Christmas Star Sapphire (Inspirational Romance): A Second Generation Jewel Series Novella (The Jewel Series Book 6)

by Hallee Bridgeman

  She went into her pantry and checked supplies. With plenty of water, canned goods, and candles, she knew she could last several days. What concerned her the most was Joe Westcott.

  Maybe she could call Elohim Boats and see if she still had any contacts there that could arrange a transport truck for a Westcott Marine boat. Something told her Pastor Joe Westcott would not approve. Besides, he probably had access to identical resources. As a Westcott Marine Westcott, he probably had salt water in his blood. He did not need Madeline Viscolli to come swooping to the rescue.

  She shut the lid of her laptop and tried to pick up a textbook. The words all blurred together, making study impossible. After reading the same paragraph twice without absorbing a single word, she set the book back down. If she knew where he lived, she would go to him and insist that he come to her town house to ride out the storm. She had a basement if things got choppy out there. Except, she had no idea how to contact him.

  Suddenly remembering the phone list she had received last year, she pulled it out and ran her finger down the list of names until she came to his. Before she could talk herself out of it, she sent a text:

  THIS IS MADDIE V. ALL BATTENED DOWN CAPTAIN JOE?

  It took about twenty minutes before he replied. In that time, she heated water and freshened her teapot. When the notification sound of an incoming text rang out, she almost dropped the pot.

  AYE AYE. SNUG & SECURE. THANKS FOR CHECKING

  Should she believe him? Silly question, really. It wasn’t up to her. At least he texted back. Taking her teapot back downstairs to the study, she settled in with a textbook, determined to focus and actually learn something this time.

  About an hour later, she gave up. As the wind beat against her patio window, she went to her knees by her desk chair. With her head bowed and eyes closed, she prayed for Joe’s safety. Then she realized she should actually pray for the entire city, so she elaborated on her prayer.

  CHAPTER 3

  October

  JOE Westcott parked his bike in front of the bakery. As he locked his bike, he could smell the fresh baked bread coming from inside.

  Hungry after the bike ride and chilled from the damp air, he happily strolled into the little restaurant. The yeasty smell of bread baking mixed in with the holiday scents of pumpkin and cinnamon. The sign by the cash register advertised a handy online order form for Thanksgiving cakes and pies. Unlike other establishments in the area, Paula’s Bakery sported no Halloween decorations.

  “Morning, Joe,” the seventy-year-old owner, Paula, greeted. “Little early for this cool weather, eh?”

  “If the air were drier, it would be a lot better. After that ride, I could do with some of your hot coffee.” He removed his bike helmet, fastened the chin strap to the shoulder strap of his bag, and absently and pointlessly attempted to smooth his hair back down.

  “Fresh pot’s brewing right now. I’ll bring it on over to you when it’s ready. Take a seat.”

  His eyes scanned the room and he spotted Barbara Mullins, the reason for the early morning meeting. The freshman from Birmingham had her head bowed and sniffled into a paper napkin. As Joe approached, he felt his steps pause when he recognized Madeline Viscolli seated across from Barbara. As soon as he recognized her, he waited for the skip of the beat of his heart and the catch of his breath and he disliked the feeling.

  Now, steeled against his reaction to her, he felt he could safely approach the table. He mentally wished Barbara would look up and scoot over to accommodate him, but she didn’t even see him walk up. Instead, Madeline looked up at him, her ultramarine eyes shining like sapphires, and a warm smile lighting up her face.

  He wondered, absently, why he couldn’t ever see her as just another girl. How could a woman devoid of any makeup, wearing a worn-out Florida Gators sweatshirt with her hair piled on top of her head, possibly look so beautiful that her loveliness could steal a grown man’s breath? As she moved over for him, he took the time to slip the strap of his bag over his head and set it on the ground next to the table. When he slid into the booth, his hip and thigh brushed up against Madeline’s, and he quickly but casually scooted back over a few inches.

  She spoke quietly. “Good morning, Joe. Alana called and asked me to come. She’s not feeling well this morning.”

