Leave a Trail (Signal Bend #7)(76)
“He’s still a kid, Isaac.”
“He wants to prospect when he turns eighteen. That’s only six-seven months from now. He can learn a thing in the meanwhile. He’ll have Kellen and Lilli both up front.”
Show nodded, persuaded.
“Okay. Next weed run is in five days. Badge, Tommy, Len, and me. Otherwise, back to our day jobs, back to town business. Everybody stay sharp.” Isaac gaveled the meeting to a close.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The Reverend Mortensen stood in front of the altar, with Show and Shannon and Lilli and Isaac. Lilli and Isaac each held one of the twins. The rest of the Horde and their family were arrayed in the first row, on both sides of the aisle. Most of the town nearly filled the remaining pews. Adrienne sat next to Badger, with Bo and Gia squirming between her and Cory. Loki, who’d had his first birthday a few weeks ago, was sleeping in his mother’s arms.
Show and Isaac were in good jeans and white button-down shirts, their kuttes and boots shiny-clean.
Lilli wore sleek black slacks and a sleeveless light grey top in what Adrienne thought was raw silk.
Shannon wore a pretty green dress, a little on the loose side. She’d always been voluptuously curvy, like Marilyn Monroe or something, and had always dressed to accentuate what she had, but she was bigger since the babies and self-conscious about it in a way she’d never been before.
Adrienne didn’t think she had anything to worry about. Not only had she just had twins, for Pete’s sake, but Show obviously loved her body. He couldn’t keep his hands off her since the babies, even more than usual—which was saying something. Those two had always been embarrassing with the PDA. Leaning toward gross, sometimes.
The baptism was almost over. The twins, in their pretty, white satin outfits, had been sprinkled, and everybody had said their various vows. Isaac and Lilli didn’t strike Adrienne as particularly religious people, and Adrienne knew that Show and Shannon weren’t, not overtly. But Show had been raised in this church. It was the only church in town, and Adrienne had been here long enough to know it was an important place. If the Horde was the heart of Signal Bend, then St. John’s Methodist Church was its soul.
She also knew that Show wanted this ritual because it would have made his mother happy.
Adrienne herself had not been raised with any religion at all. Her family had been completely secular, and she found it impossible to get her mind to work in a way that would make room for something like faith in a higher power. She quite simply did not believe there was such a thing, but she was fascinated by the power of faith and the way, for some believers, it governed everything about their lives, and, for others, it seemed to be a passive thing, with no real impact on the way the lived, but an uplifting set of rituals and expectations. Not unlike the way her family had started every dinner each sharing one thing they’d learned that day—which was, she supposed, a kind of grace.
She’d been to different churches a few times with friends, something her parents had supported as opportunities to learn about other ways of thinking. Going to church had always been very like a trip to a museum—a tiny slice of experience with an exotic culture. Adrienne was captivated by the rituals of faith.
Sometimes, she felt like she’d missed something by not learning to have faith. For her, the world was as it was, with no cause or reason beyond the people living in it and acting on it. Most days, that was comforting, because she didn’t understand how people could love a god who would ignore the suffering of innocents that went on all over the world. But sometimes, when she felt especially low or scared, she understood that it would be nice to believe there was someplace better in the future. She could see how rituals like this were reassuring in that way.
Bo kicked her good leg as he turned to try to climb down from the pew, bringing her back to the moment. As she caught him and set him back on his bottom, the Reverend, in his white robe and green satin stole, raised his hands. “The God of all grace, who has called us to eternal glory in Christ, establish you and strengthen you by the power of the Holy Spirit, that you may live in grace and peace.”
He laid a hand upon each tiny head and then looked out over the congregation. “And now, let us all welcome Joseph Eugene Ryan and Camille Margaret Ryan into the family of Christ.”
The organ began to play, and everyone stood and opened their hymnals. Holding Bo’s hand, Adrienne looked on with Badger and sang along to a song she did not know.
oOo
“Can I help with that?” Adrienne walked up to the counter in Show and Shannon’s kitchen, where Cory was washing dishes. The party for the twins’ baptism was in full swing. Most of the men were outside, standing around with beer and booze, even though the meat had all been grilled and all that was left was cake and presents.
Weddings, birthdays, baptisms—lots of rituals ended with parties that ended with cake and presents.
Cory looked over her shoulder. “Oh no, hon. You should be off your leg, shouldn’t you? It’s been a long day.”
“I was sitting with Shannon and the babies for a long time. I’m okay. And I’m doing better, anyway. I’m out of the shoulder brace.” She lifted her flowing rayon skirt, long enough to skim her ankles, and showed a little bit of her bad leg. “And see? No more sleeve. It’s pretty much healed. Not pretty, but pretty much healed.” She didn’t bother to raise the sleeve of her little cotton cardigan to show her arm, too.