She sat at the church social and ate the fattening, homemade desserts that were so good. Chatting about school and Kathy’s song and Rob’s latest hit and Mom’s plan to write a new series of books, they all caught up on their lives while Jim listened quietly.
Interjecting his opinion here and there, Jim kept being interrupted by parishioners who wanted to speak to him or say goodbye. Jim got up more than once to speak with them and then he sat down again.
Kathy left to go to the restroom. She gave Jim an assessing look.
“What,” he snapped at her perusal.
“Don’t you ever get sick of being so damn nice? I mean, the way they all want to hug and touch you? That’d drive me crazy. And having to always be so nice…”
“Well, it’s part of the job. I can’t really snap at them and snarl that I’m not in the mood so go away, now can I?”
“But you don’t always feel so upbeat, do you? I mean, don’t you have bad moods when you don’t want to do this shtick on some Sundays?”
Jim actually glanced around to see if anyone were within hearing distance, like Kathy, who thought he was too good. “Sometimes, I might be… glad when it’s over.”
“Even with Mr. Hermione? He stinks.”
Jim actually laughed but quickly caught himself and stopped. Dropping his face into a stern reprimand, he said, “He could stand to shower more often. Yes. But he—”
“Don’t tell me he means well. He’s rich as sin, strange as all get out, and he uses his donations as a bribe to get what he really wants. He all but sexually harasses Kathy, although she’s too damn nice to say anything. Or even think that he’s doing it.”
He flinched. “Can you not swear in here? It’s a church, Kayla… I mean, everyone gets that caveat. Even you should observe it.”
She rolled her eyes. “I always have. I don’t pretend to be something I’m not no matter where I am. I don’t get it. In God’s house, why can’t you fully be yourself? Huh, Jim? Since God sees you everywhere anyway, why pretend to be otherwise? He knows, right? So I’m just being the same old me. Whether I’m here or at the grocery store. And news flash: God has yet to strike me dead.”
“That too… why do you have to be so antagonistic all the time?”
“Why don’t you tell the man who bribes you and slathers his breath all over your fiancée to go to hell? Too good for that, Pastor Jim? Or too eager to take his money? You aren’t as pious as you want people, including Kathy, to believe. And you have no idea what I am. Swearing doesn’t make me anything. It’s simply self-expression, not a gauge of my morality.”
“What about respect? How could you be Kathy’s sister?”
“Because I have morals. Deep ones. I just don’t judge people so shallowly or decide what they are based on whether or not someone says damn or darn or gosh or God. Seems kind of a shallow determination of someone’s worth.”
“Kayla, I’m the pastor here. Could you not try to be so…”
“What, Jim? Real? Human? You should try it sometime.” She smiled sweetly. His eyes widened and he nodded his head. She could read his warning. Kathy was coming. Kayla kept her expression neutral as Kathy slid into the chair beside Jim.
Kathy’s reverence for Jim completely puzzled and worried Kayla. She might be marrying the man for his oratory talents, but not his real personality. Not for companionship. Not because she loved him as a man, and a person, but for her love of God and her faith, making Jim the embodiment of that.
It presented a conundrum to Kayla. How to convince Kathy, and save her and Jim from an empty marriage lacking in love but full of adoration for a shared faith and Christianity? Oh, yes, those two worked together at the church like a professional team. But outside of that, in ordinary daily life, they seemed uncomfortable and unnatural with one another.
Kayla blamed their short-sightedness on lack of exposure to certain types of people and inexperience. Neither could boast of any past relationships, definitely none that were sexual or intimate in nature. They were both raised in oddly sheltered environments, and neither seemed to get that having one thing didn’t necessarily result in the other.
Kathy smiled at Jim. “Mrs. Carter was asking about the spring concert. Would you mind answering some of her questions?”
He smiled, shooting a dagger glance at Kayla before obeying her sister’s bidding.
Kathy turned to her with a cloudy look. “What were you arguing about?”
“Nothing? What are you talking about?”
“Don’t play that clueless act with me, Kayla. I can read you and Jim. He’s pursing his upper lip, which is something he does when he’s annoyed and trying to restrain his comment. What was it this time?”
She rolled her eyes. “He’s too prudish. I might have let one mild curse slip out and he jumped in and started correcting me. I’m not a child. I don’t need scolding.”
Kathy rolled her eyes. “You are in his church. His congregation consists of people who are mostly over the
