Angel's View from the Driver's Seat

On Saturday, I finished putting the final touches on the paperback edition of Courting Peace. This week, I'll get the proof and, by this time next week, the book should be available! In celebration (and anticipation), I thought I'd share a little bit of deleted Angel material.

Happy reading!  

Angel circled the block for the third time, wondering if she should keep driving and let Spencer sleep, or take her home and try to put her down for a nap. Either way, she was trapped. Trapped in a car, driving in circles and accomplishing nothing or trapped at home with a baby whose needs she couldn't discern.

Was this how her mother had felt? Was this why she'd left?

But her mother had made it through the baby stages. Could what came next really be harder than this?

* * * * *

Angel Alessio pulled into a parking space at Holy Redeemer Church and peeked in her rear view mirror. Spencer was sound asleep, her peaceful expression belying the endless crying that had cost all of them countless hours of sleep. Angel had expected her baby to cry -- to believe otherwise would have been ridiculous -- but in no way had she been prepared for the endless cycles of inconsolable wails that had marked Spencer's first few months of life. 

Angel glanced at the entrance to the church. Just a few parking spaces separated her from the company of actual adults whose responses had evolved far from wails of dissatisfaction at every turn -- women who'd be delighted to pass her baby from one set of arms to the next, giving Angel a break and perhaps being able to do what she could not. But here, in the car with her sleeping, content baby, fears of parental incompetence evaporated with one look at Spencer's beautiful, angelic face. 

Angel checked her watch. Bible study would begin in less than five minutes. By the time she unbuckled Spencer from her car seat, doubtless setting off a whole new chorus of wails, she'd have about two minutes to make it across the parking lot and into the church, loaded down with all of Spencer's paraphernalia, consoling her child all the way.

Spencer stirred and Angel held her breath. Gently shifting the car into reverse, she backed out of the parking space and drove home.