A Baby for Easter (17 page)

Jessica giggled and reached over to pet her dog as well,
until Bear flopped down right at her feet.

Strangely, for no particular reason, they fell into a
silence for the next few minutes. A silence that felt heavy, significant. Not
bleak or sad, but weighted down by something too big to be captured in words.

Alice could feel it in her belly, a joy as sharp and substantial
as pain.

All of them seemed to feel it, except Cara who snuggling
against her father’s chest and had no concept yet of the sublime.

Finally, Daniel put it into words for them. “This has been a
good day.”

Micah tightened his arm around Alice. “Yeah.” He tilted his
head down to brush a kiss into her hair. “It’s what Easter should always be.”

***

Several months later, Alice woke up
from a sound sleep with a knowledge that something really momentous was
happening today.

Her processing of this truth was interrupted, however, by
the fact that her husband of three weeks had taken all the covers.

She gave the covers a firm tug, causing Micah to grumble in
his sleep and roll over towards her.

Since this freed up a lot of the covers, Alice didn’t
complain. Just wrapped herself up in them and snuggled more comfortably into
the bed.

Micah had finished the house in time for the wedding, so
they’d moved in just before they got married. Now they were sleeping in a big
bed in a lovely bedroom with wood trim and huge windows.

It was still dark outside, so it must be early.

And something really good was happening today.

“What happened to all the covers?” Micah muttered.

“You were stealing them all.”

“I don’t have any now.”

“I can’t do anything about that.”

He rolled over some more until he was right next to her, and
he took that opportunity to pull her into his arms. “I didn’t know being a
husband would mean giving up all rights to the covers.”

“Of course, that’s what it means. You’re supposed to love me
more than yourself—which means giving up covers if I need them.” She burrowed
against him, pressing a little kiss on his bare chest, amazed she was allowed
to do that now.

He’d shown her over and over again—since Easter morning—that
he loved her more than he did himself. She trusted him with her heart, her
life, completely, and he’d never not lived up to that trust.

“And what do I get in return?” he asked, sliding his hand
down until it was cupping her bottom. He eased her body against his more
snugly, and she discovered that he was aroused.

“You get my everlasting gratitude,” she said primly.

“Don’t I get a little something else?” His voice was warm
and teasing and tender—exactly as Micah was himself.

“I don’t know why you’d think that. Do you really think sex
is an appropriate tradeoff for covers?”

“Well, no. Not really. I think you might get a little
something good from sex yourself.”

She giggled and stroked her hand down until she was
caressing his erection. “Maybe just a little.”

He cleared his throat. “Let’s rethink the wisdom of using
the word ‘little’ when you have your hand on my—”

He broke off the words with a huff when she squeezed.

She giggled helplessly. She wasn’t feeling particularly sexy
this morning, but she was feeling soft, intimate, and close to him. If he
wanted to have sex, she would have absolutely no objections.

He readjusted so he was on top of her, and he gazed down at
her face and her (no doubt) messy hair. “My little Dormouse,” he murmured. “You
have no idea how much I love you.”

“Well, I think it’s just about the same amount as I love you
too.” She ran her hands down his bare back until she reached the waistband of
his pajamas. “You know what I was thinking of?”

“I’m hoping it’s the same thing as I was thinking of.” He
rubbed his groin against hers suggestively.

She giggled again. “That’s not what I was talking about.”

With an exaggerated sigh, he said, “So what were you
thinking of?”

“I was thinking about when I first moved back to town and
you were all mean and standoffish with me.”

“What?” he demanded, raising his head to gaze down at her.
“I wasn’t mean to you.”

“Well, no, not mean. But you never smiled or anything. I was
sure you didn’t like me. I thought maybe you thought I was interested in you
and you were trying to discourage me.”

“
What
?” This time,
the word was hoarse with disbelief. “You couldn’t possibly have thought that. I
was crazy about you. Absolutely crazy about you.”

Her lips parted. “Then why weren’t you nice or friendly with
me?”

“Because I was out-of-my-mind terrified! Every time I tried
to talk to you, I’d completely clam up. It was horrible. I wanted so much to be
close to you again, but you kept acting like you didn’t care about me at all,
and I had absolutely no idea what to say to get you to like me again.”

“Really?” she squeaked, her hands stroking the smooth skin
on his back.

“How could you not have known that until now? You really
thought I didn’t like you?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t think you hated me or anything. I
just thought you were wary or something. You never smiled at me.”

