by Jan Thompson
Step with Me
Seaside Chapel Book 2
Jan Thompson
Georgia Press
Contents
Collections & Series by Jan Thompson
Book Release News
Seaside Chapel: Series Description
STEP WITH ME: Book Description
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Farewell from Emmeline & Sebastian
Hymn: For You and Me
Thank You for Reading!
SING WITH ME: Book Description
SHARE WITH ME: Book Description
SHARE WITH ME: Chapter 1
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Collections & Series by Jan Thompson
Books by Jan Thompson
About Jan Thompson
Step with Me (Seaside Chapel Book 2)
Copyright © 2017 Jan Edttii Lim Thompson
Jan’s Mailing List: JanThompson.com/newsletter
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Jan’s Website: JanThompson.com
Published by Georgia Press LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Copyediting/Proofreading: Lenda Selph
eBook Cover Design: Georgia Press LLC
Paperback Cover Design: Georgia Press and Deranged Doctor Design
Scripture quotations are from the public domain King James Version of the Holy Bible. Wherever applicable, extracts from the Authorized Version of the Bible (The King James Bible), the rights in which are vested in the British Crown, are reproduced by permission of the Crown’s Patentee, Cambridge University Press.
The lyrics for the hymn, “For You and Me” (also known by its first line, “O Love Divine, Amazing Love”), written by Fanny Crosby, is in the public domain.
This novel is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, places, events, things, and ideas are all products of the author’s active imagination.
First Paperback Edition: April 2017
Paperback ISBN 978-1-944188-24-5
First eBook Edition: April 2017
ISBN: 978-1-944188-23-8
Collections & Series by Jan Thompson
Savannah Sweethearts
JanThompson.com/savannah
Vacation Sweethearts
JanThompson.com/vacation
Seaside Chapel
JanThompson.com/seaside
Seaside Cottages
JanThompson.com/cottages
Coming Soon!
Protector Sweethearts
JanThompson.com/protector
Coming Soon!
International Thrillers with Romance
JanThompson.com/thrillers
Coming Soon!
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Seaside Chapel: Series Description
Inspirational Christian Romance Novels
From USA Today Bestselling Author Jan Thompson come these Seaside Chapel novels, blending flavors of inspirational women’s fiction with contemporary Christian romance to celebrate the grace of God and hope in Jesus Christ.
Visit Jan’s favorite beach town of St. Simon’s Island, Georgia, where our friends live and attend Seaside Chapel, a little church by the sea known for its beach weddings and fair shares of love and life.
As these Christian men go through the Seaside Chapel Men’s Bible Study to grow in their knowledge and understanding of God, they are tested in their spiritual maturity, their relationships with others, and their love lives. Share their heartaches and healing, and cheer them on as they celebrate faith, family, friends, and yes, happily-ever-afters.
The Seaside Chapel novels are all about life by the Atlantic Ocean, which in essence, is not much different from life in landlocked cities. Inherently, the human nature is such that we have in our hearts a need for the Lord, for His salvation, sustenance, and sanctification.
While each complete Seaside Chapel novel can stand alone, the books are best read in the following order to avoid any spoilers:
SEASIDE CHAPEL
Book 1: Share with Me
Book 2: Step with Me
Book 3: Sing with Me
Seaside Chapel:
JanThompson.com/seaside
Following the Seaside Chapel collection is a series of sweet and wholesome, clean and Christian Seaside Cottages novels about the lives of secondary characters mentioned in various Seaside Chapel novels. Find out what Tobias, Willow, Matt, Avery, Benecio, and others are up to as they spend their days on St. Simon’s Island on the Atlantic Coast of Georgia.
Seaside Cottages:
JanThompson.com/cottages
To receive book news for the Seaside Chapel and Seaside Cottages series, sign up to be on Jan’s mailing list: JanThompson.com/newsletter
STEP WITH ME: Book Description
Seaside Chapel Book 2
A thirty-something restaurateur barters with his sister’s friend to be his summer rent-a-girlfriend so that he can win back his ex-fiancée who is now seeing another man.
The Desperate
It’s past time for Talia to make the right decision. I don’t want to wait forever. I want a big wedding, a long honeymoon, and a house full of kids. What? Why can’t I nudge her in the right direction? Yeah, I know she’s already dumped me and moved on with whatshisname, but an ex can dream, can’t I?
