Holiday Homecoming Read Free Page B

about Natalie, too?”
    â€œDo you want to hear this or not?”
    He wanted to put his hands over his ears and shout
no
. “Go ahead,” he said.
    â€œIt was before I caught her on TV that time. I didn’t connect the two until now.”
    â€œI don’t need background. Just the details.” And the fewer, the better.
    â€œThe news anchor was estranged from his wife, an overseas correspondent, and apparently dating Natalie.”
    Natalie and her professor? Connor clenched his jaw. She’d gone on about Kirk this and Kirk that. He’d thought it was her usual chatter. Had she been two-timing him? The man had to be fifteen years older than them. He gripped the steering wheel until his hands hurt.
    â€œI know the paper blew it all out of proportion. They always do.” Jared stopped again. “To cut to the chase, the news anchor and his wife reunited and he publicly apologized for his indiscretions. Natalie was his latest. He stopped just short of naming names, but the writer insinuated that he was involved with Natalie. The story covered the reconciliation. ‘Local anchor breaks love triangle and reconciles with wife,’ or some such garbage. Natalie was collateral damage.”
    Poor Natalie
. Despite his fresh hurt that she might have been interested in Kirk before they’d broken up, he wasn’t going to judge. Only God could do that.
    â€œI can’t tell you what to do,” Jared said. “But I’d take care.”
    Connor got the implied “concerning Natalie.”
    â€œMuch as I hated the bad press I got when I was on the motocross circuit, parts of it were true. And the reputation I got from those stories hurt Becca. Your contract is up for renewal at the end of the year. Some of the members of the congregation are still warming up to your being Jerry Donnelly’s kid. And I know how much serving here means to you. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
    â€œI’m a big boy. I can handle my own life.” Connor yanked the steering wheel to turn into Jared’s driveway and brought the car to an abrupt stop.
    â€œSee you Saturday,” Jared said. He stepped out of the car and closed the door without waiting for Connor’s response.
    Good move on Jared’s part. At the moment, he was inclined to blow off Saturday.
    Connor drove home, parked his car in the parsonage garage and stepped out into the frigid night air. A vision of Natalie’s drawn face and empty gaze shadowed him into the house. He knew he
should
give her a wide berth, not so much to protect his ministry at Hazardtown Community Church, but to protect his heart. And he would, starting tomorrow, once he’d gotten control over the concern for her that Jared’s story had raised and his almost overpowering need to seek her out and shelter her in his arms.

Chapter Two
    â€œM om, sit down and let me do that.” Natalie walked across the kitchen and lifted the spatula from her mother’s hand. “What happened to your sleeping in and letting me take care of breakfast? Where’s your walker?”
    â€œBy the table. I woke up and didn’t see a light on in your room yet. Since I was awake, I thought I’d get things started.”
    Natalie looked at the clock over the kitchen sink that had been there as long as she could remember. Ten after five. “I would have been up in five minutes, anyway, if I hadn’t heard you and gotten up.”
    â€œI’ve got bacon in the broiler and have already started cracking eggs to scramble. I’ll just finish them.”
    Natalie took her mother by the shoulders, surprised at how delicate she felt under her hands, and helped her to the kitchen table. “Sit. I suppose you make breakfast for Claire, too, when she gets up for work. Seriously, you could set the coffeemaker and let them fend for themselves.”
    â€œI’ve been telling her that for years,” her father said from