Chapter 27
Mark felt like he was walking on air for the next couple of days, as he spent as much time as humanly possible with Olivia, while still doing everything he could to help the church and do his Secret Saint activities.
There were practices for the music ensemble, amateur carpenters coming and going as they built the platform, questions to answer as the marketing committee worked on a plan to continue to sell more tickets.
Although word-of-mouth had gotten out, and the sale of tickets had already exceeded their hopes, and more than paid for everything, including the candles.
Olivia didn't seem to be too anxious about the fact that she wasn't getting the candles made that needed to be made.
The furnace repairman had not been able to come the first day, but he said he would come the day after.
Mark admitted to Olivia that he was not disappointed. And that he loved having them in his house and home and really didn't want them to leave.
He knew they needed to. He certainly couldn't seem like he was living with his fiancée, no matter how separate their bedrooms were.
Plus, he had to admit it was a temptation to have her there anyway.
"What about a Christmas wedding?" he asked that evening after the children were in bed.
He'd had such a great time playing with them in the living room, and Olivia had joined in, then sat on a chair and read a book while he continued. Apparently, men enjoyed playing for a much longer time than women did.
Or maybe she just enjoyed seeing him with her children. That was what she claimed anyway.
"Like, next-week Christmas wedding?" Olivia asked, her brows raised in surprise.
"Is that too soon?" he asked.
"No. I'll marry you today if you want me to."
"You don't want to plan something big and flashy?"
"No. I had a big first wedding, and maybe flashy isn't the right word, but it didn't help our marriage be any better, no matter how much money we spent on it.
And I'm just not interested in that anymore.
I have other things I'd rather spend our money on, for one, and I just don't feel like a big wedding equals a great marriage.
Plus, I have candles to make. I don't have time to plan a wedding.
" She bit her lip. "Unless you want one?
" Her brow was all crinkled up, and she seemed truly concerned about what he wanted.
Somehow, that made him happy. That she really cared about what he thought and wanted.
"I just want to marry you. I don't really care how it happens. And I want it to be soon."
"Then we agree on all of that."
He smiled, squeezing her hand as they sat on the couch together.
But before he could try to pin down a day with her, his phone rang.
"I don't need to get it," he said as he looked at her.
"Go ahead. It's your job."
He nodded. "Unfortunately that's probably the way it's going to go. Some evenings we'll have together, uninterrupted, and some evenings not."
"God knows. I guess if I start to feel neglected or like I'm alone too much, I'll let you know."
"Fair enough. As long as you promise not to suffer in silence without talking to me."
"I know that you'll do something about it if I say something, and that's important to me."
"Fair enough," he said as he reached in his pocket and pulled out his phone.
"Hello?"
"Hey, it's Noah," Noah said.
"What's up?" Mark asked, his stomach sinking a little as he realized that Noah probably had something he wanted him to deliver as a Secret Saint thing.
"I've got a problem and I was wondering if I could come talk to you about it."
"You can. Olivia is here... I can go to my office if you want, or if you don't mind if she listens in, you can come to the living room."
"She can hear, as long as she doesn't say anything. It's probably not something that I want getting around."
"All right. You can come then. Show up whenever."
"All right, I'll be right over."
He hung up and sat holding his phone for a minute, wondering what in the world Noah would want to talk to him about.
"That was Noah?"
"Yes."
"It didn't sound like he had a Secret Saint delivery for you."
"No. He wants to come talk."
"I can leave. I can head to bed." Olivia volunteered, and he appreciated so much that she didn't need to know every single thing that people were telling him.
That would make his job as a pastor much easier.
But he also intended to let people know that he considered Olivia and him one, and he didn't want to keep secrets from her.
He wasn't sure how he was going to balance that with counseling, but he'd cross those bridges when he came to them.
"I'll put some hot chocolate on."
"Okay," he said, standing up with her. He'd rather spend the last few minutes cuddling on the couch with her, but he appreciated the fact that she wanted to make his guest feel welcome too.
He hadn't had that at all in his ministry, and it felt good to be able to offer his guest something when they came in.
Noah arrived, accepted the hot chocolate, and they were settled on the couch not too long afterwards.
"This doesn't have anything to do with the Secret Saint thing, does it?" Mark started, just because Noah seemed to have a hard time trying to figure out what to say.
"No. It has to do with one of my siblings. You know I raised them."
"You did a great job," Mark said.
"Thanks. It's only by the grace of God. I certainly wasn't qualified to do anything."
"I don't know. I guess that's true."
"So it's about Ty."
"The second oldest, right?"
"That's correct."
"Is he in trouble?"
