The Pastor's Wife

by Jennifer AlLee

  “And the land is cheaper,” she said.

  Nick nodded. “Exactly. At the same time they changed their name, came up with a catchy marketing campaign, and the company took off.”

  It finally clicked in Maura's head. “Beaver Computers.” She’d seen the commercials with Bucky, the big-toothed animated beaver and their slogan Beavers Build It Better. It was corny but cute and odd enough to catch a person's attention. More important, the company backed up their marketing with an excellent product. She owned a Beaver laptop herself. “I see their advertising everywhere, but I had no idea they were based out here.”

  “The company tripled their revenue in the last few years, which meant they increased their workforce. As new employees moved to the area, housing prices in Beaver Falls went up. Now we’re getting the overflow from all the Beaver employees who don’t mind commuting if it means paying less for a house. And thanks to their success, a few other major corporations are considering a move into the area.” Nick drained his coffee and threw the empty cup into a nearby trash can. “So you see, things do change.”

  “Yes, they do.”

  Maura looked around them. There was more traffic on the street, new stores here and there, but Granger still looked like a small town. When she lived here, she had wished for something different, something more. But now, she found herself hoping that Granger didn’t lose what made it special.

  That was a surprise. When had she ever thought anything about this town was special?

  “So now what?” Nick asked.

  “Now I need to get to work.”

  An hour later, Maura sat in the Granger Public Library, surrounded by business books. She’d asked Nick to drop her there so she could do research, but more than that she just wanted a quiet place to gather her thoughts and time to sketch out a plan for the theatre.

  Her mind kept returning to the same question: if she hadn’t left Granger when she did, would her life have turned out differently? Beaver Computers relocated a few years after she took off. If she’d known the town would be growing, and it really would be changing, would she have stayed?

  The answer came to her with a rush. No.

  No matter how much Granger had grown, it didn’t change the fact that Nick's first love was the church and all his parishioners. The town's growth spurt had probably made that situation worse, since there were so many new souls to worry about. And nothing could make up for what she lost or erase the heartache that finally spurred her to leave Nick.

  “Maura Shepherd?”

  A familiar voice pulled her from her reverie. She opened her mouth to correct the person—it's Sullivan, not Shepherd—when she recognized an old friend.

  “Rachel?”

  Her hips were a little bit wider than the last time Maura had seen her, and her hair was a whole lot redder, but she would have recognized Rachel Nelson anywhere. Rachel was the closest friend she’d had in Granger and one of the few people who knew the whole truth about what had happened between her and Nick. Maura's immediate joy at seeing Rachel was tempered with shame for the way she’d handled her exit from town.

  But Rachel wasn’t the type to hold a grudge. With a grin as wide as Lake Erie, she grabbed Maura's hands, hauled her to her feet, and engulfed her in a bear hug. “I heard you were coming back. I can’t tell you how good it is to see you!”

  Maura hugged her back, feeling a surge of genuine happiness for the first time in weeks. “It's good to see you too.”

  Mrs. Phipps, the head librarian, walked up to them. A serious woman who wore serious clothes and her hair in a seriously severe bun, she’d been a fixture in the library for as long as anyone could remember. She was also a strict enforcer of the rules of library conduct, particularly the one about never talking above a stage whisper within its hallowed halls. Putting her finger to her lips, she gave Rachel and Maura a hearty “shush” before continuing on her way back to the information desk. The reprimand only served to send the two friends into fits of giggles.

  Rachel composed herself, stepping back to give Maura a good once-over. “My, my,” Rachel said softly, “you don’t look a bit different since the last time I saw you. What's it been, five years?”

  “A little over six.” Maura tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear. “Rachel, I owe you an apology. I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you what I was doing. I …”

  Rachel held up her hand. “It's done and over with. One day, if you want, we can have a long talk about it, but today is not that day.”

  She casually motioned with her head toward the front desk where Mrs. Phipps held court. It was a well-known fact that, while the woman frowned on people talking in the library, she had no qualms about eavesdropping on conversations when they were audible, as it gave her lots of new information to share during her weekly wash and set at Mabel's.

  “What I really want,” Rachel continued, “is to get the whole scoop on why you’re back now.”

  Maura laughed. “I’m surprised you haven’t already heard it through the grapevine.”

  “Just bits and pieces. I know it has something to do with Miss Hattie's will. But I need to know the facts.”

  “It's a long story,” Maura cautioned.

  “I’ve got time.” Rachel plunked herself down in the seat on the other side of the table.

  Maura sat down and in hushed, library-appropriate tones told Rachel everything. She only intended to hit the high points, but the more she talked, the more details she filled in. With each piece of information she shared, her spirit lightened a little more.

  The last few years hadn’t been easy. When Maura left Granger and returned home to California, she’d found that her father wasn’t doing nearly as well as he’d claimed. His health was failing, and it had started to affect his work at the coffee shop. Soon, not only had Maura taken over the day-to-day operations of Sullivan's, she’d also become her father's primary caregiver. There had been little time for anything other than work and Da. She’d done it without complaining, glad to be able to fill her days with something other than feelings of regret. Not until now did she realize how much she’d missed having a close friend to share with.

