Sweet Surprise: Romance Collection
Page 58
He made pleasant conversation with the mayor and the pastor while he added more warm water to the tub. As soon as the temperature was pleasantly warm again, Rick made his way to the barbecue, where he found Lynette’s mother.
Ever since Lynette had told him what had happened in their other church, he found he respected Mrs. Charleston even more than before. She had handled the situation with class and dignity, and above all she had trusted the Lord with her heart and soul in times of trouble. In retrospect it was only because of the unpleasant incident Lynette had told him about that they’d moved on to Good Tidings, where they were truly happy and the people of Good Tidings were equally happy with them.
Rick reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. “Two hot dogs, please. Loaded with onions.”
“Onions? Are you sure? Are these for you and Lynette?”
He nodded.
Lynette’s mother shrugged her shoulders and loaded two hot dogs each with huge piles of extra fried onions.
Rick grinned. If they both had onions, they would be safe with each other, but not anyone else.
As he approached the fish pond booth, he watched as Lynette crawled out through the blanket. She stood, glanced over her shoulder, and rubbed her bottom with her hands.
“Hi,” he said as he neared her.
Her face flamed, which he thought cute.
“Sitting for so long on the cement like that is hard, even with that padded blanket.”
He nodded and handed her one of the hot dogs. “I know. Who’s in there now with Sarah? I hope it’s not Brad.”
“Don’t worry—I know better than that. Melissa is with her. I’m not going far so I can see if Brad comes around.”
“You’re good in church leadership roles, you know.”
She took a big bite of the hot dog, closing her eyes to savor the rich onions. “So are you.”
“Do you think you could do this kind of thing on a regular basis?”
“Not run community fairs, but, yes, I like being in leadership roles. As long as I remember to take a break every once in awhile. I learned that the hard way, I think.”
Rick’s heart pounded at the possibilities. He was a volunteer youth leader now, but with a couple of more years of Bible college at night school, he could one day fulfill his dream of pastoring a church of his own.
“I was wondering, one day, do you think—”
“Lynette! I’ve been looking all over for you!” a voice called out from the masses. Mrs. McGrath pushed her way through the crowd and joined them. “We’re almost ready for the pie-eating contest. I noticed that Mayor Klein is signed up, too.”
Rick stuffed the rest of his hot dog into his mouth in one bite. “How many entries do we have?” he asked around the food in his mouth.
Mrs. McGrath beamed. “We have over a hundred and fifty.”
He nearly choked. Lynette patted him on the back with her free hand.
Mrs. McGrath raised her eyebrows and pressed her wrinkled hands to her cheeks. “Gracious! I just thought of something! Do we have enough pies?”
Lynette nodded and spoke first because Rick still couldn’t talk. “Yes. We made somewhere around two hundred pies. But where are all those people going to sit? I planned on bringing out about eight tables and putting them in the middle of the parking lot. We’d better get more out, real fast.”
Rick pressed one fist into the center of his chest. “I’ll get the boys to start bringing them out, along with more chairs. I’m going to need a calculator to figure out how many tables we’ll need to seat that many people.”
Lynette turned to him and folded her arms across her chest. “This isn’t a difficult question, Rick. One table fits four people on each side and one at each end. That’s ten people per table.”
He felt his cheeks heating up. “I knew that,” he mumbled.
Lynette took one step with Mrs. McGrath and then suddenly stopped and turned back to him. “Do we have enough plastic forks?”
Rick shook his head. “No. Maybe you’d better run off to the store while I get the boys to help me with the tables and chairs.”
“But what about Sarah in the fish pond?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll have Brad with me.”
Rick took off in one direction, while Lynette took off in another. While he scrambled to find all the available teen boys from the youth group, he heard the announcement for the last call for the apple-pie-eating contest.
He had finished setting up the last table when Lynette returned with a grocery bag full of plastic forks.
“Are you ready?” she asked.
“Yes. Do you have any idea how much money we’ve made, just with the pies?”
“Yes.” Lynette broke out into a huge smile. “So many people are here. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we made enough money to fix the roof and not have to ask the congregation for any?”
While that would have been wonderful, one thing on his mind would have been more wonderful, if only he could get the chance to talk to her.
“Yes. Now get up to the podium. They’re signaling for you.”
Chapter 9
L ynette faced the crowd. She estimated that twice as many people surrounded her in the parking lot as on a busy Sunday morning service, which would bring the number to about a thousand people. Her head reeled to think how much their church had been blessed today. And such a gathering usually drew more families to their humble church family.
She cleared her throat and tapped the microphone with her index finger. “Is this thing on?”
Feedback screeched through the speaker system.
Lynette felt her face grow warm. “Oops. Sorry. First of all, I’d like to say thank you to everyone for participating. I think I can say we’re all having fun, right?”
A round of applause and cheers was the reply.
She smiled, doing her best to hold back her tears. “Before we get to the crowning event of the day, our apple-pie-eating contest, I’d like to award the prizes for the raffle and the children’s contests.”
