A Mother's Love

He widened his eyes in dismay. “I’m so sorry, Maggie. I’d thought I mentioned it when I introduced myself. I’m the local pastor at the church down the road.”

Chapter Three (#ulink_c08717d1-a6e4-540d-8fb1-0bc2629bc965)

She paled.

He’d seen it before. People oftentimes reacted negatively to his position. He just hadn’t pegged Maggie as that type. Then she glanced down at her stomach, and he saw her problem. “Maggie,” he said, pulling her look back to him by the soft yet authoritative tone in his voice. “I’m still the same person I was ten minutes ago. So are you. I still want you for the job.”

She glanced everywhere before finally, reluctantly, turning her gaze back to him. “If you’re willing to try me out on a trial basis, how can I refuse? What about my car?” she added, pushing her plate away. “Can you tell me if it’s working so I can get there?”

“Didn’t I mention the house?”

“What house?”

Jake ran a hand through his hair. “You’ve disrupted more than my dinner, Maggie.” He was usually so efficient, keeping his mind on the problem at hand. Maggie had the ability to make him forget everything. “There’s a small house next to the church. The rent is very cheap. It’s only a two-bedroom, eight hundred square feet. But it’s roomy enough for one person. My last secretary lived there.”

He named a price that was lower than what she paid here.

Her eyes widened. “You’re not misquoting the amount on purpose, are you?”

“No. Since the job doesn’t pay much above minimum wage, the rent is cut way back. We make just enough to keep up repairs and pay the taxes each year. That way, the secretary, who ends up spending almost as much time as I do at church, will have a place to live that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.”

“Where do you live?”

He could tell she hadn’t meant to blurt that out. She actually blushed. He couldn’t help but grin. “Well, I don’t live there,” he drawled, and her blush deepened. “The house is yours, if you want it. If not, we’ll rent it out to someone else.”

How could she pass it up? “I guess I agree,” she replied. Staring at the man in front of her, she still found it hard to believe he was a pastor. He was so good-looking and so sweet. He hadn’t condemned her for her condition or questioned her about it. Instead, compassion showed in his eyes as he smiled at her. Not pity. Never pity. She would have thrown him out if he’d given her the look of others. That look of condemnation. The look her parents had given her. No, he simply smiled at her as if she was an actual person, as if he might understand what she was going through.

Of course, that was impossible. Why would he have to worry about what everyone thought of him or be on guard constantly?

Then she realized that was it As a pastor, she imagined many people had the opportunity to dissect him over lunch, just as her parents had done with their own pastor. Maybe he did know something of the humiliation and pain she’d been through because of the way everyone had treated her.

Still, working for a pastor. At a church. She wasn’t sure. She loved God. But she hurt so much. It seemed that everything that could go wrong had gone wrong in the past seven months. And it all evolved around her family and church friends.

She’d blamed God for casting her out.

I will never leave you or forsake you.

That inner voice reminded her of God’s promise. Then why? Why had all this happened to her? Why wasn’t she allowed to have any happiness?

Jake was offering her a chance at peace, if not happiness. And she had just said she would take it. “I’ll be glad to move in then,” she said, and that settled that.

“Good!” He clapped his hands, finished off his spaghetti, then stood. “I need to get going. Listen, is two days from now too soon to move you? That would be Saturday, and I’m sure I can find some men to come over and pack up whatever you want to take. We could get you moved in and unpacked in one day.”

“I don’t have much. The furniture’s not mine. All I have is one suitcase, maybe two.”

He paused, his look probing her. She stiffened, certain the questions would come. Instead, he smiled. “Great. Then we’ll have the house ready for you Saturday. I’ll come by with a couple of the women so we can help you get the house cleaned up for inspection.”

“I don’t need any help.”

Jake rolled his eyes. “Don’t balk, Maggie. Of course you need help. You’re pregnant.”

“I haven’t had any help yet,” she blurted out, then gasped; Maggie clapped a hand over her mouth.

Silence fell, and Jake studied her a minute. He reached out and stroked her cheek with his finger. “You’ve had a tough time of it, haven’t you, Maggie? And it’s hard for you to trust”

Unexpected tears filled her eyes.

He dropped his hand and cleared his throat, stepping back instead of forward the way he wanted to. “Don’t worry. You’ll be welcome at church.”

“But what will people say to you?” she asked, not believing him. “You’re going to catch the very devil for hiring a single pregnant woman.”

There, she’d said it She was single and not married. She couldn’t tell him the rest But that was enough to condemn her in most people’s eyes.

She waited. A slow smile curved his lips, lighting up his face. “‘Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer,’” he quoted from Romans.

“And what do you mean by that?” she asked, not understanding.

He grinned. “Well,” he drawled, “we can hope no one says anything. But if someone does, then we can be patient and pray and allow God to handle the problem.”

She shook her head. “An optimist.”

“God gave us hope when He sent His son, Maggie. Why let someone’s possible actions rob us of that?”

Maggie raised weary eyes to Jake’s. “I’ve learned already that the world isn’t a place of optimism.”

“Look inside yourself. Ask God to restore your joy. Don’t let them,” he said, waving his hand toward the outside, “rob you of it There are always going to be negative people around who can’t stand to see you succeed or be happy. And there are always going to be people to kick you while you’re down. But if I think you’re a good secretary, as I know you’re a good person, then no one is going to tell me who to hire and who to fire.”

“But you don’t know if I’m a good secretary,” she argued, frustrated.

He grinned. “Then don’t disappoint me.”

He went to the door. Pausing on the bottom step, he turned back toward her. “See you Saturday, Maggie-May,” he singsonged.

She couldn’t help the reluctant smile that came to

her lips.

She’d never met anyone like Jake.

Not even her ex-fiancé. Her ex-fiancé. Boy, had that been a mistake. She’d thought he loved her. She’d thought she loved him. But then she’d changed her mind.

She didn’t want to think about the trouble, think about the nightmares it gave her. Instead, she wanted to think about the laughing eyes of the gorgeous man who had just given her a ride home and rescued her from certain poverty.

But she knew better than to think it was only Jake who had rescued her. “Thank you, God, for providing a way when I couldn’t see one. I’m glad about this job. But—” she walked over to the couch and sank onto it “—I don’t know if I can believe in happily ever after again. Every time I think I’ve finally found a job, or a place to live, or something great, it seems the rug is jerked out from under me. Is this going to be any different?”

She got up and went into the kitchen. She could save the spaghetti and have enough to last until Saturday. Then maybe she could make her groceries last until her next paycheck.

And maybe, just maybe, she’d pass Jake’s approval and get to stay at this job longer than a month or two.