Pastor's Assignment by Kim O'Brien Read Free Book Online Page A

Award.
    Sticking the jack beneath the car, Ty raised the vehicle off the pavement. It cocked its flat tire at him as if it were an injured hipbone. Ty wiped his face and reached for the lug nuts.
    Since Anna Mae had left him at the altar two years ago, Ty hadn’t dated much. He hadn’t had the energy or desire to get to know someone well enough to start a relationship. The way he saw it, a man either learned from his mistakes or repeated them. He’d learned.
    He’d never forget coming home from the wedding and walking into an empty house. While he’d been waiting to make his vows, she’d been making off with the gifts and furniture.
    He pulled the flat tire off the car and tipped it onto the hot cement. Wiping the grease off his hands onto a rag, he looked at his fingers. His knuckles were large, the center one slightly crooked. These were the hands of a policeman—cool, steady.
    These same hands weren’t so steady around Laney Varner. In fact, every time he was near her, he had the urge to hold her hand. More than that, he wanted to curl a strand of her hair around his finger and see if it was as soft as it looked.
    He didn’t have a category for someone who looked as fragile as a flower yet held a black belt in karate, who seemed to stumble through life yet held out her hand to help others. Namely him. She made him laugh, she made him paranoid, and she made him wish he’d chosen another spot to have his picnic lunch that day. She also made him glad he hadn’t.
    A small group of students trickled into the parking lot. He watched all six squeeze into a red compact car. Their clothing nearly brought a smile to his lips. The urge faded when he thought of his brother, Mickey, who had been a math teacher.
    He wiped his face. Returning his tools to the trunk, he gave into the urge to lift his face to the sun. For a moment, he closed his eyes, savoring the whisper of a breeze that cooled the sweat on his brow. In his mind, he could almost see Mickey leaning up against a tree, grinning at him from behind his sunglasses.
    Mickey led him into trouble, urging the release of the laboratory frogs, urging him to cut class and go fishing with him. He also had been a terrific mimic, able to imitate authority figures with ease and wit. Their Sunday school teacher, Mr. Jones, had caught him once. He and Mickey had spent the morning copying Bible verses as a result. Later, on the hill behind the church, they had rolled in the tall sweet grass, laughing until their ribs hurt.
    Ty saw his brother in every teacher who walked through the double doors of a school, heard his voice in the dull roar of students moving in the hallway between classes. Mickey always seemed a ghostlike presence hovering at the edge of his sight.
    Ty opened his eyes. He knew he wouldn’t find his brother at this school or any other. Yet when he looked up to see a hawk circling in the clear blue sky, he couldn’t help but imagine Mickey’s spirit soaring free, just like the hawk.
    If heaven was real, Mickey would be there. Ty wasn’t so sure he’d make it there himself. He and God weren’t exactly on speaking terms. Hadn’t been for quite awhile.
    Ty followed the hawk until it soared out of sight. He found himself in a small courtyard. There were five round cement tables with curved benches for sitting. In the center of the area stood a statue of a boy releasing a dove into the air.
    Mickey would have looked at the statue and thought up a good prank. He would have dressed the boy in a tuxedo during prom season or put long ears on it for Easter.
    Ty considered leaving a note for his brother in the hands of the statue. It was a crazy impulse, yet it seemed right, like putting flowers on a grave. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a small notepad. What should he say? He tapped the pencil on the paper. Say something, he ordered himself. You and Mickey used to do this all the time.
    And then he had the