Page 18 of A Cowboy's Convenient Marriage

That was the truth. Instead of giving her the compassion that she obviously wanted, he had laid a hard line down. He had done it deliberately, because the girl had been struggling with this for a while, and he had been trying to use compassion to help her, like at the basketball game where he had his arm around her and shouldn’t have.

“I guess I should say that there was a basketball game a few weeks prior, where she had been crying again, and I put my arm around her and led her outside. People saw it.”

Ezra nodded. If he knew where the story was going, he didn’t let on.

“Anyway, as you can imagine, the girl was upset with me, angered that I didn’t do what she wanted me to do, and she told the entire church that I was carrying on a relationship with her. A sexual one. Which was not the slightest bit true.”

“Wow,” Ezra said again, but he didn’t say anything more.

“I found out about it when my best friend and head deacon called me into his office and fired me.”

“They fired you?” Ezra asked, as though to confirm it.

“Yes. That was all the notice I got. I didn’t have a chance to tell my side of the story. They did not give me the benefit of the doubt. I wasn’t innocent until proven guilty. And I understand why they did it.”

He paused, trying to let go of the bitterness and anger in his voice.

“They knew that if the idea that the church was okay with a pastor who molested girls got out into the public, people would leave the church in droves. We had just completed building a four-million-dollar addition onto the church, and we needed those people to stay and give their tithes and offerings to pay for it.”

In hindsight, he understood even more clearly what the Bible meant when it said that the borrower is servant to the lender. If they hadn’t borrowed that money, if they hadn’t owed the bank, if they hadn’t wanted to make sure they could continue to make their payments, they could have afforded to have been methodical about the allegations. They could have looked into them, they could have weathered the storm as people left before the truth came out.

But because they owed the money, they were servant to their lender in the fact that they had to make certain choices, or else they would default on their loan.

“So you were not given a trial?”

“No. And she didn’t bring any charges against me. The police were called, but they said there wasn’t enough evidence to bring charges. I appreciate that, because if they had, it was my word against hers. It would have been whether I could convince a jury, or whether she could, and I guess...” He shrugged his shoulders.

He had no idea whether he would have won had the case gone to trial. All he could do was say it wasn’t true. He didn’t want to go and try to malign the character of Zoe. He didn’t even know if she had never lied before, or if that was something that she normally did. Although, he did know that his character was spotless. Up until that happened, he could have called a thousand or two thousand character witnesses. But he didn’t know if they would stand beside him and tell the truth about his past, if they suspected that Zoe’s story was true.

“Do you have the number of the head deacon?” Ezra asked as Cash had been slightly afraid that he would.

“I do. His name is John, and obviously you can tell him that I told you to call him.”

Cash got his phone out, pulled up John’s contact, and gave the number to Ezra, who surprised him by dialing the number immediately.

Cash was not expecting that. But Ezra didn’t let grass grow under his feet. He was taking care of matters immediately. And Cash appreciated that. In a small way. After all, they only had three days. If Ezra took two days to confirm the story and decide to give Cash his blessing, he would only have a day to talk to Ada and ask her to make a decision.

Ezra set his phone on speaker and placed it on the desk between them.

“Hello?”

Cash sucked in a breath at the familiar voice. His best friend, John. He hadn’t talked to him in two months, which was the longest he had gone in his life without talking to him. They had grown up in the church nursery together.

“Hello. May I speak to John, please?” Ezra asked.

“This is he,” John said, suspicion and questions in his voice.

Maybe he had gotten calls about Cash, and he was tired of them. That’s almost what it sounded like.

“John, this is Ezra Clybourn, from North Dakota. I spoke with your friend Cash, and he told me that I could call you for a character reference. He told me that he had been accused of having a sexual relationship with a minor as the pastor of the church where you’re head deacon. What can you tell me about your friend Cash?”

To his credit, John did not pause. “I believe Cash is innocent. I wish I could have somehow talked the board into keeping him, but we have bills to pay, and we knew that if we did not take immediate action, the public would rally against us, and we would lose members and money. And we just got a four-million-dollar addition to our church. We can’t afford to lose any members. I explained it to Cash, but he already knew. He’s a good man. The very best.”

“Do you think he did what the girl’s accusing him of?”

“No way. No way in hell. Cash is the most upright man I know. I’ve missed him over the last two months, his steady influence, his godly counsel, his wise leadership. This church will never be the same. There’s no way he did what she said he did.”

“Thank you.” Ezra paused, and Cash held his breath. “Do you have time for me to ask you a couple more questions?”

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