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Love one Another
Valerie Hansen
NEIGHBORLY LOVESingle dad Zac Frazier arrived in the close-knit town of Serenity expecting little more than a fresh start. But he never counted on having his wounded heart rejuvenated by his son's bubbly preschool teacher, who lived a few houses away and had an extraordinary gift for understanding small children. In record time, pretty and petite Tina Braddock brought laughter back into his lonely little boy's life–and encouraged the disillusioned widower to rejoice again in God's love….Why, if romance-resistant Zac didn't know better, he'd allow himself to fall head over heels for his green-eyed neighbor! But beneath the sunny surface that Tina presented to the world, he sensed uneasiness, foreboding, even fear. What was she afraid of? And would loving one another be enough to make all their dreams come true?
Tina flattened her palms against his chest so she could push him away.
Do it! her conscience ordered. Give him a shove and tell him to go home.
I will, Tina reassured herself. Any second now. Yes, sir. I’ll call a halt to this ridiculous game we’re playing.
Only, she didn’t. There seemed to be a short circuit in the communications between her will and her body. There she sat, practically stupefied, while a man she cared about prepared to make his second terrible mistake. The first had been their first kiss. The second would be more of the same. Unless she stopped it.
The weak protest she finally managed to make wouldn’t have been enough to deter anyone who didn’t respect her. Fortunately, Zac did.
He got to his feet and backed away from the swing. “Oh boy,” he said, a bit breathless. “We have to stop meeting like this.”
VALERIE HANSEN
was thirty when she awoke to the presence of the Lord in her life and turned to Jesus. In the years that followed she worked with young children, both in church and secular environments. She also raised a family of her own and played foster mother to a wide assortment of furred and feathered critters.
Married to her high school sweetheart since age seventeen, she now lives in an old farmhouse she and her husband renovated with their own hands. She loves to hike the wooded hills behind the house and reflect on the marvelous turn her life has taken. Not only is she privileged to reside among the loving, accepting folks in the breathtakingly beautiful Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, she also gets to share her personal faith by telling the stories of her heart for Steeple Hill’s Love Inspired line.
Life doesn’t get much better than that!
Love One Another
Valerie Hansen
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
A new commandment I give unto you.
That you love one another; as I have loved you,
that ye also love one another.
—John 13:34
To all the wonderful people in my life
who are so easy to love, especially my husband,
children, grandchildren and special Christian
friends. And to the one person I find it so hard
to forgive, for being the way the Lord has chosen
to show me that I’m not perfect…yet.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Epilogue
Letter to Reader
Chapter One
Tina Braddock bent over a low table, up to her elbows in green and yellow finger paint and up to her knees in preschool tots. It was fortunate the colors blended with her floral print skirt because Sissy Smith had a handful of the fabric and was tugging vigorously.
“Miss Tina! Miss Tina!”
“What is it, Sissy? Is your picture finished?”
The little blond girl ignored the question. “Miss Tina, look! A stranger.” She used both gooey hands to gather up the loose edge of her teacher’s apron and try to hide behind it.
Straightening, Tina looked toward the door. Her breath caught. Sissy was right. The man standing there was a stranger. The best-looking one she’d seen in longer than she could remember. His hair was brown and his eyes were so dark they were almost black. As if that weren’t enough, the good Lord had blessed him with about six feet of height and a stature that insisted he could pick up a small automobile all by himself and fling it across the room without even breaking a sweat.
Tina blinked herself back to reality as she smiled a greeting. “Hello. Can I help you?”
“I didn’t mean to scare the kids,” he said soberly. “I just came to look the place over before I enroll my son.”
She extricated herself from Sissy’s grasp, tossed her long light brown hair back over her shoulders without touching it, and crossed to him while wiping her hands on her apron. “I’m Tina Braddock.”
As he eyed her greenish-yellow fingers he hesitated, so she withdrew the offer to shake hands. “Oops. Sorry. I tend to forget. Not everyone gets as involved in all this as I do.”
“I can believe that.”
When he smiled down at Tina, the whole room suddenly seemed a hundred times brighter. “I’ll be glad to put your son on our waiting list. How old is he, Mr….?”
“I’m Zac Frazier,” the man said. “Justin’s just turned four.”
“Oh, good. We should have several openings in the four-year-old group in a month or so, as soon as school starts and some of my Picassos-in-training go on to kindergarten.”
“That’s not soon enough.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“I just moved here and I need a place for my son right away. I thought you understood that.”
Tina remained firm. “Our rules are for the good of all the children here. Perhaps a private baby-sitter?”
“I can’t do that.” Frustrated, Zac raked the fingers of both hands through his thick, wavy hair. “Justin gets panicky if I leave him alone with adults. He’s better when he’s with kids his age.”
That’s odd, Tina thought. Children usually got upset when they were thrust into a group of unfamiliar kids, not when they were privy to an adult’s undivided attention.
