Can I Get an Amen

by Janice Sims

  She laughed shortly. “I guess it’s safe to assume that Marcy didn’t tell you I’m a woman.” Marcy, her secretary-cum-accountant and everything else she needed to be in the office, was a mother hen. She was always telling her that she’d get more business if she didn’t advertise that Alex was short for Alexandra instead of Alexander, which was her father’s name. She still used the business cards her father had used. Everybody had called him Alex, too.

  “No, she left out that bit of information,” Jared said. “Not that it matters.” How magnanimous of you, he silently chided himself.

  “Great,” Alex said. She withdrew the large sheaf of rolled up papers she carried under her right arm. “These are the blueprints for the layout of your yard.” Turning, she looked for someplace where she could spread out the plans. She wound up squatting on the patio and quickly showed him where the flowerbeds would be planted with impatiens, marigolds, azaleas, roses, and sunflowers. Her work was neat and precise, showing exactly how she’d envisioned his yard.

  When she’d finished, they rose and regarded each other rather shyly. The close proximity they’d shared for the past few minutes had left both of them aware of one thing: They were strongly attracted to each other. How to proceed?

  Their eyes met and held.

  “Excellent plans,” Jared said with a smile. “I can’t wait to see the end results.”

  “All right, then,” Alex said, reluctant to draw her eyes away from his face. “It’ll probably be nearly sundown before we’re done. I’ll knock on your patio door before I leave to consult with you again.”

  Jared offered her his hand. They shook on it. It was just an excuse to touch her once more. His big hand engulfed her smaller one. He imagined he could feel the strength and energy coursing through her luscious frame. Alex, too, felt something akin to electricity emanating from him. A wave of warmth swept over her. Her heart raced. She had a sneaking suspicion she was smiling like an idiot.

  She cleared her throat. “Well, I’d better get to work.”

  He let go of her and she hurried away, self-consciously adjusting the cell phone on her utility belt as she did so. She felt his eyes on her. Felt them! Nervous energy crawled up her neck, making her ears burn with embarrassment. Had it been that long since a man had looked at her like that? As if all he wanted to do was grab her and kiss her senseless? There had been no mistaking Jared Kyles’s intentions. She hoped that her own thoughts hadn’t been so easily read. She took a deep breath as she quickly walked across the large yard to join her men. If her reaction to Jared Kyles was an indication of her state of loneliness, she was one sad sister!

  Two

  "Mornin’ gentlemen, did everyone remember to use sun block?” Alex looked at the six men standing around getting their breath after unloading the flat bed truck. There was Ruben Jackson, her foreman, twenty-seven, who had gone to school with her. Then there was Joe Wallace who was in his fifties and, still, one of her better workers. He’d been a teacher before his nervous breakdown and forced retirement. These days, he preferred physical labor over intellectual pursuits, saying the physical gave him instant gratification, whereas the intellectual caused him stress. Everybody called him Mr. Wallace. Even though he wanted to forget he’d been a teacher, they could not.

  The other four men were Ed Hall, nineteen, on the team for a year, he said, to save money for college; Pete Green, twenty-nine, an ex-cocaine addict who was working his way toward becoming permanently drug-free. Like Mr. Wallace, he felt physical labor helped clear his mind and put things in perspective; Mike Lennard, twenty-five, an ex-Georgia State prisoner who’d served five years for car theft; and Tyrell Anderson, seventeen, a high school senior who only worked Saturdays.

  “Yes, Mother,” Ruben answered for all of them.

  Alex smiled at him as she pulled on her work gloves. She and Ruben had been friends since they were first graders. He was married to her best friend, Gayle. The couple had been on the fast track in Atlanta three years ago. Ruben had joined a prestigious law firm, and Gayle worked for a popular record label.

  Then, one rainy night, Ruben had gone headfirst through the windshield of his BMW when a drunk driver hit him from behind. Six months later, after he awoke from the coma, they discovered he had minor brain damage and would probably never be able to work as an attorney again. He and Gayle decided to come home to the people who loved them, and whom they loved. Gayle went to work with her mother at the family bakery. Ruben expressed an interest in learning the landscaping business, and that’s all it took for Alex to offer him a job with her company. She adored Ruben.

