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The room looked like it had been furnished by somebody’s maiden aunt. There was a beige camelback sofa and two drab olive armchairs, all sporting fussy lace circlets on their arms and backs. A couple of spindly legged tables laden with dusty knickknacks were angled in the corners.
“Oh my,” Natalie breathed beside him, poking her head in to get a better view. He glanced down and was surprised by the rapt expression on her face. He’d expected a wrinkled nose, but she didn’t seem put off at all.
He frowned and took a second look at the room. Maybe it did have a certain appeal to it.
If you didn’t have a dust allergy.
Natalie edged past him into the house and touched one of the lace doilies with a gentle finger. “It’s like stepping back in time, isn’t it?” She opened a nearby door and disappeared into the adjoining room.
“Watch your step, now.” Jacob warned as he followed her. He hoped the rest of this place was sturdier than that porch.
The house was tiny, so their tour didn’t take long. They passed through two small bedrooms furnished with iron beds and discovered a bathroom complete with a stained claw-foot tub. When Natalie paused to twist a faucet on the pedestal sink, a stream of clear water ran into the grubby basin. She glanced up at him, smiling.
“This water doesn’t smell all chemically like the water back in Atlanta.”
“This far out of town, it would have to be well water. No chlorine.” He hadn’t seen Natalie Davis really smile until now. He’d thought she was a nice-looking woman before, but with that happy expression on her face, she was downright beautiful.
The smile lingered on her lips as she pushed open the last door. It led them into the kitchen.
Natalie halted on the threshold. “Oh!”
Jacob took in the sight in front of them, and his lips tightened. No wonder she didn’t want to go any farther. The other rooms hadn’t been very clean, but this one took dirty to a whole new level.
Once upon a time, somebody had painted the kitchen walls a light yellow, but the cheery paint was filmed over with a thick layer of dust. Dingy white curtains embroidered with trios of red cherries hung limply at the windows. A small red-and-white enameled table, its surface covered with food wrappers, sat in the middle of a scabby linoleum floor. A generous double-basined sink was positioned underneath the window, flanked by old-fashioned metal cabinets. A boxy gas stove with two ovens hunkered in one corner, and an elderly refrigerator chugged next to it.
Every available surface was littered with trash. If Adam Larkey had gone through with his wedding, this was what he’d have brought his pregnant bride home to? After what had happened back at the church, Jacob hadn’t thought his opinion of the guy could drop much lower.
He’d been wrong.
“I think we’ve seen enough,” he said quietly. “I’ll drive you back to town.”
Natalie didn’t answer. She was standing with her eyes closed, her whole body tensed. One hand was clutching the door frame, clenching down so hard that her knuckles were white.
“Natalie?” He wasn’t sure what was happening, but from the look on her face, it couldn’t be good.
“Contraction,” she whispered.
Chapter Three (#u8dfe819c-cc38-5fb5-8381-d2f5a16ea15e)
Finally the cramp ebbed away. Natalie relaxed and opened her eyes. Jacob was watching her, his face tight with concern.
“I’m okay,” she said quickly. “That was just a Braxton Hicks. I’ve been having them for a while now. The doctor says they’re perfectly normal.” She managed a shaky smile. Normal, yes. Fun, not so much.
“Whew.” Relief washed over his face. “I thought it was the real thing there for a minute.”
“Not time for that yet.” She spoke lightly, but she remembered another thing the obstetrician had said on her last visit to the clinic. First babies don’t pay much attention to their due dates.
She sure hoped her baby would be the exception because she wasn’t even close to being ready. All her plans were falling apart. She had no husband, no money. She didn’t even have a crib, and all the secondhand baby clothes she’d bought had driven away with Adam in the back of his Jeep.
Natalie straightened her shoulders. There was no point wasting time feeling sorry for herself. She had more important things to do right now. She needed to sit down and start figuring out how she could manage on her own until Adam showed back up.
If he showed up.
“Thanks for driving me out here, Jacob. I don’t want to take up any more of your time, so I’ll let you get on back to town.” She tilted up her chin and tried a smile. “And anyway, it looks like I have a little cleaning to do.”
“No.” Jacob was shaking his head before she’d even finished speaking. “I’m not leaving you out here alone. Not in your condition.” He scanned the messy room, his face tight with disgust. “And you definitely shouldn’t be cleaning up a disaster like this.”
In spite of the day she’d had, Natalie nearly laughed out loud. There was nothing wrong here that some soapy water and a few big trash bags couldn’t fix. Jacob might have had a lot more schooling than she’d had, but right now he didn’t have a clue what he was talking about.
She’d cleaned up messes way worse than this. “I’m not afraid of a little dirt.”
