The church had not changed too much in the many months it had been since I'd attended services, thanks to school. I did learn that the old organist, Sister Lawrence, had passed away a few months before though. I also didn't notice Pastor Weber or his family in attendance, which was odd. They never missed a Sunday as far back as I could recall.

I leaned toward my mother and whispered, "Where are Pastor and Sister Weber?" As she was about to answer, a man took the stage and began to speak.

"Psalm 62:3 & 4," he began. My eyes flew back to the pulpit. Psalms? His hair blazed like fire around his face—a fiery halo lit by the stage backlights. His eyes travelled over the crowd until he found what he sought. Me.

"God alone is my rock and salvation, my fortress; I shall never fall.

How long will you set yourself against a man?

You shall all be destroyed,

Like a sagging wall

or a tumbled down fence!"

Sweet Jesus! I took the Lord's name in vain in my mind. It seemed that I was being reprimanded in front of my family and congregants, whom I had known my entire life! Who is he?

"Who is this guy?" His eyes moved on in the crowd when he noticed me speaking to my mother.

"Shhh, Isabella!" my mother scolded. "You're being rude to the other members. I'll introduce you after service."

The man preached an entire sermon from those two verses. I'd never heard someone focus so intently on such a little part of scripture; perhaps the John 3:16 sermons, but those were an exception. I glanced at the bulletin in my hand. It didn't say anything about a guest speaker. Odd.

After the service, Mother pulled me toward the front of the familiar building. People were praying at the altars on either side of us, and I suddenly felt very out of place.

"Ah!" my mother said cheerily, pushing me in front of the man. He slowly turned his attention from Brother McCarty and focused in on me. His eyes held a touch of sparkle, but the grin from the night before was certainly gone. "Isabella, I'd like you to meet Pastor Cullen. Pastor Cullen, this is our daughter, Isabella."

Pastor?

"Yes, Sister Isabella," he said, answering the question which I had obviously spoken aloud. "But please, call me Edward. I've asked all the congregants to drop the formality of 'pastor' when they refer to me—it's just too stuffy. What a pleasure to meet you. Your parents hold you in such high regards. I hear you recently graduated from EU?"

I nodded in bewilderment. "What happened to Pastor Weber?" I asked. I briefly registered how rude I was being, but I was so taken off guard that it was difficult to concentrate on.

Pastor Cullen...Edward...smiled gently. "Brother and Sister Weber have resigned their commission at East Valley. I stepped in three months ago."

Shocked, I didn't know what else to say. My mother always found the words, however. "And we are so glad you did, Pastor," she told him sincerely.

I'd have to get to the bottom of this later.

"Well, Isabella," Edward told me. "I do believe we have a meeting this afternoon. I look forward to seeing you then." I nodded and he turned toward another parishioner who'd sought out his attention.

At lunch an hour later, I could not get the sudden departure of the Webers out of my head. The man had baptized me, prayed with me before I took my first communion, and led me in the sinner's prayer all those times I'd messed up. The entire thing was so odd.

"Is one of you going to tell me what happened to Pastor Weber?" I asked my parents. Mother pushed a fork-full of salad into her mouth, but Daddy placed his utensils beside his steak and lifted his eyes to mine. "I'm just concerned, since I will be working at the church. I'd really like to know what happened."

Daddy chugged his Pepsi before he finally answered. "We had an annual Church Finance Committee meeting in February. Brother Higgs and I noticed some...discrepancies in the budgeting. Categories like "Gifts for New Moms" and "Nursery Funds" had received a large increase from the last time they were examined. Upon further investigation, I noticed that there had been discrepancies going back about a decade."

It was all nonsense to me. Women didn't handle the finances, so I had no idea what this all meant.

"It turned out," Daddy continued, "that Sister Weber was allocating money in the name of different funds, but turning around and using them on herself and her family. Remember that shiny, new BMW that Angela got on her sixteenth birthday? The money had been slipped out of the "Homeless Outreach" fund for over seven years."

"Th—that's stealing!" I cried out in shock. "How can a pastor and his wife do such a thing?"

"Those are the same questions we asked, Bells." Daddy ran his hand through his hair. Sundays were the only days he didn't wear a ball-cap or his police-issued hat. "We asked them to resign—even offered a large severance package. The only way they agreed to finally leave in peace was when one of the wealthier congregants stepped up and offered an extra $10,000 to add to the package. They left in the middle of the night and moved on to a different town. I heard he's trying to start a new church."

I was floored. That wasn't the man and woman I'd known my entire life. They had lied so much.

