Christian Romance: Heaven on Earth... [4 Beautiful Christian Romance Stories] (4 page)

“Why did he pretend then? Why make up
a lie about himself when he can have anything he
wanted?”

At that moment, she saw Tristan behind
Auntie Jem. He came into the office and looked at her.

“I’ll give you two some privacy,” said
Auntie Jem, leaving the room.

“I wanted to work without being a
Milliard. My whole life, I’ve had people falling to my feet,
wanting to please, or mollify me. I was the heir to a business
empire, but the only thing I was ever really good at was baking,
and I loved it. But it wasn’t what was expected of me. So I
partied, I didn’t know what to do with my life. I went out with
women whose names I didn’t even bother to remember. But I decided
to change Elise. So I came here, to work without the burden of
being a Milliard and you treated me like any other worker. What I
said at the party was true, I really do admire you.” Elise couldn’t
look at him, or think of a reply, she just waited for him to
finish.

“I was never sure of what I wanted
before I discovered I could bake, then I knew that’s what I wanted
to do, but I didn’t know how to go about it. I came here looking
for direction, but I found more than that.”

“What exactly is it you think you’ve
found here Mr. Milliard?”

“Inspiration, motivation, and
hopefully, love.” At that last word, Elise looked into his eyes and
she felt warmth flood her. “When I saw you dancing with that man at
the party, I panicked, I felt like I was losing my one chance to be
a better person, my one gift from God that could make my life
worthy of happiness. All I ask now is a second chance Elise, a
chance to make you happy.”

There was a long heavy silence after
he said this.

“Well, Mr. Milliard, you have a
wedding cake to bake.”

Six months have passed
since the Saldana-Cane wedding, and Tabitha’s AngeliCakes was a
booming business. Most business analysts said it was because of the
business acumen that Mary Elise Coleson had, while food
critics
said
it was the expert work of
Tristan Milliard, heir to a million dollar hotel empire. But Aunt
Jem knew the truth
;
it was both.

Elise and Tristan worked
together and were very much in love
.
Elise worked
hard and it rubbed off on Tristan, while Tristan allowed Elise to
relax once in a while. Their betrothal was expected to be announced
later in the month, and Aunt Jem couldn’t wait. They were a match
made in heaven...

You've Got a Way With
Me...

Joanne Sawyer

Melissa George came home from London
for the worst possible reason, because her father had been
diagnosed with cancer. After being driven by her career, she
finally returns and gives her time to family. She was met by her
mother, her brother, and her childhood friend, Jordan James. But
her father’s situation is worse than she was led to believe, and
Melissa finds herself in the brink of despair, despite her father’s
reassurances of a blessed afterlife. But her faith in God and her
father’s love allow her to come to grips with all these surprises,
along with Jordan, who goes out of his way to help her sort through
her feelings and make her happy, becoming her shoulder to cry
on...

Melissa George was dozing on the
train. She’d been in transit for about a day and she was exhausted.
She wanted nothing more than to get home and fall into a nice warm
bed her mother was sure to have ready. She was coming home. There
was no major holiday, her job at a prestigious hotel in England
almost never allowed for that, but her father falling ill was
something she had not anticipated. After working for nearly 2 years
abroad as a VP and interior designer without a break, she finally
used her vacation time to be with her ailing father. Her dad had
been struggling with his weight as he was nearing his seventies, he
had high blood pressure and he’d already had a stroke when she was
just 17, but they never guessed cancer would come up. Her father
had lung cancer despite the fact that he had never smoked a single
cigarette in his life.

It had surprised everyone, especially
her mother. Melissa knew the people dearest to her needed her and
she had to rise to the occasion.

The train finally stopped in their
town. There was a nip in the air, but the snow wouldn’t be coming
until maybe a month from now. Melissa tied her beautiful auburn
hair into a ponytail and checked her look. For a woman who’d just
spent 3 hours on a train, she looked pretty good. She scanned the
crowd, looking for a familiar face, maybe her mother, or her
brother Malcolm. She’d been looking around for a few minutes, but
she saw neither her mother nor her brother at the
station.

“Melissa, hey! Over here!” She turned
and was quite surprise. Standing in front of her was the most
attractive man she’d ever seen. He had black hair and dark brown
eyes that made her want to melt into them. He didn’t look familiar
to her at all.

“I’m sorry, do I know you?” she asked
politely.

“Are you kidding me? It’s me, Jordan.
I spent like half my childhood at your house,” the man said. It
finally started to dawn on her. Jordan James was her brother’s best
friend. She remembered what her brother had said about him before,
how they went to separate colleges but ended up coming back home
and working together, her brother as an engineer and Jordan as the
landscaper. They even built their own little firm together and from
what she recalled, their business was booming.

“Oh wow Jordan. I didn’t recognize you
now, you look so different!”

“Yeah, I used to have braces, and
horrible acne. How long’s it been, six years?”

“That’s right, six years since I last
saw you. I hear you and Malcolm are working together?”

“Yes we are, and we’re doing pretty
well too. Where are your bags?”

“My bags?”

“Your brother asked me to pick you up.
They just brought your dad home from the hospital, so they’re a
little swamped.”

A wave of sadness flowed through her.
She should have been there and helped them. Why did she have to
take so long? Her little mental exchange was apparently evident to
Jordan, because he suddenly said, “Hey, it’s not your fault. No
need to feel guilty about it. Where are your bags
again?”

They had both brought her bags to his
pickup and were now driving down the familiar road to Melissa’s
childhood home.

“So… how’s your life right now? Is
there a Mrs. James waiting for you at home?” Melissa asked as they
drove.