“The more distractions, the better he seems to do,” Zac said. “That’s why I thought…”
The handsome daddy seemed to be having trouble deciding whether or not to explain further, so she encouraged him. “Why don’t you tell me a little about your son’s background, Mr. Frazier?”
“There’s not much to tell. Like I said, he’s only four.” Zac cleared his throat. “His mother died last year, when we lived up in Illinois. Since then, he hasn’t wanted to let me out of his sight.”
“Ah, I see.” Tina quelled the urge to reach out and comfort him with a sympathetic touch. “I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah, well…” He stuffed his hands into his pockets and struck a casual pose. “So, will you take him?”
“I can ask my boss. I suppose one more—”
Across the room, Sissy yowled. Tina whirled just in time to see redheaded Tommy McArthur upend a dish of yellow poster paint over her head. The thick goo pooled in her curls, then began to ooze over her forehead and trickle down her face.
“Tommy!” Racing back to the art table, Tina held out cupped hands to try to catch the worst of the mess.
Sissy chose that moment to shake her head like a kitten whose nose had been dunked into a saucer of milk. Globs of yellow pigment flew. Several caught Tina in the face. She was sure she could feel others clinging to her long hair.
The rest of the children backed away, wide-eyed and uncertain. Except for Sissy’s ongoing wails, silence reigned. The boy who had caused the ruckus dropped the empty paint dish as his lower lip began to tremble.
“Hold still, Sissy,” Tina said firmly. “You’re just making things worse.”
“My dress!” the little girl howled, looking down at her skirt. “My mama sewed it for meeee…”
“I’ll wash it out for you and it’ll be good as new. I promise. Just stop shaking your head!” Tina had momentarily forgotten Zac Frazier. Then she heard him start to laugh. The sound was warm and full. It filled the room and made the hairs at her nape tickle. Goose bumps stood up on her arms.
She glanced over her shoulder at him. “There are towels in that cabinet up there,” she said, cocking her head to indicate. “Top left. Mind handing me one?”
“You sure one will be enough?” Zac was still chuckling as he moved to comply.
“Let’s hope so.” Tina was trying to keep from bursting into giggles and upsetting Sissy even more. “I’d get it myself but I seem to have my hands full.”
“No kidding.” He stopped behind her and passed the towel over her shoulder. “Here you go. Anything else I can do for you while I’m handy?”
She was concentrating on wiping Sissy’s face and sopping up the worst of the paint in her hair. “Like what?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Hose the place down, maybe?” He crouched beside Tina and solemnly eyed the red-haired boy who’d started the trouble. “Or maybe you’d like me to dunk this guy in a different color for you?”
Tina gave Tommy a stern glance, then smiled at Zac. “Sorry. As tempting as it sounds, I’m afraid they don’t let me paint naughty children, even if they do deserve it.”
“What a shame,” Zac said, straight-faced. “He’d look great in purple.”
“We’ll have to settle for an apology, instead,” Tina said, playing along. “Tommy, what do you have to say to Sissy?”
“She started it!” the boy wailed. “She splashed green on my shirt.”
“Okay. That does it. Painting time is over,” Tina ordered. She straightened and wiped her hands on a relatively clean corner of the towel. “Everybody to the sink to wash. Sissy first. March.”
Zac stood, too. “You sure you’ve got a handle on them?”
“As good as I ever do,” she answered, smiling fondly as her small charges headed for the low sink in one corner of the room. “They’re really good kids. They just have a lot to learn about getting along with others.”
“So do the kids I work with…and they’re considerably older.”
“Oh? Where do you work?”
“Over at the high school, starting next week,” Zac said. “I’m going to substitute teach when I’m needed but I’ll mostly be a guidance counselor.”
“Well,” Tina said, grinning up at him, “that sure will simplify things around here.”
“It will?”
“Uh-huh. Once you get established in your job at Serenity High, all we’ll have to do to spot the teenage troublemakers is look for the ones you’ve painted purple.”
Tina was glad her boss, Mavis Martin, was the kind of woman who listened to reasonable suggestions. She’d waited until all the children had gone home before approaching her and explaining about wanting to add Justin to her class.
“I suppose it’s okay, if you’re sure you can cope,” Mavis said, nodding her graying head soberly. “If it was me, I’d probably do the same thing. The poor man obviously needs help. Might as well come from us, don’t you think?”
Smiling broadly, Tina nodded. “Absolutely. Bless you. You’re a dear.” She reached into the pocket of her apron for the card with the phone number of the motel where Zac and Justin were staying. “I’ll call Mr. Frazier and tell him his son can start tomorrow.”
“Okay. I just hope you aren’t biting off more than you can chew. What kind of kid is he?”
“I don’t really know much about him, other than what I was told. He’s supposed to be overly attached to his father but adjusts better when he has other children as a distraction.”
