Here for You

by Pat Simmons

  “Interesting,” Rachel said. “Thank you for the insight. Without reading this verse, I was somehow convinced that God didn’t want us to have materialistic treasures.”

  “To the contrary,” he explained. “From Genesis on, God has always provided for His people. And the rich and poor offered a portion of their substance to the Lord.”

  “I don’t know why I always looked at church as a straitjacket of a place full of ‘can’t dos.’”

  “Woman, you have so much to learn,” Nicholas said with mirth in his voice.

  “I couldn’t ask for a better teacher.” She beamed.

  “I’m honored, Rachel, that you have so much confidence in me, and I give God the praise for that, so maybe you’ll accept my invitation to hear me preach on Sunday.”

  “Preach! When were you going to tell me?” Rachel screamed in excitement. “Of course, I’ll be there. I’m not sure about the sitting-in-front-row thing, like my parents used to do to show support, but I want to be there.”

  “Although it’s my invitation, I’m praying that God has a special message for you. Maybe Jacqui can come with you.”

  “Can’t make a promise on that one, but I’ll try.” After they said their goodbyes, Rachel was grinning. “Aunt Tweet, did you know this was going to happen?” She chuckled to herself as she said her prayers, then climbed into bed.

  A few days later, Rachel and Jacqui met for lunch downtown. “Hey, I know you’re going out tonight.”

  “Yeah, and without you,” Jacqui said in an accusatory tone, then pouted before she perked up again. “I’m not mad at you, but I never suspected you would fall for a church guy.”

  Rachel glanced out the window by their table, then turned back to her friend and shrugged. “Me either, but I don’t have any regrets.” She tapped a manicured nail on their table. “I was planning to call you, but since we’re having lunch… Nicholas is preaching this weekend, and I’m hoping you will come with me.”

  Jacqui groaned and dabbed at her lips. Ladies never wiped their mouths, she always said. “Sundays are meant as a day of rest.”

  “Yes, they are, and I’m sure you’re going to need it after staying out all night, but I don’t want to go alone.”

  “The things I do to prove my friendship,” Jacqui huffed. “You’ll owe me.”

  Rachel beamed. “You know I’ve got you covered. Whatever it is.”

  On Sunday morning, Nicholas sent a text as Rachel stepped out of the shower.

  I hope to see you soon.

  You will, she texted back with a smile.

  She slipped on a mustard-colored, short-sleeved dress that was fitted to her waist, then flared past her knees. It complemented her figure while keeping it modest. She wore minimal makeup and jewelry to offset her attire, then sent a selfie to Tabitha with the caption: Church flow. Her sister would be proud.

  Her sister called immediately. “Yes, you won’t regret it. I went to appease Aunt Tweet. If it wasn’t for her, I don’t think I would’ve surrendered to Jesus. That goes for Marcus too. I needed the inspiration. I’m glad Nicholas is leading you in that direction,” her sister said.

  “I don’t know what I have to surrender. I treat folks the way they treat me.”

  “Ah, you have that twisted.” Tabitha laughed. “Get ready and go. I’ll quiz you later.”

  “Right. If I don’t beat Jacqui to church, I’ll never hear the end of it. Bye.”

  Believers Temple Church was twenty minutes away in Brentwood, and the drive there was smooth. Seconds after arriving, Jacqui texted her. Here. Where are you?

  Parking. Meet you in the lobby. Rachel hurried across the lot to the entrance, where she saw Jacqui craning her neck to search for her.

  “You look cute.” Her friend greeted her with a hug.

  “And you look tired.”

  “Humph. Somebody woke me up. All I’ve got to say is Nicholas better not put me back to sleep.”

  Rachel hushed her. “Lower your voice. I think we’re supposed to call him ‘Minister’ here.”

  “Oh…okay.” Jacqui looked around. “I guess we need to find somewhere to sit.”

  An usher appeared as if summoned and led them into a sanctuary that could accommodate a thousand plus easily. He directed them to seats midway between the front and back.

