Sweet Surprise: Romance Collection

by Wanda E. Brunstetter, Kristin Billerbeck, Kristy Dykes, Aisha Ford, Birdie L. Etchison, Pamela Griffin, Joyce Livingston, Tamela Hancock Murray

  “Oh no! Look at that! Do you think it’s because of the storm last night?”

  At Sarah’s voice, Rick Meyers glanced at the puddle on the floor of the foyer then looked up. Nothing was dripping now, but the telltale stains on the open beam ceiling told him where the water had come from.

  He turned to Josh. “Go get the mop and bucket from the lockup and wipe this up before everyone starts arriving. Ryan, we’ve got to see what happened to the roof.” He turned to the group of girls. “Can you young ladies see if there are any more spots like this and clean them up? Then find buckets or something to catch more drips in case it starts raining again.”

  Sarah tugged on his sleeve. “What about our practice for the drama?”

  With the dark skies and winds still gusting, Rick knew they should prepare for more rain that morning. “I’ve got to check the roof first. Get whoever isn’t busy cleaning up to help set everything up and start without me. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  As he walked with Ryan to dig the ladder out of the storage shed, Rick unclipped his cell phone from his belt and dialed Pastor Chris’s number. Since there was no answer, he knew the pastor was already on the way. He was amazed he’d arrived before the pastor on a Sunday morning, especially since he’d picked up some of the youth group members on the way.

  While he climbed the ladder, Rick thought of last night’s storm. He had picked up pieces of soffit and vinyl siding from his backyard this morning. Not all had come off his own house. Many houses in his neighborhood had suffered damage either from downed trees or simply from the force of the wind and heavy rain.

  Ryan steadied the ladder in the wind while Rick climbed up. Once he reached the eaves and surveyed the wide expanse, his heart sank. The roof on the old church building hadn’t been in the best condition to start with. In addition to many shingles being ripped and broken off, some sections of shingles were missing entirely. In more than one place he could see strips of black tar paper flapping in the wind, exposing bare wood beneath.

  He calculated from his present perspective which one of the gaping spots caused the puddle in the lobby.

  And this was only one side of the roof. He doubted the other side was much different.

  A car entered the parking lot on the other side of the building.

  “It’s Pastor Chris!” someone called out.

  Rick made his way down the ladder and jogged into the building, where he found Pastor Chris in the lobby staring up at the ceiling while Josh wrung out the mop into the bucket.

  “Quite a storm last night. I was worried about this. Josh says you were on the roof. How bad is it?”

  Rick rammed his hands into his pockets. “Bad.”

  “Can it be fixed? I got a few drops of rain on the windshield on the way here, so more rain is coming any minute.”

  “Yes. The forecast said we’d have more rain this morning, but not as much wind. As to fixing it, I don’t think it’s possible. For now we can patch it, and a few spots will have to be tarped, but it will only be temporary. We need a new roof.”

  “We don’t have money in the kitty for this. This is a major expenditure.”

  “I know we’ve got a few members who are roofers. Between them and a few volunteers from the congregation I bet we could do the work for nothing.”

  “Yes, but we need something to work with. Do you have any idea how much the shingles and tar paper to do a roof this size will cost?”

  Rick shook his head. “I’m guessing it would be in the thousands for materials alone.”

  Together they watched the small group of teens scurry to clean up and prepare for the Sunday worship service.

  Pastor Chris folded his arms across his chest. “We’re going to need a few fund-raisers, not just within our own church. We’ve got to reach out to involve the whole community for this kind of money.”

  A few more members of the youth drama club walked in. The main door closed behind them with a bang.

  “Hey, Pastor Chris! Rick! Wicked out there. Sorry we’re late. We had to pick up some stuff that got blown down before we could leave.”

  Silence hung in the air until the echo of rain started on the roof above.

  Rick and Pastor Chris turned toward each other. “Uh, oh,” they mumbled in unison and looked up.

  “I hope those girls found a few more buckets,” Rick muttered as he pushed the mop bucket to where he thought the water would most likely come down.

  Pastor Chris checked his watch. “It’s time for me to start preparing for the service. It looks as if I have a few extra things to pray about.”

  Rick nodded.

  As the pastor retired to his office, Rick gathered the drama team to run through their production as best they could before the congregation arrived.

  Throughout the service, water dripped into the buckets, distracting and disturbing many of the members. At the close of the service, because of the obvious need, everyone agreed that something had to be done quickly.

  Most of the church members stayed behind for an emergency business meeting. A group of volunteers came forward to patch and tarp the roof as soon as the rain stopped and it was safe to do so. The same people also volunteered to follow the guidance of their two professional roofers to save the labor costs when it came time to put the new roof on.

  Then came the hard part. Money.

  Pastor Chris stood. “I don’t suppose I have to say that now we need a fund-raising committee.”

  Mrs. McGrath raised her hand. “What about the conference? Can’t they give us the money?”

  The pastor shook his head. “They gave us money less than a year ago to expand the Sunday school classrooms. They have a limit as to how much they can spend on one congregation, and we’ve already exceeded our allowable expenditures.”

