Bluegrass Courtship. Allie Pleiter

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      The bus was a haven of quiet after the noise of the construction site and Drew’s back and forth conversation with Janet. He wasn’t sure he’d get her to attend the meeting, even if it was about installing the full-scale rainwater system that had been her idea. He knew that if he was going to bring her around he’d have to get her on-site as much as possible. And she wasn’t coming around easy, either. She was fighting it every step of the way. He wondered what could be behind such powerful resistance.

      Drew poured himself a cup of coffee and let his body fall onto the couch. He’d been up since five this morning, and it’d be after ten when things wound down at the church, now that they had a set of floodlights put up. Once the drywall went up later in the week, there’d be people in that preschool around the clock. He took a few sips of coffee and let his head fall back against the cushions. This job had turned him into a master power-napper, and he’d come to recognize when it was time to shut his body down for a stretch of time. Kevin once told a health magazine that Drew Downing got more sleep in a twenty-minute nap than most people got all night. Things had quieted down for the afternoon, and he was feeling good about getting Janet’s participation in the meeting, so now seemed the perfect time for the luxury of a snooze.

      As he lay there, waiting for sleep to come, his thoughts remained on Janet. She wasn’t a great physical beauty, although her face had feminine, delicate lines. Her short hair suited those memorable cheekbones and enormous brown eyes. There was a clean strength to her appearance, a no-nonsense groundedness to the way she carried herself. If she had a lean or curvy figure, it was hard to tell under those overalls she always wore. As he almost fell asleep, he found himself wondering what she’d look like in a yellow sundress.

      Which thrust his eyes wide open. Maybe he needed more sleep than he thought. He usually wasn’t the kind to let a woman turn his head on the job.

      But it wasn’t like that. Not that he didn’t find her attractive in an innocent, Audrey Hepburn kind of way, but it was more than that. He admired her.

      Which was funny, because really, the thing he most admired about her was how unimpressed she was with him. Janet wasn’t swayed by the tidal wave of excitement Missionnovation brought to a place. She’d been more worried about the safety of her town than the things Missionnovation could do for her store. He’d found those types of unswayed people to be solid and grounded; and she seemed to be—under all that defensiveness. Where had that groundedness—almost a hidden nobleness—come from? She had a strong sense of who she was, yet she seemed selfless, too. Janet Bishop, he guessed, would be the kind of person to make a big donation to a charity, but do it anonymously.

      When you asked Janet a question, you’d get an honest answer, even if it wasn’t the answer you wanted. In the kiss up media world, those kind of people were few and far between.

      What have You got going on with her, Lord? he prayed as he slumped down farther into the couch, sleep starting to overtake him. In his experience, that kind of full-out honesty grew out of some experience with deception. He wondered if that were true with her. Where did all that suspicion come from? Any plans on doing away with some of it while we’re here?

      Why was that his problem? Sure, she was a “hostile,” and that instantly put her on Drew’s radar. But somehow Janet Bishop wasn’t the ordinary “hostile.” With most of the reluctant types, Drew just cared that they liked the show. It was more personal with Janet. Mostly because she was somehow making it personal. While she’d never really voiced it, he got the strong impression that she was not so much suspicious of Missionnovation as she was suspicious of him. Unconvinced of his integrity.

      That was it, wasn’t it? He could handle anyone’s suspicions of the show—he had a thick skin where Missionnovation was concerned—but it was bugging him that Janet Bishop wasn’t willing to take him at his word.

      And that was a sore spot, because he was feeling the squeeze in the integrity department lately. Success was a funny thing in this business. Instead of making things easier, it made things more complicated. Bigger deals had more strings. Success bred expectations of more success. You could mess up when you were small potatoes, and people would just brush themselves off and go on. Trip up when everyone’s watching, and suddenly the mishaps grew harder to put behind you.

      As the projects had met with success and the show had grown over the first three seasons, people began to take notice. Media people had recognized that Missionnovationwas on to something. So it wasn’t new that a network had shown interest. Last season, they’d gotten a solid offer or two, promising visibility, production budgets and backing. But all of them made subtle requests for Drew to “dial down the God.” To use the word faith instead of Christianity—things like that. As far as Drew was concerned, that was nonnegotiable. Missionnovation was about renovating the places where worship happened. And that meant Jesus would be present and accounted for—every episode.

      Drew laid his forearm across his face, shutting out the strong afternoon light that came through the bus window. With Kevin’s music not on, he could hear the birds. It felt like months since he’d been able to lie down and listen to birds. His life was so full of noise lately that some days it was hard to think straight. To listen. He shut his eyes. Keep me on the straight and narrow, Jesus. The view’s getting fuzzy from up here, and I don’t ever want to stray from Your plan for this. Just make it work.

      Make it work…. He prayed over and over as he drifted off.

      Chapter Eight

      Some unknown time later, Drew felt an insistent tapping on his boot. He opened his eyes to find Annie standing there, clipboard in hand. He wasn’t surprised to find a worried look on her face—Annie didn’t wake him up for just anything.

      “Annie, I know that look,” he sighed, pulling himself upright. “Trouble?”

      “Depends on your point of view.”

      Drew rubbed his eyes at the enigmatic answer. “What’s up?”

      “When you didn’t check your e-mail, Charlie sent a fax. Big network meeting next week.”

      Drew sat up straight when he read the fax. “Next week? He knows I don’t leave the site, ever.” He stared at the column of names at the bottom of the fax, listing the people to be at the meeting. Names he didn’t recognize, but titles that indicated they were dealing with HomeBase’s top brass and network heavyweights.

      Drew pulled out his cell phone and hit the speed dial for Charlie’s private line at the California production office.

      Charlie picked up on the first ring. “I knew I’d get your attention with a fax.”

      “What gives? You get all those bigwigs in one place and you make it the week I can’t show up? You sure you can handle all that influence in one room without my supervision?”

      “Bingo, Drew. There’s a lot of power on that list. Three seasons of huge exposure, huge resources. They have schedules that would choke mere mortals like us. You need to be here.”

      Drew didn’t reply. He thought his own schedule was bad enough, but never did understand the subtleties of the network deal—that was Charlie’s territory. It probably took Charlie months to set this thing up.

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