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“Everything’s fine, in fact, I’m here to escort you to a special Sunday service,” he stated not letting them argue that it’d just cause issues when they were finally starting to have a bit of peace. They went up and quickly changed, heading over to the church while the early risers were downstairs having breakfast.
“Alright, what’s going on?” she asked as they moved into the vestibule finding Pastor Adams there with a few othersfrom the church council. Some of them were older than their fathers while others were a bit younger, but none of them was a Crawford or Anderson thankfully.
“Well, Sheriff Davies came to our meeting this week and let us know your reason for not coming to spend time with us recently,” Pastor Adams said, and Tyler’s arms brought her up against him further.
“We didn’t want the reason you weren’t coming to be due to the feud, fears of making it worse,” Deacon Joel added, “or for others to be unknown victims of it so we and some of the others got together to make a few changes.”
“We thought we’d see what you thought of them first,” Sheriff Davies said, and Pastor Adams pushed open the doors to the sanctuary, drawing a soft gasp from her. Instead of the two separate sections for the rows of pews, there was now five. Three near the front of the space with aisles between them and then the two longer sections filling up the remainder of the room.
“Now, the middle section is easy enough to move if we have a wedding in the place, but we thought it’d be a more neutral set up this way,” Pastor Adams explained. “Since most of your family likes to sit further back and the sanctuary opens up further up front, it fits three sections across easier.”
“I think it’s amazing,” Justine said, glancing up at Tyler who nodded, pressing a kiss to her forehead.
“So do I, babydoll. Gave you something to use those old pews from Grover’s church you restored too, didn’t it, Jack?” Tyler added and the smile on his face spoke volumes. “Explains why I saw a few trucks out at your place yesterday. There I was thinking you all were having a fishing party without me.”
“Fishing party?” Justine asked, looking around the group as more of them chuckled.
“Well, it’s just fishing, but sometimes it feels like a party when we get a decent haul and decide to do a cookout with it,” he told her with a little shrug.
“Especially when Tyler’s the one cooking them up,” Jack said, patting his shoulder.
“Mmm, maybe that’s what we should do for the dinner our moms want to do for our birthdays,” she suggested with a full grin up at him. “No one makes it quite the way you do.”
“That’s because I spent over a year perfecting the recipe, so you’d enjoy going out with me,” he teased making her giggle at the surprised looks that brought about. “But I only make that recipe for you. I normally make the pepper fiesta one whenever we do a cookout.”
“Now you’re making me hungry for fish, honey-bae,” she sighed, snuggling into his side further, as the term drew more looks from the group, but she didn’t care. It was a name that was special to them for several reasons that they definitely didn’t need to know.
“Then I guess it’s a good thing I grabbed some salmon at the store while you were out with the girls yesterday,” he said making her grin. “It looked fresher than the rest and I’ve had it marinating all night to make you the honey garlic bowls you like so much.”
“You’re the absolute best, you know that?” she said, lifting up to give him a soft kiss before looking back towards the group there. “Thank you, for all of this. Feeling like there was nothing we could do without causing more issues was hard.”
“You’re welcome Justine. We’ve seen the two of you around town and it’s obvious you’re meant to be together. We’re all rooting for you and for this feud to end,” Pastor Adams said, and she happily slipped up to a row in the middle section with Tyler. The pews were gorgeous, and she knew they were the ones Jack must have restored.
Tyler slipped his arm around her, just holding her, and she grinned when a while later they heard Pastor Adams’ voice telling those just coming in as well as those coming from their Sunday school classes, “Welcome everyone, please come in and join us. Things might look a little different, but the deacons and I thought it was time to make some changes.”
There were a few gasps as people came in and Justine looked down the aisle hearing a little squeal seeing the twins hurrying up it towards them. They turned, giving the twins hugs, and Justine ignored the few glares from her extended family that were unhappy to see it. She let out a happy sigh as the service started, Tyler’s arm sliding around her again, and she leaned her head on his shoulder not caring what anyone else thought. It felt right to be here with him, in his arms as they enjoyed time with everyone.
Chapter 16
Justine took a step back from the door when she saw the person behind it, a slight shock running through her, and she opened it a hint cautiously not knowing what her brothers might be doing there. Neither of them had come to the birthday dinner they’d had last month and now as fall was giving hint of winter coming quickly as November faded closer to December, she was surprised for them to show out of the blue like this.
She’d been with her new job a little over six weeks and loving it. Even with a few of the guys in the department that were friendly with one of the families giving her some second and third looks whenever she was in the office. That might be thanks to her deciding to use Crawford-Anderson as her last name though.
Tyler was good with it, said they should probably use it for any kids they had surprising her a bit, but she definitely didn’t hate the idea. Her mom had just smiled when she mentioned it in passing, before asking if that was her way of announcing their pregnancy. It wasn’t but just after that, she had her first cycle since getting her IUD removed. Her next, if normal, was due in a few days now.
They hadn’t taken any precautions to avoid her falling pregnant, but they also hadn’t been actively tracking and trying. If it didn’t happen in the next six months then they decided they’d check things out a bit more, but for now, they were good with whatever happened.
“Noah, Kevin…what are you doing here?” she asked, wrapping Tyler’s sweater further around her. He was out working late to help repair the school’s football field and grounds after it was mostly destroyed due to a car crashing through the bleachers on the open end of the stadium. The teen thankfully wasn’t injured, although his parents and the school administrators probably made him wish he were when it came out he was drunk when the crash happened. His car ran into the goalpost then caught fire, leaving them scrambling to get everything cleaned up so they could finish out the season. Something he was no longer allowed to participate in despite being the team’s first string wide receiver.
“We wanted to talk to you—alone,” Noah said making her chin rise a hint. “We heard that Tyler was out at the school still and figured it’d be our best chance to do it.”
“And what exactly do you want to talk to mealoneabout?” she asked, staying in the doorway not about to deal with trying to get them out of the house if they were simply here to argue with her over the marriage. She’d heard plenty of it from both of them after the truth came out and she’d barely spoken to either of them via text since then. She hadn’t spoken to Noah in person at all since then and only once to Kevin when she saw him in town while she was by herself.
“Maybe we should have said we wanted to talk to you alone first, before we talk to you and Tyler since we’re pretty sure you won’t want us talking to him by ourselves,” Kevin replied sending her brow upwards a hint further.
“To apologize,” Noah stated, and her brows shot all the way up as her jaw dropped a bit. “So can we come in?” he added when she just stood there staring at them for another minute.
“Uh yeah, sorry, just making sure I wasn’t losing my hearing there,” she said, letting them in before heading back to her little spot she’d made on the couch to wait for Tyler to get home. She was wearing a pair of sleep shorts and a tank top with his sweater that smelled exactly like him, and she curled up under the throw on the couch, a gentle fire burning in the large stone fireplace to ward off the chill in the air. She probably should get more wood but that would mean going out to the shed and she’d been too comfortable to do that.
