my first wife two years ago and how I never thought I’d find true happiness again. But I’m here to tell you today that through God’s grace, not only did I find true happiness, I also found the kind of genuine love every man ought to experience at least once in his lifetime.”
“Glory to God,” one woman said.
“Praise His holy name,” another added.
JT glanced down at his wife. “Sweetheart, stand up and say hello to everyone.”
Alicia smiled, stood, faced their parishioners, and waved. Many of them smiled back at her, chuckled, and chattered approvingly among themselves, and Alicia felt like a celebrity. In the beginning, she hadn’t known how receptive the members of New Life Christian Center would actually be toward her. Especially since they’d clearly been very fond of their former first lady and also because JT hadn’t known Alicia very long before popping the big question. So, she was very relieved to see how pleased they were to have her there.
She continued waving in a number of directions and then took her seat.
JT grinned and said, “And just for the record, don’t think that the only thing my wife has are her noticeably good looks, because she’s also a very talented writer. She’s written a novel and once she finishes up a few revisions, it’ll only be a matter of time before multiple publishers begin making offers for it.”
The congregation applauded, and Alicia appreciated their kindness and obvious support of her endeavors.
“Most of you know, too,” JT continued, “that I have lots of new goals for NLCC and a vision of how quickly I want to see our ministry grow, so I thank God for giving me a woman who loves me the way Alicia does and for all of you, the people who make all that I’m trying to do here so possible.”
Alicia listened as JT spoke more about his future plans for the ministry, but she couldn’t stop thinking about her new husband and how attentive and generous he’d been over the last seven months. He’d given her dozens and dozens of roses, spent every minute of his free time with her, and had surprised her with the kinds of gifts most women could only dream about. Alicia had wondered if she would ever find a man who loved her the way Phillip had but at the same time earned a salary that was well into six figures, and she was happy to say she’d found every bit of that and so much more.
Over the years, she’d heard a number of people insisting that it simply wasn’t possible for any one person to have everything all at the same time, specifically lots of wealth and a perfect marriage. But Alicia was pleased to know that she and JT had proved every single one of them wrong. JT was such a loyal and honest man of God-the kind of man who had made it clear from the start that even though he was dying to make love to her, he wanted them to do the right thing and not have sex until after they’d taken their vows. He’d talked a lot about how he didn’t want them doing anything that would defy God’s Word or something that might diminish their very strong moral values and how he was more than willing to wait. Needless to say, Alicia couldn’t thank God enough for bringing such a decent and wholesome man into her life. She was thankful that the fairy tale she’d prayed for actually wasn’t a fairy tale at all. She was elated to know that the fabulous life she and JT were so happily living was clear-cut reality.
Chapter 2
Oh, that’s it!” Diana Redding screamed at the top of her lungs, and JT felt like he was going to pass out. His heart beat violently, he panted uncontrollably, and it was all he could do to try to catch a few breaths of air. In all honesty, he felt like he was going to die…but it was a chance he was always willing to take when it came to this wildcat who was old enough to be his mother.
JT rolled to the side of her. “You have got to be the most amazing woman I’ve ever met.”
“Oh yeah?” she said. “Well, let me tell you…that’s nothing compared to all the other tricks I plan on showing you before you leave here tonight. That is, if your little young behind can handle all of them.”
Diana was incredible, to say the least, and strangely enough, JT had known from the first day he’d laid eyes on her, one year ago, that he had to have her. He’d known she had to be at least in her early to middle fifties, especially since she had a daughter who appeared to be the same age as him, but she looked not a day past forty. She was lively and vivacious and her perfectly shaped body, youthful skin, and erotic smile had lit a raging fire right under him-the kind of fire that simply had to be put out. And he’d let her
JT had originally seen Diana, her daughter, and her husband one Sunday at church and had spent days trying to figure out how he might be able to connect with her. He’d known he couldn’t just simply walk up to her during one of their services, but as luck would have it, he had run into her at an Italian restaurant not far from where he lived. He’d been dining with his two assistant pastors and a couple of other church officers, but then he’d seen Diana, dressed to the hilt in some vogue-style, cream-colored suit and looking over at him. Shortly after, he’d spotted her heading toward the restroom, so he had quickly excused himself from his table and followed her. It had only taken him seconds to catch up with her and when he had, she’d smiled seductively and handed him a small piece of folded paper with an address and what time to meet her but never said one word. She’d then walked away, and less than twenty-four hours later, JT had found himself in bed with a fifty-five-year-old cougar who could run wide circles around just about any woman he’d been with.
