When the checks came, Mike insisted on paying for all their meals. “It’s the least I could do in return for the pleasure of the company of three such beautiful women.”
Oh sure, Jo thought. This guy was a smooth talker and he really knew how to spread it on, but thick.
As they all stepped outside, Mike turned to Jo and said maybe I’ll come over to your place sometime. You said it’s a grill too?” When she only nodded, he said, “Great, I’m not much of a cook, so I might stop in for supper tomorrow night.”
Jo just tried to smile back at him. No need to turn away business. She only hoped he’d come in after she got off. She didn’t want to deal with him or any other man for that matter.
Once the three were back in Sue Ann’s car, all Carla talked about was Mr. Bates this and Mr. Bates that. Jo knew she was going to have to have a talk with her little sister and soon.
Then she got a good look at Sue Ann and almost laughed. The same look that was on the sixteen-year old girl’s face was also on Sue Ann’s face. That didn’t bode well. Jo decided that she might need to talk to her best friend as well.
When Jo and Carla went upstairs to their apartment, Carla went straight to her room. Oh well, Jo didn’t really have time for that talk right now anyway. She had to open the bar in fifteen minutes. She’d have to wait until tonight to talk to Carla about her teacher.
Jo’s first customer when she opened at two was Floyd who was wearing worn jeans and a black t-shirt. He took his usual place at the bar and placed his ever present cowboy hat – although this one was minus the badge – on the bar in front of him.
“What’s new Jo?”
She smiled at her cousin and placed his usual beer on the bar in front of him.
“I guess you could say I’ve had an interesting day so far.”
He snorted. “Yeah, I heard about some of it. I’ll bet it was Sue Ann’s idea for the two of you to go to the Baptist church this morning wasn’t it?”
She smiled. “Yes, but you know what Floyd? I’m glad I went. That preacher said he wanted to help not attack and I think I believe him.”
“Do I need to ask what Sue Ann thinks?”
“No, I’m sure you know that she doesn’t believe a word he said.”
They both laughed then Jo grew serious. “I think I’m going to have to have one of those little talks with Carla.”
“Why, what did she do?”
“Not really anything . . . yet.” She leaned toward Floyd as several people came in the door. She knew that Jeanie, her waitress, would get them. “But she has a new history teacher this year and he was in Thelma’s when we were there today. He wound up sitting with the three of us. But the problem is that I think Carla has a huge crush on him.”
Floyd shook his head and said, “Teenagers!”
Jo laughed with him. “I think I can handle Carla all right, but that’s not all. I’m afraid Carla’s not the only one with a crush on this guy. You should have seen the way Sue Ann acted around him.”
That grabbed Floyd’s attention. She couldn’t understand what he said under his breath, but it sounded colorful. Hmmm! What was going on here? Did she detect a little jealousy here? Floyd? And Sue Ann? No! It’d never happen. They had always been at each other’s throats.
Floyd finished his beer in one gulp and left still muttering under his breath. Jo decided she’d just have to pay more attention whenever Floyd and Sue Ann were in the same room. It could prove to be rather interesting.
Chapter Four
Monday morning, Gil went to the church office early. He couldn’t wait for Betty to get there. He had some very important questions that he just had to have answered before he could even think about how to continue to minister in this church. Or maybe even if he should continue on there at all.
Gil had never had a temper. In fact, he seldom even became angry. His mother had always bragged to others about how even tempered her Gilbert had always been.
That brought up another thought. It sure was good to be somewhere where everyone called him Gil, or anything but that hated name, Gilbert. He smiled when he thought of Bert calling him Mr. Preacher. He didn’t even mind that, since he knew that to Bert it was a title of respect.
Needless to say, Gil was seldom ever truly angry about anything. He’d always gone out of his way never to offend anyone and they had usually returned the favor.
But right now, Gil was experiencing a strong unfamiliar emotion and it couldn’t be anything but anger. This church, for whatever reason or reasons, had chosen not to tell him about all the troubles that the last pastor had caused and even worse, was the fact that the church had been about to split. That made him genuinely angry.
Finally, nine o’clock came and he heard Betty come in and call out a greeting to him before settling in at her desk out front. He waited five minutes before going to the open doorway.
“Betty, could you come in for a minute? I have a few questions that I think you can answer for me.”
The look on Betty’s face told Gil that she had a good idea what questions he wanted to ask. However, she came anyway.
Once she was sitting in a visitor chair, he started. “First, I was wondering why this church does not have a Sunday evening service. Almost all Baptist churches do.”
From the relieved smile on Betty’s face, Gil knew she had been expecting one of his other questions.
“Oh, that’s simple. We used to have an evening service and it was at seven. But about a year ago, some people in the church decided they wanted to change the time to six. Well, when it came to a vote at a monthly business meeting, there were exactly half of the votes for changing it to six and half against it. Then before anyone knew what was happening, another motion was made to just do away with it and that passed.”
Gil leaned back in his chair and thought about that for a moment. He had a feeling that discontinuing the evening service was merely a result of the division within the church.