  “You see Nicholas?” Rachel leaned over and whispered.

  “Yep. He’s looking right at you.” Jacqui pointed toward the group of chairs on either side of the pulpit.

  How could he find her in a crowd of folks? Rachel waved. Nicholas responded with a slight nod as the praise singers had most of the congregation on their feet, singing along with gusto.

  But she was eager to hear from the soft-spoken man with a gentle spirit and easy smile. Soon enough, the pastor made his way to the podium. “As you know, our church has many capable ministers, and during the summer, one Sunday each month, I want us to hear from one of them.” He glanced over his shoulder and motioned for Nicholas to join him. “Minister Nicholas Adams is this morning’s speaker.”

  Applause and “amens” circulated within the sanctuary. Rachel clapped enthusiastically as if Nicholas could hear her.

  “Praise the Lord.” Nicholas didn’t waste any time with preliminaries and directed them to Lamentations 3:22–23. “God’s compassion and faithfulness are unmatched.”

  Rachel sat in astonishment as his voice seemed to roar like a lion.

  Nicholas cited another Scripture. “Jeremiah 31 says, ‘I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.’ What’s keeping you from coming to Him? Shh.” He placed a finger on his lips. “God is calling you. Do you hear Him? Listen to His voice…”

  For the next half hour, Nicholas preached with authority, and Rachel soaked up every word, wondering if he was talking to her or the audience in general. Nicholas was so compelling that she was losing the argument she had been telling herself over the years that God wasn’t concerned with the nuances of her life.

  The music was soul stirring, and the energy of worship was electrifying. All the years that she thought a tall guy with broad shoulders or a handsome face and stable income was sexy, she had been so wrong. It was a man of God who could take command of the Scriptures like she had never heard before. No wonder the women within her sight were hanging on Nicholas’s every word.

  Let God draw you, not man. Rachel shivered. Was God speaking to her? She patted her chest and looked around, but no one was paying any attention to her.

  “What do you think?” Rachel whispered to Jacqui.

  “About what?” Jacqui seemed clueless.

  “Committing to the salvation walk with God,” Rachel explained.

  “You’re thinking about making a lifestyle change?” Jacqui’s eyes widened in surprise.

  “I don’t see how I can say no after hearing that message.” Rachel gnawed on her lips. What was really stopping her from making a commitment? She felt almost persuaded—almost. She was teetering. The message was powerful.

  After the benediction, Rachel wanted to share her thoughts with Nicholas. However, there was a steady stream of folks flocking to speak with him.

  Jacqui whispered, “Girl, if we don’t jump that line, we’ll be waiting a long time.”

  “You’re right,” Rachel said but continued at a snail’s pace behind the others. When she came face-to-face with the powerhouse preacher who seemed larger than life on the pulpit, Rachel froze, trying to reconcile him with the sweet soul who drew her.

  Nicholas took her hand as she had seen him do with the others, but she doubted he gave them a gentle squeeze that caused their hearts to flutter. The energy exchange between them made her want to pull away, but his grip tightened. They stared at each other until Jacqui cleared her throat.

  “Did God speak to you this morning?” Nicholas
asked.

  “Yes.” Rachel nodded, then she blurted out, “I’m ready.”

  “For?” He lifted a brow, and a smile tugged at the corners of his lips.

  “You’re serious?” Jacqui echoed behind her.

  Rachel swallowed. “I can’t tell God no. I want what you have with the Lord.”

  The look in Nicholas’s eyes seemed to connect with her soul.

  “Everything is about to change in your life, including things between us,” he said.

  Rachel felt that too. The anticipation made her heart leap. She was ready for a new chapter in her life.

  Chapter 15

  “You win the lottery or something?” Jackson Clark, one of Rachel’s teammates, commented as they discussed the next phase of the park project.

  Before she could answer, Patti popped her head into the conference room, grinning. “Hey, these just arrived for you.” She lifted flowers sealed with white paper from a local florist.

