A Love So Real: A Christian Romance (New Hope Falls Book 1)

by Kimberly Rae Jordan

  Once they made it back to the lodge, Eli led Anna to the kitchen. “Do you want something to eat? A sandwich? Some soup? Mom pulled a big batch from the freezer this morning knowing there’d be no time to cook tonight.”

  “Homemade soup sounds delicious,” Anna said. “What can I do to help?”

  “You can set the table, if you’d like,” Eli said as he walked to the fridge.

  He put the soup into a pot on the stove and began to heat it up, knowing that his mom and sisters would want some when they got home as well. He also found a fresh loaf of Norma’s bread that he cut up and put on a plate. By the time his mom and the girls were home, everything was ready. Over a supper of soup and bread, they discussed the day’s events, including Coral’s out of character attack on them.

  “Honestly, part of me is shocked that Coral would do something like that,” Sarah said. “But there’s another part that thinks it makes perfect sense.”

  “I suppose so,” Eli replied. “But I have a hard time imagining her creeping through the woods to leave notes and vandalize Anna’s car.”

  “Don’t forget that her family had the land right next to ours before we purchased it from them,” his mom said. “Let me tell you, Coral hasn’t always been so prissy and uptight. Back in the day, she used to traipse all through the woods with us.”

  “So it’s not out of the realm of possibility that she could have snuck through the forest to reach the cabins?” Eli asked. “Or I guess she could have just parked at the road and walked in, even if it was dark.”

  “It’s a definite possibility.” His mom gave a huff of laughter. “Coral was quite the tomboy back in the day, and she got into her fair share of trouble.”

  “I suppose the fingerprints will tell the tale one way or another,” Anna said. “I don’t know if I hope she is responsible or not.”

  “Why would you hope she isn’t?” Leah asked.

  “It just seems that maybe that family has suffered enough without having Coral end up in jail for assault and property damage.”

  “But on the other hand, it would all be over,” Leah added.

  “There is that,” Anna said with a sigh. “Like I said, I’m not sure which way to hope.”

  Eli felt his heart swell at the compassion Anna was showing toward Coral. Plenty of people would just have wanted to have the book thrown at the woman.

  Later that evening, Eli walked Anna up to her room. People had been coming in throughout the evening, but the upper hallway was silent at that moment.

  “Did you enjoy the day?” Eli asked. “Getting beat up aside.”

  “I did!” Anna exclaimed with a smile that lit up her whole face. “I absolutely had the time of my life. Thank you so much for sharing it with me.”

  Eli reached out and ran his fingertips along her cheek. “I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed a festival more than I did with you today.”

  “I’m glad.” She stepped closer to him and lifted her face to his. “I hope we can go to many festivals in the future. Each one better than the one before.”

  Eli’s heart skipped a beat, and for a moment, he couldn’t catch his breath. “I hope that too.”

  As he pressed his lips to hers, he couldn’t help but feel the rightness of it. Their kiss lingered until voices coming up the stairs had them moving apart.

  “I guess I should head to bed,” Anna said as she looked up at him. “I’m pretty beat.”

  “Thank you for all your help again today.”

  “It was all part of the festival experience, right?”

  “Well, for those of us who consider this place home, it was.”

  Anna smiled up at him. “Then that would definitely include me.”

  After one last kiss, he left her and returned to his room. He didn’t want the day to end, and yet he couldn’t help but look forward to the days ahead. Was it too soon for them to already be thinking about a future together? Was it too soon for him to be feeling like he was? Like she was the woman he’d been waiting for God to bring into his life? He hadn’t been praying about it—hadn’t been pleading with God to bring him a wife—and yet he had no doubt that God had brought them together.

  He didn’t think that the road ahead would always be smooth, but it was his hope and prayer that together, they’d be strong enough to weather it without faltering.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  Monday afternoon, Arianna stared out the window from her position sitting cross-legged on the comfortable couch in the sitting area of her room, finding herself lost in the splashes of colors in the trees beyond. She’d been working on a plan to present to her business team about the transition she wanted to take place over the next year. Though she wanted it to move quickly, there was no way it could because of the current collaborations she had in place.

  In a year, those collaborations would be coming to a close, and she didn’t plan to take on anymore unless they would work with her base being primarily in New Hope. She wanted to get back to just doing videos and working on her line with At Home. Everything else needed to fall by the wayside. The sponsored posts. The makeup collaborations. The endless amounts of stuff that companies sent her in hopes that she’d try it and share it with her followers on the various social media platforms. She just didn’t want those to be part of her business anymore.

  Her phone rang, dragging her thoughts back to the present. She picked it up from where it lay beside her on the bed. Seeing Rebecca’s name on the screen, she frowned because they’d only finished talking half an hour ago.

  “Hey, Becca. What’s up?”

  “Uh…did you have an altercation with someone this weekend?”

  “An altercation?” Arianna’s stomach dropped. “Why are you asking?”

  “A drama channel just dropped a video entitled Is Arianna Okay? and it has some footage that they claim is you being beaten up by a woman.”