Sebastian Langston, owner of Saffron on Jekyll restaurant and Sage Café on St. Simon’s Island
The Dreamer
He says all I have to do is go out with him to be visible enough for her. He gets her back, I find my brother, and I go to grad school. A win-win. Yeah, he’s cute and has a kind heart. And she d
oesn’t deserve him. Oh, did I just say that?
Emmeline O’Hanlon, harpist and music librarian of the Sea Islands Symphony Orchestra
The Duet
So it begins, this ill-advised scheme to drive his commitment-phobic ex-fiancée to the altar. Sebastian thinks his plan-on-a-whim would succeed because it has to. He will turn thirty-four next September and he wants to be a father by the following summer, preferably to a passel of Talia’s future children.
The short-term business agreement would only last one summer. Emmeline needs Sebastian’s funding to search for her long lost brother, and he is enlisting one of the top private investigators in the region to find him. All she has to do is smile and make Talia jealous. A piece of cake, right?
As they keep up the ruse, Emmeline’s ethereal harp starts to sound like siren songs that distract Sebastian from his focus. Soon, he’s rowing away from his goals…
Step with Me is book 2 in Jan Thompson’s Seaside Chapel series blending inspirational women's fiction with contemporary Christian romance to celebrate the grace of God and hope in Jesus Christ.
Seaside Chapel
JanThompson.com/seaside
To receive Seaside Chapel book news:
JanThompson.com/newsletter
To my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross to save me from my sins and rose again from the grave to give me eternal life in heaven.
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
―I JOHN 4:10
Chapter One
“I’m going to do it.” Emmeline O’Hanlon made up her mind then and there.
“Noooo!” Across the table, Skye put down her chicken sandwich. “You’re just enabling my brother. He’s an idiot. Don’t help him.”
Emmeline laughed. She barely knew Skye’s older brother, but from what she’d heard at church, in the Seaside Chapel Women’s Bible Study Group and at lunches with Skye herself, she doubted that Sebastian Langston was as stupid as his sister made him out to be.
If he were, the restaurateur wouldn’t have been the youngest chef in the southeast to own an award-winning restaurant.
“I have to find my brother.” Emmeline sipped more tea. It was a tad too sweet.
Around her the lunch crowd was thinning. She had to get back to work soon, but she valued Skye’s input on this matter and agreed to hear her out.
“It’s been five years, Em. Who knows where your brother is now?”
“Exactly. I’ve used up all my savings to find Claude. Crowdfunding fizzled out three years ago. He’s still lost out there somewhere.” Her voice caught. “Heaven forbid he’s dead.”
“Em…”
“In any case, I’m out of money. I have to hold down two part-time jobs that don’t give me healthcare.”
“Doesn’t SISO—”
“SISO?” Emmeline wondered why Skye had brought up the Sea Islands Symphony Orchestra. “We only get paid when we play and you know how often harpists play.”
“Speaking of harps…” Emmeline sighed. “My van—you know, the one that carries my harp for me—has passed its expiration date. I start grad school this August with only half of the funds I need.”
“We all have financial difficulties.”
“It costs money to find my brother is what I’m saying. Money I don’t have. I don’t think my parents can wait for me to get out of grad school, go on concert tours, earn more money, and then look for Claude after that.”
That could take a couple of years. Emmeline anticipated being enrolled at the University of Georgia for a good two years. She’d have to work along the way to pay for her master’s program in harp performance.
She sighed, almost too deeply, giving away her concerns. “What your brother says he’ll do for me right now, this summer, is amazing. An answer to prayer.”
“Em, my friend.” Skye paused, as if searching for words. “I’m not sure he had God in mind when he made you the offer.”
“But don’t you see?” Emmeline protested. “No money exchanges hands.”
“This is Sebastian we’re talking about. Everything is a transaction to him.”
“Bottomline is, he helps me find my brother, I help him get his ex-fiancée back. What could possibly go wrong?”
Skye shook her head the way she always did: vigorously. Her hair bounced around her ears. “This is not the way to get there, Em. What else did Sebastian offer you?”
“That’s all. It’s a one-for-one deal. He helps me find Claude. I help him with his Talia problem.”
