The Parson's Waiting

to admit she was oddly disgruntled that a man who reportedly feared nothing suddenly seemed to fear even having a conversation with her.
Had it been any other man, she might have convinced herself to forget about it, but this was Maisey’s grandson. Maisey clearly worshiped him, and Anna Louise loved Maisey. There was no question that she and Richard Walton would be thrown together more than might be wise, given the sparks that had been there when they’d first met.
But, she thought irritably, if today had been anything to go by, he seemed perfectly capable of resisting the temptation.
Surely she had every bit as much willpower as he did, she told herself sternly. Just in case, though, she vowed to pray very hard that the next time she saw him she would find him to be no more attractive than a toad.

CHAPTER THREE
Unfortunately, Anna Louise’s fervent prayers went unanswered. When she ran into Richard Walton inside Patterson’s Drugstore and Soda Fountain first thing on Monday morning, her traitorous heart skipped a beat. He had the bluest eyes she’d ever seen, with little crinkles at the corners from laughing or from looking into the sun. She preferred to think it was the former, even though she’d barely seen his mouth curve into a smile. Surely at some point in his life, he’d found things to laugh about.
“Miss Perkins,” he said formally.
There was no mistaking his reluctance to acknowledge her existence. He’d cast one desperate look around as if there might be another exit that wouldn’t necessitate going past her.
“Mr. Walton,” she said, matching his prim demeanor and wishing she could think of some way to tease him out of it. She would give almost anything to see that spark of interest back in his eyes again. She had almost given up hope that any man in Kiley would ever look at her like that. She—or her profession, to be perfectly accurate—intimidated most men, even after they got to know her. Now it appeared that Richard Walton felt the same.
She was so absorbed in her own regrets that she missed Richard’s shifting stance and his uncomfortable determination to offer an unneeded explanation for his presence in town.
“I just came in to pick up some medicine for Maisey,” he said.
Instantly, worry crowded out this stupid game they seemed to be playing, a game at which she was obviously thoroughly inept. A woman who had been determined to get through seminary despite all the odds had little time left to perfect the art of flirting. Besides, it would have been considered unseemly. She’d spent a lot of effort taming anything in her outgoing personality that others might view as a wild streak.
“Is Maisey feeling okay?” she asked at once.
“She claims she is, but I noticed she wasn’t moving quite so fast this morning. And she barely touched her breakfast. Hopefully it’s nothing more than her arthritis acting up. It turned cool overnight.” His gaze met hers and skidded away. He was staring at a point beyond her left shoulder—probably at the exciting display of Ace bandages—when he added, “Anyway, thanks for asking.”
Anna Louise made a quick decision. “Perhaps I should come back to the house with you. Sometimes she’s too stubborn to call the doctor when she’s feeling poorly.”
“It’s not your problem,” he said curtly. “I’ll call the doctor, if she needs him.”
Anna Louise didn’t have a lot of patience for people who wouldn’t accept help when it was offered. “And how will you tell? Do you have a medical degree I don’t know about?”
“Do you?” he countered.
“No, but I know Maisey.”
He stiffened visibly. “She’s my grandmother. Are you suggesting I don’t know her as well as you do?”
“Her health has been failing steadily for the past few years,” she said vehemently without thinking about how it might hurt him. “You haven’t been around, so, yes, I guess I am saying that I know more about it than you do.” She glared at him. “Is that really the point?”
He looked downright bemused by the attack. He probably thought pastors weren’t subject to the same flare-ups of temper that afflicted other people. Anna Louise almost felt sorry for him and not just because he’d underestimated her. A guilty conscience sometimes had a way of taking a person by surprise.
She looked into his eyes and suddenly relented. However rotten his attitude was toward most people, he clearly loved Maisey and was bound to be worried by the decline in her health. After all, it had been enough to bring him home when nothing else ever had.
“How about a cup of coffee?” she suggested impulsively.
His gaze narrowed suspiciously as if he were trying to figure out some ulterior motive for the offer. “I thought you were so damned determined to get up to the house to check on Maisey.”
She clung tenaciously to her last thread of patience. “Five minutes won’t make any difference. Think of this as an olive branch. It’s clear you and I have gotten off on the wrong foot this morning. I don’t want Maisey to worry about the tension between us. She’ll pick up on it right away.”
He sighed and some of the stiffness eased out of his shoulders. “You’re right about that. Okay, a cup of coffee sounds good.”
They sat down and Tucker Patterson brought the coffee to the table, along with two pieces of homemade coffee cake they hadn’t ordered. The old pharmacist grinned at Anna Louise.
“I don’t want to hear any of your dieting nonsense, young lady. You need your energy if you’re going to keep up with all you’ve got to do around here. Saving sinners can take a toll on a person. Leastways, that’s what my son is always telling me.”
She glanced over and caught Richard grinning. His smile was everything she had imagined, warm and devastatingly attractive.
“And me?” he said to Tucker. “You trying to give my energy a boost?”
“I doubt your energy needs it. Unless you’ve changed, you can turn around and eat