by Carol Cox
A clicking noise caught her attention, and she looked up to see Paul enter the living room. He moved stiffly on his crutches, looking uncharacteristically vulnerable. Kate jumped up and ran to help him.
“Just call me Hopalong Cassidy,” he quipped.
His face was still drawn and pale, but at least his outlook was cheerful. With short, jerky movements, he headed to the kitchen table and tried to scoot his usual chair back with the tip of one crutch.
Kate’s heart swelled at his determination not to let this injury get the best of him. Since the moment she fell in love with him, she always said she would do anything for this man. Here was another opportunity to prove it.
She pulled the chair away from the table and steadied him as he sat down. “What can I get you to eat?”
“Believe it or not, I’m not too hungry, even after missing supper last night.”
Kate wrinkled her nose. Until that very moment, she hadn’t even thought about having missed their evening meal. She must have been even more tired than she thought. No wonder she had overslept.
“I think I’ll just have a cup of coffee to start and then see if I want anything else later on.”
Kate poured him a mug, then carried it to the table and slid her chair next to his. “Tell me what I can do for you.”
Paul laughed. “I’m really not as fragile as all that. You don’t have to watch me as if I’m going to shatter at any moment.”
He reached out to her, and she moved inside the circle of his arm.
“I’m going to be fine, Katie. Don’t you worry. In a matter of weeks, this will all be behind us, and then I’ll be up and around again. This will be my chance to see how well I can learn to be content in any circumstance.”
He planted a kiss behind her left ear and squeezed her tight. “There, now. Does that feel like the hug of an invalid?”
Kate laughed with him, as much from relief as from his cheesy attempt at humor. “All right, I’ll quit hovering over you. But face it, you aren’t going to be able to jump up every time you need something. Is there anything I can get for you right now?”
“My Bible, my commentary, and my notepad,” Paul answered without hesitation. “I need to work on my sermon.”
Kate crossed her arms and gave him a stern look. “You’re not planning to preach tomorrow, are you?”
“It’s only my ankle that’s injured, remember? My mind and my voice are just fine.”
“And just how do you plan to get up the stairs and onto the platform? Just getting in and out of the car last night...”
Her voice trailed off. Had she forgotten her intention to serve so quickly? She had to do better than that. After a moment’s thought, she offered, “Why don’t I call Eli Weston? Maybe he can help.”
“What a brilliant idea.” Paul grinned at her. “That’s why I already called him from the bedroom phone.”
He laughed and ducked his head to one side when Kate swatted at him. “He’ll be over tomorrow in plenty of time to give me a hand getting inside the church and up to the pulpit.
“If I need it, that is.” He bounced one of the crutches’ rubber tips against the floor. “I’m doing pretty well on these things already. By tomorrow I expect to be an old hand at this.”
Kate laughed and started to relax for the first time since getting Danny’s phone call.
Paul was right. This would be nothing more than a minor inconvenience after all. There was no point in getting in a dither over what couldn’t be changed.
She made a mental list of errands she needed to do: a trip to the Mercantile, a stop at the dry cleaner’s to pick up Paul’s suit, then a visit to the pharmacy on Ashland Street to fill his prescription for pain pills.
If Paul promised to behave himself, she could get those things taken care of before lunch and spend the afternoon sketching possible designs for the fanlight. After Steve gave her the order, she had spoken to Harry Michaels, the customer from Cincinnati, and she already had several ideas she wanted to get down on paper before they slipped away.
Lost in her thoughts, it took a moment to realize that Paul was speaking. “What did you say?”
“I just asked if you would mind doing me a favor.”
Ah, another chance to practice servanthood. “Of course! What is it?”
“After the lecture I got from Old Man Parsons and Renee—and from a number of others as well—I want to make sure there isn’t any reason for them to criticize Avery’s work tomorrow.”
Paul ran his hand across his jaw. “He’s supposed to clean the church on Fridays, so I planned to stop by this morning to make sure everything is in order before tomorrow’s service. Would you mind taking care of that for me?
“Or,” he added with a twinkle in his eye, “I could hobble out to my truck and drive over there myself.”
“Don’t even think about that! I have errands to run anyway. I’ll stop there on my way into town. It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.”
“Thanks, honey. I appreciate it.” A crease appeared between Paul’s eyebrows. “I really don’t want Avery to know I’m checking up on him. He’s just beginning to get some of his confidence back, and I don’t want to do anything to undermine that.”
He shifted his leg to a more comfortable position. “I know the man has failed in the past, but I truly believe he’s committed to turning his life around this time. And I mean to see he gets that second chance.”
Kate stroked his cheek with her fingertips. “You’re a good man, Paul Hanlon. Do you know that?”
Paul shook his head. “Not good; just grateful. God has extended grace to me. I just want to do the same for others.”
AN HOUR LATER, after making Paul comfortable on the couch and placing pillows under his foot, Kate set off for town. She headed south on Smoky Mountain Road and made a left turn on Mountain Laurel, mentally running through the list of things she needed to get done that morning.
