Page 44 of I'll Be There
Liza sat in Pastor Dan’s office, the wedding program on her lap, going through the order of service.
Without her groom.
“Do you want to wait?” Dan asked. He sat across from her at his desk, three bookcases of theology books behind him, his laptop closed. He wore a long-sleeved, blue dress shirt rolled up to the elbows, a pair of jeans. Handsome, faithful, wise, and now kind as he leaned back, folded his hands.
“I don’t know.” Liza picked up her phone. She’d texted Conner twice, but he hadn’t answered. And the hands on the clock inched painfully long after three o’clock, nosing closer to four. “I think I forgot, in all the craziness, to tell him. I can’t remember.”
Still, she couldn’t ignore the niggle inside that his lateness served as yet another sign.
Not only did they not have a reception hall, but if he didn’t show up, pronto, they wouldn’t be legally married. Notto mention the fact that the very thought of their life after marriage lit hysterics inside her.
Wow, she still wanted to wince at the recollection of Grace finding her mid-meltdown.
Yeah, the coffee had helped. And, her brief conversation with Conner. He’d sounded preoccupied, but—Nothing’s going to keep me from marrying you on Monday—yeah, that statement had shored up her fraying edges.
They would be fine. Just...
Her phone buzzed with a return text from Conner.Where are you?
She texted back her location, looked up at Dan. “He’ll be here. I think he was just away from cell service as he drove down Highway 61.”
“There are a lot of pockets where cell towers drop coverage,” Dan said. “But I’m running a little short on time—why don’t we go through the hymns. We’ll cover the order of service at the rehearsal tomorrow night. Four o’clock, here, right?”
She nodded. “Then dinner at Pierre’s Pizza—we thought it would be nostalgic. We had pizza on our first date—although not really a date because we were just walking around the art show downtown. He was here with his hotshots fighting the fire up north. He needed a friend—someone away from the fire line—just to decompress.”
Dan raised an eyebrow. “I’m sure he wasn’t thinking, ‘Hey, let’s just be friends.’”
“What—yes. We were just friends. And then, after a few years of corresponding...”
Dan gave her a smile, shaking his head. “You know, guys don’t need friends. They have them—with the other guys. He was hanging around you because he liked you, Liza. Even if he wouldn’t admit it.”
Oh.
“Tell me about the Jude County Smoke Jumpers. I met the hotshot team when they were here that summer—but I don’t know much about smoke jumpers.”
“They’re the elite firefighters who go deep into a remote location by jumping from an airplane. They drag in their gear—from axes to water cans to camping equipment—which they lug around on their backs, and they fight the fire with just their brute strength, trying to tame it before it gets out of hand.”
“Sounds like the military.”
“Conner is a former Green Beret. And a lot of the guys who are smoke jumpers served, so yeah. The camaraderie builds in the same way. Conner’s really committed to his team.”
And with those words, her gut started to churn.
“So...he’s going to continue his work after you’re married?” Dan said, as if he could see through to her soul.
Liza forced a smile. “Why not? Of course. He’s good at it, and he loves it, and...”
Silence.
Dan raised an eyebrow. “And?”
“Just because he’s getting married doesn’t mean he needs to sacrifice something he loves, right?”
Dan nodded, something small, almost acquiescing.
“And you? What about your pottery shop? Is he moving here, or—”
Liza blew out a breath. “We’re still figuring that out.”
