Love Inspired November 2013 #2 (19 page)

She raised a skeptical eyebrow. “S'mores?”

“It sounded clever when I thought of it.” Alex offered. “Now it's feeling a bit, well, dumb.” He extended the second stick to her. “The only thing that will feel dumber is if I'm forced to eat these alone.”

“Mr. Crosby,” she said, narrowing one eye but taking another step toward him. “You're a little odd, you know that?”

“If you were listening, tonight I'm Paul.” Alex tore open the package of graham crackers and began snapping them into squares before she could decline his invitation.

“I'm not going to be John, George or Ringo.” She was trying to make a joke of it, but there was an edge to her voice that let him know she didn't trust this little game one bit.

“Hey,” he said softly, “you don't have to be anybody.” Alex skewered a marshmallow and held it over the small fire. “I'm a torch 'em guy myself. I like my marshmallows in flames.”

He'd meant it to be funny, but a darkness flashed over her fair features at his words. It didn't take a marketing genius to see she was out here to get away from something as much as he was. Something to do with fire—or just danger in general? Maybe. And really, was that so much of a stretch? Why else did people rent tiny cabins out on the river if not to get away from their problems?

For a minute, Alex thought she was going to turn around and leave, and he'd be sitting there, trying to figure out how he'd just insulted a woman with a single marshmallow. She was thinking about it; he could see it in her face. After a long moment, she pulled a marshmallow from the bag and positioned it on the end of her stick with entirely too much precision. “Golden brown,” she said. “No charring, just gooey.”

She sat down, hugging her knees to her chest as she held the stick over the orange embers.

“I'm Alex.” The words jumped out of his mouth of their own accord, shocking even him.

Her eyes flashed up toward him, wide with surprise before they narrowed again. “Alex for real?”

The question held an inexplicable weight. “Alex for real.” He felt exposed for no reason. He stared at her, wondering if she'd share her own name. Any such wondering was squelched when his marshmallow burst into flames, a tiny black torch burning against the darkening sky.

“JJ,” she said as he blew it out. The thing was too burned, even for him, but he knew he'd eat it anyway. Alex wondered if he'd ever know what JJ stood for or why such a thing should matter to him at all.

“You're not really going to eat that, are you?” Behind her scowl was the barest hint of a smile.

“Blackened. The best kind.” Alex smacked his lips for emphasis as he squished the lavalike confection between the cracker and chocolate. “Savory.” He bit into it, tasting nothing but burned sugar. “And crunchy.”

JJ assembled hers with the attention of a chef. She ate it just as carefully, in strategic bites, whereas he'd just stuffed the whole thing into this mouth in one gooey-black splurge.

“You're a careful person, aren't you, JJ?”

She bit another precise corner off with an assessing glance. “You're not.”

They went on for hours. Talking about little things—ice cream flavors, whether or not barista coffee was really worth the cost—and big things—why nature calmed the soul, what was going to happen to little places like Gordon Falls, why the high school version of who'd they'd be when they grew up had proved to be nothing close to the truth. The subjects seem to go deeper as the last traces of sunlight faded. Without ever speaking of it, they'd come to some sort of no-detail pact between them. No last names, no careers, none of that stuff. Wonderfully, effortlessly mysterious. A dark, luminescent bubble in the middle of nowhere.

“Alex,” JJ began, and he found himself wallowing in how she said his name, “why are you here?”

That could require another six hours of conversation. How do you explain being confounded by success, losing focus when focus was once your stock and trade? Really, what kind of person gets weary of their own supposed genius? Part of him was ready to spill it all, and part of him felt like he'd emptied out half his soul already. “I'm trying to figure out why it doesn't all fit together anymore and what to do about it.” It was true, but nowhere near the full of it. He was here to figure out if he had to lay down Adventure Gear, the business he'd once loved and now hated. Only he couldn't tell her that. To speak it out loud would bring that mess here, and he wanted all those problems to stay far away.

He looked at her, pleased to feel so startlingly close to her despite not even knowing her last name—or even what JJ stood for. “Why are
you
here?”

She sighed and looked out over the water. It was now full dark, and a perfect crescent moon cast sparkles on the water where she swished one foot into the river. “Because I don't feel like I belong anywhere else. Anywhere at all, actually.”

He laughed softly.

She scowled. “It's not so funny, you know.”

“No, it's just that I've felt like I belong everywhere for so long, that actually sounds nice. I know it's not—I mean, not for you—but isn't it crazy how God skews the world for each of us?”