“Talia is not just a problem. She’s my brother’s doom, Em.”
“Two months. That’s all. Come first week of August, I’ll be back at UGA. Be happy for me, Skye.”
No response.
Emmeline watched Skye resume eating her sandwich. As for herself, she’d finish her baby kale salad. Wished she had ordered more but this offer from Sebastian had cause her stomach to knot up a bit. It was too good to be true. Then again…
“Come on. It can’t be that bad. You’ve always had good things to say about your brother.” Emmeline stirred her iced tea.
“He’s not thinking straight at this time, Em.”
Yeah?
Emmeline wondered whether there was any truth in what her best friend said.
Still…
“It’ll be only for two months until Talia gives in or I pack up and leave for Athens. That’s all. I view it like a summer job. I had many summer jobs when I was in college.”
“That’s just it.” Skye threw up her hands. She leaned forward.
Emmeline could feel the tension in her voice.
“Emmeline Eleanor O’Hanlon, listen to me. A rent-a-girlfriend position—eek, did I say that?—is not a job. It rates up there with call girls and women of the night. It looks really, really, really, really bad on your resumé.”
“I trust your brother. He’s a Christian. He goes to church at Seaside. If he tries to hurt me, I’ll call up Pastor Gonzalez and have him excommunicated.”
“Seaside Chapel is not a Catholic church. It doesn’t excommunicate anyone.”
“Okay. Throw out, then.”
“I’m about to throw up here, Em.”
“You were the one who told me about your brother’s plight, Skye.”
“To ask for prayer, not for you to sell yourself. What will your future husband think?”
“Not to worry. I’ll be single the rest of my life.”
Emmeline remembered the last time she held her last boyfriend’s hands only the Summer before. Yeah, when Ivan MacMillan had told her he was simply going out with her, nothing more. In his mind, he hadn’t been Emmeline’s boyfriend at all.
Four months later, Ivan had met the love of his life. Happily married now, Ivan had it made with Brinley.
“Listen, girl.” Skye wagged a finger. “This is my brother we’re talking about. His on-again and off-again fiancée is messing with him. He’s not thinking straight. He’s reacting to her irrationally. That’s why he’s in this emotional wreck. He’s very needy. I won’t let you ruin your life on account of him.”
“It’s business—“
“Aarrggh! Did you say business?”
“Calm down, Skye. Look, I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll set down rules. No touching. No hugging. No kissing. If he oversteps those boundaries, I’ll call you and you can rip him apart. Deal?”
Skye seemed to calm down.
Emmeline’s eyes grew wide at the clock on the wall behind the checkout counter some tables away. “Have to run. Rehearsal in half an hour, but I have to put together the wedding music folder for the ensemble.”
Why, oh why did I wait until the last minute?
They paid for their lunches and parted ways outside the café.
The June sun beat down on Emmeline. She didn’t burn easily; it must be due to the genes from her mother’s side of the family. She made the short trek to her van parked across the road b
y Neptune Park where kids were playing and shrieking in their cute little voices.
No children for me in the foreseeable future.
She sniffled.
Tourists milled around beyond the playground, taking photographs around the water’s edge and the pier, oblivious to her plight.
She had to jiggle the key in her van door to get it to unlock. She yanked the door hard to open it.
Story of my life.
She had bought the van from another student at college. It had been on its last leg then. And now…
Thank You, God, that it has lasted me five years.
Emmeline climbed in.
The van wouldn’t start.
Oh no.
Ten minutes to rehearsal.
Emmeline tried to breathe.
She had to drive all the way up the center of the island to the SISO studios for the string rehearsal. It would take more than ten minutes to get there.
Oh, she should’ve left sooner.
If she kept showing up late, she was going to get fired from SISO, even if they needed her as the music librarian. She had to keep her apartment.
No way was she going to live in her van again.
She tried to crank up the engine one more time.
No go.
Emmeline speed-dialed her friend. “Skye! Have you left? Good! I need a ride. My van has died!”
Chapter Two
Emmeline sprinted out of the elevator door onto the third-floor hallway and nearly tripped on the old carpet. She was late, late, late because she had to wait for the tow truck guy who had to be paid on the spot and in cash before he would tow her van to the shop.