Page 62 of Zane

But still, she crawled out of bed and got ready to go. Zane was waiting in the front hall when she got down there.

“Good morning,” she said.

“I wasn’t sure you were going to go this morning,” Zane said after greeting her.

“I wasn’t sure either.” She glanced at him. “I wasn’t sure you would be going either.”

Zane shrugged as he leaned forward on his crutches. “Habit, I guess.”

It certainly hadn’t been his habit prior to the accident. But she had come to realize that at some point early on in his adult life, his faith had been hugely important to him.

“What’s your reason for going?” Zane asked.

“I don’t know, to be honest. I don’t really have anywhere else to be, I guess.”

She had slept in and had no time for breakfast or coffee, so she hoped that her stomach didn’t start growling during the service.

“Do you want to go in my car?” she asked. “Or wait to go with Rori and Lee?”

“We can go in your car,” he said. “And then we can leave more quickly after the service is done.”

“Sounds like a plan.” She pulled her keys from her purse. “Off we go.”

“I’ll text Lee once we’re in the car to let them know.”

Together, they left the house and climbed into her car.

A couple of minutes into the drive, Zane said, “Lee texted back that they wouldn’t take it personally.”

Kelsey chuckled. “If they weren’t running late, we would have been at church already.”

Once they got to the church, Kelsey let Zane off at the front doors, then went to park the car. When she returned, she found him still waiting outside the doors for her.

“Don’t assume anything,” she murmured to herself before she came into earshot.

As she approached him, he turned, and together they made their way up to the doors. Kelsey opened one of them and waited for Zane to go into the foyer before following him.

They greeted a few people as they made their way across the foyer to the sanctuary. Zane paused at the back of the sanctuary, and Kelsey thought perhaps they’d take seats in one of the rear rows. Instead, he led her to an outside aisle, then to a row midway down where Carisa and Jackson were seated.

Kelsey scooted into the row to sit beside Carisa, while Zane followed her.

“Good morning!” Carisa greeted them with a big smile. “How are you today?”

“I’m fine.” And technically, she was. As long as she didn’t think about the mess her life was currently in. “How’re you?”

They talked for a few minutes, then Lee and Rori joined them, sliding into the row beside Zane just as the worship team began to play.

Kelsey was getting used to the format of the service now, and even some of the songs were becoming familiar. She enjoyed listening to Will’s dad’s sermons. What he said made a lot of sense and wasn’t confusing to her, even though she didn’t have a background in religious messages.

“My sermon this morning is inspired by personal events,” Pastor Kennedy said after he’d greeted them from his place behind the podium. “Today is my thirty-fifth anniversary with my lovely, beautiful, amazing wife, Alice. This whole week, I’ve thought a lot about the past thirty-five years and the ups and downs we have experienced. This morning, I want to share what I’ve learned about relationships during that time. The romantic one I have with Alice, as well as the ones I have with my children, my family, fellow Christians, and other people in the world.”

Kelsey wondered if she and Zane would be together in thirty-five years. Prior to the accident, she would have said yes, they’d make it. Now, however, she wasn’t even sure they’d make it to their first anniversary.

“The one thing I have found is that love must be the foundation of the interactions we have,” Pastor Kennedy said. “There are many types of love, but when we look at the Bible’s definition of love, it can be applied to all of them.”

Words appeared on the screen at the front of the sanctuary. Kelsey read through them, feeling the words challenge her heart.

Love is patient.

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