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His smile almost looks proud. He glances at the door leading back out to the bar. “So these men and women come here to avoid that?”
“Yeah. Dan doesn’t let them do that here. One group tried. He cranked up Highway to Hell on the jukebox and played it until they stopped talking. He offered them coffee and rolls then, but they just wanted to pray for everyone. He told them fine, but if he could hear one word of it over at the bar, he’dsingHighway to Hell, acapella, and nobody wanted that. They left soon after.”
Henry is outright grinning now. Ilovehis grin.
“Dan isn’t religious?” Henry asks.
“It’s not that. It’s just the whole having it shoved down your throat. And that they take overeverywhere. You can’t avoid it. It really should be something peoplechoose, you know. They know how to find the church if they want that.”
“That church is very hard to miss,” Henry says.
I laugh. My father’s church is big and gaudy and right on the edge of town as you come in on the main highway.
Henry takes a breath. “Let’s go talk to April. We need to get a plan in place.”
“Okay.”
I don’t warn him that this isn’t going to go his way either. He’ll find out soon enough.
Chapter 11
Henry
Everyone in the bar turns to look when I walk out of the kitchen.
My steps actually falter. Why do I get the feeling I’m about to be interrogated? And why does that idea, here of all places, make my palms sweat a little?
My gaze finds April. “Can we talk for a few minutes?”
She nods. “Okay, everyone, it’s time.”
“Time for—” I start but everyone in the room gets up from their seats and starts rearranging the tables.
When there are four tables pulled together into one and everyone has their chairs pulled up to it, they sit and look at me expectantly.
“This isn’t a town hall,” I say. But I accept my fate before anyone even speaks. This is obviously a group project.
“Of course not,” Ben says. “We don’t want the whole town involved. Just us.”
“Right.” I look at April. “I want to talk about what’s next for you and Elliot.”
She nods and takes a seat between Wendy and Charles. “I know. I’m ready.”
“You want everyone involved in this?”
She looks around the table. “Well…they all know the situation and they have some good ideas.”
“You’ve already discussed this?”
“Of course.”
Why does that surprise me? Because April only left her husband last night, she seemed overwhelmed and unsure when I met her, and it’s now only nine a.m. the next morning.
But she seems different today. She’s smiling. She’s laughing. She’s moving around here with confidence, and she seems relaxed and at ease.
Maybe she just needed some sleep. Maybe she just needed to be in her usual routine. Maybe I’m making her feel secure.
I’d really like that last one to be the case, but something niggles in my mind telling me that’s not it.