Just One Day: The Just Molly Series, #1

By Laura Leigh

Aaron is used to achieving his goals. After all, he's a successful CEO who has single-handedly rescued two companies from looming rack and ruin. But when it comes to Molly, he is stymied.

Molly is something else entirely. Success at anything important seems off the table. She can't even seem to lose weight. As hard as she's tried, her stubborn scale refuses to budge.

Now she's heading home for the holidays with one goal in mind: to prove to her former fiancé that she has changed in all the ways he wanted her to. Unfortunately, her life never goes as planned. In just one day, her boss has sabotaged her last day of work, her ex-fiancé's parents have moved into her old bedroom for the holidays, and CEO Aaron Werner is distracting her with a last-minute project.

But things aren't always what they seem. Sometimes an old friend appears in the guise of a stranger and people close to you harbor sticky secrets.

This is a laugh-out-loud tale of love and friendship, new norms and second chances, and the life-changing opportunity of just one day when God is at the helm of your life.

 

The Just Molly Series

Book 1 -- Just One Day

Book 2 -- Just One Girl

Book 3 -- Just One Life

Just an Unfortunate Misunderstanding (a short story)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Laura Leigh
• Release date: Jan 3, 2019
• ISBN: 9798201723286

Laura Leigh

Laura Leigh is a missionary in Asia. She has traveled extensively and lived in countries all over the world. She’s held lion cubs in Africa, helped with impromptu snake surgery in Cambodia, and boated down an underground river in the Philippines. She writes clean, wholesome Christian fiction.

Book preview

PROLOGUE

(Aaron)

Aaron’s phone rang while he was shaving.

He tapped it with his only dry finger and kept on shaving. Morning.

His father’s voice boomed through the speaker. How’s it going?

We’re an hour later here, Dad. I’m leaving my hotel in about twenty minutes.

Oh! I forgot about the time difference. Think it’ll go well?

No idea. For a moment he stopped shaving and surveyed himself in the mirror. White foamy chin, perfectly matching his undershirt. Blue eyes. Brown hair. Nothing special.

There was no way he was going to succeed at this. He’d been working on it for three months now at least, and he hadn’t managed to wedge his way past the initial stages of a relationship. Why was it he could win at work and still manage to fail at the one thing that really mattered to him?

Get Cortez to help you.

How could he do that?

She’s on your flight.

What? How do you know that?

I have my ways. His father’s chuckle rolled through the speaker.

Aaron rolled his eyes, but he couldn’t help smiling.

So, why don’t you see if the shuttle can take her to the airport too? That might give you some time to talk.

I’ll have Grant with me.

His father groaned. Oh. Forgot that too. Never mind.

Thanks for trying, Dad. Maybe you should stick to the role of prayer partner?

He was teasing, but his father answered seriously. I’m doing that too.

Still think I’m making the right choice?

Yes I do. But you don’t have to persuade me. You have to persuade her.

I seem to be failing completely at that. She hardly notices me. I have to work hard just to get a few minutes of conversation with her. She’s always running off somewhere to help someone.

That’s why you’re interested.

True. But it’s also why I haven’t even been able to talk to her about this yet. Also, there’s a wall.

A wall?

Something she’s erected around herself.

Reserve is good, right?

Probably. But I don’t know how to scale it. And I don’t know why it’s there. Is there someone else?

Is there a ring on her finger?

No.

Do you ever see her with anyone?

Never.

Her grandmother says that’s not it. There hasn’t been anyone since...

Since what?

Since she moved there.

So there was someone before that?

Long pause. Aaron felt himself grow irritated.

Yeah.

Who?

I can’t say.

He laid down his razor. Stubborn as always. And now he was really curious. Curious, and something else. Irritable? Jealous?

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Aaron smiled as he rinsed, then patted his chin and neck dry.

You aren’t exactly where you thought you would be when this started happening, son. Now you have this new commitment next year. You’ll be making a lot of changes.

Aaron paused, fluffy white towel still pressed to his face. Then, with precise movements, he hung up the towel and quickly scooped up his personal items from the counter, drying them and sliding them neatly into his bag.

I’m not. That’s true. But I don’t think it matters. She’s not like that. I never expected someone like this, Dad.

Be careful, that’s all I ask. Guard your heart until you are sure you have a green light.

Aaron set both hands on the tiled counter and leaned forward, surveying himself again in the mirror. So average. Nothing about him seemed to either attract or repel. In fact, he could almost guarantee that he was invisible. What helped him in his nine-to-five work wasn’t going to make him a success at this. He sighed, then realized belatedly that his father heard him.

His dad laughed heartily.

Of course he did. Aaron rolled his eyes at his own image in the mirror, picked up his bag and phone, and went into the other room where his suitcase was packed and waiting and his shirt and coat were hanging.

You don’t have to make fun of me. Aaron zipped his suitcase closed, pulled his shirt on, and began buttoning his cuffs.

It isn’t every day that I find a chink in your armor of success. I have to take advantage of it.

Very funny.

So tell me, do you write this down on your list of daily goals? Where does it fall? Somewhere between ‘increase revenue by fifteen percent’ and ‘squeak through the year-end review with Cortez without having to fire more employees’?

Very, very funny. Actually, revenue growth wasn’t on his hit list for today. But this was. If his dad knew, he would never hear the end of it.

How do you think the year end will go?

I’m gearing up to be firm. Cortez is... His voice trailed off. He pressed his lips together.

Intractable, I’ve heard. Do the right thing, but don’t forget who is ultimately in charge.

Cortez, you mean?

God.

Ah. Good reminder.

God is in charge of everything you face today.

Aaron finished tying his tie in the full-length mirror and slid into his suitcoat. Then he draped his overcoat over his arm, surveyed the room one last time, and wheeled his suitcase after him out the door and into the hall, pulling the door shut firmly behind him.

I needed to hear that, he said.

I thought so. We’re praying for you. For everything.

Thanks, Dad. The elevator dinged. Two women stepped out, one blonde and one brunette. The dark-haired woman ignored him, but the other one smiled boldly and tried to catch his eye. He looked away immediately and stepped into the elevator.

Love you, son. His father’s voice was soft.

You too. He hung up just as the elevator doors closed.

Grant showed up at the front desk as Aaron was finishing the check-out process. Exactly on time.

Ready for today? his CFO asked.

Aaron slid into his overcoat, wrapping himself in warmth. Milwaukee in late December was even colder than Pennsylvania. Molly would undoubtedly have hot coffee waiting for them. He had drunk none this morning at the hotel in anticipation of drinking hers.

Absolutely.

He said it with way more confidence than he felt.

CHAPTER ONE

This was the worst day of my life.

I looked down at the scale. Stepped off. Tapped it with my toes. Stepped back on again.

Same number.

I moaned and grabbed my head, scrunching up my dark curls. It wasn’t fair!

Definitely the worst day of my life.

Worse, even, than the previous worst day of my life, when my fiancé broke our engagement.

For the last five months I had been working on all the things he told me were contributors to his discontentment in our relationship: my hair was too short, my job was demeaning, my fingernails looked moldy (it was just an unfortunate green shade of polish), I was careless with my car, and my weight had crept up.

Those were the exact words he used. Crept up.

Sneaky weight, creeping up on me.

And then, after dumping all those things on me in one fell swoop of a low blow, he also dumped me and asked

Reviews for Just One Day

[Yohana Ekky · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Recommended to read! I loved it! The way Laura explains how Aaron and Molly met, then their relationship naturally develops into a friendship, and finally, they are almost 'there', is just beautiful. I'm now reading the second book.