the church bulletin said on Sunday, that he was moving back this week and would begin working with the youth at the church as soon as he returned. I have to tell you, Chad and I were thrilled to hear he’d taken the youth minister job.” Jessica smiled warmly. “It’ll be nice seeing Nathan and Lainey become more involved with the youth group as they get older, especially if Daniel is leading the way.”
“He’s always been good with kids,” Mandy mumbled, more to herself than to Jessica. Daniel worked directly with children in his missions; she’d seen the photos. Children beaming. Daniel laughing. If those photos were shown in court, a judge would probably decide that he’d be a better parent than Mandy. Her heart sputtered in her chest.
“There was a photo of Daniel in the church bulletin beside the announcement,” Jessica continued. “It’s always a bit of a jolt to see him and realize Jacob is gone. They looked so much alike, didn’t they?”
Daniel’s eyes were a brighter blue, in Mandy’s opinion, but she didn’t say so now. She simply nodded then glanced at Kaden, whose eyes were the exact same Caribbean shade. As a photographer, she prayed for that exact color of sky when she took photos outdoors. Bright, clear and beautiful. Breathtaking.
Kaden looked at her with those exquisite eyes and grinned. “Did you see me that time, Aunt Mandy? I went fast, didn’t I?”
She swallowed. “Yes, you did.”
He nodded. “Yep, I did.” Then he ran back to the ladder to give the slide another go.
“You know, Chad and Daniel were really close in high school, back when they played baseball together. And Chad always thought the world of Daniel.”
“I remember.” Everyone thought the world of Daniel, even Mandy. In fact, she’d thought enough of him to propose to him when she was seventeen. She nodded absently while Jessica continued talking, and while her mind processed the facts. Daniel Brantley, Kaden’s uncle, had taken the youth minister job. She’d told him when he came back home for that interview at the church that he didn’t need to leave his mission work because of her impulsive email. She’d insisted that she never should have sent the thing and that she regretted hitting the send button the minute she clicked the mouse. But he’d pronounced he was coming back. No discussion. Riding in to save the day … and save Kaden from Mandy.
“And it’ll really be something for him to tell the kids all about his mission work, especially about everything in Africa,” Jessica continued. “You should have seen the slideshow they did last year when we had the annual appeal for the churches he started in Malawi and Tanzania. Seeing those people holding hands and moving into that water to be baptized, it touched my heart.”
“Oh, I remember that! I liked the elephants,” Nathan said, following Kaden down the slide.
Instead of running around to slide again, Kaden stopped, dusted off the knees of his jeans and peered at Nathan. “Uncle Daniel’s elephants?” he asked.
Nathan shrugged. “I don’t know. Is your uncle the guy from church who showed us the pictures of Africa and the elephants?”
Kaden looked to Mandy. “Is he talking about Uncle Daniel?”
“Yes, he is,” Mandy said, still forcing a smile.
“Wow, he’s your uncle? He’s so cool!” Nathan said.
Kaden beamed. “Thanks!”
Yeah, thanks, Mandy thought dryly. The appeal Jessica referred to had been held the weekend of Kaden’s fourth birthday last year. Daniel came home for his nephew’s party and did a slideshow of his African missions at the church while he was in town. He didn’t come home often and hadn’t planned to return again for another year, but he’d ended up coming back two weeks later for Jacob’s and Mia’s funerals.
For the entire time that they remained at the park, Jessica talked nonstop, singing Daniel’s praises and exclaiming about all of the wonderful advantages to having him back in town. Nathan joined in whenever he could, and Kaden automatically agreed with everything his older friend said. Mandy, on the other hand, spent her time wondering how quickly she could get him to leave. And exactly how long she had before she looked into another set of Brantley blue eyes, those belonging to the guy who broke her heart.
Chapter Two
Daniel Brantley never failed to appreciate the beauty of his hometown. No matter how many astounding landscapes he’d seen in his travels around the world, no matter the marvelous sights, smells and sounds of God’s creation that he’d witnessed during his seven years in the mission field, Claremont always took his breath away.
Maybe it was the memory of being a kid and running these streets with Jacob, Chad, Mitch and the other guys from Claremont High … or maybe it was simply the picturesque beauty of the town nestled perfectly at the foot of Lookout Mountain in north Alabama. Daniel had no idea why, but he knew that in all of his twenty-eight years, in spite of how often he’d felt close to God in his travels, there was something about being home that made God even closer, close enough to touch.
He cranked the window down and inhaled the scents of early spring, flowers blooming, trees budding. Honeysuckle and gardenia mixed and mingled, their sweet scents lingering on the air and showcasing the fact that he was no longer in Africa.
He was home.
Nearing the road leading to the high school, he saw two rows of Bradford pear trees covered in stark white blooms lining the path to the school’s entrance. Those blooms used to fall like snow all over this old red truck every spring a decade ago.
Glancing toward the brick buildings, he saw a bounty of teenagers’ cars parked in the gravel lots on both sides. He and Jacob parked out there back in the day. They’d ridden to Claremont High together every morning, stayed after school for football practice in the fall, basketball practice in the winter and finally baseball, which had been the favorite sport for both Brantley boys, every spring.
The Brantley boys. The Brantley twins. The Brantley brood. They’d been dubbed lots of things back then, but no matter how the townsfolk referred to them, it’d never been individually. They’d always been a pair, and in spite of their differences, they’d liked it that way.
Daniel sighed. Would he ever get used to the fact that Jacob was gone? And didn’t it seem odd that he’d been the one to venture out into more than his share of dangerous circumstances in his attempt to follow their missionary parents into the world and preach the Gospel, and yet the son that stayed home lost his life?
He pondered that irony as he drove through town. After Brother Henry told him to take his first day back to “get reacquainted with Claremont,” Daniel had headed directly to the photography studio in the town square to find Mandy Carter and see Kaden. Yes, he loved his hometown, but he’d have never returned this soon if it hadn’t been for his nephew. Unfortunately, he hadn’t found Mandy or Kaden at Carter Photography. Instead, he found a hand-painted sign on the door.
On a photo shoot. Be back later.
And wasn’t that just like Mandy? Be back later. No promises, nothing definite. Expecting the entire world to cater to her plans, her desires, the same way she had so many years ago. Some things never changed.
But Daniel wasn’t going to
