The Pastor's Christmas Courtship

by Glynna Kaye

  Jodi cast an anxious glance toward the refrigerator. “I’m not sure I have anything here that will make him a decent lunch. The two of us can have yogurt and fresh fruit, but that’s not very substantial for a man.”

  “He’s not staying long. He has to get back to the church. But either he or Al will pick me up later.”

  A twinge of disappointment that Garrett couldn’t stay long caught her by surprise. He’d told her last night that he’d had a good time yesterday. He hadn’t elaborated, though, so it might not mean anything more than he enjoyed a chance to get out of town. Or got his kicks shopping for baby stuff.

  She’d had a good time, too, until the past intruded on her thoughts as they neared Rusty’s. That uncomfortable meal was her fault. But the reminder of the last one they’d shared there offered a precautionary prelude to the evening—guard your heart, girl.

  “So where should we start, Dolly? Bedrooms?”

  “Let’s turn the mattresses and pull everything out of the closets to sort through. Then if there’s time, we can clean the floors. In the meantime, let’s throw in a few loads of bedding for your visitors. Wash up the curtains, too.”

  “I think the flannel sheets are in the hall closet. Grandma kept those as a special treat for us in the wintertime. There was nothing more wonderful than cuddling into their toasty warmth.”

  They’d barely gotten started when she heard the back door open, the sound of boots stomping on the floor mat and the voice of an approaching Garrett echoing down the hall.

  “Jodi, do you have any—hey!” He stood in the doorway, sock-footed but still bundled against the cold. “Let me do that. Neither of you should be manhandling a mattress.”

  He shooed them out of the way, then maneuvered into the room to make short work of flipping the mattress.

  Dolly clasped her hands and brought them to her heart. “Our hero.”

  A grinning Garrett posed in a classic bodybuilder stance.

  “Show-off.” Jodi playfully poked him in the stomach, and he pretended to double over. “We could use your talents in the room next door, too, Mr. Muscle.”

  Eyes still smiling, he straightened up. “Lead on.”

  After turning the mattress in the adjacent room, he joined her in the hallway. “Do you have any garbage bags? You know, the big kind for yard work.”

  “I think I can accommodate that request. This way.”

  In the mudroom she opened a lower cabinet door, pulled out a box and handed it to him. “Voilà!”

  “Exactly what I was looking for.”

  “Dolly says you’re cleaning the gutters?”

  “Yeah, and I want to get a replacement section for one of the downspouts. It’s fairly beat-up. Looks, too, as if a few shingles need to be replaced.”

  She made a face. “The cabin’s falling apart.”

  He laughed. “No, it’s not. This is just a standard part of home maintenance. It’s all good.”

  “I’m glad you know what you’re doing. I sure wouldn’t. You’re a pastor of many talents.”

  “Bible College 101. Ark maintenance.”

  She folded her arms and leaned her hip against the counter. “Sometime, I want to hear about that. You know, how it all came about.”

  He quirked a smile. “God called. I came.”

  “Surely there was more to it than that.” If she didn’t know better, she’d think he was being evasive. But why would a minister be evasive about what led him to his Lord?

  “Thanks, again.” He lifted up the lawn bag box in acknowledgment, then moved to the door where he pulled on his boots.

  “Garrett?”

  “Yeah?” He looked at her, an almost wariness in his eyes.

  That had to be nothing more than her imagination. He had a lot to get done in a short amount of time and probably didn’t want to pause for a long conversation.

  She’d halted him in his tracks, delayed his departure, but did she really have anything worthwhile to say to him? Or was she being stupid again? Once more forgetting this was the guy who’d broken her heart. Who’d be disappointed in her if he ever discovered her secrets.

  “We got more donations.”

  Did she also imagine the relief in his eyes?

  “Awesome. I told you things would pick up, didn’t I?”

  “You did. But we still have a long way to go. I’m securing a few car seats this afternoon, but we don’t have many of the other big-ticket items like high chairs. Or strollers. Or portable cribs.”

  She wished she didn’t sound like such a Debbie Downer. He’d put her in charge so he wouldn’t have to deal with the details. But he’d also told her if she didn’t want to do this, he’d find another volunteer. Is that what she wanted him to do?

  No. He was helping her get the cabin ready to sell, and she’d keep her part of the bargain.

  She squared her shoulders. “I’ll make more phone calls throughout the day today and will do my best to emphasize the need for some of those items.”

  “Sounds like a plan.” He gave her a thumbs-up, then once more turned toward the door.

  “Garrett?”

  He paused again, and it was all she could do not to flat-out ask him what had drawn him away from the river. From the passion that had possessed him since he was a teenager. Had there been a woman involved?

  “What’s up?”

  “I—just want to thank you again for all you’re doing to help me with the cabin.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  He winked. And was out the door.

  Chapter Nine

  “I’d forgotten your grandparents had so much kid stuff.” Garrett, standing inside the small metal shed in back of the Thorpe cabin early Friday afternoon, surveyed the shelves while Jodi peered in from the doorway. He spied a wooden swing Jodi’s grandpa made that used to hang from a big oak’s limb. A basketball, football, kickball, baseball and bat. Toboggans. He’d agreed to sort out the stuff for Goodwill from the stuff that had seen better days. He’d need to air up a few balls and test for slow leaks.

