The Engagement Plot

by Phillips, Krista;

  She’d finally fallen asleep somewhere between three and five hundred…or was it thousand? There’d be no complaint from her if she never saw another sheep in her life.

  The fantastic aroma of rich, dark brew caressed her nose and beckoned her into the kitchen, warring against her instinct to run back upstairs and hide.

  At least she’d remembered to put decent clothes on and strap in the “girls” this time.

  “There you are, sleepyhead. I have some ultra-caff ready for you.” Carly set the mug on the table and put a bottle of creamer beside it. “Lord knows you need it.”

  “I didn’t keep you up, did I?”

  “Who, you? Of course not. Your baaing in your sleep didn’t wake me up at all.”

  Her what? A second later it clicked. Baa. Sheep. Oh crud. “I did not baa in my sleep. You’re making that up.”

  Carly wiggled her phone in its bejeweled case. “Wish I could. I even caught the moment on my iPhone in all its wooly glory.”

  Hanna grabbed for the phone, but her dead-meat friend snatched it back and held it to her chest. “No way. This is some fabulous blackmail right here.”

  “You didn’t show Will, did you?”

  A low sound rumbled behind her, a cross between a sheep and a horse in pain. Hanna turned to see William standing in the doorway, looking way too fantastic for the sounds coming from his mouth. This could not be happening.

  Without a second thought, she lunged at her friend and the phone she held.

  Carly squealed and dropped to the floor in a ball to protect her phone, and large hands encased Hanna’s waist, pulling her back.

  “Easy, little lamb. No one showed me anything.”

  On the floor, Carly laughed so hard tears were streaming down her face. “Girl, do you really think I’d video something like that?”

  Hanna shoved Will away and stood, looking between the two. “So you didn’t show him?”

  Her friend held her hands up in surrender. “While you did do some great livestock impressions somewhere around 4:00 a.m., the only thing I’m guilty of is confessing the reason I got up early and couldn’t get back to sleep.”

  Hands on her hips, she couldn’t decide if Carly was telling the truth or trying to preserve the health of her expensive phone. “Promise?”

  “Check for yourself.” She laid the phone beside the coffee mug then gave Hanna a sideways squeeze. “And believe me, I was really, really tempted to. You should be proud of me.”

  A quick click through the camera roll showed innocuous pictures of the ranch, the silly picture they’d taken together last night to commemorate the trip, and some shots from the airplane.

  Breathing a sigh of relief, Hanna sank into the kitchen chair as Carly took the phone back. “I’m going upstairs to get dressed. Drink. We have stuff to do today, girl!”

  Carly disappeared upstairs as Hanna poured a generous helping of creamer into her mug and sipped the caramel-colored goodness. Aaahh, perfect.

  Will settled down beside her with a cup of his own. “Need a little coffee with that cream?”

  She shot him a look. “You’re already in enough trouble this morning. No need to add offending my coffee to the list.”

  “Think your coffee will forgive me?”

  Was that a double-edged question? “It depends.”

  “On what?”

  “On if you’re really sorry for what you did—I mean, said to my coffee, or if you are just apologizing because you don’t want me to be mad at you again.”

  He slid his hand to her cup and took it from her. His gaze was serious as he stared at the light brown liquid inside. “I’m sorry that I offended you. You are a fabulous cup of coffee and deserve all the respect in the world. Sometimes stupid guys get carried away and do things—er—say things they shouldn’t. Do you forgive me?”

  Hanna rescued her cup from his grip and took another sip, willing herself to sound natural when she could really use a good cry. “Yes.”

  “Hmm?”

  She elbowed him in the arm. “The coffee says yes. It forgives you.”

  He put his own cup to his lips. “The coffee is very beautiful this morning.”

  Despite her vow from the night before, her heart rebelled and sighed with pleasure. “It now lectures that flattery will get you nothing.”

