What Could Be (Everyday Love Book 1)

by Jaycee Weaver

  Josh picked up his phone and sent a text to his brother. You guys going to Mom and Dad’s for dinner tomorrow? He dumped a load of laundry into the washer and started the machine while waiting for a reply. Sundays after church his family usually got together for an early dinner, either at a favorite local restaurant or in one of their homes.

  His phone dinged with a text notification. Yeah. Jenna came home for the weekend. You have B or is he with The B? Josh grinned at his brother’s nickname for Skye. Totally un-Christian-like and not a word his mother would approve of, but accurate in all too many ways. He was pleased to know his sister was in town. Hopefully Skye wouldn’t mind if he picked up Brendan early tomorrow so he could visit with his aunt. Jenna adored her nephew and Brendan thought she was the coolest person in the world. His words.

  Josh shot a quick reply to his brother before punching out one to Skye. Jenna’s in town. Mind if I pick up Brendan early tomorrow?

  Her reply was immediate. He’s at my parents’ house tonight. Check with them, I’m on a date.

  In other words, still living the single and free life, barely paying their son any attention, and dumping him on her parents so she could feel like she was doing her minimal parental duty and being a good daughter. Yeah, right. Josh shook his head in annoyance and scrolled through his contacts to find the number for Brendan’s other grandparents. He actually liked them, and didn’t begrudge them their time with Brendan. What really annoyed him was Skye’s lack of involvement and how easily she just shuffled him off on her parents instead of treasuring what little time she made for him. They picked up after several rings and he could hear laughter in the background. The tension in his shoulders eased.

  “Hello?” Susan Woods’ voice still held a hint of laughter.

  “Hi, Susan, it’s Josh. Skye said Brendan was with you and Rich tonight?”

  “Oh, yes. We just love having him! He’s entertaining us with stories about school and playing football with the boys. And we keep hearing all about the lovely Miss Brynn, Miss Gina, and Miss Erica. He certainly has a lot to say about the ladies who take care of him after school. I imagine he’s quite the charmer,” she chuckled. “But how are you, dear? Is everything all right?”

  “It’s fine. I was calling to find out if I can pick up Brendan a little early tomorrow. My sister came to town and I’d like to go see her right after church so Brendan can get in some quality time with her.”

  “Sure, sure. I am so glad that he has an aunt and uncle on your side. I never thought about it much when we decided to only have one child that it would remove the relationships like that from our grandchild’s life. Looking back, we probably should have had more children. Maybe then Skye would have learned a thing or two and wouldn’t be…” she sighed with a tinge of regret to her voice. “Well, never mind that trail of thought. Anyway, dear, I actually had a question for you. Rich and I recently started attending a local church ourselves, and I know you usually take Brendan so we figured it would be all right with you if we took him with us this week?”

  Josh’s eyes were wide with surprise. While Susan and Rich were wonderful people, they had always struck him as the quietly agnostic sort of people who didn’t really care too much about God one way or another. He knew Skye hadn’t grown up in church and had never really been exposed to any sort of faith, nor did she seem to care to explore it now.

  “Uh, wow! This is so unexpected. I’d love to hear more about it. Do you mind sharing with me?”

  “Well, do you remember a few months ago when Rich was in the hospital for that minor heart episode? It seems that someone from his work had asked their pastor to pray for Rich. That nice young pastor actually came to the hospital and visited with us for a nice, long chat. He was very kind and we were quite impressed with him. I’ve been turned off a lot by other religious people and their sanctimonious attitudes or hell-fire and brimstone preaching at people. Rich grew up in a church that was big on pious religion and tradition, and small on compassion. Neither of us cared for it.

  “But there was something different about this pastor. Randy genuinely seemed to care about Rich, even though they’d never met. He didn’t push Jesus on us or tell him to get right or he’d go to hell. He just came and prayed for Rich, and then talked with us about our regular lives. And then the very next day, he came back! His wife came with him once Rich was released and they brought us dinner one evening. We all sat and visited, and they answered all of our questions openly and honestly.

