A Very Special Delivery

around more often.”
    Molly fell silent, not knowing how to respond. Didn’t Lindsey and the others understand why she had stayed away?
    Ethan, bless him, felt her discomfiture and filled the gap. “She’s here tonight to help us out in the stands. Tom’s team has all the noisy fans.”
    Lindsey laughed, and the awkward moment passed. “Most of that racket comes from his kids.”
    “Must be why Tom calls his team the Wild Bunch,” Ethan joked.
    Tom Castor was a popular local fireman with a competitive nature and a houseful of kids. He and his wife, Debbie, who waited tables at the diner, were mainstays of the church and worked tirelessly for the community. Molly had helped them with a number of charitable undertakings.
    By this time several other people, including Pastor Cliff and his wife, Karen, had joined the conversation. No longer the focus of attention, Molly relaxed as the talk took hold and ebbed and flowed around her. It felt good to listen to small talk and the teasing banter of people who knew and trusted one another. She had missed this kind of thing more than she had realized.
    From all appearances, Ethan was well liked and accepted. Not that Molly had doubted, but seeing him laugh and tease with other members of the church reaffirmed the kind of man she knew him to be. And the fact that he was cautiously kind to the gushing teenage Cass was, if she’d needed it, further proof of his integrity.
    After a bit, Pastor Cliff clapped his hands once and rubbed his palms together in a gesture of anticipation. “You folks ready to get this show on the road?”
    “Ready for the blood bath,” Tom called, pumping one arm in the air to the groans and chuckles of those around him.
    “In that case, tonight’s devotional is all the more important,” Cliff answered good-naturedly. “Gather round, everyone. I have a couple of verses from Romans and Second Corinthians. Then we’ll pray and get the game started.”
    When the crowd of a hundred or more people, both church regulars and community members who had come to support the good cause, had settled, Pastor Cliff read from the Bible and gave a brief talk about the relevance of the scripture to today’s life.
    Following prayer, he lifted a glowing face and a huge right arm and announced in oratorical style, “Let the games begin.”
    “Are you okay with this?” Ethan asked, before taking to the floor with his team. He stood a step below her, one sneakered foot raised to the bleacher. He looked awesome in loose sweat pants and a red basketball jersey emblazoned with the word Crossfire.
    Trepidatious, but less anxious than before, Molly managed a smile. “I’ll be fine.”
    He tilted his head toward the teenage Cass who sat a couple of rows behind Molly. “Will you keep an eye on Laney for me?”
    Molly’s confidence rose a couple of notches. She didn’t understand why, but Ethan trusted her with his most prized possession. And she’d do anything to keep that trust.
    “Should I go up and get her?”
    “Nah. I don’t want to hurt Cass’s feelings. She
or one of the other teenagers usually watch Laney while I play, but I feel better knowing you’re here. Laney loves you.” He squeezed her hand, and Molly thought he wanted to say more.
    “I love her, too,” she answered. It was true. She had fallen in love with the baby girl whose brown hair and blue eyes were so like her daddy’s. She hadn’t wanted ever to love another child the way she’d loved Zack, but she did. Surprisingly, the admission brought joy instead of pain. The risk of loving was a good thing.
    “Wish me luck.”
    She lifted her hand for a high five. “You’ll need it against Tom’s team.”
    Ethan groaned. “ Et tu, Brute? ”
    They both grinned as he jogged onto the gym floor.
    “Mind if we sit here with you?” Lindsey asked as she and her little girl, Jade, slid onto the wooden bench next to Molly.
    She’d always liked Lindsey, though the Christmas tree farmer was a little older, more Chloe’s age than her own. They had been in the same singles’ class until Jesse Slater came to town.
    “I’d be glad for the company,” Molly answered truthfully, relieved not to be left entirely alone.
    “Ethan said you might.”
    “He talked to you about me?”
    Lindsey shrugged. “Just said you were a little uncomfortable, having been away for so long.”
    Molly gazed out on the court at her delivery man, heart filling at his obvious thoughtfulness. So Ethan had paved