A car door slammed, and someone bounded up the steps to the porch. Hadley looked at Norma with a question in her eyes. “Who …?” “I invited my grandbaby boy to come over. He knows Jesus, too. He’ll want to celebrate with us.”
Ugh. The last thing Hadley wanted to do was meet someone. But Norma looked so excited and proud. Proud of her grandson or proud of Hadley, she didn’t know which. Either way, she’d never disappoint Norma. Not after tonight. “Here he is, the man of my life.” A familiar form filled the doorway. Noah. The tears sprang back to Hadley’s eyes. If only. She shook her head at Noah. Would he ever forgive her for treating him like she had?
“Hi, Hadley.”
Norma looked from Noah to Hadley then back again. “You two have met?”
“A few times, Mamaw.”
Hadley wiped away her tears and nodded.
“Oh …” The light dawned on Norma’s face. “You’re …?” She turned from Hadley to Noah. “This is …?”
Noah nodded.
“Ah. I remember story after story about a precious young girl named Hadley. Then the stories stopped.” Norma nodded and smiled. “Then Jesus brought you home.” She heaved herself from the dining chair. “I think I’ll leave you two alone for a bit.
But I’ll be back.”
“And she won’t go far.” Noah winked. Hadley giggled—then remembered.
Deep breath. “Noah, I … I’m so, so sorry.” She hung her head. There is no way he could forgive her for being so mean—so unforgiving.
In one stride he was by her side. “I know. Shh.” He wrapped his long arms around her and held on.
Hadley waited for accusations. Waited for her berating. But none came. She felt the love of Jesus in those arms. The tension in her back melted as her body relaxed and her soul healed. “There’s so much to say, so much to talk about.”
Noah put his finger over her lips. “Shh. There’ll be plenty of time to cover everything. But right now …” He pulled away and grabbed her face in his hands. He looked deeply into her eyes. Imploring. “I just want to know if you’re okay. Please, tell me you’re okay.” His hands squeezed.
There was an intensity to his question. He knew something. He feared something. What could it be? “Yes, Noah. My ego is bruised, and I’m embarrassed by my behavior. But I’m fine. I’m perfect. I’m loved.”
“That’s all I needed to hear.”
The song said the sun’ll come out tomorrow. So this is what tomorrow felt like? Noah stretched his long frame in his bed and yawned. The day held so much hope—so much promise. He sat up. But so much work! What was he thinking? It was the end of the hunt. He had to figure out the winner, prepare the announcement, and alert the media.
He jumped from his bed, knelt beside it for ten minutes giving thanks, spent five more in the shower, grabbed an orange and a banana, then flew to the church. Okay, drove. But he envisioned his car as a Delorian.
Piles of papers and logbooks spilled across his desk. Okay. He knew what to do. Time to match up the points with the logbooks and the website. He needed a winner, and he needed it to be accurate. There were going to be discrepancies along the way.
Oh no! He’d forgotten his coffee. He grabbed his cell phone and called Common Grounds. “Any chance one of your guys can run me over a cup of the strongest brew with a ton of sugar?” Oh, thank the Lord. “Thanks man, I owe you, big time!”
Noah dove in. An hour later, the beginnings of a migraine had set in, and his forehead started to perspire. Something was wrong. According to the website, Hadley was the clear winner—by a long shot. But the logbooks told a different story. According to them, Brad was the winner. Noah shook his head. He’d been watching the activity, and there was no way Brad worked as hard as Hadley. No way. He hadn’t even worked as hard as Chuck, who barely held a candle to Hadley.
But what could Noah do to prove it? People would want to know why she’d only signed twenty logbooks. Twenty? Everyone knew she’d found way more than that. But why hadn’t she signed in? Noah rubbed his temples. This wasn’t right. He searched the ring binders of the spiral books, but they showed no evidence of pages having been torn out. That had to be what happened, but he couldn’t prove it. No one could.
“Norma.” Please don’t let her hate me.
“Hi, sweetums. Come on in and sit a spell. What’s on your mind, darlin?” Norma rocked in her favorite chair, a grin plastered on her face from ear to ear.
“You mean you’re not mad at me for how I treated Noah?”
