Grace smiles. “Believed that Jesus is who He claimed to be. That God exists and loves us and wants us to love Him back. That we need someone else to pay for the wrongs we’ve done if we want to connect to God. That’s what Christianity is.”

I laugh. “Along with a whole lotta other crap.”

“Like what?”

I roll my eyes. “Oh, please. You know. Like church and proselytizing and being pushy and telling people they’re going to hell. That kind of thing.”

Jack chuckles, jarring a slumbering Bree who has curled up in his lap. “Two things counts as a whole lot?”

“That’s more than two!”

“Well, not really. Proselytizing and being pushy and telling people they’re going to hell all pretty much happen at the same time, don’t they?”

I am surprised he’ll admit they happen at all. “Well, I suppose,” I concede. “You’re not denying it then?”

“Just clarifying first. Are those the only items that make up that ‘whole lotta crap you mentioned?”

I sigh impatiently. “Does it matter?”

“Not to me, no, but they’re your objections. You should just make sure you know what they are for sure, that’s all.”

How could I have had a crush on this guy? Talk about nosy! “I’m sure there are others, trust me; I just can’t think of them under pressure.” I smirk. “So what’s your defense?”

Jack shifts Bree in his arms. “Why don’t you come up with all of them and we’ll tackle them all in one blow?”

Oh come on—”

“No, no, think about it awhile first. We’ll devote a whole evening to your objections.”

I throw my hands up and slump back in my chair. “Look, we’re not here for my conversion. Whatever. Grace, you want to keep going?” I have to work to keep the annoyance out of my tone. The nerve, honestly!

Grace smiles at Jack, a smile I can’t decipher, and continues her story.

That night we went out for dessert with all the girls I’d met over the past weeks and hung out with after the services. There was a foreign exhilaration that kept swirling around in me in a way that should have been distracting and out of control, but instead seemed only to focus me more on this belief that seemed to sit in my soul, a core around which my whole being revolved.