  Arianna groaned. “Send me the link.”

  To her credit, Rebecca didn’t say anything before hanging up other than, “Alright.”

  When the email came through with the link, Arianna opened it on her laptop. The link was to a YouTube video produced by a channel called SpillinDaT3A. A voiceover began to speak.

  For weeks we’ve wondered where Arianna ended up, and if she was okay. Well, we now know where she is, but we have no idea if she’s safe. The video we’ve received certainly seems to point to her not being that way. A viewer sent this video that was taken at a fall festival in the small town of New Hope Falls in Washington State.

  Arianna watched in horror as the video began with whoever was holding the camera videoing their friends and then, when Coral began shrieking, they swung around in time to catch the woman launching herself at Arianna. Seeing it all unfold like that was fascinating but also alarming. It wasn’t until after Coral had been escorted away, and Eli had loosened his hold on her that her face became visible.

  Up until that point, she’d kind of hoped that they’d be able to deny it was her. As soon as the person recording the event saw her, though, they said, “That’s Arianna! Isn’t it? I’m sure that’s her.”

  She wanted to weep as the realization dawned on her that her location was now public knowledge. The curtain around her little sanctuary of New Hope had been ripped away.

  But although the attack was alarming, what concerns us more is the company she’s keeping. After hearing what the woman was shouting, we did a little research and discovered that the man holding her—and who has been seen with her in a way that makes it apparent that they are more than just friends—is Elijah McNamara. Upon further investigation, we discovered that ten years ago, Mr. McNamara was the prime suspect in the disappearance of his girlfriend. A girlfriend whose body has never been found.

  We can’t believe that this is a safe person for Arianna to be hanging around. Or has she been hiding the fact that she’s one of those types of women who like the prison crowd? Who would have thought that of our squeaky-clean Arianna? Either way, Arianna might not
be the person we all thought she was. Either she’s been good at hiding this part of her life, or something has changed recently. After all, she’s been around for years, but there’s only been tea to spill on her in the past few months.

  The video froze on an image of her and Eli as they walked away from the scene of Coral’s attack. Clearly, the person behind the camera had been intent on following them, videoing them without their consent. And now they were exploiting the situation. She had no doubt that the person behind the YouTube video—SpillinDaT3a—would make a pretty penny from all the views they’d get on the video since her name was in the title.

  Feeling sick to her stomach, she clenched her hands into fists and bent forward to press them against her eyes. She just wanted to be able to live her life, making videos about pretty things. Clothing. Crafts. Cooking. Things that could give people a break from the ugliness life sometimes threw at them. Only now she was having to face that ugliness herself in the form of rumor, innuendo, and an insatiable curiosity about a part of her life that was no one’s business but hers.

  For a moment, Arianna considered reading the comments, but then she clicked on the X to close the window. She glanced at the notebook laying beside her on the bed and the notes she’d been jotting down, feeling now that it had all been just a waste of time. Now that one drama channel had made a video on the attack, others would begin to pick it up, circling her and Eli like sharks circling blood in the water.

  Being exposed to such criticism was part of the job for her, but not so for Eli. He didn’t deserve to have this type of focus zeroed in on him, regardless of what he said about how he could handle it.

  How was she supposed to tell him about this? And how would Nadine and the twins feel about her bringing this kind of exposure to their son and brother? If she were in their shoes, she wasn’t sure she’d be very understanding.

  Eli had done nothing to warrant this type of attention. It was bad enough he was dealing with questions from the police and the renewed skepticism of people in New Hope, but now he was going to have strangers all around the country—and possibly the world—weighing in on the subject of his guilt or innocence. He didn’t deserve that.

  She had to let them all know what was going on, and then she needed to figure out how to get a handle on everything in a way that would cause the least amount of negative effects on Eli and his family. While she’d been willing to handle things by herself when it had just been her own life and career under scrutiny, when it was Eli’s, she wasn’t willing to risk making the situation worse with a poorly thought out response.

  It was time to call in a professional to help her figure out what to do from this point on. Given that she hadn’t gone to her for help during the previous scandal, Arianna could only hope that her PR contact would help her this time. She stared at the contact information on her phone for a moment before tapping the screen. It rang twice before it was answered.

  “Arianna, sweetheart,” Sasha Smythe drawled in greeting. “I thought I might be hearing from you today.”

  Arianna flopped back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. “I’d say you were a psychic if I didn’t know you keep a finger on the pulse of YouTube and social media on behalf of your clients.”

  “Are you my client, darling?” Sasha asked with a light laugh.

  “Very funny.” Arianna put her phone on speaker and turned over onto her stomach, resting it on the bed in front of her. “Are you really mad that I didn’t come to you before?”

  “Not really,” Sasha admitted. “It pains me to say this, but the way you handled it was just fine. In fact, the reason I didn’t contact you when it all happened was that I knew that of all the social media influencers I’ve worked with, you are the most in tune with your audience. You would know better than even me how to reach them with an apology and explanation they’d accept.”

