Page 14 of The Dating Game

“Look, I’m sorry, Will, but my hands are tied. The rules state that we have to have at least one chaperone per every ten students, and right now your trip is at 54 students, which means we need six chaperones.”

“And we have seven,” I tell him.

“Not anymore you don’t. You’re down to five, which wouldn’t be a problem except we added those four extra kids last week.” Luke sighs, he’s trying to appear sympathetic but the man is too happy about his reunion with Hannah to pull off the emotion right now. I’m happy for them, so I really can’t begrudge him a day on cloud nine, but man. This news is a big blow! We’re scheduled to leave for a mission trip to Port Isabel, Texas in less than two weeks, a trip I’ve been planning for months. And now we’re going to have to pull the plug on the whole thing because of chaperone issues?

“Yeah,” I say, “but we only added those last minute kids because we had enough chaperones.”

“Right, but that was before Vivian Sharp herniated a disc in her lower back. She called me this morning saying she was going to have to back out.” His lips pull down. “Said she didn’t know how to tell you.”

A herniated disc? Yikes. I suppose that’s a legitimate excuse. None of the chaperones are looking forward to the long bus ride as it is, add in back trouble and I can’t blame Vivian for backing out.

“Okay. But we should still be at six chaperones,” I inform Luke hopefully, like I’m expecting him to say, "Oh, you’re right! My mistake. Seven minus one is six, not five. How could I have made such a mathematical error?"

But of course he doesn’t.

“Unfortunately she’s not the only one who has to back out.” Now he really does look upset, and that’s what makes it click.

“Wait—you?” I gape at him. “You’re backing out.”

Luke looks anguished. “Here’s the thing, it’s not final. Well, it sort of is, but I’m going to go talk to the elders again now that Vivian can’t go.”

“What do the elders have to do with this?”

“They asked me not to attend,” Luke says carefully. “They thought it would be best for me to be here given the precarious state of things due to recent events.” And by this Luke is referring to the fact that when he got hired on as lead pastor his contract stated that he would remain single his first year here in order to best serve the congregation, but then eight months in he met Hannah and, though they swore to remain just friends until the year was up, things got out of control—meaning he kissed her in a storage closet—at which point he ended up confessing to the whole congregation that he had feelings for her and asked them to void that part of his contract so he could date her. He got put on probation after that, a situation that was only made worse when Hannah had to appear before the school board to appeal to them for her job and an ex-boyfriend of hers showed up announcing that she’d been the other woman who’d broken up his engagement. Although Hannah hadn’t known shewas dating an engaged man, the fact that it had happened had upset the board enough that they’d voted to terminate her. The gossip surrounding all of this had made Luke second guess his decision to risk his job for her—for about two hours, anyway. But he did break up with her during that time before he came to his senses and realized she was worth the risk. That was all just last night and it was what brought us both to the karaoke bar last night. He’d come to get her back, and I’d gone with him just in case she wouldn’t take him back.

That spontaneous performance with the woman I haven’t been able to get out of my head for the last few weeks was just a bonus.

I can’t believe she’s Hannah’s sister.

And that she’s single now.

Wait. I shake my head once to clear it. I should be focusing on the problem at hand. Not Brooke Garza.

Mission trip. Not enough chaperones. Canceled. Okay, I’m back.

I hate that it makes sense that the elders want Luke here. Things are definitely precarious right now. I can’t ask him to leave on a ten-day mission trip with me, not when he has so much to attend to here.

“I only agreed,” Luke is saying, “because I thought we had a spare chaperone. I didn’t receive word from Vivian until after my meeting with the elders.” He sighs. “I’ll go back and talk to them, Will. I do want to be on the trip. And I know how much time and effort you’ve put into planning it.”

“Nah, you don’t need to do that,” I tell him. “The elders are right. You should be here. Things are a mess right now. I’m sure I can find someone to replace you. I’ve still got two weeks, right?”

“Well, one, really,” Luke says apologetically. “We’ll need to give parents at least a week’s notice if we have to pull the plug on the trip.”

“Right. A week.” I nod. “Seven days. I’msure I can find someone.”

Luke studies me. “No, I’m going to ask the elders. They’ll understand.”

“No, no.” I hold up my hands. “It’s not necessary, Luke. I can find someone. I’m sure. The last thing I want is you losing your job because of this. Things are tenuous enough for you right now.”

“Well at least let me help you find someone to replace me,” he says.

“Okay, sure.” I nod. “You do owe me that, after all,” I tease. “Given the way I talked you back to your senses last night.”

“Ah, see now I thought maybeyouowedmeafter last night,” he replies. “I saw that performance with Brooke, and it would appear that I’m not the only one to fall under the spell of a Garza woman.”

“Oh please,” I say quickly, “it was just a performance.”

“Sure it was.” He’s not buying it. Which makes sense since I’m lying.

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