Our Parents Wed in June, So I Spent the Winter Claiming My Stepbrother novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: Candlelight

The stone church on the hill held two hundred people and four hundred candles.

We sat in the fifth pew on the aisle, and I kept my left hand in Reeve's coat pocket.

His fingers were laced through mine in there.

Every few minutes his thumb moved across my knuckles, slow, and I stopped hearing the choir.

The hardware store clerk sat across the aisle with his wife.

He looked at the pocket and then at my face, and he gave me one small nod.

The woman behind us leaned forward during the second carol.

"That's Ray's boy's girl," she whispered to her husband, not quietly.

"I heard," he whispered back. "About time."

I did not die of shame.

I held on to the hand in the pocket and sang the next verse louder.

When the lights came up, a dozen people shook Reeve's hand on the way out.

None of them said the word stepsister.

The pastor caught Reeve's sleeve at the door.

"Your dad called the church last week," she said. "He asked me to look out for you both."

"He did what?" Reeve asked.

"I'm looking," the pastor said, smiling, and went on down the aisle.

In the cold vestibule I propped my phone on the donation box and called Arizona.

My mother came on in a Santa hat, with the RV awning and a string of colored lights behind her.

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