“A family.” She nodded slowly. “I know that’s how you feel, and from talking to Arlene out there, it’s pretty obvious that they feel the same way about you. That’s one reason why I think you should reconsider leaving this job. But, the thing is, it’s not how I feel, Jacob. I’ve just never experienced church like that. I don’t think I ever will.” She swallowed hard. “I know you’re tired of being alone. I am, too. But take it from me, loneliness isn’t a good reason to jump into the wrong relationship.”
Jacob’s face had lost color, and for once his eyes weren’t twinkling into hers, teasing her to smile. He looked like he couldn’t have smiled if his life had depended on it. “I don’t know what to say, Natalie. I was ready to argue anything, promise you anything to get you to stay. But God called me into ministry a long time ago, and I’ve never doubted that call, not for a second.”
She smiled at him sadly. “Nobody else doubts it, either.”
There was a long silence. He seemed to be having some trouble saying whatever he had to say next. Finally, he spoke.
“But I do understand that the kind of life I’ve chosen isn’t for everybody. I thought... I really hoped that God had put us together, you and me and Ethan. I’d started to believe that you and I were meant to be...a lot more than friends. But you’re right. It’s not fair for me to ask you to share a life you don’t feel called to.” He spoke quietly, but she could hear the pain in his voice.
This conversation was hurting him, and it wasn’t doing her any favors, either. Besides, she’d already said everything she’d come here to say.
Except for one last thing.
“Goodbye, Jacob.” Somehow a handshake didn’t seem like enough, not after everything they’d been through together, so she tiptoed up to kiss him on the cheek.
At the very last second, he turned his head and met her lips with his.
Ever since Jacob had asked her to stay in Pine Valley, she’d wondered what this would be like.
Just as she’d expected, Jacob’s kiss was just like Jacob himself. Gentle and sweet. Kind and strong.
Only one thing was different. Never in all those daydreams had she imagined that this first kiss would also be the last.
She looked up into his face as he lifted his mouth from hers.
“Goodbye, Natalie. And may God’s goodness and mercy follow you and Ethan, wherever you go and whatever you do, all the days of your life.” He squeezed her arm once. Then he released her, went into his office and shut the door quietly behind himself.
Typical Jacob, Natalie thought as she stumbled blindly down the halls of the church toward the parking lot.
She’d left him with heartache and disappointment.
And he’d left her with a blessing.
Chapter Fourteen
A fever of 101 in an infant under the age of six weeks is considered a medical emergency.
Natalie’s heart had been numb for two days, ever since she’d left Jacob in his office. But when she read that sentence in the baby care book he’d bought for her, it sprang instantly and painfully back to life.
She felt Ethan’s hot head pressed against her neck. She had no idea what his actual temperature was, but he obviously had a fever. Now his fussiness and lack of appetite made sense.
Her baby was sick.
Natalie glanced at the old kitchen clock, ticking faithfully away on the wall. It was almost 9:00 p.m. on a Wednesday. All the doctor’s offices in Pine Valley would be closed until tomorrow morning.
Could she wait until then?
Her mind drifted back over the past several days. The only sick person Ethan had been close to was Adam, and Natalie honestly hadn’t figured that Adam would get near enough to his son to pass on a germ.
Obviously, she’d been wrong about that.
And Adam had gone to see Cora, and Cora was getting over the flu. Natalie didn’t have to look in the baby book to know that the flu was dangerous for babies as young as Ethan.
Life-threatening, in fact. If there was even a chance that Ethan had the flu...
“That’s it,” she announced aloud to the empty house. “We’re going to the hospital right now.”
Five frantic minutes later, she was struggling to get through the front door, Ethan was wailing miserably in his car seat carrier, and she had his diaper bag and her purse slung over one shoulder.
Not that the purse was going to do her a whole lot of good, but she had all the money she’d made from the blueberries in there, at least.
Something wet splatted on her cheek and she blinked up at the sky. Of course. It was raining.
She heard a clatter of hooves and looked over to see Rufus climbing the porch steps. His wet fur glistened under the porch lights. She redoubled her efforts to wedge herself and everything she was carrying through the door. The last thing she needed was for Rufus to scoot past her into the house.
Because if he did, he was just going to have to stay there until she got back, and goodness knew when that would be.
Unfortunately, like always, Rufus made it up on the porch in record time. He came toward her, tilting his horns curiously as he considered the half-opened door and the goat-sized gap between her leg and the door frame.
“Not now, Rufus,” she said, her voice shaking. “Please, okay? Not now.”
“Bleaah.” Amazingly, Rufus stopped where he was. He watched as she locked the house, then trailed her calmly to the car. He leaned over and sniffed Ethan once when she set the carrier down to open the car door, but other than that, he didn’t get in her way at all.
She hoped that wasn’t the only amazing thing she could count on happening tonight. She also needed her sputtering little car to make it all the way to Fairmont Medical Center.
It cranked on the third try, and she breathed a grateful prayer. So far, so good.
She drove along the dark country roads as quickly as she dared, her heart thumping in anxious rhythm with the windshield wipers.
Her prayers seemed to be working until she had to stop at her first intersection. Her car groaned, backfired twice and died.
