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“I don’t know.” Kate was nearly in tears, and she never cried.
Her sister looked upset, too. Really upset. What was that about? Maybe just because Kate was so upset, and it took a lot to get her this way. Maybe Kathie thought something awful had happened.
Kate sniffled and swiped away tears.
“Did I do something?” her sister asked.
“No.”
“Because, if I did… Joe seemed to think something was really wrong, and you’re crying. You never cry. And…well, if it’s me…I’d never want to do anything to hurt you. You know that, don’t you?”
Kate was absolutely bewildered. “What are you talking about?”
“I don’t know,” her sister said.
It was like a disease, spreading through the kitchen. The I-don’t-know-what’s-wrong disease. It had been such an odd day.
“What did Joe say?” Kate asked.
Kathie hesitated, studying her sister, finally saying, “That he wasn’t going to make it home today. Hopefully tomorrow. That he’d call you as soon as he knew for sure. But…he sounded like he thought you were going to break up with him. Are you going to break up with him?”
“I don’t know,” Kate said.
Her sister started to cry, too, then. Maybe everyone was having an awful day.
“I’m sorry,” Kathie said. “So sorry.”
“Me, too.” She didn’t even know for what, but she was sorry, and she gave her sister a hug.
“I miss Mom,” Katie said.
“I do, too.”
And they both stood there, completely miserable, crying for reasons Kate couldn’t begin to understand.
Chapter Four
Shannon Delaney was back in church the next morning before school. Ben spotted her slipping into the sanctuary that morning soon after he arrived.
He’d already been lectured by Mrs. Ryan and promised to stay right where he belonged, safely in his office, that day. Truth was he was scared to go out into the streets, almost too scared to open his mouth around Shannon. It was no telling what kind of trouble he might cause.
Shannon walked up to the pew where she’d sat yesterday and sank into it, waiting for him, he thought. He walked over to her and found her staring, not sure what was going on at first, then realized he was wearing his white collar today. He might never take it off.
Still, she stared. He fidgeted, tugged at it and finally said, “Is it that hard to talk to me when I’m wearing this?”
“It’s just weird,” Shannon said.
He gave her wild, spiked, jet-black hair, pale face and black lipstick a slow going-over and said, “If you say so.”
She glowered at him. “You seemed so nice yesterday.”
“Not everyone thought so.”
“Bad day, Pastor?”
“Definitely.”
“Well, I didn’t have a great day, either.”
“Want to tell me about it?”
“No, I just… That thing you said? About God helping people who ask for it? Except, the help might not be exactly what you ask for or expect?”
Ben nodded.
“You think the help could come this fast? I mean like…yesterday?”
“Sure,” he said, suppressing a grin.
She shook her head. “I mean, it seems like someone’s trying to help. I don’t know if it really will help, but it seems like someone is trying.”
“Then let them,” he said.
“That’s it? Just…let them?”
“Don’t make it harder than it has to be, Shannon.”
“Why would anybody help me?”
“Why wouldn’t they?” Ben asked.
“Because I’m not a very good person,” she confessed.
“I don’t think you’re so bad.”
“Still, it just seems weird that anybody would want to help me.”
“You’re thinking like a human being,” Ben said. “You think people only help you if they like you or they think there’s something in it for them. You’re thinking you have to be good and deserve help to get it or maybe that you just have to be lucky or earn it somehow. God doesn’t work like that. He just likes to help people.”
“Sounds kind of silly to me,” she said.
“Really? I thought it would sound pretty good to you, considering the situation you’re in.”
She frowned at him. “So…I’m supposed to…what?”
“Try to be open to the possibilities.”
“Okay.”
“Anything else?” he asked.
“Well…if God really did send someone to help me, I was thinking, I ought to thank Him, you know?”
“Yeah. He’d like that.”
Maybe Ben hadn’t messed up everything, as he’d feared.
Kate woke up that morning not sure what had hit her.