“Oh, child. I’m so glad I didn’t know what was going on and who it was going on with.” Norma fanned herself with a quilt catalog. “The Lord … He had plans. Delicious ones. And I would have meddled and messed them all up. This way, it’s all Him. As it should rightly be.” She sighed like her life was complete.
“Norma, please tell me about Brad Hopper.” Hadley dropped to her knees beside the rocker.
The old woman’s face darkened like a shadow cast from the moon descended upon it. She moved her lips, as though in prayer. Praying for permission? “I’ll tell you, child. But only because of what’s happened. Now, you know I don’t believe in gossip.”
Hadley nodded.
“That boy—he went to college with my grandbaby boy. That Brad gave Noah such a time of it for his faith. He made Noah stronger—that much I know. But Brad wasn’t satisfied. Seemed like every time my boy had a girl he liked, Brad had to prove he could get her.”
Hadley grimaced. She’d been used as a tool to hurt Noah. Maybe not at first, but as soon as Noah appeared interested. Or did Brad know from the beginning who she was to Noah? She might never know.
“But that boy didn’t just date ‘em. He chewed ‘em up and then spit ‘em out.”
Hadley nodded. That could have been her.
“But the final blow … what shut off any hope Noah had of reaching Brad, came when that Hopper boy took Noah’s sister from her husband and from Noah and from me. She left her husband for good a few months after they lost their baby boy. She chose Brad Hopper over all the good that God had brought into her life. She was hurting, sure. But we all were. That baby … oh, he was so beautiful. Chubby. Giggly. Happy. He drowned in the lake. Off Brad’s dock.”
Hadley gasped. Brad had used the same location where a baby had died to draw her into his web. The pain that family had endured because of a man she might have loved. How could she have been so blind? “I’m so sorry, Norma.”
“Oh, sweet child. You didn’t know. You didn’t do this. Noah … he’s an innocent. He loves big, but he hurts hard. He’s been aching over you for years and years, I just know it.” Norma grabbed Hadley’s hands. “Don’t hurt him. Please. I know you wouldn’t on purpose. But please don’t hurt him—even on accident. I can’t lose my boy, too.”
A car pulled into the driveway, and a door slammed almost immediately. Noah bounded into the kitchen, and both women stared at him in shock. “What’s the matter, boy?” Norma croaked.
“We have a problem.” Noah’s skin was pale, and his hands were shaking.
He sat beside Hadley. “I know you worked so hard for this. We have to find a way to prove it’s a lie.”
“What’s a lie? What are you talking about?”
Noah whipped open the logbooks, spread the print-outs from the website on the table, and showed her the results, the grief lining his face. “I’ve only looked at the top few so far. I need to compare everyone’s web records with the logbooks to find any other discrepancies that would be caused by missing pages.”
Hadley waved a hand. “Oh, proof? Is that all you want?” She reached in her purse for her phone. “I have art.”
“What do you mean?”
“Oh, I took pictures when I signed each and every logbook. Not because I thought something like this would happen, of course. But I just wanted a record for myself.”
“Oh, bless you, sweet girl.” Norma grabbed them both and pulled them to her bosom.
It was a little hard to breathe, but Noah caught Hadley’s eye above the crumpled cotton and winked.
Tires scuffed the gravel driveway, and the three of them sighed.
“Oh, Lordy. What now?” Norma rose to see who had arrived. “Good gracious.” She opened the screen door and stepped back to let a young woman move past her into the house.
Noah gasped. “What are you doing here?”
Hadley looked from Noah back to the girl. Was she an ex? Someone who’d hurt him?
“Crystal, what are you doing here?” Noah’s eyes softened as the shock wore off.
Crystal? Like Brad’s Crystal? Understanding flooded her senses. “Oh no. Is Crystal your … is she your …?” Hadley grabbed Noah’s hands and pulled him to look in her eyes. “Hear her out, Noah. Please?”
Pretty blue eyes, mirror images of Noah’s, turned to Hadley. “Why would you help me?”
“Because when you’ve been forgiven for something, you want to share it with others. And we’re both victims of something—or someone.” Hadley reached her arms out and pulled the woman to her.
