A Love Inspired Christmas Bundle: In the Spirit of...Christmas / The Christmas Groom / One Golden Christmas

Though she couldn’t possibly know his thoughts, to Jesse the announcement seemed like a challenge. Averting his eyes, he ripped off a piece of sandwich and tossed the bit of bread and ham to the dog.

Sushi thumped her tail in thanks.

“You spoil her more than I do.”

“Yeah.” He pointed his soda can toward the north. “We have visitors.”

A flock of geese carved a lopsided V against the sky, honking loudly enough to rival a rush-hour traffic jam.

“They’re headed to my pond.”

“And then to a vacation in Florida.”

Lindsey laughed and drew her knees up under her chin. “Watching them makes me feel lazy.”

“What’s on for this afternoon now that we’ve cleared that new plot of land?”

“Tomorrow we’ll need to go over to Mena and pick up the saplings I’ve ordered. So this afternoon I thought we’d get ready for the wienie roast.”

“Who’s having a wienie roast?”

“I am. Well, my church actually, but since I have such a great place for it, complete with a horse to give wagon rides, I host the party out here every fall. I hope you and Jade will come.”

“I wouldn’t want to impose.” In truth, the idea of hanging out with a bunch of church people made him sweat. He’d played that scene before, for all the good it had done him in the end.

“Trust me, after you drag brush for the campfire, whittle a mountain of roasting sticks and set up tables, chairs and hay bales, you will have earned a special place at this function.”

“I don’t know, Lindsey. I’m not sure I would fit in.”

Dropping her feet to the porch floor, Lindsey leaned forward, face earnest, hair swinging forward, as she reached out to touch his arm.

“Please, Jesse. Jade would have so much fun. And having a little fun now and then wouldn’t hurt you either.”

He was beginning to weaken. A wienie roast was not the same as going to church. And Jade would love roasting marshmallows over a campfire. More than that, it was high time he got moving on his mission.

Lindsey’s words echoed his thoughts. “Winding Stair is full of good people. The party would be a great opportunity for you to get acquainted with some of them.”

She was right about that. He needed to get friendly with the townsfolk. But not for the reasons she had in mind. He gulped the rest of his cola, taking the burn all the way to his stomach.

Somebody in this town had to know what had happened eighteen years ago. The more people trusted him, the sooner he could have his answers—and the sooner he and Jade could take possession of this farm.

Likely no one would remember him. Les Finch had not been a friendly man, and they’d kept to themselves up here in the mountains. As a boy, Jesse had been a quiet loner, preferring the woods to school activities. And his name was different from his mom and stepdad. His secret was, he believed, safe from the unsuspecting folk of Winding Stair.

He didn’t like playing the bad guy, but right was right. This was his home…and he intended to claim it.

Chapter Four

“Think this will be enough?”

At Jesse’s question, Lindsey dumped an armload of firewood into a huge oval depression in the ground. Dusting bark and leaves from the front of her jacket, she evaluated the stack of roasting sticks Jesse had piled next to a long folding table.

“How many do you have there? Fifty, maybe?”

He hitched one shoulder, distant and preoccupied as if whittling enough roasting sticks was the last thing on his mind. “Close.”

“That should do it.” She knelt beside the campfire pit and began to arrange the wood. “Some of the older boys like to make their own—especially when they have a girlfriend to impress.”

“It’s a man thing.” Jesse tossed the last stick onto the pile and snapped shut a pocketknife, which he then shimmied into his front jeans’ pocket. “I think we’re about set. What time will the guests arrive?”

“Sevenish. Some will meet at the church and bring the bus. Others will drift in at will throughout the evening.” Leaning back on her heels, she gazed up at him. The look on his face said he wanted to be a thousand miles away by then. “It’ll be fun, Jesse.”

Jade, who resided less than five feet from her daddy at all times, sat on a bale of hay munching an apple with childish contentment. One tennis-shoed foot was curled beneath her while the other beat a steady rhythm against the tight rectangle of baled grass.

“I never went to a wienie roast before,” she said.

She’d been ecstatic, hopping and dancing around her father like a puppy when he’d told her of the plans. Lindsey wished Jesse showed half that much enthusiasm.

“You’ll like it. We’ll play games and take a ride in the wagon and roast marshmallows.” Playfully bumping the child’s hip with her own, Lindsey sat down next to her. “You’ll need your coat. The temperature gets pretty cool after the sun goes down.”

Jesse propped a booted foot on the end of the bale next to Jade. He rubbed at his bottom lip, pensive. “We better head home and get cleaned up.”

Jade frowned at one palm and then the other. Apple juice glistened on her fingers. “I’m clean.”

Jesse shot Lindsey a wry glance. “Well, I’m not.” Scooping his daughter up into strong arms, he rubbed her nose with his. “And we’ll stop by the store for some marshmallows.”

The gap-toothed smile appeared. “Okay!”

He tossed Jade over his shoulder the way Lindsey had seen him do a dozen times. After a thoughtful pause, he said, “I guess we’ll see ya at seven then.”

Watching the enigmatic man and his child cross the yard, Lindsey experienced an uncomfortable sense of loss and loneliness. Given the number of times she’d asked him or Jade to church functions, she’d been pleasantly surprised when Jesse had agreed to come to the party. He’d been more than clear on a number of occasions that spiritual issues were on his no-call list.

Still, she had a funny feeling about Jesse’s decision to join tonight’s festivities. He’d been almost grim all afternoon while they’d made the preparations, as if the party was a nasty medicine to take instead of a pleasure to be enjoyed.

Going to release a resentful Sushi from her office confinement, Lindsey heard the roar of Jesse’s pickup truck fading into the distance and wondered if he would return at all.

By seven-thirty, friends of every age milled around the clearing along the back side of Lindsey’s farm, but there was no sign of Jesse and Jade. Disappointment settled over Lindsey like morning fog on a pond as she watched the driveway for the familiar silver-and-blue truck. The party would have been good for father and daughter. That’s why her disappointment was so keen, not because she missed their company, although she was too honest to deny that fact completely. Still, she had plenty of other friends around, and the party, as always, was off to a roaring start.

Beneath a full and perfect hunter’s moon, the scent of hickory smoke and roasting hotdogs circled over a crackling campfire. The night air, cool and crisp, meant jackets and hooded sweatshirts, many of which lay scattered about on hay bales or on the short browning grass as their owners worked up a sweat in various games.

A rambunctious group of teenagers and young adults played a game of volleyball at the nets she and Jesse had strung up. Smaller children played tag by lantern light or crawled over the wagonload of hay parked at an angle on the north end of the clearing. Most of the adults chatted and laughed together around the food table and a huge cattle tank filled with iced-down soda pop and bottled water.

“Where’s that hired hand of yours, Lindsey?” Pastor Cliff Wilson, standing with a meaty arm draped over the shoulder of his diminutive wife, was only a few years older than Lindsey. She still had difficulty believing that this gentle giant had once spent more time in the county jail for drinking and disturbing the peace than he did in church. Just looking at him reminded Lindsey and everyone else of the amazing redemptive power of Jesus’ love. “I thought we’d get to meet him tonight.”

“I did, too, Cliff,” she said. “But it looks like he backed out on coming. Jade will be so disappointed.” So was she. Jade needed the interaction, and though Jesse held himself aloof, he needed to mingle with people who loved and served God.

“Jade?” Cliff’s wife, Karen, spoke up. “What a pretty name. Is that his little girl?”

Karen and Cliff had yet to conceive and every child held special interest for the pastor’s wife.