Step with Me: Love Amiss... A Christian Romance (Seaside Chapel Book 2)

by Jan Thompson

  Emmeline reminded herself to invite Misty to the Seaside Chapel Women’s Bible Study on Tuesday nights at Olivia Gonzalez’s house. She wasn’t sure if Misty would go, but if she didn’t ask, Misty might not go at all. Misty didn’t know anyone else at Seaside Chapel. Still, the Women’s Bible Study Group was open to all women, not just members of Seaside Chapel.

  Emmeline’s cell phone rang as she was finishing up the stale ham sandwich. She let it ring. It stopped and rang again. She picked it up without looking.

  “I’m at the door. Let’s go.”

  Sebastian!

  “Where’s Misty?” Emmeline asked.

  “Who?”

  “Why are you picking me up?”

  “I called Nigel and asked him when and where the rehearsal is.”

  “You could’ve asked me.”

  “After last night you might want some space.”

  “Yes.”

  “I can’t give you space, Em. We have to stick to the script.” Sebastian sounded serious. “You know there’s a last-minute change of rehearsal venue?”

  “What? Hang on.” Emmeline checked her text messages.

  For some reason, maybe a dead cell zone or something, she hadn’t seen the messages. She scrolled. There it was, the message she had missed.

  Two hours ago, the location of the rehearsal tonight had been moved to an address she wasn’t familiar with.

  “Hello?” Sebastian asked.

  “Looks like I missed a message. The rehearsal has been moved to a new location,” Emmeline said. “So what’s going on?”

  “Jared’s going on. He is now underwriting quite a large chunk of Theater by the Sea productions and the rehearsal tonight is at his house.”

  “So this is his address.”

  “Yes. And guess what? Talia will probably be there. Or not. But you and I are going. That’s all. So lock up and come downstairs. Have you eaten?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, you shouldn’t have. Dinner’s on Jared. We’ll go and find out what he’s up to.”

  “So we’re sleuthing now? On top of our pretenses?”

  Sebastian laughed. “Don’t turn philosophical on me. It’s all pretty straightforward. Oh yes, and Nigel said to tell you not to forget to bring your script. He said you do that a lot. Do you, Em?”

  “Do I what?”

  “Forget things.”

  Emmeline didn’t respond.

  “Like last night. Do you still remember?”

  “What about it?”

  “Outside your apartment?”

  Emmeline didn’t need the reminder. “That.”

  “Yes, that. I meant it.”

  “Afterwards?”

  “No, when we did, I meant it.”

  The kiss? He meant it?

  Emmeline didn’t care for all of this confusing juxtaposition that Sebastian had dragged her into. But it had been her fault for agreeing to the trade, and now she must live with it if she wanted to have any hope of seeing her brother again.

  It was ridiculous that her family’s future depended on Sebastian Langston winging it.

  “You do remember,” Sebastian added.

  “Yes.”

  “Me too,” Sebastian said. “But have no fear. If it bothers you too much, know that it’ll be over soon and we can both move on.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Emmeline settled onto an ottoman by the accordion doors that separated the Urquhart entertainment room from the outdoor room and pool with the fountain in one end. It was quite a luxurious rehearsal space that Jared Urquhart had generously offered to Theater by the Sea.

  The cast members scattered around Emmeline in the terrace room, sitting on expensive chairs and antique sofas. The rest of the cast hadn’t arrived. Some would get off work later, and some had other obligations.

  Eventually they’d start rehearsing at seven o’clock, so there was plenty of time for Emmeline to mill around and eat a second dinner.

  Only she didn’t want to mill around.

  Emmeline wanted to get out of here badly, but she was stuck. She needed the money from the summer play. Holding down four part-time jobs was a strain but it would only be until the end of July. After that she’d be at UGA.

  Well, she’d have to get a couple of jobs there too to make up for what her scholarships wouldn’t pay for but at least she’d be closer to her Master of Music degree.

