Crossing the main street, Gavin pretended interest perusing the shop windows until he could slip between two building and go the back way to the church. He could still be seen from a few buildings facing the church, but most of those offices were empty or closed at five on the dot.
Going through the side door, he found Lucky in his office. He raised a questioning brow before closing the door.
“It’s cool. No one’s here. I have a tutoring session in twenty minutes, though. I’ll just text her to wait outside or in the church until you leave.”
He sat down on the edge of Lucky’s desk to stare down at him. “So, you tagging along or are you going to be lame and stay here for the weekend?”
“As much as I want to go, I can’t. The family of the sick parishioner needs me. The doctor told them he wasn’t going to make it. When I’m finished with the tutoring session, I’m going back to the hospital to spend the rest of the night with them.”
“Damn, I hate to hear that.”
Lucky cocked his head to the side. “That I’m not going or someone is dying?”
“Both. You’re a good man and an even better pastor.”
Lucky accepted the compliment with a wry smile. “I wish that were true. I have a way to go to reach your standard.”
Gavin’s head fell back as he laughed. “Brother, I’m as far as you can get from being a pastor.”
“You think so? You have a strong sense of right and wrong. There’s no middle ground for you. When you love someone, you have the unshakable belief that they share the same sense of right and wrong as you do. You’ll go that extra mile that no one else would go to prove you’re right. Brother, if I had your faith, this collar wouldn’t hang so tightly around my neck.”
“Pastor,” Gavin said sincerely, “that collar hangs just fine on you.”
Sighing, Gavin could see his friend wasn’t convinced. “I better go. If you change your mind, I’ll stop at the gas station in Jamestown tomorrow morning at ten. I’ll give you thirty minutes to show, in case you’re running late. You look like you could use some R&R.”
As Lucky was about to reply, they both looked toward the window, hearing someone singing outside. Gavin felt as if he had just taken a punch to the gut.
“She has a beautiful voice, doesn’t she?” Lucky said, taking his eyes off the window to turn back toward him.
Gavin couldn’t have answered if his life depended on it.
Standing up from the desk, he walked to the window. He braced his hand on the wall and looked out.
The girl was sitting on a picnic table with her back to the church. She was singing “In the Arms of an Angel,” by Sarah McLachlan, and the way she sang held a wealth of pain making him wonder if she was aware of it. It was hauntingly beautiful and spoke to his soul as if she were directly speaking to him.
“She was here last night, wasn’t she?”
“Yes, she’s the girl I’m tutoring.”
“Who was the woman with her?”
“You must be talking about her foster mother.”
“She’s a bitch.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.” Lucky’s rueful voice told of the dislike for the foster mother. “She’s a good kid.”
“She’d have to be in order to sing like that.” Letting his hand drop, he forced himself to take a step away from the window, ignoring the whispers of the light wind that was stirring the curtains, telling him to wait just one more sec—
Feeling ridiculous that he was imagining the wind talking to him and that he was watching a young girl, he strode away, refusing to look back. He had not an ounce of sexual interest in her. It was more like sensing … something … Like seeing someone in a grocery store and unable to place a name or face or why it mattered.
Thinking that he was beginning to feel like he needed a shrink, Gavin turned his focus back on Lucky. “I’m going to have an early night. Don’t forget I’ll be waiting if you change your mind,” he said curtly, heading toward the door.
“I’ll walk out with you and keep her occupied until you’re out of sight.”
Going out the side door, he turned in the opposite direction from Lucky, giving him a brief wave before walking off, not mentioning Memphis, Crash, or what he was planning to tell Viper when he got to Ohio.
Deciding to return to Mrs. Langley’s house instead of eating his dinner at the diner, Gavin let himself inside.
Not seeing Mrs. Langley, he went up the stairs to the bedroom she’d given him. Taking a shower, he pulled on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt before going back downstairs and into the kitchen to make himself a sandwich.