A Wedding In The Family

“I’ll discuss it with her. I’d like to see her advance in the series.”

“She could probably be on the swim team if she wanted to try,” Adam added.

Angela shook her head. “I don’t think she’d do that. She’s not as competitive as her brothers. Team sports haven’t interested her at all.”

“It was just a thought. You know, if you could come to a lesson or two and watch her, it might be just the encouragement she needs.”

“I’ll try. It’s difficult sometimes with my schedule to do little things like that, although I know it would mean a lot to her.” A familiar pang of guilt tugged at Angela. How would she ever have the time to do all the little things that would mean a lot to her kids?

“Where do you work?”

“I’m principal of a private Christian school on the west side of town. This is my first year at it, and I spend too much time there. I taught for so many years and now that seems almost easy compared to this job.”

“I was a teacher, too,” Adam remarked, watching some other parents and visitors enter the lobby. “Algebra…geometry…”

“Math? I’m envious. That was never my strong point. I taught primary grades. First grade for several years, then second for five more before I moved into administration.” She shivered slightly, appreciating the warmth of the cup in her hands. The cool night air of autumn blew in through the center’s heavy front doors that opened and closed as visitors came and went.

“There.” Adam, obviously noticing her shiver, pointed to an empty space near the drinking fountain. “You’ll be warmer over by that wall.”

When she turned to move, he cupped her elbow with his hand directing her to the spot that he had indicated. Angela was suddenly aware—too aware—of his momentary touch and it startled her.

“So we both left teaching for administrative jobs,” Adam remarked, taking a drink of his coffee. “Any regrets?”

“Regrets?” Angela thought for a moment. “I guess I have about a thousand of them, but none have to do with leaving teaching. I needed to make a change, and I needed more income, so…it’s a challenge, but one I enjoy.”

He nodded in recognition of her answer. “Me, too,” he agreed. “Teaching was great for a while, but I was ready to do something different. Then this job at the center came up. It seemed like the perfect solution.“

“Is it?” she asked.

“For now,” Adam responded. She saw him surveying the lobby, now filled with all age groups—from preschoolers to some senior citizens. “I suppose I should be mingling with the visitors, although that’s my least favorite part of this job.”

“Adam!” They both turned at the sudden sound of his name.

“Adam,” a young woman at his elbow repeated emphatically. “There are other people here you should meet,” she insisted with her brow creased in disapproval.

She was a beautiful young woman, Angela noticed, no more than college age, she estimated—at least a decade younger than Angela or Adam. She had gorgeous curly black hair and wore a short navy blue skirt and a sweater of deep red.

Adam nodded in acknowledgment. “Excuse me,” he said to Angela. “That’s my assistant.”

“Your assistant?” she commented quietly, offering a wry smile.

Adam frowned and glanced again at the woman who was already slipping back into the crowd of visitors. Then he returned his gaze to Angela. “Yes, well…” he began as an easy smile played at the corners of his mouth. “She’s very—”

“Young?” Angela finished.

And Adam chuckled quietly, tiny laugh lines crinkling around his eyes. “Yes, so she is. However, she’s also right. I should be mingling with the crowd since I’m the director.”

“True,” Angela said politely, and nodded toward the attractive associate. “You’d better go to…”

“Tiffany,” Adam responded, his gray eyes flashing with humor and a mischievous grin curving his mouth. He paused. “Actually, Tiffany is my brother’s stepdaughter. So…she’s my niece…”

”…sort of?” Angela offered.

Adam shook his head. “She’s as intelligent as she is attractive. And she’s engaged to the coach of the swim team.”

Engaged. Angela wondered how that felt. The thought made her feel even older than the lovely, raven-haired niece had managed to do. Engaged was an experience she’d never known. First, she’d been a college kid, living in a dorm. Then she was married and a mother—almost overnight, it seemed. And now, at 32, a parent of three—and widowed. Or almost divorced. Or whatever. Where had the years gone?

“Oh, to be young again,” she said more wistfully than she’d intended. She looked from Tiffany to Adam’s suddenly serious expression.

“Youth isn’t everything,” he remarked, seeming to sense the trace of heartache in her tone. “There’s a lot to be said for the wisdom that comes with the years.”

