The Preacher's Daughter

by Lyn Cote

  He’d prayed without ceasing every waking moment for two solid days for God’s power at this moment and suddenly he felt it. “I contacted the principal at the grade school and he says if they lose another fifty students, he will have to lay off two teachers. Any more and our school will close and Pleasant Prairie elementary students will have to be bused to Dailey, also.”

  “We already know all that,” the chairman said. “What’s your point?”

  Tanner felt enthusiasm, power coursing within. “My point is obvious. The packing plant is the last remaining industry in this town. The agricultural community alone doesn’t have the numbers to support the schools or businesses in town. If Pleasant Prairie doesn’t do something to keep the people who will be unemployed this fall, it will again lose population. It will lose tax revenue. It will lose voting clout. We may be a ghost town by the census in 2010.”

  “What do you expect us to do about it?” the board member with the thinning hair demanded. “We can’t keep the plant open.”

  “Something’s got to be done!” Henry called out. Others clamored with similar sentiments.

  With a smile and an outstretched arm, Tanner turned to Lucie. “Gentleman, I give you the idea person.” Tanner’s tone and smile spoke of pride in her.

  Glowing with his affirmation, she popped up and stepped into the aisle beside him. “Chair and board members, I’m Lucie Hansen—”

  “We know who you are,” the bushy mustache barked. “You’re not even a resident here—”

  “Let her talk!” The gathering exploded. One man called out, “At least, she’s prettier to look at than you five!”

  The uneasy board members looked at each other and then subsided.

  Lucie beamed at them. “Gentlemen, as I told Tanner the other day, we have to think outside the box. Now, Pleasant Prairie has an ace up its sleeve that it hasn’t played…until now.”

  “And what’s that, miss?” the chair asked. The board members watched her intently.

  Lucie gave them a smile crafted to charm. “Pleasant Prairie is within easy driving distance to two cities that can use the workers…”

  The thinning hair member tried to interrupt her again and the bushy mustache joined in.

  Tanner grunted with antagonism and took a step forward.

  She raised her hand. “Uh. Uh. Uh.” She shushed them. “Let me finish, please.” She stared at them until they clamped their mouths shut. “Now Tanner has just said that you will be losing tax revenue and sending kids to other schools by bus. Wouldn’t it make more sense to rent a bus to pick up local residents here and bus them to the job centers, employment agencies in Ames and Des Moines daily and then bus them home each evening—keeping them living and shopping in Pleasant Prairie—”

  “But they’ll leave when they get jobs outside of t—” bushy mustache horned in.

  “No,” Lucie cut him off, “they won’t—if the same bus takes them to these new jobs in Des Moines and Ames. I mean, to the public transportation centers in those cities, and then picks them up in the same place each evening.” A thoughtful silence greeted this.

  “People don’t like to move if they don’t have to,” Lucie continued, “so what Pleasant Prairie needs to do is make it easy for them to stay put. Something as simple as bus transportation could make all the difference.”

  “But that bus would only benefit part of the population,” the bushy mustache growled. “That’s not fair.”

  “Why wouldn’t it be fair,” Lucie said with a persuasive smile, “if everyone is allowed to ride the bus for the same small fee? Some residents might only use it once a week or once a month to spend a day in one of those cities. But it would be available to anyone.” She lifted her hands in a gesture that said How can you argue with that?

  “Nobody would have a problem with that kind of bus,” Henry said, standing. “In fact, I never get to Des Moines because I don’t want to bother with driving in that traffic. I’d use that bus once a month and I know my wife would use it more. She’s always getting a bunch of ladies together and driving to Ames for lunch and shopping.”

  Lucie gave Henry a grateful smile. Tanner rose and drew near her.

  For the first time, the nonagenarian board member heaved himself to his feet and introduced himself to Lucie as Milton Grosinger. “There’s another thing we haven’t discussed.” He looked to his fellow board members, gaining their full attention. “I didn’t like that scene that took place on the Fourth of July. A lot of people didn’t. That mother said her son had been accused of snatching that purse because he was Mexican-American.”

  Lucie blinked. She couldn’t have said it better herself.