  He nodded and looked at Barbara. Praying silently, actually asking God for help to stay focused on the crisis at hand, he reached forward and touched her forearm. She jerked her head up and he noticed the bruise forming around her left eye and the puffiness of her bottom lip.

  Anger flooded his body as a memory assailed his mind. He hadn’t known the details or he could have been prepared. He slid his hands into his lap and clenched his fists. “I think I can guess the problem.” His voice sounded like steel to his own ears. “How can we help?”

  Barbara tried to speak but began hyperventilating. Madeline reached out and squeezed her shoulder. “She says her dorm is safe. And she’s decided to press charges. Right now, I don’t think she needs any physical help.”

  Barbara had regularly attended Cru meetings for the last month. Her boyfriend did not like the changes in her after she started growing in her relationship with God. She had confessed to Joe just the week before that she worried about how angry he’d gotten. Frustrated with himself for ignoring the red flags, he gritted his teeth and tried to push back the feeling.

  “He’s a student in school here, right? Athletic scholarship?”

  Barbara nodded. “Soccer.”

  “Well, he’s liable to lose his scholarship and get kicked out besides. Then he won’t be able to come around anymore, mostly.” He reached forward and gently gripped her wrist. “Barbara, listen to me. Understand that no matter what he or any of his friends may say to you, you’re doing the right thing by pressing charges. No matter what anyone says, even family. It’s the right thing to do. I don’t want you ever to doubt that you’re doing the right thing.”

  He looked over at Madeline. “I’m happy you were able to meet her. I know you could get here faster than me.”

  “I would have been happy to pick you up. Any time, Joe.”

  He nodded absently. He had no intention of ever asking her for a ride. He liked his life right now – simple, straightforward, and unhampered by riches. Knowing now who Madeline Viscolli was, what her business ventures would look like in the future, the wealth of her family, he had absolutely no desire to muddy his life by entangling himself with her further. Even if his body and heart seemed to disagree with his mind on that point.

  “Let’s pray over Barbara, ask for a hedge of protection around her. Then we’ll see about getting ahold of her friends to help see her through the next couple of days.” He squeezed Barbara’s wrist and let go, then held his hands out, palm up, for the two women to each take a hand.

  Ignoring how good and right it felt to hold Madeline’s soft hand in his, he bowed his head and started praying.

  MADELINE watched Barbara get into the front seat of her roommate Patsy Mitchell’s car. Patsy would drive Barbara to the police station to file her report then drive her back to the dorm. After waving at them from the door, Madeline went back inside Paula’s and back to the table. Instead of sitting beside Joe again, she slid into the booth across from him. His eyes held a distant, almost fierce look before he focused on her. When he met her gaze he gave her his most practiced bland smile.

  “All set, Madeline?” He made a move as if to pick up his bag and helmet.

  “Maddie, Joe. Do you want me to start calling you Joseph all the time?”

  His expression didn’t change. “You can call me Joseph. That’s fine.”

  Madeline shook her head. “Whatever.” She reached across the table toward her now cooled cup of coffee and could have sworn that Joe nearly flinched at the movement. “Want to tell me what that was all about?”

  He raised an eyebrow and tried to act like he didn’t know what she was talking about, but his body betrayed him and his cheeks flushed w
ith color. “What what was about?”

  “Come on, Joe. I saw how angry you got when you realized what happened to Barb. Anyone could have seen it.”

  She watched his jaw clench and a muscle tic. He scrubbed his hands through his beard and pushed away from the table. “It’s nothing, Madeline. I have a meeting on campus. I need to go.”

  “Maddie. And I’ll drive you.” She stood with him, enjoying the way she had to look up at him. For over a year she’d spent hours and hours with him, always in a crowd or in the company of others. His passion for God, his compassion for his students, his strength in leadership – she found herself looking forward to seeing him more than the time spent with Cru. Beginning this school year, she’d tried to come up with ways for the two of them to spend some time alone, but he had rebuffed every offer and option. Since their first meeting, they had never spent time alone until this moment. It confused her, because until their conversation about Westcott Marine, he sort of gave off signals that he just might find her as interesting as she found him.

