Page 57 of Skylar

She stood when everyone else did, but she didn’t sing along. Which was odd, because in the past, she’d loved singing. When they sat down, she crossed her injured leg over her other one and kept her hands folded in her lap, her spine straight and stiff.

Why was she coming to church if she didn’t want to be there? He doubted that her family would have forced her to attend. However, she might have felt like she didn’t have a choice.

He couldn’t deny that he enjoyed seeing her again, though her expression hadn’t changed at all when she’d spotted him.

The more time they spent around each other, the more he struggled with how to be in Shiloh’s life without constantly wondering how things might have been between him and Skylar had he not messed up so badly. He thought that perhaps they’d be living a completely different life as parents to Shiloh and possibly more children.

Even though she said she didn’t currently have a boyfriend, he wondered if she’d had any serious relationships over the years. If there had been any man she’d been tempted to settle down with.

Immediately following their breakup, he’d casually dated a lot of different women. It had been fun at first, and he’d also relished the freedom once he hadn’t been tied to just one woman anymore.

But within about six months, it didn’t feel like much fun anymore. And the one-time dates no longer held the appeal he’d thought they would.

Near the end of his junior year, he finally found someone he’d enjoyed spending time with. They’d been together for six months before she’d broken it off. At that point, he’d chosen to focus on finishing college, then getting a job. Only dating sporadically.

But when his dad died, Aiden had felt like his world had crashed and then narrowed in focus. Not long after that, his sister’s death changed the trajectory of everything once again, and any thought of a relationship had vanished from his mind.

Aiden wished that he’d recognized what he’d had with Skylar. That he hadn’t thought he needed to date a bunch of women before he could settle for just one.

He should have gone to his parents for advice on how they’d handled going from high school sweethearts to something more serious. He should have asked his dad how he knew with certainty that his mom was the one he wanted to spend the rest of his life with when he’d been so young.

The reality was that if he had loved Skylar enough, he wouldn’t have wondered if there was a better woman for him. He could see now that his maturity level then hadn’t allowed him to love and understand Skylar enough to cherish a relationship with her.

But now… for some strange reason, Aiden couldn’t help wondering if there was a way to breach her walls and find something with her. Even if it was just a friendship.

Pulling his thoughts back to the service, Aiden tried to focus on Pastor Kennedy as he spoke, knowing he was probably going to have a discussion with his mom about it later that day.

When the man gave a reference, Aiden opened his dad’s Bible. The pages were thin, but his dad had highlighted several passages and written in the margins. It was all he could do not to be distracted by them. The familiar scrawl brought tears to his eyes, but he blinked them away.

His dad had highlighted the very same passage that Pastor Kennedy had read.

Romans 12:3:Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Aiden wondered if his dad and mom had talked about the verse. Had she highlighted it in her Bible, too?

His dad hadn’t been a Christian his whole life, the way the Halverson parents had been. But regardless, his mom and dad had been good and loving parents. Them becoming Christians hadn’t meant a significant change for him, since he’d been an adult and out of their house by then.

It had felt, however, that their love for him and Bethany had deepened, and had been a significant catalyst to Bethany becoming a Christian too, shortly before their dad had passed away. In the end, his family had become more active in their faith than he was in his, even though he’d been a Christian longer.

Skylar shifted beside him, and Aiden glanced over at her. There was tension in her profile, and Aiden wondered what he’d missed.

As if sensing his gaze, she turned her head, and their eyes met. For all that her body conveyed control, the emotion in her eyes suggested that perhaps that control was only an outward illusion.

He’d never dealt with that depth of emotion from Skylar before. Not to say her emotions had been shallow, particularly at the end of their relationship. However, he hadn’t been interested in emotional depth at that time.

Skylar blinked and turned her attention back to the stage, effectively shutting him out.

Aiden hoped that his mom didn’t ask too many questions about the sermon. His thoughts had been scattered in a few too many directions, making it hard to focus on what Pastor Kennedy was saying.

Aiden hadn’t planned to linger once the service was over, but he found himself invited to the home shared by Lee, Zane, and their wives.

When he looked at Skylar to see how she felt about the invitation, she met his gaze but didn’t indicate what she thought. Not that he really needed her to reveal anything. Aiden had a pretty good idea of what she would want him to do.

In the end, he accepted the invitation.

“Can I bring anything?” he asked Jay, who had, surprisingly, been the one to issue the invitation.

“Pretty sure they have it all in hand,” he said. “Unless you have a specific type of soda you like to drink.”

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