“Let’s hope so,” she replied. “I’d like to think something gets better with time.” She raised her cup. “Thanks for the coffee.”

He nodded. “You’re welcome. Are you free this Thursday to come to Heather’s lesson?”

“I’ll check my schedule,” she answered and then nervously cleared her throat. Suddenly she felt the need to find some conflict on her calendar. She’d seen enough of Adam Dalton for one week. The very last thing she needed was interest—however remote—in a man. Even if he did have the warmest eyes she’d ever seen.

“I’ve enjoyed talking with you,” he commented quietly. “Very much.”

The first part was an obligatory remark, Angela knew. The last part was not. She nodded her head slightly before acknowledging. “Me, too.”

“Maybe I’ll see you Thursday,” he said before excusing himself to join Tiffany and fulfill his role as the director.

Angela drank the last of her coffee, dropped the empty cup into the trash receptacle beside the door, and went in search of her children.

Heather saw her mother approaching and came to meet her. “We’ve been having fun, Mom. The boys are over here talking about video games.” She clasped Angela’s hand and led her to where Nathan and David sat, eating popcorn and talking with other youngsters.

“Time to go, gang. We’ve got things to do,” she announced. After some stalling, her children had found their jackets, said goodbye to friends and were on their way out the front door.

Against her better judgment, Angela did not resist glancing back into the thinning crowd to the spot where she’d last seen Adam speaking with an older gentleman. And he stood there still, listening to whatever the man was saying. But, to Angela’s surprise, his gaze returned to her at that moment

She wasn’t sure who smiled first, but she hoped it was him. Otherwise, she was openly flirting, and she hadn’t meant to do that. What would come next? she wondered miserably. She saw Adam give a slight nod of farewell before she returned her attention to the matter at hand—getting three children home.

Later that evening, all homework done, prayers said and children asleep, Angela finally sank into the comfort of her own bed. And that’s when her thoughts returned to Adam just as surely as his gaze had returned to hers when she was leaving the center.

“Lord, I’m too old for a silly schoolgirl crush and too new at this sort of thing to know how I should feel. I’m not ready for an Adam Dalton in my life. Let someone else have him.” She murmured the words before the sleep she needed finally came.

But Adam was not quite as quick to turn his back on new feelings. It had been such a long time since he’d felt this pang of interest in anyone, and he was relieved to know that he was still capable of it. Angela Sanders. She was pretty, independent, strong but still a little unsure of herself at times. And her eyes…Adam poured himself a cup of decaf and walked toward the window, where he stood staring out at the few stars shining in the September darkness. Those eyes of light blue were filled with a tenderness he’d not seen before tonight. Intelligence, humor, vulnerability, caution—all that and more lay in those depths, he felt certain. Suddenly, Adam wanted to know all the thoughts behind those eyes and the soft angular lines of Angela’s lovely face.

It had actually been difficult to walk away from her this evening. There was a sense of familiarity with her that far exceeded any earned by their brief and unpleasant encounter the night he’d taken Heather home. It was more than that, more than anything he could explain. He wondered, for the first time in years…if he made the effort to get to know this woman better…if he gained her trust, however long it took…would she be willing to accept him for what he was—just the way the Lord had done years earlier?

Chapter Three

Thursday came quickly. As the afternoon hours advanced to evening, Angela weighed her excuses to miss Heather’s swimming lessons—and avoid Adam Dalton—against her daughter’s need for support and encouragement.

“Oh, all right, I give up.” She spoke aloud to herself as she gathered up her coat and purse and shut off the lights in her office. “I’ll go. I dread seeing Adam Dalton, but Heather needs me. I’ll go.”

And Heather was delighted. After eating a quick dinner at the children’s favorite fast-food restaurant, Angela dropped the boys and their homework at her parents’ house. Then she and Heather headed for the recreation center.

