Bungalow for Two by Carole Gift Page

Author:Carole Gift Page
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2001-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Almost unnoticed, September had settled in with a relentless shimmering heat. Frannie was caught unawares. Where had the time gone since she had moved here to her beach bungalow? How could summer be over and autumn already in the wings?

For two weeks now Frannie and Scott had been meeting every day for devotions on the beach. At midmorning, after a brisk run with Ruggs, they would spread out a blanket on the sand and put a praise tape in her boom box. Then they would sit together under the blazing sun and take turns reading aloud from the letters of the apostle Paul.

Often, Scott would interrupt the reading to insert a comment or a question—“What do you think Paul meant by this?…This Paul was quite an opinionated guy…. Hey, he could have been writing about our world today.”

When they had finished reading the Bible and discussing the verses, they would hold hands and take turns praying. At first, their prayers were brief and a bit self-conscious, with awkward pauses and a fumbling for words. But then something happened. One day Frannie noticed that their prayers had become earnest and impassioned. They were no longer aware of the time. And most important, she felt a closeness with God she hadn’t felt before.

These devotional times that had begun almost out of a sense of duty had now become the most important part of her day. Not only was she cultivating a closer relationship with God, but she and Scott were developing a closeness she hadn’t anticipated, as well. Other than occasional prayers with her father, Frannie had never revealed her spiritual side to another person, and certainly not to a handsome young drifter on the beach.

Today, Frannie found herself waking at dawn and counting the hours until her special time with Scott. Nothing else seemed as important, not even her work. She hadn’t started a new sculpture since finishing the soldier, even though she had a new commission for the bust of a child. To her consternation, if she wasn’t sculpting Scott, her heart wasn’t in it.

As she showered and dressed in a sleeveless blouse and cutoffs, she mused that she had never experienced a friendship like Scott’s. He not only nurtured her emotions and her spirit, but his very touch was electrifying.

Now, as she and Ruggs crossed the beach to their usual morning rendezvous, she told herself that she couldn’t be in love with this man, even though her heart told her she was. Surely he was just a friend, a cherished confidant during this changing phase of her life. They were good for each other on a temporary basis. As she helped nurture his budding spirituality, he was helping her regain a passion for her faith and a hunger for God’s presence in her everyday life. They had both been careful not to mention anything that would suggest a more permanent relationship.

No matter how much Frannie cared about Scott, she had to remember that he was a man without a past or a future.

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