He ushered her across the lot with his hand on her lower back, and the whole family followed Pearl and Sonny down the center aisle. When they were about halfway to the third pew where the Ryan family always sat together, a young man stood and motioned toward Mia.

She peeled off to the right and sat down with Beau Martin—or that’s who Stevie assumed he was since that’s who would be coming to dinner with her after the services. He had auburn hair and a round face covered with freckles.

Pearl and Sonny sat down, and Addy and Jesse made their way to the middle of the row, leaving the last two places empty for Stevie and Cody. Stevie glanced across the aisle at the pew where she and her mother used to sit every Sunday morning. Nowadays, a middle-aged couple had taken up residence over there with their four daughters ranging in age from about ten to maybe sixteen.

The lady who played the piano hit a couple of chords, and everyone began to reach for the hymnals in the pockets on the backs of the pews in front of them. As luck would have it, there were only three hymnals: one for Pearl and Sonny to share, a second one for Addy and Jesse, and the one that Cody handed to her.

“Guess this means we’re the topic of the gossip vine this week,” he whispered.

“Or maybe folks are more interested in Mia and Beau than they are in us,” she told him.

“Double their rumor pleasure,” Cody said.

The man who led the singing at the church stepped up behind the lectern and said, “Good morning, everyone. It’s good to see that some of you have braved the weather and come on out to services this morning. Will you all please turn to number two hundred forty-seven? We’ll sing together ‘When We All Get to Heaven.’”

Cody had a wonderful singing voice, but what Stevie loved most was the way her insides warmed with the touch of his fingertips against hers as they shared the hymnal.

When they finished the song, the song leader said, “And now Betsy and Justine are going to do a special song for Betsy’s parents and Justine’s grandparents this morning. Sharon and Thomas Walters were married fifty years this past week, and they weren’t able to have much of a celebration what with the blizzard that we had, so they are singing this song for them today.”

Justine and her mother, Betsy, made their way from the back of the church. They both picked up a handheld microphone from the top of the piano, and Betsy said, “This is the song that Daddy sings to Mama, so we thought it would be appropriate for their fiftieth anniversary.”