“Can I have everyone’s attention?” Noah stood in the middle of his great room with Cara next to him. Draping an arm over her shoulder, he pulled her close as their crowd of friends quieted. “I have an announcement.”
“We already know Cara is pregnant and those ballplayers finally got what they deserved,” Peter shouted from the back. “That’s old news.”
Laura playfully punched her husband in the arm. “We just found out yesterday. That’s not old news.”
Timothy ran into the room with Rusty and Molly following him. Both boys came to a skidding halt in front of Noah. Huge grins welcomed him when he looked down at them. Somehow they knew he had wanted it to be a surprise.
“Okay. Enough stalling.” Jacob took Hannah’s hand. “I, for one, am hungry, but if you don’t quit being so dramatic, I’ll never have my say at the dinner table.”
A couple of the children giggled. Adam and Sean began to talk.
Alice brought her cane down on the hardwood floor. “Silence. Let’s give Noah a chance to tell us.”
“Yesterday afternoon I got the news that Cara and I will be allowed to adopt Adam, Rusty and Lindsay. We’ll be going to court next week to start the process.” And soon after that he would appear in court to finalize his adoption of Timothy.
Cheers broke out in the room.
Lindsay approached Cara and hugged her around the waist. “Does this mean we’re a family now?”
Cara smoothed the girl’s hair back from her face. “Honey, we’ve always been a family. This will just make it official.”
“Okay, let’s eat,” Jacob called out near the kitchen.
“You would think he was pregnant the way he thinks about food,” Noah muttered to Cara, then kissed her on the mouth.
As the crowd filed into the dining room, Cara stopped Noah. “Are you okay?”
He dragged her to him and framed her face. “You know me so well. I called Whitney this morning to wish her a happy Thanksgiving and the phone has been disconnected.”
“Oh, Noah, I’m sorry. Are you going to have the P.I. try and find her again?”
“I don’t know. I thought she was finally accepting me back in her life, but I guess I was wrong. I’d even asked her to come for Christmas, and I thought she was really considering it.”
“C’mon, you two lovebirds. We can’t eat without the host and hostess,” Jacob said from the entrance into the dining room.
Noah started forward. The doorbell sounded above the noise. “Everyone is here, aren’t they?”
“Maybe Lisa changed her mind and decided to have Thanksgiving dinner with the boss after all.” Cara altered her direction and moved toward the foyer.
“You go sit down. I’ll get this.” Noah redirected her toward the dining room, then crossed the entryway to open the front door.
Standing on the porch was his sister with a black eye and a cast on her left arm. Shock whisked all words from his mind.
“Aren’t you going to ask me in?” Wariness and a bit of defiance marked her expression.
“What happened?”
“My latest boyfriend was showing his appreciation so I hightailed it out of there.”
Noah noticed several pieces of luggage behind Whitney. “Are you taking me up on my offer to move to Cimarron City? I have a guesthouse just waiting for a guest to stay in it.”
She nodded, tension in every line of her body. “Just until I get back on my feet and only if you let me carry my own weight around here. Otherwise, I’m out of here.”
He would take any amount of time with his baby sister. “Fine. I can live with that.”
Someone yelled from the dining room for him to come eat before the food got cold.
Whitney looked around him into the house. “If you just point me in the direction of the guesthouse, you can get back to whatever you were doing.”
“No.”
She blinked and stepped back. “Well, then—”
“I want you to come in and have Thanksgiving dinner with my family and friends.”
She shook her head, taking another pace back. “I don’t be—”
Noah crossed the gap between them. “You are part of my family. Please come in and meet everyone.”
She waved her hand down her body, indicating her jeans with holes in them and her old jacket with a rip in the pocket. “I’m not dressed to meet them.”
“Your appearance has capped off a great day. Please share it with me.” He held out his hand to her.
She stared at it for a long moment, shrugged and fit hers in his grasp. “What about my suitcases?”
“I’ll come back and bring them inside after I introduce you to everyone and give thanks to the Lord for such a special blessing.”
When Noah entered the dining room with his sister by his side, his family and friends suddenly stopped talking. He caught Cara’s gaze, and the smile that graced her mouth conveyed her love and support. With Cara and Jesus in his live, anything was possible, even the mending of his rift with his sister.
* * * * *
In October, be sure to read Margaret Daley’s
FORSAKEN CANYON,
available from Love Inspired Suspense.
And in 2009, look for Whitney’s story
in Love Inspired.