Noble Pursuits Read Free Page B

Nolan.” Before Nolan could respond, the child thrust her hand in her pocket, pulled out a handful of change and dollar bills, and dropped it in his lap. “I have to pay for it.”
    Nolan began to protest, but one glance at Traci’s face silenced him. Something in her eye told him he’d better take the money. “Thank you, London. That’s very responsible. I’m proud of you.”
    While London skipped off to continue the water fight outside, Nolan gathered his ruined photos and threw them in the garbage. Traci picked up a package and pulled the prints from inside of it. “These are fine—” She stopped abruptly. “Why are there pictures of houses? You do trees, animals, insects, flowers—you know, natureish stuff. Why the suburban sprawl?”
    “That’s the other reason I wanted to talk to you and Mike.”
    Mike accepted the pictures from his wife and flipped through them quickly. “You’re investing in rentals?”
    “I’m thinking of moving.”
    “Out of state?” Traci’s dismay was heartening.
    He shook his head. “No, one of the cities around the loop. I’ve considered Brunswick, Marshfield, and Hillsdale. They are all close enough for a commute into Rockland. Marshfield is the largest, but it’s packed with planned communities. I don’t want a covenant or association to dictate if my vehicle is too large to park in my driveway.”
    Mike and Traci Finch looked over the information Nolan spread before them. “Have you attended any of the churches?”
    Nolan shook his head. “I’ve spoken to several pastors and ministers and found that Brunswick has a few doctrinally solid churches, both denominationally and non-denominationally. It’ll be hard to choose there I think. I’d hate to choose a church based upon the percentage of single females—”
    “Why not?”
    Nolan looked askance at Traci. “Choose a church because of the number of single women? Are you crazy?”
    “Once you’ve determined doctrinal agreement, why not? Why do we play these games as if it is somehow more spiritual to pretend we don’t know how many eligible females are present? If ‘he who finds a wife, finds a good thing,’ then why isn’t it a good thing to go where the highest potential for finding a wife is ?”
    Mike looked at Nolan and back at his wife. “Traci, I think you are onto something. I wonder if that is what is wrong with modern dating. It is taboo to admit that you are looking for someone to marry .”
    “Exactly,” Traci nodded, “we are in the market for a spouse, but we’re not even supposed to say we are window shopping; we’re just supposed to be passing by and the right one drops in our lap. The fact that we set up the meeting, paid someone to push them into our lap, and made sure we were perfectly situated to impress at that particular moment is just a deliberate accident of pure happenstance.”
    Mike shoved his open laptop across the coffee table and pointed to the results of a Google search. “Brunswick. The per capita of single females in Brunswick is eleven percent higher than Marshfield or Hillsdale.”
    “Brunswick it is,” Nolan agreed.

Chapter Four
    Mid-September
    “… And what are the prices on the pears this year?” Grace Buscher mentally tallied her large order. Suffering a short-term financial famine, she mentally kicked herself for taking a weekend trip to Mackinac the previous month. The money spent on that trip would have covered her groceries for months.
    Each year she struggled with the idea of taking a vacation. In prior years, her father had been the one to insist that they go. “Vacations are medicine for the heart, soul, and body. It’s preventative maintenance—kind of like an oil change or tune-up on a car.”
    Grace stopped her reminiscing, confirmed her order with the orchard, and hung up the phone. The Buscher family bought their fruit from Stead’s Orchards every fall. Often, the orchard also gave Grace many boxes of seconds that they couldn’t sell at