  “So that's it,” Maura said when she finished the saga. “And now here I am, sitting in the library, trying to make sense out of it all.”

  Rachel laughed and shook her head. “That Miss Hattie sure was a spunky old gal, right up until the end. She knew exactly what bait to dangle in front of you and Pastor Nick to get you two back together.”

  Maura bristled. “We’re not getting back together.”

  “Maybe not,” Rachel shrugged. “But you are living together again. And you’ve got to work together to pull this off. Who knows where all that close proximity might lead?”

  “It won’t lead to anything other than me getting the theatre up and running and him getting a nice donation for his precious church. As soon as the six months are up, I’m moving out of the parsonage, and we never have to see each other again.”

  “Come on, Maura. Would it be so bad if something did spark between you two? You’ve got to still have feelings for him to be so upset by this situation. I know for a fact he never stopped loving you.”

  “How can you know that?” Maura hated herself for asking, but as much as she acted like she didn’t care, she really wanted to know.

  “He was a mess when you left. He called all over looking for you.” Rachel leaned closer. “He even showed up at my doorstep, wanting to know if I could tell him anything.”

  Maura's face went cold. “What did you say?”

  She frowned. “Nothing. I wanted to tell him about, well, you know … but I didn’t. It wasn’t my place. I just said I didn’t know you were leaving, which was the truth. Maura, if you’d seen him … I’ve never seen anyone so devastated in my life.”

  Maura looked down at her left hand, where she used to wear her wedding ring. “I’ve been gone for a long time,” she said slowly. “Not once did he call my father or come looking for me. He co
uldn’t have missed me that much.”

  “I don’t know why he didn’t go after you, but I know he chose to stay married to you, even though you left. I’ll bet you didn’t know, but the church board met about a year after you’d gone to discuss the situation. At that point it was pretty obvious you weren’t coming back. They decided that since you abandoned Pastor Nick, he had legitimate grounds to divorce you.”

  “What?” Maura was shocked they would even suggest such a thing.

  “I know. I couldn’t believe it when I found out. I guess they figured they couldn’t hold your actions against him so they were trying to be decent … give him an out so he could go on with his life but not lose his job.”

  “Or maybe they just wanted him to remarry so there’d be a pastor's wife to oversee the Thursday morning women's devotion group.” She hated the tone of sarcasm that crept into her voice. After all these years, she should be over it.

  “Maybe. I don’t know what their motivation was. All I know is that Nick turned them down. Why would he have done that if he didn’t still love you?”

  Maura didn’t have an answer. Nick was nothing if not principled. The fact that he’d made a vow to be united with Maura “till death parts us” was probably enough to keep him married to her. On the other hand, if he was shown proof that his marriage was over and could be made null and void in the eyes of God and the church council, wouldn’t he have jumped at that? That is, if he wanted to get out.

  But Maura didn’t want to think about that now. It was old business, and she had new, more pressing matters in front of her. “I have no way of knowing what Nick was thinking,” she finally told Rachel. “What I do know is that I’ve got a rundown old theatre that needs to be overhauled, and I have to figure out how to make it a viable enterprise.”

  Rachel took the hint. “Seems to me, first you need to decide exactly what purpose you want it to serve.”

  Maura pursed her lips. “That's a good point. I guess I haven’t thought about it as anything other than a theatre for live productions.”

  “Just because that's what it was doesn’t mean that's what it always has to be. A leopard may not be able to change its spots, but a building sure can.” Rachel winked at her.

  Maura laughed, enjoying how easily they’d slipped back on the old shoe of familiarity. “Okay, since you’re so full of good ideas, what are some other uses for the space?”

  Rachel leaned back in her chair, eyes cast at the ceiling. “Well, you could put in a screen and turn it into a movie theater. Or you could turn it into a type of convention center … a place to have meetings and such. Or you could put in tables and make it a dinner theatre.”

  “Or I could do it all.”

  Rachel narrowed her eyes. “Just how many buildings do you think you inherited?”

  “No, no, listen. I could do it all in one building.” Maura felt her cheeks flush with excitement. “One of the conditions of the will is that we put on at least one church performance, so we have to keep the live theatre aspect, which I want to do anyway. But I don’t think that alone will bring in enough revenue. If I installed a retractable screen, we could also have special movie viewings. And with the new businesses that are thinking of moving this way, we could certainly rent it out for corporate meetings.”

  “What about dinner theatre?”

  Maura chewed on her lower lip. “Okay, that would be a lot harder. I don’t think there are any cooking facilities in the building, and to install a professional kitchen would be too expensive. But we could probably offer some kind of dinner-and-a-show package in conjunction with one of the restaurants in town.”

  “That's a great idea.” Rachel nodded, catching Maura's enthusiasm. “I envy you, Maura.”

  Was she serious? “Me? Why?”

  “Because you’ve got this great opportunity to make something out of practically nothing. You’re reinventing your life. What I wouldn’t give for a chance like that.”

  Rachel's wistful tone surprised Maura. From where she sat, Rachel had the perfect life: a great husband, two kids, the house with an actual white picket fence. What more could she want?

  “Are you looking to reinvent yourself?”