She called out the name of the person who had won the weekend in Seattle and the trip to the Space Needle, but they had apparently already left. Lynette tucked the envelope into her back pocket for safe keeping then gave out the awards to the children. She was pleased to see the prizes equally divided between church members and people from the community.
“Now for the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Before we start, I’d like to say that for those of you who have entered and don’t finish your pie, we have plastic wrap over there.” She pointed to four ladies at a faraway table, who waved at the crowd.
“For those of you who didn’t enter but still would like a pie, we’ll be selling the remaining pies after the contest for ten dollars each. If all the contestants will now proceed to the tables corresponding to your entry number, we’ll hand out the pies. Take a seat at one of those tables over there and wait for the signal to begin. The winner will be awarded with this trophy.” She held up the huge loving cup for all to see. “Also, since this is a church, the winner will get this lovely leather-bound, gold-embossed, brand-new Bible.” She held up the Bible as well.
Considering that the four ladies had to hand out one hundred and sixty-two pies, the process went surprisingly well. Soon everyone who entered was seated and ready for the signal.
Rick appeared at her side. She covered the microphone with her hand. “Rick? What are you doing here? Why didn’t you enter the contest?”
He covered his stomach with his hand. “After yesterday I can’t even look at an apple pie, never mind eat one. I don’t see you in the contest entrants either.”
Lynette stiffened. “I have to be the emcee. I can’t.”
At her reply Rick made a strange snorting sound. She elbowed him in the ribs and uncovered the microphone. “Is everybody ready? Forks down, hands in your laps. The first person to finish, stand and raise both hands in the air, and call out that you’re done.” She scanned the seventeen tabl
es of entrants, sucked in a deep breath and yelled, “Go!”
Most people in the crowd cheered on someone they knew as men, women, teens, and children alike did their best to gobble down their pies as quickly as they could. Each entrant had been supplied with one glass of water to help wash it down, and one volunteer stood at each table to refill the cups, if necessary.
Lynette could see three men in particular, only one of whom she recognized, down to the last sliced piece of pie.
A forty-fiveish man she didn’t know with a bald head and green T-shirt jumped to his feet. “Done!” he yelled at the same time as one of the boys from the youth group started to stand.
“We have a winner!”
The crowd cheered and applauded.
Lynette walked up to him, announced his name to the crowd as best she could, and presented him with the Bible and trophy.
“Thanks,” he said as he failed to hold back a small burp.
The crowd around him laughed, and his ears reddened. “I think you might be seeing me and my family here one Sunday soon.”
“That is great. It has been wonderful to have you, and congratulations.”
With the fair officially over, the crowd dispersed slowly, and volunteers began to pack up their tables. They decided for safety’s sake to leave the goats and their pen for when the last volunteers remained so as not to disturb the animals, although Lynette couldn’t believe how tame and friendly they were. When the guests had gone and only the church volunteers remained, Rick drained the dunk tank. Lynette and her parents walked around to collect the money that hadn’t yet been put away and thank the volunteers for their help and contributions.
As she walked, Lynette’s father followed, punching up figures on a calculator.
“Daddy!” Lynette whispered behind him as he added the numbers from the fishing pond into his total. “Why are you doing that now?”
“I couldn’t help it,” he whispered back. “I can’t believe how much money we raised. I think we’re going to make everything we need in one day!”
Lynette’s breath caught in her throat. “Are you serious?”
He nodded and kept punching in figures.
He followed her to the last table, which was the pie table. One sad, lonely pie remained. “I guess no one wanted to buy the last one,” her father mumbled while he waited for her mother to count the money.
He punched in the amount. “I can’t believe this. According to my calculations we’re only a hundred and fifty dollars short of our total goal. That covers everything, even the cost of the advertising and paying for the gas to get the goats and the pen here.”
Lynette’s mother sighed and looked at the last pie. “That’s too bad. We came so close. If only we could find a way to make a hundred and fifty dollars on this one pie.”
Suddenly Brad raised one finger in the air. Lynette hadn’t noticed him beside her. But of course since Sarah had been trailing behind her after the fish pond was taken down, she should have known Brad wouldn’t be far behind.
“I have an idea that will get you a hundred and fifty for that pie. Maybe more.”
Lynette’s heart raced. “Really? That would be wonderful! What are you going to do, auction it?” She couldn’t see anyone paying a hundred and fifty dollars for a simple apple pie, especially since so many had already been purchased.
“Something close. I’ll be right back.”
Chapter 10
R ick stacked another piece of the dunk tank into the back of the pickup truck then stopped to wipe the sweat off his brow with the sleeve of his shirt. He gritted his teeth at the action behind him.
Rick turned around to the crowd of teen boys. “Brad, quit talking and get back to work. I’m tired and want to go home, and I’m sure everyone else here does, too.”
He saw something being passed to Brad, and Brad took off. He opened his mouth to call after him, but the rest of the boys got back to work, saying nothing about Brad’s not helping.
