"I agree. But in your role as pastor, there will probably be things you're going to be talking to people about that you can't talk to me about."
"I've never run into this problem before, and I'm not sure what I'll do about it, but I guess I want to present the two of us as together... So, especially if I were to be counseling a female, I would want you in the room with me."
She blinked, as though that surprised her.
"Why?"
"I don't think it's a good idea for a man and a woman to be in a closed room together. Not only could I lose my ministry if it was her word against mine that something happened, but you don't want anything to happen, and you don't want to give yourself the opportunity. Being in a closed room with a female could put you at risk. I don't want to risk my marriage for anything. It's more important to me than anything else in the world, other than my relationship with Jesus, and that would affect my relationship with Jesus."
She nodded. She understood what he was saying. It was better to not give oneself the opportunity to sin at all. And maybe that seemed a little odd.
"I agree that there should be no secrets. I do think that if someone tells you something in confidence, that's a little bit different, but I also think that you're right about being in a closed room. I had never considered that before, but it's not something that comes up in my line of work."
He kind of wanted to talk to her about her line of work. She had said on previous occasions that she only worked because she had to. He wondered how she felt about continuing to work. He didn't want to tell her she had to, or tell her that she couldn't. But he wanted her to do what worked best for her, and for the ministry.
"So can I know what that phone call was about?" she asked.
He lifted his brows, and then a little smile turned up the corners of his mouth. "What I'm about to tell you, no one else in town knows other than Noah."
"Okay," she said, sounding curious but also cautious.
"Have you heard of the Secret Saint activities?"
"Yeah. Everyone in town has."
"That's me. And I have a partner."
"You’re the Secret Saint?" she asked, her eyes getting big and her brows going up.
"Yeah. Hopefully that's okay?"
"Wow. I'm... I'm shocked. I guess it makes a lot of sense, though. Although, how long have you been the Secret Saint, because you just became the pastor this fall."
"My other church wasn't that far away. Only about forty-five minutes. And since I had no family, and since I'm a pastor, and I have a tendency to get around and know things other people don't, I’ve been helping. Pastor Johnson had recommended me to some of the other people who have been the Secret Saint over the years."
"So it hasn't been you all along?"
"No. I think some people have gotten married, and when you start to have a wife and children, it becomes a little bit harder to sneak around in the middle of the night."
"Yeah, that kind of looks suspicious in some ways."
"Yeah. But honestly, I don't even know who all the Secret Saints were. I just know who my partner is now."
"I don't need to know that."
"I was just talking to him. Like I said, I don't think there should be secrets between us if we're going to be married. Is that what we're looking at still?" He supposed that they weren't married yet—maybe he didn't need to out Noah—but he was feeling pretty confident. Maybe she wouldn't do what God wanted her to, or maybe he was dead wrong about what God wanted, but he was more certain thanhe'd ever been about anything other than his call to preach, that he was supposed to marry Olivia.
"Yes. That's what we're talking about. And I know I said we could think about it, but I'm convinced. I know this is what God wants. And for me to fiddle and fuddle around would just be me not having faith that God's gonna work everything out. I can't say that I have no fear—that I'm not scared—but I can say that I have total confidence in God’s plan, and I know my part is to just walk forward, without concern for anything but doing what God wants."
He nodded, feeling satisfied.
"Can I ask where you're going?"
"The Hodge family, outside of town."
She drew her brows together, and then tilted her head. "Aren't those the people who left the church when they found out that the church had decided that you would be the next pastor? And they took three other families with them?"
He nodded slowly, his stomach still curling at the thought, but he knew what God wanted him to do. He'd forgiven them long ago, and now was his chance to not just prove it, but to do something kind for them. What did the Bible say about heaping coals of fire upon their heads? "That's the family."
