Chapter 8
Olivia glanced out the window, worry drawing her brows down.
It was a sin to worry, she knew that, but how was she supposed to not worry?
It was supposed to storm, and the last time it stormed, her lights were out for three days.
Pastor Johnson had opened the church and allowed them to come stay, but she had no idea if the new pastor would do that or not.
Plus, she had this last big rush order to do, and she didn't want to drop the ball on it, since unless the church came through with a last-minute order, it was her last big order before Christmas, and she did not want to risk not being able to fulfill it.
There were no snow flurries coming down yet, but that didn't mean that it couldn't start at any time.
She had checked her phone a half an hour prior, and in big red letters at the top of her weather app, it had said that the storm was intensifying faster than predicted and was shaping up to be the worst storm of the century.
They often liked to scare people with wording like that, while whatever weather event they were talking about turned out to be a nothing burger, but just about the time she didn't listen, they would actually be right for a change.
"Are you almost done, Mommy?" Aiden asked from over in the corner where her boys played.
"I'm really not. It's going to be at least another hour, maybe two. Aren't you guys happy over there? You have your favorite trucks."
"I'm hungry," Aiden said, his lip coming out just ever so slightly.
"Well, I might have something that will help with that," Olivia said, having anticipated this very thing.
Thankfully, both of her boys loved fruit, and she had a container of blueberries in the small refrigerator under the counter, where she also kept juice and yogurt.
"How would you guys like to eat some blueberries?"
"I love blueberries!" Aiden exclaimed, jumping up and leading his twin over where they took the blueberries from her hands, thanking her before they went back over and sat down with the open container between them.
They would munch on the berries and probably eat the entire thing.
She gave them an indulgent smile. A knock on the door startled her.
She squinted, trying to see if she recognized whoever it was standing on the other side.
It couldn't be a customer, because she could see that she had flipped the sign.
Sometimes she forgot, but everyone in town knew that when the lights in the shop were off, it meant she was closed, whether she'd remembered about the sign or not.
Was that the new preacher?
"You guys be good, okay?"
"We're being good!" Aiden said, grinning.
She didn't tell them that she meant they were supposed to continue to be good. Instead, she went around the counter and walked toward the door.
The church meeting was tonight, and maybe Pastor Mark was here to let her know whether or not she got the candle order. It was cutting it close, and she half expected that the church would've said that they didn't want to spend the money at this late date.
Steeling herself for whatever news he had, she turned the lock and opened the door.
"Pastor. Come on in."
"Miss Olivia. Thank you."
"You don't have to call me Miss Olivia." She laughed, shaking her head as she shut the door.
"It's just a respect thing. But I won't if it makes you uncomfortable."
"I kind of feel like you might be younger than I am, so it feels odd."
"I think we're probably about the same age," Pastor Mark said, and then he looked away, as though he realized that was a personal topic and he felt like he shouldn't be discussing it.
"I assume you came for more than to talk about how old you are. Do you mind if I work while we chat?" she asked, going back over to the counter where she had been putting labels on the batch of candles that was cool.
"Is there something I can help you with?" he asked, as though he had all of the time in the world.
"I was putting labels on this batch, and if you do that, then I can go over here and add the last ingredients to this wax and start dipping."
"Show me how, and I'm happy to help."
She gave him a look, and then shrugged. "All right."
She walked behind the counter, and he followed.
"Hey there, boys. Looks like you're eating blueberries. That's my favorite."
"Our favorite too!" Aidan said.
"But we'll share," Ethan said. It was funny how kids could come up with something that just made her feel like the proudest mom in the entire world. Her kid offered to share his favorite snack.
It looked a little bit like Aiden was trying to shush Ethan and give him a hard time for saying that, but hey, at least one of her boys was starting to learn some of the things that she had been teaching.
"I'm not hungry tonight, but thanks," Pastor Mark said, sounding totally at ease with her kids. She'd seen adults who seemed to melt into a muddled mess when they saw children, like somehow little kids scared them. Pastor Mark was not one of those people.
"You're pretty good with kids," she said casually as she picked up the labels that she'd printed on the computer.
"They seem to like me. I'm not sure why. I don't have any of my own."
"You're not married," she said casually, not digging for information, but she would've been surprised had he had any children, considering that he had no wife.
