A Gift to Last Page 0,45

room for improvement.

The choir members gathered on the bleachers; as a tenor, Phil stood in the back row behind the women singing first soprano. It wasn't until they started the first song that he noticed the blonde standing directly in front of him. He'd never heard anyone with a more spectacular voice. It was hard to remember his own part. The woman's clear strong voice was so stunning he was completely distracted.

"I don't believe we've met," he said during the break.

She turned around and smiled. "We haven't."

"Phil Bennett," he said.

"I know."

"You do?"

"Oh, yes. I know quite a bit about you, Mr. Bennett."

This was something. Phil squared his shoulders a bit, feeling downright flattered by this lovely woman's interest.

The director was pleased with their performance and after an hour and a half, dismissed them for the night.

"We sounded quite good, didn't we?" Sandy said on the drive home.

"I thought so, too. By the way, who was the woman standing in front of me?"

"Mrs. Hansen?"

"No, the blonde."

His wife cast him a curious look. "There wasn't any blonde standing in front of you."

"Yes, there was. We spoke. You couldn't have missed her, Sandy. She had the most angelic voice. Really gifted."

Sandy laughed softly. "And what was her name?"

Phil hesitated, trying to remember. "I don't believe she gave it to me."

"I see." Although Sandy wasn't actually smiling, he heard the amusement in her voice.

"I'm telling you there was a blond woman standing in front of me, and she sang like no one I've ever heard."

"If you say so, darling."

Women! If Sandy hadn't seen the blonde for herself, Phil couldn't make her believe she'd been there. Next practice, he'd be sure to introduce the woman to his wife. Then he'd see what Sandy had to say.

SHIRLEY, GOODNESS AND MERCY Chapter Six

"G oodness!" Shirley waited until the church had emptied before chastising her fellow angel. She just didn't know how to handle Goodness and Mercy. Their antics were going to get them permanently expelled from earth. "You had to do it, didn't you?"

At least Goodness had the decency to look properly repentant. "You're right, I know you're right, but I couldn't stand the smug way Phil Bennett was acting. From the moment he heard about his brother's problems, he was beside himself with pleasure. All his talk about being a good Christian, too!"

"We aren't here to deal with Phil Bennett."

"But he's part and parcel of what's happening to Greg."

"Well, yes, and no..."

"I don't think we need to worry," Mercy told her. "If Gabriel's going to be upset with us, it'll be because of what happened with the hot-air balloon. Goodness singing in a church choir is minor compared to that."

Shirley had done her utmost to put the balloon episode out of her mind, and Mercy's reference did nothing to calm her already tattered nerves. "Please, don't remind me."

"If Gabriel didn't hear about that, then we don't need to - " Mercy stopped midsentence. A panic-stricken look came over her face, and she blinked several times before she said, "Oh...hello, Gabriel."

"Hello, Gabriel," Goodness repeated, wide-eyed and subservient.

"The Archangel Gabriel to you," their boss said sternly.

Feeling slightly light-headed, Shirley turned around and swallowed nervously. She opened her mouth to offer a multitude of excuses and saw that it would do no good. Their chances of putting something over on the archangel were virtually nil.

"I'm here for a progress report," he announced in the same controlled voice.

Goodness and Mercy both gazed pleadingly at Shirley, silently begging her to respond. She glared at them. When she tried to speak, her tongue seemed glued to the roof of her mouth.

"Well?" Gabriel muttered. "I'm waiting."

"Greg talked to Catherine and he knows he fathered a son," Shirley blurted out.

"Are you telling me that after thirty-five years, Greg just happened to stumble upon Catherine?" Gabriel demanded.

Shirley was never sure how much Gabriel knew of their antics, but suspected he was aware of it all. The questions were most likely a test to see how much they'd learned....

All three nodded in unison.

The archangel's frown darkened. "Thanks to a tableful of spilled crab, as I understand it."

"Yes, but that was only a means - "

"To an end," Gabriel completed for Mercy.

"Yes, and it worked very nicely, in my humble opinion," Goodness said in a bold rush. "It seemed a shame for the two of them to be in the same place after all those years and not know it. Really, all I did was point Greg out to Catherine. It was up to her to ignore