Unlikely Praise Read online

  “Is everything OK?”

  She placed her hand across her heart as she caught her breath. “Everything’s fine, really. I’m sorry I’m not doing a better job of making you feel welcome. I’m a little in shock after just seeing you at Jake’s and now you’re here, and I didn’t know you were coming until I got an e-mail this morning from Pastor Charles. He’d mentioned some changes, but I didn’t know when or what was going to happen.”

  “Yeah, it’s been kinda weird. I’d only been here a couple weeks, and he started talking to me about joining the worship team.”

  Candi’s blood bubbled in her veins and sent a warm rush to her cheeks. Pastor Charles had bypassed her completely. Was there any point in trying to find out what Shade’s skill level was? Where had he trained in music? Where did he get his worship experience? Did he even understand the importance of worship?

  She remembered what Grandpa Nick used to say. All things work together for good to them that love God.

  She did love God and the church and even Pastor Charles, though he was temporarily insane, but most of all she loved to worship. Didn’t this all have to work out somehow?

  “You’ll be fine, Shade. Everyone should be here shortly. You can tell us a little about yourself and then we’ll make some music.”

  “Sure thing.” He grabbed a mic stand and clipped the cord at the side. “Have you lived in Spring all your life?”

  “Uh, no. I moved around a bit, but I’ve been in this area for several years. I went to Sam Houston State University in Huntsville. Why?”

  “Your name is very familiar.” He moved to another mic stand and handled the messy cord like an experienced professional. “I swear I know someone else named Canaberry. I think it was in Austin.”

  Shade’s words hit her like an oncoming truck. Was it not enough in one day that he was even here? Was he now going to take a sledge hammer and break into the only secrets she had left?

  She turned away and busied herself with some music. If he couldn’t see her face, he couldn’t see her fear. She tried to sound calm. “You spend a lot of time in Austin?”

  “Fair amount. Had a pretty successful band there.”

  She rushed to the closet and pulled the three-hole-punch off the top of the filing cabinet where she stored music. No. Way. This was not happening. Samuel or Shade or whoever he was did not know her family in Austin. He was mistaken. He had to be.

  She stuffed a stack of papers into the punch and clamped down.

  Could Pastor Charles have said anything? Never. Only he knew the whole story of her life in Austin, her mother’s death, and her sour relationship with her criminal father—and he would never tell.

  She wrestled with the punch. The top two cutters released cleanly. The third was hopelessly stuck. She should have never come to the Houston area when she fled Austin. It wasn’t far enough away. She should have gone to Montana. Or Canada. Or Siberia. Anywhere, but here.

  Suddenly Shade was in the closet with her, smelling like spicy soap and blocking her way out of the crowded space.

  “Let me try.” He took the punch from her hands. “Sometimes you have to turn it over and knock it loose.”

  She swiped her sweaty palms across her skirt. “I put too many pages in it.”

  There was a click and he handed her the music.

  “Thank you.” She squeezed past him. “What brings you to Spring?”

  “Needed a change.” He followed her out of the closet. “And I have some family around here.”

  She nodded and added the pages to her binder.

  “I was mistaken, by the way.”

  She closed the notebook and met his steady gaze. “How’s that?”

  “It was Winterberry. The guy I worked with once in a while in Austin is a horn player named Winterberry. Not Canaberry.” The corners of his mouth curled. “Wings Winterberry.”

  “Wings?”

  “Yeah, you know us rockers and our nicknames.”

  She noted his sly grin and the knowing glint in his eyes. Had he really remembered Wings Winterberry? Or had he crossed paths with her father and now chose to be a gentleman and let her off the sharp hook?

  Either way she was flopping around on the dock.

  ****

  Shade took a step back.

  Wow.

  He’d framed a lot of houses with his father on job sites all over Texas, and he’d never seen walls go up as fast as Candi Canaberry could construct them. Even now as she flitted around the platform like a small tornado, the worried lines across her forehead deepened.

  Wow, again.

