“Happy Anniversary, Granny and Gramps.” Justine waved toward the second pew. “I love you both and appreciate all the support you’ve given me through the years.”

Betsy nodded at the pianist and she began to play “I Want to Stroll Over Heaven with You.”

Stevie recognized the melody long before Betsy began singing the first words that asked the King for one more blessing—he wanted to stroll over heaven with the love of his life.

She only meant to peek at Cody’s expression, but he was looking right at her, and they locked gazes. Was he wondering if heaven was big enough for the two of them, like she was? Or was he thinking of something altogether different? Everything around them suddenly seemed to disappear, and they were the only two people on earth. The moment couldn’t have lasted more than a split second, and then Stevie blinked, faced forward, and focused on Betsy and Justine.

Stevie did the math in her head, starting with the year that Betsy had graduated from high school, and figuring out that she was in her early forties. The woman was only a few years older than Stevie and already a grandmother. That little bit of revelation set Stevie’s biological clock to ticking so loudly that she could hardly hear the last of the song they were singing. Even if she had a child in the next couple of years, she most likely wouldn’t be a grandmother until she was in her sixties.

I never got to be one, her mother said very loudly in her head.

Stevie came back to the present with a little jerk when the preacher cleared his throat. Cody touched her on the arm and asked, “Are you cold? Do you need my jacket?”

“No, I’m fine,” she said. “I was just woolgathering and you startled me.”

“Been there,” Cody said, “done that many times in church.”

The preacher said something about his sermon being about the fruits of the spirit from Galatians, but that was the last thing that Stevie heard. She went right back into her woolgathering and thought about all that had happened since her first tire went flat. In less than two weeks, she had gone from sitting on the back pew in church all alone because she couldn’t bear to sit where she and her mother had sat, to sharing space with the Ryan family. If someone had told her the last Sunday she was here that she would be sitting with Cody the next time she attended services, she would have told them what they were full of—and it would not have been the fruits of the spirit.

“Hey, everyone.” Mia came into the house holding Beau’s hand. “I want you to meet Beau Martin.” She made introductions, and he shook hands with each person, even little Sam and Taylor.