Chapter 4
C ash stepped through the doorway of his aunt’s house. Even after two months, it didn’t feel like coming home. It felt...like a transition. Which was odd, because he had absolutely no intention of leaving.
His parents had taken the news of his firing as he thought they would. They believed him but were upset. But what was there to do?
The stance of the church made sense. They couldn’t even give the appearance of accepting the idea that he might be a child molester.
“Good evening, Aunt Karen,” he said as he stepped into the kitchen where she stood at the stove, humming as she stirred something that smelled amazing on the burner.
Aunt Karen had been ecstatic when he had come and settled down with her. She had been lonely since her husband died, and his presence had bolstered her spirits like nothing else. At least that’s what she said, and he believed it. She treated him like her very own son, and he wanted for nothing. In fact, he’d gained five pounds in the last two months. And that was after he’d lost ten from not eating from the stress of everything that had happened and the fact that his appetite had completely disappeared.
He still didn’t quite have it back, but he couldn’t insult his aunt by not eating the food she cooked.
“Good evening. How was work today?” his aunt asked as she continued to stir, although she beamed a smile at him and nodded at the table. “I set some mail there on the corner. It looked like junk mail to me, but I didn’t want to throw it away.”
It hadn’t taken the junk mail people very long to realize that he moved and to start sending him anything from credit card offers to extended warranty plans for a car he didn’t own.
“It was good. I sold four cars, and I have a couple coming in at seven o’clock tomorrow morning to buy another one.” They were serious; anyone who made an appointment for seven o’clock in the morning most likely was. Although he didn’t want to count that chicken before it hatched. Still, he was a much better used-car salesman than he ever dreamed he would be. He wasn’t sure whether people could see that he was honest and upright, or whether he just gave off that vibe, or whether God was just blessing him. Maybe a combination of all of that. Whatever it was, he was the top salesman from the last ten years, even outdoing his uncle’s previous records.
“That’s amazing. I’m so happy to hear it. Jake would have been thrilled. He would have had so much to talk to you about.”
Cash nodded absentmindedly as he picked up the mail on the edge of the table. Aunt Karen had gone on about how much Uncle Jake would have loved him. And he had to agree, it was too bad their families lived so far apart while he was growing up. Uncle Jake sounded like a really wonderful person, and Cash had liked him the few times he met. But distance had precluded them having any kind of great relationship. That, and the fact that Cash, sure that he had been called to preach, was not the slightest bit interested in being a used-car salesman.
Things did change though, and oddly, he had a gut feeling that he was exactly where he was supposed to be. Even though he had never pictured himself doing what he was doing and didn’t particularly like it. Although, there was a certain satisfaction in being proficient at something, and he definitely felt good when he matched people up with a car that was perfect for them.
“I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow morning, so I won’t have any lunch for you,” Aunt Karen said as she turned the burner off and set the pot to the side.
“That’s fine. You don’t need to make a hot lunch for me and bring it in to the dealership every day.”
“I always did that for Jake, and he claimed that was part of the reason why he was so good at selling cars. No other used-car salesman was ever fed as well as he was.”
Cash huffed out a little laugh and walked over to the stove, holding the mail in one hand while he put an arm around Aunt Karen.
“I believe it. Your food is the best in three counties. And quite possibly in the entire West.” Not that he had ever tasted anything outside of Sweet Water, North Dakota, west of the Mississippi. Still, her food rivaled anything he’d eaten back east as well.
“Do go on,” Aunt Karen said, giggling like she was twenty years younger than what she was and laying a hand on his shoulder. “I just appreciate you being here. You completely change the atmosphere of my home. I had been thinking about selling it and moving to a senior living facility. I’m so glad I didn’t.” She sighed. “It was hard enough to think about parting from the house. But the car dealership was Jake’s legacy, and I’m so happy to see it thriving again. People need honest used-car salesmen.”
Cash was as honest as he could be. He didn’t know how to be any other way. The idea of not telling people the truth about what they were buying was something he couldn’t stomach at all. There was no way he could lie to someone in order to benefit himself.
He pictured his old church and the girl who was even now spreading lies about him, telling people that he’d done things with her that he most definitely had not. He didn’t understand. Didn’t understand how people could live to...bring someone else down? Make themselves look better? He didn’t know how that would make Zoe look better, but...it seemed like her lie was designed just to hurt him, and that made it all that much worse. After all, he’d never done anything unkind to Zoe or to her family. Or to anyone else that he could think of. So why would she be so determined to destroy him?
That was one of the lingering questions he couldn’t answer. He didn’t know. He didn’t understand that mindset. The sense of wanting to hurt another human.
Still, he knew there was a part of him that still hadn’t healed or recovered from the way his entire church had just dropped him like he was toxic waste.
