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“Hey,” Jane whispered back. “No Gerty and Mike?” She looked down the pew where Gerty, Mike, and West usually sat.
“I know,” Opal said. “I’m going to die without that baby as a distraction during the sermon.”
Jane grinned at her and shook her head. “Pastor Danielson actually says really good things.”
“I agree,” Opal whispered. “I just like listening while showing West barnyard animals.” She smiled at Jane. “But he’s running a low fever.” He’d been teething lately, and Opal had missed her goodnight kiss last night due to that fussy baby. They’d pulled up to the farmhouse only ten seconds before Mike had returned with West fast asleep in his carseat.
He’d taken him out for a drive to get him to go to sleep after Gerty had given him some baby Motrin to help with the teething.
“Mm,” Jane said. “Do you want to come to our place for lunch?”
“Yes,” Opal said.
“You didn’t text about your date.” Jane hit the T hard, even for a whisper.
“We got back late,” Opal said, watching the pulpit and praying the choir director would give the nod and this conversation would be drowned out by Hallelujahs. “He had tickets to that Christmas botanical display at the Chinese Royal Gardens.”
Opal couldn’t even say that without smiling, and she ducked her head away from Jane, as if she wouldn’t see. The woman saw everything.
Jane sucked in a breath that sounded a lot like a gasp. “Oh, boy. This Taggart Crow is aiming right for the heart.”
Opal giggled with her, and then Jane linked her arm through hers. “I have something to tell you.” She spoke in that conspirational whisper that made Opal’s heartbeat skip.
“Oh? Family gossip? This close to Christmas?” She hoped it would be in Jane’s branch of the family and not hers, because Opal wanted the Christmas party at the farmhouse to go without a hitch.
“You can’t tell anyone.”
“Who would I tell?”
“Gerty,” Jane whispered. “Mike. Tag.”
“I’ll only tell West,” Opal said with a grin. “Though asking me not to tell Mike and Gerty is pretty rough. Maybe I don’t want to know.”
Jane hesitated, and she looked over to Cord. He looked at her too, his usual stoic-ness fastened securely in place. He searched her face, and she leaned closer to him to whisper something in his ear. He bent his head so her mouth would be closer to him, and Opal shivered just thinking about having a man do that for her.
Someone who was so interested in what she had to say, he just had to get closer to hear. And he’d reply, which would put his soft breath on her neck, and she’d cuddle into his chest, and he’d put his arm around her to keep her there.
Her fantasies evaporated as Jane turned back to her. “You can tell Gerty and Mike, but no one else. We’ve only told my parents.”
Opal met her eye, her brain whirring. Something Jane and Cord had only told her parents…. She sucked in the same type of breath Jane had a moment ago as Jane said, “I’m pregnant, Opal.”
She glowed with happiness, and while Opal’s eyes filled with tears, so did Jane’s. She giggled again, and Opal leaned over and pressed her cheek to hers again. “Oh, this is great news; not gossip. Congratulations, my lovely.”
Opal looked over to Cord, and she reached past Jane and squeezed his hand. “Congratulations, Cord.”
“Thank you,” he murmured, but his tough-cowboy façade fell as he allowed a smile to touch his mouth. “We’re real excited about it.” He looked at Jane. “Obviously.”
“Oh, don’t be like that,” she whisper-hissed at him. “I’m not going to tell anyone else.”
“All right,” Cord whispered, plenty of disbelief in those two, soft-spoken words.
Opal simply grinned through their brief exchange, and she looked up and to her right this time as more people arrived on their row. Tag, followed by Carrie and Kyle.
“Hey,” Tag said quietly as he sat beside her. In that moment, the choir director gave the cue, because the band started as the robed singers took their spots up on the stage. Opal didn’t have a chance to respond, and she got to her feet to join her clapping to the music.
When they sat for the opening hymn—a much slower, more reverent song—Opal erased a couple of inches between her and Tag. They hadn’t talked about sitting together at church, as Tag didn’t come all the time, and when he did, he sat by Gerty and Mike and Gerty’s grandparents.
She smiled at him and pulled out the hymnal so she could be ready for the congregational hymn. When it was time, she tilted the book toward Tag, and he took the right side of it and held it. Warmth filled Opal, and not only because she loved hymns and the spirit they brought into her life.
