Jingle Bell Babies (Love Inspired) by Springer Kathryn

Author:Springer, Kathryn [Springer, Kathryn]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Steeple Hill Love Inspired
Published: 2009-11-10T22:00:00+00:00

She was gone.

Jesse looked in the kitchen and saw a pan of golden-brown corn bread cooling on the countertop and a kettle of chili simmering on the back burner, but there was no sign of Lori.

He bounded up the stairs but found the nursery empty, too. When he finally scraped up the courage to rap on her bedroom door, there was no response.

Where was she?

Panic scoured the lining of his stomach and Jesse hesitated in the hallway, unsure of where to look next. Or if he should look.

Clay had disappeared, too, so he couldn’t ask him if knew where Lori might have gone. Not that Jesse would have risked getting another lecture from his younger brother. He wasn’t used to Clay standing his ground and sharing his opinion about something.

Jesse walked to the nearest window and looked outside to see if Lori’s car was still parked next to the barn. His relief at seeing the bright blue compact didn’t completely dispel his growing concern over her disappearance.

He retraced his steps, forced to face the fact that Clay’s insight into the reason behind Lori’s actions may have been right.

He wasn’t used to that, either.

In the past, Clay had operated under the “when the going gets tough, the tough take off” motto. The little brother Jesse had grown up with had been impulsive. Slow to think things through and quick to act.

That was part of the problem. Jesse was having a hard time relating to Clay because he was no longer a boy. Growing up, the Circle L had formed the foundation of their relationship. When Clay stormed away and turned his back on the ranch that night, they’d lost their common ground.

“You’re still brothers.”

Something Maya had reminded him that afternoon. Jesse had never understood her unwavering belief that God would eventually help Clay find his way home and their family would be together again.

Now that they were, the rules had changed. They’d changed.

With tears in her eyes, his sister had pleaded with Jesse to start over with Clay. Jesse wasn’t sure he could. In order to start over, didn’t a person have to let go of the past? Or maybe, in his case, the past had to let go of him. Sometimes Jesse felt as if there were shackles around his feet, preventing him from moving freely. From moving forward.

Maya would say that’s where God came in, but Jesse’s faith had been so weakened, he no longer trusted it to hold him up, or to fill the empty pocket in his soul when someone else he cared about walked out of his life.

Right. That’s why it’s so much easier to push them away first.

Jesse blamed the sudden tightening in his chest on the unnatural quiet filling the house. He took the stairs two at a time and glanced into the living room. The logs in the fireplace had burned down to a glowing nest of coals, and even though the decorations gave the room a festive look, something was missing.

Or someone.

Someone

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