Natalie pressed the gas and turned the key and prayed for all she was worth. God! You have to make this car crank! Now isn’t the time to play around! You know how sick Ethan is. You know that I have to get him to the hospital. Please. I need Your help!
Nothing happened.
Ethan was still crying fretfully in the back seat, and every pitiful sob made Natalie feel more frantic. She had to help him. He didn’t have anybody but her.
She leaned forward and peered through the rain running in rivulets down her windshield. She knew where she was. Jacob’s church was just around that corner, but nobody would be there at this time of night. The buildings on both sides of the road housed small businesses, and they were all dark, locked up tight. There was no help to be found there.
She’d have to call somebody. She rummaged in the diaper bag for her cell phone, but cried out loud when she saw that it showed no signal. Cell service was always a little dicey in this small town, and the weather was making it worse.
God, what am I supposed to do now?
Ethan gave a coughing little sob. She couldn’t just sit here. She’d have to walk until she found help. She pulled a little blanket, splattered with airplanes, out of the diaper bag. She’d drape that over Ethan’s carrier to keep the rain out.
She left everything else in the car and started off down the street toward town with Ethan’s shrouded car seat slung over one arm.
She could see the glimmer of reflected lights up ahead. Probably just streetlights, but she’d head in that direction, anyway. Maybe, just maybe, streetlights wouldn’t be the only lights she’d see around that corner.
Please, let there be somebody still at work. Let there be a light on in one of the stores. Just one little light. Somewhere. Anywhere.
She rounded the corner, and as Jacob’s church came into view, Natalie stumbled to a halt.
To her astonishment, the parking lot was jammed full. In fact, more cars lined the street in both directions. A few vehicles were even parked on the lawn.
But more importantly, every single light in the building was blazing, throwing squares of bright, wonderful color against the blackness of the night.
It was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen in her life.
Arlene Marvin met Natalie the minute she stumbled into the church foyer. Jacob’s secretary scanned her bedraggled appearance with a lifted eyebrow.
“Well, something’s wrong. What is it?”
“Ethan’s sick,” Natalie gasped. She’d run all the way from the sidewalk into the church. “I think it might be the flu, and I was trying to get him to the hospital, but my car died.”
“Oh, you poor dear. And you’re soaked through, too!” Arlene’s bony arm was around Natalie’s shoulder in a minute. “Don’t you worry about a thing, you hear? It’s going to be all right. You’re here now, and we’re going to help you.” Arlene used one orthopedic shoe to poke open the big doors leading to the sanctuary. Natalie caught a glimpse of overcrowded pews, and she could hear several people talking at once. “All of you! Stop that fussing, this instant! We have an emergency. Jacob! Doc Peterson!” she bellowed. “We need both of you out here. Now!”
For Natalie, everything that happened in the next few seconds was a blur. Arlene pushed her down into a chair and shrugged off her own thick sweater to cover Natalie’s shaking shoulders. “It’s just the stress, dearie. Getting good and warm will help.”
The congregation responded to Arlene’s alarm by flowing out of the sanctuary in a chattering wave. Before Natalie could blink, she was surrounded by a sea of concerned faces. The high-ceilinged foyer echoed with voices. Somebody pushed a foam cup of hot, milky coffee into her hand, at least three people were stroking her arms and a portly, balding man was crouched next to Ethan, checking him over with the calm, competent air of a professional.
He glanced up at Natalie. His face was serious, but he gave her a reassuring nod. “You were right, ma’am. This little fellow is having some trouble getting his breath. He needs a trip to the hospital, but I think you’ve caught it in good time. I’ll ride along with you and keep an eye on him just to be on the safe side. Who’s going to drive?”
An immediate hubbub of offers began, and keys began to appear out of purses and pockets, but one voice cut through the chaos.
“I am.” Jacob was shouldering his way toward her, his face set with such determination that his crowded congregation parted like water in front of him. He knelt down beside her and looked up into her eyes. “I’m driving you, Natalie.”
It wasn’t exactly a question. But Natalie nodded anyway, sweet tears of relief springing to her eyes as she breathed a silent, thankful prayer.
She wasn’t alone anymore.
Everything was going to be all right.
* * *
“How are you two doing back there?” Two days later, Jacob shifted his truck into its highest gear as they passed the Fairmont City Limits sign on their way back to Pine Valley.
Natalie’s eyes met his in the rearview mirror, and she smiled from the back seat. “We’re doing fine.” Jacob smiled back, and their eyes lingered on each other an extra second before he was forced to turn his attention back to the road in front of him.
Natalie looked thinner, and there were shadows under her eyes that he didn’t much like. But now that Ethan was well and truly on the mend, Natalie would perk back up, too, like a drooping rose after a spring rain.
He intended to make it his business to see that she did.
And then they were going to have another talk.
Because everything was different now. Things had changed, these past few days in the hospital. They’d sat together next to Ethan’s bed, kept vigils during the nights and fetched each other coffee from the nurses’ station.
Ethan had never been in any serious danger, but Natalie had hovered over him anyway, like a mother cat with one ailing kitten. At one point, when she’d made a move to get up from her chair to pace the room for the umpteenth time, he’d reached over and silently taken her hand in his own, keeping her where she was.
