Courting Hope. Jenna Mindel

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СКАЧАТЬ Hope. He’s cute.” Shannon had been trying to fix her up since they’d met. “Is he single?”

      Hope shrugged. “He’s not married.”

      “Girlfriend?”

      “I don’t know.” Hope didn’t care to know.

      Really, she didn’t.

      “We’ll have to find out.” Shannon stood. “Come on, introduce me.”

      Again, Hope shook her head. “Look, I grew up with him. I’m not interested, so you can forget whatever you’re thinking.”

      Shannon looked at Sinclair and then at her. “Hmm. So you two have a history. This should be very interesting!”

      * * *

      The next day, Sinclair slumped in the kitchen after polishing off an evening snack. The house belonged to his sister, Eva, now, and she shared the place with her friend Beth. And his parents were staying through the summer. It was pretty spacious for an old farmhouse, but felt cramped. Sinclair wanted a place of his own. He needed to be by himself. After three years of living in crowded staff quarters for the orphanage school in Haiti, Sinclair longed for quiet. When things settled down, he’d look for something.

      He ran his thumbnail along a groove in the old oak kitchen table where he’d eaten hundreds of meals as a kid. Meeting the congregation had not gone as planned. They seemed like a warm group of people. But after his message had landed with a wet-bag-of-cement thud, he wondered if he’d gotten his calling all wrong.

      “You look tired, Sinclair. How was your first midweek service?” His mom rubbed his shoulders.

      He was glad his parents hadn’t been there to witness his failure. “I’ve had better.”

      “Want to talk about it?”

      He shrugged.

      His staff didn’t take him seriously. Hope spoke to him only when necessary, and Shannon, the receptionist, acted like she knew something he didn’t. Walt, the maintenance guy, thought he was too young, and tonight he’d blown his first message delivered from the pulpit. Three days into his first week as a pastor, and the job was nothing like he’d expected.

      Wednesday night services were less formal than Sunday, so he’d thought he could be more...honest. He’d definitely made an impression, but if the blank stares were any indication, not the kind he’d wanted.

      Had his congregation missed the whole point of his tales of Haiti? He might have driven it home too hard that they had so much while the people he’d served in Haiti had next to nothing. He’d probably been too graphic, but folks should know the truth.

      With a sigh, he confessed, “I think I shocked a few people tonight.”

      Rose Marsh slid into the seat across from him. “Maybe they need to be shocked. It’s never a good thing to get too comfortable in the pew.”

      He smiled at his mom. At only five foot two, she was a powerhouse of opinion who didn’t believe in beating around the bush. She didn’t stand for sulking, either. “Maybe you’re right.”

      “You know I am.” His mom flashed him a cocky grin. “I understand Hope Petersen works with you.”

      Sinclair lifted an eyebrow. He hadn’t told anyone in his family. “How do you know?”

      “Judy Graves. I ran into her at the grocery store earlier this week. How’s that going?”

      He shrugged again. Hope did her job well. At the welcome reception for him after the service, people had swarmed around her. She had that effect on him, too—drawing his attention like a honeybee to its hive.

      “Sinclair?” His mom had an amused look on her face.

      “It’s a little rough around the edges, but we’ll work through it.”

      “Maybe you should bring her to Adam and Eva’s engagement party.”

      As if she’d go. “I don’t think so.”

      His mom leaned forward. “She used to have quite a crush on you, you know.”

      That was news to him. Hope used to laugh at his many breakups with girls and say she wouldn’t wish him on her worst enemy. “Hope? No way. I drove her nuts. Besides, Ryan might have a hard time with that. Too many memories.”

      His mom grasped his hand. “It might be good for Ryan to see Hope. It’s time he moved on. Sara’s been gone a long time now.”

      Sinclair understood why his brother had shut down. He functioned like part of him was missing—his better half. Sara Petersen had been a lighthearted soul who looked for fun in everything she did. From the time they were teens in the same youth group, Sara had drawn out his serious younger brother and made Ryan laugh like no one else could. The two had dated for years. When she’d died they were engaged, but they might as well have been married. They’d been inseparable.

      “I don’t know, Mom. I can’t even talk to him anymore.”

      She patted his hand. “You weren’t here when he needed you, son. Ryan won’t let that go.”

      “Why can’t he see that I was needed in Haiti, especially after the earthquake?” Sinclair had run away by going on a church mission trip a week after Sara’s funeral. Once he’d been in Haiti and seen the needs of the orphanage school, he’d stayed. Ryan hadn’t forgiven him for it.

      “Don’t give up on him. Ryan needs you even if he won’t admit it. God has brought you home where you belong, Sinclair. Just hang in there.”

      “Thanks, Mom.”

      He didn’t feel like he belonged here, not in his childhood home at least. God had brought him back, that much he knew. But the time spent in Haiti, coupled with the reason he’d gone there, made it hard to feel comfortable anywhere.

      * * *

      “Hope, can you come into my office?” Sinclair looked troubled the next morning as he filled his coffee cup.

      “One sec.” Hope hit Save on her computer.

      He returned to his office, which was across a small corridor. Hope could see him from her desk, and she’d caught his eye several times that week without meaning to.

      Sinclair had given her an interesting sermon to outline for Sunday. He wanted copies stuffed into the bulletins passed out before the service. So far, she was impressed by his preparation. Sinclair must have finally left behind his bad habit of procrastinating on studying until the last minute.

      Shannon wiggled her eyebrows. “Sounds serious.”

      “Please stop.” Hope stood and headed for the pastoral office.

      She couldn’t block the unease that crawled up her spine with each step she took. What could Sinclair want? They’d pretty much kept their distance the past few days.

      Leaning against the doorway of his СКАЧАТЬ