“This is more than a little dirt. Look, let me give you a ride back to town. We’ll find you another place to stay. If money’s an issue, I can give my church a call—”
Cora’s warning replayed itself in Natalie’s memory, and she cut him off firmly. “I appreciate that, but I’m staying here. Adam’s grandma is sure he’ll be back by tomorrow or the next day.”
Jacob looked around the room again and started rolling up the sleeves of his dress shirt. “Then I’ll help you clean this up.”
Natalie felt a stir of panic. “No need for that. I’ve worked as a waitress ever since I...got out of school. Believe me, I can clean up a kitchen without any help.” She’d almost said droppedout, but she’d caught herself just in time. She didn’t want to admit to this man that she’d quit school when she was sixteen. It was a choice she’d always regretted, but at the time it had seemed like the only way to get out of her mother’s apartment—and away from her mom’s endless parade of hard-partying boyfriends.
A little over a year ago, she’d gathered up her courage and enrolled in free GED classes at a nearby community center. To her relief, she’d managed the classwork pretty well, and she’d passed the test with flying colors. She’d daydreamed about taking some college night courses, maybe even becoming a teacher one day. She loved the idea of teaching children.
Of course, when two blue lines had shown up on her pregnancy test, all those plans had come to a screeching halt. Dreams like that were for women who didn’t have babies to take care of.
Jacob was looking at her with a concerned crease between his eyebrows. “I can’t leave you here to deal with this all by yourself.”
“That’s sweet, but I’d really rather you did. I want to be alone for a while. I have a lot to think about, and cleaning is like therapy for me.” Maybe that was stretching the truth a little, but she was starting to feel desperate.
Pastor Jacob Stone was a very hard man to shoo away.
Jacob was silent for a moment, studying her. She kept her eyes on his and waited him out.
It worked. Although he clearly wasn’t happy, after a minute he blew out a slow breath and shrugged. “Well. If you’re sure that’s what you really want...”
“It is.”
To her horror, he pulled out a worn leather wallet. “Here. At least let me—” he started.
“I don’t need your money.” She flushed at the startled expression on his face. Maybe she had been a little too forceful, but she didn’t want this minister’s charity. She’d already been humiliated enough for one day. “Thank you, though,” she added belatedly. He’d gone out of his way to be kind. She could at least be polite.
“I was going to give you a card with my cell number on it.” He pulled one out and held it in her direction. Pine Valley Community Churchwas written in blocky blue letters across the top of it. “I want you to promise to call me if you need anything. Okay? Anything at all.”
“Thank you.” She wouldn’t call, of course. She didn’t need this man or his church involved in her problems. She’d find a way to deal with them herself, like she always had.
Granted, she’d never had problems quite this big before. But she’d manage.
Somehow.
“I’ll bring in your overnight bag before I leave. And I’ll be back to check on you tomorrow after services.”
Natalie shook her head. She was having enough trouble getting him to leave this time. She didn’t need to go through all this again tomorrow.“You don’t have to do that. I’ll be fine.”
His mouth hardened into a stubborn line. “You’re stranded out here without a car. I don’t even like leaving you overnight. Are you sure I can’t talk you into going back to town?”
“Yes.” She spoke firmly, but softened her refusal with a smile. “Completely sure.”
“Then I’ll see you around lunchtime. No,” he interjected as she opened her mouth to argue again. “It’s not up for debate. I’m coming back. I’m a minister, remember, and helping people through difficult situations is what I do. I’m here for the duration, Natalie. Until we get your situation more...stable, you can consider me your right-hand guy. Okay?”
It wasn’t the least bit okay, but how could she explain that? He was smiling at her, a friendly smile that came complete with a set of boyish dimples. But underneath all that charm, she saw a firmness that made her heart sink right down to the toes she hadn’t seen for the last month and a half.
Natalie had dealt with enough bullheaded people in her life to recognize stubbornness when she saw it. Jacob Stone wasn’t going to budge, so she might as well give in now as later.
“Suit yourself. But it really isn’t necessary.”
She didn’t sound particularly gracious, but he didn’t seem to mind. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then.” Casting one last uneasy look around the cluttered room, he headed for the door.
When the rumbles of his truck finally faded into the distance, Natalie sank onto a sticky chair and rubbed her chilled arms.
Alone for the first time since she’d heard the news about Adam, she realized how comforting Jacob’s company had been. Even if he was a minister, he was also a friendly, concerned human being. Without him, the house felt colder and dirtier, and the reality of how alone she truly was began to seep in.
She would not cry, pregnancy hormones or not. She was a Christian now, wasn’t she? All those encouraging devotionals she’d been reading told her to pray and trust God when things went wrong. Granted, right now that seemed nearly impossible, but what choice did she have? She shut her eyes and clasped her hands together.
Lord, this sure isn’t the way I thought today would turn out. I read in the Bible that Your strength is made perfect in weakness. I hope You meant that because I’m just about as weak as anybody can get right now. Please...help me.
