Chapter 20
Mark couldn't wait to get home. The idea of freshly baked, warm bread, and something yummy and hot in his stomach made him anxious to leave the last three houses he visited.
But Mrs. Tucker had made some care packages, and she wanted him to deliver them, and then he'd ended up helping to shovel Miss Crosby's mailbox out.
She didn't drive a car anymore, but it was important to her to be able to get to her paper and her mail deliveries, although he wasn't even sure the mail was going to be delivered today.
As the day wore on, more and more of the roads were cleared, but there were still folks who were without power and could not get out of their driveway.
As far as he could determine, he'd contacted everyone who was a member of the congregation, and others who were not members but who attended occasionally. Everyone seemed to be okay, and he had started stopping at random houses that didn't look like they had any activity outside.
He found two older couples who had needed his help, and several young couples who didn't need his help but appreciated his attention. One of those asked about services, and he was pretty sure he would be seeing them over the Christmas season.
A snowstorm was a great time for a pastor to get out and try to go above and beyond, not for himself or his own glory, but for Jesus.
Still, the idea of Olivia at home, cooking and baking bread, and the idea that there would be company and coziness in his home, made him eager to return.
He hoped she didn't decide that she needed to go home. Although, he couldn't bring himself to hope that her electricity was not back on. After all, he knew she had a lot of work to do, and she was probably eager to get back to her home.
As eager as he was for her to stay.
Thankfully, the scent of warm, fresh-baked bread drifted out as he opened the door and stepped in.
Aiden and Ethan jumped up from their toys and ran to him, hugging him like they'd known him for all of their lives, instead of just for the last few weeks.
"Mommy said we could eat when you get home!" Ethan said, bursting the bubble that had formed around Mark, thinking that they liked him for him. He laughed, because they were excited to see him because they were going to get food.
But maybe they liked him a little, he thought, as they grabbed a hold of his hands and chattered about their day. Ethan was obviously feeling more comfortable with him, since he chatted almost as much as his brother did.
"Where's your mother?" he asked, as he walked through the living room and into the kitchen.
"I'm right here. And you have perfect timing. I'm just taking the bread out of the oven."
"Wow. That really is perfect timing."
"I made a couple of loaves earlier today and put those in the freezer for you. You can get those out and heat those up. It won't be quite as good as freshly baked, but it'll be close."
She had made bread and frozen it for him? He loved that she was industrious, keeping herself occupied all day.
"I've gotten a text from my buddy at the electric company. He said he thought your power would be on this evening sometime before midnight."
"That's great," she said, although maybe she didn't look quite as excited as she could have that she could be going back to her place tomorrow.
Or maybe he was just reading more into it than he should. After all, he wanted her to want to stay.
Maybe they could talk tonight.
"Is there something I can do to help with supper? The boys informed me that we were eating when I got home, so I assume that there's something almost ready."
"You could just sit down and take it easy. I'll have it on the table here in about five minutes."
"Or... it sounds like you've been as busy as I have today, and I would like to help you if there's something I can do."
As tempting as it might be to sit down and kick back, he didn't want her doing all the work. Especially since it was obvious that she had worked all day as well.
"All right. I just needed to chop these vegetables for a salad, and cut the bread."
He grabbed the knife and began to cut the tomatoes she had pointed out.
"How was your day?" he asked, feeling very domestic. Was this what it would be like to come home to a wife? To Olivia?
He didn't even stop himself from thinking that, because he kind of felt like maybe God had orchestrated this, and he was resisting unnecessarily. Although, he certainly couldn't force Olivia to do anything she didn't want to, nor did he want to do that. He wanted Olivia to want him for him.
"Well, you said I should make myself at home, so I went ahead and got all the perishable items that were left in the church kitchen and brought them over here. That's how I was able to make the vegetable soup. And I made a little dessert as well with the leftover dairy stuff."
"Wow. Dessert? That sounds awesome."
"Someone has a sweet tooth?" she asked, giving him a calculating look.
"Guilty," he said, raising his hand.
They laughed together. "Anyway, I cleaned the kitchen over there and organized it. Nothing that's going to make any of the ladies upset, I don't think anyway. But I just made sure everything was neatly put away and ready for the next time."
"I don't know if I want there to be a next time. People are still digging out from this one."
"How was your day?" she asked. "Are there lots of people still snowed in?"
