A Hickory Ridge Christmas. Dana Corbit

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СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      “Probably not.” He ignored the hopeless feeling threatening to resurface. “But she’s going to have to anyway.”

      With a quick wave, he strode out the door. Finding only Andrew shaking hands and saying goodbye to the last of the stragglers, Todd assumed that Reverend Bob had slipped away to check on his daughter. As inconspicuously as possible, Todd started to follow the same path he’d seen Hannah take.

      “Wait, Todd.” Andrew caught up to him and gripped his hand in a firm handshake. “Glad you made it. You’re probably looking forward to starting your new job. Did the folks at GM Proving Grounds give you a little time to get settled, or did they want you right away?”

      “I guess they needed someone right away because I had to negotiate to wait until Tuesday.”

      “Isn’t that just the way it goes? No rest for the weary.”

      “Guess so.” Distracted, Todd cast a furtive glance down the hall. Was she still back there somewhere?

      Andrew’s gaze followed his. “So, besides Reverend Bob and me, did you see anyone you recognized at the service?”

      Todd was barely paying attention, so the words took a moment to sink in. When they did, he turned back to the youth minister. “No disrespect intended, Reverend, but let’s not dance around this anymore. We both know I came here to see Hannah.”

      Andrew nodded, the smile he usually wore absent. “And I noticed that you did see her.”

      “No one probably knew we were more than friends.”

      “I knew. Serena knew.”

      Todd’s head came up with a jerk. “Oh.”

      “Remember that day all of us spent at the beach?”

      “I guess so.” Of course Todd remembered. It was one of the memories he’d replayed in his mind in the last few years.

      “We saw the way you looked at Hannah when you thought no one was watching.”

      Todd cleared his throat. He could only imagine the emotions that had been written all over his face. Because there didn’t seem to be any way to respond to that comment, he changed the subject. “We built a sand castle with Serena’s little girl…uh…”

      “Tessa,” Andrew said to fill in the blank.

      “You had a thing for the single mother.”

      “Still do. But she’s married now. To me. Five years.” Andrew glanced down at the plain gold band he wore. “Tessa’s got a brother now. Seth. We’re having another one in March.”

      “Wow. Either a lot of time has passed, or you’ve been busy for a few years,” Todd said with a chuckle.

      Instead of laughing at his joke, Andrew became serious. “A lot of time has passed.”

      The words felt like weights being draped across Todd’s shoulders. He stared at the floor and waited for whatever else the youth minister had to say.

      “Hannah didn’t seem happy to see you today.”

      “I suppose not.” Todd reluctantly met the other man’s gaze. “I didn’t go about things the right way.”

      “It’s hard to know the right thing to do sometimes.”

      Andrew now wore his concerned minister’s face. Todd remembered Hannah once mentioning that Andrew had been a clinical counselor before entering the ministry.

      “Apologizing to Hannah is the right thing to do,” Todd said. “I know it. She just didn’t give me the chance.”

      “I don’t know everything that happened between the two of you or the full reason she ran out of here, but—”

      “No,” Todd said to interrupt him. “You don’t.” His sharp tone surprised even him. It wasn’t Andrew’s fault that Hannah had refused to talk to him. He had no one to blame for that but himself. Taking a deep breath to clear his thoughts, he tried again. “I’ve been waiting five years to talk to Hannah…about a lot of things.”

      “Have you ever considered that healing this relationship might not be as easy as you’ve imagined?”

      “You mean that it might be too late? Sure, I’ve thought about it.” A lot. He took a long breath and shook his head in frustration. “But I have to do the right thing. I’ve prayed about it, and I’m convinced it’s what God wants me to do, so I’m just going to have to find a way to get Hannah to listen to me.”

      “You sound pretty determined.”

      “I am.”

      “I guess you’ll be needing this then.”

      Andrew withdrew a pen and notebook from his pocket, wrote something on it and handed to him. It said, “Hannah,” and it had a street address and an apartment number on it. Todd drew his eyebrows together as he looked up from it.

      “You didn’t think she still lived at home, did you?”

      He answered with a shrug. As a matter of fact, he had. He’d already driven by his old home and that particular house next door several times since he’d arrived in town on Friday. He’d studied that familiar dwelling, wondering whether she was inside and hoping she would pick that moment to go out to her car.

      Todd closed his hand over the slip of paper. “Thanks, Andrew.”

      “Will you do me one favor when you talk to Hannah?” Andrew waited for his nod before he continued, “When you’re talking, will you be sure to listen, too?”

      Of course he would listen, Todd thought as he climbed in his car and turned out of the church lot onto Hickory Ridge Road. He would listen, but he couldn’t imagine what Hannah would have to say. She had nothing to apologize for; that was his department alone. Yet, an uncomfortable sensation settled between his shoulder blades. Why did he get the sense that Andrew knew something he didn’t?

      “What are you doing, Mommy?”

      Hannah turned from the medicine cabinet mirror where she was repairing her makeup. Rebecca, dressed only in a pair of red cotton tights, underwear and a lace-trimmed undershirt, stared up at her from the bathroom doorway.

      Quickly, Hannah turned her back to her daughter and brushed the last of her tears away with the back of her hand. “Nothing, honey. You go ahead and finish changing your clothes. Remember to lay your dress out on the bed so I can hang it up, okay?”

      “Okay,” Rebecca answered, though she would likely forget and leave the Christmas plaid dress in a pile on the floor. She started to leave and then stopped, turning back to her mother. “Are you crying?”

      “No. Not really.” Hannah pressed her lips together. Now she was even lying to her daughter. When would it all stop? “I guess I am a little sad.”

      “Don’t be sad, Mommy.” Rebecca wrapped her arms around her mother’s thighs and squeezed.

      “Go СКАЧАТЬ