Laurel Blount - A Baby For The Minister

“I told you—it was a last-minute thing. Pastor Michaelson came down with the flu.” Jacob halted in front of the third door on the left. He was almost sure this was where he’d left the groom.

“Yes, but I don’t see why Good Shepherd’s emergency is our problem, especially when you already had Digby’s meeting on the calendar. You need to start saying no.”

“We’re talking about somebody’s wedding , Arlene. I couldn’t say no.”

Well, he could have. He just hadn’t wanted to.

From the moment Digby had taken over as the chairman of Pine Valley Community Church’s board, the banker had been clogging Jacob’s schedule with endless meetings, all of which circled back to the same old topic: whether or not their little church should construct a fancy new fellowship hall.

Jacob already knew his answer to that question, and he was tired of arguing the same points over and over. A last-minute wedding made a welcome change.

Arlene sighed. “You really need to watch your step right now, Jacob. The whole church is up in arms, and people are choosing sides. Digby might be a frustrating old fusspot, but plenty of folks are backing him up on this.”

“We don’t need a new fellowship hall. There are way too many genuine needs in our community for us to waste money on a new building when the space we already have is perfectly—”

“Adequate.” Arlene finished the sentence with him. “So you’ve said. But it may surprise you to know that there are a good many people in our church who don’t agree with your ideas of what’s adequate .”

No, that didn’t surprise him. But it worried him. His church was pretty much the only family he had. He didn’t like being on the outs with them. Still, it was his job to make the right decisions, not the popular ones.

“I don’t think it sends the right message for us to fundraise right now. Since the textile plant shut down, half our town is out of work. We can talk about a new fellowship hall later, when our neighbors aren’t worried about losing their homes.”

“I’m already on your side, so you can save your breath. But I’ll tell you this—a lot of people with some serious social clout want this fellowship hall to go forward. If you don’t let them have it, you stand a good chance of losing your pulpit.”

His cranky secretary actually sounded worried. “Aw. Would you miss me, Arlene?”

She snorted. “Don’t you flatter yourself. I’m just too old to train up another new preacher. Now, enough of this jibber-jabber. You’d best get that couple married and get back here where you belong.”

Jacob sighed as he slipped his phone back into his pocket. Arlene was right. He needed to get back to Pine Valley Community as soon as he could.

First, though, he had a wedding to perform and a spooked groom to deal with.

He needed to focus. Jacob closed his eyes and murmured a prayer.

Then he sucked in a deep breath, fixed a smile on his face and pushed open the door to the choir room.

“All right! Let’s get this show on the...”

He froze, the rest of his cheery speech forgotten as he took in the scene in front of him.

Long gray curtains rippled as a chilly April breeze blew through the open window, filling the room with the smell of pine trees and wet asphalt. A crushed white boutonniere lay discarded on the carpet. The groom... What was his name again?

Adam Larkey.

Adam was nowhere to be seen.

Jacob’s heart gave one slow, painful thump, then revved into high gear. He crossed the room in two strides and batted the fluttering curtains aside to scan the damp parking lot. Sure enough, a bumper-sticker-encrusted Jeep that he’d noticed earlier had vanished, replaced by a rectangle of dry pavement.

Oh brother. This was bad.

Really, really bad.

The ceremony was due to start in exactly eight minutes, and Elvis had left the building.

He’d never had anybody actually bolt from a wedding before. This was uncharted territory.

Oh, he’d dealt with panicky grooms plenty of times. What minister hadn’t? That was why, when the first words out of Adam Larkey’s mouth had been “I don’t think I can do this, bro,” Jacob hadn’t taken it all that seriously.

Apparently, he should have.

He hadn’t believed for a minute that Larkey was serious about skipping out. Grooms never were, not really.

And there was no way Jacob could’ve suspected that this guy would be the world’s one exception because Jacob had never met either member of this wedding party before.

In fact, he still hadn’t laid eyes on the bride. He’d skidded into the church only a scant half hour before the wedding was scheduled to start. Since then he’d been so busy coping with Adam and Arlene that he hadn’t had time to speak with the bride.

Well, he was definitely going to have to go talk to her now. He checked his watch again and winced. Zero hour.

There was no way around it. He had to go tell some poor woman that her fiancé had just climbed out of a window rather than marry her.

This was not going to be fun.

Jacob threaded his way back through the narrow halls toward the bride’s dressing room, racking his brain for the best way to break the news. Unfortunately, Good Shepherd Church wasn’t much bigger than his own, and he was standing outside the door before he came up with anything useful.

He spread his hand flat against the wood of the door and bowed his head. Please, Lord. Help me to find the best words to explain this mess. Help this woman, whoever she is, to handle what I’m about to tell her with the kind of grace and peace only You can give. Carry her through this disappointment, Father, and heal her heart. Amen.

As if on cue, the door opened a crack, and Jacob found himself looking down into a woman’s wide brown eyes.

“Is it time?”

Her voice wobbled as she tucked loosened strands of maple-sugar hair back into a softly coiled bun. She wore no veil, and Jacob had seen enough brides to know that the simple hairdo and light makeup were her own work. Not surprising, since this was supposed to be a no-frills wedding.

He forced a smile and extended his hand through the cracked door. “I’m Pastor Jacob Stone from Pine Valley Community Church. I’m pinch-hitting for Pastor Michaelson today.”

“Oh! It’s nice to meet you.” The woman accepted his hand, her fingers icy in his. “I’m Natalie Davis. Are you ready for me now?”

“Not exactly. There’s been a small...uh...glitch.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he cringed. A small glitch?

“Another one?” Natalie laughed nervously. “First my car wouldn’t start, then the minister gets sick and now this. I’m starting to wonder if this wedding is even going to happen today.”

“May I come in? We need to talk.”

The bride’s creamy skin went a shade paler. “All right. Come on in and have a seat.” Pulling the door open wide, she turned sideways, making room for him to enter.

Jacob didn’t budge. For the second time that afternoon, he found himself frozen on a threshold with no clue what to do next.

He’d thought this wedding couldn’t get any more complicated. He’d been wrong.

In the back of his bewildered mind at least a hundred alarm bells were going off at once. He had no idea what to say. In fact, at that moment, he knew only three things for certain.

First, there was no way he was making it to that meeting. Arlene would just have to cope with Digby and the board on her own.

And second, he should definitely have taken Adam Larkey’s prewedding freak-out a whole lot more seriously.

Because the third thing he knew for sure was—that wasn’t a bridal gown Natalie Davis was wearing.