He’d bet his assistant had called them, bless her heart.
“Well, now—” Blaine actually flushed as he tried to joke “—is that anything abnormal?”
Dakota chuckled because it really wasn’t. It seemed pastors were fair game for anyone who didn’t like what they said that Sunday.
Zach broke in. “This isn’t a time for levity, Blaine.
The pastor’s moral code is being called into question.
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gallivanting around the county and ignoring church members’ calls.”
Dakota didn’t deny a thing. What could he say when they were determined to accuse him without producing accusers?
“If this persists,” Justin said to Blaine and Jess, “we will have to ask for his resignation.”
Dakota sat forward, stunned that they would go that far. A slow fury built. “If you want to ask for my resignation, you’ll have to bring it before the church, and I think the church will support me in this. Speaking of which, if you can’t see the vision of this church, perhaps I should be asking for your resignations.”
Shouting erupted. From all five men.
Zach was clearly infuriated, but no more than Dakota.
It was Jess who regained control of the situation first. “No one is going to be asking for the pastor’s resignation. We’re here to support him and to help make sure this church is run biblically.”
Dakota felt properly chastised by Jess’s words. Not for being in love with Meghan, but for being so angry at the audacity of Zach, Justin and Odel.
“Biblically?” Zach scoffed. “Do you call it biblical when he shirks his duties? Mark my words. This is going to destroy the church. A house divided won’t stand.”
Zach stormed out.
Justin started out as well but paused at the door.
“Think about what you’re doing, Ryder.” Then he turned and left.
Odel slunk out, not meeting anyone’s eyes.
When they were gone, Jess and Blaine turned back 228
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to Dakota. “Is she a Christian, Dakota?” Jess asked bluntly. “We know about the time away from church, and that a woman will take more of your time. Not that we find that bad, but we need some details if we’re going to counter what Zach and his supporters are saying.”
Dakota nodded. “She’s asking about baptism, as well. She asked Jesus into her heart a few weeks ago.
She shines now. She has such a tender and exciting interest in everything about God. She’s searching and growing by leaps and bounds.” He suddenly realized he’d been going on and on about Meghan, and so he stopped.
Blaine sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “We weren’t informed about Zach’s desire to reprimand you, obviously, though we knew the elders weren’t happy that you were interested in this woman. Do you understand the disease she has? I know I don’t, but, well, I mean, have you prayed about it? Are you sure this isn’t going to interfere with your calling?”
Dakota resented the question, but realized they were simply concerned. He sighed. “I have done nothing but pray about it. I will admit I haven’t been putting in as many hours at the church, but honestly, I do feel that God sent Meghan my way for a reason. I’d gotten off track. Yes, I’m a pastor, but my relationship with God had been suffering. Seeing through her eyes, things are getting back to where they should be. I’m sorry if it means less hours here, but God, not this church, has to be first in my life.”
Blaine sighed. “You’re overworked, Pastor.”
Jess nodded his agreement.
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if it’s God’s plan, brother, but there are three elders who are going to challenge you. Think hard about what you’re considering with this woman. It could cause a church split.”
Dakota wondered what had been going on with his life lately. He had been so busy with things and doing certain acts, that he hadn’t really taken the time he needed just to be with God, until Meghan had shown up and pointed out how busy he’d been doing instead of serving. How had his life gotten so busy that he’d forgotten God? That was why Meghan had come into his life. She had shown him, in her own gentle way, that he needed time with God, in peace and quiet, because his relationship with the Creator was more important than the creation.
Silently he thanked God for the wonderful woman He had sent his way to balance out his life, which had been out of control until now. And then he vowed, starting right now, that things were going to change.
“Dakota!” Chase came running into the office, interrupting their conversation. Alarmed, Dakota stood.
“I can’t find Sarah. I’ve looked everywhere. She didn’t come back in here, did she?”
“She hasn’t been in here. Wait,” he said as Chase turned to leave. “What happened?”
Chase paused and turned back. “I went to talk to Sarah after our discussion and she wasn’t out there by the truck waiting like I thought she’d be. I checked around the building, in all of the classrooms. I can’t find her.”
Dakota frowned. “Maybe she walked back to my mom’s. Let me call and see if she’s there.”
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Chase nodded.
As Dakota picked up the phone, he could only hope their problems would be solved that easily.
Chapter Nineteen
“That was Dakota.”
Carolyne hung up the phone and turned toward Meghan, who had just walked in. She was on her cane again today, exhausted and looking every bit the part of a disabled person. She hated to tell Meghan all that had transpired, but she needed to know.
Meghan smiled, as she did any time Dakota’s name was mentioned. “What did he have to say?”
Carolyne motioned to a chair.
Meghan’s smile faded as she took a seat.
“It seems three of the elders of the church have put pressure on Dakota about his relationship with you.”
Meghan flushed. “We don’t have a relationship.”
