Twice Blessed

by J J DiBenedetto

  She was still holding both his hands. “Or we could talk. For real. Like adults.”

  He caught her eyes. She didn’t look away. “Like two single adults who are old enough to decide for themselves who they might want to go to the Harvest Ball with.”

  She was not moving now, not doing anything but staring into his eyes. “Exactly like that. Two single adults who have the same idea.” She paused, waiting, he supposed, for him to flinch, or pull away, or otherwise show disagreement. But he didn’t disagree, not one bit.

  “Is your idea that when your daughter opens the door, we walk out together, and go back into the ball together, and dance together, and make this a night to remember?”

  She took a step closer to him. “Pretty much, yeah.”

  THAT WAS THAT. HE’D asked her to the Ball, even though they were both technically there already, and she’d said yes. And she thought she’d communicated more than that, too, but she had to be sure.

  “I’m not expecting anything more than a wonderful time tonight,” she said. “I wasn’t even looking for that until Lucy started trying to set us up. I haven’t even thought about that – about dating, about bringing anyone into our life – since...”

  “Since you lost your husband,” Mike said. Of course he knew. No secrets in a small town. “I’m so sorry for that. I actually didn’t know until this morning. One of my colleagues saw fit to tell me.”

  Apparently Lucy wasn’t the only one playing matchmaker for her and Mike. “Was it Tricia Darlington?” He had no answer to that, so she went on, “She told me about you, so I figured she had to be the one to tell you about me, too.”

  “She didn’t tell you everything,” he said. Then he proceeded to tell her all the things Tricia Darlington didn’t know about him; how he’d met his ex-wife, and why they’d divorced. “I couldn’t replace her husband, and that’s what she wanted. But that’s not what you want, is it?”

  No, it wasn’t. “You can’t replace Kevin. Nobody can. But that’s not what I need – what we need. It’s funny, I didn’t think we needed anything. Lucy and I were doing just fine, but she was smarter than me, she knew.”

  “What did she know?”

  She realized she was still holding his hands, had been this whole time. She didn’t let go. “She knew that we needed more. We needed another good man in our lives, we needed more kindness, and more strength, and more love. So she went looking for it even when I was too blind to realize I needed it. And I think you need it, too.”

  Their faces were only an inch or two apart now. “I didn’t realize it either, but you’re right. I do.”

  Now he was leaning in, closing that distance slowly, slowly, and she was certain he was about to kiss her. And that’s when the door opened.

  Chapter 18

  They were dancing, and it was wonderful. Not that either of them knew any actual formal dance steps – or, if Allison did know, she was holding back for his sake – but for a slow song, all you really needed to do was hold each other and sway to the music.

  “They played this song at my prom,” she said.

  “Mine, too.” Of course, it had been a DJ at his prom, and here it was a local band playing a mostly on-key instrumental version, but what did that matter?

  “2004?” He nodded. “I knew we couldn’t be more than a year or two apart. Pretty cool that it was the same year for both of us.” He tried to imagine what Allison was like in high school. Probably a social butterfly, with all the boys chasing her. She confirmed it with her next words. “I couldn’t decide who to go with, so I ended up with three dates. It was crazy.”

  He hadn’t even had one date to his prom. “None of my friends had girlfriends, so we all went stag.” Against all his expectations, it had been a good time, and he’d even danced with several girls, although not like this, not close the way he was to Allison right now.

  “I’m dreading Lucy’s teenage years. If she’s anything like I was, well, I guess it’s karma for how crazy I must have driven my parents.”

  “But you grew up.”

  “I did,” she agreed, pulling still closer to him, leading him away from the center of the dance floor and into a more dimly-lit spot off to the side. She leaned closer, closer, until there weren’t inches but millimeters separating their lips.

  And then nothing was separating them at all.

  SHE KISSED HIM, AND went on kissing him, and she couldn’t honestly say if it was a minute later, or an hour, when they broke apart.