  She’d not only built walls, she was mentally hanging sheetrock to make sure he stayed out. But why?

  He’d known her all of five minutes, and it was strictly business. He was there because Pastor Charles asked him to be, and he’d only said yes to this uncomfortable situation because he thought God might be leading him into something. But what did he know? He was a new Christian with more questions and problems than answers and solutions.

  God could be standing at the end of his driveway with a neon arrow and he’d miss it.

  He retreated to the spot she’d assigned and picked up his guitar. The metallic scent of the new strings soothed him. He glanced at the door. He could still leave, but Pastor Charles’s words of advice had stuck in his mind since Sunday.

  “You can’t drive a parked car, son. You gotta get in and try to go somewhere. If you head the wrong way, trust me, God will put you back on course. Just make sure you depend on Him for directions.”

  Even if he had veered off course, at least he was in church with his guitar and not at home alone dwelling on past mistakes. He never doubted the key to his recovery was his relationship with God and his determination to not revisit the ugly habits that cost him so much. But he would always need music. This worship team might be a way to fill that need.

  Which brought him back to Candi Canaberry.

  First, she pulled a stack of chord charts from her giant purse, and then ducked back into the closet for more microphones. Every movement seemed filled with urgency. Was she always wound this tight, or was it just his unexpected and unwanted appearance that had her all in knots?

  Eventually she stopped at the keyboard, like a busy butterfly that discovered the perfect blossom. With a pencil clamped in her teeth, she opened a piece of music and started to play.

  It took just a few measures for the creases in her forehead to disappear, and only a matter of seconds for him to realize what a true beauty she was. It’s not that he hadn’t noticed how well put together she was when she blew through Jake’s earlier, but this was the first time she’d actually stood still without a frenzied scowl on her face.

  She removed the pencil from her mouth and slid it behind her ear. It disappeared into the short waves of light brown hair. Everything about her was rhythm, notes, and melody as she pulsed with the natural metronome in her head and tapped her bare toes on the floor.

  She caught him looking. “Do you know this song?”

  He twisted the tuning peg on the D string a little too far. “Yeah,” he said, and met her sparkling green gaze, but the name of it had evaporated from his memory.

  The slam of a door jarred them both.

  Shade set down his guitar and wiped his sweaty palms on his jeans. A persistent jab of anxiety poked his insides again. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been nervous about band practice. Why was he so nervous, now?

  Candi left the platform to greet a woman in pink and purple scrubs who looked to be somewhere in her fifties. The older woman tossed her keys onto a pew and swiped her finger under each eye as though wiping away tears.

  Candi enveloped her in a hug and then ushered her toward the front. “Long day?”

  “The usual,” she replied and pushed a fluff of gray-tinted brown hair away from her face. She greeted Shade with a polite smile and did a quick top-to-bottom survey.

  He tried to return the smile as the jabs of anxiety kept coming. I
t was as if he’d just joined a band with his mother, and she was about to check behind his ears.

  Candi handed her a folder and put an arm around her shoulders. “Shade, I’d like you to meet Carol Ann. Carol Ann can sing anything in any key and can find a harmony part when others say it can’t be done.”

  Carol Ann laughed and held out her hand. “Good to meet you, Shade. And she flatters me. Truth is I’m the only one she can get to show up.”

  “Not true,” Candi shot back. “And Shade will tell us more about himself when everyone gets here.”

  As the women prattled on, Shade dropped to a chair. So far so good. He hadn’t had to say a word.

  Two more people entered from the back with acoustic guitar cases. They argued and wagged fingers in each other’s faces all the way down the main aisle.

  Candi planted her hands on her hips. “You two still sharing a car?”

  “Yes!” they snapped back in unison.

  The girl put down her case and re-worked her strawberry blonde hair. “He forgot to pick me up,” she seethed through the ponytail holder she held in her teeth.

  “Well, she didn’t tell me she’d still be on campus. I thought she was at home.”

  “Do you think you can leave this fight ‘til later?” Candi asked.

  “Yes.” Once again they replied in unison.

