Prove it wasn’t real. Prove that God and Jesus and miracles and the Bible were just fairy tales and feel-good stories. That was the easy part. But what happened after she did that? Would she and Eli be?—
Her thoughts stopped at the sound of the front door opening and her daughter’s voice floating in. Was Emma…singing?
Yes, indeed she was. After just one church service, which she’d popped out of bed to attend with Eli. Of course, Kate hid her dismay, watching Emma don a cotton maxi and a bit of makeup for her visit to church.
She’d agreed that Emma should go and see the friends she’d made when Eli took her to meet his church’s youth group. She’deven given her a hug and told her to have fun—then they both laughed because who went to church to have fun?
Well, from the sound of her seventeen-year-old’s off-key singing,Emmadid.
“Mom!” She flew out the sliders to the deck, the pale blue sundress fluttering around her ankles. “You should have come.”
Kate wasn’t even sure how to react to that. “Oh? You enjoyed it.”
“So much. It’s not like any…mass or fancy service. The place looks like a high school auditorium and there’s no choir, but a cool band with two electric guitars, keyboards, drums, and this woman who sang like a bird. Chills, I tell you.”
“Did you?—”
“Oh, and the lady next to me cried! Not bawling, but she kept wiping her eyes and I tell you, I get it. The pastor—super chill old guy. Well, not old. Your age. Anyway, he did this whole talk on forgiveness. Why it matters and how it changes you, not the person you forgive.” She dropped onto the sofa with a sigh. “It really made me think about the volleyball team and how they need to be forgiven.”
The volleyball team that kicked her off the roster because she made a dumb mistake by sending compromising pictures to a guy?
“And Theo Hewitt deserves forgiveness.”
The guy who got the pictures andsharedthem?
Kate shot forward. “Why?” she demanded. “He should be sued and your teammates should be ashamed.”
Her smile faded. “But I’m just carrying around hate for them and that’s ruining me, not them. Jesus says?—”
Kate held up her hand, a little embarrassed by her own reaction. “I get it, Emma. And that’s good and healthy. It’s just…a lot for me.”
Emma searched Kate’s face for a moment, then glanced over her shoulder as if expecting someone else.
“Eli told me you said you’d…look into it. Are you? Or were you just saying that to him?”
What she’d agreed to last night at the wedding was more of a dare in her eyes. He challenged her to disprove the “truth” of Christianity. At the time, it seemed like a sensible and science-based way to mend their relationship, which was currently broken by their polar-opposite positions on faith.
Looking at the glow in her daughter’s eyes, she realized with a thud that such investigating might do some damage to this budding little follower of God. But Emma would thank her someday…wouldn’t she?
Kate wasn’t sure anymore. In fact, she was downright confused.
“I did say I’d keep an open mind and do some basic research.”
“Way to go, Mom. I really think you should come to church. It’s not what you think. Oh, I almost forgot!” She bounced up again, wired with enthusiasm. “Amanda and Riley are coming to our beach and setting up a volleyball net. They’re sophomores and want to try out for varsity, so I’m going to coach them.”
Wait…what? “Who are Amanda and Riley?”
“Girls from my youth group. They don’t live far from here.”
Heryouth group?
“Actually, it was Amanda’s mom next to me in tears.” She gave a little chuckle. “Such a sweetie. Anyway, they aren’t staying or anything, just an hour of practice. Right here on the beach. I better go change.”
She blew a kiss and disappeared in a blur of joy, leaving Kate to sit in sudden silence with a slack jaw and a worried heart.
“She liked it.” Eli stepped out on the deck, holding a coffee cup that he raised toward her. “Can I get you one?”
She shook her head, staring at the tall, salt-and-pepper-haired man with his close-cropped beard and powder blue eyes. He wore a short-sleeve button-down shirt and khakis, exactly as he frequently dressed for work as an architect, but there was something different about him this morning. He didn’t have his usual peaceful expression—especially since he’d just been to church.