  Will set his cup down and swiveled to look at her. “I’m serious. Both on the ‘I’m sorry’ and the ‘you’re beautiful’ part. I shouldn’t have gotten carried away. There was no excuse.”

  She swallowed the bitter pill of guilt in the form of now lukewarm coffee. The “right” thing to do would be to accept her portion of responsibility. But what did it really matter? He went too far, regardless of whether she’d allowed him to or led him on. She was only faking an engagement to get her reputation as a good Christian girl back, so obviously what almost happened last night was beyond inappropriate. He should know better.

  Scooting back the chair, she stood up and walked to the sink to dump the rest of her coffee down the drain. “It’s in the past, and it won’t happen again. Now, what’s on the agenda today?”

  Lilith chose that moment to walk into the kitchen, a soft pink robe hugging her small frame and slippers on her feet. “I can answer that. I thought it’d be nice for us all to go to church together.”

  Hanna turned to look at William just as the mouthful of coffee he’d taken came spewing from his mouth, most of it landing in his cup. As he coughed and recovered, Lilith smiled. “You haven’t been home on a Sunday in ages, William, and I know Hanna and Carly are churchgoers, so I thought it’d be perfect.”

  Will stood, objection written on every tense muscle in his body. “Mom, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  His mom flapped her hand in his direction, dismissing his opinion. “Oh, it’ll be fine. Going to church is like being with family, sweetie. Right, Hanna?”

  Even though she was supposed to be the “spiritual” one of the bunch, even Hanna wasn’t digging this suggestion. Church? Considering she was in the middle of a lie the size of Texas and had almost gone to second base with her fake fiancé last night, church did not sound like the most comfortable place to be right now. “Will might actually be right on this one. It’s been a long week. Maybe we should just—”

  “We’re all going to church, and that’s final.”

  Hanna looked to where Will’s father stood in the doorway, already dressed in classic khakis and a dark blue dress shirt.

  She opened her mouth to protest, but one look at Will’s angry expression and she could already see the storm brewing if they didn’t comply. Stepping to Will, she put a hand on his arm and smiled. “Of course, we’d be happy to go to church with you.”

  That was if happy meant that feeling one got when you went to the dentist and had a root canal or two, minus the anesthesia.

  William stepped into the sanctuary and inhaled. The older church smelled exactly as he’d remembered it. A mixture of lemon-scented wax used on the wood pews and old dust that came from the hymnals they refused to replace, even though Mom had said they rarely use them anymore, opting for the more modern method of posting the words to the newer-style praise and worship music on an overhead screen.

  It had been a compromise, a way to keep the older generation that refused to accept change and the newer generation that liked the modern style both happy.

  Will didn’t give a rip about either. He just wanted the service to hurry and start so it could hurry and end and he could escape without speaking to anyone.

  “Well, wouldn’t you know it? Is that little Willy Preston I see?”

  His bad dream just morphed into a nightmare as he turned and found Lena Wallis, his old second-grade Sunday school teacher. Not that she was mean or anything. She just had a difficult time understanding the difference between polite conversation and sticking her nose in everyone else’s business. Thankfully, Hanna and Carly had already excused themselves to the restroom, so hopefully he could make this short and
sweet, get to a seat, and be done with it. “Mrs. Wallis. It’s good to see you again.”

  “I know your mom said you moved to Nashville awhile back and all, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop visiting here every once in a while.”

  He smiled and humored her. “It’s been over ten years since I moved down South. That’d be a long way to come up for church.” No need to mention that he’d timed his visits to his parents’ house so that Sunday was a travel day.

  “Then you’ve found a good church down there in Tennessee, have you?”

  “Well—”

  “Don’t tell me you’re skipping church now. Your mother said something to me about that, and I told her there was just no way my Willy would do such a thing. I was there when he prayed to ask Jesus into his heart when he was just seven years old right in my Sunday school classroom. No siree. No way at all.”