They were Christians; they were supposed to love. He knew they weren’t perfect. No Christian was. Still, he expected some kind of compassion out of them. But he hadn’t heard from anyone. They had all acted like they had been exceptionally relieved that he was not only leaving the church but leaving the state.
He tried not to think about it, because he could feel a root of bitterness taking hold in his heart. He knew Hebrews chapter twelve warned about that, but so far, he hadn’t figured out how he could kill that root.
It made him angry. Made him want to lash out not only at Zoe but especially at her. And lash out at the entire church, who would treat an innocent man so badly. Not even giving him the benefit of the doubt. It was so wrong.
“Let me set this mail in my room, and I’ll be back out to eat,” he said as Aunt Karen nodded, and he carried the pot of food to the table before continuing through the dining room to the hall and on to his bedroom. She just had a small ranch house with only two bedrooms. It was all she ever needed. His room was tiny, with a single-wide bed and a dresser taking up almost all the space.
He opened the top letter as he walked down the hall. His intent had been to take off his dress shirt and put on something more comfortable, but his steps slowed as his eyes skimmed down the letter, and he stopped in the doorway of his bedroom.
Could this thing be legitimate?
The paper crinkled in his hands, and he realized his fingers were shaking.
The idea, the implications, the benefits to himself but also his Aunt Karen were staggering, if it was.
His eyes skimmed down the letter again, and he said a silent prayer.
Lord? Could this be true?
He forgot about changing his clothes and did an about-face, walking back down the hall to where his aunt was pouring tea into a glass and setting it on the table.
“Have you ever heard of this law firm?” he asked, saying the name of the law firm.
“No. I can’t say that I have,” Aunt Karen said, straightening up and looking at him quizzically. “Why? Is someone suing you?” She tilted her head, like she couldn’t imagine why anyone would do that.
After what Cash had gone through with his church, it wouldn’t shock him at all if someone were suing him. Just another nasty human, doing nasty human things.
There was that bitterness again. He tried to shove it aside. He needed to deal with it, but he wasn’t sure how.
“No. They want to give me money. It looks legit, even if it sounds far out.”
“Do you want to read it to me?”
He skimmed down through the letter, hitting the high points. An anonymous billionaire donor had been giving random people one billion dollars to get married and to stay in North Dakota. The idea was that he loved North Dakota and wanted to see good people staying and raising families there. The exodus from the state had saddened him, and while he knew the weather was a detriment to a lot of people, he felt that a billion dollars could inspire people to want to stay.
“It says I have thirty days from the date of this letter to get married and submit that information to this law firm.”
“What’s the date of the letter?” Aunt Karen asked, seemingly interested. She didn’t dismiss it out of hand, which gave Cash even more questions.
He said the day and then pulled out his brand-new phone, got the calendar app up, and figured it out. “That means I have three days to find someone to marry me, in order to get the billion dollars.”
His voice held his sinking despair. Well, that wasn’t going to happen. Even if the letter was legit, which he honestly wasn’t sure.
“I’ve heard whispers of something like this throughout Sweet Water, over the years. I haven’t heard anything about it lately though.” Aunt Karen spoke in a low voice, as though this were some kind of top-secret deal, which he supposed it almost would have to be, if people were getting handed one billion dollars just to get married, and no one had heard much about it.
“Let’s sit down and eat while we think about it. I know you must be hungry.”
He wasn’t hungry. He hadn’t been hungry for two months, but he didn’t argue with his aunt. She was going out of her way to be kind to him and to treat him better than anyone ever had, other than his parents, and even his mom had a job and hadn’t cooked supper most nights.
They sat, he said grace, and he dished her plate then his before they started talking again.
“So you’ve heard of people getting paid to get married?”
“Just whispers, like I said. There does seem to be some families who are inordinately wealthy for ranchers.”
“So these are mostly farmers?” he asked, wondering why she had said ranchers specifically.
“For the most part, yes. I don’t know anyone who didn’t live on a farm who’s actually gotten a letter like this. But most people keep these things under their hat.”
As Cash intended to do. This certainly wasn’t something he wanted to share around town. He was just getting integrated into Sweet Water. He didn’t want to alienate anyone or, worse yet, make himself a target, whether that was for thieves or for prospective brides, he wasn’t sure. He kind of felt that both fell into the same class, after his experience with Abby.
Still, he tried to process what his aunt was saying.
“So you think this letter is legit?”
The idea that someone would give him that much money was just...so far out that he could hardly believe it, but it was also so tempting to...what? Try to find a woman who would marry him in three days? He’d almost gotten himself saddled to Abby, and he considered the fact that his wedding date had come and gone, and he was still on the hook for several different payments. Abby had sent the bills to his parents, which had made him even angrier. They had not wanted to forward them to him, but they didn’t have the money to pay them.
She was the one who had wanted all the fancy things.