“Of course I’ll hear her out, Had.”
Crystal’s lower lip began to quiver, and she looked at Norma, then Noah. “I am so sorry.” She covered her face with her hands and dissolved onto the floor, sobs wracking her body. “I miss you so much. I miss … I miss my baby so much. I can’t live another day without forgiveness. From you guys … from God … and from Joshie. If I can’t have it, I’ll leave from this place and never return. I promise you that. I can’t live like this anymore. I broke my family. My baby died because I was selfish … stupid. Please. Please … oh God … please.”
Reality swam in Hadley’s consciousness. Too much. She finally understood what true pain felt like. It lay at her feet. Her own troubles paled in comparison to the agony she witnessed. She looked to Norma, to Noah. Do something. Help her.
A smile creased Noah’s face. Not one of pleasure, but one of peace. He bent to where his crumpled and broken sister lay and scooped her in his arms, and pulled Hadley into the embrace.
“Welcome home, Chrys.”
“And the winner is …” Noah’s eyes sparkled as he opened the envelope Lyssa had handed him moments before.
Of course it would be her name he called. Hadley had been tracking the results through the entire hunt. No one was close enough to win, even if awarded all the extra points possible. And she had found the bonus coin. Hadley was a shoe-in for first place. Then why was she so nervous? If only she didn’t have to be in front of all these people to accept her prize. Couldn’t she phone in her acceptance speech from some far-off island in the Bahamas?
“Hadley Parker.”
Here goes.
The crowd roared and whistled as Hadley climbed onto the wooden stage.
Noah gripped her hand while the crowd continued to clap. “One of these days you’ll know who you are—how I see you and how God sees you. I’m going to make sure of it.” Noah tweaked her nose. “But now … the prize.”
Noah held a purple polka-dotted gift bag in his hands. “We’ve had so many donations and have added a long list of prizes to both second and third places, which you’ve seen already. But first prize … well, I’ve taken the liberty of donating first prize myself.” He pulled one end of the green ribbon and untied the bag then reached inside and lifted out a tiny white box.
Several gasps came from the audience.
A few women moaned, “Awwww.”
No way. Was he going to propose to her? It was so soon. What if it wasn’t the right move? Hadley had hardly ever dated. How could she make such a choice with no warning … in front of all of those people?
Noah’s shaky hand lifted the lid from the tiny box in his hands, and he looked Hadley in the eye.
In that momentary gaze, Hadley felt peace wash over her like a waterfall. Freedom. Joy. Love. Her choice was an easy one, after all.
Noah stooped to one knee as the crowd silenced.
He lifted the box toward Hadley and opened his mouth to speak.
Hadley gasped and leaned in to see, shifting her weight and placing her foot to her right.
In slow motion, she saw the crowd rear back in horror as one end of a loosened plank flew up and Hadley was flung to the ground as though abandoned on a teeter-totter.
Noah reached for her and set the law of gravity in motion again. He landed in a heap right on top of her.
Was he hurt? Was she? Hadley felt the heat rise up her neck and tinge her ears. How could she face these people? She lay motionless a few more moments, listening to the silence of the horrified crowd and the click of a camera shutter. Oh, great. This would be all over Facebook within an hour.
Did it matter, though? She’d ruined Noah’s proposal. Humiliated them both.
Hadley felt movement on top of her, and then the board shielding her eyes from the sun and the stares of the crowd disappeared. She peeked through a slit in one eye to find Noah mere inches from her face, his eyes crinkled in laughter, the corners of his mouth fighting a losing battle with hilarity.
“Are you … okay?” He sputtered the words and waited for her nod before dissolving into gales of laughter.
Hadley waited. She didn’t find it so funny, though Noah and the crowd sure did. She gazed around her. On the ground lay the open ring box, the sun glinting off the facets inside.
“Hadley Parker, will you marry me?”
Hadley’s eyes traveled upward to lock with Noah’s. “Really?” Noah nodded. Hadley nodded. The crowd erupted.
Noah clambered to his feet then reached a hand down. Hadley grabbed it and stood up.
Noah pulled her into a tight embrace. “Welcome home, love.”