Luke sat on the couch, his sock-covered feet resting on the coffee table, a folded newspaper in front of him, pen in hand.
How he loved the complexity of those Sunday crossword puzzles. He had yet to finish one, but using a pen did increase their difficulty level. Pure challenge and fun for his morning alone in the house.
The sound of a key in the lock had him look up to the clock below the TV. Had Kate returned from the precinct already? But when he didn’t hear the beeps from the safe, he realized it was his mom.
Mass ended late today, he thought.
His mom walked into the living room a few seconds later. Her slippers clashed with her outfit, but he knew she would head to her room and change soon. She only wore her best outfits for church.
But she put her hands on her hips and frowned the instant their glances met. “Luke Stewart O’Brien! Get your feet off that table!”
As a reflex, he obeyed. Then he put them back on there. “Mom, this is my house. I get to do as I wish.”
She pursed her lips and shook her head. “I raised you better than that.”
“My house, my rules, Mom. That was the deal when I invited you to live with me.”
“Well, I don’t care for this particular rule. It’s not proper.”
“We’re not hosting a fancy dinner with company. I’m just working on my crossword puzzle and I want to relax.” Not wanting to hear or say another word about such a trivial topic, he turned the tables on her. “What took the priest so long today? Aren’t you home a good twenty minutes later than usual? Did your friend have car troubles?”
“As a matter of fact, I stayed behind to chat with Father Coffedy.”
He frowned, exhaled, then put his pen down. “Dare I ask why?”
She smiled. “Let me get my purse. I’ll show you.”
A few seconds later, she was back in the living room, taking a seat next to Luke on the couch, staring at his socks.
“Fine!” He moved his feet to the floor and straightened his back. “What do you want to show me?”
“Well…” She smacked her lips, a sound she only made when she was about to say something that would upset him. “I was waiting to talk with Father Coffedy after mass. But you know, he was busy, chatting with other parishioners who wanted to share some news with him, so I got to talking with Candidate Anderson. The young man is so helpful—”
“Get to the point, Mom.”
She frowned at him, her head tilted. “Anyways, I finally got my turn with Father Coffedy and I asked about the church’s marriage preparation course. For you and Kate, of course. Not for me.”
He dropped his newspaper onto his lap. “Mom! Why did you go and do that?”
“There’s no reason to get upset. I didn’t book a date for a ceremony or anything. You know it’s the right thing to do. Make it right under the eye of God!”
“Mom, we’ve been through this before. Kate and I have something that works. I don’t want to mess it up. The status quo is perfect. I don’t want to ruin the best thing I’ve ever had.”
“Asking someone for their hand in marriage is the furthest thing from ruining a relationship!”
“But Kate doesn’t care about marriage! She’s never brought it up.”
“Then here’s your chance to broach the topic.” Her hand reached into the purse that had been resting on her lap, then she pulled out a leaflet. “Have a look. Share the information with Kate. Leave it on her pillow tonight if you prefer. That will get the conversation going.”
“Mom, Kate isn’t religious. She’d be annoyed if I did that.”
“Nonsense. She prays before meals with us.”
“If you weren’t here, she wouldn’t.”
One of her eyebrows had raised above the other as her lips pursed. “What are you saying?”
“She’s only praying with us before the meals because it means something to you. She doesn’t want anything to do with the church or religion in general.”
She shook her head. “You’re wrong there. She came to church with me the other morning. She was really interested in that young priest, Father Matthews. In fact, I don’t think she’s the cheating kind, but I’d be careful if I were you.”
“Mom! Come on! You’re being ridiculous now. I trust Kate. And if she were to cheat on me, she would most definitely not do it with a priest! You watched too much of The Thorn Birds. Seriously.”
“Well, why else would she be so interested in him? We missed half the mass so we could go see him instead of Father Coffedy.”
Luke shrugged. “It probably had something to do with her work. The news was pretty clear about it. There’s a religious theme to the latest strings of murders. She was probably scoping out the crowd, wanting to talk to him to get some information about certain parishioners.”
His mom shook her head before exhaling loudly.
“You know what, Mom?” Luke asked, tapping his mother’s lap briefly. “There is something that would make me feel a lot better, now that we’re kind of on the topic.”
“Reading the leaflet?” she suggested, once again pushing her unwanted literature into Luke’s hand.
“No. I want you to hold off on going to church for a little while. Just to be safe, you know?”
“Luke.” She got up but continued shaking her head at him.
“I’m not saying to abandon your faith. I’m just saying to skip your religious functions until they catch the killer.”
“That’s where you’re so wrong. Out of all times, now’s the time for me to strengthen my faith and spend more time at church. Only by praying will light overcome the darkness.”