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Brides dress for their weddings with less turmoil than this. Mac surveyed the mound of clothes tossed onto her bed Sunday morning. Jeans in various states of wear and comfort, dress slacks, yoga pants, and three skirts she’d forgotten she had. She hadn’t even begun to mine the closet for tops. She stared at the mess and pinched the bridge of her nose. At least when she’d been a member of The Body, there’d been no question about what she wore to worship, or anyplace else. Ankle length skirts in black, gray, or brown and matching long sleeved blouses, regardless of the weather.
Mac shook herself free of the thought. Memories of her life in The Body would provide no incentive for keeping today’s promise. She returned her mind to clothing decisions and remembered Jesse’s words. “The only dress code we have is modesty.”
Yoga pants? Modest yes, comfortable yes, appropriate...probably not. Discard. Jeans or dress slacks? Either one seemed an adequate choice and probably more than appropriate. But she thought of the skirts she’d found pushed to the rear of the closet. Each time she reached for the pants, her hand went to the skirts. She picked one up and held it in front of herself. It wasn’t long and drab. It was knee length and quite flattering. Mac studied her reflection. Dane had never seen her in a skirt. Keep telling yourself that, girlfriend. Anything to override the fact that thirty years in The Body might still be influencing your decisions.
Well, if her style of clothing would be dictated by her upbringing, her colors wouldn’t be. Mac pawed through the hangers. There it is. She removed a thin orange sweater with a V neck and short sleeves. Coupled with the black skirt, it was saved from looking more fall than spring by the addition of a flowing scarf in a swirl of blue, pink, and orange. Black sandals on her feet, her hair twisted up in a naturally messy, and surprisingly attractive knot on the top of her head, and she surveyed the end result. Mac turned back and forth in front of the mirror. The skirt just brushed the tops of her knees. If Mac were honest, she’d admit she enjoyed the extra bit of femininity. She studied the image shining back at her. The spa kept her fit and trim and, if nothing else, her choice showcased a very nice pair of legs.
She bit her lip. Her mother would be scandalized by the church thing, the outfit she’d chosen for worship...and her budding feelings for Dane. Mac bowed her head. She’d spent thirty-four years trying, and failing to gain her mother’s approval. As much as she might wish differently, Mom was gone. She straightened and fluffed the scarf. She had friends and they were waiting on her.
Garfield wasn’t that big, and Mac located Grace Community Church without a problem. She sat in the car, faced the building, and screwed up the courage to walk through the front door. She’d not visited a place of worship since she left the compound in New York. Mac rubbed a sweaty hand over her bare knees. A deep breath filled the car. I can do this. She reached for the door handle and pushed the door open before she could change her mind.
“Mac!”
Mac saw Jesse and Randy headed her way. She swung out of the car and managed to paste a smile on her face before they reached her. They took places on either side of her.
Randy threw an arm over her shoulders and gave her a quick squeeze. “I’m so glad you came!”
Jesse wrapped an arm around her waist from the other side. “And you look amazing. Are you nervous?”
Mac looked at the building and licked her dry lips. “Who, me?”
The other women chuckled.
“We figured, and who’d blame you.” Jesse said. “Do you need a few minutes?”
Mac shook her head. “No. I’m thinking this is going to be like that first dunk in a pool. You know it’s going to be a shock, but the best way to do it is just to get it over with.”
“Riley and Dane are already inside,” Jesse told her as they walked across the blacktop.
“How does Riley look?”
Randy smiled and pulled open the front door. “A little shell shocked, like you, but with Dane on one side and the lovely Brinkley Green on the other, he’s surviving.”
Mac stepped across the threshold and into a wall of music. She didn’t recognize the words, but the style reminded her of the play list Alex liked to use when they worked out. The little bit of familiarity went a long way toward calming some of her nervousness. The three women scooted into the empty pew in the very back and continued to stand with the congregation.
Mac looked around. The place was wall-to-wall people. Just at a guess, she figured three hundred. “Busy place,” she muttered.
Jesse leaned close. “What?”
Mac motioned to the crowd.
“It’s Easter. One of our biggest attendance days, this and Christmas.”
Randy nudged her from the other side and nodded to the platform at the front of the huge room. “You just made Alex’s day.”
Mac followed Randy’s gaze. Alex beamed at her from her place behind the piano. Mac sent a small wave and leaned over to Randy. “I didn’t know she played the piano.”
