Page 61 of To Bring You Back
Harper missed an event. They’re asking if you know where she is.
No. Why would I?He stepped into the kitchen.
Adeline and her roommate had added fanciful touches to the plain, worn space. A fox salt-and-pepper set curled together on the counter. Brushes for washing dishes stood in a vase by the sink. A floral-print square of fabric decorated the center of the table. A matching hand towel hung from a cabinet handle.
His phone vibrated again with Tim’s response.These people are as dramatic as she is. Don’t worry about it.
He didn’t plan to. He turned the phone to silent and pocketed it.
A double-wide doorway allowed a view of the living room. The gray carpet and sectional couch appeared newer, but the coffee table had seen better decades. It sat on a teal rug, and someone had placed a stack of teal and blue books and a vase with silk flowers on the surface.
The kids shifted toward the food on the kitchen table, and John followed them while Gannon entered the living room. A small flat-screen sat on a cabinet that, judging by the marks in the carpet, had been pushed against the wall to make room for the kids tonight.
“Gannon.” The pleased surprise in Adeline’s voice brought a smile before he turned. So she hadn’t been shooting daggers at him out the window this whole time.
She stood at the mouth of a hallway to his left. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and shorter pieces framed her face. She wore a T-shirt and jean shorts. No pretense. No trying to make herself something she wasn’t. If anything, she was a lot more than she made herself out to be.
An old black dog threaded around her and sat in front of him. He petted the dog’s head, but his focus wandered back to Adeline.
“I didn’t know you were here.” She hooked a thumb through a belt loop on her shorts, then pushed her fingers into her pocket. Was she nervous? “You were helping?”
“For a little while.” He stopped rubbing the dog’s head, but then it scooted closer with a whine, so he kept it up. “I like your place.”
Her eyebrows curved skeptically as she glanced around, but before she could reply, John came in with a plate of food and three of the high schoolers.
The kids plunked onto the couch, but John slung his free arm around Adeline’s shoulders. “There’s our girl.” His attention landed on the dog. “And who’s this?”
“I’m watching him for the shelter. His name is Bruce.”
When John dropped to greet the dog, Gannon studied Adeline. “We need to talk.”
She must’ve been able to read at least some of his intentions because pink tinged her cheeks. Her focus dodged his to follow movement behind him. Drew had entered the room carrying a guitar case and a Bible.
“After?” She lifted her hand toward an empty section of the couch, the last piece of furniture open.
“You take it. I’m fine here.” He settled on the floor by the wall.
Drew’s ten-minute devotional used the disciples as examples of how encounters with God should change people. He wound down with lists of good and bad behavior from a passage in Galatians 5.
The kids’ interest held all the way through the prayer, but when Drew flipped the latches on the guitar case, Olivia leaned forward. “Gannon, you should play!”
Others quickly agreed.
Drew hesitated, his grip on the neck of the guitar visibly tight.
Suspecting he knew how this would go, Gannon didn’t move forward.
But all the kids watched him, hopeful.
“I can,” he said. “I’m sure I know enough of the same songs as the group.”
Drew cleared his throat and fit his right arm over the instrument, preparing to play. “I’d like this to be a time of worship that’s about God, not the musician.”
One of Olivia’s friends bounced in her seat. “But he knows the songs about God, he said.”
“Yeah.” A boy pushed his hair out of his face as if eye contact would be more convincing. “We should find a drum too. Music is their job.”
“And leading worship is your pastor’s job.” Gannon motioned to Drew to send the attention in his direction.