  “After they left, Rich and I started talking about it, and we were genuinely curious about this church. If other Christians were out there who lived their lives like this pastor and his wife, then maybe we’ve been making judgements in error all these years. Or not, but we wanted to find out for ourselves. We’ve only gone a handful of times, but we really like it. Have you heard of it? It’s Grace Springs Fellowship over there by that wholesale garden center?”

  Josh had heard of it, but he couldn’t remember where. Someone he knew went there, maybe? He tried to search his memory but came up empty.

  “Yeah, I’ve heard of it. I’ve always gone to Well of Hope with my parents, but I think I know someone who goes there. When is their service?” he asked.

  “It starts at 10 and we’re usually headed to lunch well before noon. Would it be easier if we just drop Brendan off at your house after church?”

  “That might work. Can I just text you mid-morning some time with a definite plan?” He had an idea, but didn’t want to bring it up. If Brendan was going to be visiting their church, he kind of wanted to check it out for himself. What if they taught some weird theology? What was their security like in the children’s area? Since Rich and Susan were so new to the concept of church, they might not know what to look for.

  At the same time, Josh didn’t want to invite himself to join them and face the awkwardness of having to sit with them in service. He liked them enough, and respected their role as Brendan’s grandparents, but it was a little weird thinking about going to church with the parents of a former one-night stand.

  “That sounds fine, hon. I’ll wait to hear from you in the morning. I met a few of the people who volunteer in the children’s church last week and I think Brendan will have a lovely time. You take care and enjoy the rest of your night!”

  “I will. You, too,” he added before disconnecting.

  Chapter 13

  Sunday morning, Josh pulled into the busy parking lot at Grace Springs. It was a newer building, not quite as big as the couple of megachurches in town, but not as small and dated as his own church. It was nicely landscaped and had a modern looking logo on the front of the building. He liked the contrasting colors on the structure, and how the front curved but the side had several angles creating visual interest around the east facing entrance.

  He was greeted by a team of adults in matching tee shirts with the church logo on them. He was pleased by the variety in ages represented on the team. They were friendly but not saccharine. He accepted a bulletin and returned the smile from the older gentleman who’d shaken his hand. He saw a sprawling coffee bar along the far wall, and was impressed with the options available at the pour-it-yourself station. He made a cup and carried it in to the sanctuary. Auditorium? Probably more like an auditorium than a sanctuary.

  It was curved and slanted down theater style toward a huge stage displaying a glossy baby grand piano slightly off center. There was a long, short wall in the rear center of the auditorium where a huge board was set up and a heavyset balding man was monitoring the sound system. Another two people were checking things on computer monitors and all seemed fully engrossed in their jobs. The worship team had already started, so he took a seat in a back row off to one side. He looked around for Rich and Susan and eventually saw them about halfway down on the opposite side.

  The second song began, and a soulfully sweet voice rang out the first verse of a song he hadn’t heard before. He looked at the stage and couldn’t believe his eyes. Brynn was singing o
n the stage, eyes closed, one arm raised in worship as her voice rang through the auditorium accompanied by the musicians. The song was powerful, the lyrics describing the intimate way God loves. When she reached the chorus, she sang out, “He loves us, Oh how He loves us, Oh how He loves,” and his spirit soared. The song was incredible and he looked to the bottom of the screen for the copyright information. Written by John Mark McMillan. Huh. Definitely one he’d have to download to listen to in his car.

  The rest of worship was wonderful, almost professional in quality, but none of the music stirred him quite as much as Brynn’s song. He’d already known she was an incredible person from their few conversations the past couple months here and there and from hearing what Brendan had to say at home about her, but seeing her in a church environment, worshipping the way she did with her whole being, he was blown away. This definitely wasn’t just a crush. He felt almost compelled to get to know her better. He wanted to know everything he could. To be near her.

