Christian Romance: Heaven on Earth... [4 Beautiful Christian Romance Stories] Read online

  “Happy birthday,” he said.

  It was only a brief kiss. A chaste kiss. Just his lips brushing against Lucy’s skin in the merest instant, but for its effect, he might as well kissed her on the mouth.

  Lucy’s heart began pumping so wildly she could hear its pounding echoing all throughout her ribcage. Blood heated up her face, her chest. It heated up her everything. She thanked the Lord that most of her body was turned and hidden away from her family’s view. She could only guess what anyone might read in her carriage alone.

  The kiss itself was brief, but Charles didn’t immediately draw his face away. He leaned several centimeters further to whisper in Lucy’s ear, “If it had been my birthday and I saw you, I’d think it was God’s Own gift to me.”

  This was the first real exchange they were having, and it was as if they were both making up for all those times they might have spoken to each other but didn’t—Lucy too went straight to the heart of all that needed to be said.

  “It is my birthday. And it is God’s gift. To both of us.”

  Charles stepped back and established proper distance again, but he didn’t take his eyes off Lucy’s flushed face. He roamed his gaze around it, drinking her in. Drinking all of her in.

  Lucy did the same. As God was her witness, she could do nothing less...

  Relaxed Nonchalance...

  The very young and very innocent Lucinda Bright met Charleston Ambrose back when they were sixteen and seventeen respectively, at a camp in Iowa where both their families went to for a summer camping trip.

  It had been instant attraction between them. Their gazes landed on each other across a whole stretch of clearing, and a link was forged that proved itself to be nigh unbreakable. Lucy had had some crushes before that—and perhaps it had only been the novelty of the place or the mystique of the idea—but she had never felt anything quite like this for anyone.

  Her heart would jump at her throat at a mere glimpse of a tall, lanky form, neatly trimmed brown hair that fell to thick brows, eyes the color of moss. And when Charles was near or was looking at her from afar, her body heats up in places—starting from her chest, up to her shoulders and arms—while another heat, quite separate, would begin pooling deep in her belly.

  Once, during a rare time when many separate groups decided to have a meal together on the big camp’s widest clearing, Charles had had occasion to lean past her in order to reach for something, and part of his broad chest was barely a centimeter away from Lucy’s torso. The heat was so instantaneous that when she drew breath for the shock of it, she found she couldn't let it out again.

  Lucy had always thought it was an exaggeration when people describe something as having affected them so intensely, it stopped their breathing. But there, at that moment, when the hot air coming out of Charles’ very skin and past his shirt was mingling with the warmth her own body was also giving off, she found out that it actually does happen…

  A feeling envelopes you, so quick and powerful you didn’t know what was coming until it was happening, and the next thing was you forget how to breathe. If this was what charged but otherwise empty air did to her, what would happen if they touched skin to skin?

  As she thought that, Lucy got herself to look up. Charles had leaned away, but for a full second the side of his face drew so near to Lucy’s eyes that she was able to see—the expression on his face was one of relaxed nonchalance, he didn't even glance at her—but there, on the lobe of his ear, a sign that she was not alone in feeling this: it was hopelessly red, more red than any ear had any right to be without tomatoes rising up to have a say about it.

  Lucy didn’t know what to do with this discovery. The two of them had never even talked to each other beyond a polite nod or hello. Mostly they’d been too shy to even look into each other’s eyes without a real reason.

  It would probably have been easier if they’d been friends. If they’d become more than strangers before they found out what close proximity does to both of their bodies, then… then what would have stop them from finding out just how far its influence extended?

  There was only one place it could possibly have led, though Lucy didn’t know much about that beyond the basics. She’d never felt desire before. She had no real idea about what would happen if she and Charles had been close enough to want to find out what this was… together.

  That summer trip ended on a very sad note. Lucy and Charles had never quite gotten past the stealing-glances phase, and during the last night, after Charles had gathered enough courage to sit beside her in front of the camp’s bonfire with the obvious intention of talking to her, Lucy froze up so terribly that she couldn’t even get herself to turn to him as a signal that she was only waiting for him to begin.

  Instead, she’d remained staring so resolutely at the fire anyone would think this was her first time seeing one and that, as far as she was concerned, nothing else existed. She stared like she was enthralled by it, but was also mortally afraid of it, or why would her legs tremble a great deal even as she tried to hug it to stillness?

  Charles had not seen how Lucy shook, or if he had he attributed the reason to something else. He had turned his face away and, just as resolutely as Lucy, stared in that direction for the rest of the night.

  But he didn’t get up and leave her.

  No, they stayed that way for many minutes, sitting without talking, as close as they could ever get now to each other.

  Until all the families that shared that last night returned to their tents, one by one, they sat together. Just two sullen teenagers, determined to have none of the others’ merriment. For how could they have celebrated? They were too busy drowning in torment.