She pulled into the church parking lot and sat for a moment, struck as always by the church’s simple beauty, with its clean white lines and the steeple that seemed to point the way to heaven itself. A praise song popped into her mind, and she sang the words softly.
Life was good. Maybe it wasn’t going quite the way she expected it to at the moment, but from now on she would adopt Paul’s attitude as her own and learn to find contentment in every circumstance.
But sitting in the car wasn’t going to get anything done. Still singing under her breath, she pulled her key ring from the Honda’s ignition, climbed out of the car, and crossed the gravel lot to let herself in through the front door.
She stepped into the foyer, ready to give the building a cursory examination, her mind already moving ahead to the other errands she had to do.
Two steps past the door, the song died on her lips.
On her right, the door to the ladies’ restroom stood ajar. Kate could see the mess of paper towels spilling over the top of the trash basket from where she stood.
Closer inspection showed a spattered mirror and commodes that obviously hadn’t been cleaned since the previous Sunday. The men’s room on the other side of the foyer was in even worse condition.
“What on earth?” Kate’s involuntary question bounced off the plain white walls.
Wondering what she would find next, she moved into the sanctuary and stopped just inside the large double doors. Bulletins littered the oak pews, and the maple floorboards were covered with dust.
Kate walked down the broad center aisle toward the pulpit, noting more disarray with every step she took. It didn’t look like anything at all had been done in the way of cleaning. The church was nowhere near ready for people to walk in and worship in the morning.
She ran both hands through her hair. What could Avery have been thinking?
Before her temper got the best of her, Kate took a moment to send up a quick prayer for patience. Maybe she was jumping to conclusions. Maybe Avery cleaned the downstairs first and got called away before he could
finish.
Yes, that must have been it. She turned back to the foyer and started down the stairs to the basement. It couldn’t be this bad everywhere.
She was wrong. The basement was even worse.
Kate held on to the stair railing for support while she surveyed the multipurpose room that served as a gathering place for meetings and potlucks.
Remnants of crafts done during Thursday’s Mother’s Day Out were still in evidence, from the tiny bits of paper scattered across the floor to the patches of dried glue on the long folding tables.
Kate peeked into the Sunday-school classrooms, then the kitchen. Still no sign of Avery.
With a sinking feeling, she recalled what Renee had said the Sunday before. Avery had fallen off the wagon more than once. Was she right? Was Avery at home even now, nursing a hangover?
Kate charged back up the stairs. Hangover or not, the man had a job to do, and he was going to do it.
She made her way to Paul’s office and reached for the phone, then realized she didn’t know Avery’s number. A quick search of Paul’s desk didn’t turn up the information she needed. Kate tapped her fingernails on the desk blotter. She didn’t want to call Paul and upset him, but she needed to find that number.
“Millie!” The obvious answer popped into Kate’s mind like a lightbulb going off over a cartoon character’s head.
She should have thought of Millie right away. The church secretary knew every detail of everything that went on at Faith Briar. She’d probably already committed Avery’s number to memory. Kate could ask for it without offering any explanation. Paul wouldn’t want her to give Millie another reason to criticize Avery.
With a rising sense of hope, Kate tapped in Millie’s home number. The secretary’s curt “Hello” came through the receiver after the first ring.
“Millie, this is Kate Hanlon. I’m down at the church—”
“And you’re wondering why the place is a total mess.” Millie’s crisp tone sounded even more clipped than usual. “Don’t expect me to take the blame for that. I told the pastor he should never have hired that ne’er-do-well. I knew it would only be a matter of time before he slacked off on the job and caused trouble.”
Kate’s grip on the receiver tightened. “Are you telling me Avery never came in at all yesterday?”
“Never came in and never called to say why. That’s just plain inconsiderate, if you ask me. If he had any concern for anyone beside himself—”
Kate broke in and cut off the flow of information. “I need to call him and find out what’s going on. Could you give me his number, please?”
Millie rattled off the digits so quickly, Kate had to ask her to repeat them. She thanked Millie, then hung up and tried to collect her thoughts. Avery hadn’t so much as made an appearance on Friday. Did his absence have something to do with overhearing the things Renee and Old Man Parsons said about him the previous Sunday?
Kate took a series of deep breaths, hoping to calm herself, but her irritation only grew. Whether the overheard comments disturbed him or not, did Avery really expect them to hold tomorrow’s worship service with the church in that state?
Snatching up the phone again, she punched in the number Millie gave her and listened to the soft brrr...brrr...brrr.
After fifteen rings, Kate hung up in disgust. She picked up the receiver again, ready to call Paul and...
She stopped with her hand in midair. And tell him what? That his project in grace had derailed? What would that accomplish? In his present condition, she could hardly expect him to come down and set things right.
Kate took a slow, deep breath. This, too, was a part of servanthood, she reminded herself. Just not the fun part.
She headed downstairs again, this time making a beeline for the storage room, where the cleaning supplies were kept. It was time to get to work.
She tackled the sanctuary first, picking up the loose papers and straightening the Bibles and hymnals in the pew racks, then wiping down the pews until their oak surfaces gleamed.
