Excerpt: Burnt Offerings

Water and ire dripped off Joelle as she marched down the aisle toward the front of the church. “Do you gots any coins?” the boy had asked when she stepped through the wooden doors to get out of the rain.

A quick search through her pockets revealed nothing but her four carat baguette cut diamond and platinum engagement ring.

“Do you?” the boy asked again.

Joelle held out her empty palm and knelt down next to the kid. “Why?”

“Come ‘ere,” the boy answered and tugged at the sleeve of her rain coat.

And Joelle had followed. She walked past the ushers passing around the offering plates and the pews filled with singing families. When they reached the front of the church, the boy dropped his fist full of money into the Coins for Christ bucket. The letters were hand painted in pastel colors against the stark silver of the tin.

She reached in her pocket and pulled out the ring. She held it up for the boy to see and when he nodded, she dropped it in the bucket. The dull clink could be heard above the organ. Joelle was suddenly $34,000 dollars lighter. And it felt good.

When Eric had given it to her, she had asked about the three parallel lines inside the band. Jokingly, she had teased that they were tally marks of all his fiancés. They had shared a great laugh then. Eric saying she was his one and only love. Joelle pledging hers in return. She shook her head to clear the memory of that day and focused on the more recent memory of Eric in the office at Bella’s with his head bent over the Barbie Doll blonde.

Fueled by the vivid mental image, she stripped off her diamond earrings and let them fall with a plink into the bucket. Twelve thousand dollars more, followed by the matching $22,000 tennis bracelet. Joelle didn’t need to add them up. She knew from the appraisal that Eric had spent sixty eight thousand dollars on her baubles since they began dating a year ago.

Being a woman of fine tastes, she hadn’t questioned it then.

She sure as heck didn’t question it now.

The boy grinned and giggled.

Joelle felt her anger dissipate as she giggled with him. She looked up and saw the pastor sitting on a mini pew behind the altar. His head was bent over his folded hands. All she saw was a shock of unruly black hair.

Straightening her back, she turned to face the now quiet church. Without a word she marched back down the aisle, past rows of pews and questioning faces and out the door, back into the spring rain. For the first time since pulling into Gatlin Springs, Joelle felt good.

Eric had played a game and lost. Big.

He had messed with the wrong woman when he messed with Joelle Pierson.

She dusted off her hands and headed for her Mercedes. Now all she had to do was find her new house.