"There are a few. Especially people with longer driveways. It's a lot to shovel. I did a little shoveling myself, met a few new people, one couple that I'm pretty sure we're going to see in church. If not this Sunday, sometime around Christmas."
"That's great! Who would've thought that God could use... I guess it shouldn't surprise us that God could use a snowstorm to bring people to him."
"No. But somehow the way he works always does have a tendency to... if not surprise me, amaze me."
"Same. I love that He uses things that no one else thinks He could."
"His creativity is awesome."
He put the tomatoes on the lettuce she had sitting out, and then began to chop the carrots.
"Aiden, please set the silverware on the table at each place. Ethan, fold a napkin and set it beside each plate."
Mark waited until the boys did her bidding.
"You do an excellent job with them."
"They love you. They couldn't wait for you to come home."
"I would be flattered, except I'm pretty sure they couldn't wait for me to get home because they were going to eat when I got here. They're typical boys, and had their stomachs totally in mind."
She laughed, as he had intended, and her laugh made him warm all the way to the soles of his feet and back.
"Well, that part is true. I did tell them that we weren't eating until you got home. But they talked about you all day. And they truly do adore you."
He loved that—that her children loved him just as much as he loved them.
"They're great kids. I don't want to play favorites, because as a pastor I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to be impartial, but they were definitely my favorite children of all the kids that were there these last few days.
They just have such sweet personalities about them.
And maybe it's because there's two of them, and they play off of each other, but they just have a heart for people, even at this young age. "
"You know, Mrs. Tucker has watched them an awful lot, and I know that she has really taught them about not being selfish, and sharing and loving other people. I'm afraid that I can't take any credit for that."
"I'd say you certainly can. After all, whatever they've been learning at home has probably been reinforced by Mrs. Tucker. Plus, they just have those natural abilities that sometimes you see early in people."
"I hope you're right. I guess that's one of my biggest fears. That somehow I'll screw my kids up irreparably and that it'll be all my fault. You know?"
"I totally get it. But I think that's what we talked about a little bit before. Just having faith that God's going to work things out. That whatever He's planned and ordained is exactly right. After all, there was nothing you did wrong to have those boys lose their father."
"No. And I understand that, but maybe I'm missing something.
Maybe He had another father lined up for them, and I was just too focused on my work and on trying to keep my head above water to even pay any attention.
Maybe I've missed out on things that I should've been doing, or maybe I did things that I shouldn't—"
He put a hand up. She closed her mouth abruptly.
"And you just have to pray and ask God to help you follow Him.
And then, keep an eye on and an ear out, but at the same time, you can't sweat it.
If God wants you to do it, it's not like He's going to tuck a clue in the far corner of the back forty, and you're going to dig a fifteen foot hole and use a microscope in order to find it.
He's not going to make it that hard. He wants you to succeed.
He's on your side. Or I guess I should say we're on His side, and He loves us.
Just like a father isn't going to make his child's life miserable on purpose.
A father is going to help him in every way possible. At least if he's a good dad."
"Do you see a lot of families that have parents that aren't good?" she asked, seeming to read his mind.
"I do. But that's not the point, is it? The point is, God wants you to succeed. And if you want to do what God wants you to do, I don't think that God is going to make it hard for you to figure out what that is. I just don't."
"Sometimes it seems like it's hard."
"Do you think we make it harder than what it needs to be?"
"I think I do sometimes. But other times, it's just hard to know, you know?
Like... maybe I should've sold the shop and done something else to support them.
Or maybe I should be more actively looking for a husband to be a dad.
I just..." She bit her lip. "I don't want to make the same mistake again. "
"Mistake?"
She pressed her lips together, and then looked over her shoulder.
"My parents didn't think that I should've married Cam. Maybe they were right."
"Is the food almost ready?"
Aiden effectively interrupted their conversation, just as Mark was hanging on her every word. What mistake had she made with Cam? Other than her parents not approving. He knew that she was estranged from her parents. Was that why?
He had a lot of things he wanted to talk to her about, but it couldn't be when the children were around and listening.
Their conversation had been low enough, and the twins had been yammering between themselves, so he hadn't been worried about them hearing, but that was definitely not a conversation that would be meant for little ears.
Lord, if we're supposed to talk about this, please present the opportunity again.