“Thanks for these,” Ben said as he handed one of the cups to Luca. “See you later?”
“Probably.”
It was a vague response to a vague comment, but at least she hadn’t completely shut him down.
He and Luca found a couple of his siblings and stood chatting with them while they drank their coffee. As the time for the service neared, they dumped their empty cups into the garbage before finding their seats in the sanctuary.
The church usually had two services, but with it being summer, they were down to just one. He hadn’t seen Amelia in the service the previous week, but that day, when he glanced around the sanctuary, he spotted her with her sister, Layla.
As teenagers, the three of them used to sit together in the sanctuary. Back then, Layla had been dating one of the boys on the basketball team. The four of them had hung out whenever Amelia had time off from training.
There wasn’t a man with Layla, but that wasn’t a surprise. Amelia had said her husband was a firefighter, so he was probably at work.
Ben wished that he could come up with a reason for them to hang out later that day, but nothing came to mind. Since they’d been out on the boat the previous day, there were no plans to go out again that afternoon.
As the service began, Ben tried to shift gears. Now that he could worship in person at the church, he wanted to be fully present.
But as he turned his thoughts toward God, Ben sent up a prayer that He would give him wisdom as he interacted with Amelia. He wanted to help her but not put her in an uncomfortable position while doing so.
Was that even possible?
He prayed that it was.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Monday morning got off to a slow start for Amelia. She’d spent the previous afternoon at her parents’ house, hanging out with them, and Layla and her kids.
Being around her immediate family was the one time she felt like she could just be herself. For the most part, they accepted the bad days without demanding detailed explanations.
It had taken a little while to get to that point, though. When she’d first started struggling with her health, her symptoms had been erratic. Exhaustion. Nerve pain. Joint pain. Muscle pain. Sometimes the pain had just been… there, and she hadn’t known how to explain it. Everything had justhurt.
Her symptoms still varied from day to day, but her family no longer tried to pin them down the way they had at first.
And maybe she wasn’t always completely honest with them about how she was feeling. Truth be told, there were times when she was sick to death of talking about her health. It now dominated her life in the way her skating once had.
She was sure that Ben was curious about her health. But anyone he would have asked about it wouldn’t have had the details he probably wanted. He hadn’t asked her directly yet, but she had a feeling that question was coming.
Would she tell him? She wasn’t sure yet.
As it was, she was struggling with his reappearance in her life. It was a reminder of a time in her life that she’d tried hard to put behind her.
After getting up, she had a cup of coffee and some eggs, and a piece of sourdough bread. Layla had hopped on the sourdough bread baking trend and gave Amelia a couple of loaves a week.
After a bit of consideration, she ended up picking out a pair of denim capris, which she paired with a black tank top. Over that she wore a cream-colored knitted top with sleeves that came to her elbows. It had a loose weave to it, so the tank top was visible beneath it. To finish it off, she added a narrow belt that sat low on her hips.
It had taken some time to get used to dressing the new shape her body had taken on. She’d never really been into fashion. Or at least not everyday fashion.
While skating, her life had been a bit of a fashion dichotomy. When training and off the ice, she’d lived in the most comfortable clothes she had, which were mostly leggings and sweatshirts. For competitions, however, her outfits had been elegant, flowing, and sparkly. That on-ice elegance had never transferred over to her life off-ice, however.
Once she’d gotten a job at the church, she’d had to find clothes that were appropriate for an office setting, which hadn’t been very fun. She’d often been at the mercy of what she could find on sale or at the thrift store.
Now, she’d finally built up enough pieces in her wardrobe that she wasn’t wearing the same things over and over.
She spent the morning doing a few things around the apartment, then right before leaving for the church, she ate a quick lunch. The clinic that week was just for the older kids, so it was only running in the afternoons.
When she pulled up to the church around twelve-thirty, there were several cars in the parking lot, which meant it was likely that Ben was already there.
Amelia sat in her car for a couple of minutes, preparing for what was to come. She wanted to avoid Ben. She wanted to notsee or talk to him. That would be for the best in order for her to protect her heart.
