Pastor's Assignment by Kim O'Brien Page A

of hair around her ear and sighed in a sympathetic sort of way. “Nobody tells you how stressful an engagement can be.” She took Laney’s cold hands in her own.
    Laney had the sudden urge to confess the real reason for her visit. Before she could say anything, however, the ceiling rumbled with the force of running feet, excited shouts, and giggles.
    â€œIf you want to talk stress, though, try dealing with five-year-old twin boys. Some days I think I’m going crazy.” She shook her head. “Plus we’ve been without a washing machine for two weeks. Talk about wanting to cry!”
    â€œWhat happened to it?” Laney asked, her mind jumping back to the reference to a washing machine in the note she’d found.
    June shrugged. “I’m about ready to take a sledge hammer to it.” She sighed. “It flooded our laundry room, and now it’s sitting by the garbage cans. Terry thinks he can fix it.” She shook her head. “You should see the list I have of things that need fixing—everything from the doorbell to the toaster oven.”
    Laney leaned forward. “I want to know all that’s going on with you.”
    June chewed her lower lip thoughtfully. “You know what? We’ll give each other a complete beauty treatment. I’m talking facials, deep-conditioning shampoo, even a body wrap. Then we’ll head up to the guest room where no one will bother us, and we’ll stay up all night talking like we used to. How’s that?”
    Angel barked in excitement. June patted his soft nose and ran her hands over his large, winged-looking ears. “We’ll do you, too, Angel. Put bows on you.”
    Angel grinned. Laney knew he liked nothing more than being in the center of the action. “Sounds like a plan,” she said.
    â€œI’m closing the shop,” June declared. “Terry has the kids. The evening is ours. Let’s start with our hair and work down.” She eyed Laney professionally. “How do you feel about blond highlights?”
    Laney sighed and prepared for the worst.
    Hours later, with her hair in multiple tinfoil spikes, her face plastered with a green cream that hardened into a glue-like cast over her face, and her nails painted hot pink, Laney still hadn’t learned a thing about her friend or her washing machine.
    â€œGo put your bathing suit on.” June pointed to the bathroom. “We’ll do a seaweed wrap next.”
    When Laney returned minutes later, June stood in front of a bathtub filled with thick green mud. “You go first,” June urged. “This is so good for your skin. Believe me. You’ll get that radiant look everyone expects brides to have.”
    Laney looked at the tub doubtfully. Even Angel, after peering over the rim, retreated. But she couldn’t disappoint her friend, so she eased into the depths of what she thought of as a dark lagoon.
    The seaweed smelled surprisingly of eucalyptus, and Laney leaned further back, letting the scent work through her body. Muscles she hadn’t known were tense slowly unknotted in the warm, silky mud.
    â€œPut this on your eyes,” June said, handing Laney a black gel mask. “It’ll take away those circles.”
    Laney tied the ends of the mask. She felt like a combination of the Lone Ranger and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Not so much, however, that she forgot the purpose of her visit. “So marriage is good then,” she said.
    June perched on the edge of the tub. “Wow! You are having doubts about marrying Rock.”
    â€œMom!” Two boyish voices rang clearly through the house. June looked at Laney with a combination of pleasure and impatience.
    â€œI have to tuck them in,” she said, smiling. “They won’t go to sleep otherwise.” She stood. “Be right back.”
    As soon as June disappeared, Laney climbed out of the bathtub and toweled off. Okay, Lord, she thought. I