Free Sweet Reunion by Melanie Shawn

Adventures.
Although, of course, it did lack some of the innate benefits that this place
has,” and with that he gave Amanda a sexy, suggestive wink.
    Karina said, with a knowing
smile, “Enough of all this boring talk about your professional life, Justin.
Let's all just stop pretending we care, shall we? Moving on to what we really
want to know about. How about your love life? Anybody special?”
    Justin shook his head
ruefully, “Nope. Nobody special.”
    He gave Amanda that same
sexy wink again, “In Alaska at any rate,” he laughed.
    Amanda flushed, whether with
embarrassment or excitement it was difficult for her to tell, stood and began
clearing the dishes as a way to escape the conversation.
    “How long were you able to
get away from your job, Justin?” she asked, partially as a way to turn the
conversation back to his professional life and partially as a way to try to
find out how long he planned to stay in Hope Falls.
    Justin looked up as a slow
smile spread across his face, “Gee, Amanda, now that you bring it up,” he said,
“I don't actually know that I'll be going back.”

Chapter 9
    The pastor of Hope Falls
Community Church rushed up to Amanda, who was sitting on the front pew waiting
for her father's memorial service to begin, and Amanda had never seen him
looking more flustered. He was normally a jovial and easygoing fellow, but
right now, leaning toward her, he looked positively harried.
    “Pastor Harrison, what's
wrong?” Amanda inquired. She really didn't want anything to happen that would
ruin the beauty of her father's memorial service. She wanted Parker to have the
perfect sendoff.
    “Well, Amanda, it's
really...well, come with me, I think you'd better see it with your own eyes.” 
Pastor Harrison took her by the arm and began to guide her down the side aisle
of the packed church. Justin jumped up and quickly followed with a concerned
expression on his face. Eyeing Justin suspiciously, Geoffrey then got up out of
his seat and followed the group, as well.
    The pastor led Amanda
quickly through the sanctuary doors, through the vestibule, and out onto the
steps. Amanda's eyes widened.
    Behind her, Justin
exclaimed, “Holy cow!”
    At the look Pastor Harrison
gave him, he amended his statement, “Or...um...I mean, holy...not cow...maybe
church...or something. Let's just go with Wow .”  He finished lamely.
    Before them lay more people
than Amanda had ever seen gathered in one place in Hope Falls. The crowd was
dense over the lawn of the church, and continued into the street, which itself
was packed with people as far as Amanda could see in both directions.
    She looked at the Pastor, “How
many people do you think are here?”
    Pastor Harrison shook his
head. “The best I can do is hazard a guess, possibly a thousand. It could be
two thousand. It could be more. I can't see to the edges of the crowd. What I
do know is that our sanctuary holds 150 people, and there are far more than
that here. I don't want to turn away all of these people who came to honor your
father, but we certainly can't accommodate them here. I'm at a loss as to how
to proceed.”
    Amanda instinctively looked
to Justin, “Justin, do you have any ideas?”
    It was not lost on Justin
that, even with all the distrust she must feel toward him, her first instinct
had been to look to him when she had a problem that she needed help fixing. He
didn't want to fail her in this first test of his capability to help and
protect her.
    He scanned the crowd, hoping
and praying for inspiration to strike him like a lightning bolt. Which,
thankfully, it did – although, not in the form of a lightning bolt, but rather
in the person of his old high school principal.
    “Mr. Jenkins!” he called to
the administrator, waving him over. As Mr. Jenkins fought his way through the
dense crush of bodies, Justin said, “I have an idea. I think this might work.”
    Justin turned toward the
principal as he topped the stairs to stand beside them