  Jodi smiled. “They loved being surrounded by their grandkids and the children of friends—like you. They’d have been so happy to know that great-grandchildren will be spending time here at the holidays.”

  Putting the cabin on the market was no doubt on her mind. He knew it weighed on his, and it didn’t even belong to his family. If he hadn’t had other pressing plans, if the church had wanted to keep him on a permanent basis, maybe he’d buy it himself. Keep it in the family, so to speak. But there was no point in mentioning something that wasn’t to be.

  On impulse, he grabbed the bright red toboggan that Jodi had been pulling the night he’d discovered her alongside the road. Then he reached for a blue one and stepped out of the shed.

  “What do you say we give these babies a test run? Make sure they’re still safe for your nieces and nephew?”

  “I’ll leave that adventure up to you.”

  “Come on now. The Jodi I knew as a kid would have knocked me into the snow to be the one to make the first run. At least come with me. If I break my neck, I want someone to call 911.”

  “I can do that.”

  Together they hiked through the snow up a gentle series of rises behind the cabin. When they finally reached the top of their favorite sledding spot of bygone days, Garrett dropped the toboggans to the ground. Sunshine earlier in the morning had melted the surface snow somewhat, then as the temperature dropped again it refroze into a crusty layer. Not an easy run for beginners, but then they weren't beginners.

  “Red or blue?”

  “Excuse me? I’m here as a first responder only, remember?”

  “We both know you’re backing out because you don’t think you can beat me down this hill.”

  Sh
e huffed her disagreement. “You think so, do you?”

  He straightened both toboggans to face downhill, then lowered himself onto the blue one. “I know so.”

  She kicked a spray of snow at him, and he ducked. Then, laughing, he adjusted his stocking cap and made himself comfortable, readying for the flight downward. “You’re already a poor loser, and you don’t even have the guts to give it a shot.”

  “I don’t have anything to prove.” She folded her arms as she looked down at him, determined to stand her ground. “I don’t want to risk ruining my new coat.”

  “Sissy.”

  “Say whatever you want. I’m not doing this.”

  “Chicken.” He made soft clucking sounds, his grin deliberately taunting. That pushed her over the edge.

  “Okay, smarty-pants.” She grabbed the red toboggan and pulled it a safe distance away from him, then climbed aboard. “We’ll see who’s laughing hardest when I beat you by a mile.”

  “Oh, yeah?” He gripped the steering cord as she settled on her toboggan. “Well, Jode, what do you say we make this competition worthwhile. Whoever loses has to eat three pieces of Old Mrs. Bartholomew’s fruitcake—without drinking any water.”

  Jodi made a face. “No way.”

  “Afraid you’ll lose?”

  She slanted him a derisive look as her hands tightened on the cord. “You’re on.”

  Satisfied, he grinned again, loving it when the competitive tomboy in Jodi surfaced. “So you’re ready?”

  “Ready.”

  “Then...one. Two. Three. Go!”

  It took them both a moment to push off, then the toboggans quickly began their descent, picking up speed. He was the heavier of the two, which might have worked to his advantage. But a quick glance in Jodi’s direction—at her determined face as she leaned forward and attempted to shift her weight to keep the toboggan on a straight course—told him he wouldn’t be coasting over the finish line first if she had anything to say about it.

  “Woo-hoo!”

  He laughed at her cry of delight as the ponderosas flashed past them in a blur. That icy crust on the snow had them flying now. And it was harder to steer. The wind whipped off his knit cap, chilling his ears, and her hood fell back, freeing her hair to fly behind her in a silky curtain.

  Beautiful. But a bump drew his attention back to manning the toboggan beneath him, his gaze focused ahead on the path running by a lightning-struck ponderosa that had always marked the finish line. When from the corner of his peripheral vision, he detected she was losing ground to him, he let out a whoop of triumph—only seconds before Jodi cried out.

  “Oh, no!”

  He shot a look in her direction, where a slight rise in the course had apparently shifted the trajectory of her toboggan as they neared the homestretch.

  She was coming right at him.

  Before he could maneuver to escape the inevitable, she plowed into him with enough impact to topple them both into the snow, a jumble of arms and legs.

  With snow melting down the back of his neck, he managed to sit up and reach out to Jodi, who’d collapsed across his legs. “You okay, Jodi?”

  “I’m sorry, Garrett.” Her words came unevenly as she fought to regain her breath. “I hit a bump and a patch of ice and I couldn’t stop it.”

  “But you’re okay?”

  His heart hitched as she turned to him, eyes radiant and cheeks flushed, her hair sparkling with snow as if with glittering stardust. She looked more than okay to him.

  “Yeah. How about you?”

  “It takes more than a pretty woman knocking me off my feet to keep me down.” At the uncertain look in her eyes, he jerked his transfixed gaze away. Dumb thing to say. Brothers didn’t make a habit of telling sisters they were pretty. Or at least he hadn’t told his own sister that much. Not until recently when he knew she could use a boost. “Let’s see if we can get ourselves untangled here.”

