Page 25 of The Friend Game

So, it’s a win-win.

Heart check.

“I’ve never seen him preach before,” I tell Belinda, hoping she’ll interpret my nervous energy to be about that rather than the secret crush I’m harboring for him. When I met Belinda on Monday I learned that she’s a recent empty nester with a penchant for romance novels. Consequently, she took an immediate interest in my personal life. One of the first things she said to me was, “Now that my youngest is off to college, I’ll have to live vicariously through you, Hannah. Tell me, are you dating anyone? And if not, can I set you up with someone? My chiropractor is single and looks just like the model on the cover of the last Becky Wade romance I read.”

She’s a regular Emma Woodhouse.

“Oh, Pastor Abbott is quite the speaker,” Belinda gushes as we exit my classroom. “And so handsome. Don’t you think he’s handsome, Hannah?”

“Uh,” I begin uncertainly, because, duh—yes, but I’m not telling her that.

“Oh, of course you do,” Belinda says with a laugh. “He looks just like the hero of the last Courtney Walsh book I read.” She lets out another merry laugh. “Of course, I won’t try and set you upwith him, even if he is handsome as a soldier off to war.”

At first her kooky expression makes me grin, then her words sink in. “What? Why not?” I ask before I can stop myself. “Not that I’m interested,” I lie quickly, “just curious.”

“Oh, honey,” Belinda pats me on the shoulder, “don’t worry, it’s nothing personal. It’s just Pastor Abbott signed a contract when he started working here last March. He agreed to stay single his first year here so he could focus on the church and school.”

I stop in my tracks. “What? Is that typical for a pastor?”

“I don’t believe so.” Belinda hasn’t noticed my frozen state, and I hurry to catch up, not wanting to miss what she’s saying. “Some members of our congregation,” she sniffs in disapproval, “seemed to feel that he was too young to be lead pastor and was being shown favoritism because of his connection to the principal. They worried he wasn’t mature enough to lead our church and that he’d get distracted by the things of this world—” she looks me up and down as she specifies, “meaning a woman—and then not perform his duties well.” She snorts. “Very Jane Austen, the lot of them: it’s a truth universally acknowledged that a single man must be in want of a wife, and all of that hoopla-do.”

I’m so worked up about this new development in my relationship with Luke (I know, I know I'm using the word relationship a bit liberally here) that I don’t bother defending Jane Austen by pointing out that she was making a social commentary when she said that, not necessarily agreeing with the words.

“Of course, they used Paul’s letters to back their stance,” she continues sagely. “And don’t misunderstand me, I know Paul’s words on marriage hold a lot of wisdom, but he also said himself it’s better to marry than burn with passion. That’s why my Reggie and I got married. We were burning with passion.” She shows no signs of embarrassment about having just informed me of her irrepressible lust, so I choose to breeze past it and hope I never meet Reggie.

“And Lu-uh, Pastor Abbott,” I correct quickly, “was just okay with agreeing to their terms?”

“He said he understood where they were coming from.” Belinda shrugs. “From what I've observed, he’s not one for making waves. Very easy going, that one. The only time I’ve seen him put his foot down was when the board of trustees here at the school tried to reject his proposal to take on more scholarship students.” Belinda leans in close. “I myself am not a board member, but I heard from my good friend Grace Ann that even Lexie Stone looked scared at the end of the speech he gave tothem. And I also heard,” there’s a twinkle in Belinda’s eyes now, “that each one of the board members donated a hefty sum to the scholarship fund that very night. We were able to offer an additional five full ride scholarships this year thanks to Pastor Abbott.”

Well, isn’t that nice. More attractive philanthropy from the man I apparently can’t date until March. March is four months away. Four. That’s a long time. Which is fine. Obviously. Because I am not in the market for a boyfriend.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

“Wow, I think that’s great,” I tell Belinda, proud of myself for playing it so cool. Belinda is completely oblivious to my crush on Luke.

Myformercrush, I should say. I’ve wisely decided to move on based on this new information about Luke having to stay single.

“Yes, it is.” She nods. We’ve reached the door to the chapel now, so I pull it open and let Belinda lead the way inside. “It’s only four months, sweetie,” she says as she breezes past me, stopping midway to pat me twice on the cheek. “I’m sure he’s worth the wait.”

My eyes land on the man in question. He’s walking towards the stage, and it’s like he’s some sort of rock star. Kids are reaching over two and even three seats to stick their hand out for a half five from him. And he doesn’t miss a single one.

My heart squeezes in my chest.

Wrong on two counts then.

Belinda is definitely onto me.

And there’s absolutely nothing former about my crush.

***

“He was just so dynamic,” I say to Jill later that night as I help her set the table for dinner. “So engaging.”

Jill laughs. “ Yes, Pastor Abbott is an excellent sermonist, though to be fair you’re also used to Pastor Jennings who tends to lose his train of thought a lot these days.”

She’s not wrong. The pastor where I attend church with my parents does have a tendency to jump from talking about Jesus to talking about his most recent visit to his nephrologist. Poor guy has had four kidney stones this year alone. And I’ve heard sermons about each one of those kidney stones.

“Plus there’s your crush on him coloring your opinion all rosy,” Jill adds with a smirk.

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