it’s still set for summer, Patsy. Let me focus on the beginning of the new school year before launching back into summer, okay?”
“Not fair,” Patsy pouted, actually sticking her lip out. It took real strength of will not to roll his eyes. Madeline’s eyelids lowered in disapproval as she sipped her coffee. He couldn’t help mentally contrasting the displa
y of entitled childishness with Madeline Viscolli’s cool maturity.
“Well, Solomon never promised fair.” Joe glanced at his watch then stood and grabbed up his bag. “Ladies, thank you for allowing me to crash your party this morning. I will see you all tonight.”
Madeline lifted her cup in a salute to him. “I could think of very few men I would have enjoyed sharing a cup of coffee with more, Pastor Joe.”
His hands fumbled as he picked up the coffee cup and the flimsy lid popped loose. With an exclaimed “Whoops!” he barely caught the entire cup before humiliatingly spilling it all over the table. Feeling the tips of his ears heat up with the flush that certainly covered his face, he turned without a word and walked out of the building.
He wished the late August air didn’t feel so hot and muggy this morning. He’d love to take a cool, deep breath and stop the visceral reaction he felt. Instead, the damp air clung to his skin as soon as he stepped out of the air conditioned building. What he wanted to do was turn around and go back inside and ask Madeline Viscolli if she wanted to join him for lunch, too.
His feet paused. Where did that thought come from? Shaking his head as if to banish the notion, he continued on his way. He already had one demanding female in his life and her name was Star Sapphire. He didn’t need to add a girl with sapphire eyes and the prettiest smile he’d ever seen.
As he walked across campus, he stopped and talked to four different students he knew. By the time he made it to the rendezvous point, he was about three minutes late. As expected, the red Honda sat idling on the side of the road in the shade of a magnolia tree.
“Sorry I’m late, dude,” Joe apologized while sliding into the passenger seat. “Had an impromptu coffee meeting.”
His team leader, Max Dominique, put the car in gear. “You always have impromptu meetings. Can’t think of a time we’ve gone anywhere together you haven’t known half the people there.”
Joe chuckled and gestured at his hair. “Well, I tend to stand out. You can’t be a ginger of this impressive height and blend in to the background.”
Max, who had skin the color of the darkest of chocolates and whose height rivaled Joe’s, simply said, “Tell me about it, brother.”
They drove to the printing shop and picked up the box of brochures Max’s wife had designed the weekend before, then headed to the church that hosted their large weekly meetings. “Most of the team will be here at nine,” he said, “but I wanted to see if you can get the sound synced with this video presentation I made. I’m about a tenth of a second off and I can’t fix it.”
Joe patted his bag. “No problem, man. I brought my laptop.” He opened the cardboard box a crack and pulled out one of the trifold brochures. “These look fantastic.”
“I agree. Hopefully we can get them handed out and get some more students interested in the meeting.”
“That worship team we’ve put together will bring them. I’m looking forward to tonight.”
They pulled into the church parking lot and the men got out of the car. Joe left the box of brochures in the seat. “You check the weather report lately?”
Joe thought of the big swirling storm sitting in the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico – hurricane Leroy. “I have.”
“If you need to do something, you have to let us know.”
“I think we’re good for now. No one really knows the track, yet. It’s just a giant spinning top out there.” He tapped the roof of the car. “Ready? Let me see what we can do with your video.”
MADELINE caught the end of the weather report just as she turned on her television. She frowned. It looked like Leroy couldn’t decide where to go. She didn’t fear the hurricane. It wouldn’t be too hard to pack her Land Rover and head in another direction. Last year, she’d had to evacuate just once. She made her way to Atlanta and holed up in a penthouse suite in the downtown Viscolli hotel while she worked on midterms. But she wished she knew just what danger actually lay ahead instead of this constant focus on the weather reports.
Turning the television back off, she grabbed her purse and headed downstairs. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the books piled on her desk. “I’ll be back to contend with you after worship,” she promised the inanimate objects. She exited her house through the garage door, locking everything behind her. The warm evening air made her glad she’d chosen a skirt over jeans, and the mile walk told her that her choice of flat sandals beat out the heels she’d contemplated.
By the time she got to the church, the worship had already started. She slid into a back pew and just let the music wash over her. It thrilled her to see so many people from the college there. Dozens of students had come out on a Thursday night to seek the presence of God and the fellowship of other believers. She wondered how many of them had attended a service like this before. Even she, raised in such an overtly Christian home with very active church membership, had never truly felt the same way she felt at the worship service with her Cru family.
