I looked around and saw his mother sitting in the first pew, the suck-up-to-God pew. My parents and I were dressed in shorts, and I still hadn’t taken my hair out of that nightmare braid. The new Mrs. Weeks was pretty and blond and wearing a pastel dress that reeked of Easter Sunday.

I thought Declan might give me a goofy grin, a little wave—but he didn’t. He did his job the proper way. He looked serene and dignified. He bowed fully and respectfully, sang all the verses loudly and without fudging the words. I know this, because though he never looked at me, my eyes rarely left him. By the time the homily rolled around and he took his seat behind the priest, I felt like an imposter in the church where I’d been baptized.

But I didn’t want to seem uncomfortable with Declan there, so when my parents made to leave after communion, I made a beeline back to our pew, saying with a whisper, “Let’s stay.”

My parents usually did everything possible to avoid shaking hands with the priest at the end of mass. As we were skirting around him, we ran straight into Declan and his mother.

My mom was her usual overly polite self. “Oh, it’s wonderful to see you two,” she said. “We were just saying how we should have you all over to dinner to get better acquainted.”

We weren’t. But she looked at my dad and me for affirmation, and we bobbed our heads eagerly in agreement.

Declan had shed his robe and was wearing nice khakis and a button-down shirt. I flattened my hair and pulled at my frayed Daisy Dukes as we walked with them to the parking lot.

I said, “I didn’t know you were Catholic.”

He said, “Yep. I’ve had eight years of Catholic school. This is my first year going to public.”

“Oh. That’s…nice.” Intimidating was what I was thinking. I don’t think Kane and his dad had ever set foot in a church. Well, I guess his dad and mom got married in one, but they’d divorced ages ago. “Your parents are divorced?”

“Nah. My dad died three years ago.” Before I could feel guilty about bringing up the subject, he added, “But it’s okay. Our faith got us through it.”

I was completely dumbstruck. People who talked about faith usually freaked me out. Like, how could anyone believe so strongly in something you couldn’t touch or see? But him? I wanted to ask Declan more. Someone like him could maybe get me to believe too.

Instead, I chewed on my lip, afraid I might say something to offend his godly ways.