that in her very darkest hour, God had sent angels of light and love to rescue her.
The guys filed back up to play again, and Taylor’s heart softened. They, too, had gone through hell to bring her back. “Thank You, God, for all of them.”
After services, they all decided to go out and eat. Taylor wasn’t sure that included her, but Clara assured her that it did. Unfortunately, Greg was over talking to a scruffy guy and a lady who was clearly his wife by the way they were standing together. Not sure if she should coordinate things with Greg, she ducked back to Clara. “Is it cool if I just follow you guys? I’d hate to get lost.”
Surprise lit across Clara’s face as she glanced over to Greg. “Oh. Uh, yeah? Sure. That’s cool.”
“Okay. Great.”
Nelson told Greg where they were going as he and Paige went past, and Greg nodded his understanding. When he looked back again, Taylor was going out the front doors with Clara and Ryan.
“Well, it was great to see you again, Boy Scout,” Frank said, shaking Greg’s hand. “We’ll be sending them invitations out pretty shortly so be watching for it.”
“Sounds good,” Greg said, trying not to wish this wasn’t taking so long.
“Oh, and…” Frank said. “I was going to ask you. Since we’re having the wedding here, do you think you and the guys could sing for it?”
“For the wedding?” Greg asked, ripping his attention back to the conversation at hand. She was gone. There was no need to think she had any use for him or need to stick around to even say hi.
“Actually, for both if you can,” Frank said. “It’ll only be a couple songs during the ceremony, and then we’d like to have just a little get together here. It’s not going to be a big deal, but we’d like to do it up right.”
“Uh, okay. Yeah,” Greg said. “I can talk to the guys. I’m sure we can do something.”
“That would be great.”
Of course, Greg was the last one to get to the restaurant, and they had gotten two tables since it was only the eight of them tonight. He tried not to let the frustration show as he counted up the places and found the empty chair right next to Taylor and across from Ryan and Clara. Yeah, this shouldn’t be awkward at all.
“Hey,” he said to Nelson and Wes as he passed their table. “Sounded good tonight.” With that, he stopped right behind Paige and put his foot on the crossbar of her chair. “Oh, and listen, Frank asked if we might be able to sing for their wedding. It’s right before Spring Break. I told him I thought it would be cool, but I’d ask.”
Nelson and Wes looked at each other.
“Yeah,” Nelson said.
“Sounds cool,” Wes said.
“Awesome,” Greg said. “Plan on it then.”
“Will do.”
Going over to his empty seat, Greg picked up the menu, knowing his best defense was a solid offense. “Man, I am starving. I think I’ll have one of everything.”
It was so nice to have Clara there. Even when Taylor felt left out with her former friends, Clara had a way of boosting her spirits and not letting her feel so defeated.
“So, how was the dance last night?” Clara asked. “Did you guys have fun?”
“We did,” Taylor said, brightening to nearly full-watt status. “In fact, we got invited to teach the whole sorority how to do that dancing stuff.”
“Really?” Clara asked in surprised. “Wow.”
“You know,” Ryan said, “Marco and Amelia actually teach lessons like that. You should talk to them, I’m sure they’d be up for it.”
“Awesome,” Taylor said, glad they wouldn’t have to put into words what she had no idea how to explain about how the moves worked.
“So, Greg,” Clara said, “did you have fun?”
“Hmm,” he said, still looking at his menu. “Yeah. It was cool.” He shrugged and put the menu down. “Not really my thing with the whole formal deal, but it wasn’t bad.”
Something about how he said it dragged Taylor’s spirit right down with it. He’d said he had fun. Now he sounded like it was only three steps out of the pit of hell. The waitress came over and took their orders and by the time she left, the guys started talking about the equipment at the student center. Pastor Dave was thinking about getting a new-to-them sound board, and Ryan was excited about the purchase and how and when they would set it up.
Taylor felt Clara glance