  “What’d you think of the boss man?” Ruben asked, his eyes alight with pent-up laughter. He took every opportunity to rib Alex.

  “He’s tall,” Alex said, as if that was all she’d observed about Jared Kyles.

  “That he is,” Ruben agreed. “Sorta stuck up, too.”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t say that,” Alex said hurriedly.

  Ruben smiled triumphantly. “So, you noticed he was more than tall, huh?”

  The other men laughed.

  Alex smiled again, and narrowed her eyes at him. “Really, Ruben, you’d give Chris Rock a run for his money, you’re so hilarious. Shall we get to work? We can gossip while we’re stuffing our faces at lunch.”

  The men laughed even harder, but between guffaws they set to work planting the new St. Augustine grass in the yard.

  Inside, Jared had gone directly to the phone to place a call to his best friend and brother-in-law, Fletcher Henderson, in Macon. It was only ten-thirty in the morning and he knew Fletcher slept late on Saturday, but he didn’t care.

  His sister, Carena, answered. “Hullo,” she said in a drowsy voice.

  “Hey, sis, how you doin’? Put Fletch on the phone, please.”

  “Hi, Jared. He’s snoring. Can’t you hear him?” Carena asked, laughing.

  “Wake him up. I’m about to cuss him out.”

  “What did he do now?”

  “Carena…” Jared said a tad impatiently.

  “Oh, okay…”

  About thirty seconds later, Fletcher said, “Damn, Kyles, can’t you phone at a decent hour?”

  “It is a decent hour. It’s nearly eleven o’clock.”

  “At night?”

  “You must have your curtains drawn. No, in the morning!” Jared said, laughing.

  “We aren’t playing basketball this morning, are we? I was still gettin’ some z’s.”

  “I’m not calling about basketball. I couldn’t wait any longer to tell you I got your joke, chump! Alex Cartwright is a woman,” Jared informed him.

  “And a good-looking one, too,” Fletcher said, sounding more awake now.

  “Who’s a good-looking one?” Jared heard Carena ask.

  “Nobody, baby,” Fletcher said, soothingly.

  “You were talking about a woman!” Carena accused him.

  “See what you started?” Fletcher asked Jared. He sighed heavily. “Baby, there ain’t no woman on earth as fine as you are! It’s a woman I wanted your confirmed bachelor brother to meet.”

  “Oh,” Carena said, somewhat mollified.

  Fletcher spoke into the receiver. “Tell her, Jared!”

  He handed Carena the receiver and she spoke into it. “Jared?”

  “It’s true, sis. Take it easy on him.”

  “Okay, I will this time,” Carena said. “Do you need to speak back with Fletcher?”

  “No, just tell him thanks. Alex Cartwright is interesting. Very interesting.”

  “Looking to add her to those notches on your bedpost?”

  “Ah, you’re too cynical to be so young,” Jared told his sister.

  “And you need to stop fooling around and get serious about somebody. You’ll be thirty-three on your next birthday.”

  “Don’t remind me.”

  “Somebody needs to remind you!”

  “Mother does a good enough job of that. I don’t need both of you riding me to get married.”<
br />
  “Personally, I don’t care if you never get married, Jared. Hey, that rhymes…”

  Jared laughed. “Go back to bed, sis. Good-bye.”

  “Bye, sweetie. Love you.”

  “I love you, too.”

  Jared replaced the receiver, a grin on his face. Carena was four years younger than he was, and she’d been married to Fletcher for five years. She was beginning to sound more like their mother, Emma, every day. That’s why he avoided marriage. It changed you. Turned you into your father, and the last person he wanted to become was James Kyles. His father had cheated on his mother for years. He tried to conceal his philandering ways but it was obvious, especially toward the end when he figured that because he was dying, he deserved what little happiness life offered.