  William gritted his teeth. He didn’t need to explain his nonexistent church attendance or his revised view of God. A man couldn’t live his life based on some flippant prayer he made in elementary school. Claire had just had a “miracle” happen when she’d almost died after a heart procedure. Everyone had been so busy praising God for her miraculous turnaround that the Sunday school lesson about God healing our spiritual hearts had hit home, prodding Will to take the step he’d always heard about but hadn’t been sure of.

  And he’d stuck by his decision until the day Claire died. The day God had turned His back, shrugged His shoulders, and decided He didn’t care about the Preston family anymore.

  Will came to church today for his parents’ sake only. And he’d choose not to make a scene based on that fact as well.

  Blessedly, Hanna and Carly chose that moment to walk into the sanctuary.

  He motioned them over to where he stood. “Excuse me, Mrs. Wallis, but I want to introduce you to my fiancée, Hanna, and her best friend, Carly. They are visiting us from Minnesota.” A pinprick of guilt stabbed him for lying in church, but he brushed it away as easily as he did all the other pricks he felt on a daily basis.

  The older woman gave him a look with those squinted eyes, wrinkles hinting at the wisdom held within, that said she knew exactly what he was up to. But then she turned to Hanna and Carly and gave them both generous hugs. “It’s so good to meet you both. I’ve never been to Minnesota. What’s it like up there?”

  Hanna glanced at him for a moment, her knowing look seeing right through him, but then smiled at Mrs. Wallis. “Honestly, we have only two seasons in Minnesota. Winter and Mosquito-Mud season. But it is also beautiful, and we wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. It’s home.”

  Carly leaned toward Mrs. Wallis and pretended to whisper. “Except maybe Hawaii. I might trade it for that, but don’t tell Hanna.”

  Mrs. Wallis giggled, but the band began to warm up, so William grabbed the opportunity to usher the women to their seats.

  Much had changed in the ten years since he’d last been forced to visit church. There was still a piano, but the organ was replaced with drums, a keyboard, and a guitar. The worship team began to sing a song that wasn’t even remotely familiar but had a decent beat to it at least.

  And unless Will was imagining things, a few of the musicians were old friends of his from high school who’d had a garage grunge band back in the day. He’d smoked a few cigarettes with them that they’d stolen from one of the guy’s dad’s stash. He’d coughed for hours after that then was grounded for a month when he came home reeking of smoke. That had been the year after Claire died.

  Odd that his former partners in crime who’d persuaded him to get into trouble were now leading worship to God. And he, the goody-goody they’d had to push into it, didn’t want to be anywhere near a church.

  The song changed to an upbeat version of an old hymn he remembered, so he mouthed the words to at least give a semblance of participation.

  Then to his right, a sweet voice trickled to his ears.

  A sweet, very off-key voice. One that really shouldn’t sing in public. Ever.

  He bit the side of his cheek to keep from laughing. That his “fiancée” couldn’t hold a tune if her life depended on it was a great tidbit of information. He wondered if she knew the degree of horribleness she possessed or if everyone had always lied to be nice to her.

  The way she belted out that high note, he’d bet his bank account on the latter.

  Yet another song started. Great. Had things changed so much that there was no longer a sermon? They just sang the whole time?

  On one hand, sitting down anytime this millennium would be nice. But not having to sit through a long, drawn-out sermon expounding on the details of hell and the fact that he was headed straight there sounded great, too.

  The feminine screech of a high note rang next to him again.

  If he were a praying man, he’d opt for asking for the sermon to start immediately. To save both his ears and Hanna’s, uh, reputation.

  Hanna closed her eyes and sang with all her heart, letting the music wash over her like a waterfall.

  Goodness, how she’d missed church.

  The whole car ride this morning she’d dreaded it. Her life these days wasn’t exactly God glorifying. Her prayers seemed to fall on deaf ears, and that was the few times she’d made herself pray.

  But the moment the music began and the band started singing praises to Jesus, the bricks she’d been piling up in her heart came crashing down faster than the walls of Jericho. The louder she sang, the clearer her vision became.