And probably the biggest kicker of all was the fact that his church was charging them full price for everything. Even though they knew that not only were the allegations against him false, but they had fired him knowing that. At least John knew that. Which had caused his fiancée to call off the wedding. For them to still charge him, the pastor of the church, full price...just made him mad. Not that he wasn’t willing to give that money to his church on a normal day, but after everything that they had done to him, it grated.
“Yes. I do think the letter is legit.”
His aunt’s words brought him out of his musings.
“Well, I guess it doesn’t really matter. I suppose one billion is enough to get anyone excited, but...” He shrugged his shoulders. “It’s not like I have anyone who wants to marry me.”
His aunt was suspiciously quiet.
He put a spoonful of soup in his mouth. It was delicious. He could tell it was, although it tasted like sawdust to him. He was eating it because he knew he needed to. And he didn’t want to hurt his aunt’s feelings. But he just had no appetite.
He felt like he had been attacked, spiritually, and he was wounded. His wounds were invisible from the outside but were still bleeding and gaping on the inside. But he didn’t know how to fix them. He’d been acting like everything was just fine. Maybe he was a little quieter than usual, and maybe his bitterness came out at certain times, but he felt for the most part, he was pretty good at pretending.
Still, his aunt remained quiet. Almost as though she were thinking. Finally, he couldn’t stand the silence any longer.
“What are you thinking?” he asked, thinking that maybe he shouldn’t be asking. Maybe he didn’t want to know her answer.
“Well, you’re right. You don’t have anyone lined up, and you’ve just been through a really terrible experience. It’s probably not the best time for you to be trying to find someone to spend the rest of your life with.”
That was the truth. He couldn’t argue with it. And didn’t want to. She was right, his bitterness and anger and the caustic way he felt inside wouldn’t be good for anyone to be around. He needed to figure out how to fix it, but he just didn’t know how.
A little voice told him that he actually did know how, but he was avoiding doing the work.
Maybe that voice was right. He didn’t want to fix it. That was the problem.
“But,” his aunt continued, “the chance for one billion dollars doesn’t come around that often, ever, and I feel like this might be one of those times where you do something that you normally wouldn’t.”
“Ask a stranger to marry me?”
“She would be a stranger to you, but I know someone who would be perfect for you.”
His aunt had not led him astray at all, so when she said that she knew someone who was perfect for him, he found himself believing that maybe she knew what she was talking about.
“If you say so. Is she someone who’s not just perfect for me but willing to marry a man she doesn’t know in the next three days?”
“She’s a divorcee with three small children. I think she would marry anyone, just to have someone else giving her a hand with the children.”
He had never considered having another man’s children and raising them. He hadn’t really considered marrying someone who was divorced, either. The Bible clearly said that he that marries her that is divorced commits adultery, although Jesus said that divorce was okay when it was because of fornication.
He hadn’t wanted to get into the nitty-gritty, sticky stuff revolving around that, especially since he was a pastor and felt that he needed to be above reproach. So, for himself personally, he never even considered someone who might have been divorced.
But now that he wasn’t a pastor, none of that mattered.
He supposed that should feel freeing, but it didn’t. It just felt...empty. He had been called to be a pastor, he was sure of it. But now, he was a used-car salesman, and it felt wrong. Still, he supposed anyone who had made such a drastic change in their life was bound to have a few hiccups along the road, and he certainly had. He might as well get used to his new reality.
“All right. I wonder if I could go see her tonight?” he said, figuring that there was no time to waste. If he was going to ask someone to marry him, without knowing him at all, why wait until tomorrow when he could do it today?
It didn’t seem like one day would make any difference.
“I can give you her address, and I’ll call and let her know that you’re coming.”
“That’s fine. I’ll do it immediately after we eat and I help with the dishes.” She cooked the meal, and he had told her multiple times that he would do the dishes, but she never allowed him to do them by himself. She always helped after she had put any leftover food away.
They finished the meal with Aunt Karen chatting about different things that had happened in town, relaying gossip and whatnot, and he listened with half an ear. He perked up a little when she started talking about a couple of things at the church, but it was just a habitual reaction. It wasn’t that he was necessarily more interested. Although, he supposed he was. There was just something in him that was programmed to care about the church.
He thought about how busy and crowded the church in Sweet Water was. It wasn’t anything like his two-thousand-member church back in Virginia, but they had several hundred people, although his aunt had explained to him that more than fifty of those people were from the same family who had moved in five or ten years prior. They’d mostly all married, and every one of them seemed to be trying to have a family as big as the one they came from, according to his aunt.
The few members of the Clybourn family that he met and spoke with had seemed like really decent people. A little out of the ordinary.
But typically the best Christians were a little out of the ordinary. After all, God said that His people would be a peculiar people. They were supposed to come out from the world and be separate from it. They weren’t supposed to look like the world, and he supposed that would make them a little out of the ordinary.