I put my finger to an exceptionally well-tied bow tie. “So you don’t have to wear the collar?”
He shrugged. “Nah. I like old school, but I’m not married to it.”
I looked across the room at Laura Anne and Annabelle, chattering away like field mice. “What do you think of her?”
He got this sort of faraway look in his eyes. “Oh, Annabelle is a miracle. She’s so...” He paused, looking down at me, smiling. “Honest. There’s such a purity about her heart. I don’t know what I ever did without her.”
I raised my eyebrows, wondering if he meant he didn’t know what he did without her in his office or his life. “I meant Laura Anne.”
Rob laughed that easygoing laugh of his, and I couldn’t help but think that he seemed more alive than most people. “Oh, Lynn, don’t do that to me.” He gave me a thin-lipped smile that told me exactly how he felt about her. But all he said was, “God loves all His children. We’re all in His image.”
I felt a kiss on my cheek from behind and did what can only be described as a triple take. “Hi there, little Lovey.”
“What in God’s holy name areyoudoing here?”
Holden shrugged, a couture tux able to make even the plainest of men suddenly look a little like Leonardo circaTitanic. He adjusted his tie. “You know I’ve always been a huge fans of the arts.”
“Uh-huh,” I grunted. “You’re a fan of something all right,” I said under my breath.
“Excuse my manners,” I said. “Father Rob, Holden. Holden, Father Rob.”
Rob was so tall Holden had to look up to him. “So, what brings you to Salisbury?” Rob asked.
Holden looked wistfully across the room at the tiny waist and flowing hair of a granddaughter that I could say without bias was a stunning sight to behold. Rob’s gaze followed Holden’s, and he said, “Dude, that’s kind of a weird way to look at your sister.”
Holden raised his lip at Rob. “Sister,” he practically spat. “Annabelle is the love of my life,” he said, at precisely the moment that Emily appeared by my side.
“Oh,” she said, patting the feather peeking out from her loose bun. “So you’re the one that gave my Ben a black eye, huh?”
Rob said, “Wait. What?”
Then, finally, Annabelle stopped laughing long enough to peek in our direction. I’m not sure if it was the sight of Holden, or the fact that he was waxing poetic with her mother-in-law that made Annabelle turn so instantly white. But, either way, though two men who claimed Annabelle was the love of their life were under the tent that night, I couldn’t help but notice that it was Rob who ran to her rescue.
Annabelle
Sold Out
The best gifts in life are often the most unexpected. And, to be sure, becoming friends with Laura Anne was unexpected. In a matter of hours, her signing me on as her cohort had earned me four invitations from her circle of friends. And, for someone who had felt so utterly alone in her new town, that was a very happy occurrence.
“So it’s kind of ironic, right?” Father Rob asked as soon as I got to work the next week. “You were so stressed about meeting Laura Anne, and now you two are”—he paused and then, in a singsong, tween voice, he said—“besties!”
I laughed, and Junie sighed audibly from her desk.
“What’s the matter with my favorite little month over there?” Rob asked.
She shook her head. “It’s just that someone in this office has to get a little bit of work done.”
“I’m so sorry, Junie,” I started, but Father Rob put his hand up to stop me.
He walked around to where Junie was sitting, took the pile of papers from her hands, and set them back on the desk. “Junie, my love, the work of the church shouldn’t be such a burden.”
“Well,” she said crankily, “someone has to file all of the parishioners’ donations and keep track of the pledges.”
Father Rob perched on the corner of the desk, his hands out in front of him as if painting a landscape with his bare fingertips. “Just picture it... a world where the work of the church is the work of the Holy Spirit. The work of the church isn’t filing and paperwork and mundane e-mails. It’s extraordinary callings and saving the poor and oppressed from their distress.”
I smiled at Junie, who was rolling her eyes at Rob, who was clearly goading her. “Well,” she said, her voice crackling, “that’s all well and good, but the Holy Spirit can’t pay your salary if someone doesn’t get all this paperwork done.”
Rob hopped down from the desk, gave Junie a solid pat on the back and said, “Well, then, thank the Lord for you.”
