Bluegrass Courtship (11 page)

It was supposed to be a joke to break the tension.

It wasn't, and it didn't.

D
oc Walsh came by the hospital emergency room where Janet and Annie were waiting with Kevin after his leg had been cast. Having the local doctor treat Kevin had been her mom's doing. Lexington General Hospital was a fine institution, but Bebe Bishop didn't trust any hospital unless Doc Walsh was there to supervise. “You made of rubber or somethin'?” the white-haired doctor asked as he glanced over Kevin's chart.

Kevin managed something between a smile and a wince. “Could be.”

Doc Walsh peered over the top of his thick glasses. “Most people I know would have come out of a fall like that with a lot more than broken bones.”

“Well,” Kevin offered, “I hurt everywhere.”

“You'll have a mighty nice collection of bruises tomorrow, that's for sure.” He signed off on some papers that would allow him to go home to the bed and breakfast where Annie was also staying—the narrow confines of the bus were off-limits for two days at least, until Kevin was allowed
onto his foot with the aid of crutches. If Janet knew her mother, Bebe already had a full shift of volunteers scheduled to watch over Kevin while he healed. Maybe even keep him in casseroles until he was fifty—the show's catering or the fact that the bed and breakfast could easily feed him wouldn't even be taken into consideration.

“Blue goes nice with green,” Annie tried to tease, but her tense voice gave her away. “You always said you thought you looked good in blue.”

“
You
said I looked good in blue,” Kevin corrected, “and I think bruises are more of a purple than blue. And you already know how I feel about purple.”

Janet gave a puzzled look.

Annie smirked. “Nothing. Just an argument we were having yesterday over Alphco's plants.”

“Hello there, Bebe.” Doc Walsh closed the file and handed the papers back to the nurse. Janet was so busy trying to figure out the series of looks passing between Kevin and Annie that she hadn't even seen her mother walk in. “You got things all set to transport our guest out to the B and B?”

Janet had asked her mom to look around for a bigger car to bring Kevin back from the hospital. Her Jeep was not exactly conducive to transporting a tall bruised man with a leg in plaster.

“Sandy Burnside's in the parking lot with her Cadillac. You could practically camp out in the backseat of that thing.”

“Look,” said Annie, taking Janet's elbow, “you've done more than enough already. I'll see to getting Kevin settled in at the B and B. We've hijacked enough of your afternoon. He and I have to go over what we're going to do about the prayer meeting tonight, anyway.”

“The prayer meeting!” Bebe exclaimed. “Well of course
we'll have it, even if we have to run it ourselves. After all, we've got to pray for Kevin's leg now.”

 

Tell me what to say.

It was an impulsive cry for help.

It was also the first prayer Janet had said in years. Annie, oblivious to the argument Janet had with Drew before he left, had no idea what she was asking when she gave Janet Drew's cell phone number and asked her to call him. Drew answered on the first ring. “Drew, it's Janet.”

There was a moment of surprised silence before he said, “How is he? He's okay, isn't he?”

“He'll be okay. They've set the broken leg and done some other things for the broken ribs. All things considered, he's amazingly intact. I mean, for someone who tumbled off a roof.” Janet tried to focus on assuring Drew and ignore how awkward this felt given how they'd left things. “He's banged up, but according to Doc Walsh it's mostly bruises except for the leg and ribs. Oh, and I think one finger, too.”

“Ring finger, left hand. Annie sends detailed updates on the hour.” She heard him sigh. “How is she doing?”

Janet sank down onto a bench outside the hospital entrance. Now that they were talking, she was tired all of a sudden. “Worried, but efficient. Stress kicks her organizational skills into overdrive. She's got things under control.”

There was a long pause on the other end of the phone. “I should have been there.” His tone was almost as if he was lecturing himself, as if he'd forgotten she was still on the line.

Janet let out the breath she hadn't even realized she'd been holding. “He's going to be okay. He feels like a jerk, if that helps. He's terrified of what you'll do to him when you get back.”

“It's not his fault. It's my job to watch out for these people.” He groaned. “I hate that I can't get back sooner. There's a jet taking off and landing here every eight seconds, and I can't get myself to Kentucky for another four hours? That's crazy.”

He sounded on the verge of his boiling point. Considering what he was supposed to be doing out there, Janet doubted he was anything more than a ticking time bomb at any of those meetings. Charlie had his hands full. She tried humor. “You're just used to living in the center of the universe, that's all.”

