A Very Special Delivery

things worse.” He sighed, lifting his shoulders in a gesture of helplessness. “But by the time I had started to turn my life around, she was six months along with Laney and would no longer speak to me except to cuss and scream that I was ruining her life.”
    He heard the regret in his voice and knew that Molly heard it, too. She took one of his hands in hers and rubbed a thumb across the calloused palm. Her need to comfort him brought a smile.
    “You’re good for me.”
    “How so?”
    “I’ve been afraid to tell you all this. Afraid you’d think less of me.”
    Molly returned the smile as she linked her fingers with his. “Everybody has regrets, but you’ve taken a bad situation and worked hard to make it right.”
    “And that’s what I’m asking you to do, Molly.”
    “I don’t understand.” Her face registered confusion.
    “Come to the church league basketball game Tuesday night. Take a step toward reconciliation.”
    She pulled her hand away. “I can’t. People at the church don’t want me there.”
    “Sure they do.”
    She shook her head. “No. They think I did something terrible. They whisper and stare.”
    “You don’t have a problem with the Bible study group. What’s the difference?”
    “Bible group is four other people. And my sister isn’t there to remind everyone of what happened.”
    “According to Aunt Patsy you haven’t been to the chapel since Zack died. Naturally, people were whispering then, but, Molly, no one is talking about you now except to say they miss you.”
    “Do they really say that?”
    “Yeah. Lindsey Slater wants to invite you to Easter brunch. She told me so today.”
    Fear, longing, indecision all flickered over her face. “I don’t know.”
    Why wouldn’t she try? She wanted to. What made her back away every time the issue tried to come to a head?
    “Tell you what.” He stood and held out both hands to pull her up with him. “Go with me to the ball game. If you feel uncomfortable at all at any point, I’ll bring you straight home. Immediately. Just say the word and we’re out of there.”
    Her amber eyes clouded with indecision. She wanted to so badly, he was certain of it, but fear paralyzed her.
    “Chloe hates sports. She won’t be there,” she said, more to herself than to him.
    He grasped her chin and tilted her face upward, longing to wipe away the anxiety, to protect her against the demons that tormented her.
    “Please. Try. If not for yourself, for me. I’ll take care of you.”
    “Why are you so sweet to me?”
    “Why?” He blinked at her, as bewildered by the question as he was by the obvious answer. “I think you know why.”
    In the next instant, he lowered his lips to hers and kissed her.
    She sighed against his mouth, and he tightened his embrace, drawing her as close as he dared. She was fragile, pure and special, and he cherished that about her.
    When the kiss ended, she looked at him with eyes now shining instead of troubled. “You cheat.”
    He leaned his forehead against hers and laughed softly. “Did it work?”
    “Promise you’ll bring me right home if anything happens?”
    He studied the smooth curve of her cheek, the tiny smattering of golden freckles across her nose, and the full tilt of her lips, troublingly aware that he wanted more than a basketball game from Molly McCreight.
    “Promise.” His heart thudded with hope as he watched her struggle against self doubt and move toward trusting herself—and him.
    “Okay,” she whispered. “I’ll try.”
    And the burst of pleasure Ethan experienced was far out of proportion to the victory. She hadn’t agreed to meet with Chloe. She hadn’t even agreed to go to an actual church service. But Molly was going with him to a church function, and nothing had felt that right in a long time.

Chapter Eleven
    M olly’s heart pounded so loudly, she could feel the rush of blood through her temples. All afternoon at the center, she’d thought of little except this moment.
    Crunching over the graveled parking lot with Ethan at her side, she had to force her legs to keep moving toward the long metal building that housed the Winding Stair Chapel’s Fellowship Hall.
    “You’re gonna be fine,” Ethan said, one hand riding gently at the small of her back.
    She sucked in a lungful of cool, clean mountain air and nodded, still amazed that he’d talked her into this. And even though she knew he was right, she was scared.
    But Ethan knew about being scared. He’d been