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  “Sounds like there’s already been a lot of talk about it. When do you foresee starting this program?”

  “That’s up to you, but as you know, it would be best to launch the program after school starts in the fall and everyone’s back into a routine.”

  “When would we practice?”

  “Thursday night practice in the choir room with the expectation that the kids would sing at least once a month in worship.”

  “Couldn’t we practice Wednesday night during adult Bible study?”

  “No, and Shade, that’s where you come in.”

  Shade looked like he was about to bolt from the room. She just might have to follow.

  “I’ve had a mid-week youth service on my mind for quite some time. We’ve been discussing it in Worship Committee and with some parents. If we don’t get this thing off the ground soon, we could lose the regular teens we have.”

  Shade sat forward in his chair. Yep. He was gonna run.

  “Don’t you have a youth group here?” he asked with such innocence. “I thought I saw something in the church bulletin.”

  “Those Sunday evening programs are recreational and run by parents because we’re currently without a youth pastor. I’m talking about an actual worship service for teens. Thursday nights, no more than an hour.”

  “I hear you, Pastor, but where do I come in?”

  Pastor Charles laughed and leaned forward to rest his arms on his desk. “Don’t worry, son, I’m not going to ask you to be in charge of anything. It wouldn’t be fair to you, or us. I realize you’re new to all this. Kevin and Kelly are going to lead the music, and Max is going to lead an interactive Bible study. What I need from you is your commitment and your help.”

  “I’m not sure what I can do.”

  “Be a part of this youth service team. Participate in the music portion, help Candi keep Kevin and Kelly reined in, and be there as support for Max.”

  Candi shrugged. “I don’t understand. If I’m in the choir room directing a children’s choir, how am I supposed to help Kevin and Kelly?”

  Pastor Charles lifted his calendar pages again. “I’m thinking July thirtieth for the launch of the youth service, and August twenty-seventh for the children’s choir launch. That gives us time to prepare and means the youth service should be up and running before you start the choir.”

  Candi flipped through her planner like a crazy woman, noting dates and scribbling thoughts as fast as they came to mind. What he was asking was not impossible. She could even say she knew it was coming. How she felt about it was a whole different terror she had yet to explore. For the first time since Cornerstone began, there would be a new worship service—and she would be tucked away with a room full of screaming kids while an ex-Dead Lizard took the platform.

  She looked over at Shade who had yet to say another word. While she nursed the sting of losing a certain amount of control over her music program, he looked to be two breaths away from actual medical shock. She wondered if the church’s first aid kit had one of those silver blanket thingies she could throw over his shoulders.

  She turned her gaze to the pastor. Do something.

  “Shade,” Pastor Charles started in his best pastoral tone of comfort and encouragement. “Just think about it. I know what you’ve been through and where you’re coming from. You’ve been nothing but honest with me, and I appreciate that. Things are happening fast for you here, but that’s because you’ve stepped into a whole new ballgame. I’m not ashamed to say that if I can get one messed up seventeen-year-old to come to church because the former lead guitarist from Dead Lizard Highway plays in worship, I’ll take it. The truth is, because of who you are now in Christ, you are an evangelist.”

  Shade rested his elbows on the arms of the chair and clamped his hands together. Now who had the white knuckles?

  “I’ll think about it.”

  “Just so we’re clear,” Candi began, “you want a choir camp over the summer, and a children’s choir in the fall.”

  “Yes.”

  “Then you want Shade and me to work with Kevin and Kelly on worship music for a youth service to start in July.”

  “Yes, and there’s one more thing.”

  Candi and Shade again exchanged glances. This time it was clear they each expected their heads to explode if he handed them one more monumental task.

  “I’ve been contacted by a pastor I know in Austin. He has a mega-church over there, two thousand people on any given Sunday. His church is hosting a worship conference. It’s so popular they’ve added more sessions. I’ve talked enough about you, Candi, that he wants me to send you to do a couple workshops. I gave him a tentative yes. Check your calendars for the weekend of June fifth through the seventh and let me know. You two can attend the whole conference. And if I can find the money in the budget, I want you to take Max, too.”

  Candi’s pen flipped right out of her hand. “You want us both to go?”

  “Sure, why not?”

  “To Austin?” Shade asked, just as bewildered.

  “Yes.”

  “What about worship that Sunday?”

  “Kevin and Kelly can handle it. Just let me know as soon as you have an outline of what your workshops will be about so I can send it to the coordinator.” He picked up his cell phone and flipped it open. “I’ve got to get home.” He headed for the door. “I know I’ve given you both a lot to think about. We’ll talk again soon. Thanks for coming, and Candi, would you please lock up the office when you leave?”

  “Sure,” she whispered as he walked right out the door.

  Shade sat motionless in his chair. “I feel like I’ve been beat with a stick.”

  Candi stood and turned off the desk lamp. “Or tossed over Niagara Falls in a barrel.”

  Shade held the door for her. “Yeah, that, too.”

  They made their way to the reception area. Just as Shade reached the double-glass doors he stopped and turned around. “I don’t think I can do what he asked me to do.”

  Candi paused and met his worried gaze. The stubborn strands of hair that wouldn’t stay in his ponytail hovered around his face.