Another long pause. This is why she tried to talk Annie out of making her call Drew—this wasn't helping at all. She heard Drew mumble on the other end of the line and she imagined him pacing the sidewalk outside a trendy Los Angeles restaurant. The guy could barely sit still under ordinary conditions—he must be like a caged animal right now.
Hey, God, are You listening? I need help here.
“Think of it this way,” she started in, not really knowing where she was heading. “God must have something He needs you to do in L.A. over the next four hours. I can't think of any other reason the Lord of the Universe wouldn't be clearing the way for you to get back to us sooner than that. There's just got to be something keeping you there.”

No one was more surprised at her comments than Janet herself. She wasn't used to God popping up in her conversations—or prayers or thoughts—anymore. For as long as she'd turned her back on Him, God was under no obligation toward any prayer of hers.

Still, Drew's tone changed completely. “You're right. God is still in control. Kevin already has loads of people praying for him, with more to come after tonight's meeting.
It's covered. I need to remember that God's got it covered. You know, Janet, you got a lot of spiritual wisdom for someone who claims she doesn't do church.”

If Janet managed to use godly wisdom to keep one highly worried absent friend from losing it, that didn't make her religious again. She was just speaking in his dialect. Still, the notion that God had given her the right words wiggled its way uncomfortably under her skin. She wasn't sure she was ready to find her way back to faith. “Go be smooth and charming and all that Hollywood stuff. Eat tiny organic salads with powerful people in sunglasses or whatever it is y'all do out there in TV land.”

Drew gave a soft laugh. “The salads
are
tiny out here. I'd give anything for a steak, mashed potatoes and pie from Deacon's right now. I just had some purple juice smoothie thing to drink with lunch. And just
try
to get a normal cup of coffee out here.”

He sounded better already. “When does your flight get in?”

“Ten-fifteen.”

“I'll pick you up at the airport.” Again, it jumped out of her mouth unbidden. Where had that come from? Hadn't their last conversation been an argument? Besides, he had people for that sort of thing, he didn't need her for it. “We…um…Deacon's is open late tonight,” she backpedaled, “so we can swing by and feed you on your way back to the bus. Kevin's staying at the bed and breakfast where Annie is so people can look after him until he's up and around again.” Now she was practically running on at the mouth.

“Man, I'd like that.” She heard him fumble with the phone. “Hang on, I've got the flight number here somewhere…flight 2156 touching down at ten-fifteen.”

“I'll be there.”

“I'll be glad.” There was a gaping silence as he realized what he just said. “Um…glad to get out of here,” Drew added, but it was a poor cover-up neither of them believed.

Janet said goodbye quickly and snapped her phone shut, sinking onto the bench again.

He felt it. Like it or not, she had unfinished business with Drew Downing. Too much of it.

 

Janet bumbled through the next few hours, checking in with Annie at the bus and with her mom at the bed and breakfast. Kevin now had an army of church volunteers assembled to nurse him back to health. Annie's composure was unraveling as she realized the prayer meeting now fell solely on her shoulders. When Janet suggested she just cancel the thing given the circumstances, Annie's jaw dropped. “We couldn't!”

“Why not?” Janet retorted. “People can pray anywhere, right? It doesn't need to be a group activity—just tell people to pray for Kevin and the project on their own tonight.”

“Not in a million years.” Annie said. “Even if Drew wouldn't have my hide—which he would—I'd
want
to gather people to pray when things go wrong. That's the best time to gather people to pray.” She sank back against the bus. “I just hate the thought of getting in front of that microphone. I'll get Jeremy to do it.”

Janet leaned back against the bus with her. The woman looked petrified, and Janet wanted to help any way she could. “So don't use a mic. Just have people gather like you said. Someone'll start singing if the church choir shows up again anyway. You don't need to make a production of it if that's driving you crazy.”

Annie blinked at her. “You're right. There's always
more than one way to do a prayer meeting. Why didn't I think of that?”

Janet had to smile. “You would have, just as soon as you caught your breath.”

“You should come.” It wasn't a manipulative invitation the way Annie said it—it was just a heartfelt statement from one exhausted person to another.

“Not really my thing,” Janet said. “Mom'll be there, though. And the whole rest of the church—I mean those that aren't on Kevin nurse duty.”

Annie's eyes fell shut and she let her head fall back against the bus wall. “Praise God he's all right. It could have been so much worse. I don't know what I'd do without him.”

As Janet finished up with Annie and said good-night, she wondered if Drew realized what was going on between Annie and Kevin. The looks, the fighting. Janet wondered if even they realized how much they cared for each other yet. She caught herself gazing heavenward and asking “What are You up to?” And then she shook herself because it was something she would have done years ago.

“N
o offense, but you look awful.” Drew had practically shuffled toward Janet, looking drawn and frazzled. Even though it was early for an insomniac like him, he looked like he'd fall asleep the minute he got in the car.

