fingers wrapped around his hand. Even through the leather of her gloves, he felt the heat of her hand.
“That’s so sad,” she said, “At least I had my mom until I was grown.”
He almost snorted at that. She was barely grown now.
Barely, but grown.
Abruptly he stepped back. As if sensing that she’d made him uncomfortable, she swiftly turned away, saying, “I’d better run. Thanks again.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he called after her.
She flashed him a smile and dropped behind the wheel of her car. That thing looked as if it was held together with baling wire and prayer. Another reason she ought not to be running around on her own late at night. He stood where he was until she managed to crank the engine to sputtering life and bully the transmission into reverse. Only as she drove away did he turn toward the office.
He hoped that restaurant where she worked made their servers wear uniforms. Otherwise, customers were bound to lose their appetites. He laughed at the memory of all those stripes as he pushed through the heavy glass door into the outer office.
Glancing at the clock on the wall behind his secretary’s desk, he made note of the time. Ten minutes after three. He had plenty of time, but it wouldn’t hurt to be in the principal’s office waiting for Beau when the bell rang at four o’clock. Even as he deposited the bag on Carlita’s desk and shrugged out of his overcoat, he told himself that he had known he would cross paths with the Archer family again.
He tossed the three-quarter-length tan coat over a chair, explaining, “I’m going out again in a few minutes. I just want to grab a few video games from David’s office.”
David Calloway was their part-time minister of youth. Marcus hoped to introduce him to Beau very soon.
“You shouldn’t be here at all,” Carlita reminded him in her tart, Spanish-tinged English. “It is Friday.”
The single mom of four children and several years his senior, Carlita was prone to mother him a bit. He didn’t mind. Having someone care about you was not an onerous burden.
He knew that Carlita and his sisters thought he worked too much, but he liked his work. Besides, some weeks emergency calls and visitation kept him out of the office, so Friday might be the only day he had to catch up on things, like picking up supplies he’d failed to have delivered with the regular monthly order.
Even as he rifled through the stack of video game discs on a shelf in David’s tiny office, Marcus mused that he had no reason not to work. What use was a day off if it was spent alone? It was good to have the prospect of company, any prospect of company. Even if Beau Archer proved less engaging than his sister, Marcus would be grateful for the companionship.
It had been almost a year since Connie and Russell had moved out, but he still missed them. Not that he would have changed anything. They were happy as could be with Kendal and Larissa. It was just that he’d never been much good at living alone. The parsonage was small, but it could still feel lonely for one person.
In the early years after their mother had disappeared, he’d missed his sisters terribly, but at least he hadn’t been alone. His foster parents had looked after a houseful of boys. Then when he’d first gone off to college he’d lived in a dorm, and after that he’d shared apartments or houses with various buddies.
He’d spent a few months on his own after the church had called him, but that had been a very busy time. Then Connie had gotten out of prison and she and Russell had come to live with him.
Those had been good months, especially after God had brought Vince into Jolie’s life and spurred her to forgive him and Connie for removing Russell from her custody. Now the family was not only together again, it was expanding.
His sisters’ happy marriages had seen to that. If it felt as though something was missing from his own life, well, he expected God to put that right one of these days, too. He was trying not to be impatient about it.
Unbidden, an image of Nicole Archer standing in his sister’s foyer came to him, and he resolutely pushed it away. Nicole was an opportunity to minister, not a prospective spouse. The very idea was ludicrous for a number of reasons. Besides, she needed his help, not his desperate, misplaced attentions. She probably had a boyfriend, anyway.
The thought made him wince, and he resolved to put it firmly out of mind, unwilling to picture Nicole flirting and smiling with some boy and managing to do so just the same. He was forced to admit that he couldn’t see her with a boy. Some guy like David was much more her speed. Thankfully, er, fortunately, the young minister of youth was engaged, a matter of no little irony to Marcus’s mind.
Not even out of seminary yet and already engaged to be married. It was enough to make a mature, older man just a tad envious.
Marcus strolled past Carlita’s desk, tossed on his coat, pocketed the game discs and moved toward the door again, saying, “I’m gone now. Have a good weekend.”
“You, too, Pastor,” she called as he pushed through the door.
The winter air was bracing, and the weather forecast predicted sleet in the wee hours of the coming morning. Marcus stood for a moment and inhaled deeply, clearing his head of unwanted thoughts. He hoped the prognosticators were correct about the timing of the coming sleet storm.
February always brought at least one ice storm to north central Texas, and it invariably shut down the entire Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex area for a day or more. For the sake of road safety, it was better that it happen on a weekend than a workday, even if it meant that church attendance would be down this Sunday.
Marcus let himself into his sedan and started up the engine, warm inside his coat. Lots of the kids around here routinely walked to and from school, regardless of the weather; Marcus was glad that Beau wouldn’t be one of them, at least for today.
He was curious about Nicole’s brother. Actually, he was curious about everything having to do with Nicole Archer. After only one meeting, he’d known that she was a very unusual young lady. Something about her had stuck with him since their initial meeting two days ago. In fact, he hadn’t been able to get her out of his mind. That, no doubt, was because God was calling him to perform this service for her and her family, this and others to come.
Marcus was glad to do so. That’s what his life, his calling, was about. God would take care of everything else in His own good time.
Chapter Three
When Marcus walked into the school, he was instantly recognized by the attendance officer and the vice principal, Joyce Ballard, who was a member of his church. He greeted both by their given names and stated his purpose for being there.
“I didn’t realize you knew Beau,” the vice principal observed nonchalantly.
A tall, thin woman, she looked older than her forty-something years and could be very stern, but Marcus knew that she genuinely cared about her young charges.
“Actually, we haven’t met yet. I know his sister.”
“Some of our parents could take a lesson from that girl,” Joyce said.
“She does seem devoted to her brother.”
“No
