“Take care of our girl,” Mick said.
“I will.” Abby nodded. She gave Jill the keys to her own inferior car, sprinted out of the McMechan house, and sped off.
Abby spent the journey spiraling at the possibilities. She thought maybe someone died, but knowing Kate, she’d stay with her family. Maybe she’d had a fight with her parents, but she wasn’t the type to run away from an argument. She wasn’t the type to run away at all. But since she was, it pointed to a possibility that terrified Abby. Kate had said something about her. The night in the tent, the constant near misses, the letters, caresses, forehead touches. With what little Abby knew about Kate’s parents, such confusion wouldn’t be met with understanding.
After a six-hour drive, in which she only stopped for gas and a shitty cup of coffee, determined to make sure Kate didn’t wait an extra second, the car rumbled up the dirt path to a modest home nestled in acreage. A floodlight flipped on as Abby parked. By the time she got out, Kate exited, bags in hand, the front door slamming behind her.
“Let’s go,” she said, throwing her belongings in the back.
“Hey wait. What’s going on?” Abby asked.
A group of men stepped onto the front porch, shadows with arms folded across their chests.
“Abby!” Kate hissed.
She fumbled into the car, cranked it into reverse, and flew back down the driveway. It wasn’t until they reached the main road that she could assess Kate in the dim light. Her shoulders hunched, cheeks tear streaked as she twisted around to peer through the back window.
“Are you okay?” Abby rested a hand on her arm.
“Yeah.” Kate shivered. “Thanks for getting me.”
“Who were those people?”
“They’re from our church.” Kate’s voice sounded smaller than Abby had ever heard it.
“What’s going on?”
Kate hugged her knees and rested her chin on them. “Blake asked me to marry him.”
Abby throttled the wheel so tight that her arms trembled.
“He showed up yesterday to surprise me. He had a ring and everything. Got down on a knee at midnight,” Kate whispered. “I said no.”
Abby’s mouth fell, and she quickly snapped it up. If she wasn’t driving, if Kate wasn’t shaking next to her, she might have grinned. But relief didn’t come. Not in the wake of her despair.
“My parents don’t understand why.”
Abby gulped. “Did you tell them because of law school?”
Kate peered over, inconsistent patches of light streaming over her frown. “Yeah. Because of law school,” she said flatly. “They think that I should marry him and since I won’t, there must be something wrong with me. I’ve turned away from God, become selfish, forgotten my place.”
“They can’t force you to marry someone. If you don’t want to, that’s enough.”
“Not for them. I think my dad—” Kate stopped and Abby thought she might cry. “I think my dad suspects something isn’t right with me.”
“What do you mean?”
“Abby.” Kate’s tears shone through the dark. “You know what I mean. It’s not just law school,” she said with a crack. “It’s you.”
Abby’s heart sputtered. “Kate, I—” She wanted to say that it was Kate for her too. Wanted to say what she always felt, what sent her charging into the snow, a six-hour drive behind her and another six hours ahead. But Kate’s revelation lacked love. It slapped like an accusation. Like Abby had done something wrong, just as she feared. “I’m sorry.”
“They said if I left, I couldn’t come back.” Kate’s breathing picked up.
“Hey, it’s okay.”
“No, it’s not. I left, knowing they’d forsake me. Knowing God’s forsaken me.” She rubbed her throat and inhaled desperately.
“That’s not true.”
