She hadn’t seen him arrive, but she should have known word of the struggle to save the church would reach Maisey. And whatever Richard’s personal beliefs were these days, he respected Maisey’s. Anna Louise should have known he would come to help. She didn’t want to consider too closely why she hadn’t called and directly asked for his help herself. Maybe it had something to do with the longing she’d felt when she’d left Willow Creek after the picnic a few days earlier. She hadn’t been able to shake the feeling that she was more attracted to Richard Walton than she had any business being.
At the moment, however, she found his know-it-all attitude irritating. She wiped a strand of wet hair from her eyes and scowled up at him.
“You could pitch in and help,” she suggested pointedly.
“It’s a losing battle, at least the way you’re going about it.”
Anna Louise lost patience. “Do you have a better idea? If not, get out of my way and let me get back to work.” She shoved past him and sloshed through the rising water.
He stayed where he was and called after her, “Seems to me you’d be better off diverting the stream’s path upstream, just below Maisey’s where the land first begins to level off.”
Anna Louise paused to listen.
“There are open fields to the south. If we send the water that way, then the church would be out of harm’s way. Better yet, when the water’s receded, that land should be more fertile than ever.”
Anna Louise nodded agreeably. “Good idea. Too bad it won’t work.”
Hands on his hips, he glowered at her. “I wasn’t aware you had experience with the Army Corps of Engineers,” Richard retorted.
He was obviously miffed that she’d dismissed his idea so readily. She didn’t have time to indulge his ego. “True,” she shot right back. “My experience is with Orville Patterson. It’s his land and he won’t allow what you’re suggesting, not if I ask anyway.”
An expression of genuine bewilderment crept over his face. “Why in the world not?”
“Do you even have to ask?”
“Surely you’re not suggesting that Orville would take out his feud with you on the church itself. He’s not that small-minded.”
“I thought you’d pinned that label on the whole town. Is Orville an exception just because he was once your childhood buddy? I can’t say I’ve seen the two of you together even once since you’ve been back.”
“You’re right. We haven’t even spoken. But this has nothing to do with me. Orville’s a pastor himself, for goodness’ sake. How could he justify letting the church be destroyed or even just damaged by flood waters if it was in his power to prevent it?”
“Let me share a few hard truths about your old friend Orville,” Anna Louise retorted. “He doesn’t just dislike me. He doesn’t just quietly disapprove of my career. He feels he has a moral obligation to show me the error of my ways. He’ll view this flood and any destruction it causes as a sign from God that he’s right. He won’t allow anyone to interfere, not even his own father, or you can be sure Tucker would have offered to talk to him.”
She gestured toward the small crew she’d been able to rally. “Take a look around. I called twice this many people, but these are the only ones who showed up. Orville got to the others. Naturally that’s not what they told me. They all had high-sounding excuses, but I’d wager my last dollar that they were trumped up at the sound of my voice. If we try to flood Orville’s land, we may lose some of these volunteers, too.”
Richard’s jaw set in a way she was beginning to recognize.
“Then we won’t say just what we’re up to,” he said flatly. “Come on. Let’s get busy.”
As he took off upstream, calling to the others to follow, Anna Louise ran after him. “You can’t do this,” she shouted after him, trying to make him see reason. “It’ll just make things worse.”
“It’ll save the church, won’t it?” He gave her what seemed to pass for a smile with him. “Don’t worry, Anna Louise. I know some of Orville’s most wretched childhood sins. He won’t mess with me.”
Anna Louise stared after him as he stalked off. Somehow the thought that Richard was willing to resort to blackmail on her behalf wasn’t much comfort. But that didn’t keep her from following after him and pitching in. It helped to see that Tucker Patterson had gone along with the plan without an apparent qualm.
Another load of donated sand was dumped upstream. From noon until darkness fell they did what they could to divert the rising waters of Willow Creek and send them off on a new, less destructive path.
