"Oh yes!" the youngest of the three girls said. "Everyone loves Pastor Jon."
"Why?" Michaela asked, curious about how the little girl would respond.
"Because he loves God, and Jesus, and because he loves us! Our last pastor didn't much like kids," the ten year old told her. "But Pastor Jon makes it clear that we can go up to him and hug him and tell him about our problems any time we want to."
When Michaela looked over at Jon, he was blushing a bit. "Wow. I had no idea I'd married such a good man. I guess I should give him an extra kiss for being good to children, huh?"
The girl nodded solemnly. "Ten extra kisses. It would make him happy."
"I'll do that then."
"You'd better spread them out though. No one needs ten kisses in one day."
Michaela nodded. "That's very wise advice. I'll do my best to listen to it."
Once they were in his car about to leave the church, she squeezed his hand. "People really respect you."
He smiled. "I love my congregation. They're good people."
"How am I going to look for a job? You only have one car. I'm assuming Teaville doesn't have public transportation."
"No, it doesn't. You'll have to drop me off at the church in the morning and pick me up in the afternoon. You drive, don't you?"
She nodded. "Not often, but I have a license."
"Okay, good. Drop me off at eight, and I'll be fine until I'm ready to come home. I may even be able to get Steven to drop me off on his way home. He lives close to me—I mean, us."
She laughed. "It's a little strange living together all of a sudden, isn't it?"
He nodded. "I never thought about you needing a car. I should have. Even if you were not going to work, you'd need one for grocery shopping and running errands."
She frowned. "Would you rather I didn't work?" The idea had never really occurred to her before. She'd always worked. She'd even had a job when she was in high school.
"That's completely up to you. I want you to do whatever makes you happy. If working makes you happy, do it. If staying home makes you happy, do it. Maybe a part time job would make you happy. I really don't mind either way." He frowned. "I would like for you to be in charge of cooking if you don't mind. I tend to do fast food for most meals, and I'm afraid that's going to catch up with me health-wise in a year or six."
"I love to cook. I actually took some home-making classes in college to get better at it. I'm something of a foodie."
"I married the right woman," he said with so much excitement in his voice, she had to laugh.
"So you love me for my cooking and not for my—other attributes?" As soon as she said the word 'love' she regretted it. The word hadn't been spoken between them yet, and she didn't want him to think she was trying to get him to say it. Realistically they may never have that depth of feeling for each other.
He grinned. "Right now, I haven't tasted your cooking, so it's definitely your other attributes that appeal to me." He leaned over and nipped her ear. "The only question now is whether we go grocery shopping before exploring other attributes or after?"
She laughed. "I prefer to shop on a full stomach and explore other things on one that's not quite so full."
"Then shopping it is."
*****
An hour later Jon and Michaela got back from the grocery store, and she put up the groceries while he carried them up the stairs. Opening the fridge to put food away, she stared in disbelief. No wonder he wanted to stop for breakfast on the way to church. He had a bottle of ketchup and three cans of Coke. Nothing else. She shook her head, putting the eggs onto the shelf. At least she wouldn't have to clean out his fridge to put things away.
When he put the last of the bags on his counter, she looked at him. "Do you realize you had only ketchup and Coke in your fridge?"
He shrugged. "Ketchup's probably old. We should throw it away."
She checked the date on it. "Still good. We have stuff for meals now." She picked up the last two bags, putting everything away. "I'm glad I got every single ingredient I thought of. I'll still probably have to go back to the store a couple of times this week." She shook her head. "This is sad."
"I told you I don't cook."
"TV dinners would have been better than fast food for every meal." Did the man have no common sense?
"Probably. I had some Twinkies."
"Twinkies are not exactly health food." She leaned on the counter facing him. "I was so impressed that your apartment was clean, but I think it's because you don't cook here."
He smiled. "Well, that and I have someone clean every month."
"You, Pastor Jon, are just plain silly." She walked around the counter and caught his tie, pulling his head down for a kiss.
He pulled her even closer until she was pressed up against him from his shoulders to his hips. "I think I'm more tired than silly," he said when he came up for air. He gave an exaggerated yawn. "It must be my nap time." He scooped her into his arms and carried her into the bedroom, dropping her onto the bed. "You look tired too."
She laughed. "We were talking."
He stripped quickly, stretching out beside her on the bed. "And now we're not. See how easy that is?"
She wrapped her arms around him, kissing him. "Very easy, it seems."
Chapter Eight
Michaela drove Jon to work the following morning. She was nervous about leaving him without a car. "I'm meeting Samara for lunch, so I can't even take you to lunch. Are you sure you don't want me to stop somewhere and bring you something?"
He laughed as she pulled up outside the building. "I'm positive. Steve and I eat together almost every day, and even if we don't today, I can always order a pizza. Or send my secretary out for lunch. Or there's a gas station that's only a five minute walk. I can go there and pick something up. I promise, I'm fine." He loved the fact that she was worried about him, though.
She nodded. "Let me know if you change your mind. I'll get you something."
He pulled her to him for a kiss. "I like having someone worrying about whether or not I'll be able to eat."
