Emerald Fire (Christian Romance) (The Jewel Series) (26 page)

MAXINE
drew in the warm spring air in one long, deep breath. Oh, how she loved springtime. While she couldn’t possibly fool herself into thinking the warm weather that greeted her this first Saturday in March might stick around for even a few more weeks, she certainly intended to savor every single second of it while it lasted. The late morning sun warmed the skin of her arms beneath her short sleeved shirt. What a treat to wear a short sleeved shirt in March.

She carried a notebook filled with rough sketches. She used it to devise landscaping and planting ideas as she walked the perimeter of the property. As she plotted outdoor furniture, a patio kitchen with a grill, and dreamed of possibly inaugurating the first annual Anderson Fourth of July party, the back door opened and Barry joined her outside. With a grin, Maxine held out her arms and lifted her face. “Look!” she said, “The sun! It shines!”

Barry smiled in return. “About this time of year, I start doubting its return myself.”

He wore khaki pants and a collared golf shirt that accentuated the shape of his broad chest. She gestured at the keys in his hand. “Do you have to work today?”

“I do, some, but I can do it from here.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I, ah, have a church budget committee meeting, though.”

Maxine felt a little burst of excitement, but she tried not to show it. She had lived here for five weeks. For five weeks, she’d prayed alone before every meal. She’d come and gone to this church function or that church meeting alone. She’d hosted only one small Sunday School gathering. Barry knew everyone, seemed to enjoy the fellowship, but he didn’t even talk about it afterward. He’d shown absolutely no interest in anything related to his walk with God or their church, so his announcement loomed tremendously in her heart.

“Oh?” She crossed the patio to him and slipped her arms around his waist. “I’m so happy you’re getting back into it.” She laid her head against his chest and breathed in the scent of his aftershave. Just as she started to pull away, his arms came around her. Another first.

Savoring that moment, she closed her eyes and just abided. She thought maybe she could stand like that all day. Smiling, she pulled her head back just enough to smile up at him. He used a hand to brush a wayward strand of hair from her forehead and, for a moment, Maxine was certain he was about to kiss her. Then the cell phone in his pocket vibrated and chirped.

A look of annoyance that mirrored how she felt flickered across his face. Maxine stepped back and let him dig the offending device out of his pocket and answer it in the middle of the fifth ring, seconds before the call would have forwarded to voice mail. She watched as he glanced at the caller id as he answered. “Good morning, mom.”

Maxine stepped even farther back, smiling her understanding, and went back to her sketch pad. The first time she met Barry’s mother and sisters had not gone well. Those women had come to the meeting hostile, having already made up their collective minds about the newest addition to the family long before anyone ever laid eyes on her.

Given their rather sudden nuptials, while considering how poorly his first wife had treated everyone, Maxine had known it wouldn’t be easy to win over Barry’s family, so she wasn’t hurt or upset by the attitude. Instead, she made it her mission to have an intimate meeting with each of them. Lunch with his mother, brunch with a sister, shopping with another sister. Eventually, they each learned of her commitment to God, her long-standing friendship with and respect for Barry, and of her genuine empathy for Barry’s previous relationship.

Asking Barry’s accountant father to prepare her taxes also helped seal the deal on acceptance of Maxine into the fold. If they suspected that she might simply be interested in Barry’s material wealth, then exposing her own surprisingly substantial personal portfolio in such a subtle way put an end to that notion rather quickly.

As the weeks went by, his family had warmed and opened up to her. She knew how much Barry loved his sisters and parents, and how important they were to him. Establishing relationships with them would make the rest of their life together much easier and happier.

Putting her mind back to her plans for the back yard, Maxine wandered away from her husband and inspected the fence line, thinking to herself that some flowering bushes in the far corner might look nice. As she scribbled in her notebook, Barry interrupted her.

“Mom said ‘hi’ and wanted me to remind you about dinner tonight?”

She slapped a hand to her forehead. “I’m glad she called. I forgot all about it. Honey?” She grinned. “We’re supposed to have dinner with your parents tonight!”

“It’s okay. I rescheduled. I told her I had other plans.”

Frowning, Maxine looked up at him. “Other plans?”

He slipped an arm around her waist. “Yeah. I told her I had to take my beautiful bride out to dinner tonight.”

Maxine’s heart began to flutter. She felt emotion surge up and tighten her throat, threatening her eyes with tears. “I …” Nothing would come out.

Barry shushed her and gently put his hands in her hair. As his lips met hers, the tears spilled from her eyes and flowed freely down her cheeks. She stood on her tiptoes and slipped her arms around his neck. The kiss was beautiful, amazing, left her aching and wanting. She needed more of his taste on her lips, needed to step even closer to him.

Just as he angled her head to deepen the kiss, the cell phone in his hand vibrated against her skull. Barry pulled back and looked at it, scrolling through a message. He cleared his throat as he took a step backward. “Apparently, your sister needs some sunshine on her skin. Her husband is requesting a foursome of 9-holes followed by lunch at the club.”

“What about TJ?”

“Aunt Sarah’s baby-sitting but will join us there, with him, at lunchtime.”

Maxine glanced at her watch. “What about your committee meeting?”

“I can hit that first and catch up with you guys on the course.” He pushed a series of buttons and slipped the phone into his pocket. “Do you want to do that or did you have other plans?”