  For now, she was going through the motions of working in the SISO music library on Mondays and Fridays, shelving books at Scrolls on Tuesdays through Thursdays, repeating lines on stage on Friday nights and Saturdays, and playing at weddings or SISO concerts whenever they needed a harpist.

  No rest for the weary.

  Across from her, Nigel Miller and his wife sat down on a love seat next to a grand piano. Right next to the Steinway grand was a gilded Salvi Apollonia concert grand harp that Emmeline had been itching to touch.

  Nigel had a mound on his plate while Misty’s plate only had vegetables on it. They sat shoulder to shoulder and looked cute together. They complemented each other well, Emmeline thought. Some day—

  Not for me.

  “Ingrid has a migraine,” the Theater by the Sea director announced as if to Emmeline.

  “Not again. I’ll be praying for her.”

  “Pray for yourself too, Em. You’re standing in for her as Elizabeth Bennet tonight.”

  Standing in.

  A metaphor of my life.

  Always the second best.

  Mixed feelings darted here and there inside Emmeline. She was sorry that Ingrid couldn’t make it to rehearsal, but she was not sorry she didn’t have to play Lydia opposite Rafferty’s Wickham tonight. Anything to avoid him was most welcomed.

  Thank You, Lord. And please heal Ingrid. Thank You, Jesus. Amen.

  Her mind went quickly to the script she had brought. It was on the marble floor next to her purse at her feet. She was trying to figure out how to balance her dinner plate on her lap while reaching down to get the script when a hand appeared and picked up the folder for her.

  “Thanks,” Emmeline said.

  “No problem.” Sebastian gave her that affable smile she’d been getting to know all week.

  He sat down next to her on the floor, but he was tall enough and the ottoman was low enough that he only needed to tip his head up slightly to talk to her face to face.

  That smile he gave Emmeline wiped away the discomfiture that had hung over her from the moment she stepped into the Urquhart cottage on Sea island and saw Talia’s scowl as Jared greeted Emmeline with a kiss on each of her cheeks. The first thing Emmeline did after that was to run to the powder room to wash off Jared’s saliva, much to Sebastian’s amusement.

  Talia had continued to scowl as a stream of fetching men and women filed into Jared’s house for the free dinner and rehearsal.

  Emmeline wondered how long Nigel was going to keep them tonight. Sometimes they had rehearsed until midnight because he wasn’t satisfied with their performance. Could Talia stay glowered that many hours? Or would she leave?

  Emmeline was finishing up her almond chicken and scanning Elizabeth Bennet’s lines in the script, when Jared walked into the room, Talia right behind him. He seemed to be searching for something. Or someone.

  “There you are.” Jared made a beeline for Emmeline, but Talia stopped in her tracks.

  Emmeline tensed as Jared spoke.

  “Miss O’Hanlon, when you finish your dinner would you do us the honor and play something on my harp?”

  “Well, I don’t have anything prepared for this evening.”

  “Don’t you have events coming up?”

  “Just a couple of weddings. All I have are wedding songs.” Emmeline laughed.

  “I like wedding songs.”

  As Jared spoke, Emmeline saw Talia walk out of the room. Emmeline glanced at Sebastian to see what he was going to do. He was oblivious to Talia. It seemed that his attention was on Jared.

  “Give us a pre
view of the wedding songs,” Jared said. “Play a few. Two, three, whatever.”

  “Let me think about it.”

  “Thank you. Much appreciated.” Jared was off, perhaps to look for Talia, perhaps not.

  Emmeline ate the rest of her dinner in silence.

  “You don’t have to do it,” Sebastian said quietly. “Don’t let him pressure you.”

  Pressure.

  Emmeline looked around the room. She loved working with Nigel and Misty Miller, but she had a bad feeling about Theater by the Sea now being underwritten by Jared in this complicated situation she was in. Would they always rehearse here at his house every week for the next two months? Would she have to play the harp at his beck and call every time she came here? Could she stand it?

  She shouldn’t have danced with him on Friday night.

  “What would you like to hear?” Emmeline asked Sebastian.

  He seemed visibly moved. “Maybe what you played on Monday at the SISO studio?”

