Step with Me: Love Amiss... A Christian Romance (Seaside Chapel Book 2) Read online

  Step with Me

  Seaside Chapel Book 2

  Jan Thompson

  Georgia Press

  Contents

  Collections & Series by Jan Thompson

  Book Release News

  Seaside Chapel: Series Description

  STEP WITH ME: Book Description

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Farewell from Emmeline & Sebastian

  Hymn: For You and Me

  Thank You for Reading!

  SING WITH ME: Book Description

  SHARE WITH ME: Book Description

  SHARE WITH ME: Chapter 1

  Sign Up for Jan’s Mailing List

  Collections & Series by Jan Thompson

  Books by Jan Thompson

  About Jan Thompson

  Step with Me (Seaside Chapel Book 2)

  Copyright © 2017 Jan Edttii Lim Thompson

  Jan’s Mailing List: JanThompson.com/newsletter

  Jan’s Books: JanThompson.com/books

  Jan’s Website: JanThompson.com

  Published by Georgia Press LLC

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  Copyediting/Proofreading: Lenda Selph

  eBook Cover Design: Georgia Press LLC

  Paperback Cover Design: Georgia Press and Deranged Doctor Design

  Scripture quotations are from the public domain King James Version of the Holy Bible. Wherever applicable, extracts from the Authorized Version of the Bible (The King James Bible), the rights in which are vested in the British Crown, are reproduced by permission of the Crown’s Patentee, Cambridge University Press.

  The lyrics for the hymn, “For You and Me” (also known by its first line, “O Love Divine, Amazing Love”), written by Fanny Crosby, is in the public domain.

  This novel is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, places, events, things, and ideas are all products of the author’s active imagination.

  First Paperback Edition: April 2017

  Paperback ISBN 978-1-944188-24-5

  First eBook Edition: April 2017

  ISBN: 978-1-944188-23-8

  Collections & Series by Jan Thompson

  Savannah Sweethearts

  JanThompson.com/savannah

  Vacation Sweethearts

  JanThompson.com/vacation

  Seaside Chapel

  JanThompson.com/seaside

  Seaside Cottages

  JanThompson.com/cottages

  Coming Soon!

  Protector Sweethearts

  JanThompson.com/protector

  Coming Soon!

  International Thrillers with Romance

  JanThompson.com/thrillers

  Coming Soon!

  Book List: JanThompson.com/books

  Book News: JanThompson.com/newsletter

  Book Release News

  Are you on Jan Thompson’s mailing list? Find out about new releases, new deals, and special behind-the-scene information about Jan’s series and collections. Keep in touch with her as she writes and publishes more books for readers to enjoy.

  Sign up for Jan’s Mailing List:

  JanThompson.com/newsletter

  Seaside Chapel: Series Description

  Inspirational Christian Romance Novels

  From USA Today Bestselling Author Jan Thompson come these Seaside Chapel novels, blending flavors of inspirational women’s fiction with contemporary Christian romance to celebrate the grace of God and hope in Jesus Christ.

  Visit Jan’s favorite beach town of St. Simon’s Island, Georgia, where our friends live and attend Seaside Chapel, a little church by the sea known for its beach weddings and fair shares of love and life.

  As these Christian men go through the Seaside Chapel Men’s Bible Study to grow in their knowledge and understanding of God, they are tested in their spiritual maturity, their relationships with others, and their love lives. Share their heartaches and healing, and cheer them on as they celebrate faith, family, friends, and yes, happily-ever-afters.

  The Seaside Chapel novels are all about life by the Atlantic Ocean, which in essence, is not much different from life in landlocked cities. Inherently, the human nature is such that we have in our hearts a need for the Lord, for His salvation, sustenance, and sanctification.

  While each complete Seaside Chapel novel can stand alone, the books are best read in the following order to avoid any spoilers:

  SEASIDE CHAPEL

  Book 1: Share with Me

  Book 2: Step with Me

  Book 3: Sing with Me

  Seaside Chapel:

  JanThompson.com/seaside

  Following the Seaside Chapel collection is a series of sweet and wholesome, clean and Christian Seaside Cottages novels about the lives of secondary characters mentioned in various Seaside Chapel novels. Find out what Tobias, Willow, Matt, Avery, Benecio, and others are up to as they spend their days on St. Simon’s Island on the Atlantic Coast of Georgia.