  He shook his head. “Can’t leave my bike here.”

  “Coincidentally, my Land Rover has a nice empty bike rack.” As she spoke, the walls of the little building shook with the sound of thunder and the skies opened up, sending down a sheet of rain that curtained them inside, isolating them from the rest of the world. “And, by the way, it’s raining,” she added with a grin.

  Joe sighed and closed his eyes. When he opened them, he had the stoic, blank look on his face again. “In that case, I appreciate the ride. Thank you, Madeline.”

  Elated, she resisted the impulse to jump up and click her heels together. Instead, she grabbed her bag, snatched some cash out of her wallet and tossed it onto the table, and prodded, “Let’s go!”

  At the doorway, she hit the unlock button on her key fob, then dashed to the back of the car. Seconds later, Joe met her with his bike, and she helped him secure it into the bike rack. By the time they got inside the car, water dripped from their soaking wet clothes.

  “This weather,” she exclaimed with a laugh, starting the engine and flipping the heater on full blast, “is insane. But, it’s still better than Boston.”

  “Couldn’t ever ride a bike full time in Boston.” He swiped the water off of his face while Madeline dug through a basket in the back seat and pulled out a roll of paper towels. She held them up triumphantly. “Saved by the mama with the preparedness streak.”

  Using several paper towels padded together, she wiped the water off of her face and hands and handed him the roll. Once she was as dry as she could get, she used the damp batch to try to get some of the moisture out of her hair. In seconds, she’d soaked the whole stack.

  Something he said made her pause in her ministrations. “Couldn’t ever? Did you live in Boston?”

  He shook his head. “Originally from Providence, remember? I went to college in Boston.”

  Intrigued, she turned her body toward him. “Really? Where?”

  His lips thinned and he shook his head exactly once. “Harvard if you must know.”

  When he said it, she realized that it didn’t surprise her. He certainly was smart enough to have attended Harvard. And he was a Westcott Marine Westcott, so why not Ivy League? But, even so, something about him never screamed Ivy League to her. “Well, Joe, I must say I find that fascinating.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “You find it fascinating that I graduated from Harvard?”

  “Of course not.” She looked him in the eye while she spoke. The way he looked away at her next words intrigued her. She noted his reaction only because she watched carefully. “I’m fascinated by the fact that you know I’m from Boston, yet you’ve never, in all of the months we’ve known each other, brought it up.”

  She turned back around, her wet jeans sticking to the leather seat a bit. “So, where to, Harvard?”

  “Student Ministries building on campus.”

  As she eased out into the traffic, the rain lightened considerably. “Look there,” she said, pointing to the lightening sky, “it’s as if God was just trying to get us into the car together.”

  “You think it’s funny?” His voice had burst out, angry and impatient, but he immediately sighed and rubbed his eyes. “I apologize. This morning was very stressful for me.”

  They drove in silence for about half a minute before Madeline softly asked, “Can I ask you something?”

  She could hear his grin. “You just did.”

  At a stop light, she turned her head to look at him. “Who did Barbara remind you of?”

  His lips tightened and he gave a slight shake of his head. “Haven’t your insightful little powers of observation revealed to you that I truly don’t want to discuss this?” He gestured at the light. “Green.”

  Wanting to lighten the mood in the vehicle, she searched her brain for some point of reference. “I remember the T-shirt you wore the day we met. That restaurant is my favorite place to eat in the Keys. Well, one of my favorites.”

  “The grouper place?”

  “Yes!”

  “Mine, too. They have that grouper sandwich I’ve stood in line half an hour to eat.”

  “I’ve had it.” Thinking about it made her feel a twinge of homesickness. It wasn’t as bad this year as it had been in the last four. Perhaps she had started to grow up and away from her family just a bit. Which was good and bad, she thought.