  Bushy mustache tried to interrupt; the nonagenarian forestalled him with an upraised hand. “I don’t want people saying we didn’t try to keep the newcomers because some of them still speak Spanish or their skin’s a few shades darker. This pastor here—” he nodded toward Tanner “—has been helping the newcomers feel more at home here. I like that.

  “Our town has always welcomed strangers from the very beginning. I can almost remember that myself.” Milton grinned. “Maybe this bus idea won’t pan out, but we gotta show that we’re trying to keep the people we’ve got and maybe that will bring more people.” His speech finished, he sat down.

  Lucie was impressed by the total silence that followed. Obviously, his words had had an effect. What would happen now? Tanner took her hand.

  The board members looked at each other. The chair cleared his throat. “Will someone make a motion?”

  The member with the observant eyes, who hadn’t spoken, raised his hand. “I make a motion that I, acting for the board, rent a bus or two and hire drivers to take people to Ames and Des Moines and advertise this and take reservations.”

  Lucie held her breath.

  “There’s too many points—” the bushy mustache growled.

  “Is there a second to that motion?” the chair ignored him.

  “I second it,” the thinning hair said.

  “All in favor, say aye,” the chair continued.

  Three board members said, “Aye.”

  Lucie reached for Tanner’s other hand and squeezed both.

  “All against say nay.”

  “Nay!” the bushy mustache shouted.

  “The motion passes with a simple majority.” The chair banged his gavel. “Meeting adjourned.”

  With a whoop, Lucie leaped into the air like a cheerleader. Thank you, Lord!

  Tanner grabbed her around the waist and lifted her off her feet. “We did it! Praise God!” He planted a kiss square on her mouth and wrapped his arms around her, his heart pounding with victory and from holding Lucie close.

  Later, Tanner sat on a dark green park bench, with Lucie in the crook of his arm, not wanting the evening to end. Night had fallen. The streetlights glowed, lighting the town square. A cooler breeze had blown up, dissipating the heavy heat of the day and whisking away mosquitoes.

  Flushed with victory, he and Lucie had spent nearly an hour chatting with the board members and other citizens who’d attended the meeting. Except for the one who’d voted nay, everyone had wanted to talk. Hope for the future had shone on their faces and glowed inside Tanner still.

  Finally, he’d driven Lucie back into town and invited her to enjoy a few moments of peace on the town square with him.

  The church bells sounded. Out of habit, he lifted his wrist and checked the time. It was indeed after ten.

  “I should take you home,” he said, taking in the floral scent from her hair.

  Lucie giggled. “That’s the third time you’ve said that. I’ll let you know when I’m ready to drive myself home. I brought the Bomb to the parsonage, remember?”

  Tanner hadn’t forgotten, but somehow that knowledge hadn’t meant anything. It seemed he had entered the town hall his usual self tonight and came out a different man. He knew that time was ticking away as usual, but that mattered somewhere else. He couldn’t be parted from Lucie. Not
tonight. Not this special night.

  His arm gathered her warmth and softness closer. He didn’t remember laying his arm around her shoulders, but he couldn’t imagine his arm anywhere else. “You’re wonderful, Lucie.”

  She beamed at him, smoothing his cheek with her hand. “You were great tonight. Where did you get those statistics?”

  “Off the Internet, at the Census Bureau’s Web site. I had even more in case I needed them.”

  “More? What kind?” Her eyes widened.

  “Property tax revenues from different decades. School enrollment figures.”

  “Wow! You were loaded for bear.” She ran her fingers through the hair over his forehead.

  The sensation this brought made his whole body tighten. “Well, you said you’d take care of the ideas and I volunteered to impress the board with facts to convince them to go with your idea.”

  She turned and pressed closer to him. “We do make a great team.”

  He reveled in her softness. Unable to stop himself, he tucked her closer. A great team. She was right. They’d been a team since that first trip to Shangri-La. When he looked back over the summer, he felt a sense of accomplishment.

  The ball games in the mornings, the evening games, the Bible study, the promise of more Bible studies. Just small steps, but they’d added up to progress, progress he wouldn’t have made if it had been left up to him. He would never forget this moment.

