boys need something good to do. Something new and interesting.”
The pastor was staring at the car. It wasn’t hard to see where this was heading. Nash snapped the lid of the toolbox closed with what he hoped was finality. “There’s always auto shop at the high school.”
Theo chuckled. “If you met Clive Tyler, you’d know why I might be lookin’ for someone with a bit more...appeal.”
Nash remembered Mr. Smith, the bug-eyed, odd little man who’d been his own auto-shop teacher in high school. “Smitty” was as uncool as could be and no one Nash had ever wanted to spend his free time with at that age. “I guarantee you, a deputy has probably just as little appeal to boys that age.”
“Well, a sheriff like Don, maybe. But you’re different. They’d take to you.”
They do take to me. And I take to them. And then they shoot me and I end up in Texas. “Not so much, Pastor.”
“Don’t sell yourself short. Our boys who play sports—they’ve got places to go and coaches looking after them. The boys who don’t, well, I feel like they’re falling through the cracks.”
“It happens.” How like a pastor to find and hit Nash’s soft spot: kids who fell through the cracks. Kids who didn’t fit the mold, who either didn’t stand out or stood out in all the wrong ways. A knack is not an obligation. I moved here to get away from all that.
“The thing is, Nash, I want to start an after-school program for them at the church. Someplace positive for them to go. Something constructive for them to do, even if only for one day a week. I need something that catches their interest. Something like that car over there.”
To Kennedy’s credit and Nash’s growing regret, the pastor was dead-on in his thinking. To a high school boy, was there anything more attractive—other than a high school girl—than a cool car? A year ago Nash would have jumped at this opportunity. Building relationships with the local teens was always a good idea in law enforcement. It was just that the past six months had trampled Nash’s desire to do anything with teens, at least for now.
Nash wiped his hands down his face. “Look, Theo, your idea’s a good one, but I don’t think I’m your guy.”
“Why not? No one around here drives anything like this. It’s a head turner of a vehicle. Are you afraid a foreign car won’t—” Theo searched for the word, obviously not a man who spent time under the hood “—translate to the beat-up domestic cars they drive? Folks out here pretty much divide between Ford and Chevy and that’s it.”
Nash laughed. It was the most absurd version of giving a guy the benefit of the doubt he’d heard in months. “No, I know how to work on American cars. Most of it ‘translates,’ but I’m still not your guy.”
“Why? Don told me you worked with inner-city youth for years at your last post.”
Pastors must take a course in persistence at seminary. “Did he tell you why I left?”
“No.”
There was no way around it now. “I left because one of those inner-city youth I worked with put two bullets in me. I’m only here now because he missed what he was aiming at and hit my shoulder and my leg. So you can see why I’m not your guy.”
Theo looked down for a moment, and Nash rose off the stool to close the rest of his workbench drawers. That wasn’t so bad. His gut didn’t knot up at the words like it usually did.
“Actually, I still think you are the right guy,” Theo said. “We got a saying around these parts about getting back up on the horse that threw you.”
Nash sent him as dark a look as he dared. “That particular horse shot me. With intent to kill. So believe me when I tell you I’m in no hurry to mount up again, Pastor. There isn’t an ‘it’ll do you good’ version of this.”
“You’re what those boys need. Half the boys I want to reach have cars, and the other half are saving up for one. We have an old garage in the back of the church parking lot. It’s been used for storage in the past but it’s mostly empty now. I got Willie down at the garage to say he’d donate a junker for them to learn on, only Willie doesn’t have the time to do the teaching. I was hoping you would help.”
“What those boys need is someone who will believe in them. And right now, that isn’t me.”
“Don told me the sheriff’s department would be in favor of anything that built connections with the local youth. He’d let you have the time to run the program and even kick in toward expenses if there are any.”
Pastor Theo had done his advance work. Where was the slow drag of big-city bureaucracy when you needed it? “Don should know this isn’t something I can say yes to right now.”
“You don’t have to agree this minute. Just say you’ll think about it.” Theo held out a hand for a shake.
Nash was cornered. Don was on board, Theo was standing right in front of him and Nash would look like a jerk if he turned the pastor down cold for such a worthwhile program. The best he could hope for now was to say he’d consider it and start up a search for a better candidate. He tried not to grimace when he shook the pastor’s hand. “I’ll give it some thought. But I don’t think I’ll change my mind.”
“You’ll forgive my saying so, but it’ll be my prayer that you will. Remember, the place we least want to go is often where God brings the most fruit.”
Nash gave him an “I doubt that” look as he snapped off the garage light.
Theo sighed as they walked out of the garage. “I’m glad that’s settled. Now all I need to do is figure out a class for the girls and we’ll be all set.”
Nash’s memory swung back to Ellie’s description of her knitting. “I may have an idea for you there.”
* * *
Ellie held up her cell-phone screen to Gran as they sat on the porch swing. “Two messages—one from Katie and one from Derek.”
Gran squinted at the notifications. “What do they say?”
Ellie exhaled as she placed the phone facedown on the porch table. “I don’t know. I haven’t listened to them. I’m ticked that it took Katie this long to call, actually. I think this is Derek’s seventh message.”
Gran’s eyes held a gentle reproach. “You’re not going to hear what either of them has to say?”
“What is there for them to say, Gran?” Ellie felt her chest pinch the way it did every time that painful image resurfaced. Derek and Katie had looked completely enthralled with each other. Derek was supposed to feel that way about me. “Part of me wants the apology he couldn’t manage to choke out when I found them. Another part of me doesn’t want to let him sweet talk me out of ending it.” She let her head fall against Gran’s shoulder. “Or worse yet, not bother even trying.”
“I know it hurts bad, darlin’.” Gran’s arms wrapped around her—something Ellie had ached for every moment since getting her heart broken. Since she’d arrived, she’d spent hours just sitting near Gran, trying to let the pain work itself out. On the outside, she’d been sitting still staring at the pastures, but inside she’d