She’d looked over at him, and he’d smiled at her. And to his amazement, she’d smiled faintly back at him and settled back in the chair with a tired sigh.
And she’d left her hand nestled in his.
They’d stayed like that as the big institutional clock on the wall had counted away the night hours with its loud ticks, as the nurses and techs came quietly in and out to check Ethan’s vitals.
Neither of them had said a word. Yet somehow, by the time the doctor had ambled in on his morning rounds, and Ethan had been pronounced well on his way to recovery, Jacob knew without a shadow of a doubt that his whole world had shifted irrevocably on its axis.
These two were his people now. For always.
He and Natalie just had to work out the details.
One rather obvious detail in particular.
He darted another glance up in the rearview and saw Natalie gently slide a gigantic teddy bear wearing a lab coat and a stethoscope back across the seat. It was one of three oversize bears crammed back there, and he had a stuffed duck that played music, two dogs and something that might possibly be a llama piled in the front passenger seat.
His congregation had nearly bought out the gift shop. The local florists were doing a booming business, too. Natalie had donated all Ethan’s flower arrangements to the oncology ward. There were too many to transport home in the truck.
That reminded him. They were almost back at Lark Hill, and he’d better warn her. “They’ll have brought food to the house, you know. Casseroles, mostly. And soups. Probably some pies. It’s what they do, whenever somebody’s been in the hospital.”
She didn’t look perturbed. “That’s kind of them. What we don’t eat right away, I can put in the freezer. It’ll be nice not to have to cook for a few days while I try to get the last of the blueberries picked.”
A few days? A few months more likely. She’d have at least one covered dish from nearly every family on the roll. Arlene would have seen to that. “I don’t want you worrying yourself about those blueberries, or anything else for that matter. You know what the doctor said. You need to get some rest or you’ll likely end up with the flu yourself.”
“I hate to let them go to waste, though. Besides, Bailey’s counting on them. She especially wants to make a good impression on that restaurant supply company that’s buying them from her. I don’t want to let her down. She’s been so nice—” Natalie’s protest faltered to a stop as they pulled into the bumpy driveway. “What in the world?”
The dilapidated little farm was swarming with people. Cars and trucks were parked crookedly throughout the yard, and there was a big table set up on the front porch, spread with enough food for an army. It was being guarded by elderly Lois Gordon, who was shooing Rufus away from a tempting chocolate layer cake.
“Get on, you pesty creature! Scat!” She flapped at the animal with a red-checkered napkin. “Will somebody please come get this goat?”
Nobody paid her any attention. The rest of his congregation, sporting bandannas and straw hats, were dispersed in the back field, baskets and plastic pails looped over their arms.
“Jacob?” Natalie had turned in the truck seat, craning her neck to see through the window. “What’s going on?”
“They’re picking your blueberries.” Jacob couldn’t stop the grin that spread over his face at the sight.
“Oh my,” Natalie breathed as he pulled the truck to a stop. “Jacob, did you—”
“I had nothing to do with it. This is all them.”
“They’re here!” A cry went up as the truck was notice
d. By the time he and Natalie had Ethan’s carrier unfastened, Arlene had stalked up, her face grim with purpose. The congregation trailed after her.
“I’m glad you’re back,” Arlene announced as soon as she got within earshot. “Because we have a few things to get sorted out.”
“Just let us get Ethan inside and settled down first.” Jacob gestured at the sleeping infant.
Arlene didn’t bat an eyelash. “Bobbi? Take that sweet baby, will you?” A blonde young woman stepped forward obediently. “It’s all right,” his secretary added, when Natalie made a little noise of protest. “She’s a registered nurse. She’ll put the little one down for you, and make sure everything’s just right. And anyway, what I have to say won’t take a minute. Jacob, we’re refusing your resignation. We want you to stay on as our pastor.”
A murmur of agreement immediately started, and Arlene made a shushing noise. “I’m not done. After you all left for the hospital on Wednesday night, Digby showed up at the church. He was running late for the meeting because he’d had a bit of news. Turns out that Digby’s nephew was just hired on to be the pastor of Holy Fellowship Church over in Fairmont. So of course, Digby plans to move his membership there.”
“Wait a minute.” Jacob narrowed his eyes at Arlene. “Isn’t some third cousin of yours on the board of a big church over in Fairmont?”
“Well, yes. But that isn’t important right now. What matters is that Digby’s resigned from our board, and the rest of us have voted to put the fellowship hall project on hold for the time being. It was getting out of hand, anyway. Did you see the estimate for those tacky chandeliers Digby picked out?” Arlene shuddered. “We do want to build one eventually, mind you, but we’re willing to wait a bit, if you feel that’s best. And when we do go forward with it, we promise to keep it nice and simple. Isn’t that right?” She shot a sharp look around, and heads bobbed in agreement. “So, there you go. Everything’s all settled, and we can just forget that nonsense about you resigning. Can’t we?”
Another pleading babble of voices broke out, but Arlene quelled them with a glance. The group settled into a tense silence.
A Baby For the Minister Page 17