She opened her eyes, but the scene in front of her hadn’t changed. Her gaze wandered over the room, lingering on the litter of food wrappers and the pile of dirty dishes in the sink. She glanced down at her left hand, still bare, resting on a pregnant tummy that seemed to get bigger by the minute.
None of that was too encouraging.
Her cell phone suddenly erupted in a burst of reggae music, and she gasped, digging wildly in her purse. That was Adam’s ringtone. Her hands were shaking so hard that it took her three tries to answer the call.
“Adam?”
There was a silence on the other end of the line, then a sheepish sigh. “Sorry, Nat. I kind of freaked out.”
He sounded like a guilty kid, and she’d never liked the nickname Nat. Still, getting angry with Adam never helped. Natalie rubbed her temples wearily. “Where are you?”
“I’m crashing at Gary’s place for a few days.”
Natalie frowned. “You drove all the way to Tennessee?”
“I didn’t know where else to go. I just snapped.”
Natalie’s head was beginning to pound, and she was feeling a little shaky. She’d been too nervous to eat breakfast or lunch today. “You snapped.”
“Well, yeah. The last couple of days out on the farm, I kept remembering how Grampa Ed loved that old place. He always talked about retiring there and growing blueberries, but Nana Cora wouldn’t let him. She wanted to stay in Fairmont. That’s all I could think about today at the church, you know? How Grampa Ed never got to do anything he wanted, and how I’m going to be just like him.”
She couldn’t muster up too much sympathy for Adam, or his grampa Ed either, for that matter. But of course, Adam had a right to make his own choices, no matter what his grandmother thought.
“Adam, look. If you really don’t want to get married...”
“Come on, Nat. Let’s be honest. Neither one of us really wants to get married, but we’re stuck because of this baby thing.”
She started to argue but stopped. It was the truth.
She didn’t really want to marry Adam. She just wanted a better life for her baby than she could provide on her own. And Adam wanted to hang on to his grandmother’s good graces, and more importantly, her checking account.
What a mess they’d made.
“So what are we going to do?”
“Get married, I guess. What choice do we have?”
“So you’re coming back?”
“Yeah. But—”
“But what?”
She heard Adam take a breath, then the words tumbled out. “Here’s the thing, Nat. Gary and some buds of his are leaving tomorrow to hike a leg of the Appalachian Trail, and I want to go with them.”
What? Whatever she’d expected Adam to say, it hadn’t been that. “You want to hike the Appalachian Trail? Now?”
“Just part of it. It’ll only take about two weeks, and I think it’ll help clear my head, you know? I’ve already talked to Nana Cora, and she’s good with it because we’ll still have enough time to get married before the baby comes.”
“That’s cutting it kind of close, Adam.” The doctor’s warning sounded in her mind.
Any day now.
“It’s only for a couple of weeks, Nat. And then I’ll have to be boring and responsible for the rest of my life.”
Natalie felt a twinge of guilt. There sure wasn’t much left now of the carefree confidence that had attracted her to Adam in the first place.
She remembered the first time he’d walked into the diner. She’d been working the second leg of an exhausting double shift, and Adam had blown in like a refreshing breeze. He was just coming back from a white-water rafting trip, and he’d had a tattered backpack slung over one shoulder and a gigantic grin on his face. To Natalie’s tired eyes, he’d looked like freedom, romance and adventure all rolled up into one slightly rumpled guy. When he’d asked for her number, she’d broken her long-standing policy and written it down on a napkin.
Back then, she hadn’t had her faith to steady her, and she’d fallen for Adam too hard and too fast, blindly assuming that his feelings were keeping pace with hers. The situation they were in now was every bit as much her fault as his.
“All right,” she heard herself agreeing. “Two weeks.”
“Awesome.” A hint of the joy she remembered was in the word. “Nana Cora said you were going to wait on the farm. I left some food in the kitchen. Oh! I...uh...meant to clean that up, by the way. And there’s a goat out back. Some guy gave him to me for free, along with four bags of chow. He even threw in a few chickens... Look, Gary’s calling me. We’re planning to hit the trail first thing in the morning, so I’ve got to go. See you in two weeks, Nat.”
“Adam—” Natalie began, but he’d already hung up.
She sat there, holding the silent phone in her hand. So that was that. She was officially on her own for the next two weeks.
The baby shifted position, reminding her that she wasn’t really on her own anymore. She had somebody else to take care of now.
Which reminded her, she needed to eat something.
She went to inspect the contents of the refrigerator and the kitchen cupboards. The food Adam had mentioned seemed to be mostly potato chips and cheese puffs, but she finally managed to locate a fairly fresh loaf of bread and a half-empty jar of peanut butter.
