"Uncle Soda, guess what!"

Soda saw Emily come running down the middle aisle of the church, scooping her up in his arms as soon as she was close enough. "What, Emily Beth? What's got you so excited?"

Emily wore a purple dress, matching bows in her hair, as she practically bounced in Soda's hold. "I'm getting a cat! I wanted it to be purple, but Daddy says they don't come that way."

"He's right. I've sure never seen a purple kitty cat. Me and my brothers had a black and white cat when we were little kids."

"Really? What was its name?"

"Tuxedo. I remember Darry coming up with it first, and it stuck. Pony and me liked to call him Tux."

"Oh! I'm going to name mine Macaroni. Or at least I think so. If the kitty's not orange, he can't have that name, can he?"

"You can name him whatever you want, no matter what color he is. You know what you can call him for short?"

"What?"

"Mac. Just like we say mac and cheese."

"I like that, Uncle Soda. Can we play Candyland again soon?"

Soda set Emily down on her feet, kneeling close to her. "Of course we can. I'll even see if I can rope Uncle Steve into playing with us."

"Is he good at it?"

"I don't know. We'll just have to find out, won't we?"

"Yeah. But I bet he'll know how to do whatever the cards say. He's in grown-up school, right?"

"Yep. They're helping him be as smart as he can be."

"I can't wait til I'm big enough for school. It sounds fun."

"Yeah. It won't be long, and you'll be off learnin' lots of things about letters and numbers."

"Did you go to school too?"

"I sure did. I had to learn about letters and numbers too."

"Was it fun?"

"Yeah, sweetie. Kids have fun at school."

"Are you sure? You look sad."

Soda put a smile on his face, as he tapped Emily's cheek, her dimples appearing when she smiled back. "I'm totally sure, Emily Beth. And you know what else?"

"What, Uncle Soda?"

"I can't wait to meet your new kitty cat."

"Hey, Pastor preacher guy, what are you up to over there?"

Samuel stood at the podium, closing his Bible and tucking it under his arm, as Steve joined him. "Not much, Steve. Just getting ready to go."

Steve followed Samuel down off the stage, both men now standing near the altar. "So is it a lot more work? Being the actual pastor, I mean."

"Yes. It is definitely more work. Pastor David prepared me well though, so it hasn't been a surprise."

"It's okay that I still see you as my friend, right? Cause I don't think of you and say 'that's my pastor.' I know you are that, and you're sort of my uncle now too, but-"

"Of course it's okay, and you don't have to call me 'pastor' either. My position here changed, but our friendship hasn't."

"I've got a lady I'm going to want you to meet."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. Her name's Katie. We're still just kind of getting to know each other, but I want her to meet you, my dad, and Soda."

"Is this someone you met at school?"

"Yeah. At the beginning of the semester. But we didn't start talking outside of class until a couple of months ago. She's more into the idea of counseling kids, but we're both going for the same field."

"So maybe it's a good match then? I hope it is."

"Me too. And it feels like it so far. Though I'm not sure how I'd even know when I've barely dated at all since high school."

"You just know, Steve. It doesn't necessarily take a lot of dating."

"Yeah. I guess not. Look at my dad. He was single a long time before he met Audrey, and he knew he loved her. I mean, I'm not at the point where I can say that to Katie, but maybe someday soon. I don't want to go too fast though cause there's stuff I know I'm not ready for yet."

"There's nothing wrong with taking your time. Vivian and I dated a for a year and a half before we got married."

"I can't imagine being married that soon. Maybe engaged. I almost feel like I should be in more of a rush, you know? I'm going on 24. But I'm just not. I know myself too well to think I can just meet a woman and get married. It's not that simple for me."

"So don't focus on that idea then. Focus on building the relationship. Get to know each other just like you said you're doing right now."

"Do you think it's all right to keep secrets?"

"I take it you mean from a spouse or significant other?"

"Yeah, and I'm sure you know what kinds of secrets I'm talking about. I don't know if I'm ever going to want to tell Katie anything specific."

"I think that's up to you, especially at this point. But if your relationship grows, the needs will change. It's one thing to be less open when you've just started to date, but quite another to keep a wall around part of your life when you're romantically serious. I'd like to think that if and when you feel that way about Katie, you'll want to tell her, so the two of you can figure out anything that comes up together. I've seen how much support you draw from people you love as far as recovering, and it'd be difficult to leave her out of that."

