Vince had company. She heard the voices as she approached the open gym doorway.

“Mrs. Sakai got you that coaching position at Olympic Boys’ School.”

Mrs. Sakai – Grandma? Coaching position? And that voice sounded a lot like Jennifer. Lex slowed her steps.

“Good. Tell her thanks.”

“The job starts in a couple weeks. You’ll honor your agreement with her and quit this job by then, right?”

What? Vince couldn’t quit. Lex needed him for playoffs. A volcano erupted in the pit of her stomach, with rolling, pitching, acidic heaving. She wanted to spew lava at somebody. Or two.

“This isn’t a real job, just volunteer. But yeah, I’ll quit.”

Traitor. Betrayer.

“Olympic Boys’ School will contact you this week about starting.” Jennifer’s voice moved closer to the doorway.

Burning, Lex stepped into the gym.

She stood nose to nose with her cousin. Jenn gasped and jumped back. Vince paled, but straightened.

Lex didn’t know what she looked like, but she certainly felt as lethal as Medusa. She pointed a venomous gaze at Vince. “Our conversation tonight wasn’t about me. It was you justifying leaving the girls, you slime.”

“You’re not going to have funding for playoffs anyway.” Vince picked up his bag and pushed his way out the door.

Lex skewered Jennifer with a jagged-edged stare. “Since when did you become Grandma’s messenger girl?”

Jennifer’s lip trembled. Her face screwed up tightly.

“No, no, no. Tears aren’t going to get you out of this one, Jenn.”

“You have no idea what I’ve been through!”

Lex started. Jenn yelling was like Grandma being quiet.

Jenn started sobbing in earnest. “Grandma’s over at our house all the time, asking about you. I stopped calling you so I wouldn’t have anything to tell her.”

“Grandma nagging is different from this. You betrayed me.”

“You still don’t get it.” Jenn snuffled loudly. “You’re strong. I’m not. It wasn’t just Grandma – it was Mom and Dad and my sisters. Grandma complains to them about you, so they complain to me.”

“This was their idea?”

“No, it was Grandma’s.”

“Figures.”

“They bullied me into doing this.”

“You could have said no.” But even as she accused her, Lex knew Jennifer never told her overbearing family no.

“No, I couldn’t.” Jenn started heaving with sobs. “I don’t control anything in my life anymore.”

“Jenn, I’m stranded and you betrayed me. You should have come to me instead of going to my assistant coach behind my back, arranging for Grandma to buy him off.”

Jenn shook her head and kept crying.

Her tears only fed Lex’s fire. “What could your family have done to you? You know who’s going to suffer? These junior high girls.” Lex turned away. “They don’t deserve any of this. I’m doing my best.”

“Grandma heard you were trying to find another sponsor.”

“I’m trying to save them.”

“Grandma wants you to have a boyfriend.”

“Grandma wants more great-grandchildren. Her immortality. A boyfriend is a means to an end.” Lex pressed her fingers to her temples. “I’m really trying, Jenn. I have one more month before the wedding, but you’ve just made things more difficult for me. You’ve made things harder for those girls.”

Jennifer sniffed.

“Just leave.” Lex went to grab her purse from the bleachers. When she turned around, Jennifer had gone.

THIRTY-TWO

Aiden took a deep breath, then knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

He felt like an interloper as he entered. “Pastor, we met – ”

“I remember.” The pastor waved Aiden inside.

No cheesy smiles, nothing even remotely resembling a salesman selling something. The pastor gestured to the chair in front of his desk.

“I’m Aiden.” No last name. “I came to see the mural again.”

“Go ahead.”

It kicked Aiden in the gut, just like before, actual physical pain. He never expected it from a mere picture. “Who painted it?”

“Another church commissioned an artist to paint it for their sanctuary, but the result was… a little too shocking. So I bought it.”

“Why?”

“You know why.” The pastor’s matter-of-fact voice remained neutral. “You’re the one who came back to look at it.”

Aiden couldn’t stop. He shuffled his feet. “I – ”

“You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to. I don’t mind if you want to just look at it again.”

Sincerity in this man’s eyes. Aiden suddenly realized how different that was. He always felt closed. Controlled. “What do you feel when you look at it? Do you get used to it?”

The man’s eyes saddened as he looked at the picture. “I don’t get used to it. I pray I never do.”

Aiden didn’t say anything. He reached out a hand to trace a nail biting into his flesh.

“Christ’s pain should always be my pain. I should never forget. I never want to. I want to keep reaching out to other people in pain.” He sighed. “It doesn’t always work that way. I fail more than I succeed.”

“Why try?”

“Because I can’t afford not to. Look at Him.” He stretched out his hands as if beseeching the picture. “He wouldn’t give up.”

Aiden shook his head. “He doesn’t make sense to me.”

The pastor shrugged. “He does when you believe. That’s all I can tell you.”

“That makes even less sense.”

He sat back down in his chair. “Take a couple days and think about it. Come back and tell me what you think.”

“You’ll just argue with me.”

“I won’t.” And he hadn’t, not the entire time Aiden had stood in his tiny office.

“Maybe.” Aiden twisted the doorknob.

“You don’t have to leave if you don’t want to. I’ll even leave the office if that’ll make you more comfortable.” He wasn’t eager or pushy.

He was matter-of-fact. He met Aiden with clear eyes.

Aiden had never been as transparent as that. He almost wished he could be. “No, I’ve seen enough. Thanks.” He shut the door behind him and headed out to the church lobby. Maybe he’d come back.

“Lindsay, sweetie.”

Ike’s voice stopped Aiden before he erupted into the front lobby.He peeked around the corner.

Ike held Lindsay in a loose embrace. His murmured words didn’t carry to Aiden, but they clearly pleased Lindsay.

Aiden had seen Ike flirting with Lex the other day at PT.

He wasn’t surprised. He had overheard Ike enough at the gym, in the men’s locker room. He knew Ike flitted from girl to girl. He loved whatever girl he happened to be with, no matter how much he flew back and forth.

Lindsay today. Lex tomorrow? Not cool.

Except Lex wasn’t Aiden’s to protect. If she made a bad choice in men, what was it to him?

Ike took Lindsay’s hand and led her out the side door.

Bile left a bitter taste in Aiden’s mouth. He forced his jaw to relax and stop clenching his teeth together.

Lex didn’t deserve to be played.

You don’t feel this protective of Lindsay.

Lex wasn’t his, but she was a friend.

She would never want you to interfere with her life.

She’d never find out.

The Goodwill guys had put it in her car for her – even if it did stick out the back a little – but who would bring it into her apartment?

Lex frowned and stared at her new/used exercise bike. It wasn’t nearly as nice as the ones at PT, but it would do the job. If she could cycle a couple times a day, the swelling would stay down in her knee.

Assuming she could get it into her apartment. And assuming she could find someplace to put it. Well, the CPM machine had been returned long ago, so she really should rearrange the boxes.

Maybe somebody would come by. Or maybe she could call someone. She’d leave the bike in the car until then.

Lex walked slowly over the cracked walkway to her apartment.