They sang, they prayed, they watched an amazing video testimony of one of the band members, they listened to a devotional message from Max Dominique, and they sang some more. Eventually, they met in the Fellowship Hall, eating snacks and breaking off into smaller groups. Madeline found herself talking to Alana Dominique, Max’s wife. Alana wore a loose linen dress over her obviously pregnant belly. A green scarf tied around her head beautifully accented her coffee colored skin.
“That was an amazing band,” Madeline said to the dynamic woman. They had become fast friends over the last year.
“Yes. They’re all music students who got together last semester. How blessed we are that they’re part of our team now.” As she rubbed at her side, Max and Joe walked up.
“You feeling okay?” Max asked, concern in his voice.
“I’m fine. No worries. Just really thirsty and yet tired of having to pee every five minutes.” She pointed at Joe. “What will you do with the storm then, Captain Westcott?”
Madeline let her curiosity overtake good manners. “What do you mean?”
“Joe lives on a boat,” Alana clarified. “Much too big of a boat to get out of the water.”
Madeline felt stupid. She’d heard that Joe lived on a boat, but had forgotten.
“That’s not entirely true,” Joe retorted. “I could get it out of the water. But, with the storm threatening the entire coast from Panama City to the Delta, I probably couldn’t find anyone free to do it.”
Madeline thought of the storms she’d experienced in her life. “What will you do, then?”
He casually shrugged. She tried to go along with the thought that if he didn’t appear concerned, she shouldn’t feel concerned either, but it proved difficult having seen the Florida coastline after a hurricane. “They still don’t know the track. I can either sail out of the way and come back when the storm passes, or I can pack up what I don’t want to lose and just pray.”
Madeline ran her tongue over her teeth. If she felt stupid a minute ago, she set herself up to feel really dumb now. “Redheaded Westcott, from Providence, Rhode Island, living on a big boat. Are you by chance a ‘Westcott Marine’ Westcott?”
The angry flash in his eye surprised her. “How would you know that?”
Max laughed out loud. “She pinned you down, brother.”
Unsure of the source of the unnatural vehemence she heard in his tone, she held up a hand. “Just curious, honestly. My father once bought and sold a boat manufacturing company in Boston. He used it to help me see the paperwork trail of the flipping of a company like that. I remember, in Boston anyway, they like to think they’re somewhat of a business rival. That’s all. I know there’s a couple of sons among the brothers who own Westcott Marine. Are you one of the sons?”
“Viscolli.” His eyes narrowed. “Madeline Viscolli. So that would be the same Viscolli Enterprises that saved Elohim Boats from bankruptcy?”
With a grin, she confirmed. “Yes! It was just Walters Watercraft when Papa bought it. Small world, huh?”
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“Oh, yeah. Small world.” His voice lacked any detectable emotion. Then his eyes softened a little. “Elohim makes very nice boats. Sleek and elegant but sturdy and sound. Walters built solid boats but Elohim creates distinction.”
“So does Westcott, Mr. Joe Westcott.”
He cocked his head. His voice went back to monotone. “Think so? I guess. Maybe.”
While he stared at her as if examining something fascinating, a thought occurred to her. “I don’t get it. If you’re a Westcott Marine Westcott, then you should have plenty of access to transport for your boat that’s too large to get out of the water. Right?”
“You’d think so, wouldn’t you?” He asked rhetorically, his voice remaining even, his smile forced. Then he stepped back and glanced at Alana and Max. “I am going to call it a night, friends. Alana, beautiful brochures. Everyone who picked one up opened it. I watched.”
“Wonderful!” She squeezed his upper arm. “You be careful biking out there in the dark.”
With the sudden attitude change, she thought he’d ignore her as he left, but he did turn back to her. “It was a pleasure, Miss Viscolli. As always. Have a good night and I’ll see you in small groups tomorrow.”
With a frown, she looked at Alana. “What was that all about?”
The older woman stepped closer to her. “That is for him to tell you, lovely girl. I don’t gossip even on a bad day and today was a wonderful day.” She gestured at the food table. “Let me see what kind of fruit I can scare up. Baby Max is craving some watermelon! And I swear I feel like I could drink a gallon of water.”
MADELINE watched the weather report on her laptop screen with a worried frown. They had downgraded Leroy to a tropical storm, but now they certainly expected landfall in the Mobile area.
Christmas Star Sapphire (Inspirational Romance): A Second Generation Jewel Series Novella (The Jewel Series Book 6) Page 2