  Instead of keeping his affair with his longtime mistress a secret, he began taking her with him to social functions. To be honest, Jared, his mother, and his sister had known for years that James Kyles didn’t care about convention. He’d transformed a small construction company into a multimillion-dollar concern, and success had made him haughty and insensitive to the needs of those close to him. He asked Emma for a divorce, and when she refused, saying it was against her religion, he took that as a go-ahead to do as he pleased. Jared had run interference for his father many times, simply because he didn’t want his mother to suffer any public humiliation.

  James drank heavily, and when he found out he had inoperable liver cancer, he began drinking in earnest. It was as if he were trying to speed up his death. The last few months, he moved in with his mistress who, it seemed to Jared, genuinely loved him. Jared had nothing but pity for her. Undoubtedly, his father had promised her he’d divorce his wife and marry her. She was faithful to the very end. Hers was the last face his father saw the day he died in the hospital.

  Living through his father’s infidelities, Jared felt that perhaps he, too, had the cheating gene in his make-up. So he kept his relationships light. Not promising anything except a good time. He didn’t want to hurt anyone. Why would he marry a woman only to break her heart somewhere down the line? No, it was best to stay single. The single life suited him just fine.

  Besides, he had never known a woman who could make him rethink his convictions.

  It was dusk, the sky purpling and the breezes becoming cool, before Jared heard the men starting their vehicles and pulling away from the house. He walked outside to the patio, remembering that Alexandra Cartwright had promised to consult with him before leaving. Plus there was the matter of the bill. He’d already made out a check for the amount they’d agreed upon.

  He found her walking the yard, double-checking their work. Conscientious, he thought. No wonder she has a good reputation.

  Alex looked up and smiled at him. He felt his heartbeat picking up its pace as she approached. A nervous flutter began in the pit of his stomach. Really, it was akin to nausea. He hadn’t felt like this since he was a teenager when he’d been hot for Sherry Townsend, a senior, and the head cheerleader at his Macon, Georgia, high school and he, a pimply-faced sophomore with about as much chance of getting with her as a snowball’s chance of remaining frozen in hell.

  “Well, we’re done,” Alex announced once she was standing within five feet of him. She stands back on her legs like a country woman, he noted with pleasure. Maybe it was her wholesomeness that made her so attractive to him. Lately, he’d been on a steady diet of cosmopolitan women who would probably cry “slavery” if you asked them to get their hands dirty doing yard work.

  “St. Augustine grass is ideal for this climate, which gets more warm days than cool days. We fertilized it. All you need to do is water it on days when there is no rain. Same thing for the flowers surrounding the dogwoods and in the borders ringing the lawn. But don’t over-water them. A lot of people make that mistake.”

  “Gotcha,” Jared said.

  Alex was glad that the fading light concealed how flustered she was standing there under his scrutiny. The last thing she needed was to be called out on the fact that she was succumbing to the magnetism of a perfect stranger’s smile. Lord, but he had the sweetest smile. Dimples in both cheeks. Gorgeous teeth. She appreciated that in a man she was anticipating kissing. And she did want to kiss him. Thank God this job was over and done with! There was no telling what she would do if she didn’t put some distance between the two of them soon.

  “Hey, why don’t you let me take you out to dinner to thank you for doing such a wonderful job on the yard?” Jared asked, interrupting her spiraling thoughts.

  She thought she was imagining things. “Huh?”

  “I just asked you out to dinner.”

  She cocked her head to the side, her mouth hanging slightly open in shock. Then she came to herself, and said, “I never mix business with pleasure.”

  “Actually, our business is concluded.”

  He promptly handed her the check.

  She took it and continued to look up at him with a simple expression on her face. “Thank you.”

  Jared smiled warmly. “My pleasure. My brother-in-law was right, your company does excellent work. He recommended you, but he didn’t tell me how beautiful you were.”

  She seemed not to have heard the compliment.

  “And your brother-in-law is who?” she asked, her brows slightly raised.

  “Fletcher Henderson.”

  “Ah, yeah, Fletch. We landscaped a new bank in Macon for his company about four months ago. Beautiful building.”

  “Fletch married my sister, Carena.”