  Seaside Cottages:

  JanThompson.com/cottages

  To receive book news for the Seaside Chapel and Seaside Cottages series, sign up to be on Jan’s mailing list: JanThompson.com/newsletter

  STEP WITH ME: Book Description

  Seaside Chapel Book 2

  A thirty-something restaurateur barters with his sister’s friend to be his summer rent-a-girlfriend so that he can win back his ex-fiancée who is now seeing another man.

  The Desperate

  It’s past time for Talia to make the right decision. I don’t want to wait forever. I want a big wedding, a long honeymoon, and a house full of kids. What? Why can’t I nudge her in the right direction? Yeah, I know she’s already dumped me and moved on with whatshisname, but an ex can dream, can’t I?

  Sebastian Langston, owner of Saffron on Jekyll restaurant and Sage Café on St. Simon’s Island

  The Dreamer

  He says all I have to do is go out with him to be visible enough for her. He gets her back, I find my brother, and I go to grad school. A win-win. Yeah, he’s cute and has a kind heart. And she d
oesn’t deserve him. Oh, did I just say that?

  Emmeline O’Hanlon, harpist and music librarian of the Sea Islands Symphony Orchestra

  The Duet

  So it begins, this ill-advised scheme to drive his commitment-phobic ex-fiancée to the altar. Sebastian thinks his plan-on-a-whim would succeed because it has to. He will turn thirty-four next September and he wants to be a father by the following summer, preferably to a passel of Talia’s future children.

  The short-term business agreement would only last one summer. Emmeline needs Sebastian’s funding to search for her long lost brother, and he is enlisting one of the top private investigators in the region to find him. All she has to do is smile and make Talia jealous. A piece of cake, right?

  As they keep up the ruse, Emmeline’s ethereal harp starts to sound like siren songs that distract Sebastian from his focus. Soon, he’s rowing away from his goals…

  Step with Me is book 2 in Jan Thompson’s Seaside Chapel series blending inspirational women's fiction with contemporary Christian romance to celebrate the grace of God and hope in Jesus Christ.

  Seaside Chapel

  JanThompson.com/seaside

  To receive Seaside Chapel book news:

  JanThompson.com/newsletter

  To my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross to save me from my sins and rose again from the grave to give me eternal life in heaven.

  Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

  ―I JOHN 4:10

  Chapter One

  “I’m going to do it.” Emmeline O’Hanlon made up her mind then and there.

  “Noooo!” Across the table, Skye put down her chicken sandwich. “You’re just enabling my brother. He’s an idiot. Don’t help him.”

  Emmeline laughed. She barely knew Skye’s older brother, but from what she’d heard at church, in the Seaside Chapel Women’s Bible Study Group and at lunches with Skye herself, she doubted that Sebastian Langston was as stupid as his sister made him out to be.

  If he were, the restaurateur wouldn’t have been the youngest chef in the southeast to own an award-winning restaurant.

  “I have to find my brother.” Emmeline sipped more tea. It was a tad too sweet.

  Around her the lunch crowd was thinning. She had to get back to work soon, but she valued Skye’s input on this matter and agreed to hear her out.

  “It’s been five years, Em. Who knows where your brother is now?”

  “Exactly. I’ve used up all my savings to find Claude. Crowdfunding fizzled out three years ago. He’s still lost out there somewhere.” Her voice caught. “Heaven forbid he’s dead.”

  “Em…”

  “In any case, I’m out of money. I have to hold down two part-time jobs that don’t give me healthcare.”

  “Doesn’t SISO—”

  “SISO?” Emmeline wondered why Skye had brought up the Sea Islands Symphony Orchestra. “We only get paid when we play and you know how often harpists play.”

  “Speaking of harps…” Emmeline sighed. “My van—you know, the one that carries my harp for me—has passed its expiration date. I start grad school this August with only half of the funds I need.”

  “We all have financial difficulties.”

  “It costs money to find my brother is what I’m saying. Money I don’t have. I don’t think my parents can wait for me to get out of grad school, go on concert tours, earn more money, and then look for Claude after that.”

  That could take a couple of years. Emmeline anticipated being enrolled at the University of Georgia for a good two years. She’d have to work along the way to pay for her master’s program in harp performance.

  She sighed, almost too deeply, giving away her concerns. “What your brother says he’ll do for me right now, this summer, is amazing. An answer to prayer.”

  “Em, my friend.” Skye paused, as if searching for words. “I’m not sure he had God in mind when he made you the offer.”

  “But don’t you see?” Emmeline protested. “No money exchanges hands.”

  “This is Sebastian we’re talking about. Everything is a transaction to him.”

  “Bottomline is, he helps me find my brother, I help him get his ex-fiancée back. What could possibly go wrong?”

