“Is everything okay?”
“Yeah. It’s fine.”
“We don’t have to go in if you don’t want to. We can eat leftovers.”
Eli shook her head. “No. We can go.”
Sarah looked out the front windshield then at Eli. “You’re not moving.”
“Right.” Eli turned the truck off and pocketed her keys into her thick jacket. “Let’s go.”
“Really, Eli. We don’t have to go. I’m not exactly thrilled about it being in a church.”
Eli snorted. “There’s only one other building in town big enough for this crowd.”
“Really?”
“Really really. Come on. It’s decent grub.” Eli shoved the door to her truck open and drew in a cleansing breath. She could do this. They would sit with the Hargraves and ignore her ex if she was there.
Eli held the door to the church open so Sarah could step inside first. When she moved in behind Sarah, she shucked her jacket and hung it up. Sarah stayed put, her body tense and her hands wringing in front of her. Her lip was back between her teeth again. Eli winced and wondered if her lip had a callous on it from all the gnawing or if it was soft as silk from being constantly moistened.
Pushing that thought to the back of her mind, Eli stepped next to Sarah and nodded her head toward the second door. “Coming?”
“Yeah.”
Leading the way, Eli stopped by the table where a little old lady sat with a basket in front of her. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her wallet, gripping a twenty and dropping it in. “How are you doing, Kitty?”
“Fifty-fifty, Elijah. Yourself?”
“Good as ever if I can get Cassie to behave.”
“Oh, she still hopping that fence?”
“Seems to be every other day lately.”
Kitty chuckled. “You’ll figure it out soon enough.”
“I’m going to build a brand-new fence if she keeps it up.”
“Aww, Elijah, she just wants to be free like the rest of them.”
“Don’t start, Kitty. She needs to learn like the rest of them that Bill’s wheat isn’t any better than my wheat, but don’t tell him I said that because I’m sure he’ll deny it.”
“That he will. Say, how much rain did you get the other night?”
“Fifty hundredths.”
“Really?”
“It hit hard up north.”
“Harder south. We saw an inch.”
“Really? Hadn’t heard!” Eli shot Sarah a look and rolled her eyes. “I’ll see you around, Kitty.”
“See you, Elijah.”
As soon as they got to the line, Eli leaned over to Sarah and whispered in her ear. “It’s always a competition to see who got the most rain each time it does rain. She didn’t get an inch, trust me, but she was trying to one-up me.”