"That's true. No wife, no kids."
"But you have a mom," Aiden said, having gotten up and wandered over to see the newcomer.
"I used to. That's true. But she's in heaven now, along with my dad."
Olivia didn't say anything. He was kind of young to have lost both parents. She could relate a little, since she hadn't talked to her parents since they'd given her a hard time about marrying her husband.
"Do you have a twin?" Aiden asked, after Olivia had shown Pastor Mark how to put the labels on the jars.
It wasn't too uncommon for townspeople to help each other out, but... it felt a little weird that the pastor was in here. She wanted to ask how the meeting went. Maybe him coming in and offering to help was an attempt to soften the blow that she wasn't going to get the candle order today.
"Nope. No twin, no siblings."
"You're all alone in the world?" she asked, feeling like she could relate. Although her parents weren't dead. They just weren't talking to her.
"My church family has always been my family. I guess I just don't know it any other way. Maybe the idea that I don't have siblings and my parents are gone has helped me to stick closer to my church family. God has a way of working those things out."
"I guess I feel closer to the people in the town."
"Your parents are dead too?"
"No." She didn't say anything more. She didn't want to explain that there was a rift between them.
She knew in Christian circles that it was kind of frowned on for a person not to be getting along with her family.
After all, the Bible clearly said that if you don't love your brother whom you can see, how can you love God whom you can't?
She found it was a lot easier to love God than her brother, though. Or her mother. As the case may be.
"These are pretty. Did you design them?" Pastor Mark said as he put one on and held it up for her inspection.
"That's perfect. And yes, I did. I enjoy doing that kind of creative stuff. Especially after I've spent a lot of time working with my hands."
"I would think coming up with new recipes for candles would exercise your creative abilities."
"Definitely. I love that side of the business. But there are times where I'm just doing one after the other after the other and it takes no creativity at all, just a willingness to buckle in and do the work."
"That's what a lot of life is. A willingness to buckle in and do the work. Adult life anyway."
She grinned, looking over at the boys playing in the corner, popping blueberries into their mouths as they made truck noises and crawled on their hands and knees, one hand on their trucks, pushing them in a circle that must have been a racetrack or something.
"Yeah. The good old days, right?"
He looked at the boys and then shook his head. "I had a great childhood, but I love what I do, and I have no desire to go back there."
"Sometimes I wish I could go back permanently. The days where I had no pressure, no worry about whether or not I was going to be able to buy groceries. No questions about whether or not my business was going to be able to stay solvent and pay for our health insurance."
"That's rough. But I have good news, I hope."
"Really?" she asked, her heart stuttering. She couldn't help stopping what she was doing and looking at him expectantly.
"Yeah. The church voted tonight to go ahead with their normal order of candles. But I know it's late. Pastor Johnson said he usually ordered them in September."
"Oh. Thank you, Jesus," she said, closing her eyes. Then she opened them and spoke immediately. "It doesn't matter how late it is. I will get the order done. I... I needed this order. But I didn't want to say how badly, because I didn't want the church to order it out of pity."
"That's not what happened. I think people really appreciate the quality of your candles, the delicate scent that does not overwhelm but lasts through the entire burning of the candle, but especially the way they brighten the church up in the dark month of January."
"That's awesome. It makes it even better that you're helping me tonight, because I definitely need to get these done if I'm going to have any prayer at all of getting the church candles done, especially if we lose electricity for a day or two with the storm."
"I've heard that's a real possibility," he said as he stuck another label on and carefully set the candle down with the other ones he had finished.
He was not taking things too fast, but he wasn't slow either. He was a good worker.
"The last I heard is that it's going to be more intense than they anticipated. It's up to three feet of snow. The last time we got two feet, I didn't have electricity for two days, and Pastor Johnson let me stay in the church."
"That reminds me. We're opening up the church as an emergency shelter, so if you lose electricity, come on over. There's a generator, and we even have sleeping bags, apparently."
"Well, we have plenty of sleeping bags, and we'll be over then if we lose electricity, because we don't have a generator, and I don't want the boys to freeze."
"I'll make sure that they don't. And there's plenty of toys in the nursery."
"They'll be thrilled to be able to play with the nursery toys again. They graduated from nursery when they turned three, and they've been sad ever since."