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KATRINA HADN’T TAKEN her eyes off the clock. Ten minutes late. It wasn’t that big of a deal. But what if he’d gotten in a car wreck? Snow had fallen last night, and the roads were icy.
She unpacked Dmitry, strummed the strings to make sure he was in tune, and set him back in his case in order to stare at the clock some more.
Where was Miles?
She replayed their conversation yesterday at the school. She’d asked him about meeting here at the church, and he’d said that wouldn’t be a problem.
For the past ten minutes, she’d been walking alternatively from the front of the sanctuary to the window overlooking the parking lot. Every so often, she’d take a detour to the cry room and glance at the piano. She should start her warmups, but she didn’t want to bother her husband, who was hard at work in his office. Apparently, the previous pastor hadn’t created his budget proposal with the right template, so Greg had to toss out all that he’d already worked on and start over again by hand.
The last thing she wanted to do was bother him, but at exactly 3:14, she knocked timidly on his door.
“Come in.” His voice was cheerful. Maybe he was expecting someone else.
She nudged the door open and stood at the threshold. His church office was always so intimidating. Expansive shelves lined one full wall and half of another, piled in some spots two or three books deep. Most of the titles had been inherited from previous pastors or donated from the Christian bookstore when it went out of business.
She didn’t step in but bit her lip when Greg passed her an impatient glance. “Yeah?”
“My teacher hasn’t shown up. I wonder if he’s waiting for me at the school.” Tucked within the statement, clear from the upward lilt of her voice, was a question. What was she supposed to do now? It was Greg’s idea that they move the lessons here. They hadn’t discussed what would happen if Miles didn’t show.
Greg flipped a page of his budget report with ink-smeared fingers. “So go to the school and find out.”
And that was her answer. “Ok.” She didn’t wait for him to look up, discuss the issue further, or change his mind. She took one tentative step into his formidable workspace, reached for the car keys on the corner of his desk, and made a hasty retreat, careful to shut her husband’s door behind her.