“And as long as it’s not being expanded away from the Lord,” he interrupted her.
“Exactly. But just someone who shows you life beyond what you know. And that’s a good partnership, I think.”
“So you’re saying you’re looking for someone who doesn’t live in Mistletoe Meadows?”
She laughed. “No. Not at all. I mean, I guess I don’t care, and I don’t think I would mind being married to someone who wasn’t from here. But it’d be nice to be married to someone who knows and loves the same things I do.”
“So you do think it’s better to have someone who’s exactly like you?” he said, like he had a gotcha moment with her.
“No. I would be just as happy being married to someone whodidn’t, as long as we shared the most important things. And as long as… I don’t know, I guess you could really be married to anyone as long as they loved the Lord and followed Him.”
“That’s the conclusion that I’ve come to. I mean, I haven’t thought about it a whole lot, but it doesn’t really matter whether they’re from here, or there, or across the world, or whether they’re my complete, total opposite.”
“With that said, arranged marriages should be okay then.”
“I don’t know if I’d go that far,” he said.
They laughed and continued to chat, the feeling of camaraderie and working together warming her heart as it always did when she was with her partner.
All too soon, they were done, and they parted ways, heading back to their respective homes. For some reason, her heart was a lot lighter. Whether it was because she now knew that he was truly unmarried, or whether it was…just the joy of doing wonderful things with someone she admired and respected, she wasn’t sure. But becoming a Secret Saint was one of the best things she’d done in a long time.
Chapter Twenty
Today was one of Roland’s favorite days of the year—the community Christmas tree lighting ceremony.
Roland loved that he had been able to, with the help of his Secret Saint partner, get another tree, so none of the festivities had to be canceled.
“I don’t know who got this tree, but it’s pretty amazing.”
He smiled to himself as he overhead one woman talking to another as they passed him on the sidewalk.
“I think it was the work of the Secret Saint,” another older lady said as they stopped in front of him. He was adjusting the ladder, since he would be hanging decorations from the top of the tree.
Judd had a ladder and was going to do the other side.
There were various people below with boxes of ornaments, and someone would be handing things up to him.
He knew his partner was around here somewhere, and while he wanted to kind of keep an eye out for her, to try to figure out who she was, most of him wanted to just stay anonymous. He wouldn’t appreciate it if she were trying to figure him out, although…maybe there was a part of him that wouldn’t mind.
Regardless, he kept his mind on getting up the ladder without tipping it over, and making sure it was sturdy at the bottom.
He noticed Nelly Bushnell with a box of ornaments in her hand.
She had started to put them up on the bottom of the tree when Mrs. Tucker came over to her, her hand out, hurrying as though Nelly were going to ruin everything if she put an ornament in the wrong spot.
“No! You cannot put those small ornaments there. They belong at the top. Here, come over here and hand them up to Roland. Roland, make sure that you arrange these not too close to each other, but all the small ones go at the top.”
Mrs. Tucker bustled away without saying anything else.
Maybe it was his imagination, but she seemed to have given him a side glance, almost as though she was afraid that he was going to walk off with the ornaments or something, like she believed he walked off with the money at the church.
He heard whispers around town, and honestly, there was a small, very small, part of him that had considered not coming today. But that would have made it look like he was guilty, and he was not.
“I’m sorry. I guess I’ve been volunteered to work with you,” Nelly said, shrugging her shoulder. “You would think I bother you enough at the Christmas program practice.”
“You’re not bothering me. I actually don’t mind working with you at all,” he said. And he realized that was true. The last Christmas program practice had not gone badly, and he actually might have been looking forward to the next one, to his surprise.
“Your mother is looking a little peaked—is she okay?” Nelly said as she came close, lifting a bulb to him.
