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The Best-Kept Secret

Chapter One

The Reverend Curtis Black proofed the last line of his news column and e-mailed it to his editor. His deadline was noon tomorrow, and that meant he was cutting it rather close. Not purposely, of course, but primarily because he'd taken on a large number of commitments over the past month. Last week, he'd preached at a revival in Dallas five days straight, prepared his sermon for Sunday worship, and handled a ton of other pastoral responsibilities as soon as he returned to Mitchell, a city ninety miles northwest of Chicago.

Once upon a time, he would have thrived on traveling long distance, just to escape his home environment or whatever wife he was married to, but to his surprise, he no longer felt that way. Now he wanted nothing more than to spend as much time as possible with his wife and seven-year-old son. Charlotte and Matthew were his life, and he was proud of the fact that he'd been faithful to her the entire two years of their marriage. Which was quite an accomplishment on his part, since he hadn't been true to either of his first two wives. He'd finally mastered the ability to resist temptation, and his world was better because of it. Still, he had to admit, it wasn't always easy, not with two noticeably attractive women at the church constantly trying to come on to him. The forty-year-old was quiet and discreet with her advances, but the younger one was almost blatant. It didn't matter one way or the other, though, because Curtis basically ignored them. He'd learned the hard way that sleeping with outside women just wasn't worth it.

He flipped the light switch of his newly renovated study, engaged the security system, and walked out to the well-lit parking lot. After sitting inside his Cadillac SUV, the same one he'd driven for three years, he turned the ignition and drove away from the church. Life was a lot different, now that they were living in Mitchell, but Curtis couldn't be happier. True, he was no longer earning five thousand per week, residing in a six-thousandsquare- foot house, or preaching to a three-thousand-plus congregation, but based on Mitchell's cost of living, he wasn't doing badly, especially since he and Charlotte had founded Deliverance Outreach the first month of their relocation. They'd started out with maybe fifty members during the first six months, increased to just over a hundred the first year, and now they were easily five hundred strong. Curtis had built a well-known ministry that drew people in, but it certainly hadn't hurt when another local pastor had retired and some of those members had sought a new church home. It also hadn't hurt when he approached the local newspaper about doing a weekly column.

Before arriving in Mitchell, he'd written a church business plan, and when he'd realized he needed something that would get people stirred up and taking notice of him, he'd decided to submit a column to the Mitchell Post. The features editor was clearly interested but, after deciding that the material was a bit controversial, she asked Curtis to rethink some of his subject matter. He wasn't happy about the request but decided to do whatever he needed to in order to get his work published.

In the beginning, he'd centered his column on polite topics such as the importance of going to church on Sunday, the reason families needed to pray together, what couples should do when their marriages were falling apart. But three months later, his editor left for vacation, and Curtis snatched his golden opportunity. His interim editor was much more liberal and quickly approved a piece that Curtis had written on atheism, its effect on society and how nonbelievers were going straight to hell. And as Curtis suspected, letters to the editor poured in at an unusual rate. Days later, the editor in chief called a meeting with Curtis and offered him more control over his topics, which ranged from teenage sex to gang violence to adultery, the latter being something Curtis knew a lot about. But once a month, he crafted inspirational messages, hoping to motivate his readers, and he was almost finished writing his first book, How to Have Almost Everything You Want. His editor in chief was also talking possible syndication for his column.

When Curtis arrived home, Matthew rushed toward him with a piece of paper.

"Dad, look what I have," he said, beaming and hugging his father around his waist.

Curtis took the sheet of paper from his son and playfully grabbed him in a headlock. "What's this?"

"It's a permission slip for the Milwaukee zoo!"

"Wow. So you're going to the zoo, huh?"

"Yep. And my teacher said that they need something called chaperones, too."

"Really? And what exactly is a chaperone?"

"I'm not sure. But I think you could be one if you wanted, because she told us to ask our parents."

"Is that so? Well, just so you know, a chaperone is an adult who escorts young children. They sort of watch over them."

"Oh. Well, I really want you to go, okay?"

Curtis smiled at his son with all the love any child could stand.

"You know I wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Wait 'til I tell Jonathan and Elijah," he announced. "We're gonna have so much fun."

Matthew brushed past his mother and ran back upstairs. Charlotte smiled at her little boy, then strutted into the kitchen and over to Curtis.

"Hi, baby," she said.

"Hey, beautiful." Curtis pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

"What was that all about?"

"Field trip. His class is going to the zoo, and I told him I'd be a chaperone."

"That little booger. He never said one word to me about any trip."

"What can I say? Maybe he prefers spending time with his father," Curtis teased, still holding his wife closely ...