  Soon, Emmeline did.

  Oriental came through on the harp long unused. She played it slowly and somehow it quietened the chatter in the room and the sounds of the outdoor coming in and indoor going out.

  Sometime after she had begun strumming and plucking, Jared came back to the room and sat down somewhere near his pool table. He didn’t make any attempt to get near her, and for that Emmeline was grateful.

  Emmeline added arpeggios here and there wherever she felt she could fit them into the time signature. When she was done, Sebastian asked her to play it again, all six minutes or so of it. And as she did, he crossed the floor to sit on the piano bench next to the harp.

  Jared didn’t leave his barstool.

  From the corner of her eye, Emmeline saw that Jared was watching Sebastian.

  Mid-song Emmeline couldn’t help noticing that Sebastian was staring at her. There was a heartbreak there, but she couldn’t see past the wall of pain. Obviously, he was a romantic as he had wanted erstwhile fiancée back, but here in this room—amidst the chatter and outdoors coming in and indoors going out—he was alone in his quest.

  Emmeline felt sorry for him and wanted to help him.

  Even if Talia didn’t deserve this man.

  Chapter Eighteen

  “I knew I’d find you in here.” The voice was shrill, the tone hostile.

  Sebastian didn’t have to see Talia’s face to know that she had been fuming. In retrospect, he shouldn’t have hidden in the kitchen. But the kitchen was where he found comfort, even though this was not his type of kitchen. He was still in Jared’s house, and he wasn’t going to leave without Emmeline.

  Talia parked her five-inch Michael Kors espadrilles on the Spanish terra cotta tile floor, going toe to toe with Sebastian’s Crocs, and still came up to only his shoulders. He was leaning against the central island and had been looking out the panoramic window to the backyard pool where the Theater by the Sea cast members were rehearsing their Jane Austen mishmash under a pergola.

  Over Talia’s head he could see Jared standing around holding a script as if he were going to be in the play too. Above the backyard, the coastal Georgia sun was setting, casting a vermillion dome over the rehearsal theater.

  “Look at me, Sebastian Langston.”

  Sebastian rolled his eyes down.

  “Why her?” Talia snipped.

  “Her who?” Sebastian knew to whom Talia was referring, but he wanted her to say it for the record. That way, she couldn’t backpedal later on and say she had been thinking of someone else.

  Really, he was sick and tired of her equivocation these five or six years they had tried to be serious with each other in their often fragile non-relationship. He hadn’t seen it then, but he saw it now.

  There was nowhere to go but out.

  “Emmeline O’Hanlon. Why her?” Talia poked her sharp fingernails at Sebastian’s plaid shirt.

  “Why not? She’s single. I’m single.”

  “No nefarious motives?” Poke. Poke.

  “Like what?” Sebastian tried to fold his arms in front of him but Talia was too close. Her petite frame was all fiery and rigid and she didn’t move an inch back.

  “Like trying to lure Jared away from me?”

  Jared?

  So this is about Jared.

  “You couldn’t be more wrong, Talia.” Sebastian stood his ground. “We broke up six months ago, remember?”

  “I thought you wanted me back. I can show you all the emails you sent me up to a week ago. I’m guessing you brought in Emmeline to break up my relationship with Jared so that you could have me back, and he could have her.”

  “That’s a crazy plot.”

  “Crazy? It’s unfolding before our very eyes.” Talia pointed to the window.

  Yes, indeed. Jared was out there, inching his way toward Emmeline.

  Until Sebastian had met Emmeline, he’d truly believed that Talia was the one God had in store for him. Now he realized that Talia wasn’t the only eligible woman in the world. And he didn’t even want her family fortune. Only love.

  He wanted only love.

  It was the truth. Amidst all the make-believe, this was the truth that Sebastian felt in his heart.

  “We’ve both moved on,” Sebastian reminded her again.

  “I have. Have you?” Talia lifted her chin. “You think that by running off Jared you could get me back.”

  “Run him off?”

