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“Still as charming as ever.” She pats my hand roughly, and I notice a woman with a name tag standing off to the side watching her. “How long have you been back?”
“I got here late Friday night.”
“I take it you’ve met your daughter?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“She’s a beauty. And sweet as her mamma.” She slides her hand into the crook of my arm and helps me escort her down the middle aisle to a row where she stops. “How long are you planning to stay?”
Glancing to where Noel is just returning to the small sanctuary, I lower my voice. “Hopefully, a long time.”
That lights her gray eyes. “I’m so glad. This is a good thing.”
She lowers herself slowly into the pew, and I glance up to catch a pair of dark eyes slicing into me. Mindy sits in the pew beside her mother, and from the look on the woman’s face, Mrs. Jenny does not think me being here is a good thing.
Chords sound out from the organ at the front of the room, and I quickly join Sawyer and Noel in a pew across the aisle. Sawyer is on the end with Noel between the two of us. A slim man wearing glasses stands in the pulpit at the front of the room and holds out his hands to welcome us.
Then the organist is joined by a piano playing “A Mighty Fortress is our God,” and I hold the maroon songbook for Noel and me. She seems surprised I know the tune, but I grew up in Nashville, not Nepal.
A few more hymns and we take a moment to shake hands. Mindy appears at Noel’s side, smiling up at me. Her green eyes are wide, and she’s tied her kinky-curly brown hair back in a ponytail.
“Taron Rhodes? What a surprise this is!” Her eyes go to her friend’s. “When did this happen?”
“Yesterday.” Noel hugs her and I can’t make out what she says in Mindy’s ear.
Mindy leans back, looking straight in her eyes. “You’d better.”
Her mother is behind her, giving Sawyer a hug then turning to Noel. “You feeling okay, honey?”
“I’m fine.” Noel’s voice is flustered, and the woman faces me.
“So you’re back.” It’s not a question, and she’s not smiling.
“Yes, ma’am.” I reach out to shake her hand. She does not shake mine, so I lower it, wiping it down my dark jeans. “I hope that’s not a problem.”
“I do too.”
The pastor takes his place at the podium, and we all take our seats. He starts talking about ways we can be fountains, refreshing, life giving, rather than draining away the happiness from others around us.
I look around the room as he continues speaking, remembering what Noel told me about the people here stepping in to take care of them after her parents died. Mrs. Jenny’s stern eyes meet mine, and I guess I deserve her disapproval. I guess to her I’m a massive drain.
Not anymore.
The pastor says for us to bow our heads and as I’m turning, I catch a frown I had not expected. Digger Hayes is glaring at me from the front of the room.
Bastard.
The final Amen is said, and the organ bursts into the Doxology. Noel stands beside me, and Sawyer says he’ll get Dove. I touch her arm lightly, but she moves it out of my grasp.
“You never said why you came back.” Even pissed at me, she’s still so beautiful.
She’s wearing a chunky burnt-orange sweater that makes her amber eyes glow and black pants that hug her curves down to the black ankle boots on her feet.
Her dark hair hangs over one shoulder in smooth waves to her breast. I remember her in her bedroom last night in only that thin shirt and sweats, her hair damp from the shower. She’s still so fucking beautiful… and so defensive.
She’s a woman now, the mother of my child. I want her to be the mother of all my children. I came back because my life will never be complete without her in it, but it’s too soon to say all of that. I have to earn it first.
Instead, I hold out my hand, escorting her to the back of the room. “Maybe we should take it slow.”
