laughed softly. “Oh, I hope so! My sisters and I were raised by our grandmother. Did my sister Eileen ever tell you that?”
“No, ma’am.” Jase cut off a chunk of meatloaf and dipped it in his mashed potatoes.
“Well, Grandma taught us to cook,” Leah went on. “She’d lived through near starvation in Russia before coming to America, so she knew to make do with whatever she could scrounge. We didn’t eat fancy, but we never went hungry.”
Merlin observed Jase out of the corner of his eyes. He listened attentively, respectfully, even while he ate. Tony had been right when he said the young man was personable. Leah was already taken with him. But Leah took to nearly everyone, whether they wanted her to or not.
She sent a sideways glance at Merlin, then settled her gaze on Jase again. “Tony told us you grew up in foster care.”
Jase swiped his mouth with his napkin and nodded. “Yes, ma’am. I was lucky, though. I got bounced around a little bit in the beginning, but I landed with a real nice family when I was an eighth grader and stayed with them until I graduated. They took me to Brother Tony’s church. That’s where I accepted Jesus, got baptized, and met my—” His cheeks streaked pink. He cleared his throat and lowered his head.
Leah touched Jase’s wrist. “Tony told us about your fiancée. We’re sorry for your loss.”
Jase raised his head and looked back and forth from Leah to Merlin. “Thanks. Did Brother Tony also tell you that Rachel and I planned to be church planters after we got married?”
Merlin nodded. “He did. That’s why he thought you’d be such a good fit here in Bradleyville. We’re forging new ground by starting a ministry dedicated to high schoolers.” He set his fork on his plate and propped his arms on the edge of the table. “You probably noticed there aren’t a lot of houses here in Bradleyville.”
Jase grinned. “Well…”
Merlin chuckled. “We have a population of three hundred and twenty-five.”
Leah shook her finger at Merlin. “The count is three hundred and twenty-six, now that Jase is here.”
Merlin smiled. “True. Beech Street Bible Fellowship ministers to the people who call Bradleyville home, but we reach out to neighboring areas, too. There’s a fairly new housing district a bit north of us, and some of the folks there have started attending services. The students in Bradleyville are in the Goddard school district, so of course we’ve done some outreach there.”
The responsibility of teaching people to move beyond mere religion to truly knowing and serving Jesus created pressure in the center of Merlin’s heart, and he inwardly thanked the Lord for sending the help he’d long prayed for. And none too soon. “I’m pleased to say our attendance is increasing, and we have quite a number of people from Wichita who’ve joined the church in the past four years. I can’t see to all of the needs on my own anymore, so you, young man, are an answer to prayer.”
An almost-nervous grin appeared on Jase’s face. “I hope I won’t let you down.”
“If half of what Tony told us about you is true, I know we’re going to be glad you’re here.”
Jase ate the last bite of meatloaf on his plate and set his fork on the table. He sighed. “I’m going to need your recipe for meatloaf, ma’am. That was the best I’ve ever had.”
Merlin recognized a conversation change when he heard one.
Leah laughed. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Merlin winked at her and stood. “Thank you for lunch, dear. If you’ll excuse us, I’m going to show Jase to his apartment. Then I’ll give him a tour of the church.” Leah angled her face and tapped her cheekbone. Merlin gave her a kiss, then turned to Jase. The young man gazed at them with such a forlorn expression that it stung Merlin. He’d talk with Leah later about curbing their easy affection when Jase was with them. No sense in rubbing salt into the new youth minister’s still-raw wounds. “Ready?”
Jase nodded and rose. He thanked Leah and followed Merlin out the back door.
Merlin led him across the narrow side yard to the outside staircase for the apartment over the garage. He pointed to the garage. “There’s a stall available for your car.” He frowned at the U-Haul. “I assume you have one.”
Jase shook his head. “I left the car behind that I’ve used for the past year. My car was totaled in an