  Skye shook her head the way she always did: vigorously. Her hair bounced around her ears. “This is not the way to get there, Em. What else did Sebastian offer you?”

  “That’s all. It’s a one-for-one deal. He helps me find Claude. I help him with his Talia problem.”

  “Talia is not just a problem. She’s my brother’s doom, Em.”

  “Two months. That’s all. Come first week of August, I’ll be back at UGA. Be happy for me, Skye.”

  No response.

  Emmeline watched Skye resume eating her sandwich. As for herself, she’d finish her baby kale salad. Wished she had ordered more but this offer from Sebastian had cause her stomach to knot up a bit. It was too good to be true. Then again…

  “Come on. It can’t be that bad. You’ve always had good things to say about your brother.” Emmeline stirred her iced tea.

  “He’s not thinking straight at this time, Em.”

  Yeah?

  Emmeline wondered whether there was any truth in what her best friend said.

  Still…

  “It’ll be only for two months until Talia gives in or I pack up and leave for Athens. That’s all. I view it like a summer job. I had many summer jobs when I was in college.”

  “That’s just it.” Skye threw up her hands. She leaned forward.

  Emmeline could feel the tension in her voice.

  “Emmeline Eleanor O’Hanlon, listen to me. A rent-a-girlfriend position—eek, did I say that?—is not a job. It rates up there with call girls and women of the night. It looks really, really, really, really bad on your resumé.”

  “I trust your brother. He’s a Christian. He goes to church at Seaside. If he tries to hurt me, I’ll call up Pastor Gonzalez and have him excommunicated.”

  “Seaside Chapel is not a Catholic church. It doesn’t excommunicate anyone.”

  “Okay. Throw out, then.”

  “I’m about to throw up here, Em.”

  “You were the one who told me about your brother’s plight, Skye.”

  “To ask for prayer, not for you to sell yourself. What will your future husband think?”

  “Not to worry. I’ll be single the rest of my life.”

  Emmeline remembered the last time she held her last boyfriend’s hands only the Summer before. Yeah, when Ivan MacMillan had told her he was simply going out with her, nothing more. In his mind, he hadn’t been Emmeline’s boyfriend at all.

  Four months later, Ivan had met the love of his life. Happily married now, Ivan had it made with Brinley.

  “Listen, girl.” Skye wagged a finger. “This is my brother we’re talking about. His on-again and off-again fiancée is messing with him. He’s not thinking straight. He’s reacting to her irrationally. That’s why he’s in this emotional wreck. He’s very needy. I won’t let you ruin your life on account of him.”

  “It’s business—“

  “Aarrggh! Did you say business?”

  “Calm down, Skye. Look, I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll set down rules. No touching. No hugging. No kissing. If he oversteps those boundaries, I’ll call you and you can rip him apart. Deal?”

  Skye seemed to calm down.

  Emmeline’s eyes grew wide at the clock on the wall behind the checkout counter some tables away. “Have to run. Rehearsal in half an hour, but I have to put together the wedding music folder for the ensemble.”

  Why, oh why did I wait until the last minute?

  They paid for their lunches and parted ways outside the café.

  The June sun beat down on Emmeline. She didn’t burn easily; it must be due to the genes from her mother’s side of the family. She made the short trek to her van parked across the road b
y Neptune Park where kids were playing and shrieking in their cute little voices.

  No children for me in the foreseeable future.

  She sniffled.

  Tourists milled around beyond the playground, taking photographs around the water’s edge and the pier, oblivious to her plight.

  She had to jiggle the key in her van door to get it to unlock. She yanked the door hard to open it.

  Story of my life.

  She had bought the van from another student at college. It had been on its last leg then. And now…

  Thank You, God, that it has lasted me five years.

  Emmeline climbed in.

  The van wouldn’t start.

  Oh no.

  Ten minutes to rehearsal.

  Emmeline tried to breathe.

  She had to drive all the way up the center of the island to the SISO studios for the string rehearsal. It would take more than ten minutes to get there.

  Oh, she should’ve left sooner.

  If she kept showing up late, she was going to get fired from SISO, even if they needed her as the music librarian. She had to keep her apartment.

  No way was she going to live in her van again.

  She tried to crank up the engine one more time.

  No go.

  Emmeline speed-dialed her friend. “Skye! Have you left? Good! I need a ride. My van has died!”

  Chapter Two

  Emmeline sprinted out of the elevator door onto the third-floor hallway and nearly tripped on the old carpet. She was late, late, late because she had to wait for the tow truck guy who had to be paid on the spot and in cash before he would tow her van to the shop.