  Rachel's eyes widened. “No, not really. I guess that's not the right word. I love my life, it's just …”

  “Just what?” Maura prodded.

  Rachel hesitated before plunging in. “I’ve been a full-time housewife and mom since I was eighteen. Don’t get me wrong. I love my family, but the kids don’t need me nearly as much as they used to. I have a lot of extra time on my hands. Lately, I’ve been thinking about what comes next. You know, when the nest is empty and it's just Derrick and me.”

  Maura nodded, a plan already percolating in her brain. “I completely get what you’re saying. And, you’re right. This theatre is a great opportunity for me. But you know I can’t pull it off by myself. I’ll need some good people to work with.” She paused. “Are you interested?”

  Rachel looked at her cautiously. “Why? Are you making me an offer?”

  “I couldn’t pay you much … in fact, I can’t actually pay you anything until we start bringing in some revenue.” Maura stopped, embarrassed that she’d suggested Rachel work for free. “Never mind, it's a dumb idea. Just forget I said anything.”

  “Whoa, there!” Rachel waved her hands back and forth in front of Maura. “You just let me decide whether or not it's a dumb idea. Besides, you’re offering me twice as much as I’m making now.”

  “How do you figure?”

  “Twice as much of nothing is nothing,” Rachel said with a grin. “I don’t know if you’ve heard, but people in my job category don’t even make minimum wage. Besides, now you’ve got me all revved up about the idea of reviving the Music Box.”

  Maura's heart constricted as she looked across the table. Not all of her experiences in Granger had been bad. Rachel was a sincere, true friend, who had been there for her when she was at her lowest. Despite the fact that Maura had abandoned the friendship, Rachel was gracious enough to let them pick up like nothing had happened. Working with her now would definitely be a good thing. She might even call it an answer to prayer, if she prayed anymore.

  She was about to say something profound when her stomach grumbled loudly, making both of the woman laugh. Maura glanced down at her watch. “Good grief, it's later than I thought. You probably need to get back home.”

  Rachel shook her head. “Nope, everybody's got other plans tonight. Becca's at a friend's house, and from there she's going to chorus practice; Ben's away at football camp, and Derrick has a church board meeting. We’re spread out all over, which proves my point. You know, I think this is what Pastor Nick might call a divine appointment.”

  Maura let Rachel's last statement slide. Rachel didn’t need to know Maura no longer shared Nick's belief that God was involved in all areas of a person's life. Maura thought of God as more of a passive observer. Otherwise, her life would have turned out much differently.

  Maura cleared her throat, eager to steer the conversation in a different direction. “Why don’t you and I go get dinner and do some more brainstorming?”

  “Great idea. I’ll just leave a message for Derrick in case he gets home before I do.” Rachel pulled her cell phone from her purse.

  “Hm—hm.” Mrs. Phipps's eyes narrowed as she cast a laser look toward Rachel. Apparently, using cell phones in the library was a cardinal sin, deemed even worse than mere conversation.

  Rachel flipped the phone shut and stuffed it back in her purse. “Maybe I’ll call him from outside,” she whispered loudly.

  Maura scooped up the books she’d already checked out, and they headed for the door. She couldn’t believe how everything was coming together. It was almost as if somebody had sent Rachel into the library so they could run into each other. Maura shook her head sharply. What was she thinking? It was coincidence, pure and simple. A happy, fortunate coincidence. A few more of those, and this project might turn out all right
after all.

  5

  Maura was still so excited after her first unofficial business meeting with Rachel that she almost didn’t notice Nick when she walked into the house. The sounds from the kitchen got her attention, and that's where she found him, putting away what looked like dinner leftovers. She inhaled deeply. Something sure smelled good. Was that roast beef? She didn’t see any evidence of it, but her nose wouldn’t lie to her.

  “Hey, when did you learn how to cook?” She cringed as soon as the words were out of her mouth. What do you think, stupid, he stopped eating after you left him?

  Nick had the good grace not to point that out. He turned from the sink, wiping his hands on a dish towel. “Surprising, I know, but I can kind of find my way around the kitchen. Actually, roast is one of the easier meals to make.”

  Maura thought back to her conversation with Rachel. “I’m surprised you’re home. Didn’t you have to be at the church board meeting tonight?”

  “I told them I couldn’t be there.” Nick shrugged. “Since this is your first night here, well, I wanted to …” His voice trailed off and he tossed the dish towel on the counter. “I just wanted to be around.”

  This was a first. He’d skipped a meeting for her. And he’d cooked dinner. She dropped her purse on the dining table and noticed it was set with her mother's china. Her heart jumped.

  Da had given the set to them as a wedding present. When she left Nick, she’d been so upset that she hardly took anything. She left the dishes behind, never expecting to see them again. Now, running a finger gently around the rim of a plate, she smiled. Nick used to be afraid to touch them because he’d accidentally broken one of the tea cups. Yet, he’d brought them out today. “You kept the set.”

  He looked shocked that she’d considered anything else. “Of course. I know how much it means to you. I figured someday you’d send for it, or come back to get it.” He shook his head. “Of course, I never figured this was how you’d end up coming back.”