Anna Louise’s shoulders ached. Her arms burned with a searing pain from the constant lifting. Her clothes were soaked through. Her hair clung to her head in a tangle of wet curls. She could barely put one foot in front of the other when Richard came to her and put his hands on her shoulders.
“Enough. Take the other women and go home. I’ll stay here with the men and keep at it for as long as it takes. Luke’s bringing some floodlights out.”
As tempted as she was by the thought of a hot shower, dry clothes and a warm fire, Anna Louise shook her head. “It’s my responsibility.”
Hard blue eyes stared into hers. “And now it’s mine.”
“Why would you do this for us?”
He shrugged. “Don’t go nominating me for sainthood, Anna Louise. It’s just something that needs doing.”
She gave him an exhausted smile. “Why do you fight so hard to convince everyone what a hard heart you have, Richard Walton?”
“Because that’s the truth,” he said evenly, his gaze never wavering. “Don’t forget it, Pastor Perkins.”
He turned, then, and walked away. Anna Louise stood staring after him, her own heart aching. If he couldn’t see the goodness in other people quite yet, why couldn’t he at least admit to the goodness inside himself? “You’re a kind, decent man, Richard Walton,” she murmured. “Someday I’m going to get you to recognize that.”
Banished from further sandbagging by that very same kind, decent man, she rounded up the other women. “The men are going to keep at this for a few more hours. Let’s go make them some hot coffee, soup and sandwiches. They’ll need them when they’re through.”
Luke Hall’s wife volunteered to raid the general store for cheese and cold cuts. Nate Dorsey’s wife, Kathryn, offered to gather the last of the fresh vegetables from her garden for the soup. Patty Sue Henson had some beef stock she’d frozen. She donated that to go with the vegetables. Maribeth Simmons gave Anna Louise a shy smile and offered to run home for loaves of fresh-baked bread her mother had made that morning. Tucker Patterson overheard their plans and volunteered to go by the drugstore and pick up all the thermos bottles he had in stock so they could bring the coffee and soup out to the men.
By the time the other women returned, Anna Louise had started the huge coffee urn they used for church suppers. She and Kathryn Dorsey got to work chopping the fresh onions, green beans, carrots and potatoes, while the beef stock defrosted and began to simmer on the oversize stove in the parsonage’s restaurant-style kitchen. The house itself might be tiny, but the original founders of the church had seen the need for a kitchen that could prepare meals for the entire congregation. Rather than putting it in a church hall they couldn’t afford to build, anyway, they’d just put it in the pastor’s residence, which had turned the house into the center of church activities. Anna Louise, who loved to entertain, had always liked it that way.
Tonight, filled with the aroma of soup simmering on the stove and fresh coffee perking, the house felt cozy despite the steady pounding of the rain on the old-fashioned tin roof. The atmosphere had been so congenial with everyone working side by side that she felt for a moment as if the threatening flood had been something of a blessing. The sense of community often sparked by crises was one of the things she liked best about life in a small town.
She was thinking about that and stirring a second pot of soup, while the other women carried the first round out to the men,
when she sensed that she was no longer alone. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Richard standing in the middle of the kitchen, looking like a drowned cat. His heavy-duty yellow slicker had long since been shed because of the unseasonable October heat and his hair looked as if he’d just stepped from a shower. He looked disheveled in a way that was astonishingly disturbing.
“Good heavens, you’re soaked clear though,” she said. She sounded flustered, possibly because of the way his shirt clung to his broad shoulders. “Since the sun’s gone down, it’s getting cold out there. I’ll get you some towels so you can dry off.”
“Don’t bother, unless you mind me dripping on the linoleum. I’ll need to get back outside in a minute, anyway.”
“Don’t worry about the floor. I’ll have another batch of soup ready shortly. Sit down and I’ll bring you a cup of coffee while you wait.”
“I can get the coffee.” His gaze met hers. “You okay?”
“Of course. Why would you ask?”
“You seem nervous.”