  “Whoa.” Rachel jumped up. “I’ll take them.” Then she looked back at her coworker. “Be right back.” She hurried to her office and quickly peeled away the wrapping. The arrangement was a colorful mixture of flowers in a thick, square glass vase. She reached for the envelope and slipped out the card. Celebrating your new life in Jesus, 2 Corinthians 5:17.

  Closing her eyes, Rachel grinned and held the card close to her chest. She’d wait to look up that Scripture. She positioned the arrangement at the preferred angle on her desk, then slipped the card into her purse before returning to the conference room, where Jackson was twirling in his chair with mischief in his eyes.

  “Hmm. Someone had a great weekend. No wonder you’re shining bright as the sun.”

  Rachel shrugged and sat at the table again in front of her laptop. “My whole life changed yesterday at church. I surrendered my will to the Lord.”

  Jackson stopped twirling and frowned. “Why? Are you dying or something?”

  “Nope,” she said matter-of-factly. “I’m very much alive, but I realized that I need Team Jesus in my life. I think I made a good choice.”

  “Interesting. Church.” Jackson grunted and shook his head in amusement. “My life is fine the way it is. No reason for me to make any changes. If you start having prayer meetings and stuff up in here, I’m moving my office.”

  Rachel chuckled. Jackson didn’t, so they got back to business.

  Throughout the morning, Rachel’s thoughts drifted to what her colleague had said. It seemed odd that her life change wouldn’t be well received, but then again, she could relate. Church was never a necessity in her life, but after Nicholas’s sermon, Rachel felt she didn’t have anything to lose. Actually, her mindset toward God had started changing before the morning message. When? She didn’t know.

  Finally, she took a late lunch. Having a taste for veggies, she headed to Gino’s for a harvest salad. While walking down Second Avenue, she texted Nicholas. Can you talk?

  His response was an immediate phone call. “Hi.”

  Rachel slowed her steps to enjoy the sound of his voice. “Thank you for the flowers this morning…and the Scripture! Do you know it by heart to recite it?”

  Nicholas chuckled. “‘Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.’”

  “I like knowing that. Jacqui is still confused that I wanted a change. One of my coworkers thought I was dying, but when I called my sister, Tabitha and Marcus were ecstatic. Talk about a mixed bag of responses… So when is the next church service?”

  “Wednesday Bible class.”

  “I’ll be there.” She was eager to extract whatever she could from the Scriptures. “It’s amazing—I’ve been around a Bible all my life but never took the time to study what’s in it. I’ve basically done surface reads, so I’m looking forward to Bible class.”

  Two days later, Rachel made sure she left work on time to change out of her business suit into something casual for Bible study. Ever since the past Sunday, she’d had a spiritual thirst that could drain a lake. Just as she used to stay up all night to read a good novel, she had the same fascination with passages in the Bible that she’d barely thought about before.

  “Was it like this for you too?” she asked Tabitha as she was about to walk out her door.

  “I guess so. God drew me with the message about rest—and I needed it mentally and physically. Jesus said to cast my burdens on Him, and I uploaded them. Whew.”

  “I see the Lord knows how to customize His messages.” Rachel liked that. They chatted a few more minutes before she had to end the call so she could drive to church, a twenty-plus-minute drive on a good day.

  She rolled with the flow of traffic and turned into the church parking lot, arriving on time. As Rachel searched for an empty space, she spied Nicholas stepping out of his Maxima. Waving, her heart fluttered, and she grinned, pulling into a space a few cars away. He seemed to stand at attention as he waited for her to park, then he swaggered to her driver’s side and helped her out.

  “Hi,” he greeted her with warmth and awe. “You’re trying to beat me to church now?” he teased.

  She giggled. “Can I help it if I don’t want to be late?” They strolled leisurely across the parking lot to the front entrance. “Nicholas, are you sitting in the pulpit?”