Carolyne looked at her askance.
“Not exactly,” she whispered, correcting herself.
“At any rate, the other elders showed up and stopped the discussion.”
Meghan gripped her hands in worry. “This is all my fault. I shouldn’t have come here.”
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“Ridiculous.” Carolyne waved a hand. “God sent you here. Some things simply need cleaning out,” she said mysteriously to Meghan. Carolyne felt that Meghan was making her son take notice of some dead weight in the church. “And we need your expertise at the shelter. Meghan, your presence has given me new life and new direction. And that is because God sent you here.”
Carolyne moved forward and took Meghan’s hands.
“Don’t let the enemy convince you otherwise. You are a treasure sent by God. You’ve turned this town upside down and made us all take a fresh look at life through your eyes.”
Meghan glanced down awkwardly. “I don’t understand how.”
“That’s how God works, honey.”
She released her hands. “There’s more.”
Meghan glanced up worriedly.
The sound of the knocker on the front door sounded.
Carolyne frowned. “Who could that be?”
“Is this bad news?” Meghan asked and got up to follow Carolyne.
“It just might be.”
She pulled open the door and found Mary and Margaret, both very agitated, standing there. “Dear, we just heard on the scanner! It’s terrible. Simply terrible.”
“We wanted to know if we could do anything,” Margaret added.
“What?” Meghan demanded, alarmed.
Carolyne sighed. Turning toward Meghan, she said,
“Chase’s daughter is missing. Dakota had hoped she was on her way here from their meeting. She was u
pset.”
Meghan blanched. “We’ve got to find her.”
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Carolyne nodded.
“Can we cook some soup or make some bread?
Maybe some cookies for Sarah?” Mary asked worriedly.
Carolyne took the time to reassure the sisters. “That would be wonderful. I’m sure Chase would appreciate it.”
“Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” Margaret muttered. “Riding his bike through our yard and now his daughter running wild.” She tsked. “Come, sister. Let’s get to work.”
Mary paused. “If you need anything else, call. And please phone us when you find her.”
They turned to leave.
“Can you keep an eye on our house? If you see her, contact the sheriff.” Carolyne added.
Margaret nodded and Mary hurriedly tottered off after her.
Carolyne shut the door.
“What are we going to do?” Meghan asked, already heading toward the back door.
“I suppose we can get in the car and drive the streets between here and the church. Maybe she’s headed this way.”
They hurried out to Carolyne’s car. Once inside, Carolyne started it and backed out.
Meghan was frantic, Carolyne realized. “I’m worried about her. Too many things happen out on the streets.”
“You’re speaking from firsthand experience, aren’t you?” Carolyne asked, knowing very well that she was.
Meghan nodded. Her eyes were already scanning desperately for any sign of the young girl. “I’ve come to care for Sarah,” she whispered.
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slowly so they could search all the yards as they drove.
“She’s family now.”
Meghan didn’t say anything, simply kept wringing her hands. Carolyne didn’t admit how telling that action was. Finally, Meghan whispered, “I care for Dakota, too.”
Carolyne turned down the next street. “Which is why you can’t leave. If you ever tried to leave, I’m afraid my son would hunt for you until he found you.”
Meghan didn’t comment, so Carolyne added quietly, “He loves you, you know.”
“I love him,” she finally whispered then added, “I was so afraid something like this would happen. I didn’t want it to, because of my grandmother. I remember her.”
Carolyne felt her heart break as she saw the struggle going on in Meghan.
“My dad left my mom. It tore our family apart.”
Carolyne nodded. “But you have to trust God. He brought you to us, honey.”
Meghan shook her head. Turning, she looked at Carolyne, temporarily forgetting to search the street. “You have been so accepting of me, and I wouldn’t hesitate to accept Dakota’s, uh…um…” She blushed, hoping Carolyne hadn’t caught what she was about to say. “I’m the cause of problems for him. If we continue on, it’s not going to get better. I know now my disease doesn’t matter, but then it does. I am going to take time away from his congregation.”
Carolyne slowed the car to a stop at a stoplight.
Looking at Meghan, she said, “I’m going to tell you Cheryl Wolverton
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something that few people know.” She took a breath and then let it out.
“I’m a murderer.”
Meghan gaped.
Carolyne nodded. “Mary and Margaret know of the incident, as did my husband.” Her gaze took on a far-off look. “I used to be very judgmental of people. Many Christians get into that boat. They look at the outside of someone. That person doesn’t dress right. Or that person smells. That person is ugly or fat or a smart aleck.
Oh, we can get caught up about so many things. That person drinks or smokes, and the list goes on and on.
We’re real good at labeling people.”
Carolyne remembered painfully the ordeal she was relating. “When I was first married I worked a short time in a malt shop. It was a pharmacy of sorts.” She smiled, remembering that store. “Someone came into the place I worked one day. I thought she was drunk.
