The Single Dad Next Door. Jessica Keller

      The EMTs maneuvered the stretcher into the ambulance.

      Joel reached out to help Maggie climb into the back. “Are you coming with us?”

      Suddenly very self-conscious, Maggie bit her lip. “Perhaps there’s someone closer to him who should go.”

      Mr. Rowe pressed his hand into the small of Maggie’s back and propelled her forward. “Kellen doesn’t have a wife. It’s just him and the girls. Me and Diane will watch Skylar and Ruthy for as long as he needs. You go on with Kellen to the hospital. Call me when you need to be picked up.” He ushered her right to Joel’s outstretched arm.

      Before Maggie could decide if accompanying Kellen was a good idea or not, the men in the ambulance closed the back door and turned on the sirens.

      Joel pointed to a metal ledge near the stretcher. “Go ahead and have a seat. Hold his hand for me. It helps calm them down.”

      Maggie grabbed hold of Kellen’s hand again. She looked back up at his face. Through the oxygen mask he offered her a small smile before closing his eyes again.

      * * *

      Maggie glanced through the blinds on the kitchen window for the tenth time, trying to see if Kellen had made it back home.

      Her inn guests had raved about breakfast, but after getting back to the inn at one in the morning, she lacked the energy she usually saved for visiting with the tourists. They’d borrowed some of the bicycles she kept stocked in the garage and had headed into town for the day.

      The mess in the kitchen was bigger than normal, but it could wait until later. Intent on taking a nap, she made her way back to her bedroom. Maggie dropped onto the bed and flung her hand to the side. It hit a lump under the cover. She moved back the sheets. Ida’s Bible. She trailed her fingers over the soft, worn leather cover.

      Honestly a nap wasn’t going to happen. Every time she attempted to take one, it never came to fruition. She’d just lie there and think of fifty things she could be spending her time accomplishing. Relaxing always made her feel guilty—as if she should be doing something better with her time. If she did fall asleep, she always woke up grumpy. Those scientists who touted the benefits of a midday nap missed interviewing her.

      Gathering the Bible under her arm, Maggie headed out to the back porch. As doubts and fears swirled in her heart, she would have loved speaking with Ida today, but reading the old woman’s notes in the margin of her Bible would be just as good.

      Besides, Maggie probably needed to read scripture more than she needed to talk to her friend. It had been a while since she cracked the spine on her Bible. The problem was, more often than not anymore, doing so proved pointless. God’s promises weren’t for her. If they had been, her life would have been different.

      She opened the cover and realized she had the book upside down. About to flip it back around, Maggie stopped when she saw a list of names. Hers was there, and scribbled next to it with an addition sign was Kellen’s. The top of the list read Pray For Daily.

      Maggie dabbed her eyes. She’d known that Ida loved her but hadn’t known the woman had devoted time to praying for her every day. Had Maggie ever done that for another person? Sadly the answer was no.

      She ran her finger down the list. Names had been added to the bottom later in a different ink—including Maggie’s friend Paige. Maggie pressed her fingers over her smile, remembering Paige’s first few days in Goose Harbor and how Ida had literally latched on to the new schoolteacher. Ida always said she knew when someone was ready to fall in love, and that had proved true with Paige and Caleb. Ida all but shoved those two together and now they were happily married.

      Too bad Ida never found a Prince Charming type for Maggie. If only.

      Maggie went back to her name. Odd how it shared a number with Kellen when there had definitely been more room to add one of their names to its own line. Next to their names Ida had scribbled two verses. Zechariah 1:3 and Romans 5:5. Beside the Romans reference in tiny letters it said: I will never stop hoping.

      Maggie found the table of contents to see what page in the Bible the book of Zechariah started on. She flipped to it and read Zechariah 1:3—Therefore tell the people: This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Return to me,” declares the Lord Almighty, “and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty.

      Was it possible that Ida worried that Maggie had fallen away from her faith in the Lord? The passage made Maggie feel that way. Had Maggie turned from God? Maybe a little. Was it possible to do something like that “only a little”? It seemed like an all-or-nothing sort of thing.

      Maggie let her gaze lift up and rest on the small river that ran behind the West Oaks Inn and continued on past Kellen’s property. The backyard neighbor had a small working water mill that slapped against the water day and night. The sound always comforted Maggie—it was constant, but somehow she tuned it out most of the time. Or had just grown used to it.

      Had God become like that mill in her life? There, but ignored? Was He making noise—trying to get her attention day in and day out with her ignoring Him? She’d never considered that. Sure, she was still frustrated about her lot in life. In her thirties without much to her name, no prospect of marriage, no family and about to lose the only home she’d ever known—the legacy of the West family.

      Who wouldn’t feel defeated and abandoned after that?

      But, as usual, her situation didn’t change the truth. God was God, and He got to decide if she lived a good life or not. She had to find her grit and keep moving forward. As she always did. Maybe He would have been easier on her if her heart wasn’t so prone to wandering and she wasn’t always getting distracted. There had to be something she was doing wrong. If not, her life would be different—He’d be blessing her, right? That was what they always said in church.

      “God. Forgive me,” Maggie whispered. “I didn’t realize it, but I have been closed off to You. If I’m being honest, I’ve been mad that You’ve taken so many people that I loved from this earth. But maybe I should think of it as You had surrounded me with so many wonderful people—people You wanted to graduate to heaven quickly because they all loved You so much.”

      A peace washed through her. Something she couldn’t quite explain. It was like drinking ice water on a one-hundred-degree day. Maggie closed her eyes for a moment, enjoying the feeling before opening them again and flipping to the book of Romans in the Bible.

      She found Romans 5:5 right away—And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

      Ida had written that she would never stop hoping. It clearly applied to both her and Kellen. Hoping that they’d return to the Lord? Hoping they’d realize God loved them? That Ida loved them?

      Maggie would never know.

      Ida was gone and she couldn’t ask her. But she knew one thing—Ida loved her and Ida loved Kellen. A woman didn’t put the name of someone on a list in her Bible and choose to pray for them daily unless she loved that person. If Maggie wanted to protect the belongings that were special to Ida, how much more important must Kellen be to the woman Maggie had looked up to? If the teacups mattered, Kellen mattered even more.

      “Miss Maggie?” A small voice interrupted her thoughts.

      Skylar and Ruthy stood at the bottom of her steps with Mrs. Rowe not far behind.

      Maggie closed the Bible and set it on the bench next to her. “Hi, girls. To what do I owe the pleasure of seeing your beautiful faces?”

      Mrs. Rowe nodded to them.

      Skylar took Ruthy’s hand and helped her up the steps. Ruthy shoved a bouquet of wildflowers and dandelions toward Maggie.

      Skylar smiled. “We came to thank you for saving Daddy’s life.”

      Ruthy nodded solemnly. “I love him.”

      Maggie