  Everyone in attendance nodded. Rick remembered what a difference the new classrooms had made. He also remembered how they’d barely raised the money in the first place. The pastor was right; they couldn’t ask for more money until they tried to raise it themselves and fell short.

  The pastor smiled weakly. “Everyone here knows how committees usually run.”

  He paused. Many people smiled and nodded, mostly the elders and others who were more involved in activities requiring group organization.

  Pastor Chris continued. “The more people on a committee, the longer each decision will take. And as long as it takes to make a decision, it takes even longer to get the project moving. We don’t have time to waste now. We need a committee, but we also need to move things along quickly.”

  Mrs. McGrath raised her wrinkled hand and stood. “Your daughter, Lynette, has the most experience with committees. If anyone can get things moving quickly, Lynette can. And Lynette isn’t on any other committees right now.”

  All heads turned to Lynette.

  Rick’s heart started pounding.

  Lynette.

  He couldn’t remember a time in his adult life he hadn’t loved her. When her father became pastor of Good Tidings, he had been eighteen, and she’d been sixteen. The first day they met, he’d immediately developed a massive crush on her that grew with every passing week. By the time he turned twenty, he was hopelessly and helplessly in love with her and had been ever since.

  But Lynette didn’t know he existed. At least, she didn’t know he existed beyond the realms of the group functions of the church. Many times he’d joined a committee or volunteered for a special event simply because he knew Lynette would be involved. He’d asked her out on a number of occasions, but she had simply replied that she didn’t date members of her father’s congregation, changed the subject, and gone on to business as usual. Sometimes he’d been part of that business; sometimes he hadn’t.

  Over the years Rick had tried to forget about Lynette, but he couldn’t when he saw her at least once a week. Being one of the few single men in the congregation, many women made it more than obvious that they wanted to get to know him better. But every time he went out on a da
te, he found himself wondering what it would have been like if he’d been with Lynette. Such thoughts were not fair to the other women who would never be Lynette and could never take her place in his heart.

  Therefore, unless a woman could be content simply to share a friendship, he chose not to have an active social life. This also gave him the opportunity to devote all his time and energy to the youth ministry. He would never forget the day he turned his life over to the Lord, because that was literally the day he knew his life had been saved by grace. When he was a child, the constant conflict between his parents had been difficult. When he reached his teen years, the fighting and battles for control of each other and their family had come to the point where he didn’t think he could make it through another day. Then a friend had brought him to a youth group meeting. That had become a turning point in his life and made him want to be there for other teens who needed Christ, whatever their reasons.

  Through both his leadership and his friendship he’d seen many young people build a firm relationship with Jesus Christ before they were thrown into the adult world. He had been the youth leader for five years, and Rick never wanted to do anything else, unless it was pastoring a church of his own. For that reason he’d been attending Bible college at night, taking courses as he could squeeze in the time between his job and his part in the youth ministry.

  In many ways he envied Lynette for having been born into a church family. However, she had chosen to be involved in adult ministry functions rather than with the young people.

  One of the senior deacons raised his hand and stood. “I’ve seen Lynette in action, and she does get results fast.”

  A round of mumbled yeses echoed from the large group. Almost everyone nodded in agreement.

  Pastor Chris smiled at his daughter. “Lynette? Will you head up the roofing fund-raising committee?”

  Lynette’s eyes widened, and her face paled. “Committee?”

  Except for the plop, plop, plop of water dripping into the buckets and the drum of rain on the roof, silence filled the room.

  The pastor lowered his voice. “We need you, Lynette.”

  Eyes still wide, she scanned the entire congregation.

  “Come on, Lynette,” one of the ladies called. “I’ll help you.”

  “Me, too!” someone else called.

  Many people called out with offers to help. However, Rick did note that no one volunteered to actually lead or let Lynette off the hook. He wondered if he’d been the only person in the congregation who’d thought that Lynette seemed tired lately, and less enthusiastic than in the past. A number of times he’d tried to ask her if anything was wrong, but when the conversation became personal, she’d changed the subject.

  Pastor Chris raised his hands. “Wait, everyone! I appreciate so many volunteers, but in this case I don’t think we should have more than two or three people involved, at least at first, until we get something in place. Maybe before we go any further, we should discuss some ideas as to how to raise this much money and then accept volunteers.”

  People started calling out their ideas, not waiting for a show of hands.

  “Bake sale?”

  “Bottle drive?”

  “The junior youth could do a car wash?”

  “A fund-raising dinner with prizes to draw people?”

  “Maybe we could sell hot dogs outside the grocery store one Saturday?”

  “What about a craft day for children in the neighborhood? People from all over come to do things with their kids.”

  Rick frowned. While those were good ideas, none of them could provide the amount of cash needed in a short time—unless the church could combine them.

  Rick raised his hand and stood. “I wonder if we could have an event inside the building and extend it into our parking lot, something big that would reach out to the whole community. Then we could do all those things in one day. We could advertise to draw people.”

  “Yes! The youth group could run the whole thing. A youth fun fair!”

