A Baby For The Minister

A minister with a heart of gold…

and a pregnant bride with no groom!

Jilted at the altar, Natalie Davis has no one she can turn to—until Jacob Stone steps in. The single minister’s drawn to the beautiful mommy-to-be and wants to help…even if it goes against his congregation’s wishes and could cost him his job. But when she refuses to accept charity, can he convince her she’s more than a ministry project?

LAUREL BLOUNT lives on a small farm in Middle Georgia with her husband, David, their four children, a milk cow, dairy goats, assorted chickens, an enormous dog, three spoiled cats and one extremely bossy goose with boundary issues. She divides her time between farm chores, homeschooling and writing, and she’s happiest with a cup of steaming tea at her elbow and a good book in her hand.

Also By Laurel Blount

Love Inspired

A Family for the Farmer

A Baby for the Minister

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

A Baby for the Minister

Laurel Blount

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-08594-6

A BABY FOR THE MINISTER

© 2018 Laurel Blount

Published in Great Britain 2018

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

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Her little son was absolutely perfect…

“He’s zonked. Our Ethan’s a great little sleeper.”

Our Ethan. A fresh wave of confused longing rose up in Natalie, painful feelings she had no idea what to do with.

“You’ve been sleeping pretty well yourself.” Jacob smiled at her. “I’m glad. You earned it.”

“You must be pretty exhausted, too.”

Dark circles shadowed his eyes, but when their glances met, he offered her another easy smile.

“Don’t worry about me. Not the first night I’ve spent at the hospital. Besides, I had the easy job.” His tired smile widened. “You were the superhero.”

“Not me.” Natalie shook her head. “I was scared to death.”

“That’s what makes it amazing. You pushed through the fear and pain with everything you had. It was one of the bravest things I’ve ever seen. Nope,” he said as Natalie started to speak. “No arguing. I was there. I saw it. Give yourself some credit, Natalie. You’re way stronger than you seem to think.”

Dear Reader,

Hello! I’m so glad you found your way to Pine Valley, Georgia. If you read my first book, A Family for the Farmer, then we’re old friends! If not, I’m so pleased you let me share A Baby for the Minister with you. Come sit down at the kitchen table, let me pour you a cup of tea and we’ll get ourselves acquainted!

I’m a Georgia girl, so I feel right at home in this small town! It was wonderful to revisit some of the characters from my first story, and I enjoyed helping bachelor Jacob Stone find his very own happy ending. And I don’t think the good pastor has anything to complain about, do you? After all, he didn’t just end up with a beautiful bride, but he got an adorable baby son to boot!

Getting to know Natalie was a delight, too. She’s a brand new Christian, still sorting through the mistakes of her past—and she’s had some unfortunate church-related experiences that make her leery of Jacob’s kindness. But with the help of the Good Lord (along with a bossy church secretary and a rambunctious billy goat), she and Jacob overcome all the obstacles to their happily-ever-after.

This story was such fun to write that I hope these old Georgia back roads lead me to Pine Valley for another visit or two. In the meantime, I’d love to hear from you! Drop me a line at laurelblountwrites@gmail.com or come look me up on Facebook. I’m always ready for a chat!

Laurel

For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over

and gone; The flowers appear on the earth;

the time of the singing of birds is come, and the

voice of the turtle is heard in our land.

—Song of Solomon 2:11–12

For my beloved parents-in-law, Lamont and Annette Blount, whose kindness, integrity and strength bless all who know them, and whose real-life love story is more inspiring than any I could ever write.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Introduction

Dear Reader

Bible Verse

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Epilogue

Extract

About the Publisher

Chapter One

Pastor Jacob Stone strode down the carpeted halls of the unfamiliar church, hoping he was headed in the right direction. He’d told the nervous bridegroom he’d be back in five minutes, and he was way past that deadline now. “My notes for the budget meeting are in the blue folder, Arlene. Keep looking.”

“Good gracious, Jacob, this desk is like a landfill.” He could hear rustling through his cell phone as his elderly secretary rummaged through stacks of paper. “No wonder you can’t keep track of anything. Okay, I’ve found the folder. What am I supposed to do with it?”

“Make copies and take them to the conference room.” Jacob checked his watch. “Then just sit in for me until I get there. I shouldn’t be more than twenty minutes late. Twenty-five, tops.”