Finally, Gil turned back to Betty who looked as if she was ready to run out the door. He suddenly felt bad about drawing the information he needed from her. But he had to know and soon.
“Betty, I just learned yesterday that the church has been about to split for the last five years. Can you tell me what seems to be the problem?”
“Problems!”
“Excuse me?”
She tried to smile at him but didn’t succeed. “Well, you see, no one can really look back and put their finger on exactly what started things to be the way they are right now. The best we can do is come up with several.”
He didn’t say anything, hoping she’d continue on her own. He didn’t want to break her train of thought.
“I think probably the first thing to happen was about five years ago when the pastor, Bill that is, refused to baptize Jake Hollis’ six-year old grandson, Jake the third. Bill said that the boy didn’t understand enough to make that kind of decision.”
She stopped to look down at her hands in her lap. “Sure, he was right and everybody in the church could see that but not Jake nor any of his kin. And they make up almost half the church, you know.”
Betty stopped talking and began fidgeting with her hands in her lap. Again, Gil felt bad about drawing the information from her, but he knew he couldn’t afford to stop now. He needed to know everything.
“You said there were several reasons, Betty.”
She looked up at Gil and tried to smile. “Well, since then, there’s been a bunch of little things like the new hymnals being voted down because Jake and his bunch didn’t think they were needed, said the old ones were perfectly fine. That sort of thing just kept happening all the way up to last year with the vote on the Sunday evening service.”
She paused and took a deep breath. “Well, it was Jake’s bunch who tried to change the time. And when it failed, they talked a few others into voting with them to just do away with the service.”
Gil was beginning to see the pattern now. “Let me guess. Jake’s bunch was i
n on it when the former pastor took up his fight against the bars.”
She stared at Gil. “How did you figure that one out?”
He laughed but didn’t really feel like laughing. “It seemed to be a natural progression of events. I would venture to guess that they were only backing him so they could use that to get him run out of town.”
When Betty gave him a puzzled look, he said, “No matter what, it does seem that any time there has been something controversial in the church or in the town, then Jake has been right in the middle of it.”
Her face cleared. “I hadn’t thought about any of that, but you may be right. Oh, yes, I guess you’re probably right about all of that.” She lowered her voice. “Between you and me, that Jake Hollis always has been a troublemaker.”
She paused and a thoughtful look came over her face. “And to think my oldest sister almost married that man.”
When Betty went back into the outer office, Gil sat there for some time just thinking.
The topic was Jake Hollis. Jake had been at the deacon meeting yesterday, but Gil couldn’t remember him saying anything other than grunting a greeting to Gil when they shook hands and that had been rather cool. He remembered now, that Jake had sat at the other end of the table and seemed to be watching Gil throughout the meeting. Now he thought he knew why.
Then Gil thought about what he should do. Should he tell these people that since they hadn’t been totally up front with him, he couldn’t stay on as their pastor?
As he thought about that, he realized that there were two very good reasons why he shouldn’t do that. Number one, it had taken him a year to find this church. Who knew how long it might take him to find another one who would take someone his age with a PhD and no experience.
He was still formulating the second reason in his mind. He knew that his life, up until this point, had been a series of events that just naturally followed one another. He’d gone to college with seminary in mind. He’d gone to seminary for his masters while planning to go on to get his PhD. Other that studying hard to get those three degrees, he’d never really faced a challenge of any sort.
He made fists of both hands. Well, wasn’t it about time that he faced a challenge . . . and conquered it? He’d never know if he could have if he just walked away right now, even though few people would blame him if he did.
No! He was going to stay. He wouldn’t say he was going to stay and fight because he didn’t want a fight of any kind. He just wanted to bring peace to this church and maybe in the process bring a little peace to the rest of the town as well.
That was it. He had his mind made up now. He knew what he was going to do. Then a thought hit him. If only he knew how he was going to go about that, he would be one step ahead. However, he knew it would come to him. He just had to do a lot of praying and rely on God to lead him through the rough times he knew were ahead of him.
* * *
Jo was feeling good. Her lunch crowd had been much better than usual again today, and she was restocking the bar afterward. Business had been picking up like this for the last week or so. If this continued, she might have to schedule a second waitress to come in early to help with lunch.
As she wheeled the last three cases of beer out of the cooler and into the space behind the bar, the door opened and Sue Ann came rushing in. Jo always loved to see her best friend, but right now, she needed to put all this beer in the coolers under the bar and she still had ten or twelve customers in the place. She didn’t need to sit and listen to Sue Ann.
When would Sue Ann realize that even though her beauty shop was busy at lunchtime it almost stopped at one. On the other hand, The Early Bird did not stop almost completely at one. Hoping to show this to Sue Ann, she went to the other end of the bar and placed two more beers in front of a couple down there.
When she came back, Sue Ann barely waited for Jo to get close.
“Guess who came into my shop this morning.”
Jo just looked at Sue Ann and waited for her to finish her statement knowing that she would.
“Nancy Hollis!” She almost shouted in a whisper. When Jo didn’t respond in any way, she said, “And she said that Jake was sure he was going to be able to get the new Baptist preacher to take up where that old man left off last year.”