  It took several attempts, but with his assistance she was finally able to lift herself off his legs and, freed, he regained his footing, then reached down to clasp her outstretched hand.

  “Easy there. Slick here.”

  She’d barely made it to a standing position when her footing gave way and she pitched forward into his chest, her arms flying around him to stay upright. He managed to remain standing, his hands gripping her upper arms to hold her steady.

  And then she looked up at him, eyes wide, her face mere inches from his.

  * * *

  “I’m sorry...Garrett.” To her dismay, her words came out a breathy whisper as she looked at him. Up close, the depths of his stormy gray eyes were even more amazing than she’d remembered.

  For a long moment they stared at each other. Was his breath as ragged as hers, his heart pounding a little faster, too? She hadn’t been this close to him since she was sixteen. Since that night when...

  “Jodi?” he whispered, his head lowering slightly.

  Heartbeat accelerating, her gaze dropped to his mouth, then back to his eyes as the moment stretched unbearably. Was he going to kiss her again? Right now?

  And then what?

  Go tell his buddies like he’d done before, that kissing her was akin to kissing the old family dog? With every ounce of strength she could muster, she pulled abruptly from his arms and stepped back, feeling as dazed as he looked.

  “I think I have my footing now. Thanks.”

  “Uh, sure.”

  She deliberately looked away, searching for the toboggans where they’d skimmed a number of yards farther down the slope. “So was it a tie? Or are you going to claim victory on grounds of interference?”

  Her voice sounded halfway normal. The challenging words of her tomboy self emerging despite feelings far to the contrary of those long-ago days.

  Garrett rolled his shoulders as he stuck his gloved fingers down the back of his coat collar and pulled out a fistful of snow. “I was unfairly assaulted in the homestretch. A win was as good as in my pocket, so I hope you enjoy the fruitcake Mrs. B’s already delivered to my folks.”

  “Get real.” She trudged toward her toboggan, careful of where she placed her feet. She didn’t dare risk him trying to help her up again, even though it had to have been her imagination that he was about to kiss her. Garrett wasn’t the type to make the same mistake twice. He’d made it quite clear that kissing her the first time had been a major one.

  How dumb was she, anyway?

  He jogged a ways up the slope to retrieve his cap, then made his way to his own overturned toboggan. “I suppose we could call it a tie. Or—” He jerked his head in the uphill direction from which they’d come, his gaze challenging. “We could have a rematch.”

  “In your dreams.” She picked up her toboggan. “I’m freezing. You’re not the only one who got a collar full of snow. And chicken clucks won’t hold any weight this time, so you can keep those to yourself.”

  He chuckled as he hefted his own toboggan. “Guess we’d better get back to work, then, before Dolly calls out a search-and-rescue team.”

  “Don’t feel obligated. I’m sure you have more than enough to do this close to Christmas. Shut-ins to visit, counseling to do and a Sunday message to prepare.”

  He popped himself lightly on the forehead with the heel of his hand, then started down the slope, avoiding her gaze. “Thanks for the reminder. I need to give my all to those while I can. They’ll soon be a thing of the past.”

  Struck by the abruptness of his words, she hurried as best she could across the snowy expanse to keep up with him. “What do you mean, a thing of the past?”

  “When my contract concludes at the end of the month, I’ll be moving on.”

  Her heart stilled. Dolly and Drew seemed to think Garrett’s position was a permanent one. In fact everyone talked as if that was
a given. “But I thought—”

  “I haven’t wanted to say much about it...” He cut her an uncertain glance.

  “Are you saying you’ve turned down a contract? Or do you mean the church isn’t extending you one?”

  “No contract extension has been offered.”

  Were the board members crazy? From what she’d seen, Garrett was the best thing that had happened to this church, to the town, in years.

  He forced a smile. “It wouldn’t matter if they offered one anyway. I came here knowing it was a temporary position, a layover while I prepared for my next phase of ministry. I’d been against coming here in the first place, but my Grandma Jo can be very persuasive.”

  Why hadn’t he said something about this earlier? And why was he telling her now? Because he suspected she’d wanted him to kiss her and had to set things straight? “What are you going to do?”

  “Mission work.”

  She halted, her breath catching as Anton’s face flashed through her mind. Then she scurried to again catch up with him as he neared the pine that would have marked the finish line. She tugged on his sleeve and he paused to turn to her. “Outside the country?”

  His gaze darkened, as if suspecting she might not approve. “Middle East.”

  A wave of nausea coursed through her. A dangerous—not a potentially dangerous—destination.

  “It’s been in my heart for years,” he continued, “since I first gave my life to God. Now it’s time to do something about it.”

  Now? Right when she hadn’t seen him in twelve years and still found herself foolishly harboring a secret hope that maybe they’d both shown up in town at the same time for a reason?

  “I’m...happy for you.” Was she? Really? The ache in her heart said otherwise. “But I’m shocked your contract isn’t being extended. You’re so right for this church. From what I hear, you’ve made a difference in so many lives, bringing young people into active participation and injecting a new energy into the church’s ministry.”