Anna Louise shook her head, denying the effect he had on her as much for her own benefit as his. “Not nervous, just harried. How’s it going out there?”
“It’s too soon to say for sure, but it looks as if the water’s going where we’ve diverted it. As long as the creek doesn’t rise too high and the sandbags hold, we should be okay.”
“Any sign of Orville?”
He grinned. “He did pass by about an hour ago.”
“Oh, dear. What did he have to say?”
“Plenty, as a matter of fact.”
Anna Louise groaned. “I knew it. This is only going to make matters worse.”
Richard shook his head. “I don’t think so. Before he could get too carried away with his hand-of-God tirade, I pointed out how it would look for a pastor not to do everything in his power to save a church. Told him the incident just might be viewed as important enough to be picked up and carried on the national wire services. He settled right down. Even pitched in and hauled a few sandbags.”
Anna Louise’s mouth dropped open in astonishment. “He helped?”
“Long enough to make sure everyone saw him. By now, though, I suspect he’s home by the fire feeling downright self-righteous.”
“Well, I’ll be.” She regarded him sternly. “Not that I approve of blackmailing the man to get your way.”
“It’s hardly blackmail, Anna Louise. I just pointed out how his actions might be viewed by those cynical members of the press.”
“And considering your expertise in that area, he had to take you seriously.”
“I’m sure it helped,” he conceded with a spark of pure mischief in his eyes. He didn’t look one whit troubled by his deviousness. “Of course, Orville is a pragmatic man. Once he’d thought about the implications, the decision became clear enough.”
“I suppose.” She turned to face him. “I really don’t know how I’m ever going to thank you for helping today.”
“I’m not doing any more than anyone else out there. Young Jeremy seems to have a knack for engineering. He had a plan sketched out by the time we got to Orville’s property. It was a good one, too. He mentioned the conversation you had with him the other day about getting his college degree before getting married. I didn’t tell him I’d overheard most of it.”
“I hope you backed me up.”
“I didn’t need to. He confided to me that Maribeth agreed to wait. They’ll both be going to college starting in January, after they’ve saved enough for the first semester. Apparently she’d been offered a partial scholarship, but she’d been afraid to tell him about it because she didn’t want to disappoint him.”
“She was prepared to go through with the wedding just to please him?” Anna Louise shook her head. “That just proves they’re too young.”
“I don’t know. It sounded like the unselfish act of a woman in love to me.”
Anna Louise scowled at the overly romantic notion. “I’m just glad they took the time to talk things through before they both ruined their lives.”
“Just one thing,” Richard said.
“What’s that?”
“I doubt you’re going to keep the two of them pure and innocent through four years of college.”
“Who knows?” she said with confidence. “Miracles do happen.”
“I’m not sure miracles are any match for rampant teenage hormones.”
“If Jeremy and Maribeth were mature enough to make this decision about postponing their wedding and going to college, then I think they can be trusted to do the right thing.”
“Are we talking about your idea of the right thing or theirs?”
Anna Louise frowned at the suggestion that there could be two different interpretations of right. Values were values. “I’m not here to impose my will on anybody,” she shot back irritably. “I try to teach values and faith, but one thing we were all given as a birthright is free will. We all have to make our own decisions about how to apply the teachings of the church.”
“Sounds like pretty liberal thinking to me. Does that mean that a jaded journalist could steal a kiss from the town preacher without setting off a hail of fire and brimstone?”
Anna Louise’s breath seemed to be lodged somewhere in her throat. The question seemed to have come from out of the blue. A few nights ago, in the intimacy of darkness beside Willow Creek, it wouldn’t have surprised her so. Now they were both bedraggled and exhausted. It was an astonishing time to think of such things.
Her gaze narrowed suspiciously. “Why would you want to?”
