Healing Hearts (New Hope Falls #6) - Kimberly Rae Jordan Page 0,37
his door and open it, then, hand-in-hand they ran up the sidewalk to the front door.
“About time you two got here,” her dad boomed as they walked into the house.
He gave her a one-armed hug, but he didn’t try to hug Bryson. That hadn’t gone well in the past, so Sophia was glad that her dad no longer forced the issue.
“Sophia!” Her mom approached and gave her a hug. “Missed you at church this morning.”
Well, that wasn’t subtle at all, and it was the same thing she said every week. Though she’d tried to explain that it was too soon for her, and especially Bryson, to be sitting through a church service, they just didn’t understand. Most Sundays, she watched the livestream of the service, but that didn’t seem to be enough for her parents.
They seemed to assume that not going to church meant she’d lost her faith. The thing was, she kind of felt that if that were the case, it would have been justified. She’d spent the past five years being subjected to all kinds of hurtful things in the name of God. Yet, even though it had been a struggle at times, she’d tried to cling to her faith as best she could because she felt like she’d lost everything else in her life.
Going to church wouldn’t have been an issue for her, but it definitely was for Bryson. Because of that, she wasn’t going to force him to go until it seemed like he was moving past the negative associations he had about gatherings like church services.
How long it would take, she didn’t know. All she did know was that they weren’t at the point yet where she felt Bryson could sit through a service without freaking out.
“Come on, everyone,” her dad called out. “Sophia and Bryson are here, so let’s sit up.”
The noise level rose as chairs screeched across the floor as everyone settled into their seats. There was a small table for the kids, but they’d stopped trying to have Bryson sit at it. Instead, it was just Chloe’s oldest three kids who sat there.
Sophia sat with Bryson on one side and Natalie on the other. Madelyn was on the other side of Bryson. He probably would have done better with one of her brothers beside him since Devon and Chris weren’t overly talkative and didn’t try to hug him or engage him in conversation.
After her dad prayed for the meal, they all began to pass the food around the table, and Sophia focused on dishing up her and Bryson’s plates. From the look of things, her mom had roasted a few chickens to go with the mashed potatoes, gravy, carrots, and rolls. It was one of three meals that she rotated for their Sunday dinners.
There was always plenty of food, and it always tasted good. Her mom was a great cook, and she’d tried—with varying degrees of success—to pass that skill on to each of her children.
After having another tense conversation with Chloe about her pregnancy, Natalie turned her attention to Sophia…much to her dismay. While Natalie didn’t understand Chloe’s need to have countless children, when it came to Sophia, she didn’t understand why she didn’t want to have a career that would give her financial freedom and fulfillment.
“You still babysitting?”
“Yes.” Sophia had long since learned that where Natalie was concerned, the shorter the answers, the better.
That was probably part of the reason Natalie and Chloe clashed so much. Chloe liked to talk as much as Natalie did.
“How long are you planning to keep doing that?”
“As long as Michael needs someone to watch Vivianne.”
“Don’t you think you should try to get a job with some sort of benefits?” Natalie asked. “Seems a bit irresponsible to not do that when you have a child.”
“Bryson has insurance through the state, plus I have other things to consider right now that are equally, or even more, important than having a job with benefits.”
Natalie scoffed. “I can’t imagine what would be more important than good health insurance.”
“I’m sure you can’t.” Sophia resisted the urge to defend her decision…just in case it was yet another bad decision. She didn’t think it was, but who knew. Only time would tell.
“At least Chloe is providing that much for her many children. You should be more interested in providing it for your one.”
Well, it wasn’t a big surprise that she ranked above Chloe on Natalie’s list of bad decision makers.
“Hey, Soph,” Madelyn said, pulling her attention from Natalie.