Page 144 of Cole

“I would have gotten the gym for this afternoon if I’d known you were going to be here.”

“I should have let you know,” Cole agreed. “Then Annie and I could have reenacted our first meeting.”

“And hopefully you’d still save me from an errant ball,” Annie said with a grin.

“Oh, I definitely would. I’m a pro, after all.”

Jay rolled his eyes. “Pro baller, maybe. Pro flirter, not a chance.”

Cole laughed. “I was good enough to get Annie.”

When Wilder and Lexi approached them, Lexi greeted Annie warmly, as did Charli and Rori a few minutes later. Annie hadmentioned that she’d been attending the women’s Bible study, which Charli and Rori had been helping to lead.

These connections went beyond the friendship she had with him, and he was glad for that. It meant he wouldn’t have to hope that his family would like her, though in his opinion, there was no reason why they shouldn’t.

As the time for the service neared, the group migrated from the foyer into the sanctuary. A few people stopped Cole to greet him, and some congratulated him on the team’s latest win.

He hadn’t been to the church much since becoming famous, and he was glad for the people who treated him like the teen they’d known all those years earlier. Not fawning over him because he’d gained wealth and fame since then.

Cole settled into the pew, resting his arm behind Annie. They were getting plenty of curious looks.

“Hey, bro. Squish over.”

Cole grinned up at his best friend, then he and Annie shifted further down the pew so Aiden and Skylar had room to join them.

“Didn’t know you were coming to town,” Aiden said.

“Last minute decision,” Cole told him. “I wanted to see Annie.”

“Ah, I see how it is,” Aiden said with a wink at Annie. “Coming for the lovely lady, but not for the best friend.”

Before Cole could retort, the worship leader welcomed them to the service.

When they stood to sing, Cole realized he didn’t know many of the songs anymore. Some were familiar, but others were completely new to him.

Annie, however, seemed to know them all, which made sense since she’d been attending the church for the past couple of years.

Even all these years later, Pastor Kennedy was still going strong as he climbed the steps to take his place behind the podium.

His warm smile was welcoming as he gazed out at the congregation. Back as a teen, Cole never would have imagined that one day, Pastor Kennedy’s son would marry Cole’s sister, Janessa. Essentially, making them all family.

Although Jay and Will’s close friendship prior to their wedding had kind of already done that.

After opening in a prayer that seemed full of emotion, Pastor Kennedy braced both hands on the pulpit and stayed with his head bent for several long moments.

When he looked up again, his face held a wealth of sadness. “I had a sermon prepared for today, but over the past week, my heart was burdened in another direction.”

Straightening, he walked to the side of the podium, one hand in his pocket, the other gripping the edge of the podium.

“As many of you know, Alice and I have ministered at shelters and even at the prison over the years. Often, people tell us how blessed those people must be to have us there befriending them. And while I do hope that God uses us as a conduit of His blessing in those places, the blessings don’t just flow one way.

“Over the years, we’ve seen people freed from addiction. Freed from abusive situations. Freed from the grip of homelessness and crime. Many prisoners and people struggling with addiction have turned their lives over to God, and we’ve seen God work powerfully in their lives.”

Pastor Kennedy paused and cleared his throat. “Over the past few months, I had the opportunity to speak with a young man named Ryan. He came from a very, very rough background. Rejected by the people who should have loved and cherished him, he ended up on the streets, struggling to survive in a harsh world.

“Over the months, sometimes he’d be at the shelter, and sometimes he wouldn’t. I spoke to him several times about God and His love. He seemed interested and would ask questions, but something always held him back from committing his life to God. Just recently, I discovered that he felt that he’d done things that God couldn’t possibly forgive. That he was so filled with shame that drugs and alcohol were the only ways he could cope.

“Alice and I offered to get him into a program and some counseling, and on our last visit, he told us that he’d consider it in the new year.”

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