When Love Comes Home. Arlene James

      “So what’s up? Did you call to check up on me?”

      Paige laughed. “I’m looking for a youth hockey league in the area.”

      “You’re in luck. I happen to have a buddy who’s a hockey fan, and he’s coach, commissioner and sponsor of the local youth league all rolled into one.”

      “You call it lucky. I call it blessed. You, Grady Jones, are a blessing.”

      For moments he literally floundered over the phone. Finally he sputtered, “Uh, n-no one, th-that is, what I mean… I take it this is for your son.”

      “Who else? I know it’s an imposition, but my son wants to play hockey. It won’t make him happy, but I thought it might improve his attitude.”

      Grady imagined that she seemed as reluctant to end the conversation as he was. He promised to talk to his buddy and get back to her soon. A moment of silence followed, then Paige spoke softly.

      “I meant what I said, Grady. You’ve been an answer to prayer for me more than once, and I thank God for that.”

      “Makes me wish I believed in prayer.”

      ARLENE JAMES

      says, “Camp meetings, mission work and the church where my parents and grandparents were prominent members permeate my Oklahoma childhood memories. It was a golden time, which sustains me yet. However, only as a young, widowed mother did I truly begin growing in my personal relationship with the Lord. Through adversity He blessed me in countless ways, one of which is a second marriage so loving and romantic it still feels like courtship!”

      The author of over sixty novels, Arlene James now resides outside Dallas, Texas, with her husband. Arlene says, “The rewards of motherhood have indeed been extraordinary for me. Yet I’ve looked forward to this new stage of my life.” Her need to write is greater than ever, a fact that frankly amazes her, as she’s been at it since the eighth grade!

      When Love Comes Home

      Arlene James

      Therefore, let those also who suffer according

       to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.

      —I Peter 4:19

      Victoria, I know you are too small to read or even

       understand this yet, but the place you hold in my heart is immense, and it’s never too early to say, “I love you.” Granna

      Contents

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

      Chapter Six

      Chapter Seven

      Chapter Eight

      Chapter Nine

      Chapter Ten

      Chapter Eleven

      Chapter Twelve

      Chapter Thirteen

      Chapter Fourteen

      Chapter Fifteen

      Letter to Reader

      Questions for Discussion

      Chapter One

      Grady frowned across the desk at his older brother and fought the urge to fold his arms in an act of pure defiance. It wasn’t just that Dan expected Grady to spend Thanksgiving traveling for business but that he expected him to do it with Paige Ellis.

      Pretty, petite Paige made Grady feel even more hulking and awkward than usual. It didn’t help that Dan might have just stepped out of the pages of a men’s fashion magazine. Slender and sleek, his dark hair having long since gone to silver, Dan served as a perfect contrast to his much larger—and much less dapper—younger brother. Dan was elegant, glittering silver compared to Grady’s dull-as-sand brown.

      Dan’s white shirt looked as if it had just come off the ironing board, while Grady’s might have just come off the floor. The navy pinstripes in Dan’s expertly knotted burgundy tie perfectly matched his hand-tailored suit. Grady’s chocolate-brown neckwear, on the other hand, somehow clashed with a suit that he’d once thought brown but now seemed a dark, muddy green.

      The only thing the Jones brothers seemed to share, besides their parents and a law practice, were eyes the vibrant blue of a perfect spring sky. Grady considered them wasted in the heavily featured expanse of his own square-jawed face.

      “It’s not as if you’d enjoy the holiday anyway,” Dan was saying.

      Grady grimaced, conceding the point. Okay, he wasn’t eagerly anticipating another chaotic feast at Dan’s place in Bentonville. Why would he? A fellow couldn’t even watch a good football game without one of his three nieces or sister-in-law interrupting every other minute.

      “I didn’t say I wouldn’t do it,” he grumbled. “I said the timing stinks.”

      No one wanted to spend a major holiday flying from Arkansas to South Carolina, but for Grady the task seemed especially disagreeable because it involved a woman and a kid.

      Grady did not relate well to women, as his ex-wife had been fond of pointing out. She had contended that it had to do with losing his mother at such a young age, and no doubt she was right about that. He always felt inept and stupid in female company, never quite knowing what to say. As for children, well, he hadn’t known any, except for his nieces, and he’d pretty much kept his distance from them. These days their adolescent behavior made him feel as if he’d stumbled into an alternate universe.

      Besides, family law was Dan’s forte, not Grady’s. Give him a good old bare-knuckle brawl of a lawsuit or a complicated legal trust to craft. Even criminal defense work was preferable to prenups, divorces and custody cases, though he hadn’t done much criminal defense since he’d left Little Rock. After his marriage had failed he’d come back home to Fayetteville and the general practice established by his and Dan’s father, Howard.

      “The timing could be better,” Dan agreed, “but it is what it is.”

      Grady made a face and propped his feet on the corner of his brother’s expansive cherrywood desk with a nonchalance he definitely was not feeling. “You’re the attorney of record,” he pointed out. “You should do this.”

      Dan had worked every angle on this case from day one. By rights, he ought to be there at the moment of fruition. But Dan had a family who wanted him at the dinner table on Thanksgiving. And Grady had no feasible excuse for not stepping in, even at the last minute.

      “Trust me,” Dan said, “Paige isn’t going to complain.”

      Paige Ellis had doggedly pursued her ex after he’d disappeared with her son nearly three and a half years ago. Now the boy had been found and was waiting in custody of the state of South Carolina to be reunited with his mother.

      Grady was glad for her. He just wished he didn’t have to be the one to shepherd her through this reunion. The petite, big-eyed blonde made Grady especially uncomfortable, despite the fact that they hadn’t exchanged half a dozen words in the three years or so that she’d been a client of their law firm.

      “You’ll want to look this over,” Dan went on, plopping a file folder a good two inches thick onto the desk next to Grady’s feet. “All the pertinent paperwork is ready. You should probably take it with you when you inform Paige about her son.”

      Grady bolted up straight in his chair, his feet hitting the floor. “Now hold on! The least you can do is deliver the news.”

      Dan