Diana propped herself onto her elbow and caressed JT’s chest. “You really gave a wonderful message this morning. I mean, you always give great sermons, but this one was another winner for sure.”
“I’m glad you liked it.”
“I did, and I’m always so proud to sit and listen to you. I’m so proud of who you are and who I know you’re eventually going to be.”
“Your support means everything because I never got that when I was a child.”
“Meaning?”
“I know I’ve never told you much about my childhood, the same as I haven’t told most people, but my years as a child were flat-out pitiful. My father spent most of it telling me how I was never going to amount to anything and how I was going to end up just like him: working myself to death for just a few dollars more than minimum wage and living my entire life in shame. He pounded those words into me every chance he got and for a long time I believed him.”
“Oh, sweetheart, I am so sorry, and why haven’t you ever shared that with me?”
“Because I try my best not to think about my father and the horrible person he was. He practically ruined any self-esteem I might have had back then and by the time I turned ten, my mother passed away from uterine cancer and he turned to alcohol. He drank himself into a complete stupor seven days a week, and after a couple of years of dealing with it, I ran away.”
Diana frowned. “At twelve years old?”
“Yeah, but thankfully my aunt was willing to take me in. She was my mom’s older sister, and she treated me like her own child. Which was fine until I started my senior year in high school and she passed away from the same kind of cancer my mom did.”
Diana slowly shook her head in disbelief. “You poor, poor thing.”
“Okay, that’s enough of that,” JT said, refusing to release tears that had suddenly filled his eyes. “Let’s talk about something else.”
“No, we have to talk about this, because I can’t believe what you went through. And looking at you now, no one would ever guess it in a million years.”
“I know. I’ve definitely come a mighty long way, and it’s all because of how wonderfully God has blessed me. He took care of me when I wasn’t quite able to take care of myself, and then one night about six years ago when I was at my lowest, He set things up so that this ended up being the same night my now father-in-law was on television, preaching this awesome sermon. At the time, I had never even heard of anyone named Reverend Curtis Black, but he still had my attention from the moment I flipped through the channels and saw him. Then, when he finished, I got on my knees and asked God to forgive me for all of my sins and to use me in whatever way He saw fit.”
“That’s really profound, and you know, I think it would really help if you started telling your life story to a lot more people. Especially to our congregation, because they’ll certainly feel a lot closer to you once you do. People like knowing that their leaders, or that any man in power who they look up to, is just as human as they are. They like knowing that you haven’t always had the success you have now and that you had to work very hard to get to where you are today.”
“Well, they already know I wasn’t always this successful in ministry because I’m always mentioning how I started out with only a few members but now have more than five thousand.”
“Still, they’ll sympathize with you a whole lot more if you tell them about your childhood. They’ll listen to you a lot more closely, and they’ll tell others what you’ve been through, which in turn might bring in new members. At the least, it might get new people to come and visit New Life to see how they like it.”
JT sighed deeply. “Maybe.”
“Just think about it. I know it’s not an easy story to tell but having any real success in this day and age means putting your heart and soul into every aspect of what you’re trying to do.”
JT smiled at Diana. “That’s what I love about you the most. Well, it’s one of the things I love about you, anyway.”
“Yeah, right,” she said, chuckling, “because we both know what you love more than anything else.”
JT reached toward her and caressed the tip of her chin. “You’re right about that. But seriously, what I love about you is the way you constantly encourage me to be the best person I can be and how you always have such strong faith in all that I want to do. I mean, I have so many plans and goals till I can barely think straight. I want to double the size of the congregation within the next five years, and my biggest dream of all is to begin televising nationally.”
“And, sweetheart, you will. You have everything it takes, and as long as you continue satisfying me the way you have over the last twelve months and you keep spending a respectable amount of time with me, I’ll do whatever I can to help you financially, emotionally, and otherwise.”
“Hey. You’ll always be my girl and nothing will ever change what you and I have together.”
Diana’s face turned serious. “Not even the fact that you have a new little wifey? That sweet young thing who’s only twenty-three years old?”
JT sighed; he hated having this particular discussion with Diana because he knew she still wasn’t happy about him getting married. “Now, baby, you know I didn’t have a choice. You know when a pastor doesn’t have a wife, it opens the door for loads of ridiculous rumors. As it was, people were starting to gossip and whisper about a couple of other women in the church they thought I was sleeping with, and that’s when I knew it was time to get married again.”
Diana looked at him but didn’t comment one way or the other. JT wasn’t sure what he should say next because he could never tell her his other reasons for taking a wife: that he’d had the opportunity to marry