  God was still there.

  She was the one who had nicely stuck her index fingers in her ears and sung “la-la-la-la” at the top of her proverbial lungs, drowning out God’s voice.

  Her mom had always told her God inhabits our joyful songs of praise to Him. And that’s what today’s service had done for her. For the first time since starting that crazy reality TV show, she felt close to God again. Like He was there, basking in the praises.

  She didn’t care if they even got to the sermon. They could just sing for the next hour and she’d be good.

  Will took a step closer to her, enclosing an arm around her and pressing her to his side. Warmth curled in her belly, and despite her best intentions to remain focused on God, she rested her head on his shoulder. His responding squeeze of her body sent shivers of pleasure straight to her toes.

  For just a moment, she allowed herself to stop singing, close her eyes, and dream.

  William and Hanna Preston—in church, side by side, maybe a little blond-haired boy between them, a baby girl with a polka-dotted bow in her hair snuggled in Hanna’s arms. A family. Worshipping God together on Sunday. No reporters. No lies. No putting arms around her just for show.

  For the first time since the big lie, she didn’t despise Will.

  Oh, he still had his issues.

  But she fit him. And he fit her. Maybe it was the kiss that almost went too far that changed her perspective. Or maybe it was just being in church and yearning for what wasn’t. But the dream was oh-so-clear right now.

  Except when she glanced up at his face. His stony, hard expression staring into space reminded her that their relationships with God were very different. Hanna was struggling, yes, but all Christians went through seasons of struggling, right?

  William was rejecting God, though. He had done more than just stick a few cotton balls in his ears; he’d slammed the door and walked away.

  The scene in her daydream changed at that moment to Will sitting in a recliner, watching football on Sunday morning while Hanna left for church, two kids in tow, by herself.

  That wasn’t nearly so dreamy.

  Neither was the next moment, when she noticed, three aisles behind them, a man with a phone pointed at them, not-so-discreetly trying to take a picture.

  Couldn’t they leave them alone in church, at least? Was nothing sacred anymore?

  A moment later, the preacher took the pulpit and invited everyone to sit down.

  As the sermon began, Han
na took solace in the fact that at least the picture taker was in church. She hoped the preacher had prepared a good Bible thumping for today. It would serve the man right.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  After church, the Preston family and guests headed for Red Lobster, an old family tradition according to William’s mom.

  Once seated and a seafood appetizer in front of them, Lilith got down to business. “So, Hanna, what did you think of Faith Community Church?”

  “I really enjoyed it. Reminded me a lot of my church back home, but about ten times larger.” It had overwhelmed her at first. Her church at home counted it a miracle of God if they hit fifty in attendance on any given Sunday. The five-hundred-plus-member church had taken some getting used to, but the worship time had been completely worth it.

  As did the benediction and altar call at the end, when she’d been pleased to see the camera phone–toting man haul tail down to the front, red-faced and teary-eyed.

  The sermon had been nothing but perfect. While no Bible thumping had occurred, the message was about God’s grace, not just hiding sins from view but removing them. About the power over sin that the Holy Spirit gives us. And how we needed to lift others up instead of tearing them down. It was exactly what she’d needed to hear.

  Harrison jabbed a few shrimp and put them on his plate. “What about you, William? Changed a little since you were last there, hasn’t it?”

  “Yeah, it has. How anyone convinced them to put in an overhead projector and drum set is beyond me.”

  “Numbers were slipping, and we were going to have to start cutting staff if it kept up. A few of the young guys suggested modernizing the worship a little, and it’s helping. Pastor Wrightsville wasn’t pleased though, but he was about five years past ready to retire. Did you like the new pastor?”

  Hanna noticed William shift in his seat but couldn’t think of a gentle way to change topics for him.

  “He seemed nice.” His cell phone started to jingle, and he looked almost gleeful as he rose from the table. “Sorry, I need to take this.”