Chapter Thirty-Five

Lunch was full of polite conversation. Mrs. Gregory asked if she had enjoyed her time at the Christmas tree farm, and Michael had told them all about the snowball fight, the caramel apples, and how Miss Melody had picked out a tiny tree for her big house, which kept everyone laughing, especially his friend, Hailey. Melody tried to focus on her lunch and stay attentive to what Michael was saying since he was the only reason she was still there. It was difficult to keep her mind from wandering. She should be sitting with her parents, not these people. Most of them were hardly even acquaintances, though she had known Mrs. Gregory her entire life.

Sarah was sitting at a table on the other side of the room with some friends from her Bible study group. Melody knew most of the women’s names, but she didn’t know the two gentlemen, though she thought one of them was the husband of Sarah’s friend, Ann. The man sitting right next to her mother had