  It’s a wonder that they’d never once drawn attention to themselves, to the invisible but palpable something between them, not just on that night but from the moment they first laid eyes on each other.

  It’s a wonder that nobody can see it now, this intense fire that for years had lain dormant, blazing fully into life the moment the master and mistress that lit it reunited to stoke it once again.

  On the last possible moment that they could’ve gotten away with being locked inside a world of their own, Lucy and Charles regained their self-possession and something of their common sense too. They summoned a polite smile for everyone else’s benefit and subtly let themselves back into the general proceedings, just as if they’d never left.

  It didn’t matter at all that they weren’t looking at each other now—the other person was only an arm’s reach away if ever they were attacked by doubts that this was really happening. In any case, the heat that was still coursing in waves through the physical distance they must set between them was enough of a reminder. For the time being.

  “Actually, we are celebrating too,” Margaret was saying. Without taking her gaze off of her listeners, she reached a hand behind her and it landed perfectly on one of her son’s broad shoulders. “Charleston here has just graduated magna cum laude in Molecular Biology and he’s being offered a scholarship in three of the top medical schools in the country. He’s simply wonderful, and God is gracious. I was so happy, I even told our pastor—I told him, ‘Just you wait now, Father, when our boy’s a doctor, this whole parish will want for no quality medical attention. Charleston shall lend you his time and expertise at absolutely no cost.’ And you won’t believe this, but our pastor told me, he said, ‘Pride is a sin, my daughter, but in this case I believe you are simply telling the truth. Your son has a good, God-fearing heart in him. I have no worries on his behalf.’ Oh, you can just imagine how my heart swelled at his words.”

  None of them had to imagine anything because Margaret was suddenly daubing at her eyes—so overcome was she with happiness. Noah gave a small but unmistakably indulgent smile at his wife before clapping his son on his other shoulder.

  “You will forgive our effusiveness, I’m sure,” Noah said, beaming apologetically at them all. “Rare it is that any child lives up to some of his parents’ expectations. When yours live up to all of them, it’s…” Unable to find a good enough word, he merely shook his head.

  Lucy’s father rejoined with, “Oh, not at all, please. Noah, Margaret—we understand. We understand perfectly. Don’t we, darling?”

  “That is great news indeed, Charles,” replied Helena, her eyes crinkling and also tearing a bit, in solidarity with Margaret’s. “Congratulations.”

  Charles smiled a bit shyly and said, “Thank you. Thank you so much.” He was being properly gracious and humble about it all, but one glance at his ear told Lucy that this affected him more than he showed—it was hopelessly red. She turned away and hid a smile behind her hand.

  Confirming that Charles was highly intelligent was well and good, and she already knew he was a good son from back when they first met. What set Lucy’s heart to pounding again was how… how cute she thought Charles was behaving, so uncomfortable with being the center of attention. Suddenly it all felt too much, though not in a bad way. She thought she had already fallen long ago, so what was this happening to her now?

  How much deeper, exactly, does this pit she had flung herself to go?

  More importantly… should she dare to find out?

  At That Moment...

  “Madams, Sirs?” the floor manager himself appeared by their table. Almost half of the people around it had simply been standing in talk for several minutes, and no waiter could successfully find an opening to even approach them with the menus let alone ask for their orders. “If you would like to merge your parties, I believe we may be of service and accommodate it. Would this be agreeable?”

  “Well, what do you say?” said Rick jovially to the other couple. “Come on, then! Let’s celebrate together.”

  “Oh, yes, please,” added his wife. “Do join us.”

  Margaret looked at her husband with moist eyes. “Noah?”

  “Why don’t we ask our celebrants?” Noah said. “Both of them?”

  All eyes then alternated between Charles and Lucy. Lucy thought it would be doubly foolish to look at Charles at that moment, but she felt his gaze on her and so she turned too. He was smiling at her with nothing but politeness, but with those ears he couldn’t possibly fool her. He was nervous about this game of detachment they were playing, but he looked like he was enjoying it too. Especially since Lucy was nearly hopeless at it.

  “I think Lucy should decide,” said Charles. “It is her special day.”

  “Oh, no, please,” Lucy replied at once, blushing prettily, her eyes wide when she was not blinking at Charles. “I’ll have other birthdays, but yours is… it’s an achievement truly worth celebrating, Charles. It’s… I think it’s very remarkable. O-of course, we don’t wish to intrude if you wish to celebrate as a family, but… please know you’re more than welcome to join us.”

  Even as she was speaking, Lucy wasn’t sure for whose benefit her words were. Certainly not for Charles’. He already knew what Lucy thought, already knew what she wanted. For starters, she wanted for them to never part as strangers again. This was another chance God Himself had given them. She was determined not to lose it without a fight.

  After confirming with his parents that it would really be alright, Charles agreed to join their party and share both their celebrations. The waiters went to work at once, expanding the space they occupied and placing more chairs and table settings.