“The usual reasons, I suppose.” His gaze clashed with hers. “And because at this moment, standing there all flushed and mussed up, you are the most attractive woman I have ever seen, and you surely do look as if you could use a kiss.” As if he sensed her need to be persuaded, he added, “Nothing too improper, of course. Just something to warm us both before we get back to the damp business of saving the church.”
Her heart began to thump unsteadily. What did he mean by not too improper? This wasn’t good. It wasn’t good at all.
Still, she lifted her chin until she could look Richard directly in the eyes. “I suppose it’s my duty to send you back to work with a little something to warm you,” she said primly. When he moved closer, his expression hopeful, she stood on tiptoe and gave him a very proper peck on the cheek.
Laughter lit his eyes. “Oh, Anna Louise, that kiss was downright pitiful. It wouldn’t warm toast.” He bent his head down until his mouth hovered above hers. Their breath mingled for a heartbeat and then his lips touched hers.
Anna Louise thought it was entirely possible she was going to faint. Richard’s kiss was indeed a definite improvement over her own pathetic attempt. It was a warm, coaxing kiss with just enough impure intent behind it to send her pulse skittering wildly.
Just when Anna Louise was considering abandoning any pretense at restraint, she heard a sudden indrawn breath. Jerking away from Richard’s loose embrace, she turned to look directly into Maribeth Simmons’s shocked face.
The teenager had flushed red with embarrassment. “I’m sorry,” she muttered. “I didn’t know...I didn’t realize that... Oh, dear.”
Richard didn’t appear the least bit nonplussed at being caught in a compromising position. Of course, given his worldly reputation, one kiss wouldn’t do a thing to hurt his image. In fact, there was talk around town of far worse exploits back in his high school days. She’d heard of more blatant incidents of rebelliousness than the theft of Mabel Hartley’s girdle. Folks probably wouldn’t bat an eye over this, at least where he was concerned.
Anna Louise, however, was mortified.
Oblivious to Anna Louise’s dismay, or determined to put the best possible face on things because of it—Anna Louise couldn’t be sure which—Richard winked at Maribeth. He looked downright unrepentant.
“Pastor Perkins was feeling a little down in the dumps about the weather. I was just trying to boost her spirits a little.
You know how it is,” he said cheerfully.
“Sure, I suppose,” Maribeth replied, still a little wide-eyed with shock.
Richard gave the teenager a quick kiss on the cheek, as if to emphasize that his kissing Anna Louise had been no more serious in intent. “See you two.”
When he had gone and Anna Louise could manage to speak, she said, “Maribeth, I hope you didn’t misinterpret what you saw.”
“I don’t think so.” Suddenly she grinned at Anna Louise. “It looks to me like Mr. Walton has a serious crush on you.”
“Nonsense,” Anna Louise said quickly. “He was just...just...well, you heard him. He was trying to cheer me up.”
“Jeremy tries to cheer me up a lot, too. It works, doesn’t it?” she inquired, her expression thoroughly innocent.
Anna Louise finally gave up. “As a matter of fact,” she admitted, “it was very effective.”
* * *
Richard didn’t see a sign of Anna Louise for the next two weeks. She didn’t set foot on Walton property or, if she did, she came when he wasn’t around. He knew what was keeping her away. She was troubled by that kiss. He had felt her response. He had been aware of her sweet surrender.
And, to be perfectly honest, what had begun as a game had ended up scaring the dickens out of him, as well. He had been surprised by the way his blood had pulsed harder just from the touch of her mouth against his.
Anna Louise, it seemed, was likely to continue to astonish him.
He admired the way she had pitched in to shore up the banks of the creek. He was even more admiring when he heard from neighbors that she’d once sat up half the night with cantankerous old Mr. Jordan, when moonshine had given him the blues, which it had on a regular basis every Friday night for the past fifty years. Day after day there were new examples of her generosity and caring.
To his deep regret, Richard found himself longing for more of her warmth and attention. That purely masculine yearning made him grateful that she was steering as far away from him as she could. He didn’t trust his own willpower any more to cause him to do the right thing.
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