Soon Heather had changed into her hot-pink swimsuit, and Angela had looked over her own dusty pink skirt and jacket and ivory blouse in the mirror in the women’s locker room. They looked a little wrinkled and weary from the day—both she and the clothes, Angela mused. But maybe that was a good thing. She didn’t need any further interest from Adam Dalton, and he surely wouldn’t take notice of her—not looking like this. And not with all the young female employees in and out of the center daily. And maybe he hadn’t had any interest in her in the first place. Maybe it had all just been her imagination. But still, the way he had looked back at her as she was leaving the Open House that night…

“Mom! Let’s go!” Heather exclaimed, cutting into her mother’s thoughts. She draped a towel around her bare shoulders.

They hurried to the pool area, and Heather quickly joined her group of a dozen or so boys and girls at the shallow end. Angela turned to take a seat in the nearby bleachers to watch the two young women who were coordinating the class as they began working with the children.

Angela glanced around briefly and saw no sign of Adam. That was good, she thought. Easy. Simple. And she must have been wrong about his interest in her. After all, he hadn’t said that he would definitely be here on Thursday for Heather’s lesson. She’d assumed more than she should have and, she thought with a sigh, it certainly hadn’t been the first time in life she’d made that mistake.

Angela leaned back against the bleachers and enjoyed her daughter’s antics in the water. Heather was swimming very well, just as Angela knew her girl could do—if she wanted to. But getting Heather to “want to” had been the struggle all along. Angela waved when Heather looked up a couple of times for Mom’s approval. It certainly appeared to Angela that Heather was more than ready to move on to the higher level with the rest of her class. She followed every request of either instructor without problem or hesitation.

The door opened at the side of the pool, and Angela looked over her shoulder to find Adam walking toward her. He smiled before he spoke.

“I’m glad you could come. You’ve been watching her?” He sat down beside Angela.

“Yes. She seems to be doing everything they ask,” Angela remarked, turning her attention to her little girl.

Adam nodded his head. “She can do everything needed to complete this level—including the dive. But she needs more confidence…maybe some more encouragement.”

Angela agreed. “I’ll talk to her again, but I won’t force her to dive. She has to want to do it herself.”

“Fair enough,” Adam commented. “But maybe if she believed in her abilities a little more strongly, she would want to try.”

“Maybe. You did say someone would be there in the water waiting for her, right?” Angela asked.

“Yes, there’s nothing to be afraid of,” he assured her.

“Maybe she needs to trust her instructors more. I’ll ask her. Maybe that’s what’s holding her back.”

“Maybe you’re right. Could be she doesn’t have enough confidence in the instructors.”

Angela smiled. Heather was too much like her. “Trusting people doesn’t come easily to her.”

“Did she learn that from her mother, too?” Adam asked quietly, the warmth in his eyes never wavering. A warmth she’d never seen in Dan’s gaze.

But Angela looked away without answering. Uneasiness settled over her. It had been a long time since she’d really trusted anyone except family members. And she hadn’t planned to allow herself to be in such a vulnerable position again. Ever.

“Mom!” Heather climbed out of the pool and reached for her towel.

“Hi, hon!” Angela waved. “I’ll be right there.” She glanced back at Adam to say goodbye, only to find him looking over at her daughter.

“Good job, Heather.” He stood up, walking with Angela around to the other side of the pool where Heather was drying her face and hair with a beach towel. “Would you and your mom like to go out for some ice cream?” Adam asked the young swimmer.

Heather’s face lit up, just as Angela frowned.

“That would be great!” the child responded. “Can we, Mom? It’s not very late and I don’t have any homework to do when we get home.”

Angela looked from Heather’s bright eyes to Adam, who stood studying her thoughtfully.

“Think you can trust me enough for that?” he inquired with a half smile. He was not at all certain she’d agree.

“Do I have a choice?” she countered as Heather wrapped her arms tightly around Angela’s waist.

“Can we, Mom? Please?”

“I guess we could go for a little while,” Angela replied. She regarded Adam’s expression of satisfaction with irritation. “You cheated.”

“Next time, I won’t need to,” he responded, and reached for Heather’s hand as they headed toward the door. “I want to lock up my office. When Heather is changed, meet me at the front door.”

“See you in a minute,” Heather said, pulling free from Adam’s grasp and running into the locker room.

“All right?” He tilted his head to the side, awaiting Angela’s reply.

She nodded. “See you in a minute,” she echoed her daughter’s comment. “Ready or not.”

