The Happy Hour Choir by Sally Kilpatrick Read Free Book Online Page B

none taken, Luke. We old people are notoriously crotchety and set in our ways. It’s common knowledge.”
    â€œNobody likes change,” I murmured. The words rolled off my tongue of their own accord, but I realized I’d spent the past nine years of my life in a rut. It hadn’t been an unpleasant rut, but a rut nonetheless.
    â€œWell, change has to happen. Without it, County Line will shrivel up and die.”
    The idle chatter around us chose that moment to lull. The Powers family looked up from their booth across the restaurant to see who was going to die and what all the fuss was about. I held my eyes on Luke’s. I was not going to think about anything or anyone shriveling up and dying.
    â€œAnd that is why we don’t talk business at Sunday lunch,” Ginger said with a sigh. “You’ll be happy to know we also don’t allow sermon dissection until suppertime. That gives us ample time to properly digest the message.”
    Luke and I stared at each other, neither one of us willing to look away first.
    Ginger put her napkin down on the table. “Come on, you two, that’s enough fussing for one day. Let’s walk on outside and let poor Jorge turn over his table.”
    Luke snatched the bill and went ahead to the counter while I helped Ginger slide out of the booth. Even mad, he was a man of his word. For a moment I thought he would walk out the door and not look back, but he waited at the door and held it open for us.
    Once outside, Ginger pointed a palsied finger first at him then at me. “You. And you. Sit.”
    We both sat, next to each other, on a bench.
    â€œBeulah, you are going to have to follow Luke’s rules because he is, for now, your boss.”
    â€œBut—”
    â€œNo buts. Luke, you need to get together with Beulah and talk about hymns because she’s right. You can preach like crazy, but you don’t know jack about music.”
    â€œBut—”
    â€œNo buts from you, either, young man. Now, the only thing that’s going to shrivel up and die around here is me, so you can just get it out of your head that the whole church is going to—to Hades in a handbasket if you don’t ‘save’ it. Besides, I have some news for both of you.”
    She paused dramatically, daring either one of us to stop her.
    â€œBeulah, Luke is right. The little brown book isn’t full of old hymns. It’s full of hymns that were new back when I was knee-high to a grasshopper. I simply prefer the songs of my youth,” she concluded with a sniff.
    I looked over at Luke, who was entirely too smug.
    â€œAnd you, young man, should realize that many of the songs in that book are popular because they’re powerful. No need to ignore them completely and throw the baby out with the bathwater. And Beulah’s right about the ‘Soon and Very Soon’ massacre. I cringed.”
    That wiped the smirk off his face.
    â€œNow, it’s not really about what songs you sing,” Ginger continued. “You had a nice new family join this morning, and they joined because your words spoke to them. So did Beulah’s music. Imagine what would happen if the two of you ever learned to work together.”
    Luke and I looked at each other, two kids who’d been called to the side of the playground for fighting. I didn’t want to work with him, and he sure as heck hadn’t asked to work with me. I was about to tell Ginger that, but Luke spoke first.
    â€œAll right, Miss Ginger, what do you propose?”
    On the one hand, I liked the fact that he was willing to listen to Ginger. He certainly didn’t have to. He draped an arm over the bench behind him, clearly relaxed. He wasn’t going to do a thing he didn’t want to, but he also didn’t see the need to tick off an old lady.
    Her mouth turned upward a hair, and I felt a twinge of jealousy for how quickly he’d wormed himself into her good graces.