Small-Town Brides Read Online Free PDF

Clay put his hat back on his head before he reached out and shook the minister’s hand. He figured that got him one step closer to leaving.
    â€œI’m Matthew Curtis. Rene’s uncle.”
    â€œClay Preston.”
    The handshake was over and Clay glanced over at the door. “I—ah—”
    Matthew coughed. “Don’t leave yet. I just got a call and we have a car stuck east of here.”
    Rene’s aunt leaned forward on her crutch. “But the snowplow’s working the road to the west.”
    The man nodded. “That was the Miles City sheriff on the phone. He got a call about a family with a baby in some car. The connection didn’t hold for long. Anyway, the sheriff wants us to send someone out right away. It’s where County Road J crosses over. A little baby can get cold mighty fast, and we’re a lot closer than Miles City.”
    Clay felt his muscles relax. He had an excuse to leave. “I’ll go get them. My truck cuts through snow almost as good as a plow does.”
    The minister started beaming. “You’re an answer to our prayers.”
    Clay felt his breath catch in his chest. He looked over at Rene. He couldn’t tell what she thought, but she lookedsurprised. Well, so was he. People had called him some strange things in his day, but no one had ever called him an answer to prayer before, not even when they saw his hat.
    â€œIt’s nothing. Anyone would do the same,” Clay said. He hoped no one was going to hug him again.
    â€œMaybe so, but none of us have a vehicle that can get through on a night like this. That’s why we met here. We were trying to figure out what we would do if we did get a call and needed to send someone out.”
    â€œWell, I’ll be happy to help,” Clay told the man. He’d be able to slip away after he brought those people back from the cold. When he thought about it, he was glad he was here. Right now, those people needed his help a whole lot more than they needed God’s.
    Of course, it would not be respectful to tell the minister that. Clay didn’t share the pastor’s belief in a God who actually listened to people, but, like Rene’s foolishness about love, he could understand how people would want these things to be true. Emotions, he’d noticed in his forty-one years, led people to believe some strange things. Look at him.
    He believed that cross he pinned to his hat made him closer to the father he’d never met. His mother had given him the tie tack one day, almost throwing the thing at him while muttering that she didn’t want anything that reminded her of the complete failure his father had been. Clay knew he himself was also a disappointment to his mother, so he held on to the tie tack as though it might someday show him what his father had done that was so wrong.

Chapter Three
    C lay pulled his Stetson low on his face. If he had more time, he’d unload Rene’s car before he left. But bringing in that family came first. Everything should be ready to go in a few minutes.
    Midnight showed through the church windows, and low-wattage bulbs on the ceiling lit up Rene’s face as she stood beside a pew sorting through a cardboard box of stray mittens. Some of the gloves were red. Some blue. Others were a rainbow of colors.
    Apparently, people lost their belongings in churches just as often as they did at rodeos, Clay mused. There were more children’s mittens in the box than he usually saw, but that was the only difference.
    Rene had already apologized three times for the misunderstanding about him being her boyfriend. He could have avoided the last two apologies if her aunt and uncle hadn’t decided they needed to find some food for the stranded family. The older couple had gone into the church kitchen and the two other men had gone into one of therooms to draw a map showing the gravel road to the east where the car was supposed to be. No one