"Yeah. It would. It's just scary, you know? Cause I want her to see me for who I am, not what happened a long time ago."

"I know. So don't go there right now then. Let her get to know you, and you can burn that bridge if, or when, you come to it."

"You've got one of those looks on your face again, man."

Soda drove the Chevy out of the church parking lot, as he and Steve both waved to Nicholas and Audrey. "One of what looks?"

Steve stacked his Bible of top of Soda's, both now in between the car's front seats. "Just one like you're thinking really hard about something. Or maybe trying not to think about it. I'm not sure which."

Soda made a left turn, going toward their street. "You talk like you can see inside my head or somethin'."

"After all these years, who says I can't? I told Samuel I want him to meet Katie."

"Good for you, Stevie. Hey, me and you should double date with Penny and Katie next weekend."

"Man, you make it sound like me and you are a couple."

"Aw, you know what I meant. Me and Penny and you and Katie."

"Yeah, of course I did, but I've still gotta joke around with you, buddy. It keeps life interesting."

"Geez, I've never known life not to be interesting. Emily told me she's getting a cat."

"I bet she's excited about that."

"Yeah, and I told her I'd get you to play Candyland with us next time. She thinks you'll be good at it cause you're in grown-up school."

"Yeah. I think I took all the classes covering advanced use of a colored trail. My gingerbread man will make it to the candy house just fine."

"Then, she asked me if I went to school too and if it was fun. Cause she's lookin' forward to bein' big enough to go."

"Oh. So that's what you've been thinking about."

"Yeah. I wasn't exactly honest, you know? I told her it was fun. But it wasn't. Not for me."

"She's talkin' about kindergarten though, buddy. Besides, school is where you met me. That's sure got to count for something, right?"

"Of course it does. I just felt weird about lyin' to Emily. But it ain't like I could tell her how school turned out for me. To top it off, I think she could sense it cause she asked if I was sad."

"That's genetics at work, man. She already has your empathy."

"I don't know if it's that or just how little kids pick up on stuff. Besides, I ain't the only one with the empathy. You've got even more of it than I do."

"I don't know about more, but I came by it the hard way. For you, it's completely natural."

"I'm just glad she looks at it so positively."

Audrey sat with Vivian in the kitchen, the sisters-in-law sharing a key lime pie. "I'm sure that's a relief. I know you were worried how learning about it would affect her."

Vivian picked up her fork, her eyes wandering to the house's back windows, where she could see Emily playing on the swingset, while Samuel and Nicholas talked. "Yes. I was. But now, I'm certain I didn't need to be."

"These look great, Maryanne. Is this batch all for me?"

Maryanne set the fresh batch of cookies on top of the stove, as Soda took one. "You can have as many as you want, Sodapop. I was going to bake them yesterday, but never got around to it."

Soda bit into the cookie, its warm chocolate chips hitting his tongue. "They're better right out of the oven anyway."

Maryanne tucked her recipe cards into a drawer, as she studied her former patient turned brother-in-law. "So how was church this morning?"

"It was fine. Pretty usual. Samuel preached. I talked with Emily. But not at the same time."

Darry entered the room then, shoes already on his feet, as he gave Maryanne a quick kiss. "We'll be back in a couple hours or so, babe."

Soda took a second cookie, as he looked outside to see that Darry's pick-up truck had the fishing poles loaded in the back. "We got bait too, Dar?"

"Not yet, little buddy. We'll stop by Marvin's tackle shop on the way to the lake. It's open on Sunday's."

Maryanne took out a tupperware bowl, adding some of the cookies to it. "Here. You'll have to take these with you then. You can't fish while you're hungry."

"Yeah, we came back from church, then I did some of my other homework."

Katie turned her attention to Steve, as she closed the textbook she'd been studying, Relational Dynamics in Psychology its stated title. "Church? I don't think I knew you attend religious services."

Steve paused, his pencil hovering above the outline he'd made for a case study analysis. "Oh. I thought I'd mentioned it. I go every Sunday. Have been for about six years."

"I see."

"Is something wrong?"

"No, Steve. Nothing's wrong exactly. I just- Well, I don't believe in God."