  “Wow,” she said, very softly.

  “Wow,” he agreed.

  “That was my first first kiss in twelve years, did you know that?” He didn’t. “I never thought about that, I never thought what it would be like.”

  “I think ‘wow’ covers it pretty well,” he said.

  “It does,” she said. “You’re pretty good at that.”

  “You’re not so bad yourself,” he answered. “But maybe we should make sure the first one wasn’t just a fluke.”

  It wasn’t.

  Chapter 19

  “I told you it would work,” Jennifer Evans said. “Always listen to your elders, we know best.”

  Lucy had to agree. She’d been trying and trying to get Mom and Mr. Jensen to realize that they were right for each other, that they should get together, and they kept fighting her and fighting her. She’d enlisted her best friend in the effort, and Bailey had tried really hard to help, but she was nine years old, the same as Lucy herself, and she didn’t know anything that Lucy didn’t know.

  Her big sister, though, was fourteen, and she already had a boyfriend. She knew. She knew everything, and as soon as Lucy explained the situation to her, Jennifer figured out a plan right away, and it worked! A half hour locked in the bathroom was all it took for Mom and Mr. Jensen to fall in love.

  “I should’ve asked you right away.” Jennifer nodded her agreement. “Except, do you think they’ll be together forever now?” Lucy knew that adults couldn’t always see what was right in front of them, sometimes they refused to do what was obviously best for themselves.

  “Look at them,” Jennifer said, pointing out towards the dance floor. “They’re in love. Just like in the movies.”

  They did look like all the couples in all those love stories Aunt Jessie liked to watch, smiling and dancing and kissing and everything. “I hope you’re right,” Lucy said.

  “I’m always right.” Jennifer patted her head. “And you owe me, so when they get married I expect to be a bridesmaid, all right?”

  “Sure thing!” After all, she’d helped Mom and Mr. Jensen get together, how hard could it be to convince Mom to let Jennifer be a bridesmaid? It would be – well, it would be child’s play.

  The End

  But the Blessings of Love series isn’t finished yet! Be sure to read Backward Blessings by Rachel A. Andersen! Read ahead for a sneak preview chapter!

  The Blessings of Love Series

  Brushstrokes and Blessings by Danielle Thorne

  Blessed by the Fake Boyfriend by Lacy Andersen

  Bless His Heart by Jessica L. Elliott

  Abundantly Blessed by Rachael Eliker

  Twice Blessed by J. J. DiBenedetto

  Backward Blessings by Rachel A. Andersen

  Backwards Blessings – sneak preview chapter

  Jake

  “Melissa, what Norman Rockwell nightmare have you planned this Thanksgiving?”

  Jake Littlefield could almost picture his sister’s eye roll though she was about five hundred miles away. “You’ve been in Blessings for a whopping thirty seconds. What makes you think this is going to be a nightmare?”

  “The corn stalk decorations on the street lamps, the gigantic Welcome to Blessings sign, the fall festival rerouting traffic away from Main Street, take your pick.”

  “You know, Jake, most people might think that sounds like the perfect place to celebrate Thanksgiving. Festive, even.”

  He turned his back on the large farmhouse with a cheery sign
proclaiming it the site of the Beautiful Blessings Bed and Breakfast. “Mel, you know I’m not most people. Is there a reason we couldn’t spend Thanksgiving in Bora Bora?”

  Melissa harrumphed. “Thanksgiving in Bora Bora is the same kind of avoidance you’ve perfected over the last three years.”

  Jake ran his fingers through his hair. When would she get it through her thick skull? Thanksgiving made his skin crawl. “Bikinis and beaches aren’t avoidance. They’re a vacation—a vacation better suited to me than some idyllic small town that starts celebrating Thanksgiving a week early.”

  “I’ll admit that I might have gotten a little carried away when I planned this Thanksgiving trip, but I’m worried about you. You’re drifting through life. No anchor. No foundation.”

