An Honest Life. Dana Corbit

chatting with Rick and planting with him side by side.

      The image of his startling blue eyes, with character lines crinkling at the corners, stole into her thoughts. How light and sparkling those eyes appeared when Rick laughed. How anger darkened that color at least two shades. She knew. She’d seen—and probably inspired—both reactions.

      Suppressing that image took more energy than should have been necessary, but she’d accomplished it by the time she’d closed the car’s trunk. Obviously, she had to be a little friendly with him to accomplish her mission of bringing him to church, but she wasn’t supposed to enjoy herself so much. She admonished herself to focus on her Christian duty rather than the handsome prospect as she climbed behind the wheel.

      But that didn’t stop her from jerking her head sharply toward the sound of gravel being shot up at the end of the long church drive. Her pulse slowed only when inside the cloud of dust, she saw Andrew’s car instead of a pickup. You just didn’t want to argue with him again, she told herself, trying hard to believe it.

      Obviously on the return ride from the hospital, Serena sat next to her husband, and a plastic handle from an infant car seat protruded from the center back seat. As they passed, Andrew stopped and rolled down his car window. Charity pressed her foot to the brake and hit the automatic window button.

      A head full of dark curls suddenly pressed up against the back of Andrew’s seat, Tessa’s tiny hand waving madly through the crack between the door-frame and the headrest. “Hi, Miss Charity. We have a new baby brother.”

      Teaching the Tiny Tot Sunday school class did have its advantages, like getting to know sweet little kids like this one. “That’s great, Tessa. I heard you’re a big sister. Boy, that’s an important job.”

      “It sure is,” the kindergartner announced and sat back to fuss over the bundle in the car seat.

      Andrew shook his head, his grin so big his cheeks had to ache. “Are you having a good holiday, Charity?”

      “Not as good as yours, having your family home again.” Charity leaned forward so she could see the youth minister’s wife. “Welcome home, Serena. I bet you’re glad to be back.” It was surprising how much easier it was to have a friendly conversation with the other woman after having served as her nurse. Until now, they’d been polite but not overly friendly.

      “I’m looking forward to having food with flavor in it. The hospital menu was pretty bland, but I guess you already know that,” Serena said just as Seth started fussing from Tessa’s overzealous attention. “Oh, I forgot the sleepless nights. Looking forward to those, too.”

      Charity laughed with her. Not that she wouldn’t mind walking the floors a few hours with her own colicky newborn, but she refused to be envious today. It only exhausted her. “Let me know if you need anything,” she said and found that she meant it.

      With a few waves and an increasing volume of newborn wails, the Westins drove past to park near the old barn behind the house. Charity continued out of the drive, her thoughts still on the family climbing out of the small car.

      The Westins had given her an idea. Sure, she needed to continue her mission to bring Rick to church, but she shouldn’t focus her ministry so singularly. There were plenty of other needs in the church she could address as well. The Westins might appreciate some help in adapting to life with their new baby, and Tessa probably needed a little extra attention right now because of her changed status in the family.

      That was it. If she was busy ministering to several church families, she would be much too preoccupied to let her thoughts focus on one brooding man. The plan seemed pretty good, but for some reason, it still didn’t allow her to relax. In theory, it sounded perfect, but she worried it would fail woefully in practice.