She stumbled around. I had nothing but disdain for her.
I was very young. I’d only been married a year and my husband had mentioned to me I shouldn’t be so judgmental. But I refused to listen. When that woman came into the little dime store, I ignored her until she insisted she wanted something. I suggested she needed to leave. She wasn’t talking right, confusing her words and such. But she wouldn’t leave. She even grabbed at me. Well, I wasn’t going to be accosted by a drunk, so I called the manager and told him she was getting violent.
“He didn’t question me. I had a sterling reputation, you see. He had her ejected.”
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night, the sheriff came by to question me about the woman. You see, she was dead. Later, an autopsy revealed she was a diabetic. She hadn’t been drunk at all, but in need of help.”
Meghan gasped.
Carolyne nodded. “If I had stopped to really look at this woman, see her inside and not what appeared on the outside, I would have realized she needed help.”
Carolyne started driving again. “And those elders at church, they’re murderers, too. They murder people every day with their judgmental attitude, refusing to see like Jesus sees. Dakota isn’t like them. He let them control him for a while, but because of you, he’s beginning to see that God is what is important, not people’s small-minded picture of the church.”
“I’ve been trying to make decisions for Dakota instead of allowing him to make his own decisions,” Meghan whispered. “Just like those elders. I have been deciding that because of my disease and the possible future problems Dakota shouldn’t be with me.”
She nodded. “You have to see you and Dakota how God sees you, honey—as someone special. We don’t know why God calls us, how He calls us, we simply know that when He brings us together in love we need to let Him work.”
Suddenly a flash of something caught Meghan’s eye.
Meghan grabbed Carolyne’s arm. “Stop! Go back. Turn at that street.”
Carolyne hit the brakes, causing Meghan to fly forward. “What did you see?”
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think I saw a few blocks down near the warehouses a pink coat on a young girl.”
“Sarah has a pink coat.” Carolyne quickly backed up and turned right, down the deserted street.
Meghan watched intently. “There!” She pointed.
“Past the garbage bin. Call Dakota.”
Carolyne pulled to a stop as close as she could get.
Sarah spotted them and started to run.
Meghan shoved open the door.
“Wait.” Carolyne jerked at her purse for her cell phone and started dialing her son.
Meghan shook her head. Grabbing her cane, she called out, “Sarah. Sarah! Stop right there, young lady!”
Moving as fast as she could with her cane, she maneuvered around the heaps of trash. This had once been an industrial complex that was now run-down and aban-doned. Even as she moved around pieces of rotting wood toward the opposite end of the alleyway, she saw a rat run past.
“I don’t want to wait,” Sarah called out.
Meghan tripped over something. She caught her balance and rubbed at her eyes. She hadn’t seen that piece of wood, she realized, and saw it was fuzzy as well. The stress of the last week and especially today was unbe-lievable. She shook her head. “I don’t care what you want—” Meghan started then changed her mind. “Well, I do care, but not about running away.”
Sarah shifted from foot to foot, her pink coat zipped tight against the wind. Meghan hadn’t gotten her coat out of the car, and the wind stung her exposed arms, chilling them to the bone.
“No you don’t. No one does!”
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Meghan almost stepped on something and realized she hadn’t seen it again. Sighing in frustration, she sidestepped the trash and continued. She had gotten nearly to the opposite end of the alleyway. Glancing back, she could see Carolyne on the phone. Good. Dakota could handle this.
“You’re wrong, Sarah, honey,” Meghan said softly.
The young girl had been crying. “I wouldn’t be caught dead out on a street like this except for you, because once upon a time I lived on a street like this.”
“Oh, poor you,” Sarah said, trying to sound mean but glancing around uneasily as she said it. She shrugged.
“Nothing is here.”
“I guess you missed the rat.” Meghan stopped a few feet away from Sarah. “Anyway, why don’t you tell me what’s going on here.”
Sarah lifted her chin mutinously and crossed her arms.
Meghan glared at her. “That look won’t work on me.
I used it myself a few times. I know exactly what it means.”
“Oh yeah?”
Kids, she thought, and sighed. “Look, honey, you’re not really mad at me. Why don’t you tell me where you’re going.”
Sarah shrugged and looked away. “A friend hangs out here.”
Meghan felt cold chills. Absently she rubbed her eyes. She had a bad feeling. What was the name of that girl, the one who’d given her beer? “Jesse?” she asked.
Startled, Sarah gaped.
Bingo. She’d hit the jackpot.
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“Well, at least she cares,” Sarah said.
Slowly, Meghan shook her head. “I doubt that. If she cared, she wouldn’t be giving you beer. Or inviting you into neighborhoods like this.”
Sarah swelled up as if to say something, but Meghan took the lead. “Your dad was worried sick when he realized you were gone.”
“He hates me,” Sarah argued and fresh tears filled her eyes. “I don’t want to be with him anymore.”
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