The Parson's Waiting

been some commotion at the church. It had been resolved when Doc Benson, who belonged to a different congregation, had agreed to run it.
She studied Jonathan Benson and wondered why she wasn’t the least bit tempted to join the line. He was handsome enough with his warm brown eyes and dark brown hair. He’d been smart enough to get his medical school degree from Harvard and to serve an internship at Johns Hopkins. And he had a dry sense of humor that she could appreciate. But there was none of that chemistry all the romantic fairy tales talked about. She liked Jonathan Benson enough to share a cup of tea with him occasionally, but that was it. She definitely had no desire to go over and plunk down a dollar for a kiss, not even for a good cause.
Not that it would have been an appropriate thing for her to do, anyway. The church’s congregation would have been scandalized. She wondered how they’d feel if they knew the thoughts that had scampered through her head when Richard Walton had held her in his arms a few days earlier.
With his hard, trim body, his too long hair that looked as if it had been kissed by sunlight and his haunted eyes, he was the kind of man that stirred a woman’s sympathy and senses. Anna Louise had learned long ago that that particular combination was deadly. An attractive man was one thing, but one who looked as if he needed loving care was downright dangerous. She’d decided on the spot that Richard Walton was definitely such a man.
In general, her life in Kiley was an open book, but her thoroughly feminine reaction to Maisey’s grandson was definitely something she didn’t intend to share with a soul. Unfortunately, Maisey seemed to have guessed. Anna Louise wondered what it would take to persuade her to keep her suspicions to herself. Knowing Maisey’s sense of mischief and her powerful desire to play matchmaker, Anna Louise expected the price would be high.
* * *
“Young man, I want you out of that bed right this instant,” Maisey stated firmly from the doorway to Richard’s room.
He bolted upright, stared at Maisey through sleep-blurred eyes, groaned, rolled over and buried his head under a pillow. Maybe she would give up and go away.
“Richard!”
“It’s the middle of the night,” he protested.
“I don’t know why you’re so tired. I’m the one who spent the whole afternoon at the bazaar yesterday. I haven’t had that much excitement in a long while. That nice Doc Benson is quite a kisser.”
That brought his head up. “You were kissing a doctor?” He tried to recall a physician his grandmother’s age. He came up blank. “Who is he?”
“He’s very handsome,” she said slyly. “And not a day over forty. Quite a catch.”
Richard felt a headache coming on. Where had he gotten the idea that his grandmother’s health was failing? Obviously the real problem was that she was delusional. “You and some forty-year-old doctor were making out down at the church yesterday?”
“It was worth every penny I paid him for it, too,” she said, and sashayed off, leaving behind the familiar scent of her lilac perfume.
Richard bolted out of bed and managed to dress in less than five minutes. He roared into the kitchen. “Grandmother, what the devil is going on?”
“For goodness’ sakes, Richard, it was just a few kisses.” she said indignantly. She grinned at him. “It was for a good cause. The church needs a new roof.”
Richard sank down and buried his head in his hands. “I don’t believe this. Why would you do this to me?”
“Do what?”
He scowled at her. “Never mind.”
“Go get your good shirt on. We’re due at church in a half hour.”
Going to church was not the way Richard had planned to spend his morning. If that woman he’d met in the orchard was baking pies for the church bazaar, then she was also likely to be sitting there in the middle of the congregation. Bolts of lightning were reserved for men who thought the kinds of thoughts she inspired, especially while sitting in church. Besides, he hadn’t exactly experienced a lot in the last few years to reinforce the spiritual teachings of his childhood.
“Sorry. I think I’ll do some work around here.”
“And how am I supposed to get there?” she demanded, making an obvious attempt to sound pitiful.
Richard wasn’t taken in by the act. “You walked down that hill on your own yesterday,” he reminded her. He’d argued with her about it at the time, but she’d been adamant that she would not be dependent on him or anyone else to get around.
She clasped a hand to her chest. “I’m not so sure I could make it again today. I think it was too much for me.”
He didn’t buy the convenient excuse for a minute. “I think all that kissing was probably what did you in,” he countered dryly. He finally relented. “Okay, I’ll drive you down and pick you up.”
“Oh, for goodness’ sakes, if you’re going to go to all that trouble, you might as well stay. The service only lasts an hour.”
He frowned. “Did you ever know General Patton?”
“Can’t say as I did.”
“I’m surprised. You two would have had a lot in common.” He sighed and left the table without even one good jolt of coffee. “I’ll be ready in a minute.”
He went back upstairs and put on a suit and tie he’d bought years before for a friend’s wedding. He hadn’t had a lot of occasions to wear it since. In fact, it had stayed right here in the old closet, along with the other mementos of his past.
Downstairs, Maisey nodded approvingly. “Very handsome.”
“Better looking than the doctor?”
“Definitely.”
Not fifteen minutes later they were at the church. Richard managed to avoid giving more than a nod here and there to folks who recognized him. He slid into a pew beside Maisey and settled back to wait out the hour by deciding which project around the house to