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Still outside, he perused the paper, a coffee mug in his other hand.
“He’s already here,” Lexi said.
“You’re right. I’ll ask.”
Not that she wanted to ask. He’d already done too much for her, and they’d done little in return but cause him difficulty. Well, Lexi had done little in return.
“Hey.” He looked up as she approached.
“Good morning. I hate to ask, but somehow the heavens have aligned so that my daughter actually wants to go to church today. Could we possibly get a ride?”
“I knew it was about to give up on you.” He glanced in the direction of her car.
Maggie shrugged. “I put too much faith in it.”
He nodded. “I’ll be right back.”
Maggie waved at Lexi. She expected Jack to return with his keys, but a few minutes later, he emerged wearing black slacks and a tan button-up shirt. When she stared, he looked down at his choice of clothing.
“Is this OK? I haven’t been to church in years.”
“You look”—devastatingly handsome came to mind—“fine.”
Maggie’s heart skipped a beat, and she pasted a smile on her face.
She’d spent a decade trying to get Matt to join them at church with spotty success, and now Jack had assumed he’d been invited. She wasn’t about to correct him.
Jack followed her directions to Shadow Mountain Bible Church, and when he pulled into the parking lot, she didn’t blame him when he stared at the building.
“This is a church?”
A former vacation home of the Serrano family, the building had been donated to the church. It had floor to ceiling windows, a pain to clean, most in the congregation complained, but Pastor Wooten said it served to remind them that people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. It stood on a bluff overlooking the ridge.
They filed in, arriving in the middle of worship, and Lexi found her place with the young teens in their separate row.
That left Maggie and Jack alone in a row side by side. She was aware that she drew looks from some in the congregation who had never seen her attend with anyone other than Lexi.
But once she settled into her seat and Pastor Wooten continued to lead the band in worship songs, Maggie found herself lost in the worship music.
Shadow Mountain wasunlike any other church he’d ever attended. In the days when he’d spent southern summers in Alabama with his grandfather, every Sunday meant church and a tie. He’d listen to a sermon from a pastor who made him feel guilty about how he spent the rest of the week—not to mention the rest of the year.
This pastor led the band with his twelve string guitar. The man looked to be about Jack’s age, wore a shark tooth around his neck, and looked as if he were missing his surfboard. Jack wondered if maybe he was the pastor’s son run amuck for the day.
And then there was Maggie’s voice. As he stood next to her, it lifted above the rest of the congregation and sounded like an angel had appeared at his side.
Pastor Wooten grasped his attention with the sermon as he jumped about on stage describing his experience bungee jumping and made it an analogy to being ‚all in' for Christ. Church had definitely changed in the past twenty years, even though he’d had no real idea what to expect. Still, teens wore half ripped jeans and pink hair, and no one even seemed upset about it.
As they walked outside, they ran into Sheriff Calhoun.
“Good to see you, Jack. I knew it would take a woman to get you here.” He slapped Jack’s back.
Maggie flushed. “You know each other?”
“Calhoun is my boss,” Jack said.
“I thought you were retired,” Maggie said as she glanced at Calhoun.
“Not yet. Soon though.” His voice boomed above the crowd of voices.