Rick sighed. He was too tired to care. If the boys were okay with Brad’s goofing off, then he would deal with him later. Rick wanted only to go home and lie down.
He knew he wouldn’t get any sleep. As tired as he was, he would think only of Lynette.
All day long he’d been hoping and praying for a miracle, but with all the distractions and interruptions it didn’t happen. He wanted to talk to Lynette while she could remember everything that passed between them when he kissed her. He needed to assure her that whatever passed between them was mutual, and it was real.
He watched while the man who owned the goats herded them into their trailer. Lynette’s father handed the man some money to pay for the gas, and the goats were on their way.
Since the goat pen was the last thing left to be cleaned up, a number of the teen girls joined in to help. Some of their parents got involved, and then more people did, too.
It made Rick wonder why they suddenly had too many people volunteering to do the work.
Someone behind him cleared their throat.
Rick froze, with his hands full of hay. He stiffened and turned around.
Lynette stood in front of him with an apple pie in her hands.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
“This is for you. It’s the last pie.”
“No, thanks,” he mumbled. The last thing he felt like was pie. He’d eaten too many raw apple pieces and far too much raw pastry to be interested in it, no matter how good everyone said the pies were. Besides that, his hands were covered with dirty straw, and he was coated in dust and sweat from head to toe. “You can have it.”
As he began to turn around, he couldn’t help but notice that everyone seemed to be watching him, as they had slowed down their clean-up efforts.
“Rick?”
He turned back to Lynette. “Yes?”
“All day long I’ve had something I wanted to say to you, and I never got the chance. I want to say it before I give you the pie.”
His heart stopped then started again in double time. Despite the heat and the hard work Rick broke out into a cold sweat.
Lynette’s voice dropped to a whisper so low he barely heard what she said. “I love you, Rick.”
His stomach flipped over a dozen times. This wasn’t the ideal moment for such a discussion, especially in the middle of a crowd and with him covered in hay and who knew what else. But he’d learned the hard way that often the right moments had to be made, rather than waiting for them to happen.
“I love you, too,” he ground out. “I’ve loved you for years.”
She cleared her throat again. “Close your eyes.”
Rick also cleared his throat, which had gone very dry, and closed his eyes obediently. His voice came out in a hoarse croak. “Lynette, I know this isn’t the most romantic setting, but will you marry me?”
He squeezed his eyes tighter and waited. He didn’t think it in her character to kiss him in front of a crowd; but then again he wouldn’t think she’d ever been proposed to before, so he didn’t know what she would do. She had already surprised him by kissing him so profusely in the church, where anyone could have walked in on them.
Instead of a tender kiss to his lips, a slight scratchy substance pressed into his entire face. The scratchy sensation instantly broke up, changing to something slimy pushing against his skin. At the impact he jumped backward. The pressure disappeared. Something clanked to the ground.
Slimy lumps slithered down his face, along with the drier, crusty lumps, which landed with a plop at his feet. Something stuck in his hair and didn’t fall down. His eyes remained clamped shut while all the people around him cheered, applauded, whistled, and laughed. Putting two and two together, he remembered Brad walking around to all the church members, teens and adults alike, instead of helping clean up the mess. Now he knew what Brad had been up to. That everyone had teamed up against him to have a pie thrown in his face didn’t surprise him. What did surprise him was that Lynette had been the one to do the dirty w
ork.
He pressed the lengths of his fingers to his eyebrows akin to windshield wipers. With a downward motion he swiped down his face to push away what he could of the remnants of the apple pie.
Lynette stood in front of him, her eyes wide and both hands covering her mouth. She was the only one not laughing or smiling.
He cleared his throat again and forced himself to smile, even though he knew it was weak. “I hope that was a yes.”
Her eyes widened even more, if it were possible. “Are you mad at me?” she asked through her fingers. “We made it. With that last pie we made all the money to pay for the roof.”
Rick smiled and stepped closer to Lynette. He paused to look at his fingers, wiped them off on his jeans as best he could, and reached up to run his fingers through the hair at Lynette’s temple.
“Of course I’m not mad, but I must admit I am surprised. I do believe I asked you a question, though, and the question still stands.”
Slowly she raised her right hand and touched his cheek. He could feel her fingers trembling, so he reached up and covered her hand with his, pressing her palm to his face, trying his best to ignore the slight slime still coating his skin.
“Yes, that was a yes,” she whispered.
Rick thought his heart would burst. He wanted to kiss her well and good, but between the crowd surrounding them and the pie covering his face he couldn’t. Instead he leaned forward to brush an appley kiss across her tender lips. Despite the public atmosphere, he didn’t move and remained standing toe to toe, gazing into the eyes of the woman he loved.
“That’s it!” Pastor Chris called out from somewhere behind him. “Let’s all get back to work. We need somewhere to park our cars tomorrow morning.”
Around them the sound of movement returned.
Rick couldn’t make himself move. One day in the near future he was going to marry the sweetest, most wonderful woman in the world.
A quick smile flittered across her face then dropped. “I guess we should get back to work.”