It was the happiest day of her life… Until Heather Waters was cruelly jilted at the altar. Yet now that very church is a beacon of hope for the tornado-ravaged town. With her charity mission, Heather finally comes home to High Plains and faces the man she believes betrayed her trust that day: Reverend Michael Garrison. As they work together to restore the town's faith, Heather's own heart remains in tatters. Until Michael, along with his precocious niece, helps her realize she's truly found Minister Right. Award winning author, Annie Jones, has always been a romantic who used to read Bride magazine when all her friends were stuck on Tiger Beat. From the moment she finished reading her first romance novel she knew that she wanted to write stories like that. She has been doing so for 15 years now and each new couple she creates still renews her faith in happily ever after. Marrying Minister Right By Annie Jones Steeple Hill Copyright © 2009 Annie Jones All right reserved. ISBN: 9780373814206 Dust. The Holy Bible tells us God created human life out of dust and that in time we would all return to it. Almost a full month after the tornado had ripped through his town, Michael Garrison felt as if everything he owned, wore or ate was still covered with the stuff. Whole neighborhoods now seemed like little more than dump heaps and sandlots. In so many places the storm had stripped away not only grass and trees but also much of the topsoil. Some of the old-timers likened it to a small-scale dust bowl. His scuffed and battered tennis shoes kicked particles from the church's maroon-colored carpet even as he pushed the vacuum cleaner back and forth. The aging machine whirred loudly, practically wheezing and gasping for breath. "Hang in there just a little longer, baby. We can't afford a new broom right now, much less a vacuum." He dragged it back across a spot he'd gone over? and over?and over before. "If you stay with me until we've got some sense of normalcy around here again?" The engine sputtered. "Yeah, you're probably right." He kicked the off switch at the base of the old-fashioned upright to turn the thing off. "Normalcy may be asking for way too much these days." "You're talking to the vacuum cleaner now?" His niece, dressed in a lavender shirt and overalls, her light brown hair in braids, poked her head in the door. At just five foot one and wearing the deceptively sweet and modest outfit that she had complained about all morning, she looked even younger than her fourteen years. Michael squeezed his eyes shut and raised his head to call back to her, "Talking to inanimate objects gives me practice for talking to people who never listen. Like my niece, whom I asked to go to the store to get us sodas about three minutes ago." "I'm going, I'm going, all right? I just?" "Whatever they have will be fine." He cut her off before she could launch into another list of excuses why she shouldn't have to go out in the heat. "Or if you want to stay here, you can vacuum and I'll go get us something cold to drink." "Vacuum? With that antique?" She crinkled up her nose. "My mom never makes me do that stuff. I don't even know how. Besides, I think that thing is actually making the carpet dirtier." "Don't you listen to her, old girl." He patted the bulging cloth bag on the old upright and was rewarded with a cloud of ultrafine powdery dust. Avery laughed. He liked hearing her laugh. She'd had a hard year and didn't laugh nearly as much as he thought a kid her age should. So he played up the scene for her enjoyment, waving his hands, pretending to stagger around unable to see, coughing. More girlish laughter. Spinning around, he grinned to himself. Sunlight streamed in around him. The play of shadows and light against one another made a spotlight in which specks and dots sparkled. "I'll be back when the dust settles." The message Heather Waters had sent echoed in his thoughts again, as it had many times in the last four weeks. He watched the residue drip and drift and glitter in the sunbeam for a moment. He gritted his teeth to stave off the pangs of unresolved emotions twisting in his gut. If Heather held true to her word, he might never see her again. Hadn't he resigned himself to that fate ten years ago? He had kept his thoughts and feelings to himself, wanting only her happiness, when the only girl he had ever really loved wanted to marry John Parker. And then when that girl had fled from this church, hurt and humiliated by John leaving her at the altar, he had let her go because it was best for her and, in the long run, for him. Now he had to do that again. He had too much work to do, too many people counting on him to allow himself the luxury of being distracted by something that could never be. "Okay, how about I go for sodas and you do something else to pitch in around here?" He wasn't letting the girl slip free of taking some responsibility for basic chores. "I said I'd get the sodas." She gave a hu