JJ hugged her knee again and propped her chin up, looking childlike and elegant at the same time. “So you believe in God, huh?”

Alex leaned back on his elbows and took in the glory of the sky. “I've seen so many amazing parts of the world that I can't help but know He's there. The big, grand creation stuff has always been easy for me to believe in.” He rolled his head to catch JJ's eye. “It's the up close and personal stuff that seems to have come unraveled lately. I'm not a guy who does well with questions and doubts.” He was grateful she didn't ask for an explanation.

After a long pause, JJ offered, “I did, once. Believe, I mean.” Her voice was quiet, almost weary. “At least I thought I did.”

“And then?” He rolled over so that he was on his side facing her. She was fascinating. There wasn't another word for it. Alex felt like he could stay up and talk out here for weeks.

“And then I saw too many things that made it hard to keep believing.” He knew not to press for anything further, but some part of him was grateful when, after a long pause, she added, “I was in the war.”

It explained so much. Her hard edges, the way her eyes assessed things, the weariness that seemed to inhabit every part of her. Suddenly every response he could think of sounded trite and placating.

“Yep,” she said, twice as wearily as before. “It's always a fabulous conversation killer.”

“No, it's just...”

“Please.” JJ held up a hand. “I'm so used to it by now. I've heard all the standard required replies and silence is actually a nice change.”

“I don't know how you come back from something like that.” His own weariness, how globetrotting for adventure had lost its luster seemed downright ridiculous now.

“I suppose that makes two of us.” She got up to leave.

Alex scrambled upright. “Don't. Please don't go like that. Not now.” Her eyes looked a thousand miles deep, boring into Alex the way they did right now. “Two minutes. Just stay two more minutes.”

She stayed two more hours, still lingering when it started to rain. They got past the awkwardness, settling into a companionship that was as startling as it was soothing. Even soaked to the skin, it was the best night of his life.

Copyright © 2013 by Alyse Stanko Pleiter

ISBN-13: 9781460321874

REBECCA'S CHRISTMAS GIFT

Copyright © 2013 by Emma Miller

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are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and
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A Family For Christmas

Alone and pregnant with twins is not how Laura Holland wants to spend her holidays. So she seeks out the only person who's never let her down: old college friend David Presley. David now runs a bookstore in a small Alabama town, but he's never stopped loving Laura since he first laid eyes on her in school. So despite his store's shaky finances, he offers her a job. When they work together to help boost business, Laura begins to see that the friend she's always depended on could be the husband she's always prayed for.

“Why aren't you dating anyone?” Laura blurted, then wished that she could push the words back in.

But the widening of his eyes and the slight drop in his jaw said that there was no going back now. David had heard what was on her mind, and he looked…more than a little surprised. Well, she had lost some of her filter for saying what she was thinking over the past few months. Maybe it
was
the pregnancy hormones in action, or maybe it was simply the fact that she didn't understand the bizarreness of her old friend, her attractive and kind and nice—okay, a little more gorgeous than she remembered—old friend being
so
single.

When he didn't readily offer a response, Laura couldn't stand the silence. “Sorry, I was being nosy.”

“Sometimes that's what friends do, right?” He leaned against the bookshelves and looked mighty nice doing it. “We are still friends, aren't we, Laura? Or…are we something else?”

Books by Renee Andrews

Love Inspired

Her Valentine Family
Healing Autumn's
Heart
Picture Perfect Family
Love Reunited
Heart of a
Rancher
Bride Wanted
Yuletide Twins

RENEE ANDREWS

spends a lot of time in the gym. No, she isn't working out.
Her husband, a former all-American gymnast, co-owns ACE Cheer Company, an
all-star cheerleading company. She is thankful the talented kids at the gym
don't have a problem when she brings her laptop and writes while they sweat.
When she isn't writing, she's typically traveling with her husband, bragging
about their two sons or spoiling their bulldog.

Renee is a kidney donor and actively supports organ
donation. She welcomes prayer requests and loves to hear from readers. Write to
her at
[email protected]
, visit her
website at
www.reneeandrews.com
or check her out
on Facebook or Twitter.

YULETIDE TWINS

Renee Andrews

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

—Luke
6:38

This novel is dedicated to and inspired by
the precious twins I met 24 years ago,
Amber Gonzales Harrington and
Angel Gonzales Stroop. I've watched you grow into young women with beautiful families of your own. You've touched my heart and my life.