  “I just went with my gut. I needed them to know I was sorry for what I’d done,” Arianna said with a sigh. If only this new issue was so easily dealt with.

  “Exactly,” Sasha said. “I’m afraid this situation, however, will require a different tactic. Talk to me. Tell me everything.”

  Speaking as quickly as possible, Arianna laid out everything she knew about what had happened to Eli ten years ago and what had happened more recently, including Coral’s attack on her. Sasha listened without comment until she was done.

  “So the case is still open?”

  “It’s a cold case that they’re looking into again.”

  “Is your man a suspect again?”

  “I don’t think he was ever truly a suspect. More like a person of interest.”

  “Because it was his girlfriend who disappeared?”

  “Yeah, I guess so.”

  “Okay. Let me do a little digging myself. See if I can get additional information that might help us figure out the best way to approach this.”

  Her soft Southern drawl may have made her sound gentle, but Sasha had the tenacity of a pit bull, and she would likely get information that Arianna wouldn’t be able to. All she could do was hope that it would be information that would lead to a solution for their current dilemma.

  “Just one more question,” Sasha said. “Do you think your guy would be willing to do a video?”

  Arianna tried to picture Eli sitting down in front of a video camera, and she just couldn’t. A person needed a sort of personality, an enjoyment of talking to a camera. Of just talking in general… “I don’t necessarily think that would work in Eli’s favor. He’s a man of few words, which might work against him if people want an outgoing, engaging person. Eli has his own appeal, but it’s one that is best experienced in person.”

  “Okay. Good to know. I’ll keep that in mind as we consider our options.”

  “Thanks, Sasha. I appreciate your help.”

  “No worries, darling.”

  As they hung up, Arianna pondered what she needed to do next. She couldn’t take the chance that someone in New Hope would see the video and then share the information with someone else who would share it with someone else until the news reached Nadine or the twins. Eli needed to hear it from her.

  With that in mind, Arianna closed her laptop and slid it into its bag. With her phone in one hand and the laptop bag in the other, she left the room and headed downstairs. She didn’t hear anyone in the kitchen, and there was no one in the living room when she peeked in. The lodge had fallen quiet when the last of the guests had left on Sunday afternoon. She couldn’t deny she was happy to have it just be them again, though her time there might be short considering this latest development.

  She left the lodge and got into her rental car. It was a decent enough day that she could have walked up to his place, but she really didn’t feel up to it right then. Now that she’d made the decision to talk to Eli about what had happened, she just wanted to get it over with.

  Once at his place, she parked beside his truck and prayed that she’d find the words to tell Eli what had happened and how sorry she was about it. She hesitated at the door before she reached out and pressed the doorbell then blew out a long breath. She was going to interrupt Eli’s work, and it wasn’t even for a good reason.

  “Anna?” Eli said when he answered the door. He was wearing a stained long-sleeve T-shirt and a pair of faded, ripped jeans while a mask hung down around his neck. In his hand, he carried a pair of gloves. “Is something wrong?”

  “Uh…can I talk to you?”

  Eli’s brow furrowed, but he nodded. “Sure. Want to come through to the shop? We can talk while I work.”

  Arianna nodded, then followed him through to the entrance to the shop. Shadow lay there, though he got to his feet and came to bump her hand. She gave him what he wanted before proceeding into the shop where Eli had taken a seat in front of a large piece of wood.

  “So what’s up?” Eli asked, his voice muffled by the mask he’d put back in place. He picked up what looked like a brick with sandpaper wrapped around it and rested it on th
e wood.

  “Something has happened that you need to be aware of,” Arianna said as she settled into the chair she’d used the last time she’d been in his shop, trying to draw calm from the soft music playing in the background.

  Eli straightened and tugged his mask down, tucking it under his chin, a frown on his face. “What’s wrong?”

  Arianna considered a few different ways of approaching the matter at hand, then just went straight to it. “Someone took a video of the attack on Saturday.”

  “I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised,” Eli said with a shrug. “In this day and age, with everyone having a cell phone, I think I’d be more surprised if no one had.”

  “Well, unfortunately, the person who took this particular video recognized me.”

  Eli sighed. “I suppose it was just a matter of time before someone found you.”

  “True, but that wasn’t the worst of it.” Arianna swallowed, her heart thumping madly against her ribs. “They also managed to identify you.”

  “Me? How would they identify me?”

  “During the attack, they heard what Coral was yelling and asked around about it. I guess that there were people in town only too happy to fill in the blanks for them.”

  Eli’s gaze met and held hers. “How did you find this all out?”

  “Whoever took that video sent it to a drama channel.”

  “A what?”

  “There are channels on YouTube that like to delve into what they consider to be drama being created by other channels. There were a bunch of channels that made videos about me when everything went down with David.”

  “And now they made more videos about you because of this footage from the festival?”

  “It’s more than that,” Arianna said, shifting in her chair. “They were curious about the man who protected me from the crazed woman, particularly since it appeared we were…close.”

  Comprehension dawned on Eli’s face. “They did some digging into who I am and found out about my connection to Sheila’s disappearance.”