“Getting caught up in your thing would be a relief,” she said.

“I’m not so sure it would,” he said. He glanced at Bryce, to see if the boy was listening.

Nope, drawing wiggly lines in the dirt with his stick.

They were close to the church. There was no parking lot, so the cars and trucks were parked haphazardly. Some were moving at a crawl as they tried to navigate the parked vehicles and the people who were gathering.

Rain glanced at Jay’s truck as they found a path between cars to reach the church. Jay was here, then. Rain was left to wonder whether the Barr sisters had hopped out and headed on their way to school, or if they were attending the morning service, now.

Erin drew looks. She stood out, and not just because she wasn’t a usual for the morning service. It was in moments like this that Rain knew he wasn’t letting feelings color his views on her. He could see the way people acted around her, the way they looked at her.

He was spooked, seeing it. He knew who these people were, he’d grown up with them, and he knew how they functioned. On a level, he was one of them.

Erin took Bryce to one of the moms of one of Bryce’s friends. They exchanged words, and the mom scooted over, having Bryce sit next to her.

Rain was acutely aware of the looks he got too. The opposite of the ones Erin got, really.

Erin joined Rain at the door. People were still filing in.

At the front of the church, a shirtless man climbed up onto the stage and walked back to the sanctuary, where the altar was. The light shone through the stained glass window behind him. He was skinny, long-haired, and tattooed.

“Yo, faithful,” he said, leaning over the altar.

There was a murmur of responses from the congregation.

“I’ve been watching, and I’ve been thinking. You guys have been asking me when I’d speak again, and I think it’s time I say a few things.”

There was a louder murmur, with a few hoots and whistles from certain locations.

“We’ve had some hard days,” he said. “Less jobs, the strikes, the talk of war, it’s getting colder out, and I think that reminds us all of winter. Last winter sucked.”

There were more murmured responses.

“It was cold, there wasn’t enough shelter, there wasn’t enough food. Not everyone made it. We did better than some, but we lost six. We remember them. Jack, Josh, Georgia, Kiara, Christian and Rhys. We remember them, and we remember the cold, hunger, and sickness that took them from us.”

The responses were more animated.

“May they be with the Lord.”

It demanded a response. More of a response than the last.