“Longest day of my life. Literally, with the time change and all. I sure hope it was worth it.” He slung his jacket over one shoulder and began walking toward the airport exit. “What a blessing not to have to wait for baggage. Get me outta here.”

“Did you get what you went for?”

If there was anything between them, he was too tired to show it. Maybe she'd imagined what passed between them when he said how much he was looking forward to seeing her. “I don't know how Charlie does it,” he said, shaking his head. “All that negotiating is exhausting. I feel like I ran a marathon and all I did all day was sit around tables talking. How'd the prayer meeting go?” he asked, evidently too wiped out to remember she didn't go to those things.

“Don't know. Didn't hear sirens going off or the bus ex
ploding or angry mobs running through town, so I suppose it went okay. Annie was going to ditch the microphone and lights last time I talked to her, and just have everybody pray. She was too worried about Kevin to do much else.”

“I can't believe he got hurt. But he sounds like he'll be okay. I talked to him for a few minutes earlier. He sounds like a guy on large doses of painkillers, but he still sounds like Kevin. He was actually more worried about Annie and the prayer meeting.” They had reached the Jeep and he stopped to open the door for Janet. “Those two don't trust each other for nothing.”

Janet slid behind the wheel. “You don't see it, do you?”

He climbed into the passenger seat. “See what? My two top teammates scratching each other's eyes out at every opportunity?”

Janet stared at him, narrowing her eyes in disbelief. If even she, who didn't pretend to be any expert at interpersonal relations, caught on to what was going on between Kevin and Annie, how could Mr. Insightful over there miss it by a mile? “Drew,” she began, “they're nuts about each other.”

Drew chuckled like she'd made a clever joke. “No way.”

“How can you not see it? She's completely fallen for him, and I'm pretty sure he's fallen for her. You should have seen them at the hospital. I think even Doc Walsh could see it, and he's pretty clueless in that regard.”

Drew's eyes popped wide open. “No! Annie? And Kevin!”

Janet nodded. “You've got an office-bus-whatever romance on your hands the moment they figure it out for themselves. Which, the way they were looking at each other, should be any second now.” She checked her watch. “Maybe even already. He is under heavy medication and now they're under the same roof.”

“Nah.”

She pointed a finger at him as she turned onto the highway toward Middleburg. “I'm telling you. Plain as day.”

Drew sat back and ran his hand through his hair. “He did say something odd to me about how she held his hand in the E.R.” He fell silent for a moment, and she guessed he was taking a mental inventory of all the times he'd seen the two of them together. “He said something to me about her on the bus the other day. I called her ‘my kid sister' and he said ‘she's not' in the weirdest way.” She caught Drew staring at her out of the corner of her eye as she drove. “I can't believe it, but I think you're right. Good grief, I think you might be right. Never in a million years would I have put those two together.”

Why had she brought up the subject of Kevin and Annie's budding romance? Could there be a less appropriate topic of conversation for her and Drew Downing? “Maybe I should just take you back to the bus.”

“Oh, no,” he moaned, “please get me to some real food. If I don't find some actual meat in the next hour I'll dissolve into a pile of tofu.”

She laughed as they were stopped at a red light. “I know just where to take you. There's a great place just outside of Lexington. You haven't lived until you've had a burger from the Parkette Drive-In.”

“A drive-in. That sounds like heaven right now. We could pick up something for Kevin, too. He'll be starving when he wakes up off his painkillers and that man does love his cheeseburgers.”

She eyed him. “I doubt it will stay warm 'til he gets it.”

He grinned. “I doubt he'll care. I'm too desperate to care.” He made a face like a dying soldier crawling across
a battlefield. “Must…have…real…food.” He twitched and fell theatrically against the console between the seats. “Fried things…red meat…soda…”

“We don't call it ‘soda' out here, Mister.” She reached out to swat him away, but he caught her hand for just a second before releasing it.

“Look, I'm sorry for how we left things. Really,” he said, looking like he left much more unsaid. She felt his touch tingle all the way up her arm even when she planted both hands on the steering wheel and glued her eyes to the road. Still, she could feel him looking at her.

 

Drew polished off the last of his french fries and leaned back, exhausted but supremely satisfied by the down-home meal. The Parkette was just what he needed, one of those good old-fashioned tray-on-the-window drive-through burger joints that were a throwback to the fifties. The last twenty minutes felt like one giant exhale, letting out all the tension of the flight and Kevin's injury and those endless L.A. meetings. “Thank you so much. I needed this.”

She chuckled, waving a fry at him. “Need this? No one needs this. I'm not even sure you can call it nutrition—” she popped the fry into her mouth and closed her eyes “—but it sure hits the spot sometimes.”

