Page 41 of A Cowboy's Convenient Marriage

It sounded like Zoe got saved. Cash’s first response was to be happy about that. And then, he felt anger creeping up his chest and around his neck and tensing his jaw and making his eyes narrow.

“So she lied. You know it now.”

“I knew it then. Cash, you know I had to do what I did.”

“I know.” But he didn’t have to be happy about it; it definitely wasn’t fair to him, no matter how anyone sliced it. And, he felt that the right thing to do was to not worry about the money the church was making, or who would be upset, and decide on the side of right. But, the doors of the office had been closed, and no one knew for sure exactly what happened other than just Zoe and him.

Now Zoe was telling the truth. He tried to shove his anger away.

He could hear John blow out a long breath on the other end of the line. “Cash. I’m sorry. That’s part of what this phone call is. I needed to apologize. I knew it as soon as I heard her. I knew you were innocent, but didn’t know how long it was going to take until the rest of the world knew it too. Now they do.”

“Good. I’m happy about that. It doesn’t really make any difference to me now, but it’s nice that my name was cleared.”

“Yeah. Well, there’s one other thing.”

“What’s that?” Cash asked, wondering if he was even interested. He’d like to just close the door on this chapter of his life, and move forward through the door that he and Ada had opened that morning. He had a new marriage, a new life. He didn’t know where God was going to lead him, but he was excited to move forward.

“We have one man lined up who is willing to take the church. It’s...not easy to find someone to lead after a scandal like this.”

“It might be easier now that everyone knows I was innocent,” he said casually.

“Actually. It’s going to be harder. Candidates questioned us about whether or not you were innocent, and I had to be honest. I had to say that I believed you were. It made them very leery about coming. After all, what happened to you and the board sided with the accuser, even though we were sure that you were innocent, and there was no hard evidence against you, it makes a candidate cautious about coming.”

“Yeah. I can see how that would work.” He wanted to laugh, because he found it ironic that they had been all righteous and thinking that they were going to do the right thing by siding with the woman who is always right even though she was lying through her teeth, and now it was coming back to bite them. But, he didn’t want to gloat, because that was wrong. God didn’t appreciate pride or gloating in a person. No matter how much they might feel like they were justified in doing it.

“Anyway. We have a Pastor Stone from Sweet Water, North Dakota who is interested in taking the position. He’s the only one who’s indicated that if we offered it to him, he would take it. But, the board has talked amongst ourselves, and we would prefer to have you back.”

“I actually know Pastor Stone." The man had just married him. “He’s a good man. I think he’d make a great pastor for your church.” There was a part of him, a deep, hard part of him, that wanted so badly to go back, to go back in a blaze of glory, with everyone apologizing and admitting that they were wrong. Of course, he would forgive them. That was the right thing to do, and he wanted to. But, there would be definite satisfaction in having everyone admit that they were wrong, and he was right. He thought it was probably a basic human desire to be justified, especially when one knew one deserved it.

“I agree with you. I interviewed him myself, and I found him to be well versed in biblical themes, and solid in the Bible and Bible doctrines. His stance on everything is driven by what the Bible says. I love that. And, it was easy to see his love for Jesus.”

“I agree with that,” Cash said.

“But, the church he pastors is small. Fifty members? One hundred members? Something like that. He’s...maybe not prepared for a church of this magnitude. At the very least it would be a steep learning curve for him.”

“I think he could handle it,” Cash said casually.

“I’m sure with the Lord’s help he can.” John spoke with sincerity. “But we would rather have you. Would you come back and at least allow the church to apologize? Maybe look around, and see if this might be where God’s leading you next?”

Cash realized the conversation was taking longer than he wanted to. This was his wedding day. His new bride was sitting across the table from him. He didn’t want to have this conversation go on and on, and once it was done, he was going to turn his phone off.

He mouthed, “I’m sorry,” to Ada, who smiled and shook her head. She truly seemed unbothered despite the fact that it was rude for him to have a conversation on his phone at the table. Still, she had told him to answer his phone.

“I’ll need to speak with my wife. I’ll see what she says, and I’ll have to get back to you.”

There was silence on the phone. He almost was tempted to count the seconds, because it seemed to stretch on and on and on.

Finally, John said, “You and Abby got married after all?”

“No. I met a girl here in North Dakota where my aunt is, and we just got married today. She’s sitting here across the table from me, and we’re having our wedding meal. So if you don’t mind, I need to go.”

“No. I don’t mind at all. I’m sorry I didn’t know. Congratulations.” He paused, and then he said, “Please, think about what I said. We, I, would really like to have you back.”

“I’ll pray about it. I’ll get back to you about whether we’ll visit or not.”

“Thank you.”

They hung up, and Cash took a moment to turn his phone off. Then, he shoved it back in his pocket and looked at Ada.

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