Page 11 of Deliver Me

He pressed a kiss to her fingers when she was done and tugged playfully on the ends of her hair. Bryce towered over Lilly’s tiny five-foot frame, long and lean from years of sports training, but his manners around Lilly were always gentle and quiet. The ferocity he showed on the football field disappeared whenever she was around.

They were an adorable couple, and it always sent a little frisson of jealousy through Mia to see them curled around each other so affectionately. She didn’t begrudge them their easy intimacy, but she did wish that just once someone might look at her with interest.

Nobody in this small town really wanted to date the pastor’s daughter and she was too focused on her classes to really notice anyone while she was at school. James was the only person she’d ever wondered about, and he certainly wasn’t interested in her.

“You two are so cute,” Kennedy said wistfully. She lounged on a towel beside Mia, eyes hidden behind the lenses of her sunglasses. “I don’t think you’ve stopped touching for more than five minutes since you started dating.”

“It’s because Lilly’s sosweet,” Bryce said with a grin. He nipped playfully at Lilly’s thigh while she slapped at him and turned her face away in embarrassment.

Mia turned her gaze back to the water. It was obvious that they were talking about something intimate, but her knowledge about sex was restricted to the little she’d been taught in the school’s sexual education classes, which came down to nothing more than instilling fear of disease and pregnancy while insisting on abstinence. She rarely had a clue what her friends were talking about when they brought it up, but she was too embarrassed to admit it. She’d made an early commitment to wait till marriage before she had sex, and she knew it would make dating a challenge even if she could find someone who might like to try.

“Someday, when I’m done with college and I can move out of my parents’ house, I’m going to find someone who looks at me that way,” Kennedy mused. “Like I’m all she wants in the world.”

“You shouldn’t have to wait until you move out to do that.” Mia reached out, wrapping her fingers around Kennedy’s, and giving them a small squeeze. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Kennedy said. “It’s not your fault. Your Dad’s never made me feel bad with any of his sermons, not like the church my parents go to.”

“It’s awful that they think God’s love is a way to hurt and condemn anyone different,” Lilly said. “Are your parents still mad that you like going to church with us now, instead of with them?”

“Kinda, I guess?” She shrugged, unbothered. “It’s not exactly a secret that your church is the most open-minded one in town. They don’t agree with a lot of the stuff your dad says but church is church to them.”

Mia knew quite well that plenty of the older people in town were not pleased that her father chose to focus more on God’s love and forgiveness than his wrath, and that Kennedy’s parents were definitely among them. She’d never understood how two people with such a cold lack of empathy had managed to produce such a kind and loving daughter.

“We still have plenty of people like Mrs. Newberry, though, don’t we?” Lilly asked. “That woman uses her faith as a weapon on everyone around her. She’s been a total bitch to me—sorry, Mia—and I know she’d make your life hell and probably out you to your parents if she got the chance.”

Kennedy winced at the thought. “They’d kick me out, you know? That’s why I don’t date.”

“You could live with me,” Mia told her, not for the first time. “My dad wouldn’t let you live on the streets. He’s not like that, you know he isn’t.”

Kennedy smiled but shook her head. “I wouldn’t do that. I don’t want everyone in town gossiping about me or being mean to your family because of it.”

“It’s not fair that you have to hide who you are,” Mia assured her, wrapping her arm around Kennedy’s slender shoulders before turning her gaze to Lilly. “Mrs. Newberry is seriously still giving you a hard time?”

Lilly nodded; face wrinkled in dislike. “I think she gets worse every time the group agrees with one of my suggestions.”

Mia sighed. “It’s way past time for her to find some joy in her heart. Imagine spending so much time at church and leaving with nothing but bitterness and hate.”

“There’s far too much hate in the world,” Lilly agreed.

“More than I realized,” Mia admitted. “I feel so stupid because I thought that people like Mrs. Newberry were really horrible, and sheis, but … but some of the stuff Gabriel’s told me about being in prison …” She shuddered.

“My cousin said things were bad,” Lilly agreed.

“It’s supposed to be a punishment, right?” Bryce asked. “It’s not like people go there to have a good time.”

Lilly smacked him in the arm. “My cousin got arrested for stealing a car. He doesn’t deserve the stuff that goes on in there. Besides, you know the system is incredibly broken and has always been racist.”

“You don’t have to remind a young Black man that the system is unfair,” Bryce said. “But he just straight up murdered his own father. You don’t think he should be punished?”

“He was a kid,” Mia said, cutting in before Lilly could answer. “A literal kid. I’ve seen the trial footage.”

“He killed his dad,” Bryce repeated, shaking his head a little in bewilderment. “Does it really matter when or why he killed him?”

Mia lifted one slightly burnt shoulder in a short, dismissive shrug. She regretted ever telling them anything about Gabriel or what he had done. Every conversation about him somehow circled back around to that, and it was frustrating.

“You two have been writing a lot, haven’t you?” Lilly asked quietly.

“Yeah? He’s lonely. That was the point, remember?”

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