“I’ll be ready,” he responded, then disappeared through the door to his office.

But would she ever be ready to have another man in her life after living through twelve years of the mistake she’d made in marrying Dan Sanders? Was her judgment of men good enough that she’d ever take another chance with one? “No,” she reminded herself, “no, no, no.” She wouldn’t risk making the same error again, wouldn’t even come close to it…or to any man who might interest her enough to threaten her freedom. No one could be worth that Not even this guy.

Heather dried her hair quickly and changed into her jeans and a T-shirt. “Mom, I’m ready. Let’s go!” she said, motioning Angela toward the door. “Adam’s waiting.”

“Yes, he is,” Angela sighed, and they headed for the lobby.

“Mint chocolate chip.” Heather gave her order to Adam. “Two scoops. It’s my favorite.”

“And what is your mom’s favorite?” Adam asked Heather, but looked over at Angela for a reply.

“A small chocolate milk shake would be great,” Angela said immediately, hoping to squelch Heather’s probable response.

“But Mom, you always have that big caramel sundae with the peanuts and all that whipped cr—” Angela’s hand moved deftly to cover her daughter’s open mouth—a move it had made numerous times in six years. She caught the smile of amusement on Adam’s face. Angela had eaten only one sundae like that in the past six months, but Heather made it sound as though it was a part of her daily diet. She started to explain, but suddenly it was their turn at the counter.

“Mint chocolate chip, double-scoop cone and two large caramel sundaes with nuts and whipped cream,” Adam requested.

“The milk shake would have been fine,” she said, and released her hold on her child.

Adam’s laugh was gentle. “There’s no need to settle for ‘fine.’ This will be better.”

“That’s true,” she admitted, her mouth curving into a reluctant smile. Oh, well, she knew she’d never have a figure like Tiffany’s. Not even if she gave up eating altogether.

Soon they were seated at a table, enjoying the desserts. Conversation flowed between Adam and Angela, more easily than it had at the Open House. They discussed some activities at the center, and Angela’s job as principal. Heather added some thoughts of her own along the way. Then the youngster had a serious question for Adam.

“Are you a Christian?” They were the blunt words of a six-year-old.

Angela cringed. She would have asked him, too, but not quite so openly or loudly.

“Yes,” Adam answered easily, “I go to First Church on Third Avenue.”

“That’s where my sister-in-law attended before she and Rob moved away,” Angela said, suddenly distracted from Heather’s tactlessness.

“Lots of people go to church,” Heather continued. “But I mean are you really a Christian?”

“Yes, I accepted Christ into my heart over seven years ago,” he explained to Heather before turning his attention back to Angela. “You mean Rob, the lawyer turned minister? His wife?”

“Yes, Micah Granston. Shepherd was her last name before she married my brother. Do you remember her? She had very long reddish hair then. It’s much shorter now. She’s a teacher and an artist.”

“I’ve only been going there since I moved to this area about a year and a half ago. She may have left before I joined that church. How long have they been married?”

“About two years. A little more than that, actually,” Angela said. “So she would have been gone by the time you started there. But she always liked that church.”

“I do, too. It’s just what I was looking for,” Adam added. “Where do you attend?”

“Mount Pleasant on Oakwood Avenue,” Heather answered for her mother. “We’re Christians, too, you know.”

“I know,” he answered.

“How?” Heather asked, a frown scrunching up her freckled face. “How could you know without asking?”

“I guess…,” he began, “it’s just something I sensed.” His eyes rose to meet Angela’s and, for a long moment, held them. She couldn’t remember a look feeling any more intense than the heart-stopping gaze she now shared with Adam. Did he feel it, too?

But interruption came swiftly. Heather had more ground to cover. “My brothers are Christians, too, and Grandma and Grandpa, and so are Uncle Rob and Aunt Micah and Uncle Eric and—”

“I think he gets the picture, hon,” Angela interjected before glancing back at her daughter. “Heather may become the next preacher in the family.”

“She’d be good at it,” Adam said. “She could have a lot of converts under her direct style of witnessing.”