“No, not yet. I’m not quite ready to
go down that road, you know?”

“I guess I understand, the same goes
for me as well, I need to focus on my career before getting into
any kind of relationship,” she said with a smile. But the truth was
that Melissa was a bit lonely. Not physically, to tell the truth,
she was still a virgin. She believed in saving herself before
marriage, and her faith was a strong factor in her life. She had
had boyfriends but they never did THAT. Melissa was lonely for some
affection. She lived alone in London and didn’t have many friends.
She was just too focused on her career to have any sort of social
life.

But she was home now, she was sure to
get all the affection she needed.

“So uhm, how about you? Is there some
lucky Londoner waiting for you at home?” asked Jordan.

“Oh no, I was a little too busy to go
out. I spent most of my nights indoors or at the hotel, and I don’t
really have a social life in England. But you know, no regrets,”
she said with a smile, “How’s your business going with
Malcolm.”

“It’s going pretty great, we have a
lot of loyal local customers, and we’re branching out, at least we
were. I’m sort of handling most of the business right
now.”

“Malcolm is so lucky to have you as a
friend and partner. Other people wouldn’t be so lucky.”

“Well, he’s pretty lucky with what
he’s got.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ll see when you get there. He
told me he wanted to tell you in person,” said Jordan, winking at
her with a glint in his eye.

They drove through some woods and
finally, the big white house slowly came into view.

Melissa didn’t realize
that she missed her home as much as she did; an overwhelming
feeling of relief came over her as she saw her old home, or maybe
it was the memories she had here that triggered it.
There’s no place like home.

As the car pulled up, they both saw
the front door open, and Melissa saw her mother running out to meet
them. Malcolm stopped at the door, there was someone else behind
him, but Melissa wasn’t sure who that person might be.

Melissa got out of the car quickly and
met her mother with a fierce hug.

“Oh mama, I missed you so
much!”

“And we missed you my little rose.
Your father’s been asking for you since we told him you were
coming. Oh Mels, you look so beautiful.”

Melissa smiled after hearing that
familiar nickname. She hasn’t heard anyone call her Mels in two
years.

“Hey sis, Good to finally see you,”
said Malcolm coming up toward her and enveloping her in a big bear
hug.

“You too, Mal. I missed
you.”

“By the way,” Malcolm said as they
pulled away from their embrace. “I have someone to introduce to
you.”

Melissa saw a woman standing behind
Malcolm. She was petite and she had a sweet smile, blonde hair, and
blue eyes. She was lovely.

“I’d like you to meet Sally, my
fiancée!”

Melissa was stunned. She didn’t know
what to say for a good 10 seconds, and then she snapped out of it
and said, “Oh wow. How is this? Hello!”

It was obviously a bit awkward, but
their mom helped them breeze through the awkward situations, as she
always knew how to do it.

“Well, there’s plenty of time for us
to get to know each other over the week. Melissa, Sally just helped
me whip up a wonderful lunch, she’s quite the cook. And you can
cook us up some of your famed roast beef, oh Sally, Melissa makes
me look bad with her roast beef. You know Mels, your father has
been dying to have a taste of your cooking for months now,” and all
of a sudden, Mrs. Agatha George stops dead in her tracks. A simple
figure of speech has struck too close to home. Everyone was
immersed in icy silence. Malcolm was the first to snap out of
it.

“Hey, let’s all go inside. Dad’s been
waiting for you Mels, you’re all he talks about
recently.”

They all shuffled inside, Sally
holding Mrs. George’s hand, who was still pale and dazed, and
leading her to the house, Melissa following behind them, eyes
downcast, with Jordan and Malcolm bringing up the rear, carrying
Melissa’s bags with them.

“You can go right in, he’s been
expecting you,” Sally said, pointing to the downstairs parlor that
they must have converted into her father’s sick room.

Melissa braced herself for what she
was about to see. She knew cancer and what it could do to someone,
but she wasn’t entirely sure she could bear to see it reflected in
her father, the man she had leaned on and idolized all her life.
Breathing deeply, Melissa finally reached out and turned the
knob.

Inside, she saw a respirator and some
other hospital equipment that measured her father’s pulse and
breathing. There was a white bed and tray holder where the chaise
lounge and coffee table used to be, and, propped up on some
pillows, was her father.

Melissa couldn’t help stop herself
from gasping. Her father was just a shadow of the man she
remembered. What a nasty disease cancer was, it reduces your loved
ones into vestiges of their former selves, until finally, nothing
remained but a left over imprint on a mattress, and even that
eventually fades.

“Dad,” was all she could say, trying
to control the tears that threatened to flow.

“Hello, rose petal. Come over here,
let me look at you,” her father said, smiling as she came closer.
When she was by the bed, he reached out a bony hand toward her. She
took his hand and the tears started to fall.

“No, don’t cry petal. You’re so
beautiful. My little girl’s a grown woman now. Hey come on, how can
I talk to you if you keep bawling like that?”

Melissa fought to control the tears
that she couldn’t keep from falling. “Oh daddy. I’m sorry I took so
long,” and she kissed her father’s hand, washing it with her
tears.

“I’m sorry I might go sooner than we
wanted, too, but everything is part of God’s plan. However, I did
get to spend 34 wonderful years with your mother, and I got the
chance to raise the two amazing kids. I couldn’t ask for
more.”

“I could. I want more time daddy. I
was going to bring you to England, take you and mama to see the Big
Ben and Buckingham Palace and see some shows on the West End. I had
it all planned.”

“You can still do that Mels, take your
mama out to London and show her a good time. It’ll be mighty lonely
for her, out here alone when I’m gone.”