  “I think I saw her once when she came to the site. Pretty girl with short, curly hair. Kind of petite?”

  “That’s her. She inherited Mom’s height.”

  “Then your father is tall?”

  “Was. He died two years ago.”

  “I’m sorry,” Alex said softly. “I hope I didn’t bring up sad memories.”

  “No, you didn’t,” Jared said, although his tone had turned solemn. He smiled at her. “Are you ever going to answer my question?”

  “Go out with you?”

  “Yes!”

  “I’m sorry, but my brother is home from college and I promised I’d spend the evening with him.”

  “How about lunch tomorrow? I have to be back in Macon by Monday morning, so I’m leaving tomorrow evening.”

  Alex reluctantly shook her head. “I have church tomorrow.”

  Jared sighed. “I see. Isn’t there any way we can get together this weekend? I’d like the chance to get to know you better.”

  “You’re welcome to meet me at my church.”

  This time it was Jared’s turn to raise his brows in surprise. Church? He hadn’t been to church since Easter of 1999. His mother had tried to get him inside their family church on numerous occasions, with no success whatsoever! What made this tall country girl think she could get him in the Lord’s house?

  “Listen,” she said—a little breathlessly, he thought. It was apparent she was not immune to his charms. She just chose to try to hide it. “You’re new in town, right? Church is the perfect place to meet people. And I’m truly not trying to put you off. I’d like to get to know you better, too. It’s just that I can’t make time to go out with you right now. Not only am I busy with church functions in the morning, but my sister, Vicky, is getting home from college tomorrow afternoon. And I have to be there to welcome her. We, the three of us, my brother, sister and I, haven’t seen each other in nearly a year.”

  Jared understood perfectly. “Which church is it?”

  “Red Oaks Christian Fellowship. It’s—”

  “I know where it is,” he said with a smile. “I pass it every time I come into town, and when I leave.”

  “That’s the place,” Alex said cheerfully. “Like Mother Maybelle says, we get ’em goin’ and comin’.”

  Jared laughed shortly as he stepped a little closer to her. “What time does the service begin?”

  “Eleven o’clock.”

  “I’ll be there.
”

  Alex regarded him skeptically. “Are you sure? Because if you aren’t, it’s okay. I understand that church isn’t everybody’s cup of tea.”

  “Do I look like a heathen to you?” Jared joked. “I’ll have you know our mother, Emma, raised us in the church.”

  Alex smiled more confidently. “It’s a date then,” she said, and immediately regretted her slip of the tongue. “I’d better go. Sam’s going to wonder where I am. Good night.”

  “Sam?” Jared called to her retreating back.

  “My kid brother,” Alex tossed over her shoulder as she made a hasty departure. Her face was burning with embarrassment. She didn’t have to appear so eager to spend time with him, did she?

  “Good night,” Jared said.

  “Night!” She climbed into her SUV, started the engine, and pulled away from the curb.

  Jared stood there until he saw the SUV’s red taillights receding in the distance. He loved the fact that he made her just as nervous as she made him. Sweet, that’s what she was. Sweet and unsophisticated. What was a man like him going to do with a woman like her? He would enjoy finding out.

  As for Alex, by the time she was pulling into her driveway she’d convinced herself she’d never see Jared Kyles again. He’d looked kind of panicked when she’d suggested meeting her at church.

  The Red Oaks Christian Fellowship Church sat on seventy-five acres of prime Georgia land which Mother Maybelle, that venerable lady who is mother, auntie, sister, and friend to every single soul who worshiped there, donated following a generous inheritance from her fifth, and final, husband, Dr. Mackenzie Carmichael. Mac, who was a beloved obstetrician/surgeon, had the regrettable habit of taking care of everybody except himself. Subsequently, he dropped dead of a heart attack, leaving poor Maybelle, a woman who’d never wanted anything from a man except his love, even richer than any of her previous four husbands had.

  The church was a magnificent round edifice made of stone and glass. Georgia workmen had spent two years constructing it, and it had been Alex’s pleasure to design and execute the landscaping with the help of her men and scores of volunteers.