A Woman After David's Heart: Andersen Brothers, #2

PAT SIMMONS

Copyright © 2014 Pat Simmons

This is a work of fiction. References to real events, organizations, and places are used in a fictional context. Any resemblances to actual people, living or dead are entirely coincidental. To read more books by this author, please visit www.patsimmons.net.

Printed in the United States of America .

All rights reserved.

ISBN-10: 1494905477

ISBN-13: 978-1494905477

Praises for Pat Simmons

I love Christian Romance novels and Pat Simmons knows how to unlock the imagination and take it on a quick path of hope, love and Jesus. You will always find some sort of message in her books just like I found in Stopping Traffic. I smiled! ...Tamara Gatling, reader

Pat Simmons does it again and again!

Another great story from Pat Simmons! What I love about her books is they are all biblically based! She shows how we, as humans, are in need of healing, deliverance, forgiveness, etc. I really like her approach to the dating scene! It is refreshing from some other Christian novels that allow their characters to engage in sexual activity without being married! Thank you, Pat, for giving us some good, pure, interesting Christian materials to read!! I appreciate you! You and a handful of other Christian Authors are rare commodities in these last days! ...LeeLee, reader

Simmons has laid it all out on the line in this installment of the Jamieson legacy. This is pure Christian romance with a touch of heritage. There were moments in the middle that I wanted them to get it together but it turned out better than expected. The personal touch of genealogy is wonderful and will make you think about your own family heritage. Wanted to see more Grandma BB but loved the new character development. Simmons is on top of her genre...  Reviewed by M. Bruner Deltareviewer on Free from Guilt

Free from Guilt may be listed as Christian fiction, but it's so much more. You read about family history, romance and transformation. This is a great read and leaves the reader wanting more, with that being said I'm looking forward to the next Guilty installment.

...Reviewed by Melody Vernor-Bartel for Reader's Paradise

Other Christian titles include:

The Jamieson Legacy

Book I: Guilty by Association

Book II: The Guilt Trip

Book III: Free from Guilt

The Guilty Parties series

Book I: The Acquittal

Book II: The Confession (fall 2015)

The Carmen Sisters

Book I: No Easy Catch

Book II: In Defense of Love

Love at the Crossroads

Book I: Stopping Traffic

Book II: A Baby for Christmas

Book III: The Keepsake

Book IV: What God Has for Me

Making Love Work Anthology

Book I: Love at Work

Book II: Words of Love

Book III: A Mother’s Love

Love for The Holidays

Book I: A Christian Christmas

Book II: A Christian Easter

Book III: A Christian Father’s Day

A Woman After David’s Heart

Jeremiah 29:11 KJV

––––––––

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

~1~

It was the week before the most celebrated love fest of the year—Valentine’s Day—and Valerie Hart knew no red roses would decorate her office, no silly card was in the mailbox and no secret admirer would be asking her out to dinner. At twenty-seven, her single status was starting to get to her.

Somehow, love had eluded her, or she had scared it off. Valerie could handle New Year’s Day, Easter, the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, but not the love fest. None of those other days required a significant other to celebrate.

Without any prospects, she was on the path to  join the ranks of thousands of women, especially Black women, who would still be unmarried by thirty, which for her, seemed right around the corner, not three years away.

Valerie maneuvered her new Ford Focus on the snow-packed streets of Mid-town St. Louis, not far from her one-bedroom apartment near the Washington University campus.

Her mind always drifted when it snowed. It reminded her of a whimsical world of romance.

More than once her best friend, Brittany Stanton, blamed Valerie’s empty social calendar on her lifestyle conversion.

There’s barely enough men in the world. The church is the last place you’ll find a happily ever after.

Only God knew that for sure. Before Valerie surrendered her life to God four years ago, her old boyfriends had been jerks with commitment issues, so the relationships fizzled. She didn’t ask God to save her from her sins to get a husband, although that would have been a bonus.

Granted her options didn’t look good at Salvation is Free Church where she was a member. The women did outnumber the men—in her opinion—one hundred to one. Still, Valerie didn’t regret her decision not to step her stilettos inside another social event at a club with Brittany. So far, she hadn’t regretted forfeiting the craziness of the world to serve Jesus.

Dismissing all thoughts of love, Valerie negotiated a curve as her cell phone rang. She glanced at her caller ID and chuckled. Speak of the antagonist. Valerie activated her hands-free device. Yes, madam.

Whatcha doing tonight? Brittany asked.

Evidently, you aren’t out on the roads. A blizzard is coming. Even Friday night youth service at church was canceled.

