Holiday Homecoming. Jean C. Gordon

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СКАЧАТЬ It seemed like a fairly equal distribution, plus a few undecided.

      She stood. Time to stop being a shrinking violet and start being the music director. Natalie pitched her voice to carry up to the back of the stage. “Those of you who aren’t sure where your voice falls stop and see me after practice, and I’ll have you test sing then or before our next practice if you can’t stay tonight.”

      “Everybody got that?” Connor asked. “Natalie, your mother went over the selections the pageant committee agreed on?”

      “Yes.” She sat down and opened the music folder to the first song.

      “Take it away, maestro,” he said.

      Natalie lifted her fingers and flexed them. “We’ll warm up with ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.’ I’ll run though the first couple of stanzas. When I go back to the beginning again, you all join in.”

      She waited for Connor to leave now that the practice was beginning. Instead, he climbed the bleachers to the tenor section and stood in front of his brother Jared. A small tremor ran through her hands as she placed her fingers on the keyboard, remembering the rich timbre of his singing voice. Until she’d turned down his proposal Christmas Eve of her senior year, they’d driven to and from college together singing to the radio the whole way. The man could really do justice to a slow country ballad. She stopped a sigh. For whatever reason, she’d expected Connor to leave.

      Natalie began to play, trying to lose herself in the music. But her mind kept running over ways to avoid being caught alone with Pastor Connor again.

      She finally finished the program’s closing song. “I think that’s good for tonight.” She paused. “Unless Connor has anything else.”

      “No, nothing except a reminder that the next practice is next Tuesday, same time.”

      A week. That gave her a week before she’d have to see Connor again. Except—the thought struck her—at church service. She shook off the feeling of uncertainty. What was with her? There wasn’t anything between her and Connor anymore. She was a big girl. She could maintain a pastor-parishioner relationship with him. But he wasn’t any ordinary pastor, and considering some of the stuff she’d gotten herself into the past couple of years, she was a far cry from his typical parishioner.

      As she waited for choir members to check in with her about their range placement, a chuckle from Connor rose above the chatter, drawing her gaze to him. She followed his progress down the bleachers. The confident way he carried himself and the cordial expression on his face as he talked to those around him told her that Connor had finally found himself. Her heart warmed. She was happy for him. She could only pray that coming back might help put her on a calmer path, too.

      Natalie tensed as Connor left the group and walked to the piano. She looked furtively for someone, anyone else, heading her way.

      “Thanks again, Nat,” he said, slipping into the familiar nickname only her family and friends in Paradox Lake used. “See you next week.” He raised his hand in farewell as he walked past her and the piano.

      “I’ll be here.” She released a pent-up breath and her anxiety about having to deal with him one-on-one flowed out with it. His short, politely distanced words were exactly what she wanted from him. So why did she feel a little more empty with each step he took away from her?

      * * *

      “So, what’s with you and the piano player?” Jared accosted Connor as he headed toward the utility room to let Drew know that the choir was done.

      “I can help with that one.” His other brother, Josh, seemed to appear from the shadows. “Natalie was Connor’s first love.”

      The mocking tone Josh put on the last two words ignited a spark of anger. “Where’d you come from?” Connor asked, forcing himself to ignore the taunt. This was Josh, after all. The man who’d never dated a woman long enough to have any feelings for her.

      “I stopped by to help Drew and the kids with the settings. He gave me the key to give to you to lock up.” Josh handed him a key ring. “Now, back to the beauteous Natalie Delacroix...”

      Natalie was beautiful, and Josh was no longer mocking. Still, Connor had a childish urge to demand Josh “take that back,” the kind of demand that had resulted in more than one teenage brother brawl.

      “I think the lady dumped our baby bro their last year of college,” Josh said.

      “Something like that,” Connor mumbled, glad that Josh didn’t know the full story. Even though the two of them were close, Josh had a reckless streak that had stopped Connor from telling him beforehand that he was going to ask Nat to marry him, despite Connor having been certain at the time that she’d say “yes.” That move had saved him from the embarrassment of having to share being shot down.

      “You guys still on for helping me with the cottage Saturday morning?” Josh asked.

      For once, Josh’s habit of making things all about him didn’t bother Connor.

      “We’ll be there,” Jared said. “Brendon can’t wait. I got him his own scaled-down tool belt.”

      Connor admired the way his oldest brother had bonded with his stepson and went out of his way to be a father to him in a way their father had never been to them.

      “Connor?”

      “Sure, as long as nothing more pressing comes up.” Connor couldn’t think of any reason right now that he wouldn’t be able to help Josh work on the decrepit lakeside cottage he’d bought to fix up and sell. He was being contrary. Josh had a way of bringing the worst out in him.

      His brother frowned.

      “Like an emergency with one of my parishioners.”

      “Right. See you Saturday.” Josh left.

      “I’m going to do a walk around to make sure everything is turned off before I lock up,” Connor said to Jared. “Catch you at Josh’s Saturday.”

      “You can’t get rid of me that easy,” Jared said. “I need a lift home. I told Becca if she finished earlier than we did to go ahead home, and I’d get a ride from you.”

      “Pretty sure of yourself.”

      “Yeah.”

      Connor tossed his car keys at his brother. “Make yourself useful and go run the heater so the car’s warm when I get out.”

      A couple of minutes later, Connor joined Jared. He put the car in Reverse to pull out of the parking space.

      “Natalie Delacroix,” Jared said out of nowhere. “I knew I recognized her.”

      Connor hit the brakes harder than necessary and skidded on the icy parking lot. Recognized her from where? She would have been eleven when Jared left Paradox Lake for the motocross circuit.

      “When I was racing in the Midwest, she was a reporter on one of the local stations,” Jared said.

      Connor shrugged and put the car in Drive. “She had a mentor her senior year who was an anchor at one of the Chicago affiliate stations. He was a guest instructor at СКАЧАТЬ