She smiled. “I’d like that. Let me call.” She fumbled through her pocket for her cell phone. “Dad? Are you guys at Comida? I’m with Pastor Stevens and he’d like to talk about the church. Can we join you there? Okay. We’re leaving the church now. Love you, too.” She looked at the pastor. “They’d love to have us join them.”
“Great. May I ride with you? I don’t know the area very well yet.” She nodded, and he walked around to the passenger side. “I’m glad I ran into you.”
She smiled. “Me too. I’ve heard a lot about you, of course, and have been wondering when I’d get a chance to meet you.”
“What do you do when you’re not spending all your time volunteering at the church?” he asked. He’d noted her finger was absent of any rings. She was pretty in a modest way. He wasn’t sure that he’d have noticed her if not for her servant’s attitude. He looked at her. Was she pretty because she was pretty, or was she pretty because she had a good heart? Did it even matter?
Now that they were alone together in her car, she was suddenly very nervous. She had very little experience with the opposite sex. She’d dated a boy for a couple of years at the small Christian college she’d attended, and they had talked about getting married, but it hadn’t worked out between them.
“I teach kindergarten at one of the local elementary schools.” She found herself smiling as she thought about her job.
“Do you enjoy your work?” He couldn’t stop himself from cataloging her good traits. She had a servant’s heart. She loved the Lord. She obviously adored children. She gave of herself. Maybe she was the woman he needed by his side as he tackled this church and made his way in this life God had called him to live.
She laughed. “Most of the time. Like any other job it has its ups and downs. There are days when I want to run away screaming wondering why I ever thought I could do it. Then there are days when I know that I’ve made a difference in a child’s life and couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else.”
He watched her enjoying the play of emotions on her face as she spoke. “I know the feeling. I’ve been there every day since I came here.”
She pulled to a stop at a red light and smiled at him. Her whole face was transformed by her smile. “Isn’t it an amazing feeling to love what you do and feel like you’re making a real difference in people’s lives?”
He nodded. “It really is. I know this church is where God wants me to be. I prayed and prayed before I even put in my application, and this is the only church that I felt truly drawn to. I know this is where I belong. Sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of that, though.”
She pulled into the parking lot of Comida and turned off the ignition. “I totally get that. During the summer, the stuff I do for the church isn’t a big deal. By the time school got out? I was ready to pull my hair out.”
They got out of the car, and he held the door of the restaurant for her. Her mom waved at her from their table. She’d been there with them so many times in the past that the hostess just pointed in the direction of her parents' table.
She sank into the seat beside her mother kissing her cheek quickly in greeting. “Have you guys ordered yet?”
Her mother shook her head. “No, you called just as we sat down, so we’ve been munching on chips while we waited.” Her mother, Lee, was an older version of Anna. They were both a bit rounder than was fashionable with good strong features that really couldn’t be called pretty. They had red hair and masses of freckles that Anna had tried to bleach off her skin in every way imaginable when she was in her teens.
Dan shook hands with her father. “Joe, right?”
Joe nodded. “Joking and Leeking. We thought about naming Anna Fay, but decided against it. It just wasn’t Christian.”
“Fayking?” Dan shook his head. “I’m so glad you were able to restrain yourselves. Is Anna your only child?”
Lee nodded. “I wanted twenty-seven, but the Lord in his wisdom, only gave me Anna. I think He knew she’d be a handful.”
Daniel’s eyes widened. “She was a handful? I may need to hear this.”
Joe winked at Anna. “Figure out what you’d like to eat, Pastor, and then we’ll talk. We love dishing dirt on our Anna.”
Daniel’s eyes returned to the menu. “How’s the-”
“Fabulous,” interrupted Joe and Lee together.
“You didn’t let me finish.”
“Everything here is superb,” Joe said.
“Absolutely marvelous,” Lee added.
Dan looked back and forth between the two and shrugged lowering his eyes once again to his menu. “What are you getting?” he asked Anna.
“Probably the combination fajitas. I’m in a fajita mood.”