Her nice, sane life seemed to have tilted on its axis, and she wasn’t sure where she’d gone so wrong, but she must have, because things seemed to be slipping out of place. She really liked having everything in its place.
To start with, she overslept, something she never did, because she’d hardly slept all night. So she was groggy and grumpy and rushing, which she hated. Kathie had already left by the time Kate walked into the kitchen, which was unusual. They almost always shared coffee and a bagel before leaving for work. This morning, when Kate finally got to the office, Gretchen was already there and already had a stack of messages for her, which she rattled off one by one.
“Brother, brother’s fiancée, sister—”
“Which one?” Kate interrupted, as Gretchen peeled off little pick message slips and put them on Kate’s desk.
“Kim.”
“Nothing from Kathie?”
“No. She’s the only member of your family who hasn’t called.” Gretchen gave Kate a puzzled look.
“Okay. Who else?”
“Melanie Mann, Melanie Mann, Melanie Mann. She says she’s with Big Brothers/Big Sisters. Sounds urgent.”
“It’s not,” Kate said. It was about her and the priest.
“She’s calling every fifteen minutes,” Gretchen said.
“Just keep taking messages, please? Did anyone call about work?”
“No.”
Kate groaned. Just when she needed a crazy day at the office to keep her mind off everything else, it turned quiet. Perfect.
“Oh, wait,” Gretchen said. “Someone from the Board of Realtors called, something about a committee for next year’s home show?”
“I’m never going near the Board of Realtors again,” Kate said.
“Why?”
Because that’s what started all of this!
“Okay, I’m probably exaggerating a bit. Maybe. I just…” No way Kate was explaining. “Next time I open my mouth to volunteer for anything, stop me, okay?”
“Sure. Ready for coffee?”
“Please. I’ll spring for espresso from the café, if you’ll go get it.”
“Deal,” Gretchen said.
She was back before Kate even knew she was gone, delivering caffeine and saying, “Okay, I’ll be at my desk. Who do you want to talk to this morning?”
“No one,” Kate said.
“No one? Sisters? Brother?”
“No.”
“Joe?”
“Especially not Joe.”
Gretchen frowned. “Are you okay? Is something going on? Because I’ve had two phone calls myself from friends of mine who said… Well…”
“What?” Kate didn’t want to know. Really, she didn’t.
“That you broke up with Joe. Or that he broke up with you.”
“Anything else?” Kate dared to ask, ready for something about the priest.
“No.”
Kate closed her eyes and let out a breath. “We didn’t break up. I just don’t want to talk to him.”
Which didn’t make a whole lot of sense, now that she thought about it.
Gretchen waited, probably looking for more information. Kate offered none.
“Okay,” Gretchen said again. “I’ll just be out here, taking messages, all day. No one gets through. I can do that.”
She probably thought Kate was nuts all of a sudden. Wait until the priest rumors started making the rounds. Then the phone would really ring off the hook.
“Ahh!” Kate groaned, not able to hold it in any longer…
The door popped back open. Gretchen stuck her head in. “What was that?”
“Nothing,” Kate insisted. She must have been louder than she realized. Either that or Gretchen was listening at her door. “All I did was volunteer with Charlie’s wife’s organization!”
“Big Brothers/Big Sisters, right?” Gretchen said tentatively, hovering in the doorway, half in and half out.
“Yes. Charlotte brought it up in front of Charlie, and you know Charlie. He knows everyone. His firm is the biggest one in town. Just getting a little bit of his mortgage referral business would be great for us, and he loves it when people volunteer to help his wife’s organization.”
“So you volunteered? To get in good with Charlie?”
“Yes,” Kate confessed. “I went yesterday, and there was the cutest little girl, Allie, with wild, kinky, curly hair and no front teeth. She wanted me to be her big sister, which I said I’d love to do. And I was thinking it was okay, even if I’d come for the wrong reasons. I mean, sometimes good things just happen, right?”
