Their Miracle Baby (BWWM Romance Book 1)

by Shanade White

  The message was ironically about the prodigal son and Sara was sure the whole congregation was staring at her; she wanted to flee but resolutely stayed and listened; her eyes glued to the Pastor. He spoke about accepting those who had gone astray and welcoming them back with open arms, as our Father in heaven does to us.

  Then it was time for the choir to sing. Sara stared mesmerized as David took the lead; his clear baritone ringing out the first verse. He had always been a magnificent singer but seemed to have honed the skill over the years. He sounded like an angel.

  She was the first one to exit the church as soon as the service ended; swiftly going over to the car to wait for her father. That was where Callie found her. She was by herself and Sara saw that her husband and son were talking with a group of people.

  “Hi Sara,” Callie’s voice was cool and remote as if she was speaking to a stranger. The girl had put on a little weight but was still wholesomely pretty with curly shoulder length hair and large dark eyes; her caramel colored skin smooth and unlined.

  “Hi Callie,” Sara ventured a smile. “I see you have started a family.”

  “Yes,” she looked over to where they were, a smile on her face which vanished instantly as she turned to face her one time friend. “I never expected you to come back.”

  “I never expected to,” Sara shrugged, her eyes moving past her friend to look aimlessly around. She was not ready for this; it was too soon. “I did a lot of things I am sorry for and I know maybe you won’t believe me but I am so sorry,”

  “I will get over it,” she told her; looking at her critically. “I am sure you have learnt from your mistake and if the good Lord can forgive you who am I not to?”

  Sara stared at her in amusement, “I see you are rearing to take over from Pastor Phillips,” she teased. “When did you become so preachy?”

  Callie laughed ruefully, the mood lightening. “Since I have become a wife and mother,” she admitted sheepishly. “Welcome back,” she gave Sara a surprise hug and after a brief hesitation Sara returned it with relief – at least she had two people in her corner, her father and Callie.

  Her father was approaching and with him was Pastor Phillips. Sara’s heart sank; she just wanted to leave and she was regretting not driving her car. “Give them time,” Callie told her softly, giving her hand a squeeze, “By the way, you look sensational,” she added. “I will call you,” she went on her way greeting Deacon Williams and Pastor Phillips.

  “My dear it is so good to see you,” Pastor Phillips enveloped her in a big hug, smelling as usual of peppermint and assurance. “Happy to have you back and if there’s anything you need to talk about, you know my door is always open.”

  “Thanks Pastor,” she told him quietly as he released her. It was as if he had opened the way for the others; by the time he had finished talking to her, several people came over and welcomed her back; saying they were glad to see her.

  Sara escaped shortly after, her heart racing, wondering if any minute she would see David at her side and she did not know quite what to say to him. Her father gently told them they had to leave and they drove away without seeing him.

  “I told you it wouldn't be so bad,” he smiled at her as they made their way home.

  “And you were right,” Sara said, settling back against the faded leather seat with a sigh. “When are you going to get rid of this gas guzzler dad?”

  “Old Betsy is here to stay young lady,” he told her with a twinkle in his eyes. “And I am sure she does not appreciate you referring to her as a gas guzzler.”

  Sara laughed and for the first time since she had been back; she felt as if things were going to work out.

  They had dinner in the small living room. Her father had made his famous fried chicken and potato salad and she ate with gusto. “Are you trying to fatten me up?” she teased as he put some more potato salad on her plate.

  “You could do with a little more meat on those bones,” he told her looking at her speculatively.

  “Dad,” she protested halfheartedly, putting some of the delicious salad into her mouth. “I would have you know that this is an ideal weight for my height.”

  “Nonsense,” he waved a hand at her. “A little more flesh won’t kill you.”

  They finished eating in companionable silence and Sara cleared the table and told him she would do the washing up. He retired to his study to read his Bible and maybe to pray. Sara took the opportunity to go and finish the unpacking and sort out her room. He had left the room the same way since she had been away; not moving anything but making sure it was neat and tidy. She had changed out all her girlish furniture when she turned eighteen and had gone with a bold design – splashes of red and blue everywhere. She wandered over to the dressing table where there was still a photo of her and David that had been taken at the fair; the summer before she left.

  Her hair had been shoulder length then and the breeze had whipped it around his face and she had been looking up at him and him staring down at her. They had looked so happy together until she had decided that she wanted more for herself. How wrong she had been.

  She was about to place the photo back on the dresser but she put it in a drawer instead – she needed no reminders of her past; even though she was right back in the middle it.

  *****

  Monday morning dawned bright and with it the promise of a new start. She had decided to accept her father’s offer and help him run the bookstore. She had worked there every summer when she was a teenager and helped him set up the internet café as well; he had been so pleased that she had shown an interest in the ‘family business’ as he referred to it until she had left; telling him that working in a bookstore was not her life’s dream.