"After looking for several months," Daddy told me, "we found the Cullens. He was fresh out of seminary and looking for a flock. It worked excellently for us, since we needed a shepherd so badly."

"He's been fantastic," Mother added, grinning enormously. "You'll really enjoy working under him, dear."

I huffed, sitting back and playing with my lunch. I grew up with order: a time and a place for everything. Now, things were changing, and I did not appreciate that. Nevertheless, Mother had no idea how true her words would ring.

T - T

"Hello, Sister Johnson," I greeted as I entered the church office. The elderly woman had been the church secretary here since I was a child. Her blue-tinted perm was evidence of her age.

"Oh, Bella!" she exclaimed. "Honey, you're all grown up! Tell me, dear, did you find a man when you were away at school?"

I blushed brilliantly. Of course, everyone expected that to happen. But the school was against dating, unless it was in a group setting, and the only boy I had ever liked was still here at East Valley.

Jacob Black attended church every Sunday with his parents and six younger siblings. Since his father had been paralyzed in an accident several years earlier, he remained in town and took over the family's mechanic business. He was a gorgeous boy, with black, pin-straight hair, a strong jaw, and broad shoulders. Jake had the blackest eyes I'd ever seen. He wrote to me several times while I was away at college, confessing that he had feelings for me. Now that I was home, I was certain he would ask to court me. It was the way these things worked.

"No, ma'am," I told her with a small laugh.

"Well, that's good to hear," Pastor Cullen said, exiting his office which was directly behind Sister Johnson's desk. "I appreciate when our young women go to school for an education and not a husband." My blush scorched my cheeks.

He turned to the older woman. "Sister Johnson, thank you for your time today. We'll have Brother Clark escort you to the bank to drop the offerings in the night depository."

She nodded, smiling brightly at the man. Everyone seemed completely enamored with him. Slowly, she stood and grasped her cane.

"It's lovely to see you again, dear," she said to me. "I'll be so happy to have you around here every day. Our youth need a good, positive influence like you, honey."

I smiled and nodded my thanks as she left. As soon as the door closed, a heavy, sweltering presence filled the room.

"Well, Isabella," the pastor said, gesturing to his private office. "Shall we?"

I sat on the leather chair in front of his desk, but instead of taking the seat behind the desk, he perched himself on the edge of it—almost touching my leg with his. "Please call me Bella," I told him.

"So... Bella," he said, smiling down at me. "I know a lot about you. I looked over your records from Sunday school and Wednesday night classes. You were a stellar pupil. Your college transcripts were forwarded to me at the end of the week, and I have to say I am impressed. You're very bright."

I knew he was paying me a compliment, but it almost felt like an insult. Should I notbe smart?

"I'd hope that whoever will be teaching our youth will be a bright individual." I wanted to bite the words back as soon as they left my mouth.

He chuckled, grinning crookedly and arching an eyebrow at me. My underwear felt uncomfortably damp, the same way they had when I first saw him washing those dishes. I had to get out of there as quickly as possible; something was terribly wrong with me.

"You are absolutely right." Edward's grin widened further. "So, tell me more about yourself. There aren't many single women who are youth pastors; it's typically a joint force of husband and wife. Is there a special man who has captured your attention?"

I was taken aback by the question, though I shouldn't have been; he was the pastor and had every right to ask. So, I swallowed thickly and told him about Jacob.

"Ah, Jacob is a wonderful young man," he told me. There was a tone behind his voice which I could not place.

I smiled and looked down, blushing lightly. "Yes, I've always thought so."

"But," he said, pressing on. "I believe very firmly in the truth of the Bible. It tells us that God has that one special person out there just for us—our soul mate. Often times, Believers get so consumed in their little worlds or own wills to recognize the need to wait for that special one."

I nodded in agreement; I'd heard this all before.

"You're twenty-two?" he asked me suddenly.

"Yes," I said, nodding.

His eyes moved over my form, causing that uncomfortable dampness to return between my thighs. "I'm thirty-five," Edward said, as though he was answering an unspoken question.

The man was significantly younger than Pastor Weber had been, but I was intrigued by the closeness of our ages. Hopefully it would be helpful in our working together. He might even be able to really give me some good advice when it came to youth group events and activities.

"I was a youth pastor before I decided to go to seminary," Pastor Cullen told me.

Smiling, I told him what I had just been thinking about.

"I'm sure we'll be able to come up with some excellent events for the youth group!" He sounded very excited by the prospect. "A camping trip would be a lot of fun. It's the perfect time of year for one."

With my hopes suddenly flying high, I pulled out a notebook and began jotting down ideas.

T - T