He sighed and his eyes were incredibly deep and soft as he
admitted, “I was trying to be a different man. A man who deserved you.”

She made a choked sound and pulled him into a hug.

He hugged her back, the embrace full of naked feeling.

“I want you for who you are,” she said at last. “I love you
for who you are. So don’t you dare stop smiling at me again.”

He kissed her gently and murmured against her lips. “I
promise I won’t.”

Then she again remembered what today was and gave a little
squeal of excitement.

“What was that for?” he asked, laughing under his breath. “I
know I’m quite impressive in bed, but I haven’t done anything to make you
squeal yet.”

She swatted him on the chest lightly and explained, “You
know what happens today, don’t you?”

His expression changed, softened. “Yes, I know what today
is.”

“I’m so excited,” Alice admitted, emotion rising up at the
thought. “I’m so happy. I want so much to be her mother for real. I can’t wait
for her to be legally mine.”

“She’s already yours,” Micah murmured.

“I know. But today we sign the papers officially, and I’m so
excited about it.”

He made a rough sound and pulled her into another hug, this
one tighter than before. She hugged him back, closing her eyes, amazed by
everything she’d been given in the last year, when she’d thought she had
nothing at all.

After another minute, though, Micah pulled out of the hug
and kissed her again. Soon, the kiss became deeper, more intentional, and she
could feel her body respond.

They’d gotten pretty far along, and Alice was getting
excited in an entirely different way when a piercing wail broke through the
house.

Cara had evidently woken up unhappy.

They lay for a minute in silence, waiting to see if the
crying would die out of its own. It didn’t. Finally, Micah rolled off her with
a long groan. “I’ll check on her.”

Deciding he was in a worse condition than she was at the
moment, Alice climbed out of bed. “No. I’ll go.”

“Thanks.” Micah smiled at her, even as he added, “But don’t
start playing with her and forget about me lying here in my desperate state.”

She couldn’t help but laugh. “It could never happen. I’ll be
back soon.”

Alice went to the room across the hall and, on her entrance,
Cara’s cries were broken with the word, “Mama,” and outstretched arms that went
straight to Alice’s heart.

So she cuddled with Cara for a while, loving this little
girl more than she’d known was possible less than a year ago.

But she didn’t forget her promise to Micah. Once Cara
drifted back to sleep, Alice returned to the bedroom to cuddle with him too.

***

Thank you for reading! Please consider
leaving an honest review for A Baby for Easter. I appreciate reviews of any
length or rating—long or short, positive or negative. If you enjoyed this book,
please consider letting others know about it, and check out the following excerpt
from Married for Christmas, which is Jessica and Daniel’s book. The third
Willow Park book, about Lydia Morgan, will be out later this year.

To focus on something else, Jessica
opened the dishwasher and pulled put two clean plates. Daniel never put his
clean dishes in the cabinets. Sometimes, she did it for him, but usually the
clean dishes stayed in the dishwasher until it was empty—then he filled it up
again with the dirty ones.

“What’s the matter?” he asked, taking little cartons of
rice, curry, and seafood out of the bag she’d brought.

“Nothing. What do you mean?”

“You look upset or nervous about something.”

“I’m not upset or nervous.” It wasn’t exactly true, but this
was hardly the time to blurt out the marriage proposal. She had it all planned
out. After dinner, they would naturally start to talk about his job situation.
Then, very smoothly, she would offer her well-reasoned suggestion, exactly as
she’d planned it out in her mind as she lay awake all last night.

“Did you talk to your mom today?” Daniel asked, shamelessly
pinching a stray piece of shrimp from her carton and putting it in his mouth.

She narrowed her eyes, to make sure he knew she’d seen the
shrimp-snatching. “Yeah. She sounded all right. She knew who I was.”

“That’s good. So what’s the problem?”

“No problem. I told you. I’m just hungry.”

“It looks like there’s a problem.” He didn’t look annoyed or
displeased. In fact, his brown eyes were still warm and laidback. But he was
always like this—somehow knowing what she was feeling and not leaving it alone
until he found out the whole story.

“There’s no problem,” she said, trying to sound as relaxed
as he was.

“You sure?”

Her attempt at staying relaxed failed miserably. “Listen to
what I’m telling you. There. Is. Not. A. Problem.”

“All right. Fine. Weren’t you just complaining that
I
was grumpy? No reason to be in a bad
mood about it.”

