A Baby For The Minister. Laurel Blount

fell. He was so sorry. That could only mean one thing.

      The wedding was off.

      She could feel him watching her, obviously braced for some kind of explosion. Well, he was wasting his time. She was way too exhausted for anything like that.

      Instead, she just blinked at the burgundy carpet, her still-new Bible pressed against the bulge of her pregnant tummy, her brain struggling to catch up.

      Could this really be happening? After all the praying, all the planning... Adam was dumping her here at the last possible minute? Seriously?

      What on earth was she going to do now?

      “Natalie? Could I go out to the sanctuary and get somebody for you? Your mom? A sister, maybe?”

      She brought her gaze back to his face. “No,” she managed. “There’s nobody. I don’t actually...have much family.”

      The worry in his eyes morphed into a compassion so warm that she had to fight a crazy urge to bury her face in his shoulder and sob.

      “I understand,” he said. “Well, in that case, Natalie, I—”

      He was interrupted by a knock on the door. A blonde woman who’d introduced herself to Natalie earlier as the church pianist poked her head in the room, her eyes wide. “There you are, Pastor Stone! I’m so sorry to interrupt, but there’s a lady out here who really wants a word with you.”

      “Step aside, please.” Natalie winced as she recognized the voice booming from the hallway. She really didn’t feel up to coping with Adam’s grandmother right now.

      Cora Larkey pushed herself into the small room, the stiff veil on her lime-green hat trembling. Her entire outfit was the same shade, and she had the white rose corsage Natalie had given her earlier pinned to her substantial bosom.

      “This wedding was supposed to start a half hour ago. What’s going on?” Cora’s blue eyes flittered between Natalie and the minister. “Where’s my grandson? And who on earth are you?”

      The last question was directed at Jacob Stone, who cast a quick, concerned glance at Natalie before rising from his seat. He introduced himself to the elderly lady and ushered her into the chair he’d just vacated.

      Natalie wished he hadn’t. As Cora sank down, a dense cloud of her expensive perfume replaced the light scent of his soap, making Natalie feel faintly queasy.

      The minister unfolded a metal chair that had been leaning against one wall and sat down across from them. Natalie listened tensely as he repeated his news to Cora, adding some details that made Natalie cringe. Now she was the one bracing for an explosion. She knew from personal experience that Adam’s grandmother didn’t take bad news well.

      “He did what?” Sure enough, Cora started spluttering in the middle of the explanation. “That aggravating boy! Of course,” she added quickly, darting an alarmed look at the minister’s face, “he’s young. He’ll come around and do the right thing eventually, I’m sure. But this is quite...difficult.” Her small eyes flickered back over to Natalie. “Could I have a moment alone with the bride, Pastor? The two of us need to talk privately.”

      “Of course.” The minister stood. Judging by that relieved look on his face, Adam wasn’t the only man who wanted to run away from her today. “I’ll be just outside if you need me.”

      As soon as he’d closed the door, the older woman shifted in her chair and pointed a finger at Natalie. “I should have known the two of you would pull something like this. Well, it won’t work. I made myself very clear. You’re not getting any help from me until you’re decently married.”

      “I had nothing to do with this!”

      “You expect me to believe that? You never wanted to have this wedding in a church. You made that very plain.”

      “I just thought a civil ceremony would be less stressful for everybody, and more appropriate, given the...circumstances. That’s all.”

      “The Larkeys do not marry in courthouses. And the circumstances you find yourself in are your own fault.”

      “Not only mine.”

      Cora made an impatient noise. “Of course not. And that’s why we’re here. So that Adam can do the responsible thing for once in his life. I should never have left him alone. I should have been watching him like a hawk.”

      “But I never wanted to force Adam into this. If he really doesn’t want to get married...” Natalie trailed off. She had no idea what to say next.

      She’d truly believed that this wedding was God’s answer to her prayers. When Cora had talked Adam into proposing, Natalie had set her own doubts aside, gathered up her fragile faith and put all her eggs in one shaky basket.

      And now that basket had climbed out the church window and left her to deal with his grandmother.

      Sometimes, Natalie reflected, life was just not fair.

      “Don’t be silly,” Cora was saying. “Of course Adam doesn’t want to get married, but what choice does he have now? You certainly can’t take proper care of that baby on your own. You have no education, no job, no family worth talking about.”

      “I had a job up until last week. I only quit it because I was moving here.”

      “Waitressing at that tacky little diner? That hardly counts. And no great-grandchild of mine is going to be brought up in an Atlanta housing project, I’ll tell you that.”

      Natalie pressed her lips together tightly and said nothing. There was nothing to say. On that one point, she and Cora were in total agreement.

      “Adam has to go through with this marriage, for that innocent baby’s sake,” Cora continued. “Although goodness knows, I don’t see what else I can do. That boy has hoodwinked me for the last time. I’ve already told him, unless he does the proper thing, he’ll not see another cent from me. And believe you me, I meant it.”

      “I know you did.” Adam had known it, too, which was why he’d suddenly resurfaced after months of dodging her phone calls and texts. It was humiliating to know that it took the prospect of losing his grandmother’s money to get Adam to propose. But when you were buying your maternity clothes at thrift stores and could barely afford even the small co-pays for the local public health clinic, pride was a little out of your price range.

      Even so, Natalie hadn’t much liked the idea of a shotgun wedding, but she’d wavered when Cora had discussed setting up a college fund for the baby. Then Cora had mentioned giving them her late husband’s hobby farm to live on.

      The promise of the farm had finally done it. Natalie had looked around her shabby apartment, awash with flashing lights from the police car parked outside her building for the third time that week. She’d imagined her son roaming the housing project with the other children of the overworked mothers, most of them single like her.

      She’d known exactly where that path could lead. Just last week she’d tried to comfort a neighbor whose fourteen-year-old son had been arrested for selling drugs. The neighbor wasn’t a bad mother. She just wasn’t a match for the bad influences that lurked on every trash-littered corner of this neighborhood.

      If Natalie stayed, one day her child could be the one in trouble. She couldn’t let that happen, and she couldn’t get out of there on her own.

      Not soon enough, anyway.

      Cora was right, Natalie had decided. The best thing to do was marry Adam and make it work somehow. Their baby was all that mattered.

      “Oh well,” Cora was saying irritably. “I expect I’ll hear from Adam when he gets to the bottom of his bank account, and that shouldn’t take long. That boy’s never earned an honest dollar in his life, in spite of that pricey college degree I paid for.” Cora’s eyes skimmed Natalie’s rounded figure. “Thankfully, the baby’s not due for another