Brandishing a dust mop, she attacked the floor next, bending low to reach under the pews. Kate knew her back would protest the repetitious bending and straightening by morning. Her arthritic knee was already complaining.
She pushed herself upright and moved to the next row. She had just started swirling the mop in a circular motion when she heard a scuffing sound coming from the foyer.
Kate froze in place and listened. She could hear the light tap of footsteps on the foyer floor, followed by the unmistakable sound of the front door opening and the soft snick of the latch when it clicked shut.
Avery! He must have shown up, realized Kate had already caught on to his dereliction of duty, and sneaked back out again.
She dashed to the front door, ready to confront the errant custodian. Prepared to give him a piece of her mind, she flung the door open and stared.
The parking lot stood empty, save for her Honda. No sign of Avery, not even his rusty old pickup. There was simply no sign that anyone at all had been there.
A sudden chill ran up her arms. Kate ducked back inside the church and closed the door firmly before turning the lock.
Propelled by a sense of urgency she couldn’t explain, she ran to the back door. After making sure the lock was in place, she slumped against the wall and waited for her heart to stop pounding.
Talk about overreacting! Kate tried to laugh it off. She could almost convince herself it had all been the product of an overactive imagination.
Except for the unmistakable sound of the door opening and closing. She hadn’t imagined that.
Kate reminded herself that both doors were locked and she was perfectly safe inside the church, then she collected her cleaning supplies and went down to the basement.
She tried to shake off her uneasiness while she cleared away the Mother’s Day Out debris and scraped the glue off the tables.
Who could have been there, and why? More important, why didn’t he—or she—make his presence known to her? It isn’t as if I wasn’t making plenty of noise, she mused as she gave the tables a final wipe with a damp rag.
By the time everything was in order, Kate knew her muscles were going to scream their displeasure at her the following day. She brushed a few stray bits of paper off her slacks and smoothed her hair into place in the ladies’ room mirror. It wouldn’t do to run into the dry cleaner’s and Mercantile looking like the wreck of the Hesperus.
She checked her watch and groaned. Too late to run into town at all. It was already time to go back home and fix Paul’s lunch. After skipping breakfast that morning and supper the night before, he would surely be ravenous.
She closed the front door behind her, checked to make sure the lock engaged, and headed back to her Honda.
This was hardly the way she had intended to spend her morning.
Chapter Fourteen
She told Paul about her wasted morning while she sliced strips of chicken breast for their chef salad.
“You can’t imagine what the downstairs looked like. It obviously hasn’t been touched since last Sunday.”
Kate arranged portions of the salad on their plates and carried them to the table, along with steaming mugs of coffee.
“All the craft materials the kids used for Mother’s Day Out were still lying all over the place. I thought I never was going to get the glue peeled off those tables.” She slumped into her chair with a weary sigh.
Instead of commiserating, Paul furrowed his brow. “I wonder what happened to Avery.”
Kate’s lips tightened. “That’s a good question.”
After Paul said grace, she picked up her fork and toyed with a piece of lettuce. “I hate to say it, but maybe the naysayers are right. Maybe Avery can’t be trusted.”
“Did you try to call him?”
“Of course I did.” She paused, hearing the sharpness in her tone. “There wasn’t any answer. That’s when I decided I’d better get busy, or the cleaning wouldn’t get done at all.”
Paul ate in silence for several minutes. Then he wiped his mouth with his napkin and laid it beside his plate.
“I don’t believe it. Everything I’ve seen in Avery so far points to a man who knows he’s hit bottom and has a sincere desire to get his life back on track. I don’t intend to give up on him unless I have a rock-solid reason to do so.”
Picking up his crutches, he hobbled to the kitchen counter and reached for the phone. “Let me try his number again.”
Kate finished the last few bites of her salad while Paul stood with the receiver pressed against his ear. Finally he put the phone back in its cradle and stared out the kitchen window at the towering maple in their tiny backyard.
Kate gathered up the plates and carried them to the sink, trying to decide the best way to reorganize her interrupted day.
She couldn’t put off going to the pharmacy. Or the Mercantile, for that matter. The cupboard was almost bare. And she would have to pick up Paul’s suit at the cleaner’s.
Kate sighed. It looked like her time in the studio that afternoon would be reduced to almost nothing.
She stacked the dishes in the sink, added a squirt of dishwashing liquid, and filled the sink with hot water. Maybe if she hurried, she could redeem enough time to give her at least an hour or two in the studio that evening.
Paul cleared his throat and turned away from the window. “Would you mind driving out to Avery’s house to check on him?”
Kate’s eyes widened. “Doesn’t he live way out north on Sweetwater Street?” In the opposite direction from every place she needed to go.
Paul nodded eagerly. “That’s why I’m concerned. He doesn’t have any close neighbors to help if he’s in any kind of trouble. He might have fallen and hurt himself. It happens to the best of us.” He gave her one of his lop-sided grins.
Kate swallowed hard. Content in all circumstances. She must try to remember that.
She picked up a dishcloth and began to wash the plates. She looked over her shoulder at Paul and smiled. “Sure, I’d be glad to.”
