A Very Special Delivery

handles it.”
    James gave him a strange look that Ethan couldn’t interpret. “Like the rest of us, I guess. She’s just surviving.”
    “There has to be a solution. Some way to get Molly and Chloe to resolve this stand-off. Neither is going to be happy until they do.”
    “Is my sister-in-law’s happiness important to you?”
    “It’s starting to be,” Ethan admitted.
    For the first time a ghost of a smile touched the man’s worried brown eyes. “Good. Two years of this is long enough. I love my wife, but I don’t know how much more I can take before…”
    James’s voice trailed off as if he’d revealed too much.
    Ethan shifted, bringing a drooping Laney to his shoulder. Something had to give.
    “What if I can come up with a plan?” he asked, and then wondered what on earth he was talking about. “Something that will get the two of them at least on speaking terms?”
    “Got a miracle in that baby’s diaper bag?”
    “No. I don’t even have an idea yet. But something has to change.”
    “Well…” James stared blankly into space, the worry lines around his eyes pronounced. “The situation can’t get any worse. I’m ready to try just about anything. If you can think of a way to breach this gap between Chloe and Molly, I’ll help you.”
    “Good. It’s a deal then. I’ll pray about it. Think on it. And I’ll let you know what I come up with.”
    A flicker of hope played over James’s face as the two men shook hands. Then he stepped away and looked toward the parking lot with a weary sigh. “Better get her home. She’ll cry all afternoon.”
    Thinking hard, Ethan watched him go. He’d thought his own troubles were heavy, but there was a man who made his situation look like a picnic. He wondered if Molly knew her sister had been unable to conceive another child? Probably not.
    He hoisted Laney’s diaper bag over his other shoulder and crossed the parking lot to his Nissan. Maybe it was time she did.
    * * *
    “Pizza delivery man,” Ethan called as he slammed out of his truck in front of Molly’s farmhouse. The place looked so different with the buds of spring pushing up through the cold ground and tipping the branches of trees recently broken and pruned by nature’s ice.
    Molly was on her knees in a flower bed, a trowel in one gloved hand. “What are you doing? I thought you were going to church.”
    “Don’t you ever look at a clock? It’s way past noon.” He crossed the grass and handed her the pizza. “Take this inside while I get the baby.”
    She sniffed appreciatively. “Health food. What’s the occasion?”
    Grinning, he jogged back to the truck and carried Laney inside where Molly was busy setting out plates and soda pop. A stream of afternoon sun shone through the double windows and warmed the kitchen with a golden glow. The scent of pizza made his belly grumble.
    “It feels good to be here again,” he said. And it did. Funny, how this place had the feel of a family home even though Molly lived here alone.
    “I’m glad to be back here myself,” Molly answered.
    The fireplace lay dormant and all vestiges of the week without power were gone. Otherwise nothing had changed.
    Two boxes, packed and ready for the UPS man, waited by the door.
    “Business for me?” He perused the addresses, noted they were headed for an orphanage in Colombia. “How do you afford to do this so often?”
    She opened a drawer, lifted two forks, saw him shake his head and pushed them back inside. “I buy a little out of each paycheck. Bargain hunt.”
    “And do without things yourself?”
    She lifted her shoulders. “A gift without sacrifice is not much of a gift.”
    He was glad she thought so. Because he was going to ask her for a gift. And it would definitely require sacrifice on her part.
    Molly came around the table and removed a blanket from Laney’s carrier, spread it on the floor, and held out her hands. “Hello, beautiful angel.”
    Laney practically leaped into Molly’s arms. Joy, like a sunburst, went off inside Ethan as he watched the woman who had come to mean so much to him, kiss his child and settle her on the blanket with a colorful toy. It was a simple action, one that normally would draw no attention at all, but given Molly’s anxiety around his child, Ethan was ecstatic to see this much progress.
    “I can’t believe she’s already sitting up.” As she pulled out a chair to sit down, Molly beamed at Laney. “Next thing you know, she’ll be crawling