  “I know it sounded like a lot,” she assured him. “But you won’t be alone and we have plenty of time to work things out.”

  “I haven’t done this my whole life like you and Max. I’m not a leader. I’m not an evangelist. I don’t even know what that means.”

  “Aw, Shade, just because I’ve been at this a while doesn’t mean I know what’s going on either. I know less now than I ever have.”

  Late afternoon sun crept through the tall stained-glass windows in the foyer and danced on the carpet in front of the new picture wall.

  Shade left the door and went to lean against Ms. Mattie’s counter. “I doubt that.”

  “He wants a children’s choir. I don’t know anything about children’s choirs. I teach at the college level. My students have beards and navel rings. I mean, I like kids, but I haven’t worked with them since my student teaching days. I don’t know where to start to develop a choir camp where they’ll have fun, learn music, and want to sing. If anything, they’ll cry and tell their parents they don’t want to come back the next day. I’ll be sitting by myself with a jug of apple juice and a bag of animal crackers.”

  Shade laughed and poked the wayward strands behind his ears. “That would be toddlers.”

  “What?”

  “I think your choir is going to be older. More like juice boxes and peanut-butter and jelly.”

  She waved her hands in distress. “See what I mean? I know nothing. And how do you know so much about it?”

  “I read a lot.”

  Candi dropped her purse in the chair by the door.

  He rested his hands on his hips. The glare from his body art assaulted her one more time.

  “Can’t you tell him you don’t want to do it?” His question was logical enough.

  “No. If you’ll remember, he didn’t attach a think about it to my orders.
This is my ministry, Shade, and a job I do here. Pastor Charles is my boss. When he asks me to do something, I have to try my best to do it because I have to assume he’s prayerfully following God’s divine instructions for this church. It’s my duty to support him and follow his lead.” She sighed and fidgeted with the bangles at her wrist. “Besides, when I ask too many questions or buck the system I just get myself in trouble.”

  Shade pushed away from the counter and walked to the picture wall. He studied each scene. “This is my favorite,” he said and pointed. “Fishers of Men.”

  Candi joined him and gazed at the eyes of a soulful and imploring Jesus as he paused at the Sea of Galilee to invite Peter and Andrew into discipleship. “Why this one?”

  “Because I like to fish.”

  Candi narrowed her eyes and smiled. “Despite the nets and the boat, there’s more to this painting than catching fish.”

  His grin was smug. “I know what it’s about.”

  She turned and headed for the door. “And you said you weren’t an evangelist.”

  “I do like to fish, though.”

  She shouldered her purse. “Come to think of it, I do too. Fishing is so quiet and reflective. And sometimes you catch something.”

  He pulled the door open for her. “So let’s go fishing.”

  “We have to get to practice.”

  “Not now, later this week.”

  She stopped and stared straight into his sincere gaze.

  He was completely serious.

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Why not? We now have an early morning regular meeting on Fridays. Let’s just push it to Saturday and take it to the pond.”

  “I don’t have a license.”

  “Private property. None necessary.”

  “I haven’t had a pole since I left home.”

  “I have several.”

  “Digging up night crawlers tends to ruin my nails for church.”

  He let out an exasperated sigh as she made a swift getaway across the foyer and into the sanctuary. “Aw c’mon now, Candi, I’ll get the bait. It’s just fishing.”

  She stopped short and spun around. Get to know him…help him…ask him...

  “OK, OK, I’ll go. There’s just one thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I’m not going anywhere with you in the Del Rio Destroyer.”

  4

  From: Pastor Charles Littleton

  [mailto:[email protected]]

  Sent: Friday, April 24 8:09 AM

  To: Candi Canaberry [email protected]

  CC:Shade Blackledge

  Subject: Power in Praise Worship Conference

  Candi and Shade:

  I’ve attached the information for the Power in Praise Worship Conference in June. Have either of you had a chance to check your calendars? Let me know. It was great talking to you both Tuesday night. We’ll touch base again after you’ve had a chance to put some details together.

  Charles

  Max was right on time. Shade could tell he was coming by the sound of the muffler Kevin and Max had installed on Max’s mother’s old, red Chevy Cavalier. He peeked through the metal mini-blinds in his kitchen and listened to the low rumble for two blocks before he ever saw the car approach his trailer. It slowed and then sped past. The squeal of brakes followed as Max no doubt realized he’d missed the narrow strip of concrete that served as a driveway. He backed up and slipped into the spot beside the Del Rio Destroyer, just missing a pot of dead geraniums the previous tenant had left behind.

  Shade stepped out onto his raised wooden deck. “How’s it goin’?”

  Max retrieved three pizza boxes from the back seat. “It’ll be better once I bust into this pizza.”

  Shade’s stomach growled. “I can smell it from here.”

  “Rocky’s right behind me,” Max offered. “He’s got the movies.”

  Shade leaned against the rail as Max climbed the stairs to join him on the deck. “About Rocky, how are we gonna get him in the house?”

  Max set the boxes on the dirt-crusted plastic white table in the corner. “No problem. Rocky’s a maniac in that chair. He’ll zip across the yard over there to clear the drainage ditch, then he’ll back up to these steps and we’ll pull him up.”