“Would you like to share an order for two?” he asked.
“Sure.”
Lee eyed them with a twinkle in her eye. “I didn’t realize you two had met.”
Dan shook his head. “We hadn’t until this morning. I can’t believe that she does so much for the church that she doesn’t even get to go to service. She needs spiritual food, too. She’ll have it soon if I have my way.”
Joe caught Lee’s eye with a grin, shaking his head slightly.
They placed their orders and talked. Lee and Joe regaled Dan with stories about Anna from when she was younger. Most were of her wild nursery days. She’d been the girl who would entice the little boys in the nursery to hide under the table with her and practice kissing. The fact that she hadn’t kissed a boy since she was five was of no matter to anyone. She still had loose morals according to her parents. She didn’t protest. She just blushed a lot.
She watched Dan as he laughed at the stories her parents told. Their pride in her was obvious in every word. She knew they hated that she’d moved out the year prior, but at twenty-six, she really did need her own place. She’d found a nice little apartment that suited her needs, and she was happy there.
She tuned out the conversation and just concentrated on Dan. It was too bad he was so good-looking. He seemed like a truly godly man, and he’d have made a great husband. Men that looked like him didn’t look twice at girls like her, though. Oh well. He’d make a good friend.
He caught her watching him and smiled at her, wondering what she was thinking. He’d never found himself so attracted to someone like her before. Of course, he hadn’t let himself be attracted to anyone in a good long time. He was too busy concentrating on becoming ordained. Now that he had his eyes wide open, he found himself oddly attracted to this woman. Not so much to her appearance, although he found looking at her more pleasing by the second, but to her. To everything she was.
While they ate, the talk turned to the church and to the problems that were plaguing it. Joe had a lot of good ideas as Anna had promised.
Dan finally brought up the lack of volunteers for the children’s ministry. “I’m almost afraid to see how VBS is run in two weeks. Every time I’ve mentioned it to Agatha, she tells me it’s under control. How can it be under control when I’ve never even seen her hold a meeting about it?”
Anna and her parents burst out laughing. Lee shook her head at him. “You don’t actually think that Agatha plans and runs VBS do you?”
Dan’s jaw dropped. “You mean she’s not even the one handling it?”
Joe shrugged. “She announced four years ago that she was too old to mess with it and it was time younger blood took over.”
Dan sighed. “So that’s why I never get a straight answer when I ask about it. Who runs it now?” A look of understanding flashed across his face and he started to shake his head. “No. Please tell me that hasn’t been dumped on you, too.”
Anna shrugged. “Mom helps me with it. It’s a joint effort.”
“You are doing too much for one person. If you were on the church’s payroll it would be different, but you have another job!” he protested.
; “I’m off during the summers and I do enjoy working with the kids. It’s no big deal.”
He wiped off his mouth and threw his napkin onto the table. “It is a big deal. You’re doing the job she gets paid to do. She needs to take some of this burden back, or we need to find a new children’s minister.”
A slow smile spread across Anna’s face. They did need a new children’s minister. They needed someone younger who could relate to the kids better. Agatha was a wonderful Christian woman, but she was just not up for the task anymore. It was time she retired and passed on the mantle to someone else.
“Have you ever thought about children’s ministry, Anna?” Dan asked.
“I thought about it, but I’d prefer to keep volunteering my time and work as a teacher. I enjoy teaching too much to give that up.” And I really don’t want to set myself up as fodder for the gossips, she thought. She’d been there too many times with people watching every little thing she did and criticizing her for it.
He frowned but nodded. “I can understand that.”
They spent three hours talking and joking. Finally her mother stood. “We need to get home. Poor Kermit the Dog needs to go outside or his little bladder is going to explode.”
“May I call you if I have more questions?” Dan asked Joe.
“Of course! Let me give you my cell phone number.” Anna waited while Dan punched Joe’s number into his phone, and then the four of them left.
As Joe and Lee watched Anna drive off with Dan, Lee said,