“Practically a mandatory skill for a pastor’s wife,” Randy answered with a smile.
Feeling a bit like a ping pong ball, Mac turned her attention back to Jesse when the younger woman laid a hand on her arm.
“There’s Charley and her husband, Jason. That’s their daughter Kinsley beside them.”
Mac looked in the indicated direction.
“They don’t get to attend Sunday morning service together very often,” Jesse said. “With them both on Garfield’s police force, it seems one of them is always working.”
“Where are Dane and Riley?”
Jesse’s gaze shifted to the other side of the building. “Third row from the front, next to the wall.”
Mac found her son. He didn’t look as out of place as she felt. She had just a moment to wonder if the pretty blonde beside him had anything to do with his smile before a tall blond man in a gray suit stepped behind the pulpit. The music faded.
He raised a microphone to his mouth. “Welcome, everyone. Please be seated.” Wooden pews creaked and fabric rustled as three hundred people settled into their seats. The performers on stage slipped off the side steps and blended into the congregation.
“Happy resurrection day. I’m Pastor Conklin. I want to thank everyone for coming out this morning. If you’re a visitor with us today, we are so very glad you joined us. If you don’t have a church home, I really hope you’ll find something you like here at Grace Community.”
His gaze swept the crowded auditorium. “The celebration of Easter and Christ’s glorious resurrection is a special day for us. A day for gratitude and reflection, a day for family. We have some fellowship planned after the service, but before we get to that I have a sermon I want to share with you.”
He took a step away from the pulpit. “My wife and I were talking the other day.” He looked down at the front row, and Mac watched him send an exaggerated wink to Alex. “We do that sometimes.” He paused while the congregation laughed. “She wanted some advice on some scripture references to give to an unsaved friend.”
Mac ducked her head as her face heated. He’s talking about me. She’d seen people called to stand in front of The Body to be publicly shamed for some sinful infraction or another. The muscles in her legs bunched as she prepared to flee.
“Our conversation made me realize just how complicated we make things sometimes. We’re here today to celebrate Christ’s love and sacrifice. Understanding and accepting those things should be the easiest thing on earth.”
Mac relaxed a bit as he moved on. He wasn’t going to make an example of her.
“So I pulled out some verses in Romans that we’re all familiar with.”
The screen behind the pastor flickered to life, and even though she hadn’t gotten that far yet, Mac recognized the verses that Alex had given her. Each verse had a bullet statement after it. The pastor read the slide aloud. “Romans 3:23. ‘For all have sinned, and come short of the Glory of God.’”
Mac read the next line while the pastor spoke. We are all guilty of displeasing God with our sinful lifestyles.
He went on to quote Romans 3:10-18 while she read the slide.
These verses contain a graphic picture of what sin will do to our lives.
“We’re going to talk about these verses once we get into the sermon.” the pastor said. “I think you’ll be surprised to see how closely it describes our society today.” He turned back to the screen, and Mac read the words there.
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
The punishment we earn for our sins is death.
Romans 5:8 “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Jesus died to pay the price for our sins.
Mac chewed her lip. Us? All of us? Men and women? That meant that God valued both equally, didn’t it? Anger threatened to bubble up at the lies she’d been taught and forced to live. She capped it and hurried to catch up with the pastor.
Romans 10:9 “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
All we have to do is believe and trust.
Trust...in what? The God I was raised with or the one I’m learning about?
Romans 5:1 “Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Through Jesus Christ, we can have a relationship of peace with God.
Peace...another word she had trouble associating with God and religion.
Alex’s husband stared at the screen once he’d finished reading, but his voice carried plainly over the PA system. “Sounds pretty straight forward, doesn’t it?”
Pastor Conklin turned to look out over the sea of people sitting in the congregation. From where Mac sat in the back row, surely it was impossible for his gaze to single her out, but she squirmed as he looked her way, compassion etched on his face.
“Let’s pray.”
* * *
THE PICNIC TABLES IN the park’s pavilion were covered in a rainbow of pastel plastic, the spring air laden with the aromas from dozens of food containers. If anyone went hungry today, they’d have no one to blame but themselves.
Mac guesstimated that about half of the congregation had transitioned over to the park. Kids raced and screamed and scrambled for the bright, and barely hidden, Easter eggs. Then they were directed to the table where mini battles played out between kids determined to eat their newly collected sweets for lunch and parents just as determined to see nutritious food on their kiddo’s plates.