“I’m not in a bad mood.” She tried to moderate her tone, but
sometimes it was really exasperating that she couldn’t hide anything from him.
“Why don’t you ever believe what I tell you?”

He looked like he was hiding a smile as he picked up the two
plates he’d prepared. “Because you don’t always tell me the truth.” When she
opened her mouth to object to this statement, he spoke over her to continue, “Okay,
that’s an exaggeration. But you don’t always tell me the whole story.”

“You don’t always
need
the whole story,” she grumbled, grabbing two bottles of water and following him
out to the living room to settle on the couch.

“Well, I
want
the
whole story, whether I need it or not. So why are you so stubborn about giving
it to me?”

“Because some things are none of your business.”

He chuckled at her bad-tempered tone, and she couldn’t help
but smile too. It was nearly impossible to stay annoyed with him for very long.
No matter how infuriating he was, he always had her best interests at heart.

Plus, he was just so adorable, even when he was being
stubborn.

He took a long sip of water and leaned back on the couch, his
plate in his lap. He offered brief, silent thanks for the food and then gazed
at her with brown eyes that suddenly looked soft.

Her breath hitched at the fond expression.

She’d been going to wait until after they ate, but now might
be a good time to work in the marriage proposal.

“Daniel,” she began.

Bear had planted herself next to the couch, sitting upright
and staring fixedly at the food. After being ignored for longer than she was
willing to tolerate, she raised one paw.

“No, you’re not getting any food,” Daniel told the dog.

“Don’t be rude.” Jessica frowned at him and then said to
Bear, “I’ll give you a snack later.”

When she turned back, the soft expression and her nerve were
both gone.

“But, seriously, Jessica,” Daniel began, after swallowing
over another bite, “you don’t have to tell me everything if you don’t want, but
I don’t like that you’re so isolated.”

This shift in tone and the unexpected topic made her stiffen
her shoulders. “I’m not isolated. What are you talking about?”

“You work from home. You don’t have any family but your mom.
You don’t hang out with friends much.”

“I hang out plenty,” she replied, immediately defensive. “I
talk to my neighbors. I do things at church whenever I can. I hang out with
you
enough to drive me crazy. You know I
did more before my mom…
 
I have to leave
every weekend to go see her.”

“I know.”

“I’m never going to be a social butterfly, but that doesn’t
mean I’m isolated.”

“Okay.” He was watching her as he chewed, and he looked
concerned, thoughtful, observant.

She wasn’t comfortable with any of those things. “I don’t
need you to be worrying about me.”

“Okay.” His expression changed, and he gave her a lopsided
grin. “I’ll remind you of that the next time you worry about
me
.”

“Wait. That’s different. Of course, I’ll worry about
you
.”

He arched his eyebrows, and she returned the expression with
nothing but a cool glare. Eventually, he chuckled and returned to his food.

She ate for a minute too, barely tasting the food, although
Thai was one of her favorites. As she chewed, she glanced around the
comfortable living room. It had been decorated by Lila, Daniel’s wife, and he
hadn’t changed a single thing in the room since she’d died almost two years
ago.

Without conscious volition, Jessica’s eye rested on the framed
picture of Lila on the console table. The woman in the photo was dark-haired,
small, and achingly pretty.

Daniel must have noticed the direction of her gaze because
he said, his voice softer, “I know you worried about me after Lila died, but
I’m really okay now.”

“I know. I think you’ve done great.” Her chest still hurt at
the memory of his sweet wife of seven years, who’d died far too young in a car
accident.

For a couple of months after her death, Daniel had been a
wreck. She could barely stand the thought of how torn up he’d been at losing
his wife. She wasn’t entirely convinced he had healed the way he should
have—every once in a while, something he did or said would prompt a thread of
worry—but he was definitely better now than he’d been before, and he seemed to
have returned to his friendly, considerate, and articulate self.

That line of thought reminded her of her mission this
evening. She gulped down some water and tried to recall the details of her
plan. In an attempt to get closer to the relevant topic, she asked, “Have you
heard anything more from Micah?”

Daniel was already done with his food, so he put his plate
on the coffee table. “Yeah. He called again today. He said the pulpit committee
wants me, but the Session is still hesitating.”

Micah was Daniel’s brother, who still lived in Willow Park,
the town in the mountains of North Carolina where both Jessica and Daniel had
grown up. Micah had recently started again attending their hometown church, the
church where Daniel had spent the last month candidating to become the pastor.

 
“It’s still because
you’re not married?”

***

You can find out more about Married for
Christmas
here
.