  “So, you blackmail me into vacationing in the living shrine to the one holiday I cannot stand, and then you abandon me to my fate.”

  Melissa groaned. “That’s not fair. No one could have foreseen Dan’s emergency appendectomy yesterday.”

  He glanced back at the farmhouse. Two eyes peered out at him through the blinds of a second-story bedroom. Maybe this town was less American nostalgia and a little more horror film. Just one more reason he shouldn’t want to leave, right? “So, our deal is null and void. I can get back to the airport in less than an hour, and I’ll be in Miami by tomorrow night.”

  “You mean, the deal where I stop mentioning how long it’s been since you’ve been back home in exchange for a Thanksgiving in a location of my choosing?”

  Jake scowled. “Yes. That one.”

  “What makes you think that the deal’s null and void?”

  “Well, there was the implication that I wouldn’t be alone in the world’s campiest town for Thanksgiving.”

  His sister chuckled. “It can’t be that bad.”

  “Melissa, there was an inflatable giant pumpkin in the town square! There were high school couples strolling hand-in-hand. I think I even saw a band in the town’s band stand!”

  “Sounds charming.”

  “It sounds too picture-perfect. Maybe I’ve seen too many movies, but it’s about now that the serial killers, robots, or aliens come out of the woodwork.”

  Melissa sighed. “Trust me, big brother. There are no serial killers, robots, or aliens hiding in Blessings, Kansas.”

  “Didn’t one of the world’s best-known superheroes come out of a small Kansas town?”

  “Jake.”

  “Come to think of it, he was an alien too.”

  “Jacob!”

  Melissa’s voice was sharp like a verbal slap to make him take control of his faculties again.

  He took a deep breath. The oxygen helped to clear his mind.

  “This is why I’m worried about you. You see danger lurking everywhere, even inventing it to protect yourself from opening up to anyone.”

  A lifetime of sisterly lectures giving him grief about his emotional vulnerability was starting to look less bearable than a week in Suzy Homemaker’s autumnal paradise.

  “Okay, sis. I’ll stay.”

  Melissa fell silent. It was almost enough to make him laugh. She’d been expecting more of a fight. “I’m sorry. What did you just say?”

  He straightened, a sense of determination growing stronger with each passing moment. “I’ll stay, but only on one condition.”

  “Okay?” Her voice hinted at a conditional acceptance of her own.

  “We put a one-year moratorium on the emotional vulnerability crap.”

  “Explain.”

  How much plainer could he make it? “I stay in Blessings for one week, starting today. Friday to Friday. If I make it the full week, then you have to stop commenting on how emotionally available I am for one year. Thanksgiving to Thanksgiving.”

  She was quiet for a moment, probably thinking through all the ways she might kick herself in the next year if she made the deal.

  “I have a counter-offer.”

  Melissa sounded more like a Wall Street broker than a South Dakota homemaker. Something about that made the hair on his arms stand up straight.

  “I will agree to your terms if we include the following addendum. You have to find a date for the Harvest Ball tomorrow night.”

  Jake’s eyes bugged out of his head. “I’m sorry, what?”

  “You heard me. You’ve got your pilot’s uniform. That will be acceptable evening attire for a small town soiree. Take a date to the Harvest Ball...and you have to treat her the way Mom would have wanted you to. None of the high school pick-up and ditch shenanigans.”

  Jake’s eyes narrowed in concentration. “Do I have to take her to dinner?”

  “Dinner’s optional, but you have to be with your date for at least two hours. Flowers, compliments, the whole nine yards.”

  Jake rubbed his eyes with one hand. “You make it sound like I don’t know how to date.”

  “You don’t. You know how to booty call. It’s not the same thing.”

  This conversation was making him lose faith that his sister would be able to hold to her side of the bargain when he won. Every conversation with her had running commentary. “Do you accept the terms of the agreement or not?”

  “I’ll email you a survey to give your date tomorrow night.”

