A Baby For The Minister. Laurel Blount

words out of Adam Larkey’s mouth had been “I don’t think I can do this, bro,” Jacob hadn’t taken it all that seriously.

      Apparently, he should have.

      He hadn’t believed for a minute that Larkey was serious about skipping out. Grooms never were, not really.

      And there was no way Jacob could’ve suspected that this guy would be the world’s one exception because Jacob had never met either member of this wedding party before.

      In fact, he still hadn’t laid eyes on the bride. He’d skidded into the church only a scant half hour before the wedding was scheduled to start. Since then he’d been so busy coping with Adam and Arlene that he hadn’t had time to speak with the bride.

      Well, he was definitely going to have to go talk to her now. He checked his watch again and winced. Zero hour.

      There was no way around it. He had to go tell some poor woman that her fiancé had just climbed out of a window rather than marry her.

      This was not going to be fun.

      Jacob threaded his way back through the narrow halls toward the bride’s dressing room, racking his brain for the best way to break the news. Unfortunately, Good Shepherd Church wasn’t much bigger than his own, and he was standing outside the door before he came up with anything useful.

      He spread his hand flat against the wood of the door and bowed his head. Please, Lord. Help me to find the best words to explain this mess. Help this woman, whoever she is, to handle what I’m about to tell her with the kind of grace and peace only You can give. Carry her through this disappointment, Father, and heal her heart. Amen.

      As if on cue, the door opened a crack, and Jacob found himself looking down into a woman’s wide brown eyes.

      “Is it time?”

      Her voice wobbled as she tucked loosened strands of maple-sugar hair back into a softly coiled bun. She wore no veil, and Jacob had seen enough brides to know that the simple hairdo and light makeup were her own work. Not surprising, since this was supposed to be a no-frills wedding.

      He forced a smile and extended his hand through the cracked door. “I’m Pastor Jacob Stone from Pine Valley Community Church. I’m pinch-hitting for Pastor Michaelson today.”

      “Oh! It’s nice to meet you.” The woman accepted his hand, her fingers icy in his. “I’m Natalie Davis. Are you ready for me now?”

      “Not exactly. There’s been a small...uh...glitch.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he cringed. A small glitch?

      “Another one?” Natalie laughed nervously. “First my car wouldn’t start, then the minister gets sick and now this. I’m starting to wonder if this wedding is even going to happen today.”

      “May I come in? We need to talk.”

      The bride’s creamy skin went a shade paler. “All right. Come on in and have a seat.” Pulling the door open wide, she turned sideways, making room for him to enter.

      Jacob didn’t budge. For the second time that afternoon, he found himself frozen on a threshold with no clue what to do next.

      He’d thought this wedding couldn’t get any more complicated. He’d been wrong.

      In the back of his bewildered mind at least a hundred alarm bells were going off at once. He had no idea what to say. In fact, at that moment, he knew only three things for certain.

      First, there was no way he was making it to that meeting. Arlene would just have to cope with Digby and the board on her own.

      And second, he should definitely have taken Adam Larkey’s prewedding freak-out a whole lot more seriously.

      Because the third thing he knew for sure was—that wasn’t a bridal gown Natalie Davis was wearing.

      It was a maternity dress.

      “You’re pregnant?” He didn’t know why he made it sound like a question. With a baby bump of that size, there was absolutely no doubt about it.

      * * *

      Natalie’s cheeks were stinging so hard that she knew they must be as red as apples, but she forced a little laugh. “Eight months and counting. Please. Come on in”

      She made her way back to the worn armchair, her Bible lying open on its seat. A few more minutes and one short ceremony and she could get out of this church and stop blushing every time somebody mentioned her pregnancy. She wasn’t sure which of those two things she was looking forward to more.

      It was hard being a new Christian when your past mistakes were so obvious.

      She picked up the book and lowered herself gingerly back into the chair. She was glad she’d brought her Bible with her. Changing into her nicest maternity dress hadn’t taken very long, and as the hour of her wedding approached, she’d grown more and more nervous.

      She’d seen the quick, sidelong glances as she’d hurried down the hallway to this room. It certainly wasn’t the first time church ladies had looked down their noses at her, but today, with her nerves already jumping, it was all a little too much. So she’d turned to the Psalms, hoping to find some peace.

      The Bible was still pretty unfamiliar territory, but whispering the calming verses aloud had helped her settle down. Unfortunately, the serious look on this handsome minister’s face was stirring all her butterflies right back up again.

      He lingered in the doorway for a second. When he finally did come over to claim the empty chair, his leg brushed hers and she caught a whiff of spicy, masculine soap. She scooted a little farther away, wishing their seats weren’t quite so close together.

      This man sure didn’t look like any preacher she’d ever seen before. He was way too good-looking, for one thing. As if being born with golden hair and sea-blue eyes wasn’t enough, he also sported a strong square chin and broad, quarterback shoulders.

      He was watching her silently, drumming his fingers on his knees.

      “You look like you’ve had the wind knocked out of you, Pastor. I’m guessing nobody told you about my...condition?”

      The minister cleared his throat. “No, I’m afraid not.”

      Not this again. Old Pastor Michaelson had only agreed to marry them after a long and embarrassing lecture. She wasn’t sure she could take another one of those, not right now. “Do you have a problem performing the ceremony? Because I’m pregnant, I mean?”

      This was exactly why she’d lobbied for a courthouse wedding. She’d been getting this kind of reaction from people ever since the day she’d had to change into maternity clothes. If she hadn’t needed her new faith so desperately, she might have given up on religion altogether.

      As it was, she’d just given up on churches.

      But this man immediately shook his head.

      “No! Not at all.” The denial came out with such force that Natalie actually believed him. “Sorry, it’s just...there’s no easy way to say this.” The minister took a deep breath and looked at her directly. She braced herself.

      “What?”

      “Adam has had some...uh...second thoughts.”

      “Second thoughts?” Natalie blinked. That was the reason for all this?

      She’d had a few second thoughts of her own. But in the end she always came back to the same hard truth.

      Marrying Adam was the right thing to do.

      “But isn’t that pretty normal?” she asked. Especially for a man who’d basically been strong-armed by his grandmother into getting married in the first place.

      She kept that last bit to herself. There was no need for everybody to know that the father of her baby had needed an awful lot of convincing to marry her. This situation was already humiliating