"Doesn't that imply you and I are something like heathens to begin with?" he asks, amused. "Speak for yourself in that regard, I'm in quite high standing with God."

That standing, high or not, is something Marcus has spent the past few months thinking very deeply upon. There are things he'd not wanted to admit to himself after Dan brought up the possibility, a fear that marriage is not for him because God wouldn't want it. He's spoken to God many times on the subject, though received no answer in return.