  “How are you doing about getting people lined up to work Nate’s harvest?” She looked up at him, her eyes at the level of his chin.

  He gazed down into her huge blue eyes, so clear, so honest. He bent down and kissed her pert nose. “What?”

  Lucie laughed and pulled away slightly. Tanner’s nearness was intoxicating. “Pay attention. Who have you got signed up to work Nate’s harvest?”

  “Mort and three other neighbors.”

  “Will that be enough?” she asked.

  He slid his forefinger around her ear, tucking a tawny curl behind it. “I’d like to have it all done in one or two days. The ones I just mentioned said they’d spread the word. Usually, all the neighboring farmers will pick one day in the fall and all show up with their combines and grain trucks work until the crop is in.”

  “Great.” Lucie sighed, leaning her head back on his arm. “Then all our problems are solved.” She ticked them off on her fingers one by one. “Nate’s home and getting better all the time. Zoë’s back to being herself, under a doctor’s care for the baby and in good hands with my mother and Sophie. The Mexican-Americans are becoming a part of Pleasant Prairie…. Did you hear the senior board member? I wanted to kiss him.”

  “You did kiss him,” he teased, luxuriating in her relaxed pose, somehow so intimate.

  She whooped with laughter and then went on with her recital. “And now we’ve got something started that may keep most of the newcomers and some other residents in town. Wow. Do I feel good or what?”

  “Lucie, I couldn’t have done it without you.” This admission filled him with joy and another feeling….

  Tanner’s words sizzled through Lucie, igniting joy and deepening her attraction to him. “Oh, of course, you could. You just needed a nudge.” Playfully, she poked his ribs with her elbow, trying to lighten the mood.

  He caught her hand and held it. “Your little nudges may have irritated me at first, but I like what happens when you give me a push. I don’t know why I can’t get things off the ground on my own.”

  His hand held hers so tenderly, as if she were as fragile as a dragonfly’s wing. Her heart raced. “You just don’t want to make a mistake. That’s all.” Tanner’s words were giving her hope. Her emotions soared—joy, hope, attraction. Maybe she’d been wrong about what being married to a clergyman would be like. Certainly, Tanner would never rain on her parade.

  He inhaled. “You may be right. Doesn’t making a mistake ever bother you?”

  Would it really be a mistake to fall in love with you? She shrugged. “I just get carried away. Sometimes I may jump in and find myself over my head, but then I just start swimming for shore. And sometimes I plunge in and only get wet for my efforts. But I always think it’s better to try something than to just sit there and maybe miss a perfect opportunity.”

  Tanner lifted her hand and caressed it with his lips. “I think you’re wonderful. Lucie, don’t leave Pleasant Prairie. Stay here.”

  His tender kiss sent a warm glow coursing through her. Lucie gazed up into his eyes and, reading their invitation, leaned forward.

  He bent and kissed her again.

  The touch of his lips sent shards of excitement through her. Her heart sang with joy while her head was full of questions. Am I in love? Is Tanner the one, my one and only?

  Tanner tucked her nearer and murmured in her ear, “Tell me you’ll stay, Lucie. I—”

  A car screeched to a halt in front of them.

  Lucie looked away from Tanner.

  A woman got out and slammed the door. “Tanner, darling, is that you?”

  Tanner stiffened and freed Lucie abruptly. “Mother? What are you doing here?”

  Chapter Fourteen

  A week later, at Sophie’s front door—Vita, Tanner’s mother, made another of her dramatic entrances, calling out, “I’m here. Vita’s here!”

  Lucie suppressed a giggle. Vita’s flamboyance tickled her.

  Dorothy called from the stove where she was bringing water to boil. “We’re in the kitchen, Vita!”

  Vita swirled in, wearing a designer aqua silk pant suit—to can tomatoes at Sophie’s. Lucie looked at Sophie, who looked back at her and rolled her eyes. Vita arranged herself on the nearest kitchen chair.

