Page 71 of Deliver Me

She looked up at him, eyes red rimmed and cheeks pink with fury. “That’s not all that you’ve brought me,” she said. “You’ve brought me happiness and love. After all that, one bad day with a bunch of reporters isn’t going to make me regret it.”

He blinked at her and rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “Okay, that’s fair,” he acknowledged. “I just want you to be happy and I would do anything to make sure I wasn’t in any way to blame for it when you’re not.”

She huffed, her pink cheeks puffing as she blew out a frustrated stream of breath. “I know,” she agreed. “It’s just hard for me to hear you say things like that.”

“Sorry,” he said, sitting down on the couch beside her and wrapping an arm around her shoulder as she leaned into him. “I want to protect you.”

“I don’t need protecting,” she insisted. “At least not much. I just need you to be on my side with all this, just like always.”

“I can do that,” he said firmly. “Do you want me to make dinner while you take a nap or something?”

She shook her head. “Can’t. We have church tonight. It’s Wednesday and I’ve already missed last week’s Bible group and Sunday’s sermon. I can’t miss it again.”

Gabriel stiffened beside her, pulling back to look down at her as she fumbled to put her keys and bag on the coffee table. “Mia,” he said, his voice uncertain even to his own ears. “I’m not really comfortable going.”

“What?” She turned to look at him, her face puzzled. “I thought you liked my dad?”

“I do but I still—”

She held up a hand, bringing him to a stop. “You don’t think my dad is like Richard, do you? Because he isn’t. He would never do anything like that.”

“I know,” he said quickly, trying to placate her long enough to explain himself. “I just don’t think I could stand going back into a church.”

“You knew this was important to me.” Her voice was stiff, lines of conflict scrunched between her brows as she warred with herself. “My friends … everyone … they’re waiting to meet you.”

“I can meet them,” he said. “I just can’t go to church.”

“Okay.” She grabbed her keys and her bag off the table after pushing to her feet. Her tone was level, suspiciously so, and she turned her head away and refused to meet his eyes. “I can go by myself. I don’t need you to come anyway.”

“Mia,” he said, reaching her arm and frowning when she shook him off and yanked the door open.

“No,” she snapped, hurt and confusion finally spilling over. “You wait till now? Till I’m supposed to be at church in an hour to tell me that you’re not going to come and meet the people I care about? After everything else today?Fuckthis.”

He flinched at that, but if she noticed, she didn’t acknowledge it, and it didn’t stop her from leaving him alone. The door closed behind her with a final click, and he stood alone in the middle of her small living room thinking he probably shouldn’t have taught her to curse.

Mia fumed about it all the way to church, cruising down the small highway that led her back to the familiar turns of her hometown probably just a little faster than was legal or wise. It brought her into town a little earlier than she needed to be and she sat in the church parking lot alone until Lilly pulled into the spot beside her.

“Bad day?” she asked, leaning down beside Mia’s window with a worried frown.

“The worst,” Mia admitted.

“Come on,” Lilly urged, opening the door and pulling her out by her sleeve. “Let’s go inside and I’ll get you some cookies. My grandma’s recipe.”

“I love your grandma’s cookies,” Mia sniffled after they carried in the snacks and supplies. “I could eat a dozen of them.”

“I have enough for that,” Lilly said, opening a Tupperware bowl and shoving a cookie into Mia’s outstretched hand. “But you’ll make yourself sick.”

“It would be worth it.” Lilly’s grandma had taught her to make several kinds of Vietnamese desserts, but these honey cookies were Mia’s favorite and she shoved half of one into her mouth to keep from crying again.

“What happened?” Lilly asked. And where’s Gabriel?”

“He’s not coming,” Mia said, flopping down in a cracked plastic chair and gesturing aggressively with the remains of hercookie. “He said he didn’t think he’d be comfortable in a church! Does he really think that I’d be coming here if it was anything like what he went through?”

Lilly hummed sympathetically and handed Mia another cookie.

“My dad is nothing like Richard,” Mia said bitterly. “He isn’t even giving you a chance! He knows how much this place means to me.” Mia shoved the second cookie in her mouth before she continued, gaining steam as she went. “Andhe didn’t tell me he wasn’t coming until I was ready to leave, right after I got done crying all over him about getting cornered on campus by reporters.”

“Oh, sweetie” Lilly said, setting down the stack of cups she was holding to pull Mia into a tight hug. “Are you okay?”

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