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She’d see how she felt following church.

Movement caught her eye, and she looked over to see Lee leaning against his car, watching her. Her heart-rate sped up as she stepped onto the grass and headed toward him.

“Hey!” She smiled as she neared him. “What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to see you,” Lee said as he straightened. “I know I could have called, but I decided to just take a chance that you were leaving at our normal time.”

“So you’ve come to drive me to church?”

Lee nodded. “If you’d like a ride.”

Rori’s smile grew. “I would very much like that. I’ve missed you.”

After a brief hesitation, he stepped closer to her and held out his arms. The tightness in her chest loosened as Rori moved into his embrace. Something finally settled within her as he held her close.

Emotion choked Rori as she leaned into him, so grateful to feel the security of his arms around her. She had really missed him. Had missed them.

When ROri felt Lee inhale deeply, then exhale slowly, she wondered if he had felt the loss of their connection like she had.

“I guess we’d better go so we’re not late,” Lee said as he slowly moved his arms from around her.

Though Rori would have liked to just stand there with him, relishing the moment, she knew he was right.

He turned and opened the passenger door for her, and she slid into the seat, feeling like they’d just taken an important step in the right direction of things returning to normal.

The drive to the church was quiet, but Rori refused to let that discourage her. His radio was tuned to a Christian station which played worship songs. It gave Rori hope that, although Lee was feeling shaken in his life, he wasn’t giving up on his faith.

After he parked the car, they crossed the parking lot to the doors of the church, hand in hand.

“Hey, you two,” Carisa said when she spotted them in the foyer. Jackson was at her side, as the two of them had become inseparable lately.

“Hi.” Rori accepted the hug Carisa gave her.

After going through most of her life with hardly anyone ever hugging her, Rori would take all the hugs she could get. As long as they were offered by people she felt comfortable with. Carisa and Lee were her top huggers, and she was fine with that.

“Are you feeling better, Lee?” Carisa asked. “That bug seemed to really wipe you out.”

“I am feeling better,” Lee said. “Still getting back to normal, though.”

Carisa smiled at him. “I’m so glad to hear that.”

Prior to their dating, Rori would have had a struggle with feeling jealous of Carisa’s interaction with Lee. But even with everything going on, she still trusted that Lee’s feelings for her were genuine.

Though he was struggling with a lot, she didn’t think he was questioning how he felt about her. It gave Rori the confidence and the strength to continue to embrace him and their relationship.

Life might be rough right then, but she prayed that they would be able to get through it with their relationship intact.

“Are you going to the park after the service?” Jackson asked.

Lee glanced at Rori. “Probably. If Rori wants to.”

“We’ll talk about it,” Rori said, needing to make sure that it was really what he wanted.

Since the service was starting soon, they all went into the sanctuary to find seats. Rori ended up sitting between Lee, on the end, and Carisa, who had Jackson on her other side.

Following the preliminaries, the pastor got up with his Bible in hand and took his place behind the podium. Rori opened her Bible and the notebook that was quickly filling with her thoughts and the notes she took each Sunday. She was going to have to get another one soon.

She would be forever grateful to Essie for the references of the Bible passages she thought would be important for Rori. It seemed each verse had been meaningful for one situation or another that she’d faced since becoming a Christian.

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