  When they were all seated—the Ambrose family at the makeshift space at one end of the now very long table, the son in between the parents—the waiters could finally hand over the menus and wait for their orders.

  “Speaking of children who aren’t disappointments…” Rick began as he let his extended brood order first.

  “Rick,” his wife said in admonition, not liking his wording.

  “Oh, you know what I mean, darling. Well, our Lucy doesn’t have all that—” Rick gestured at Charles, at nothing in particular and everything at once “—under her belt, though I’m sure come graduation time next year we’ll be pleasantly surprised with a thing or two.”

  He winked at his daughter who smiled, albeit nervously, and said, “Dad.”

  “But I’m a simple man,” Rick went on. “And small things make me happy. Most fathers would start growing bald after their daughters reach a certain age, but I—I never had a problem with my Lucy, not one. She’s got good grades at school, keeps good friends—she spends most of her free time volunteering at our church, and the rest she spends at home, just reading the hours away—and not with trash novels or magazines either. She reads textbooks. She claims they’re fun. Well, and who am I to slam?” Rick said with a chuckle before taking a sip of water, then he became serious. “I count ourselves very fortunate that our Lucinda doesn’t ‘go out’, or party, or drink, or do any of those ‘experiments’ children today are so enamored of, God forgive their souls.”

  Rick made the sign of the cross and his wife echoed him. The rest soon followed, even the people farther away at the table who hadn’t known what it was for. Some of the younger ones looked around, thinking their food had arrived when the waiter hadn’t even finished taking all their orders yet.

  “Well,” Helena said with a wry smile. “While I’m not discounting any of that, I for one am beginning to despair that Lucy would ever find a husband. She has absolutely no interest in such things. Boys would come calling at our house now and again, and we wouldn’t have grumbled too much about her getting to know any of them better as long as it’s a decent fellow, but it’s Lucy herself who turns them down. Sends them all home politely, not even fifteen minutes in.” Helena shook her head at Lucy, looking torn.

  “Eh, but what of it?” said Rick in his daughter’s defense. “She’s too young for that anyway. Really, darling.”

  Helena looked at her husband patiently but not resignedly, and it was easy to tell this was an old argument. “We were twenty-two when we married, dear. Right out of college.”

  All of a sudden, a smile bloomed on Rick’s face as he looked at Helena. “Eh, but we couldn’t wait, could we?” he said, to his wife’s mortification and to the amusement of the rest of the table who were following the conversation.

  “Oh, come, come, Helena,” said Margaret, wiping at her eyes again, this time of tears born of mirth. “Your Lucy is a pretty girl, I’m sure she wouldn’t have a problem on that score, when the time comes. What do you think, son?” She turned to Charles. “Don’t you think Lucy is pretty?”

  This was such an unexpected turn in the conversation that the participants stilled for a moment. And then—almost as one entity—they all turned to look at Charles. He was the one most shocked by the question, and for once he couldn’t find it in him to feign anything.

  Lifting his gaze to meet Lucy’s, Charles said, “I think she’s very beautiful.”

  It wasn’t just the words that made the others’ silence stretch on. It was the redness that was seeping from his lobes and down to his neck, making it flush visibly. And perhaps the answering bloom in Lucy’s cheeks as well.

  In a whisper that carried over half of the table, Lucy’s cousin whispered to her brother, “Why are they blushing?” Adrian, being more in tune with his surroundings, elbowed the other young man in the rib—hard.

  There was only one thing this looked like, and it was perfectly natural and even understandable that two attractive people of their age, who’ve known each other previously and haven’t seen each other in a while, would develop a crush on each other. For some reason that none of them could wrap their minds around to, however, both Lucy’s and Charles’ parents felt something like alarm over this—what they thought of as a new development.

  She’s our only daughter, floated in the minds of Helena and especially of Rick, in an attempt to explain and justify their reaction to themselves.

  He’s our only child, Margaret thought in a similar fashion and for much the same reason. Only Noah recognized what was between the two people for what it was, and his only objection was that they were both too young.

  Awkwardness compounded all their embarrassment, so the sudden appearance of the waiter over their end of the table was a godsend. Their attention now turned to choosing their meal—or seemingly so. The older women were determined to wipe the incident clean from their minds while the men turned the fact over for practicality’s sake. They thought they needed to prepare for eventualities.

  Lucy, meanwhile, was lost in a confusing world of thrill and fear. Charles could barely stop himself from stealing a glance at her whenever the urge took him, which was often. He still couldn’t believe this was happening, but even if this were only a dream or an illusion, he was determined to never snap out of it...

  The Next Summer...

  Charleston didn’t truly understand what hit him—not five years ago, and somehow even less now.

  At school he’d been the kind of student who made friends with like-minded people but mostly kept to himself. He was quiet and detached from the rest, just doing his work, giving more than what was expected of him, and at home he did what he thought most young people his age did, which was immerse himself in television shows, movies, books, or video games.