CHAPTER TWO
Amelia Madden watched Benji Burke walk away with the tall, dark-haired man at his side. Her heart thudded painfully in her chest, and she found it difficult to take a deep breath.
Why had no one told her he was back in town?
In years past, Benji had returned to Serenity Point sporadically, usually around the holidays or for a special occasion. But during those times, she’d never run into him. Some of his visits had occurred when she’d been away for competitions. But other times, she’d steered clear of the church when it seemed likely that he would be in town.
Seeing him at church, when she hadn’t even suspected he was in town, had completely shocked her.
“Are you okay?”
Amelia looked up from where she’d been wiping up some spilled coffee near the coffee machine. The young woman she was working with that morning was fresh out of high school and had a zest for life that Amelia hadn’t had in what felt like a lifetime.
“I’m fine,” Amelia told her, then glanced at the thinning crowd as people moved from the foyer into the sanctuary. She didn’t see Benji or the man she figured was his bodyguard, so she assumed he’d also joined the congregation. “If you want to head off, I’ll finish cleaning up and shut everything down.”
“Are you sure?” Maddy asked. “I don’t mind staying until it’s all done.”
“I’m positive. It won’t take too long.”
Maddy ended up serving a few more people before she removed her apron and said goodbye to Amelia.
The service was piped into the foyer, so Amelia heard the worship pastor urge people to find their seats as the musicians played in the background.
Amelia served a couple of stragglers, and then it was just her and the greeters in the foyer. She went through the process of emptying out the remaining coffee and the grounds before she washed each of the carafes. She turned off the machines, including the hot water dispenser they used for tea and hot chocolate.
After wiping down all the surfaces, she removed her apron and put it with Maddy’s, along with the cloths they’d used, in a pile for whoever picked them up to launder them.
Once she’d closed the accordion doors over the counter, Amelia retrieved her purse and Bible from the spot where she’d left them earlier. However, as she stepped out of the café, she turned toward the front doors of the church instead of the ones that led to the sanctuary.
There was absolutely no way she was going to stick around and chance running into Benji again. Maybe if he’d recognized her, she would have felt differently. But when he’d looked at her earlier, there had been no recognition in his gaze. Only polite friendliness.
His not recognizing her had been like a knife in the heart. However, it wasn’t unexpected. She did look different now, especially compared to how she’d looked when they’d been dating. And as far as she was concerned, none of the changes she’d undergone had been for the better.
They weren’t really surprising, however, considering she’d gone from being a high-performance athlete who trained many hours a day, to someone who now spent time each morning, before she even got out of bed, evaluating how she felt and whatit would mean for her day. She hated that she could no longer rely on her body to do what she needed it to without a lot of forethought and planning.
Balmy early summer air greeted Amelia as she left the church building and headed for her car. After unlocking it, she slid behind the wheel and sat for a moment.
Amelia was well aware that she was running away. Taking the coward’s way out rather than face Benji again. But there was nothing on earth that could convince her to go back inside the church.
She started the car, then put it into reverse to pull out of her parking spot. The car was nearly twenty years old, but it was all she’d been able to afford once she’d no longer had a skating career and the endorsements had dried up after she’d announced her retirement and had disappeared from the public eye. Thankfully, her dad was a mechanic and kept it in tip-top shape.
Once she’d realized she was going to lose her income, she’d sold her more expensive car and cut down on all her spending as much as possible. It was a good thing she’d taken those steps because her ensuing medical expenses had eaten up nearly all of her savings, and her current salary from working as a secretary at the church wasn’t enough to replenish it.
It didn’t take long for Amelia to drive across town to the building where she had a small one-bedroom apartment. Her parents hadn’t been happy about her moving out since they’d wanted her to continue to stay with them.
Living with them had made sense when she was training and traveling a lot, and it still would have made sense after she’d retired. However, even though she loved them dearly, she felt like she was too old to be living at home. Plus, she’d felt the needto be as independent as possible, even though her health issues were spiraling out of control.
The two and a half story apartment building was painted a soft yellow, and the balcony railings of the front-facing apartments gleamed black in the bright sunlight. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it had become home over the past year. It might have been out of her price range had it not been for a family member owning the building.
One of her uncles, Jaylen Halverson, was her landlord, and though he’d been willing to let her have it without rent, she hadn’t felt comfortable with that. Instead, she paid an amount that was affordable on her limited salary from the church.
Jay giving her a place to live had caused some friction between him and her parents. But he’d convinced them it was better for her to live in a place he owned than somewhere that they didn’t have control over. And was in a less desirable neighborhood because of what she could afford to pay.
In the end, they’d given up trying to prevent her moving out. Amelia was glad because she loved her little apartment, and it was the one place where she didn’t have to keep her walls in place or her emotions under control.
Which was why it was the place she’d come to when she’d needed to retreat.
She unlocked the security door and let herself into the foyer. There was a short flight of stairs going down to the lower basement-level apartments and also a set of stairs leading to the second floor.
