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Jenna laughed. It seemed to be a natural thing for her to do. “Let’s hope.”
“So. Give us the scoop on Noah. He’s one of the quieter ones. Keeps to himself. Always polite.” Megan set a book on the romance pile. “So basically, he’s either amazing or a secret serial killer.”
“Oh no. Nope. I’m not dishing on Noah. Everyone deserves to let their past stay in the past. I will say I’m not surprised that he’s quiet and polite. His parents were big on that.” Jenna pulled out a handful of smaller paperbacks and sorted through them quickly.
The bells over the door jangled again.
“It’s just me!” Whitney called out. Footsteps announced her arrival. “Why’s everyone on the floor?”
“We’re helping Megan sort books.” I gestured to the growing piles. “This is Jenna, Noah’s architect friend.”
“Right. Austin’s hired you for the learning center. How’s that going?” Whitney sat in a chair.
“Good. The demo’s nearly done, which is great. They were fast. And I emailed Austin plans this evening, so hopefully he’ll get a chance to go over the changes this weekend and maybe we’ll be closer to something final. Either way, we can get started on site prep starting Monday, but I’d love to get the ball rolling on the rest.” Jenna reached for more books.
I stood, then bent down and picked up part of the stack of the romance novels. “I’m going to start sticking these on the shelf.”
I wandered through the bookcases until I came to the right spot. I could still hear snippets of the girls’ conversation, but I didn’t try too hard to listen in. Jenna seemed nice. And professional. There was no reason for me to be irritated that she seemed to know so much more about the learning center progress than me. If I asked Austin for all the little details, he’d tell me.
I slid books onto the shelves.
The bright, glossy smiles of the couples on the covers made my heart ache.
Austin loved me. Right now was just a really hard time. For both of us.
We’d get through it.
And when we got to the other side, we’d be stronger for it.
I repeated the words to myself a few times. They were true.
They had to be.
26
AUSTIN
“That was some news, huh?” I glanced over to the passenger seat where Kayla sat. I’d picked her up for church this morning—something I’d been doing more frequently since we started dating officially. I liked the extra time it gave us together. Alone. And it meant we didn’t have to take two cars to lunch—and we could choose to go somewhere different than the rest of the group, too, if we wanted.
Today, that was exactly what I’d wanted. She’d seemed on board.
“Hey.” I reached over and squeezed her hand. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Sorry.” She flashed a quick smile. “Just thinking. You mean Luke’s resignation?”
I nodded. That was the news I’d meant. The pastor had mentioned it briefly during the announcements this morning. Most of the congregation had seemed surprised. The way she asked, I gathered she’d already known. “He didn’t give notice? Just quit?”
She shook her head. “He was willing to stay until they found a replacement.”
“Oh.” That didn’t make the pastor come off well. “That seems shortsighted.”
“Right? Do you think it’s common?”
“Is what common? Not letting someone work out their notice?”
She nodded.
“Maybe in an office setting. I don’t know much about how churches usually operate.” In fact, I’d never really been at a church where there was pastoral turnover. The old youth pastor leaving and Luke coming on had been my first exposure to the process, and even then, I couldn’t really use it as a yardstick.