  “Nope, it’s Bible class, so I’m a student in the audience. Come on. I’ll show you where I sit.” He lowered his voice. “It doesn’t matter to me, but remember to call me ‘Minister’ at church. Otherwise, folks might think you’re not respecting my position. Silly, huh?”

  “You’ll always have my respect, Minister Adams.” She smiled and followed him to his seat.

  * * *

  Nicholas felt almost—and it was a good almost—as if he was competing with the Lord for Rachel’s attention. The feelings he had developed for her only deepened as he watched her highlight passages in 2 Timothy 3 on her tablet. Occasionally, she would tilt her head to ponder what the pastor had said.

  She could probably tell him all that he was missing from the lesson because he was distracted watching her. He chuckled to himself. That night, the two had an hour-long post-Bible class discussion over the phone. Rachel was truly the desire of his heart.

  Friday evening, Karl and Ava invited them to a game night to play Sequence—a family-friendly board game that the twins enjoyed. It didn’t go unnoticed that his nephews vied for Rachel’s attention when Nicholas wanted her all to himself. Rachel didn’t disappoint the boys as she smothered them with hugs. Jealous or not, Nicholas could see Miss Knicely fit easily into his life.

  Saturday was a comfortable June day, with temperatures in the low eighties. Perfect. The couple had some one-on-one time as they strolled through the Gulch with her dogs and admired the street art on the buildings.

  “I’m in awe of this artist’s mural,” Rachel said as they noticed tourists pose between a pair of twenty-foot-high angel wings on Eleventh Avenue South.

  Nicholas admired the artwork. “I think I read somewhere that Kelsey Montague flew into Nashville and used a boom lift to work on the masterpiece, using sixty paint pens. Incredible.”

  “Come on.” Rachel’s eyes sparkled, and she grabbed his arm. “Let’s play tourist, too, and take a selfie in front of it.”

  Grinning at her silliness, he agreed. After a couple of poses, someone offered to take their picture. When he looked at the photo, he saved it as his wallpaper, and Nicholas imagined them actually sharing wings.

  As they resumed their stroll, Rachel continued to rave about Kelsey’s craft, so Nicholas turned the tables on her. “You know what I think is more impressive?”

  She frowned and shook her head.

  “You, a smart, talented, and creative engineer. You talk to my nephews about building stuff. Let me play tourist in your world.”

  “Awww. Tha
t’s sweet. Thank you.” They walked back to her apartment and put the pooches up, then took off in his car. As they cruised through the city, Rachel pointed out buildings that had historic black significance that either Nicholas didn’t know or had forgotten about.

  “Pull over,” Rachel said, so he did and parked in front of the former Pearl High School. “This was the ‘for-blacks-only’”—she made air quotations with her fingers—“school during the Jim Crow era. Nashville is steep in black history from my superb education that Fisk U and other HBCU schools imparted on their students in the Music City to legends. Take, for example, the McKissack brothers, who founded an architectural firm and built several impressive structures throughout Nashville. They definitely left a legacy.”

  “For someone who didn’t grow up here, you sure know a lot about our history.”

  “There’s a reason for that.” She angled herself in the car. “Have you ever felt like things that happen in your life are a series of dots where one event connects you to another?”

  Nicholas shrugged. “I never really thought of it that way, but I do know that God orders our steps.”

  She nodded. “I think about Aunt Tweet and how she carved out a path for me and my sisters to follow. She attended a historically black college in West Virginia and drilled into my head and my sisters’ that education was key. She was my idol growing up, and I wanted to be just like her—smart.”

  “Which you are.” He squeezed her hand.

  “Thank you.” She blushed, lowering her long lashes.

  “Plus, you’re beautiful, which I know you hear all the time.” Nicholas brought her hand to his lips. “You’re all of that, Miss Knicely.”

  “Coming from you…” She paused, looked him in the eyes, and placed her right hand over her heart. “I feel it’s more than empty words.”

  Touched, Nicholas was choked with emotions that he made her feel that way.