"I don't think so. I just got a really weird phone call from him today, and I told him I needed to think about it and pray about it before I gave him advice. Although my first instinct was to tell him to run in a different direction."
"All right, go ahead. Start wherever you need to," Mark said, wanting to encourage him to talk, not feel like he had to have a perfect story put together.
"Apparently he's met a woman who has proposed a marriage of convenience.
I didn't even know there was such a thing, but he explained to me that they're not dating.
They haven't even met in person. They've met online, and she wants to get married without all the trappings of modern dating or all of that.
She just wanted someone who shared her values and morals, and he hasn't even seen what she looks like. "
"Wow. I didn't realize that was a thing."
"I didn't either. But apparently there's a website. I don't know what my brother was doing on it."
"Well, that's a good question. Has he been longing to get married and just couldn't find anyone?"
"I didn't think so. But it's true that he's not married, and he's almost as old as I am."
"I see. I don't think that men kind of have the ticking clock the way women do," Mark said, glancing at Olivia, who shrugged her shoulders.
She didn't seem to have a ticking clock.
He didn't think that she was even looking for a husband and was kind of surprised by their relationship. But he didn't know for sure.
"I don't know what to tell him. I've asked him all the questions—is she a Christian, does she have references that you can talk to, people who know about how she acts and whether she acts like a Christian, and whether she has fruit, and what her character's like. He said he's checked her out."
"And he hasn't seen a picture?" Mark asked, shocked. "In today's world, everyone has their photos on social media."
"No. No picture. Apparently she doesn't do social media."
"But somehow he found out that she wanted a marriage of convenience?"
"It was a website." Noah lifted a shoulder like he really wasn't sure exactly what was going on.
"But he's checked around, talked to her references? Has he met any of the people that know her?"
"He visited her town. Apparently. He hasn't met with her yet, because he didn't want to even see her if she didn't check out.
Then, after he had checked her out himself, he came to me and said that he wanted to get married.
He wasn't going to agree to marry her without talking to me about it.
Which I appreciate, but... I don't know what to say.
" Noah leaned his forearms on his knees and rubbed his hands together.
"I've run into a lot of odd things raising my siblings, but this takes the cake as the thing that has stumped me the hardest. Even the girl stuff I managed to muddle my way through. "
"I've gotta say, I guess I haven't been a pastor as long as Pastor Johnson has, but this is a first for me too."
"So what do I do?" Noah asked, looking at Mark like he had all the answers.
"I guess, even though it's a first for us, the Bible hasn't changed.
God doesn't really give any specifications for marriage other than they have to be a believer.
Beyond that, we seem to be able to pick for ourselves.
Does he really want to just choose, for his lifetime mate and partner, someone he's going to be one with in the eyes of God, as someone he's never even seen?
Someone he doesn't know at all? But with that said, he checked out the most important thing—that she's a believer.
So biblically, I think it's okay. Humanly, I don't know that I would recommend it.
But Ty has a brain. I've always thought that he was rather practical, and maybe this is just taking that kind of practicality into a whole new level.
I'm just surprised he found a woman to go along with it. Or who actually suggested it."
"I guess that's the way I was leaning too.
I want to say no, but I have no Bible to back me up.
So I guess I have to say... do it at your own risk.
Just remember, marriage is forever. So if it doesn't work out, you're going to spend the rest of your life trying as hard as you can to stay married.
And maybe not being very happy, or choosing to be happy despite the fact that maybe it wasn't an ideal thing. "
"Yeah. I guess I agree with you. I... know that that's not the way our society works, but just because it's not the way we do things in our society doesn't make it wrong.
In fact, years ago, arranged marriages were a normal thing.
People didn't pick their own mates—they had someone chosen for them, and then they learned to love each other and get along. That's just the way it was."
"That's what I thought too."
Through all of this, Olivia had been quiet, but she finally spoke up. "I know no one asked me, but—"
"You're always welcome to give your opinion," Mark quickly said. He wasn't used to having a woman beside him, and he needed to make sure that he showed her more deference in the future. He'd apologize later.
"That's fine. He came to talk to you. But I guess I would say she must be desperate.
Either she doesn't have money, or she doesn't have security, or there's something else going on.
But Ty always seemed like the kind of person who wanted to help, and so maybe that's what's driving him. He feels needed."
"I hadn't considered that, but it's a good idea. And it makes it make sense, which was something I was struggling with."
They talked for a bit more, but they didn't come to a different conclusion. It wasn't wrong, even if society was going to think it was crazy. Society wasn't their standard—the Bible was. And that was the way it was supposed to be.