  He had left right after breakfast; telling her that he had some books to sort out and she should take her time. He had prepared pancakes and eggs but she had shuddered at the heaping of syrup and whipped cream and decided she would have black coffee and a plain bagel. Her father looked as if he was making good on his desire to fatten her up, she thought wryly. She sat in the small homely kitchen sipping her coffee thoughtfully. There was still some evidence of her mother around. The coffee maker she had bought on one of her visits in town; the garish table cloth on the kitchen table and the marble counter top she had replaced the Formica one for. Thinking about her mother had gotten less and less depressing as the years went by and the pain of her abandonment had dulled considerably; the sense of betrayal remained though and she wondered how her father managed to keep it together all these years.

  Shaking her head as if to get rid of the troubling thoughts, she stood and washed out her coffee cup – her father was not very tolerant when it came to dirty sinks. She had dressed for her first day back in cream pants and a teal cotton blouse; the time was a little nippy even though it was the middle of summer; so she had added a black lightweight jacket as well. Gold knobs winked at her ear lobes and she had put on matching bracelets. She got there at a quarter to nine and her father was already busy with customers. He looked up with a smile and waved her over. Sara hurriedly went inside the small office and put away her pocket book and the coffee she had carried with her; before going out to join her father.

  He left at noon and said he had a meeting with a bookseller and he would be gone for at least an hour.

  The bookstore was empty when he came in. She had just sat down to drink her warmed up coffee when she heard the tinkle of the doorbell. It was David and she felt as if she was glued to the chair; it was him and her heart was thundering so much inside her that she hardly heard the greeting.

  “Sara,” his voice; that deep husky baritone that always had the power to weaken her. He was dressed in faded jeans and a black T-shirt that exposed his tanned hairy arms.

  “David,” she murmured, standing at last on legs that threatened to betray her.

  “I wanted to see your dad, is he here? I don’t see his car out front.” He slowly came towards her.

  “He – he went
to a meeting,” she cursed herself for the uncertainty in her voice.

  “I didn’t get a chance to welcome you back yesterday at church, by the time I came out you were already gone.” He stood a few feet away from her. “How are you?”

  “I am doing great.” she said with bravado.

  “You’ve changed your hair, it suits you,” he smiled at her slightly.

  “Thanks,” she placed an unconscious over her short cropped hair. “How have you been?”

  “Very well thank you,” he told her soberly.

  “David I am –“ she began but he held up a hand to stop her.

  “You did what you had to do Sara,” he told her a little grimly.

  “Yes I did,” her pointed chin lifted and she squared her shoulders. If he did not want her apology then to hell with him.

  He stared at her searchingly for a minute and then he said in a cool remote voice. “Please tell your father to call me, thanks.” Without waiting for her to respond, he turned and left.

  She stood there feeling as if the earth had just been dragged from under her and she was floating with nowhere to stop and nothing to anchor her. She did not blame him hating her. He had expressed his love for her so many times over the years and she had told him to give her time and he had done that and she had gone ahead and left him with barely a goodbye. She remembered the day quite clearly as if it was yesterday.

  She had called him over to the house and told him it was urgent and she did not want to speak about it over the phone.

  At 22, David had been on the lanky side; his dark hair having a tendency to curl. She had often teased him that he looked more like a girl than she did with that head of beautiful hair and long lashes.

  He had been at church, rehearsing but had left to rush over to see her.

  “Hey what’s up?” he had asked as soon as she let him inside. Her father was at the bookstore and she had pretended to be ill so she didn't have to go in. She had finished college and had gotten a degree in literature and had pondered on teaching but the enthusiasm was not there so her father had asked her to help him out until she decided what she needed to do.

  She had been pacing the whole time till he got there and she still had no idea how to tell him. She had been secretly sending out head shots to the big city and had gotten a response. An agent was interested and wanted to sign her on. She had been a good Christian girl to please all around her and she was done with it – it was time to think about her for a change.

  “I got an offer,” she blurted out.

  “An offer for what?” he asked her puzzled. He had been about to pull her into his arms and she evaded him. They had had sex for the first time for both of them when she turned eighteen and he considered her to be his girl.

  “From a modeling agency, I want to be a model.” She told him shakily. He stood there staring at her as if she had taken leave of her senses.

  “What about us? About church? About your father?” he asked her bewildered.

  “I will deal with my father later and church will always be there.” She took a deep breath. “I have to do this David and if you love me you will be happy for me.”

  “Don’t do that,” he told her heatedly, advancing towards her. “I love you and I want to spend my life with you so don’t expect me to be happy that you want to go.”

  “You don’t know what love really is,” she cried out in frustration, pulling away from him. “I don’t want to stay in this backwater town for the rest of my life. I want to see what’s out there and I want you to be happy for me.”

  There was silence for so long that Sara wondered if he was ever going to respond. Then he did. Reaching out he pulled her into his arms and took her lips with his; bruising her with his intensity. She dragged herself away from him; her breathing ragged. “I am going,” she told him shakily. “So deal with it.”