As she shrugged, she smiled. “Sure. That would be fun. We should all enjoy this weather while we can before the dreary cold comes back next week.” She shut her notebook and slipped the pen into the spiral top. “And dinner tonight?”

He put a hand on her shoulder and ran it up the side of her cheek, then gently squeezed the back of her neck. She leaned into his touch, enjoying it. “Dinner tonight will be a little more than lunch at the club. How does Benedicts sound?”

Maxine grinned. “Wonderful.”

“Good.” He fished some keys out of his pocket. “You have me blocked. Just take the Jeep. I’ll load both sets of clubs before I go. I’ll take your car and meet you all there.”

“Oh, you’ll just use any excuse to drive my sports car, won’t you?”

He grinned then kissed her good-bye. Another first. As soon as he was out of sight, as soon as she heard the sound of the powerful little engine in her car fade, Maxine spread her arms out and lifted her face to the sky, praising God for the miracles of this morning.

Then she checked her watch and rushed back into the house to change into clothes appropriate for a morning of golf at Tony’s club.

Barry had loaded the golf clubs as promised and, twenty minutes after confirming the plans, Maxine backed the Jeep out of the garage. It felt strange driving the cumbersome vehicle compared to her slick little machine. It didn’t respond to her the same way her car did, and she found herself stalling out at the first stop sign.

Annoyed, she paid closer attention to the clutch and less attention to the warm sunshine. At the exit gates of her housing complex, she came to a full stop. Sitting at the stop sign, she faced a six lane highway. Traffic, heavy for a Saturday morning, whizzed by with barely an interval. Her road sat halfway down a large hill, and every time she thought she had a break in traffic, another three or four cars crested the top of the hill and raced down toward her. Just when she decided to simply turn right and make a U-turn a little farther up, a break in the traffic magically appeared. With an audible, “Thank you,” she went for it.

Maxine lifted her foot off the clutch and the Jeep bucked and groaned, jerked once, then stalled out dead in the middle of the road. “No!” Maxine managed to get out while she pushed the clutch back in and turned the ignition.

She had the engine started and had begun to ease up on the clutch and press the accelerator as far down as it would go when she heard the blaring of a horn and the screeching of tires. She whipped her head to the left a split second before her field of vision filled entirely with a chrome grill. The world suddenly shrunk down to a pinpoint perfectly surrounded by pure pain.

Then the pinpoint vanished.

BARRY
jotted some notes in the yellow legal pad in front of him but, honestly, he struggled to keep his thoughts on the proposed budget for the church’s soup kitchen. His thoughts remained on his wife. His wife. Could it be that this was the first time he had thought of Maxine as his wife in his mind?

He looked forward to spending the day with her, and with their family. Even more so, he looked forward to spending the evening with her. He let his mind play out the scene of the two of them walking into the dining room of Benedicts. He savored the idea of walking into a crowded restaurant with the most beautiful woman in the world on his arm. He imagined slipping the emerald encrusted diamond ring back onto her finger – the very same ring he had kept in his pocket since the moment she handed it to him in the hotel room in Vegas. The very same ring he touched a hundred times a day, thinking of placing it on her finger, of kissing her and officially sealing their marriage, of their wedding night. The very same ring he had never returned to the casino shop, that he had never intended to return in the first place.

Perched next to the legal pad, his cell phone vibrated with an incoming call. He glanced at the display and, not recognizing the number, stabbed a button that sent the call to voice mail.

He tried to return his attention to the associate pastor who spoke at the head of the long conference table, but again his mind wandered away from the rising cost of bread flour to emerald green eyes framed by long dark lashes surrounded by an impossibly lovely face.

Absently, he answered direct questions, but he glanced at his watch three times in five minutes, wishing that the meeting would just end so he could join everyone on the golf course. He grinned a little grin at the thought because, truth be known, he didn’t even really like golf.

His phone vibrated again and he saw Tony’s number flash across the screen. Barry knew that the meeting hadn’t run late yet, and Tony knew he was at the church. He decided that whatever it was could wait. If he interrupted the meeting for a phone call, the meeting would only last that much longer.

Not two minutes later, the door to the conference room flew open, flung wide by Caroline O’Farrell who nearly fell into the room, her hand over her chest, breathing hard. “Sorry … to … interrupt,” she gasped between breaths. Her eyes found Barry. “Had to run here from the house.”

Barry didn’t know why, but flutters started low in his stomach and moved up to the back of his neck, tingling tenseness into the muscles there. The other men in the room sat silent, unmoving. It created a strange tableau, a portrait of tension and alert anticipation.

As Barry’s phone vibrated again, Catherine nodded her head toward it. “Answer it, Barry,” she whispered, as Barry scooped up the phone and hit the button to take the call.

“Barry …” Tony’s tone sounded impatient, worried, and uncertain.

Barry felt his heart stop. The tone of voice spoke volumes. After all, he’d taken just this kind of call before.
Mr. Anderson, there’s been an accident. Your wife sustained very serious injuries and was rushed here less than an hour ago.

He knew. He could tell. Still, he had to be sure. His voice came out in a scratchy whisper. “What happened?”

“It’s Maxine.”

The world around him started to gray as panic flooded his veins and color abandoned his face. “Tony, tell me what happened.”