Two to three inches is not a blizzard. Brittany tsked. Since you’re not going to church, why not go with me to this fraternity fundraiser? It’s not at a club—before you ask—it’s being held at the Radisson Hotel. You know my crossover is a four-wheeler.

No thanks. One inch or ten, snow is snow. When I get home, I’m in for the night.

You can’t find the love of your life at home and Valentine’s Day is a week away. I know you don’t want to go for a record of four consecutive years without a Valentine. 

Thanks for keeping tabs.

You’re welcome. Well, suit yourself. I have to go and get ready. I don’t care how long it takes me to get there. I’m determined to be someone’s Valentine this year. Laughing, Brittany ended the call.

Lightly pumping her brakes, Valerie slowed to a stop at the intersection when the traffic light flashed from yellow to red. She exhaled and admired the snow resting on tree branches—beautiful and surreal.

When the phone rang again, she tapped her Bluetooth. Hello.

Hey, sweetie. Have you made it home yet? I heard the streets are bad... her mother, Helen Hart, said.

Almost. I’ll call you when I get there.

Don’t forget. I’ve got something to tell you. Now be careful! she ordered and ended the call.

Humored by her mother’s excitement about something, Valerie smiled. Now, she was the romantic in the family.

She adored her overprotective widowed mother who had been twenty years old when her father, Bernard, had snatched her up. Thinking about romance, Granny Martha, Helen’s mother, had found the love of her life at eighteen.

Even her sole sibling, Rachel, had found love at twenty-four—now five years later, her sister and brother-in-law were trying to have their first baby. Valerie groaned. What was her problem?

Valerie’s pity party ended when she pulled in front of Dove Nest’s parking garage and waited for the security guard to lift the gate. Her home was in a beautiful but pricey gated community of fifty apartment and condo units.

Most of the residents were either young working professionals or graduate students. Although she could afford a modest house, she felt more secure as a single woman living in an apartment.

Plus, it wasn’t far from her work at The Stallings Group where she handled creative development, matching their clients with the right person to get the message across about various products.

Parking in her designated spot, Valerie grabbed her purse and two bags of groceries. She was thankful that the maintenance crew had shoveled the walkway to the building even as it continued to snow.

Minutes later, she was riding the elevator up to the second floor. Outside her apartment door, Valerie used her key card for entry instead of actual keys. 

She had barely removed her coat when the phone rang. Setting her purchases on the counter separating the kitchen from the living room, she checked the caller ID.

Mom? What did you do, time me? She chuckled as she sat on a barstool.

Of course. Please tell me you’re not going back out to church in this weather. We’re supposed to get more snow.

Nope. Service was canceled. Peeking out her kitchen window, she noted the snowfall was getting heavier.

One thing about St. Louis weather, the temperature would plummet one day, then soar the next, melting most of the snow. I’m about to whip up a stir-fry with chicken strips.

Getting up, Valerie tended to her groceries as her mother switched to the dreaded subject of Valentine’s Day.

Since her father’s passing five years earlier, Valerie and her sister, Rachel, had started treating their mother to a sumptuous Valentine’s Day dinner. But Rachel and her hubby now lived in another state. A few times, the couple had surprised their mother with a visit home, but this year, Thomas was taking her sister on a romantic getaway to Miami for three days.

Without a significant other of her own, Valerie was satisfied to listen to her mother embellish tales about her first love. That seemed to be the only way she would feel butterflies fluttering in her stomach.

Everyone teased that Helen and Bernard found love in the water, literally. The two were baptized in Jesus’ name at the same time, then ironically, they both received the Holy Ghost baptism the next day.

After a short courtship, the two tied the knot and had been married for thirty-five years until the Lord took Bernard home after years of battling heart disease.

The only other candidates that were baptized the same day as Valerie were an elderly man, and a young teenage boy. There was no husband material there. 

This is what I wanted to tell you. I received an invitation in the mail from an organization called Thy Mother’s Keeper. They are sponsoring a night of pampering...

For some reason, Mrs. Helen Hart was a magnet for free offers for shopping sprees, day trips, and groceries. Of course her mother always said the offers were God’s way of taking care of widows. Valerie wasn’t that gullible. She always felt it was her duty to tag along to make sure everything was legit.

The invitation’s so cute. She seemed tickled. It’s called the First Corinthians 13:4-7, Chocolate Affair. You know, ‘Love is patient, love is kind....’

And love keeps you waiting. Valerie held her tongue. More than once she had bought herself a box of chocolates.

It’s absolutely free, her mother continued. It’s for widows, single mothers, and it’s free. Her mother raved about the door prizes, what was being served, and the entertainment.

Pinching