Page 3 of A Cowboy's Convenient Marriage

“Maybe, maybe, you could let the board know that I did not hesitate when you asked for my phone but gave it to you immediately, without deleting anything, and gave you the password as well? There’s nothing inappropriate on there, just as there was nothing inappropriate happening between Zoe and me.”

It was the best he could do. Maybe people would believe him. After all, his life was squeaky clean, with nothing that anyone could ever point to to say that they had seen this coming or they knew something was going on.

“Is that the same password you have on your computer in your office?” John asked, his face sad, his look grim.

“Yes.”

Cash turned back around and walked out.

He didn’t look around as he exited the building. So familiar, so beloved, he’d spent countless hours on his knees in prayer not just at the altar in the sanctuary, but by his desk in his office, prostrate on the floor at midnight, begging for the life of a sick child, for healing for one of his congregants, for God to show him for sure the woman that he was going to marry was truly the one he was supposed to be with.

Maybe it was that thought that turned his feet toward his car and had him driving to the Christian bookstore where she worked.

Abby Morales.

The woman who had consented to be his wife. The woman who had agreed to walk this journey with him. He had prayed for hours and hours and hours and finally felt peace about asking her to marry him. He wouldn’t say he was head over heels in love with her, but he felt like they would make a great team.

She had gone to Bible college looking specifically to marry a pastor. He was looking specifically for a woman who wanted to be married to a pastor. They both desired to live for the Lord and serve Him. To him, theirs was a match made in heaven.

Abby would stand beside him during this hiccup in the road. They might have to change the venue of their wedding, since they were scheduled to get married in the church he pastored, of course. But they would figure everything out. For now, he just wanted to see her. And of course, he’d need to tell her before she found out from anyone else.

He pulled into the bookstore parking lot and checked his watch. She got a break in the middle of the day, but he didn’t know whether she had already taken it or not. Deciding that he wanted to just hear her voice and see her for a few minutes, he thought that he would send her a text asking her to meet him in the parking lot, but then he remembered he didn’t have a phone anymore.

Getting out of his car, he took the short walk across the parking lot, the Virginia sun beating down on the asphalt, causing the heat to rise in waves around him, which he barely noticed. Although the cool interior of the bookstore felt welcoming. If not a little cold.

Christians could be so hard. So unforgiving. So willing to sacrifice one of their own when they fell. Not that he had fallen, because he hadn’t done anything wrong. But there had been no mercy from John or from any of the board. John had talked like the decision had been unanimous.

He needed to sink into Abby’s sweet and gentle presence, to hear her voice, and to listen to her say that everything was going to be okay. They would continue to follow the Lord and work through this together. He would find a different pastorate in a different church, maybe out west somewhere. He had been meaning to visit his Aunt Karen for a while, and this would be an excellent time to do that. Perhaps they could even move there. Aunt Karen had wanted him to come out and take over the management of her used-car sales business. Ever since Uncle Jake had passed away the previous year, she’d been struggling to do it on her own.

Of course he hadn’t considered it, not even a little bit. He had a church pastorate and people who needed him. He wasn’t going to leave everything and go running out to North Dakota, in the middle of nowhere, to sell cars.

He wasn’t interested in the slightest. But all of a sudden, considering the events of the morning, it looked like something he might be interested in after all.

He turned a corner on the end of the aisle with the Bibles, his favorite aisle in the entire bookstore, and saw Abby bending down, straightening Bibles on the bottom shelf.

“Abby,” he said, and it felt like he was grasping for a lifeline.

Her head flew around toward him, and her eyes grew big, and then they narrowed.

“I sent you a text,” she said, her words short, her expression not welcoming as she slowly straightened, crossing her arms over her chest and looking at him in a way that he’d never seen her look before. She’d always been smiling and happy around him. The epitome of the perfect pastor’s wife.

“I’m sorry. I have a lot of things to tell you.”

“You don’t need to tell me. I already heard. How you apparently were screwing around in your office with a little girl. That’s disgusting, Cash.”

His mouth dropped open. She believed it? “Abby. You know me.”

“Not as well as I thought I did, apparently.”

“No. It’s not true.” He wanted to get the words out. To get his defense out in the open, but she was already turning away, shaking her head.

“I meant what I said in the text.”

“The church took my phone. I didn’t see a text.”

Her lips flattened. Apparently whoever had been informing her about the situation hadn’t gotten that news yet. Thanks to John. John really was a good guy and a great friend. He might not be defending him, for all the reasons that John explained, which made sense to Cash, but at least he wasn’t going around spreading all the nasty information he could.

“Cash, I can’t have anything to do with you. I mean, if we were married... I still think I would divorce you for this. You can’t just...” She waved her hand as the words failed her. “It’s disgusting. The poor girl. I can’t imagine what she’s going through.”

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