  “Shade, meet Kevin and Kelly. They are college freshmen and, if you can’t tell already, are forced to share a car.”

  Shade rushed forward to shake hands.

  “That also means they’re brother and sister, which I’m sure you can tell from the bickering.”

  “Twins,” Kelly offered, “so you don’t have to wonder. And I’m the oldest by twelve and a half minutes. That’s always the next question people ask.”

  Kevin gave Kelly a dirty look. “I don’t think that’s the next question. I think she just likes to broadcast that she’s the oldest.”

  Candi put her hand up to stop them. “Knock it off. Anyway, Kevin does a lot of solo work for us. Kelly just likes to blend in, though we are trying to get her to sing more.”

  Kelly pulled out her guitar and slid the empty case under a pew. “That’s OK, I don’t need to sing.”

  Candi met Shade’s gaze and stepped closer. “She has a beautiful voice,” she whispered. “She’s just a little shy.”

  Kevin pulled his strap over his head and honed in on Shade’s guitar. He took the pick out of his mouth. “Whoa. That’s an American-made Strat.”

  Shade puffed out his chest. He was gonna like this kid. “Yeah, it is.”

  “Big spender.”

  “Not really, I’ve had it a long time.”

  “Rocky’s here,” Kelly announced as a guy in a wheelchair maneuvered his way through the doors at the back of the sanctuary with a bass guitar propped in his lap.

  “I’ll get him,” Kevin offered and stashed his guitar against a chair. He hopped off the platform and sprinted to the back of the church. “Yo, Rock-y!” he called out, and then proceeded to push the chair like a race car down the side aisle and onto the platform by way of a small ramp at the side.

  Shade suspected the man didn’t need help as much as Kevin wanted to drive the chair.

  Kevin made the introduction. “Shade. Rocky. Rocky. Shade.”

  “Hey, Rocky,” Kevin continued, “what do you call a bass player with half a brain?”

  Rocky backed his chair up in line with a small amp and reached for the cord. “I’m sure you’re gonna tell me.”

  “Gifted.” Kevin laughed while everyone else groaned.

  Rocky smoothed his wavy black hair and shot Shade a knowing glance. “You know these jokes you and Max tell are older than your grandpa.”

  “Doesn’t mean they’re not true.”

  “Possibly,” Candi interjected with a smile, “but I’m pretty sure it means they’re not funny anymore.”

  Carol Ann pulled a stool over to her microphone and set her reading glasses on the stand. “I don’t think that’s going to stop them.”

  Shade checked his strings one more time and tried not to stare at the thirty-something Rocky who was confined to his chair. The sight of him there as he struggled to adjust his amp without having to roll from his crowded spot brought back memories Shade would just as soon forget.

  But forgetting didn’t seem to be an option.

  Instead, the horror-filled slide show of his and Pete’s accident pulsed, frame-by-frame, through his mind. First laughter and music from the car’s radio, then static-filled air as he lay near the smashed vehicle unable to feel his legs... Unable to see or hear Pete.

  Candi pulled a music stand his way and set a folder on it. “You OK?”

  “Fine.” It was a lie, and he suspected she knew by the way she pursed her lips and refused to take her eyes off him.

  “This is someone else’s binder,” she finally explained. “I’ll get you one made by next week.”

  Next week? He wasn’t sure he was going to live through this one. “Thanks.”

  She returned to her keyboard. “About Max, has anyone seen him?”

  “He was just at Taco Bell,” Rocky said, “gazing lovingly at the value menu with a five dollar bill in his hand. He should be here shortly.”

  “I’m here now,” Max announced as he came through the side door with a stick bag and a giant drink.

  “Don’t bring that up here,” Candi warned.

  “I know,” he said and shook the ice-filled container. “It’s almost gone.”

  After one loud and final slurp, he dropped it in the trashcan near the door.

  “That’s so attractive,” Kelly observed. “No wonder all the girls are wild about you.”

  Carol Ann laughed out loud and held out her arms as Max walked by. “Now don’t do him like that, Kelly. All the girls do love Max.”