  “I love you Sara but if you leave don’t expect me to be here waiting for you.” He told her quietly and slammed out of the house. She had cried herself to sleep; almost going after him but she had made up her mind; she had to escape and no one was going to talk her out of it. Now she was back and she had seen him and she realized with a dull thud of her heart that she still had feelings for him. How was she going to go around this small town without bumping into him? And what if he was seeing someone, how was she going to deal with it?

  With a shudder, she gulped back tears and wished she had never come back.

  Chapter 2

  “I can see you are very busy, maybe I should come back later,” Sally Graham commented as she came inside the green house where her son was busy placing seeds into the newly dug ground. The place smell of freshly dug dirt mixed with the heady scent of many different flowers. It never ceased to amaze her how her son had turned the place in a veritable forest.

  “I am never too busy for my favorite mother,” he told her cheerfully, pulling off his gardening gloves and coming over to kiss her on the cheek.

  “Your only mother,” she told him dryly. She had brought him lunch in a picnic basket because she knew when he was working he did not have time to eat and she also wanted to see how he was doing; due to Sara coming back to town. No matter how old he was, he was still her one and only baby.

  “And you brought lunch,” David observed, glancing at his wristwatch in surprise to see that it was almost noon. He had started working at six a.m. and had not stopped. He had not slept very well the night before. She was back and all the old feelings were stirring up inside him, seeing her at the bookstore yesterday and how incredibly beautiful she had grown had not made it easy on him.

  “How are you?” she asked him bluntly, she was never one to beat around the bush. It always amazed her this giant of a man came from her petite frame but he had gotten the height from his father and the looks from her.

  “I'm fine,” he shrugged, going over to the small pipe to wash off the dirt before coming over to the table where his mother was seated with the intention of partaking of the food. He had set up the greenhouse in such a way that he could have somewhere he could eat and there was also an old hammock where if he felt like it, he could take a nap.

  “Have you seen her?” Sally persisted as he reached for a chicken sandwich.

  David thought about pretending he had no idea what or who she was referring to but knowing his mother; he decided against it. “I saw her yesterday,” he said casually, no one; not even his mother whom he loved so much was going to know the extent of what he was going through in regards to Sara – that was between him and God.

  “And?”

  “And nothing mother,” he said with a little impatience coloring his deep voice. “I went to the bookstore looking for Deacon Williams and she was there and we spoke briefly.”

  “So there was no apology or no explanation as to why she is back?” Sally was not letting up.

  “Mom,” David said wearily, placing the half eaten sandwich on the paper plate. “I don’t want to talk about Sara; she is my past and I want to move on from it so please drop it.”

  “Darling, the fact that you are having a warm time talking about her means she is not your past and you are going to have to deal with it sooner or later.” She stood up getting ready to leave. “You’re still in love with her son and what you plan on doing with that is entirely up to you.” She gave him a kiss and left. He sat there staring at nothing, his mother’s words reverberating through him and with a sinking heart he knew it was true, he was still in love with her.

  *****

  Callie called her on Wednesday and suggested they had lunch. Sara had a moment of hesitation but she accepted; after all if she was going to mend fences, she had better go about it the right way.

  She had not slept well on Monday night. She kept seeing David’s face and what was worst, she kept remembering what he felt like when they were together all those years ago. She had been with one other person apart from him; the man she had thought could and would replace David in her heart but he had turned out to
be a real jerk who had only wanted her as long as she appeared to be going places and when the agency had dropped her; he'd also told her that he didn't think it was going to work out between them.

  They met for lunch at the little restaurant at the corner of the street down from the bookstore. She'd told her father she was going to get lunch and she would be back in the next half an hour. He had waved her away with a smile and told her to go and get out of the bookstore, stretch her legs a little.

  The restaurant was a little crowded as it was lunch hour but Callie was already seated; her eyes brightening as soon as she saw Sara. “I have already ordered for you,” she told her as Sara slid into the booth next to her.

  “You did?” Sara raised a brow questioningly.

  “I remember how much you used to like the chicken salad in this place,” she answered, and then her brow creased uncertainly. “Unless of course, your tastes have changed.”

  “No of course not,” Sara hastened to assure her.

  “You look like you just stepped from the pages of a fashion magazine,” Callie sighed, eyeing the girl’s chic and graceful appearance. She had chosen to wear tailored black pants and a sleeveless red blouse with buttons at the front.

  “One of the advantages of working in the modeling industry,” Sara said with a wry smile.

  “Why did you leave Sara?” Callie asked suddenly, there were the usual background noises in the restaurant, muted chatters, utensils banging against glassware but at the table the silence was evident.

  “I had to get away,” Sara answered finally, her large eyes sparkling with unshed tears. “I had to see what else was out there and I did not want to turn out like my mother who married my father and found out she could not cut it as a Deacon’s wife and a stay at home mom. I could not do that to David.”

  “So instead you left and broke his heart in little pieces.” Callie said grimly, shaking her head. “You were my best friend Sara and you did not share any of those things with me; you just left.”