Adults circulated, smiling, shaking hands, dispensing laughter and food advice.
“You have to try that salad in the blue bowl. It’s amazing.”
“I don’t know who brought that lemon cake, but if it disappears, it’s not in my car.”
One woman stood on a bench, determined to be heard. “Who made the meatballs? I need the recipe.” The crowd hooted as she scrambled from her perch.
Mac’s mind functioned on two levels as she ate. On the surface, she tried to take it all in. This was so different from the lifeless and depressing gatherings she grew up attending. There the women served in silence and tried to keep the children quiet so they didn’t disturb the men’s fellowship. And in her heart, she was mulling the pastor’s message.
Something had thawed on the inside as he’d preached. If she could trust those promises as her own...Mac pushed that aside for the time being. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...
If this process had taught her nothing else, it had taught her how easy it was to take a few words or a verse out of context and twist them to suit your purpose. She needed time to sit and read for herself. Not just the verses from the sermon, but the ones before and after as well. Mac needed the whole picture, not these individual pieces dancing around in her head.
She looked up when Alex slid in beside her. “Are you OK?”
Mac made a little more room for her friend. “I’m having a great time.”
“No,” Alex said. “About Hunter’s sermon. I swear, we’ve been married for seventeen years, you’d think by now I’d know to keep some things to myself and not toss them out as sermon fodder.” She slipped an arm around Mac’s shoulders. “I hope you weren’t embarrassed. I’m killing him as soon as we get home.”
Mac snorted. “I appreciate the sentiment, but it’s totally unnecessary.”
“Are you sure? Because Jesse and Randy have already agreed to help me hide the body. Charley can’t, being a cop and all, but you’re welcome to tag along if it’ll make you feel better.”
Mac leaned into the embrace for a second. “Really, it’s fine. It gave me a start at first.” That’s putting it mildly. “But I figure there were probably six of us in the whole crowd who know who he was talking about. And honestly, I’m sort of glad. Now when I finish John and get into those verses, I’ll have a better understanding of them.”
Alex studied her. “OK. I’ll call off the hit if you’re absolutely sure.”
“Absolutely.”
“Hey, Alex.” The sound of Dane’s voice seemed to drown out everything else. “Can I borrow your pretty friend for a minute?”
Mac looked over her shoulder and swallowed. The man wore a gray sports jacket over his faded jeans, and the mop of black hair that usually hung across his forehead had been tamed for the time being. He cleans up nice! He stood just behind her holding two pieces of a sinful-looking chocolate cake.
Mac’s heart threatened to pound out of her chest, and her reaction had nothing to do with the tempting dessert.
Alex’s eyes grew round as her gaze fastened on the cake. “Dane,” she whispered, holding out a hand. “You shouldn’t have.”
“Alex,” Dane whispered back. “I didn’t.” He jerked his head toward the front of the pavilion. “But if you hurry there might be some left.”
Alex scrambled from the table, and Dane took her place. He slid a piece of cake in front of Mac. “I have just enough experience with women to know that chocolate is the closest thing to a cure all there is. I hope it works as an apology as well.”
Mac studied him as her heart came back under control. She decided to make him suffer a bit longer. She picked up her fork and sliced into the gooey treat. “Where’s Riley? All I’ve seen of him today was the back of his head during service.”
“Going to make me grovel, aren’t you?”
“Maybe a little. Riley?”
“He’s—”
“Dane, you have to come!”
Both adults looked up at the frantic interruption. It was the pretty little blonde who’d been sitting next to Riley during service. Now her skirt was torn and smeared with dirt. Tears and dirt mingled on her face but didn’t hide the bruise blooming on her left cheek. She grabbed Dane’s hand and pulled.
“What is it?”
“They’re beating him up.”
Dane lunged to his feet. “Who?”
She grabbed his hand and tugged. “Riley! Rafe Landry and a couple of his stupid friends.” She pointed in the direction of the small building that housed the park’s restrooms. “They dragged Riley behind the building. Rafe keeps screaming about money he says Riley owes him.”
Dane pulled Mac from the bench and grabbed Brinkley’s arm as she turned back the way she’d come. “Go find Charley or her husband.”
Fingers laced together, Mac and Dane raced toward the restrooms.