Chapter 1

"Hmph." The sigh was louder than he intended but, glancing at the woman on his right, she hadn't heard him. Thank God.

He was sitting next to his mother. She had wanted to come to the service that evening, being Christmas Eve and the first one without Adam. He knew it would be hard for her so he had come with her for support. He was there visiting for the holiday as Heather had Ava this year. He missed her something terrible and was looking forward to getting home at the end of the week so he could have a little time with her before leaving on tour again.

He looked around, trying to be inconspicuous and not draw any attention to himself. The last thing he or his mother needed was for fans to cause a ruckus here of all places.

He turned to his mother, but she was talking to a couple of her lady friends. He absently thumbed through the hymnal, wishing now that he was anywhere but here.

In the parking lot Kara was cursing herself for being so late. The lot was nearly full and the service was about to start. She finally found a spot in the far corner of the lot and cursed again at having to trudge across the icy lot to the door.

Rushing in Kara hurriedly glanced around and found an empty seat next to an unfamiliar dark haired man. She tried to slip into the pew as unobtrusively as possible while the service proceeded. As the priest spoke she glanced down the pew to see if she knew who she was sitting with. Kara recognized Joan and a couple of the other ladies but didn't recognize the man, but assumed from the way Joan was with him that she knew him.

When the petite brunette sat down next to him, Richie didn't know what to make of her. She hadn't spoken, she just sat down, picked up a hymnal and followed along. Having honed his peripheral vision over the years, he was able to study her without her realizing it. Her dark brown, almost black hair hung in waves to the middle of her back. The Christmas red turtleneck hugged her curves and the slim black pants ended in what looked to be a pair of black boots. She wasn't his usual type, but that didn't keep him from looking.

His first thought after she sat down was she was a fan and trying not to show it, but as the service progressed he realized that she really didn't know who he was. The thing that got him though, the thing that made him turn his head and look at her fully, that had him nearly dropping his hymnal was when she opened her mouth.

This petite brunette, a girl that even with her shoes on only came to the middle of his chest, had the voice of an angel.