  “You’re pushing Emmeline at my Jared.” Talia shook her head. “You and I, Seb. We can’t work out. I can’t make the commitment you want of me.”

  “We don’t have to worry about that anymore, do we?” Sebastian knew Talia’s pattern. She a was prone to wander but then inevitably, she would come back into his arms.

  Only this time he wasn’t sure if he wanted her anymore. They had broken up for the last time.

  This entire ruse was a bad idea. He should have moved on. Gone out with Emmeline like a proper gentleman, not coerce her into playing this game. He’d taken advantage of her emotions and her sorrow over her missing brother.

  Now the only way to end this was to stop going out with Emmeline because they weren’t really a couple.

  Lord, why didn’t You stop me from doing something this stupid?

  “So you think Emmeline will marry you? Give you the gobs of kids you want?”

  Sebastian chuckled. “We’re just going out.”

  “So were we. On and off since we were seventeen, Seb. Should I ask what went wrong with us?”

  Many things. Sebastian didn’t know where to begin. “Kids, for one. We fought over whether we should have kids or not. It seemed premature and silly.”

  “I told you how I feel about us. Marriage, no. Kids, maybe.”

  Sebastian bristled. “You know my beliefs. Marriage comes before kids.”

  Talia stepped back. “I’m not sure if I buy all that anymore, Seb. It’s too traditional for me. I think I’m going to stop attending Seaside Chapel. I think they conduct too many weddings.”

  “That’s a lame excuse, Talia. You used to like weddings.”

  “They’re overrated, Seb. Look what happened to my parents. Separated and heading toward divorce. Dad’s even a deacon at church. There’s something wrong with that picture.”

  “You can’t say that’s the way it goes for everyone. And you can’t project all these human sins on a holy God.”

  “Whatever, Seb.” Talia started to walk away. “I’ll see you at the Saffron meeting tomorrow.”

  Now Sebastian realized how difficult this was going to be. Talia was no longer in a relationship with him, but she was still his business partner and majority shareholder of Saffron of Jekyll. The restaurant had to continue.

  “Is Onada really going to quit on us?” Talia asked, switching focus.

  “Not if we pay him more.” Their chef de cuisine was worth it. Several other prominent restaurants had oohed and aahed over Onada’s signature dishes.

  Until Sebastian got back into the kitchen
, their restaurant’s success rested on Chef Onada’s shoulders.

  “We’ll talk about his salary,” Talia said. “I’m open to suggestions.”

  And she also had veto power.

  Why Sebastian had agreed to let Talia have the majority of the shares of Saffron on Jekyll, he didn’t remember. It had been his moment of weakness. Now she had the final say on everything, including chefs’ and cooks’ salaries.

  At the doorway, Talia stopped. “How did you end up with Emmeline, anyway?”

  “Well, we were talking one day and here we are.” Sebastian had rarely left out details from Talia, but this time he would.

  The whole inception would implicate him and cause much strife between him and Talia in their business partnership, not to mention drag Emmeline through the mud.

  It was only recently that this ill-advised idea had born fruit in Sebastian. There he had been, sitting in Sunday School listening to the long list of prayer requests when, across the room, Emmeline had burst into tears.

  It had been the fifth anniversary of her brother Claude’s disappearance from a concert he’d been conducting in metro Atlanta. They’d looked everywhere for him. Her parents had been growing weary and in poor health. Their anniversary was coming up, and Emmeline had wished that her brother could be home for Christmas.

  And here they were.

  When Talia left the kitchen, Sebastian turned back to the window above the farmhouse sink. The sky outside was dark now. Overhanging string lights on the pergola enabled Sebastian to see the stage actors crackling with mirth.

  Sebastian’s eyes zigzagged from face to face looking for Emmeline.

  She wasn’t there.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “I would like to hear your demo CD. Might get you some sponsorship.”

  Jared was standing a bit too close to Emmeline for comfort but if she stepped back, she’d topple over the topiary plants by the accordion glass doors.

  She had just finished a scene rehearsal and Nigel had given her a break while he worked on poor Rafferty flubbing his Wickham lines.