Mammoth Secrets by Ashley Elizabeth Ludwig Read Free Book Online Page A

to see how the next generation of his congregation could set things in motion.
    An idea seeded in his gut. Jake checked his sign. It looked firm, but he knew from construction that it would continue to set for days, if not weeks. Just because it looked strong on the outside didn’t mean it was finished. And neither was this little church. He trotted up the trio of steps, inside the unadorned sanctuary. At first sight? It looked naked. But now? Maybe that was just as it should be. Plastered white walls, save for handmade quilts—each a work of art in its own right, centered with a verse from scripture–made by the women of the Quilting Guild, of which he’d read Naomi Dale was in charge.
    In the back, light streamed through the cracked stained glass.
    The image startled him in its clarity and unique style. Jesus as a shepherd, a lamb cradled in his arms, stood before the rest of the sheep on a distant Ozark hill. In between the thoughtful shepherd and his flock, the river flowed around black rocks; a lake bloomed out from the spring, the message of the parable clear in the stylized face. The artisan set the scene at the heart of Mammoth, at Cherokee Springs Park.
    “I asked for it, didn’t I, Father?” Jake stood in wonder, bathed in the warm, vibrant rainbow of color streaming through that window. “Just go easy on me until I get my footing.”
    A floor-to-ceiling crack in the panes that split the hillside flock in two. The breeze sailed through. That’d have to be fixed, for sure, somehow.
    Someday.
    If he stayed.
    Decide.
    With the boxed lunch out on his desk, he rattled ice in the cup and sipped. Jake dragged out a phone book, note pad, and pen and set to work.
     
     
     
     

8
     
    By the time the deacons arrived for their weekly meeting, Jake had more questions for them than answers. How did anyone get anything done here in this trough of a valley? Businesses didn’t answer their phones, and the ones that did weren’t interested. As far as he could tell, Tom’s assessment that he was the only contractor within two hundred miles wasn’t far from the truth.
    Another car parked. Out the window, a trio of “Hey” and “How do” in that Ozarkian twang had him smiling. The slow speech matched the snail’s pace lifestyle he wasn’t sure he’d ever get used to. He stepped out of the office and into the main meeting room.
    Metal folding chairs were set up across the tile floor. Someone dusted off the podium. A table had cookies and brownie bars, next to a perking industrial coffee dispenser, and Emma Thompson arranged paper cups and napkins. Pregnant belly tenting the dress she wore, she nodded to her tall, lanky husband. “That’ll set you up, Scottie. Evenin’, Pastor Jake.”
    They said how d’ya dos and nibbled her homemade cookies. He lasered attention on her sweet, twanging tone. Most certainly, she’d left one or more of those anonymous prayer requests about Lilah.
    “This’n can’t get here soon enough.” She rubbed a protective circle over her broad belly. “I got hands to help, with my eldest daughter, but she’s got high school midterms and college scholarships to apply for. She don’t need to end up mothering four kids before she’s thirty. No offense, Scottie.”
    “None taken, doll.” He kissed the top of her head and smiled. “Go rescue Charla before the little ones tear her project to shreds.” Love shining in his gaze, Scott watched his wife leave then turned to Jake as the door closed. “We got married right out of high school. Never had much. She worked as a grocery checker until I got my teaching degree.”
    “You’ve got a beautiful family.”
    “The Lord just gave us a hefty blessing in that area.”
    That brought a handful of laughs from around the room.
    Scott clapped Jake on the shoulder. “Go meet the others. This here ministry’s mine and Emma’s.”
    Jake caught the slightest tinge of concern in Scott’s eyes. The look vanished as quickly as it arrived, but