"Do you want me to come pick you up at five?" He'd told her that was when he usually left the church.
"I'll call you if Steve can't bring me home."
"It feels weird dropping you somewhere. We've been together nonstop for five days."
"You're not sick of me yet?" he asked.
She laughed. "How could I get sick of you? You're practically perfect. Everyone says so."
He shook his head. "Don't believe the hype. I'm just as mortal as the next man." He'd had a reputation for being perfect for as long as he could remember. As much as he hated it, he didn't know what to do about it. He could always start shouting at someone in public, but that wouldn't look good for a pastor. Everything he did, he did for God's glory.
"Are you sure?"
He laughed. "I yelled at my wife when we had only been married for forty-eight hours. Trust me. I'm just a man."
She kissed him again. "One that I'm starting to really care about."
He smiled, kissing the tip of her nose. "You'd better go away before I drag you to my office, and we do something that we shouldn't do in a church."
Her heart sank as he didn't respond to what she'd said about starting to care about him. Didn't he have feelings as well? "Have a good day."
He got out of the car, and she watched while he unlocked the door and went into the building. He really was a good man. Too good for her.
Before she made it out of the church parking lot, Michaela had to pull into a parking spot to answer her phone. She didn't recognize the number, and debated not answering it, but she decided she had nothing to lose.
"Hello?" she said, after swiping her finger across her phone to answer it.
"Is this Michaela?" asked a female voice.
"Yes, it is." She didn't recognize the voice at all.
"My friend Nancy gave me your number. She said you might be interested in a job as an assistant director
for a daycare."
"Oh, yes!" Michaela was glad she hadn't given into the temptation to ignore the call. "I am interested." At least she thought she might be.
"Do you have time to come see me today? I'd love to show you around and tell you about the job."
"Yes, of course. I can come anytime." Looking down at her shorts and tee shirt, Michaela silently added the words as soon as I change.
"How about twenty minutes?"
"I just dropped my husband off for work, and I'm wearing shorts," Michaela said, her voice apologetic. "I'll need time to go home and change."
"Oh, we work in shorts here. It's not a problem. Just come on. Do you know Teaville well?"
Michaela laughed. "I moved here yesterday, and I had never set foot in Kansas before."
"Oh, hm...well where are you?"
"I'm at the church on State Street."
"Oh, Teaville Community? I go there."
"Okay. I'm Pastor Jon's new wife."
There was a moment of silence. "Really? We love him. Do you have a pen and paper?"
"Yes, I do. Just a moment." Michaela fished around in her purse until she found a pen and a receipt to write on. "I'm ready." She wrote down the directions as the other woman gave them.
Ten minutes later, she pulled up in front of the daycare center. Getting out of the car, she hurried up to the front.
She rang the bell next to the front door, glad that the building had such good safety measures. No one would get in to pick up their child unless they belonged there.
The door opened. "Are you Michaela?" the short blonde asked.
"I am."
"Hey, Michaela, I'm Ronda. It's so nice to meet you." She held her hand out for Michaela to shake. "Come in and let me show you around."
Michaela stepped into the building, trying to take everything in at once. There were rainbows covering the walls, and an ark with animals had been painted on a small counter. "It's very bright."
Ronda laughed. "We have a Noah's Ark theme."
"I can see that!"
"This is the office. This is the one the parents come to when they have anything they need to talk about. You'd be in here. The parents bring the payments here and this is where the employees clock in and out."
"I see." The room was small but comfortable.
Ronda walked toward the left. "That's my office. Any meetings with parents are held there."
Michaela nodded, not feeling the need to respond to everything she was shown.
"Let's go to my favorite room. The babies." Ronda led Michaela to a room at the back with two teachers. "We keep up to eight babies at a time in here." There were cribs along each wall that almost looked like cages.
As they walked through the building, Ronda explained everything to Michaela. "We have a Christian curriculum for the older children, and we work on teaching them to read from the time they are two. The parents have a code they use to access the building, and they drop the children off and pick them up here. Most parents pay weekly, but some prefer to pay by the month. You'll keep track of who has paid and when, and it'll be up to you to send out notices when someone hasn't paid on time."
Michaela frowned, hating that idea. "All right."
"Don't worry. It doesn't happen often."
"Glad to hear that!"
Ronda led her back to her office, and she took the spot across from the director's desk. "You would give the teachers bathroom breaks and occasionally lunch breaks. Sometimes you'd need to help out at nap time. Mostly it would be an administrative position though. What kind of experience do you have?"
"Almost none," Michaela answered honestly. "I was the children's minister for a church in Manhattan. I just graduated from college a couple of weeks ago. I have no experience at all with administration."
"What's your degree in?"
"Early childhood education. I thought I'd end up being a children's minister or a teacher, but the idea of being a children's minister at the church where my husband works really doesn't appeal, and I don't want to be a member of a different church than he is."
"Oh, I can understand that!" Ronda grinned. "I can just imagine Pastor Jon trying to explain to everyone that you had decided to go to the Baptist Church across town."
"My thoughts exactly."
"Our little preschool here feeds into a small private school in town. They might be looking for a kindergarten teacher, but I don't think so. Do you think you would enjoy the position here?"