“Five minutes late would be too much.” Arlene made a tsking sound. “You’re already on thin ice with Digby Markham because you skipped out on his businessmen’s luncheon last week. I really don’t see why you agreed to do this wedding. It’s not even at our church.”

“I told you—it was a last-minute thing. Pastor Michaelson came down with the flu.” Jacob halted in front of the third door on the left. He was almost sure this was where he’d left the groom.

“Yes, but I don’t see why Good Shepherd’s emergency is our problem, especially when you already had Digby’s meeting on the calendar. You need to start saying no.”

“We’re talking about somebody’s wedding, Arlene. I couldn’t say no.”

Well, he could have. He just hadn’t wanted to.

From the moment Digby had taken over as the chairman of Pine Valley Community Church’s board, the banker had been clogging Jacob’s schedule with endless meetings, all of which circled back to the same old topic: whether or not their little church should construct a fancy new fellowship hall.

Jacob already knew his answer to that question, and he was tired of arguing the same points over and over. A last-minute wedding made a welcome change.

Arlene sighed. “You really need to watch your step right now, Jacob. The whole church is up in arms, and people are choosing sides. Digby might be a frustrating old fusspot, but plenty of folks are backing him up on this.”

“We don’t need a new fellowship hall. There are way too many genuine needs in our community for us to waste money on a new building when the space we already have is perfectly—”

“Adequate.” Arlene finished the sentence with him. “So you’ve said. But it may surprise you to know that there are a good many people in our church who don’t agree with your ideas of what’s adequate.”

No, that didn’t surprise him. But it worried him. His church was pretty much the only family he had. He didn’t like being on the outs with them. Still, it was his job to make the right decisions, not the popular ones.

“I don’t think it sends the right message for us to fundraise right now. Since the textile plant shut down, half our town is out of work. We can talk about a new fellowship hall later, when our neighbors aren’t worried about losing their homes.”

“I’m already on your side, so you can save your breath. But I’ll tell you this—a lot of people with some serious social clout want this fellowship hall to go forward. If you don’t let them have it, you stand a good chance of losing your pulpit.”

His cranky secretary actually sounded worried. “Aw. Would you miss me, Arlene?”

She snorted. “Don’t you flatter yourself. I’m just too old to train up another new preacher. Now, enough of this jibber-jabber. You’d best get that couple married and get back here where you belong.”

Jacob sighed as he slipped his phone back into his pocket. Arlene was right. He needed to get back to Pine Valley Community as soon as he could.

First, though, he had a wedding to perform and a spooked groom to deal with.

He needed to focus. Jacob closed his eyes and murmured a prayer.

Then he sucked in a deep breath, fixed a smile on his face and pushed open the door to the choir room.

“All right! Let’s get this show on the...”

He froze, the rest of his cheery speech forgotten as he took in the scene in front of him.

Long gray curtains rippled as a chilly April breeze blew through the open window, filling the room with the smell of pine trees and wet asphalt. A crushed white boutonniere lay discarded on the carpet. The groom... What was his name again?

Adam Larkey.

Adam was nowhere to be seen.

Jacob’s heart gave one slow, painful thump, then revved into high gear. He crossed the room in two strides and batted the fluttering curtains aside to scan the damp parking lot. Sure enough, a bumper-sticker-encrusted Jeep that he’d noticed earlier had vanished, replaced by a rectangle of dry pavement.

Oh brother. This was bad.

Really, really bad.

The ceremony was due to start in exactly eight minutes, and Elvis had left the building.

He’d never had anybody actually bolt from a wedding before. This was uncharted territory.

Oh, he’d dealt with panicky grooms plenty of times. What minister hadn’t? That was why, when the first words out of Adam Larkey’s mouth had been “I don’t think I can do this, bro,” Jacob hadn’t taken it all that seriously.

Apparently, he should have.

He hadn’t believed for a minute that Larkey was serious about skipping out. Grooms never were, not really.

And there was no way Jacob could’ve suspected that this guy would be the world’s one exception because Jacob had never met either member of this wedding party before.

In fact, he still hadn’t laid eyes on the bride. He’d skidded into the church only a scant half hour before the wedding was scheduled to start. Since then he’d been so busy coping with Adam and Arlene that he hadn’t had time to speak with the bride.

Well, he was definitely going to have to go talk to her now. He checked his watch again and winced. Zero hour.

There was no way around it. He had to go tell some poor woman that her fiancé had just climbed out of a window rather than marry her.

This was not going to be fun.

