"You didn't party as hard as Judd?"
"I guess not. I'm trying to cut back on that these days."
"Livin' for Jesus?" Sam said, smiling and being lighthearted.
"Not really, but Audrey is, and little Luna, and I'm… thinking about them."
Sam smiled and shook his head. "I was just messing with you, bro."
Ash had been in California for nearly two weeks. He and Sam had conversations about Audrey before. Sam knew that he andAudrey were seeing each other and that they were keeping it from people in Billings. Just before Ash had come to California, she had gone to his parents' house and introduced herself as Ash's friend. Sam knew that neither of them were seeing anyone else, and that was something that no one in Montana knew.
"Did you ever want to live for Jesus?" Sam asked, surprising Ash.
"What? No. Me?"
"Yeah."
"Are you being serious?" Ash said with a smile.
Sam shook his head. Ash's expression changed, and he stared at Sam like he was surprised to be having this conversation with him, which he was.
"I mean, yeah, I'm not trying to be weird or anything, but I was serious."
Ash stared at Sam from across that table. It was gorgeous and sixty-eight degrees out in Southern California, and Ash squinted at his friend and gave him a teasing smile. He shook his head a little. "I don't know what to say. I don't really have anything to say about Jesus. I like that Audrey believes in Him. I guess that counts for something."
"Shoot, I don't think it does, but the interesting thing is, why do you like that she believes?"
Ash shrugged. "Because she's a good person."
"Do you relate the two?"
"With some people, I do. With her, I do."
"What do you mean by that?" Sam asked.
Ash shrugged. "I don't know, she's a good one."
"A good what?"
"Christian, I guess. Some Christians are… rude and judgmental."
"Some humans are rude and judgmental. That has nothing to do with them being Christian. In fact, if they were doing it right, they wouldn't be like that."
"I don't know, it just seems… stiff."
"The Bible's not like that. We're humans, and we make mistakes. Humans misrepresent God. But you can't let your perception of people cloud your judgment about the Bible. If you ever studied the Bible for yourself, you wouldn't say it's stiff. Ty's all into it, and so she's learning all kinds of stuff. She started telling me things, and then I got jealous and wanted to study on my own, so I've been doing it, too."
Ash considered what Sam said about God. In all honesty, he had never been much of a studier. He had been forced to study in school, and that didn't go very well. He was a brilliant musician and songwriter and starting to make real money flipping houses. Ash was self-taught in the way that he could look up tutorials and practice to get better at things he wanted to learn.
He had, however, never picked up a book and attempted to study it. He would definitely not know where to begin with the Bible.
"It doesn’t really appeal to me," Ash said.
"Does it offend you?"
"Does it offend me? Does what offend me?"
"Jesus."