Michaela nodded slowly. "I think so. If I do have at least some hands-on time with the children."
"You would. Probably more than you care for," Ronda said. "The hours would be six in the morning until two in the afternoon."
Michaela almost groaned. She had never been much of a morning person. "I could make that work." She would need to get a car, though.
"Why don't we start you tomorrow on a trial basis? Say for two months? If either of us don't feel like it's working out after that period, no hard feelings?" Ronda named a figure that sounded more than reasonable to Michaela. "If we both decide it's working out, you'll get a twenty percent raise after two months' time."
"That sounds perfect. I don't want to agree and have you counting on me, and then decide I hate it."
"I agree. Can you be here at six tomorrow?"
"I think I can. I'll need to get a car soon, but that shouldn't be a big deal."
"I bet Pastor Jon can easily ride with Pastor Steve for the week. They do that kind of thing all the time."
Michaela nodded. "I'll talk to Jon about it this evening." She didn't want to agree for her husband to get rides to work without his knowledge. "Will you be here in the morning?"
Ronda nodded. "I've been here from six to six the last two weeks, while I searched for someone to be my assistant. I'll come in at six all this week with you, but then I'll go back to my regular schedule of ten to six."
"Sounds good to me. Thank you for your time, and I'll see you in the morning." Michaela walked out to the car and sat there for just a moment, stunned. Finding a job really shouldn't have been so easy.
She drove home, by way of the church, because it was the only way she knew. She was thrilled that Samara was coming to pick her up for lunch, because she didn't want to get lost. She had the GPS on her phone, but Jon had already warned her they weren't very accurate in Teaville.
At home, she dug in the cabinets for a crock pot, but when she didn't find one she sighed. She thought for a moment about going to the nearest Wal-Mart and getting one, but if they were going to have a wedding shower, she was sure to get one. Instead she thought about her meal and refigured how to make it on the stove and in the oven instead.
At quarter after eleven, there was a knock on the front door, and Michaela hurried to answer it. Samara was supposed to be there at eleven thirty, but the girl was always early for everything.
She threw the door open. "Sami!"
Samara hugged her tightly. "Hey you! I told Lachele I'm taking two hours for lunch, and she can just deal."
Michaela laughed. "Good thing your boss loves you."
"No kidding! She'd have fired me long ago if she didn't."
Michaela walked out the door and locked it. "Thanks for coming to pick me up. You should have called from your car so you wouldn't have to climb the stairs with your overwhelming roundness."
Samara laughed. "My house at home is two-story. I'm up and down stairs all day every day. Babies are healthy as can be." She unlocked an SUV and got into the driver's seat. "What are you hungry for?"
"Italian!" Michaela said, making Samara laugh.
"You're not going to like this, but there's no Italian that you or I would consider good around here. Mexican is decent, but Italian is disgusting."
Michaela frowned. "I guess I'm going to have to get better at cooking Italian." There was no way she could go without it between visits back East.
"You are. I've been experimenting, so I can give you some tips if you want."
"But what w
ill we eat today?" Michaela asked. "I'm starving!"
"There's a good cafe with American, a sandwich place, a pizza place, and a couple of Mexican joints. And bad Italian that everyone thinks is good." Samara made a face.
"I could do American or Mexican."
"Let's do Mexican then. I'm craving enchiladas."
"Why didn't you say so in the first place?" Michaela asked. "You're pregnant. You should get to eat whatever you crave."
"Oh, trust me, I do. I'm the cook in our family, so I make what I'm hungry for. If you hadn't wanted Mexican, my family would have had enchiladas for supper."
"So tell me all about Henry! I didn't get to meet him yesterday!"
"I was subbing in a Sunday school class during second service yesterday, so I went early to hear the sermon. And because I knew Pastor Jon was bringing his new bride."
Michaela rolled her eyes. "I'm starting to feel like a museum display. Everyone wants to see me."
Samara laughed. "It's a small town. We have to get our jollies somewhere."
"Please."
"Anyway, Henry's a great guy. You know his twin nieces live with us, right?"
"I did know that. Is that why he went to Matchrimony?"
Samara rolled her eyes. "He had a five year plan. He didn't want to fall in love for five years, so he married me planning to not have sex or any emotions for five years." She patted her belly. "You see how well that worked!"
Michaela grinned. "I do." She knew Samara had been married less than nine months.
"He didn't want a baby right off, but he didn't tell me and assumed I was on birth control, so—"
"Did you want a baby right away?" Michaela asked.
Samara shrugged. "I didn't really care one way or the other. I knew I wanted kids, but waiting a few years wouldn't have bothered me a bit. I got pregnant immediately, though. I'll definitely want to wait after these two. I'm about to have four children under the age of five."
Michaela grinned. "Was he mad when you told him?"
"Mad? No, he just wasn't happy about his five year plan being messed up even more." Samara rolled her eyes dramatically.
"Jon wants kids right away, but I don't," Michaela whispered, almost embarrassed that she was not just giving in to her husband.
Only in Oklahoma (At the Altar Book 6) Page 9
