"You just seem so... I guess maybe not perfect but just really close."
"Well, don't get confused, because I'm not. I'm not perfect, and I know I'm never going to be, but hopefully every day, I'm a little more like Jesus than I was the day before. Isn't that the goal?"
"It is."
They sat there for a little bit, and she didn't know what he was thinking, but she was trying to figure out if there was anything else they needed to go over. She knew that marrying him would mean hewould want her in the church, leading Sunday school and ladies' groups and making meals and donating her time and efforts towards his ministry. And... she was okay with that. She just needed to think about her children, and honestly, she thought it would be really good for them. She had been a little bit concerned about them growing up on a military base and in a military family, because there were a lot of bad influences. This would be almost a one eighty.
"So where does that leave us?" he asked, and his question filled the warmth and coziness of the house. Demanding an answer, vibrating almost in an audible way.
Before she could say anything, his phone rang.
"I'm sorry, I forgot to turn it off. If you and I are having an important conversation, I don't want anything else to interfere with it."
"Go ahead and answer it. Maybe we just need to think about things for a little bit."
He looked at her like that really wasn't what he wanted her to say, and honestly, she'd rather get things settled. But if she was going to be a pastor's wife, he wasn't going to be able to drop everything for her all the time. And there were going to be times where he was going to get calls and he was going to have to leave her, or come back to her later. That was just the nature of his job. She appreciated the fact that he was going to try to make time for her, though. Still.
"Go on. Answer it."
Chapter 24
Mark really didn't want to stop talking before they had hashed things out, but Olivia was probably right. They probably should take some time to think about it, but more than that, to pray about it. After all, as far as he was concerned, it wasn't his decision to make. He'd already decided that God wanted him with Olivia, so there wasn't anything for him to think about other than was he going to do what God wanted, or was he going to give in to his worldly fears and take things slow and be cautious? Was he afraid of getting hurt? Was he afraid that Olivia wouldn't be perfect? Because she wasn't going to be perfect.
He slid his phone on and said, "Hello?" He had forgotten to look to see who it was.
"Mark.” It was Noah. “I know that you've been busy doing some Secret Saint activities all day, which goes along really well with your job, but I just found out about a family who's been stranded in the snow since before it began. No electricity, no heat, and they're running out of food."
"Okay. I've got some groceries left from what everyone brought for the church. I can run those out yet tonight. And—"
"That would be perfect. I don't suppose there's any leftover soup?"
"I've got some homemade bread here. And... yeah. It's not leftover, Olivia just made it tonight."
"Olivia is there?" Noah asked, sounding surprised.
"Yeah. You should have been able to see that her side of the street didn’t have electricity until just a bit ago."
"Oh. Yeah. I guess I wasn't thinking about where she was staying. She seems so self-contained."
"She does. But that doesn't mean she is." He glanced at Olivia, who sat in the chair, staring at her feet. Maybe she didn't want to look like she was eavesdropping. He felt bad that he was making her uncomfortable.
And then he realized that she might be curious about what he was talking about. What was he going to say?
"All right. I'll text you the address. Are you sure you'll be able to get out tonight?"
"How hard is it going to be to get into their driveway?"
"They've been working to shovel it, although they're not finished. They have a small path to walk on, not driveable. But if they know that you're coming, they'll be out there to meet you. They have one cell phone that has not died yet, and they're being very judicious about its use, but I can text them and let them know. Or I can give you the cell phone number, and you can let them know what time you'll be at the end of the driveway."
"All right. That sounds good. I have a few things I need to wrap up here, so it's going to be a little bit. But if you give me their number, I'll text them."
"All right. Thanks a lot."
They hung up, and Mark looked at his phone for a minute before he lifted his eyes to Olivia.
"I'm sorry. I wasn't sure whether I should stay or leave."
"I guess... I guess that's something else we need to talk about. I don't believe that a married couple should have secrets aboutanything. Other than maybe Christmas or special occasion gifts that are meant to be a surprise, but not hidden secrets that we're keeping from each other."
