I inhaled. That was true. The man who’d been the assistant pastor at Pilgrim’s Rest had turned out to be a valuable resource and mentor to Jeremy as we were building New Kingdom. Right away, Jeremy had asked and Reverend Lewis had agreed to be a part of his ministerial team, even though he didn’t live in D.C.. But that hadn’t mattered. For the last ten years, Reverend Lewis had mentored Jeremy from afar and flew in once a quarter for these meetings.

“Well, you’re right,” I said, nonchalantly. “You can’t cancel the ministers meeting, so I guess it’s the conference that’ll have to go.”

He squeezed his face into a frown as if he didn’t understand my English. “You want me to give up a ten thousand dollar speaking gig? Do you know how ridiculous that sounds?”

“It sounds as ridiculous as you asking me to disappoint all of those girls in there.” I pointed toward the family room. “And I’m not going to do that. This job fair is important to them. It’s important to ME. It’s as important as anything that’s on your calendar.”

“I’m not asking you to disappoint them. That’s why we pay Dru. She can cover for you. What are they going to be doing anyway? Just walking up and down a couple of aisles, surely, you don’t have to be there for that.”

Those words, his belittling what was so important to me, took me from zero to one hundred in three seconds flat. The only reason I didn’t go off was that we had a house full of people and we were still the Pastor and First Lady of New Kingdom Temple.

“Maybe we need to talk about this later,” I said before I ignited into a rage.

He shook his head. “No time. That’s why I came home. I’ve got to pack now. I’ve got about an hour before Dana will be here and....”

“Wait. Hold up. You’re leaving now? And you’re leaving with Dana?”

He looked at me as if I’d just asked a stupid question. “Yeah, now and yeah, Dana. She’s going with me.” It must have been my expression that made him hold up his hand. “We’re not going to have that conversation,” he said. “Before you ask, Dana is going because she arranged this conference for me a year ago.”

“That’s part of her job description. To get publicity for the church and that includes speaking engagements,” I told him as if he’d forgotten. “But what’s not on her to-do list is to travel with you. And this is the second time, Jeremy.”

His sigh sounded weary. “This is so bizarre. The way you’ve recently become so...jealous.”