  He swallowed hard and stood during the greeting time to go refill his coffee. When he returned to his seat, they were nearly finished with announcements and the pastor was followed by a young guy wearing one of the church tee shirts the greeters had worn and carrying a plexiglass podium.

  The pastor was probably in his late thirties, with close cropped dark hair and a perfectly trimmed beard. He wore slim fitting jeans, intentionally faded in places and obviously trendy. He introduced himself as Randy Taylor and his smile was genuine. He wore a dress shirt casually rolled to mid-forearm and open at the collar and had thin, dark rimmed glasses that looked like he’d just come from an eyewear photo shoot.

  Randy presented an image that instilled respect but wasn’t stuffy. He had a deep voice that rang out with a friendly tone, and Josh instantly understood why Susan and Rich had been intrigued. As he listened to the message, he laughed aloud at Randy’s anecdotes and nodded along with the more serious moments. The message was all about forgiveness and struck a chord within Josh.

  As the service wrapped up, Josh sent a text to Susan that he would meet her at the children’s area. When he met them there, Susan was clearly surprised to see him. Rich reached out to shake his hand that morphed a typical male handshake-hug back thump.

  “Hi, Josh! I didn’t expect to see you here this morning. Did you come to the service?”

  “I did. I got here a little bit late, so I just sat in the back. After talking to Susan yesterday I thought I’d check it out for myself,” he smiled in her direction and she returned it.

  “What did you think?” Susan asked before continuing, “I really enjoyed the message this morning. It really made me think about how much unforgiveness has really weighted down my life. I’ve got a lot to ponder this week, and Rich and I were talking about meeting with Pastor Randy and his wife again.”

  “I think that’s a great idea. It made me think, too. I especially enjoyed the praise and worship part of the service, but his message was certainly on point. One of the songs was sung by Brendan’s after school teacher, Brynn,” Josh added.

  “Oh! So that lovely blonde in the scarf was the famous Miss Brynn? I had no idea!” Susan gushed, “Oh, and speak of the devil! Err, I guess that’s not a good expression to use in church, is it?” she laughed to herself. “But isn’t that her in Brendan’s Sunday school room?”

  Josh looked to the door way of the classroom they had been walking toward. Sure enough, he could see Brynn’s long blonde profile, bending down slightly in conversation with the much shorter kids in the kindergarten class room. She looked up at the parents in the door way and collected their check in tag before calling the name of the child they were picking up and verifying it with the tag on the child’s shirt. Josh noticed a similar tag in Susan’s hand and was happy to see a formal system in place for keeping the kids secure.

  A moment later, Brynn made eye contact with him and her eyes widened before her face returned to its usual friendly demeanor. She smiled at him and he couldn’t have stopped his face from returning with a wide smile if he’d wanted to.

  “Josh! I didn’t expect to see you here. Brendan said he came with his other grandparents this morning,” she explained as she turned to greet Susan and Rich.

  Susan passed Brynn the security tag with one hand and extended her other to shake. “Hi, I’m Susan, and this is my husband Rich. We’ve been coming here off and on the past several weeks. We’re Brendan’s mother’s folks. Josh and I spoke last night to make plans for picking Brendan up early from us. I had no idea he planned to come to church this morning!”

  Susan was a big talker. She would tell her life story to anyone who would listen. Josh smiled to himself and stuck his hands in his pockets. This was the awkward situation he’d hoped to avoid by arriving late intentionally and sitting alone in the back. Explaining his connection to the Woodses was always uncomfortable, but even more so with Brynn.

  Brynn didn’t appear fazed by it at all. Thankfully, she knew the situation well enough to understand the strangeness of it, but Josh figured she had dealt with enough non-traditional families in the after-school program that nothing probably threw her anymore.

  “So,” he said to Brynn, “Not only are you taking a full load of classes and running the Cordova SAEC, but you also reserve time for your family, sing like a professional and teach kindergarteners about Jesus in your spare time?” He stretched his neck and pulled a confused face, looking around the top of her head.

  “What are you looking at?!” Brynn asked with a quizzical expression. A hand flew to her head to check for whatever he was examining.