Jacob threaded his way back through the narrow halls toward the bride’s dressing room, racking his brain for the best way to break the news. Unfortunately, Good Shepherd Church wasn’t much bigger than his own, and he was standing outside the door before he came up with anything useful.

He spread his hand flat against the wood of the door and bowed his head. Please, Lord. Help me to find the best words to explain this mess. Help this woman, whoever she is, to handle what I’m about to tell her with the kind of grace and peace only You can give. Carry her through this disappointment, Father, and heal her heart. Amen.

As if on cue, the door opened a crack, and Jacob found himself looking down into a woman’s wide brown eyes.

“Is it time?”

Her voice wobbled as she tucked loosened strands of maple-sugar hair back into a softly coiled bun. She wore no veil, and Jacob had seen enough brides to know that the simple hairdo and light makeup were her own work. Not surprising, since this was supposed to be a no-frills wedding.

He forced a smile and extended his hand through the cracked door. “I’m Pastor Jacob Stone from Pine Valley Community Church. I’m pinch-hitting for Pastor Michaelson today.”

“Oh! It’s nice to meet you.” The woman accepted his hand, her fingers icy in his. “I’m Natalie Davis. Are you ready for me now?”

“Not exactly. There’s been a small...uh...glitch.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he cringed. A small glitch?

“Another one?” Natalie laughed nervously. “First my car wouldn’t start, then the minister gets sick and now this. I’m starting to wonder if this wedding is even going to happen today.”

“May I come in? We need to talk.”

The bride’s creamy skin went a shade paler. “All right. Come on in and have a seat.” Pulling the door open wide, she turned sideways, making room for him to enter.

Jacob didn’t budge. For the second time that afternoon, he found himself frozen on a threshold with no clue what to do next.

He’d thought this wedding couldn’t get any more complicated. He’d been wrong.

In the back of his bewildered mind at least a hundred alarm bells were going off at once. He had no idea what to say. In fact, at that moment, he knew only three things for certain.

First, there was no way he was making it to that meeting. Arlene would just have to cope with Digby and the board on her own.

And second, he should definitely have taken Adam Larkey’s prewedding freak-out a whole lot more seriously.

Because the third thing he knew for sure was—that wasn’t a bridal gown Natalie Davis was wearing.

It was a maternity dress.

“You’re pregnant?” He didn’t know why he made it sound like a question. With a baby bump of that size, there was absolutely no doubt about it.

* * *

Natalie’s cheeks were stinging so hard that she knew they must be as red as apples, but she forced a little laugh. “Eight months and counting. Please. Come on in”

She made her way back to the worn armchair, her Bible lying open on its seat. A few more minutes and one short ceremony and she could get out of this church and stop blushing every time somebody mentioned her pregnancy. She wasn’t sure which of those two things she was looking forward to more.

It was hard being a new Christian when your past mistakes were so obvious.

She picked up the book and lowered herself gingerly back into the chair. She was glad she’d brought her Bible with her. Changing into her nicest maternity dress hadn’t taken very long, and as the hour of her wedding approached, she’d grown more and more nervous.

She’d seen the quick, sidelong glances as she’d hurried down the hallway to this room. It certainly wasn’t the first time church ladies had looked down their noses at her, but today, with her nerves already jumping, it was all a little too much. So she’d turned to the Psalms, hoping to find some peace.

The Bible was still pretty unfamiliar territory, but whispering the calming verses aloud had helped her settle down. Unfortunately, the serious look on this handsome minister’s face was stirring all her butterflies right back up again.

He lingered in the doorway for a second. When he finally did come over to claim the empty chair, his leg brushed hers and she caught a whiff of spicy, masculine soap. She scooted a little farther away, wishing their seats weren’t quite so close together.

This man sure didn’t look like any preacher she’d ever seen before. He was way too good-looking, for one thing. As if being born with golden hair and sea-blue eyes wasn’t enough, he also sported a strong square chin and broad, quarterback shoulders.

He was watching her silently, drumming his fingers on his knees.

“You look like you’ve had the wind knocked out of you, Pastor. I’m guessing nobody told you about my...condition?”

The minister cleared his throat. “No, I’m afraid not.”

Not this again. Old Pastor Michaelson had only agreed to marry them after a long and embarrassing lecture. She wasn’t sure she could take another one of those, not right now. “Do you have a problem performing the ceremony? Because I’m pregnant, I mean?”