  For the rest of the drive, they stayed on safe topics like restaurants and beaches. She found out that Joe had sailed from Providence to the Keys and had stayed there for a year before accepting the Cru position two years ago.

  “I spent half the summer down there this year. It was nice to be back.”

  “Why do you still live on your boat?”

  He shrugged. “She’s a nice size. Big as any one bedroom I could get here. She keeps me busy. And she’s become home.”

  “Will you be going back to Providence for Thanksgiving?”

  He didn’t answer immediately, which made her sneak a quick glance at him while she drove. She caught his hardened expression, his jaw tight. Then he visibly relaxed. “No. I’ll probably just stay here.”

  Madeline pursed her lips, a thousand questions screaming in her mind. She wanted to know more about him on a social level, yes. She really wanted to know what had clearly hurt him so badly in the past. When they reached the Student Ministries building, she set the parking brake and shifted the gears into neutral so that she could turn in her seat to face him. “I don’t think this weather is going to clear anytime soon. I’m happy to give you a ride back.”

  As he unclipped his seatbelt, he smiled at her warmly. “I appreciate it, but it will probably be all clear by the time I’m done. I’ll catch the bus if it’s still raining.”

  Madeline had honestly never encountered such blatant disregard, and since she really didn’t have a personality that backed down, it didn’t faze her. “Why?”

  “Why what?”

  “Why won’t you allow me the opportunity to give you a ride, Harvard?”

  His hand paused on the door handle. “Because,” he said, turning to look at her, his eyes serious, “I try very hard to never be alone with a female student. Ever. I would rather avoid any possibility that my motives or actions could be misinterpreted by anyone, regardless of the real situation.”

  She couldn’t help feeling somewhat defensive. “I’m not some eighteen- year-old freshman, Joe. I’m a second-year grad student working on my Masters.”

  “Nevertheless.” He dug in his pocket and pulled out a ten dollar bill, which he set on the dashboard, then opened the door and hopped out into the rain. “For your gas. Don’t get out. No reason for you to get soaked again. Thanks for the ride. Really.”

  While he unhooked his bike from the rack, she rested her elbow on the car door and tapped her chin with her finger. She contemplated his attitude and words. She concluded that she didn’t fully accept his answer. It really had nothing to do with his position on campus. Sur
e, that may play a role or serve as a factor in his attitude. Still, she knew there was something else.

  He pounded on the back of the door to let her know he had freed his bike. Unless she chased him down in the rain, she had no choice but to release the brake and drive away.

  CHAPTER 4

  MADELINE stared at the sleek white sailboat docked at slip 67. Near the bow and at the stern, the words “Star Sapphire” surrounded a blue oval with a brilliant white starburst in the center of it. The bright white of the ship’s deck nearly blinded her in the radiant November sunlight. A dark blue canopy stretched over the bridge of the boat, and the line of sleek portholes rising up out of the center of the deck gave evidence to the living area below deck. She could see the sails stored and ready among perfectly coiled ropes.

  She knew she’d found the right boat. His bike sat next to a small grill on the dock. Both were chained to the dock railing. What confused her – and had caused her to walk the length of the dock and back once already – was that this was not a Westcott boat. It was an Elohim. Why would a Westcott Marine Westcott live on an Elohim vessel? It did not compute. She frowned, trying to mull that through when she saw the craft shifting in the still water, as if someone moved around inside, then she heard footfalls on stairs.

  Her heart gave a little flutter. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea. She had a pretty strong backbone, and typically the opinions of others didn’t overly affect her opinion of herself. However, an outright rejection from one Joe Westcott after the efforts she put into this little surprise might just be her undoing.

  When she saw his head through the porthole, she shifted the sunglasses off of her face and onto the top of her head.

  “Ahoy!” She called, loud enough for him to hear her through the gunwale. “Permission to come aboard, Captain?”

  Joe emerged onto the main deck with graceful, surefooted motions born of years of practice. He spotted her and, as recognition dawned, his face lit in a blend of surprised smile and pale shock. “Madeline?”