  “Oh, I was just trying to see if I could spot the halo you must be hiding,” he explained with a dimpled grin.

  Her cheeks blushed a soft pink and she smiled back at him, shaking her head in silent laughter, eyes crinkling.

  “Ha, ha. No halo, I assure you,” turning, she called for Brendan, “Brendan! Your dad’s here with your grandparents!”

  Brendan’s head popped up from where he’d been building Legos with a few of the other remaining kids and he clamored to his feet and raced to the door.

  “Dad! You came to this new church with me? I like it here! It’s so cool! I didn’t know you were coming! Grandma, did you know Dad was gonna be here? Hi, Grandpa!” his words came out in an excited rush as he looked from person to person.

  “Can you believe Miss Brynn was my teacher here, too? We did the singing part in the big kids’ church and then Miss Brynn came in and took us to this room for the rest of Sunday school. I couldn’t believe it! She’s here, dad! It was so funny! I was like, ‘Miss BRYNN?!’ and her eyes were all HUGE when she saw me! I gave her the biggest hug EVER, didn’t I, Miss Brynn? I hugged you like THIS!” He demonstrated, which brought laughter from all four of the adults.

  “Yeah, buddy, I bet you did! I had no idea Miss Brynn would be here. I have a surprise for you when we leave here, so we better get going. There are other moms and dads here to pick their kids up and we’re standing in the way. You ready to go?” Josh asked his bouncing little boy as he picked him up for a hug.

  While Josh wanted to linger and spend more time with Brynn, he knew it was better to leave. The group waved goodbye to Brynn and turned to go. They said their farewells to one another, Susan and Rich hugging Brendan and exiting quickly to go and speak with an older couple they had recognized several feet away.

  Josh grabbed Brendan’s hand to leave, but a thought struck him just before they left. He gave it about half a heartbeat’s thought before acting on the impulse. It might infringe on the family plans with Jenna later, but he could make it work if she said yes. He bent over to give instructions and then sent Brendan running back to the class room while he lingered behind to overhear what she’d say.

  “Miss Brynn! My dad has season tickets to the Lobo football game tonight. Do you want to go?” he practically shouted in excitement.

  Brynn

  Brynn didn’t quite know how to respond to Brendan’s exclamation. Did
that mean they had extra tickets to a game because they couldn’t go and they were giving them to her? Or, could Gina be on to something and he was using Brendan to indirectly ask her out? How did she respond properly to either question? What if she accepted the tickets under the assumption he was giving them to her, and he thought it was a date? She obviously couldn’t accept if it was a date. And how stupid would she look if he was just giving them to her? Or was he asking just to join them as friends? Ack!

  How did she answer without embarrassing herself, or Josh, causing a misunderstanding, or inappropriately encouraging or discouraging him? It took mere seconds for all these thoughts to fly through her head at once.

  Light bulb! She almost laughed at the Gru voice in her own head.

  “Oh, buddy, that’s a very sweet offer and I do love the Lobos, but I have a really big project for school I have to finish tonight,” she explained. There. Way to think on your feet! Ha! I am Switzerland neutral, baby!

  “Okay! I’ll tell my dad. See you tomorrow!”

  Brendan turned and started to run off, then circled back around and threw his arms around her legs in a tight hug. Her heart melted into a puddle of goo every time this precious boy showed his exuberant affection. She grinned down at him, crouched to one knee, and gave him a return hug. She rubbed the buzzed hair on top of his head and stood once more.

  She turned to greet the next parents picking up children from Sunday school as Brendan ran full throttle back to his father. While dismissing the rest of the kids and wiping down the tables, she kept replaying Brendan’s question over and over, trying to figure out which way she was supposed to have interpreted it.

  Her heart felt like it was doing cannonballs into her stomach over and over again just considering even the remote possibility Josh could be looking for more than friendship with her. Even though she could never go there, what girl wouldn’t feel flattered to have a great guy like him interested in her?