  At this rate, his sister would be the one to kill any hope of romance in this date she was insisting on. He’d enjoy pointing that out when she wondered whatever happened to that girl you took out to the Harvest ball? “I can’t think of a good date I’ve had where I didn’t get a good review in my end-of-date survey.”

  “Do you or do you not want me to give you a year off of sisterly intervention?”

  Jake huffed. “End-of-date survey accepted.”

  A screen door slammed behind him. He turned and glanced at the woman who exited the farmhouse and marched toward him.

  So, the welcome party was choosing to be more proactive than just peeping through the blinds. This was going to get interesting.

  Jake turned his attention back to the call. “So, we’re agreed. I’m in Blessings for a week. You send me a survey I’ll give my date for the Harvest ball. Once I leave next Friday morning, you give me a year off of your sisterly concerns about my emotional well-being.”

  “Agreed.”

  “Then, I’ll look forward to your email.”

  “I’ll look forward to reading the survey results.”

  The words of sentiment he felt got jumbled in his mouth as he moved to speak. “Tell Dan to get well, okay? I may be annoyed by some of your antics, but I’m glad he’s safe.”

  Why couldn’t he just say what he meant?

  “I love you too, big brother. Take care of yourself. I’d hate to be wrong about the serial killers, robots, and aliens.”

  He laughed as he hung up the phone.

  “Excuse me!”

  He turned to find a woman with light brown hair standing only a foot away from him. She was pretty enough, but she was doing a good job hiding it in her leggings, tunic, and ponytail. “Hi.”

  “You can’t park here.”

  Jake’s brow furrowed as he looked back at his car. “I can’t?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  She put a hand on her hip. “There’s plenty of parking at the church and at town hall. If you’re looking for something more convenient, there’s off-street parking anywhere else. This parking lot is for guests.”

  He studied the strip of gravel just off the street. “I think you might be exaggerating if you call this a parking lot.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Regardless, it’s private property. Only guests of the bed and breakfast can park here.”

  He stifled the smile that threatened to break his cover. “And you’re not expecting any guests for check-in?”

  “Not that it’s any of your business, but no. I got a cancellation this morning from the one check-in I expected.”

  He reached out a hand as he allowed himself a chuckle.

  She examined his hand wit
h a wary eye like he was offering her a bruised banana for no good reason.

  “I think there may have been a miscommunication. I was supposed to arrive here around the same time as my sister and her husband, but they aren’t able to make it.”

  She frowned. “You’re checking in?”

  He pulled back his extended hand. No sense in leaving it out there for public humiliation if she wasn’t going to take it. “If there’s still a vacancy, of course.”

  “The festival tends to bring in a few tourists, but they’re usually only here for the day from Kansas City. Anyone else from out-of-town is staying with family.”

  Jake eyed her. “So, there is a vacancy? Or do I have to find another place to stay?”

  She pursed her lips. “I’m Teresa Rampton. I’m the manager here at Beautiful Blessings. Can I take your bags?”

  He looked back toward the car. In his hopes that Melissa would let him off the hook, he’d left his suitcase in the backseat of the rental car. “It’s just the one bag, and I’ve got it.”

  She shrugged. Her body language read whatever you say loud and clear.

  He’d hardly gotten his suitcase out of his car before she walked back toward the farmhouse. “You’ll be in the American Buffalo room, Mister...”

  “Littlefield. Jake Littlefield.”

  “It’s the first room on the right when you get to the top of the stairs though it’s clearly labeled. Breakfast is every morning from seven to nine in the dining room. Other meals are available for a surcharge.”

  They walked up the four stairs to the wrap-around porch as the front door opened. It would have seemed like automation or magic if a tow-headed boy hadn’t poked his head around the corner. “Welcome to the Beautiful Blessings Bed and Breakfast. I’m Logan.”

  Jake looked from the boy to the woman beside him. Something about the boy’s eyes reminded him of the woman who was orienting him to the workings of the bed and breakfast, just less guarded. Maybe she was his mother?