  “So he gets around OK?”

  “Oh, yeah.”

  Shade flexed his toes in his boots. There was a time they wouldn’t move. How is it God let his toes regain their feeling, but not Rocky’s? He shifted his weight against the rail and crossed his arms. “What happened to him?”

  “Crazy story. He was on a crowded balcony at a college party. The thing collapsed. Nasty fall. The ironic thing is he was a college football star. That’s not how he got hurt, but it sure ended his promising career.” Max slid his hands into the back pockets of his jeans. “He doesn’t mind talking about it if you want to ask him.”

  Shade nodded.

  Max left the deck and peered down the street as if awaiting an ice cream truck. “C’mon, Rock, I need that pizza. Here he comes.”

  Rocky pulled his Ford Taurus off the road near the skinny Magnolia tree in Shade’s front yard. It took him just seconds to open the door and pull out his chair.

  Shade squinted. “Where’s the passenger seat?”

  “His parents took it out so he could get his chair in there easier.”

  “You better have my pizza,” Rocky called out as he pulled himself from the car.

  “Not for long,” Max yelled back. “Hurry up.”

  Rocky dropped the movies in his lap, slammed the car door, and, as Max predicted, rolled across the yard at an amazing clip.

  Max glanced up at Shade as Rocky took his position at the bottom step. “If he asks you to arm wrestle, trust me, don’t do it.”

  Shade laughed and noted Rocky’s muscular build. As an athlete, he was probably in great shape at the time of his injury. His constant upper body workout had just pumped him up more. “Not a chance,” Shade said and snatched the pizzas. He held the door as Max pulled Rocky up the stairs. “I don’t have much furniture so it shouldn’t be hard to find a place to park near the T.V.”

  Rocky did a wheelie/spin combination and landed flush with the end of the couch. “Nice curtains,” he observed. “Martha Stewart do that for you?”

  Shade set the boxes on the coffee table. “Yeah, I held up the old quilts while she nailed them to the wall. It was her idea.”

  Max laughed and made himself at home at the end of the tan leather couch. “Poor man’s sound-proofing?”

  “Yeah, don’t want to annoy the neighbors with my music just yet.” He headed to the kitchen for drinks. “I’ve got all kinds of soda.”

  “Just water for me,” Rocky answered. “And if you have any hot sauce that would be good, too.”

  “Got it.”

  “I’ll drink anything,” Max said and bounced a few times on the couch. “Hey, this is a nice sofa.”

  Shade tossed Rocky a bottle of water and set the hot sauce and a roll of paper towels on the table. “It’s from my parents’ den.”

  He bounced again. “Does it recli—?” His words were cut short as the foot rest flew out with a squeak and a thump, and laid him out into a full reclining position. He blinked several times as he stared at the ceiling. “I guess it does.”

  Rocky laughed so hard he lost his breath.

  Shade sat on the other end and popped the top on his Mountain Dew. “It also works if you pull the lever on the side.”

  Rocky took a long drink of water and replaced the cap. “Sorry, Shade, can’t take him anywhere.”

  Max struggled to get upright. “Does that end recline, too?”

  “Nah. It’s broken from my cousin bouncing on it. I think that’s why my mom gave it to me.”

  Max pulled the pizzas off the table and peeked inside each box before passing them on. “Sausage for Rock, extra cheese for me, pepperoni for you.”

  Shade took the
box and slid Max a soda. “Kevin couldn’t make it?”

  “No, he had something with his parents.”

  “That’s a good thing,” Rocky added. “You think Max is hard on the furniture, Kevin never sits still.”

  Max folded over a small piece of pizza and put the whole thing in his mouth. “Sweet T.V.,” he said and ripped a paper towel off the roll.

  “That whole entertainment center is sweet,” Rocky added.

  Shade set down his drink and stood to snag the remote. “Yeah, well, I focused on the important things.”

  Rocky eyed the wall unit and then the door. “How did you get all that in here?”

  “One piece at a time. I even crawled under the trailer to check the floor. This is an older home so my dad thought we should brace it with something.”

  “Did you?”

  “Not yet.”

  Max picked up another slice. “What movies did you bring, Rock?”

  He pulled the cases from the side of his chair and handed them to Shade. “Transformers, The Fast and the Furious, and, if you’re interested in a classic, I brought the original Terminator.”

  “Definitely The Fast and the Furious,” Max decided for them. “But I don’t care if we watch ‘em all. I don’t have to get up in the morning.”

  “I don’t care, either,” Rocky interjected with his mouth full. “I never have to get up.”

  Max rolled his eyes. “Really, Rock? That one’s not even funny.”

  Shade loaded the DVD. “I don’t care if we watch them all either, but I do have to get up in the morning. Goin’ fishin’.”

  “Nice,” Max said. “Headin’ out early for the coast?”

  “Nothing that exciting. Just my uncle’s pond.”

  “Family thing?”

  Shade sat back down and scraped a glob of cheese and pepperoni off the bottom of the cardboard box and flicked it onto the top of another slice. “No, me and Candi are going out there to see if anything’s biting.”