Page 37 of There I Find Rest

She could sell it and be set for life. Apparently there were some regulations going into place further south on the beach, which made the unrestricted land by Strawberry Sands much more appealing to investors, hence increasing its value.

He wasn’t going to keep that information from her, he just wasn’t going to text it to her.

They’d talk about it on the way to church in the morning perhaps.

In the meantime, he’d been too restless to settle down to sleep, so he’d gone down to the stable and worked on replacing some of the loose boards and constructing a new birthing stall.

There was plenty of room that hadn’t been used, and they had checked out the barn that sat a little ways away and decided it would be perfectly fine for hay storage, especially since it was one quarter full of hay.

Because of that, they decided a birthing stall would be a good addition.

He’d downloaded some books onto his reading app and figured he’d brush up on some of the things that he learned about horses when he was younger.

He’d been thinking about which book he wanted to start reading when a voice at the door startled him.

“Are you open for visitors?” the voice said.

Davis looked up to see a man who seemed to be about his age, perhaps slightly less tall, but with wide shoulders and a narrow waist, although his eyes were gentle and kind.

“Pastor?” Davis said, squinting. He hadn’t seen Pastor out of church much at all, and the man looked different when he was wearing jeans and boots and a hat.

“You recognized me through my disguise,” Pastor said.

Davis laughed. “Are you sure you don’t wear your disguise on Sundays?”

“I guess it could be that. But I suppose both of them are the real me. I know it’s kind of odd to think of a pastor as a real person. At least I had trouble with that before I became one myself.”

“Yeah. I suppose. I guess we have a tendency to think that the pastor has all the answers and has his life together. That he doesn’t need to work or just floats around eating manna all day or something.” Davis snapped the measuring tape back on his waist and shoved his pencil back behind his ear.

Pastor laughed and nodded. “That’s about what I get.” He nodded at the board Davis held. “I used to work for a construction company. I can give you a hand if you want me to.”

“Really? It’d sure be easier to put these boards up if I had someone to hold the other end.”

“Not a problem. I can hold boards.”

Davis figured that was an understatement, because if Pastor worked for a construction company, he could probably do a whole lot more than that.

“I heard the daughter of the woman who owns this house is here.”

That probably wasn’t all Pastor had heard, but he waited until he had used his skill saw on the board where he’d marked before he answered him.

“You heard correctly. I suppose you heard that she’s pregnant with my child?” He figured he might as well face the issue head-on. That would be the thing he would least want to tell the pastor, so it probably ought to be the thing he first told him.

“Actually, no, I hadn’t heard that.”

“And I’m not married to her.” He added that just for good measure.

“You don’t have to confess anything to me,” Pastor said, grabbing the other end of the board and following Davis as he walked to the stall to put it on top of the first five boards that had already started to form the wall for the stall that he was building.

“I just wanted to be sure that we started out straight. I didn’t want to feel like I had to hide anything, and sometimes in conversation, it’s harder to correct misconceptions and admit the truth, if someone makes the wrong assumption.”

“It makes things less awkward to start with the hard stuff. I understand what you’re saying. Still, your personal life is between you and the Lord. I’m not here to judge you.”

“Of course not. But you are here to tell me if I’m heading down the wrong path, because God doesn’t wink at sin, and I know you don’t either.”

“So you’ve been listening to the sermons I’ve been preaching. Seems like half the time I look out, it seems like everyone is staring off into space somewhere.”

“I do listen. They’ve made a difference in my life for sure. I mean, I’d already decided to turn it around when I came here, but listening to you, knowing everything you say comes straight from the Bible, has been a huge part of me getting things in my life right. I still have a ways to go.”

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