  “Uh, I didn’t mean—”

  Before he could finish his sentence, the group applauded.

  “That’s great, Rick. Thanks for volunteering with the youth group. And what about you, Lynette? Rather than have a whole committee, how about if you and Rick organize the whole thing? I’m sure it would be much smoother, and faster, with only two people running everything. I know this is rather short notice, but as you can see we’re desperate.”

  All heads once again turned to Lynette, who sat in her chair stiff as a board.

  Water continued to drip into the buckets as rain pelted the roof.

  “I guess I could…”

  “Wonderful! Thank you, Lynette and Rick. Do you think you can have a proposal put together for the church board meeting on Wednesday?”

  “Wednesday? This Wednesday?”

  Rick turned and focused his attention on Lynette. At the same time she turned to him. They stared at each other, not breaking eye contact.

  Rick forced himself to breathe. For the first time ever he would be spending time alone with Lynette. Just the two of them and no one else. For years he had prayed for the opportunity to be with her and not be surrounded by a crowd, but he had never in his wildest dreams considered or wanted circumstances like these. This would not be a leisurely chat over a cup of coffee. This project meant hard work, intense brainstorming, and careful planning. As their plans progressed, it would also mean strict supervision of the teens, who would be in their charge.

  It was far from the ideal situation, but this gave him the first opportunity in ten years to spend significant time alone with Lynette. Up until now, for all the times he’d tried to talk to her in varying situations, both alone and in a group setting, he’d failed.

  If God was leading him toward Lynette, then conversely she should have been as drawn to him as he was to her. He couldn’t help but feel she liked him, which was encouraging. But every time he steered the conversation from neutral topics to something more personal, everything changed. She had drawn some kind of unseen line he couldn’t cross, because suddenly, instead of drawing closer, she would pull away. For a few weeks he wouldn’t see her at all except for church on Sunday, and even then it would be at a distance.

  Now, since they were forced to work together, if he handled this correctly he could discover if what had burned in his heart for her all these years was God’s will for him—and for her. His questions would finally be answered. But he would also have to accept it if her answers were not the ones he wanted.

  Rick swallowed hard. Whatever happened between them now would affect his entire future and the direction of the path for his entire life.

  Slowly Lynette nodded at him.

  Rick nodded back and turned to the pastor.

  “Yes, I think we can have something before the board on Wednesday.”

  Chapter 2

  L ynette hit send to reply to Rick’s e-mail confirming their meeting after supper. When the words disappeared from her screen, she rested her elbows on the edge of the desk and buried her face in her hands. She didn’t know which was worse, working with another committee or working with Rick.

  She didn’t think asking God for a little time off was a bad thing. Yet, not only was she expected to work on possibly the most important project of the church’s history, she had to do it with Rick.

  Over the years she had seen a number of church members succumb to burnout syndrome from pushing themselves too hard for too long. For all Lynette did, so far she hadn’t felt overwhelmed. Up until now. She had started to feel herself falling into the pattern. Because of her experience in dealing with people, she thought she could pull herself out of the downward spiral before it was too late. She needed to retreat and spend some time with God, and that meant being away from people for a little while. After some time alone, she could face another committee meeting for the Lord’s work and do it with enthusiasm.

  The saying that God didn’t give people more than they could handle
echoed through her mind. For the first time she had to trust that was true, because deep in her heart she didn’t know if she could handle so much responsibility one more time. At least not now.

  But then, Rick had come up with the community Fun Day concept. Therefore, he had to already have a workable idea in mind or he wouldn’t have made the suggestion. As tired as she was, she had to trust Rick to shoulder most of the workload while she did what she did best, which was the behind-the-scenes organization of the project.

  Lynette stared at the computer screen so long the screen saver came on.

  Rick.

  Many of the single ladies in the church had a crush on him, yet to everyone’s dismay he remained single. Lynette had always been fond of Rick. He had asked her out a few times, and she was tempted. However, before she agreed to go out on what was obviously meant to be a date, images of what happened to her mother flashed through her mind. In the nick of time her good sense returned, and she turned him down.

  Lynette rose from her desk and prepared a simple supper for one. Rick had asked if she wanted to go out to grab a quick bite so they could get down to business, but she wasn’t ready for that. She didn’t want to be near Rick when she was weak and unsure of herself. Yet now she had been obligated to spend time with him with no one else present.

  Allowing herself to give in to what she’d worked so hard to maintain would be a recipe for disaster, both personally and spiritually. She was tired, and it would be easy to let her good judgment wane. Until whatever day they selected for the event, Lynette prayed for God’s strength to guide her, because she couldn’t do it on her own.

  The doorbell rang at the exact second she finished her dinner. She tucked the plate in the dishwasher and ran to the door.

  Before opening it, Lynette paused to remind herself not to stray from the topic of church business, regardless of Rick’s charm. They were together to raise money for the new roof, and that was all she could ever allow.

  When she opened the door, Rick stood smiling in the doorway. “Hi, Lynette. I’m glad you could find the time to do this tonight. You looked so tired yesterday that I was almost surprised you agreed to it.”