Free Topaz Heat (Christian Romance) (The Jewel Series) by Hallee Bridgeman Page B

to the rest of the family.
    Instead, he headed home, walking the downtown streets of his home town. The night air had a chill, reminding him that the beautiful, warm weather would soon be leaving them for the harshness of a Boston winter.
     

CHAPTER 7

    SARAH rolled over and looked at the clock. With a groan, she pushed herself out of bed and sat on the side for a minute, holding her head in her hands. For two weeks now, she'd had a dull, throbbing headache – stress induced, she knew – but annoying just the same.
    Energy was a thing of the past. All of it seemed to have been sucked right out of her until she nearly stumbled around. She didn’t have a choice. She had to go to work today. Two weeks off was long enough. Without a problem, she could spend the rest of her life in bed, grieving the man she loved so much, but she knew the only way to get her body moving again and her mind back on track was to plunge back into the real world.
    She scooped her glasses off the night stand and trudged from the room, stopping to glance into Melissa’s bedroom. The bed was empty, so her roommate must have had a seven o’clock shift. Sarah was scheduled for three, and it was already nearly two. It was a fight to keep from calling in sick. But she wouldn’t do it. She would face everyone, accept the sympathies, try to keep from losing control, and help a few babies come into the world.
    She turned on the water as hot as she could stand it and let the claw foot bathtub begin to fill. While it ran she popped a cup of water into the microwave to make a cup of tea.
    Her apartment building had once been a house, and the last owners converted it into three apartments – two downstairs and one upstairs. Toys from her neighbor’s two kids littered the fenced backyard. She stood at the kitchen window while she waited for the water to heat and watched a four-year-old boy play in the sandbox. It was beautiful outside, sunny and warm if she went by the way he was dressed, and she took a deep breath. She was starting to feel better, but she didn’t want to feel better yet. She wanted to rail and cry and moan. She wanted to tear her clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes.
    But life didn’t work that way. Even good, godly men got sick with terrible diseases and died before their seventy-fifth birthdays.
     

    “EXCUSE me Mr. DiNunzio, but Maxine Anderson is here to see you.”
    “Thank you. Please send her in.” Derrick set his pen down and stood as the door opened and in breezed Maxine. Every time he saw her, he couldn’t get over the fact that not only was she still alive, but that she could walk. After the horrible accident seven years before, her entire existence was a miracle, a gift from God.
    The first thing he noticed was that she’d changed her hair. Instead of falling to her hips, it brushed her shoulders and framed her lean face, highlighting the strong cheekbones inherited from her Native American father. She wore an emerald colored pantsuit the very shade of her eyes, dressed to the tee as always. Carrying twins had barely disrupted her thin figure.
    “Maxi,” he greeted with a grin, coming around his desk.
    “Sorry it’s taken me so long to come see you,” she said, kissing his cheek as he hugged her. “This whole thing with Sarah’s dad was all-consuming for a while.”
    He took her hand and led her to the couch that sat against the far wall. “I’m sure. How’s she doing?”
    “As bad as I thought she’d do.” She sat sideways to face him. “And where have you been through all the memorials and funeral?”
    “The last thing Sarah said to me the morning her father died was that she hated me. I briefly stopped in at the memorial service. I really had no place there.”
    “Huh. You might be the only man who could tell me Sarah said that I’d believe. She’s so mild-mannered.” Maxine half grinned. “You bring out her argumentative side.”
    He sighed. “To be fair, I usually deserve it.”
    She cocked