Page 34 of Sin With Me

“You’re doing a wonderful job, though. You’re always polite and non-judgmental.”

Would he mention my confessions? He’d listened to them a couple of times, but never judged me, not even when I told him that I’d masturbated.

“Once you’ve heard one sin, you’ve heard them all.” He turned around and I followed him to the frontdoor.

“But you’re supposed to listen to them individually.”

“I didn’t say I don’t.”

I felt my cheeks heat. If he did hear them, then he was truly a wonderful priest because he’d never made me feel inadequate.

“Kate, everyone sins. Includingme.”

“I bet you don’t sin as much as Ido.”

Oh, that did not come out the way it was supposed to and I didn’t mean to use such sultry voice either. What was wrong withme?

He thought for a moment before saying, “I’m not going to bet on our sins, but you’d be surprised what goes on in myhead.”

Now each time I saw him, I’d be wondering about his thoughts and I’d pretend that they were all naughty. Father Cameron became more enticing with each passing day. There was unspoken danger about him, but when he wore that collar around his neck I feltsafe.

“Right, well, I’ll pray that Father John gets better, then.”

“Of course. And even if he doesn’t, I’m sure your prayers are heard. Don’t ever think otherwise.”

“Thank you, Father Cameron.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Father Cameron?”

“Yes?”

“Is there anything else you needed?”

He searched through his memory for a moment. “I was wondering if you know where Father John stores parishioner information.”

“Oh, there are cabinets in the third room past the office.”

“No, I’ve gone through those. I’m talking about older documents, ones that go back to the early nineteen hundreds.”

“I didn’t think our church was thatold.”

“It is. The settlement in these areas was mainly Christians from the south.”

“Are you looking for someone in particular?” I asked. “Because I’m pretty sure there are old records in the tower.”

“The tower?”

“The church tower. Father John has the keys. I can get them foryou.”

“That would be great. I should change before Mrs. Windsor comes for her afternoon prayer. She may go into labor if she sees me dressed likethis.”

I could only imagine that as one orgasmic birth. She was one of the other five pregnant woman in Pace who could barely keep her belly upright and was past due. I closed the door behind Father John and went back to the kitchen. Looking at that broken faucet, which moments ago was still leaking water, and swept floors, I realized I’d forgotten how nice it was to have a man around the house. Since Mom’s heart diagnosis, I hadn’t found much time to date, and after the third jerk who didn’t understand what family meant, I gave up. Father Cameron was a family man, though, both figuratively and literally. Though he spoke little about his, when he did, it was from the heart. The entire parish looked up to him as if to a father figure. I bet he didn’t even know how much he meant to these people.

I quickly put the kettle on and made honey lemon tea. I grabbed my phone, stuffed it into my jeans pocket, and went to seek out Father John. When I knocked on his door with a fresh cup of tea, he was hawking up another lungful.

“Father John? I brought you sometea.”

---