Read Online Annie's Answer by Pam Andrews Hanson - Free Book Online Page A

Mattie’s
hundred-dollar bill without comment.
    “Don’t you
have anything smaller?” the clerk asked.
    This from a
man who sold things worth hundreds and thousands of dollars.
    “No.”
    When he handed
her the change, not counting it out the way she’d been taught when she worked
the cash register at the pancake house, she immediately handed it to Nathan.
    “For your
aunt.”
    “She wanted
you to keep it,” he said in a mild sounding voice.
    “Thank you,
but no. I only accept tips when I wait tables. Now I’d better find my mother.
She’ll be wondering where I am.”
    She didn’t
wait to see whether Nathan managed to get his aunt’s ring cleaned and
inspected. The whole trip to the mall had been a fiasco. Now her mother would
ask her a million unanswerable questions about Nathan. Worse, she dreaded
seeing him again. Did he secretly resent the way she handled the jewelry store
manager instead of letting him persuade the man with money?
    It bothered
her how much she wanted his good opinion, although she didn’t even want to
think about why it mattered.

Chapter 8
    “Don’t try to
get out by yourself, Aunt Mattie,” Nathan said as he stopped his car as close
as possible to the church entrance. If there was one thing he didn’t want, it
was his aunt falling down and injuring herself even more.
    “I’m perfectly
capable of standing outside while you get my crutches from the back seat.” She
wouldn’t be his aunt if she didn’t argue, but at least she waited with the door
open while he rushed to help her.
    “I’m not used
to such a big church,” she commented. “I love our little wooden church in Iowa.
The steeple reaches up to heaven, reminding us of why we’re there. How old did
you say this building is?”
    “I didn’t,”
Nathan said, handing her the crutches. “It was built while I was in college.”
    “The tan brick
looks more like a bank than a church,” she said, “although I do like the
stained glass windows. I recognize our savior with the sheep, but some of them
are too modern to make out.”
    “The windows
on the right as you go in are scenes from the New Testament. Those on the left
are Old Testament.” Nathan remembered having the same conversation when he’d
brought her to church last week. “I’ll walk you to the door, then park the
car.”
    “I can make it
that far without help,” she said, although he suspected she liked the
attention.
    He was
thankful it was a friendly congregation. One of the greeters came up to his
aunt and asked about her ankle, giving her someone to talk to while he moved
his car to a parking spot. When he came back she was leaning on her crutches
and reading the bulletin.
    “It says here
Reverend Dwight Williams is giving the sermon,” she said. “Is he related to our
Annie?”
    Our Annie? Was
Mattie planning to adopt her? His first instinct had been to find an older
woman, maybe a retired nurse, to keep his aunt company. Had he made a mistake
throwing Annie to the lion, so to speak?
    “Her
grandfather,” he replied. “He’s the retired minister, but he fills in when
Reverend Graham takes vacation time.”
    “Our minister
didn’t believe much in time off. Good thing too. When  he was gone, Fred
Brewster read the sermon. He’s so boring the fish go to sleep when he takes a
boat out on the lake.”
    A man nearby
laughed at his aunt’s joke—or at his aunt. He didn’t want to know which.
    “Let’s go in,”
Nathan said as the organist began playing.
    “I don’t
recognize that hymn,” his aunt said. “Is it one of those in the green book? I
can’t get used to the words up on those big screens at the front, but I guess
it’s good for people who can’t see too well anymore.”
    Nathan put his
hand lightly on Mattie’s arm, hoping to guide her down to the pew where the
Sawyers always sat before she critiqued everything in the church.
    “Look, there’s
Annie. I didn’t recognize her until she turned her head to the side. I