  Tanner’s mother had a “distinctive style,” according to Dorothy. Vita had cut quite a noticeable swath through Pleasant Prairie. During the first week of Vita’s visit, when Lucie went to town, people stopped her to ask who “that woman was.” No one believed her when she told them Vita was Tanner’s mother.

  Dorothy turned from the stove and smiled. “That’s such a pretty outfit, Vita. And cool, too. But you’ll need this to keep from ruining it.” Dorothy lifted a full apron in a faded yellow-and-gray print off one of the hooks on the back of the kitchen door. She offered it to Vita.

  “Oh?” Vita looked at it, her expression dubious. “My, how quaint.” She forced a smile as she accepted the apron, gingerly donning it.

  “I really appreciate you helping out.” With backward glances, Sophie lifted Carly out of her high chair and washed the squirming baby’s face and hands at the sink. “I have to drive Nate in for physical therapy again today and the tomatoes are ripening so fast, we need to get them put up for the winter.”

  Lucie knew the bushels of tomatoes had been weighing on her cousin’s mind. Lucie couldn’t figure out why this was a problem. She could think of dozens of ways to get rid of ripe tomatoes, none of which included work. And store brand tomatoes were cheap! Time and sweat definitely counted for more in Lucie’s estimation! But Sophie wanted to keep the tomatoes, so canning had been inevitable.

  Nate swung into the kitchen on his crutches with Tanner behind him. Lucie felt a thrill go through her and she winked at Tanner.

  “Son!” Vita made a theatrical gesture toward the apron. “Look how domestic I am today!”

  “Oh.” Tanner looked as if he didn’t know what to say and then his expression became skeptical. He sidled over to Lucie. “Are you sure you want to do this, Mother?”

  Lucie had wondered that herself. But she’d been too glad to have help to look a gift horse in the mouth.

  “Of course!” Vita exclaimed. “It will be an adventure! And everyone is pitching in to help this little family. I can’t stand by watching while you’ve all volunteered so faithfully.”

  At this accolade, Tanner looked uncomfortable.

  Coming to his rescue, Dorothy walked over and patted his shoulder. “Your mother will do fine and we’ll take good care of her. Now, go on home and write that sermon. Come back
for supper. Sophie will pick up a bucket of fried chicken and the works in Ames and bring it back with her. Unless you want to feast on freshly canned tomatoes?”

  Tanner looked mollified and took Lucie’s hand.

  At his touch, she felt herself grinning.

  “Okay, Dorothy, whatever you say,” Tanner assented. “Mother, see you later.” He paused at the doorway, letting Sophie and Nate go ahead of him. “Lucie, walk me to the car?”

  With both mothers watching her, Lucie flushed pink. But wanting a moment alone with him, she accompanied Tanner. Outside, she waited while he saw that Nate got safely down the back steps and into the minivan.

  Then as they walked to his gray sedan, she swung his hand back and forth and gave a little skip.

  “I can’t come up with one reason why my mother thinks she’s capable of canning tomatoes.” Tanner leaned back against his car. “She doesn’t even cook!” Tanner vented as he pulled Lucie to him.

  Lucie resisted him at first and then gave in, putting her arms around his neck. “Oh, give her some credit for at least volunteering.” She chuckled. “I’m glad your mother offered to help. If it didn’t mean saddling my mother with the whole canning thing, I would have bailed out myself. I’m not the domestic type, either.”

  “I just can’t figure out what’s going on with her,” Tanner fretted. “She’s acting…odd…not like herself. I keep wondering…”

  “Wondering?” Lucie rubbed her nose against his in an Eskimo kiss, but he refused to lighten up.

  “Wondering if her engagement is off. But her fiancé has called her several times and she says the wedding has been postponed—not canceled. I just don’t get it.”

  This was classic Tanner—worry-worry. “She’s only been here a week.” Lucie stood on tiptoe and pulled his forehead down to meet hers. “Just go with the flow,” she said, nose to nose with him. “Everything comes out in the wash, my mom always says.”

  Finally focusing on her, Tanner’s gaze met hers. He tightened his hold around her. “I still can’t believe that you and I haven’t even been able to get time for a decent date. All we get to do is meet for coffee, ball practice—”