  Max stepped into her obviously loving embrace. “Thanks,” he said and made a face at Kelly. “But you’re the only girl who matters.”

  This time Kelly made the introductions. “Shade. Max. Max. Shade.”

  “Let’s get started,” Candi ordered, and everyone dutifully made a circle.

  Shade slipped in beside her. The anxiety jabs were no longer jabs. They were all out punches.

  “I know we made some introductions,” Candi started, “but I’d like to formally introduce you to Shade Blackledge. Pastor Charles asked him to come to practice and see if he might be interested in joining us.” Candi looked around the circle. “I think you met everyone, but we’ll quickly tell you more about ourselves. Go ahead, Carol Ann.”

  “I’m Carol Ann and I sing. By day, I’m a critical care nurse. My husband’s name is Bud, no children, and right now I have my sick mother at home.”

  Kevin looked like he was about to jump out of his skin. “My turn. I’m Kevin, that’s my sister, Kelly, and you’ve already heard about us—”

  “I can speak for myself,” his sister cut in. “I’m Kelly, that’s my brother Kevin, and I’m the oldest.”

  Shade smiled, but wondered if these two really were college freshmen, or were they twelve-year-olds?

  Candi met his sideways glance and leaned in. “I don’t know what’s got into them tonight. It’s usually not this bad.”

  Rocky laced his fingers across his stomach. “I’m Rocky, and I love long rolls on the beach— if the sand’s packed down— and any business that has a drive-thru window.”

  Now that was funny. Everyone laughed. Even Candi.

  “Seriously, I play the bass, I do computer consulting work from home, and that’s about it.”

  Max pushed a couple long brown curls out of his eyes and stuffed his hands in his back pockets. “I’m Max, I play drums, and I’ve worked for my dad since finishing college this past December.”

  “That just leaves me,” Candi said. “I sing, play keyboard, and teach music at the college. Your turn, Shade.”

  His heart rate spiked in the silence as they waited for him to speak. “I’m Shade, I play gui
tar, usually lead. I recently moved back to Spring, and I have a house painting business. Thanks for having me, and I look forward to playing with you.”

  “All right, unless there’s anything else, does anyone have any requests before we open with prayer?”

  “Keep remembering my mom,” Carol Ann said with tears in her eyes. “It’s hard.”

  Everyone nodded. Shade had never seen so much genuine concern.

  “My insurance company is giving me fits again,” Rocky added. “They’re trying to tell me I don’t need physical therapy for my recent shoulder problems but, without it, I’ll never get back to full strength.”

  “If it looks like they’re going to stop paying, Rocky, let me know. I can talk to some people at the hospital,” Carol Ann offered. “There are programs. We can work something out.”

  “Or, you could send me a good-looking physical therapist with computer problems. We could trade services.”

  “Or, you could behave yourself, and I won’t yank you outta that chair and run you through your exercises myself,” Carol Ann countered.

  “Oooo, Mama’s gonna get you now,” Max said.

  Shade turned to Candi. “Mama?”

  “Yeah, Carol Ann mothers us all a bit, so we often call her Mama. And by the way, there’s one more who isn’t here. Bill is our sound guy. He’s a retired engineer. You’ll hear the guys call him Wild Bill.”

  He leaned closer. “Mama? Wild Bill?” He had her now. “Ah, yes,” he whispered in her ear, “you Christian musicians and your nicknames.”

  Max cuffed him on the arm. “You look real familiar to me, but I can’t place you.”

  And just when he was starting to have fun.

  His vital organs twisted into panic mode, churning and turning until his mouth went completely dry. His greatest fear, besides having never been involved in a Christian praise and worship team, was that someone would recognize him from his former rock band and know instantly his whole tainted and sinful story. Anyone who knew anything about the Austin music scene could have read a blog or visited a website about the band. It wouldn’t be hard to discover the accident that caused him to end his career, or uncover the addictive behavior that fueled his disappearance from the music business.