He lifted his palms up. “Why not?”

“How long do you typically stay in one place?”

It was my polite way of asking whether or not they planned to take up permanent residence. As many people that were in favor of their presence, there was an equal number who didn’t like how they’d infiltrated our community. Small towns were steeped in tradition and didn’t take to change well, especially change that involved ideas they weren’t familiar with, and strangers helping people for free certainly qualified as such.

“We never know.”

“What’s the longest you’ve stayed in a place?”

“Two years.”

“And the shortest?”

“Three days.” He smiled and reached for a stack of papers on the side of his desk. He riffled through them until he found what he was looking for and handed me a flyer. “This is a list of our meeting times. You won’t get a better idea of what Love International is about until you attend one of our meetings. Why don’t you come to one?”

I skimmed the paper and was surprised at how many classes were listed. Each day had at least three. Weekends were packed with different times for their gatherings.

He stood, indicating that our time had come to an end. I stood and stuck my hand out. “Thanks for taking the time to meet with me. I’ll be in touch.”

He led me toward his door, ushering me back out into the hallway. “Please do consider attending one of our meetings. I think you’ll find them enjoyable, and I’d love to see you again.” He shut his door quickly, without giving me a chance to respond.

I stared at the closed door. Leo wasn’t going to be happy with me. I didn’t know anything more about Love International than I had before the interview. Maybe getting back into the swing of things wasn’t going to be as easy as I had thought.

EIGHT

MEREDITH

NOW

“Mom, you can’t be serious—”

I cut in. “Keep your voice down, Thad.”

I didn’t want anyone to hear our phone conversation, and the hotel walls were paper thin. It didn’t matter that I’d gone outside and was leaning against the railing at the end of the hallway. People used to say Thad had a grown man’s voice in a little boy’s body. He would’ve made a great preacher, but none of my children were religious, even though they’d gone to mass every Sunday when they were kids. They’d turned their backs on God after they had prayed for their dad to get healed and he had died.

He dropped his voice to a whisper. “You’re actually thinking about bringing her back to California and living with you guys?”

I couldn’t believe it either. The last forty-eight hours had been a whirlwind of activity. “The FBI is moving her case to California, since they have jurisdiction over it. There’s some kind of safe house she could stay in—”

“Mom!” he shrieked, not even bothering to keep his voice down. “Are you listening to what you’re saying? It’s a safe house.” He drew out the word safe. “They don’t put you up in one of those unless you’re in some kind of danger. And you’re considering taking her into your home?”