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“You belong with your family,” she stated, stubbornly

I wondered if she’d heard—if she knew One night, several years ago, ot ho 90left No chance for survival No chance to say good-bye “They’re all dead, Kate I’ at her

She smiled sadly at me, “I know Abby, but that wasn’t what I meant Your friends are your family now You’re not alone, unless you choose to be” As she left my roo”

CHAPTER TWO

The door clicked shut There was truth in her words, truth that I didn’t want to hear After a hot shower, I donned a pair of sweats and headed out to the living room The plastic soles ofthrough the aparth the dark wood looked nice

Kate was in the kitchen, standing by the stove, with a kettle in her hand She beamed when she saw er?” Kate had changed her water-logged clothing too and earing a pair of boxers and a tank top Her damp hair was pulled back into a pony tail

Sitting on the couch, I pulled ht “No schnapps, Kate Just plain cocoa”

She arched an eyebrow atbefore she poured it into my cup “Seriously? No alcohol?”

I nodded “Part of the vows—alcohol is only used in rituals” If Kate’s eyebrows clihed, “I’m fine, Kate It doesn’t have to be spiked”

“It should be,” shee suede chair After taking a sip she asked, “So, thiswere you working there?”

I sippedup, “Since I started seainstelse, buta blank It was like I couldn’t think of a single thing to derail her questions

“What was your job?” she asked carefully

“Preacher Minister The nor another sip, I looked up at her I knehat she wanted to ask me, but I didn’t want to talk about it Not yet, anyway

Her legs were pulled sideways,in her right hand “That sounds nice” She was trying to be sweet Nice was the last word for what it was If Dante had a version of Hell with pictogra cow folk would have been around level four At first I adored theer I was there the ain Kate looked at herand blurted out the dreaded question “So what’d you do?”

Kate’s green eyes ide, a grin on her face “I have to ask It’s killing me, Abby For the past decade I’m lucky if I’ve heard froet tossed on your ass—by a church! Did you curse them out from the pulpit? Or what?”

I cringed “Maybe” She knew I had issues controlling y dotted line, I swore like a sailor Spewing profanity froh the words they blanched at ords like ‘crap’ and ‘hell’ Really, Hell is a noun They should have gotten over that, but that wasn’t what got ed, “Kate, I really don’t want to rehash it I did sootten me fired—but they said that they’d keep me if I took a mandatory sabbatical” There it was The state up here

“So a year of vacation—that’s not that bad, right?” she sipped fro at me

I laughed, trying to defuse the tension I felt building in ry This wasn’t fair, but it’s the way things were I had to deal with it I said, “If that’s what they did, it would have been fine But they didn’t” I hesitated Talking about this just ht it on myself and noas homeless I decided to tell her more It was Kate, and I doubt she’d condeh I wouldn’t specify exactly what—not yet “The church board said it was a year in the desert—they wouldn’t pay my salary—and that if I wanted to remain employed, that I had to do this”