She put her hands on her hips as Jo placed a glass of Coke in front of her. “Well, aren’t you going to say anything about that?”
Jo shook her head and smiled at her friend. “Sue Ann, you saw how that preacher treated me at your shop last week. And you also heard him say, in front of the whole church Sunday that he was not going to attack anyone. Why don’t you just wait and give the poor guy a chance to prove himself.”
Sue Ann took in a breath and opened her mouth to speak but Jo rushed ahead. “Besides, you know how much of an old bag of wind Jake Hollis is. And, knowing how Nancy loves to start gossip, I’d be surprised if Jake even said it that way.”
Sue Ann seemed to be thinking about that when someone came in and headed their way. They both looked up to see Floyd take the stool next to Sue Ann, laying his hat on the bar as usual.
Jo gave her cousin a close look. She guessed he wasn’t that bad looking. Except for his height and thickness, his features were very much like hers. On him, freckles didn’t look bad though. Overall, he looked good, especially the way he filled out his uniform.
He leaned on the counter and she slapped a glass of Coke into his outstretched hand. That was when she noticed that he was avoiding looking at Sue Ann. When Jo looked at Sue Ann, she realized that her eyes were avoiding Floyd too. What was going on here? Well, she’d just have to find out what it was.
Before Jo could say anything, Sue Ann, still looking straight at Jo, said, almost out of the corner of her mouth, “You just keep your opinions to yourself Floyd McCracken. I don’t need or want your advice . . . ever.”
Floyd laughed and while looking at Jo said, “Would you tell your friend here that being sheriff of this county, it’s my duty and responsibility to look out for the welfare of everyone in it . . . including those who don’t think they need it.”
Jo would have laughed, but she was afraid that both of her only true friends might turn on her if she did.
Sue Ann finished her Coke, jumped off the stool, and headed for the door. But as she went, she threw over her shoulder, “Stay out of my life, Sheriff.” She said the last word as if it were a bad word.
Jo didn’t know what to do or say. Floyd was laughing again. But as soon as the door slammed shut, he stopped abruptly.
Floyd looked at the Coke in his hand. “If I wasn’t on duty, I’d make that a double bourbon.”
Jo knew she needed to say something, but couldn’t for the life of her figure out what.
Floyd was still staring into his Coke. “All I did was tell her not to make a fool of herself over that new teacher.”
Jo had a sudden thought and decided to take a chance and voice it. “How long have you loved her Floyd?”
His head jerked up and his face paled, accentuating his freckles. “What?” When she put her hands on her hips and just stared at him, he said, “How’d you know?”
She almost laughed but restrained herself just in time. “Oh Floyd. It’s written all over your face. I just can’t believe I never saw it before.”
He hit his forehead with the palm of his free hand. “She hates me.”
When Jo didn’t say anything, he grunted. “Me being five years older than her, we were never around each other at school. But all the time you and her have been friends, she was usually at all the family get-togethers. I’ve always thought she was the most beautiful girl in town.”
Jo did smile just a little at that. “Well, Floyd, what are you going to do about it?”
“Do?” He paled even more if that were possible. “I can’t do anything about it. Didn’t you see how she just left here telling me to stay out of her life.”
“Floyd, you grew up an only child. How much have you ever been arou
nd women?”
He snorted. “I was married to one, wasn’t I?”
Jo shook her head. “I’m afraid that doesn’t count for much. In fact, it just goes to prove my point. You met Darcy when you were in the Army. What did you two have in common? She was a city girl, and when you brought her back here, she couldn’t stand it and left.”
“Yeah, she said she couldn’t stand me anymore either, said she only married me for the way I looked in that Army uniform.” He shook his head. “Can you imagine that?”
“Yes, Floyd, she was so immature that she didn’t know what she wanted.” She reached out and patted his hand. “You’re dealing with a thirty-year old divorcee with a six-year old son.”
“So?”
“So you can’t treat Sue Ann the way you did Darcy.”
When he gave her a disbelieving look, she pressed her point. “Sue Ann knows the game. She doesn’t always play by the rules but she knows the rules. Not only that, but she sometimes makes the rules up as she goes.”
Floyd slammed his palm down on the bar. “Well, what in tarnation are you trying to say now, Jo?”
“All I’m saying is that sometimes when Sue Ann says no, she actually means yes.”
This time understanding lit up on Floyd’s face. “You mean that when she told me to stay out of her life, it was actually an invitation instead?”
Jo laughed this time and shook her head. “I’m not saying that . . . exactly, but I am saying that I know Sue Ann better than almost anyone else. And I don’t think she meant it the quite way we heard it.”
She paused to watch the emotions fly across his face. “What I think she meant was that you’re treating her all wrong. If you approach her differently, say with more finesse than roughness, she just might respond to you a little better. That’s all I’m saying.”
“Okay, Jo, you’ve thrown too much at me to think it all through right now. I’m going to get in my Tahoe and just patrol for a few hours so I can sort it all out.”
Jo watched him leave wondering if she had helped him or had she only lit a fire a little too close to a case of dynamite.
No Easy Solution (Crowley County Series Book 1) Page 6