This was exactly why she’d lobbied for a courthouse wedding. She’d been getting this kind of reaction from people ever since the day she’d had to change into maternity clothes. If she hadn’t needed her new faith so desperately, she might have given up on religion altogether.

As it was, she’d just given up on churches.

But this man immediately shook his head.

“No! Not at all.” The denial came out with such force that Natalie actually believed him. “Sorry, it’s just...there’s no easy way to say this.” The minister took a deep breath and looked at her directly. She braced herself.

“What?”

“Adam has had some...uh...second thoughts.”

“Second thoughts?” Natalie blinked. That was the reason for all this?

She’d had a few second thoughts of her own. But in the end she always came back to the same hard truth.

Marrying Adam was the right thing to do.

“But isn’t that pretty normal?” she asked. Especially for a man who’d basically been strong-armed by his grandmother into getting married in the first place.

She kept that last bit to herself. There was no need for everybody to know that the father of her baby had needed an awful lot of convincing to marry her. This situation was already humiliating enough.

“It’s totally normal, but I’m afraid this is more serious than an ordinary case of cold feet.” He paused. “I’m so sorry.”

Natalie’s heart fell. He was so sorry. That could only mean one thing.

The wedding was off.

She could feel him watching her, obviously braced for some kind of explosion. Well, he was wasting his time. She was way too exhausted for anything like that.

Instead, she just blinked at the burgundy carpet, her still-new Bible pressed against the bulge of her pregnant tummy, her brain struggling to catch up.

Could this really be happening? After all the praying, all the planning... Adam was dumping her here at the last possible minute? Seriously?

What on earth was she going to do now?

“Natalie? Could I go out to the sanctuary and get somebody for you? Your mom? A sister, maybe?”

She brought her gaze back to his face. “No,” she managed. “There’s nobody. I don’t actually...have much family.”

The worry in his eyes morphed into a compassion so warm that she had to fight a crazy urge to bury her face in his shoulder and sob.

“I understand,” he said. “Well, in that case, Natalie, I—”

He was interrupted by a knock on the door. A blonde woman who’d introduced herself to Natalie earlier as the church pianist poked her head in the room, her eyes wide. “There you are, Pastor Stone! I’m so sorry to interrupt, but there’s a lady out here who really wants a word with you.”

“Step aside, please.” Natalie winced as she recognized the voice booming from the hallway. She really didn’t feel up to coping with Adam’s grandmother right now.

Cora Larkey pushed herself into the small room, the stiff veil on her lime-green hat trembling. Her entire outfit was the same shade, and she had the white rose corsage Natalie had given her earlier pinned to her substantial bosom.

“This wedding was supposed to start a half hour ago. What’s going on?” Cora’s blue eyes flittered between Natalie and the minister. “Where’s my grandson? And who on earth are you?”

The last question was directed at Jacob Stone, who cast a quick, concerned glance at Natalie before rising from his seat. He introduced himself to the elderly lady and ushered her into the chair he’d just vacated.

Natalie wished he hadn’t. As Cora sank down, a dense cloud of her expensive perfume replaced the light scent of his soap, making Natalie feel faintly queasy.

The minister unfolded a metal chair that had been leaning against one wall and sat down across from them. Natalie listened tensely as he repeated his news to Cora, adding some details that made Natalie cringe. Now she was the one bracing for an explosion. She knew from personal experience that Adam’s grandmother didn’t take bad news well.

“He did what?” Sure enough, Cora started spluttering in the middle of the explanation. “That aggravating boy! Of course,” she added quickly, darting an alarmed look at the minister’s face, “he’s young. He’ll come around and do the right thing eventually, I’m sure. But this is quite...difficult.” Her small eyes flickered back over to Natalie. “Could I have a moment alone with the bride, Pastor? The two of us need to talk privately.”

“Of course.” The minister stood. Judging by that relieved look on his face, Adam wasn’t the only man who wanted to run away from her today. “I’ll be just outside if you need me.”

As soon as he’d closed the door, the older woman shifted in her chair and pointed a finger at Natalie. “I should have known the two of you would pull something like this. Well, it won’t work. I made myself very clear. You’re not getting any help from me until you’re decently married.”

“I had nothing to do with this!”

“You expect me to believe that? You never wanted to have this wedding in a church. You made that very plain.”

“I just thought a civil ceremony would be less stressful for everybody, and more appropriate, given the...circumstances. That’s all.”