Drew sighed behind a mouthful of burger. “You can't find a burger like this in L.A.”

“They do great burgers, but the fish box is their real specialty. Might be more grease, but more pleasure for sure.” She watched him close his eyes and sink down in the passenger seat.

“I spent half the flight thanking God for protecting Kevin. It could have been so much worse. Thank God.”

That was the thing about Drew. Other people threw phrases like “thank God” into their language so casually. When Drew said “thank God,” that's
exactly
what he meant. It wasn't artifice. Drew could see God in everything. There was a time when she was like that.

Tony could take a giant obstacle and make it look like the perfect opportunity for God to show off His mighty power.

It was humiliating to have been so fooled. She'd managed, up until Drew Downing, to keep her skepticism of such leaders firmly in place, her guard firmly up. She didn't know what to do about the fact that she was beginning to believe Drew Downing when he spoke of passionate ideals. She found it very scary territory.

“I spent the other half of the flight realizing I owed you an apology,” Drew went on. “I should have told you about the change to the roof differently.”

“I don't think you should have changed it at all,” she replied, and she watched him pull in a breath to start in on a defense. “But can we not get into that right now? Let's just leave it at ‘apology accepted' for tonight.”

“Vern told me you used to go to the church. He told me I had to ask you why you didn't anymore. What happened, Janet?”

She took a deep breath. It probably was time to let Drew know her history—but she'd leave out her personal relationship with Tony. It was enough that Drew would know why she no longer felt an allegiance to the church. “Tony Donalds happened. Actually, Tony's ministry happened—or never happened, but I'm getting ahead of myself.”

She stole a look at Drew, to gauge his response, but he simply settled in against the seat to listen. “He was a dy
namic guy, and the son of our pastor at the time. Girls joined the youth group just to be around him. Captain of the football team, big college career. People loved him. One of those natural-born leaders you just know is going to go places. So after college, it seemed natural that he'd launch into mission leadership somewhere. Off he went to raise mission support for this dynamic youth program he was going to open out East. Everyone at our church knew he'd succeed. We were praying for him, getting ready for him to come home long enough for us send him off on a great ministry.” She stopped, taking a breath under the excuse of a sip of her milkshake. Middleburg was getting ready to send them off—she and Tony as a couple—but she wasn't going to go into that. Drew didn't need to know that her fall from faith included a first-class heartbreak.

“Go on,” Drew said quietly.

“He said he didn't want to raise support from around here because he knew God would send him other donors, and we believed him. Tony was that kind of guy. You believed whatever he said.” She slipped her shake back into the Jeep's cupholder. “I suppose it should have been the first red flag, but no one was looking for red flags. We were too busy being amazed and impressed.” She looked up, and Drew had gone completely still, his gaze locked on her. “Tony's ministry was all bright lights and big plans,” she continued, “but that was all he was.” She looked down for a moment, unable to say this part with Drew's eyes on her. “Tony wouldn't raise money in Middleburg because some part of him couldn't stomach stealing from his own. So he stole from other people. Took every cent he'd raised for his ministry and disappeared. We didn't make it public—what was the point in destroying everyone's faith? Why spread the pain around?
It was bad enough for those of us who knew. Nothing shoots a hole in someone's faith like a big fat case of criminal fraud to your own church by your own pastor's son.”

“Wow. I had no idea. I'm sorry.”

That's what the few people who knew always said. They'd kept it quiet for just that reason—no one could change what happened anyway. To her or to Middleburg Community Church.

 

Drew stared at Janet. What she'd told him explained so much. And she'd finally told him, which meant she was turning back toward God in tiny degrees she probably didn't even recognize herself. That ignited his enthusiasm to nudge her further—but knowing her disillusionment, he was going to have to be incredibly careful about that. As much as he wanted to prove to Janet that one man's faults didn't condemn an entire faith, he knew it'd be best if he left her alone. Trouble was, Drew wasn't sure he could. She pulled a determination out of him that was different than other hostiles. He felt a sort of burden for her that went beyond the theological. Beyond the professional. His high-stress time in L.A. had only heightened his awareness of it. When he'd walked off the plane and seen her there, his whole being registered the most surprising sense of relief that she'd still talk to him.

At first he put it down to needing to get back to the work site, needing to make sure Kevin was okay. But as they sat in her car, Drew realized a huge part of his tension was the need to put things right between them. Between her and the church. To heal her. To just plain be
near
her. And that was dangerous indeed. He needed to be very, very careful about the two of them. And late at night, in a dark car with a pretty girl, was a mighty difficult place to be careful.

I'm a mess, Lord. Do something.

As if she'd heard his silent prayer, Janet said, “It's late,” and started the engine to head toward town.