Page 98 of You're the Reason

“No one is too far gone. I have to believe that.”

“Why?” Gabe’s blue eyes, so much like his sister’s, pierced into him.

“I once believed I was too far gone. Grant helped me find the answers I needed.”

“You mean religion?” Gabe scoffed and shook his head.

“Faith. And belief that God has saved me for a reason.”

“A reason? Is that reason walling yourself off from the world?” Gabe walked away a few feet, then back.

When Seth didn’t respond, Gabe held out a brochure to him. “Don’t let the person who believes in you more than anyone else pass you by.”

Seth took the brochure. It was for the production of Giselle. He shoved it in his pocket. If that person did believe in him, it would have been easy. But that person didn’t. How could he be with someone if he had to constantly prove he wasn’t guilty before she’d believe him?

Gabe turned to go, and the words from his dad’s file flashed in his mind.

... despite having received wounds of his own,CplWarner refused evacuation, returning to the line of fire twice to rescue wounded comrades ...

“Gabe.” Seth took a step to follow him. “We both know if you go anywhere by yourself right now, you won’t be sober within the hour.”

Gabe stopped walking, but he didn’t turn.

“Come with me.”

“Where?”

“Nate’s.” He didn’t know where that idea had come from, but it made the most sense.

Gabe finally faced him again. “The pastor?”

“He’s been through it, and I’m sure he has resources. You can trust him.”

Gabe took a step. “Why are you doing this?”

Seth tapped the file in his hand, then glanced back at his dad’s headstone. “No man left behind.”

Even if people had failed to stand with him, he’d be a son his dad would be proud of.

eighteen

It hadn’t been a full week of performances, but who knew that being in the chorus could be so much fun? Maybe it was that she no longer had the pressure of the lead. But more likely it had to do with her decision to dance for God rather than trying to please her parents. But there was no doubt that for the first time in a long time, she was enjoying dancing again. She wouldn’t quite say loved, but enjoyed definitely fit.

Grace sat at her dressing table and carefully undid the bright red clip in her hair. She dabbed a cotton ball on the makeup remover and then began the tedious process of scrubbing her face. She squinted against the bright mirror lights and sent up a word of thanks that they had given her back her private dressing room, which didn’t really make sense as a chorus member. But whether it was a clerical error or a subtle hint from Madame Laurent to step up her game, she’d take it.

Not that she didn’t love the energy of the group dressing room, but lately the quiet was her best friend.

It was when she was quiet that she thought about the little girls in her class and what they might be up to. She thought about Ms. Margret and how much she missed her daily Yoda-isms. And she thought about Seth. Or more like she tried not to think about Seth. Wondering if he took the new job. If he didn’t.

And occasionally, when it was really quiet, she would think about God. Ms. Margret had been texting her verses from the Bible every day. She didn’t understand them all, but she found herself looking forward to them. Whenever she read them, Seth’s words would come back. “I could really understand who I was, I had to understand how God saw me.”

So every time she read a verse, she tried to picture how God saw her.

An usher appeared in the reflection of the mirror. “There’s a gentleman to see you, Miss Howell.”

A gentleman? Her father made it clear he had no intention of coming. What other gentleman was there in her life?

Seth.

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