“Right, she’ll either have a lot or know the reason why not,” Angela replied with a laugh. She allowed herself to study Adam’s face. Touches of humor lingered around his mouth and eyes, but something about the set of his jaw made him, at times, she thought, look rather stubborn.

“Are your mother and father Christians, too?” Heather continued her quest for knowledge. She had inherited that quality from her grandfather, the snoopy one in the family, Angela thought with relief. There’s at least one flaw she hadn’t directly inflicted on her offspring. It was one generation removed.

“No, my parents weren’t saved. They weren’t interested in religion of any kind,” Adam stated. “In fact, I can’t remember being in a church with them for anything other than a wedding or two.” He glanced at Heather’s suddenly startled expression.

“Wow!” she exclaimed. “That must have felt weird. I mean, what did you do on Sunday mornings and Sunday nights?”

“We slept late in the mornings, and on Sunday evenings we…probably watched a lot of television if it was bad weather, and played outdoors if it was nice. It seems like such a long time ago,” he added.

Living under their parents’ roof had happened a long time ago for both of them, Angela thought His eyes met hers again with a contemplative look, and she wondered about the thoughts behind it.

“And they still don’t go to church?” Heather persisted.

Adam shook his head without looking away from Angela’s steady blue gaze. “They’ve both died. My father had a heart attack when he was only fifty-four.”

“So young?” Angela asked.

“That’s not young,” Heather informed them. “Mom, you know Grandpa is fifty-four!”

Adam and Angela both laughed a little. Then Adam offered, “I guess it depends on your perspective.”

Their perspectives both came from the thirty-something bracket. Angela guessed probably thirty-four or thirty-five for Adam as she glanced at his dark blond hair, cut short and tapered neatly to the collar of his plaid shirt. She particularly liked the crinkly laugh lines at the corners of his eyes when he smiled. That gave him a friendly, appealing look that Angela was certain she wasn’t the first female to notice.

She realized Adam was assessing her, too, from across the table, and wished for a moment that she could read his mind. Then she decided that it was probably better that she couldn’t. She might be disappointed. However, in the smokey gray of his eyes, she saw what she was sure was a gleam of interest.

Eventually they finished their ice cream and made the short walk to Adam’s silver pickup truck for the ride back to the center. Heather climbed into the middle of the front seat; Angela joined her on the passenger side, and Adam shut the door. Then he drove back to the large parking lot where he pulled the truck up next to Angela’s very used, dark green van. The wear and tear of three kids and their friends over the years had a way of aging anything. Including moms.

Heather hopped from the truck to her seat in the van, and Angela and Adam walked across to the driver’s door.

“How was your ice cream?” he asked as they lingered a moment.

“Never better,” she answered honestly. And it had little to do with the caramel or the peanuts, she thought.

“My thoughts exactly.” Adam smiled, but a sudden seriousness stole over his expression. Angela lowered her eyes to look at his hand where it rested on the door handle. But the door remained closed. “Will you go to dinner with me sometime? We’ll take the kids with us.”

“I don’t know, Adam,” she said cautiously. “It’s been a long time…I’m not very good at this sort of thing.” She didn’t glance up. She didn’t need the encouragement of a tender look.

“Oh, I don’t know about that. I think you handled that sundae about as well as any other woman I’ve been out with in the last few years.” He opened her door, and she got into the driver’s seat—which, she thought ironically, was exactly where she was in the relationship. It could go forward…or die right here and now in this parking lot. It was her call.

“Your kids can even pick the restaurant,” he offered, “as long as it’s something other than fast food.”

Sure, Angela argued with herself, she liked him, but she could be wrong about him the same as she’d been wrong about Dan. She didn’t want another “unhappily ever after” relationship. Solitude—even loneliness—sounded better than that. But turning him down now might make him more determined to win her over. Maybe she could make a date with him to show him how wrong it could be for them. What could she invite him to do that would discourage any interest that had been kindled? Then she remembered the church cookout.

“Why don’t you go to dinner with us?” she asked with a smile. “There’s a church cookout a week from Saturday that starts in the afternoon and lasts until dark. The kids and I are going. So are Mom and Dad. It’s for the church family and their guests.” Most of whom Adam couldn’t know—certainly a daunting enough invitation for a man.