Hometown Sweetheart by Lenora Worth

Author:Lenora Worth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-06-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Surprised, Simon couldn’t move. He couldn’t even go after her. What did she mean by that?

Of course, he wanted to know. But did she want him to know? He thought back over the last few days. Days of watching her, getting to know her, seeing her eyes go bright, hearing her pretty laughter hitting like wind chimes against the walls of his resistance. He’d seen her doctor damaged knees, kiss away little tears, heard her talking with authority and firmness when one of the kids tried to pull one over on her. And he’d seen her abiding faith in every action and reaction.

He was immediately attracted to the way she embraced life, even though he’d been terrified to let go and follow her. And never once in all of that had he stopped to consider that she might be here with these kids because of the grief in her past, because of some secret place inside herself that she was trying to heal. In spite of what she’d told him, Shanna didn’t show any outward signs of dwelling on her childhood pain. Maybe because she was so good at hiding it?

Now he felt like one big, shallow oaf for being so self-centered and demanding and…downright mean. When had this become all about him, anyway? This youth retreat was all about God’s healing love, something Simon had avoided for years. What right did he have to judge or question? He’d been locked away from the horrors of the world, locked away in his own grief and pain.

Simon looked up at the blue heavens, his hands gripping the broad beam of the railing. “Boy, Lord, when You send a wake-up call, You really send it. I hear You loud and clear. I’ve been holed up here so long I’ve forgotten how to be compassionate toward other people.”

Maybe he had buried his heart with his wife, but that didn’t mean he had to stop breathing, right? When he thought about what little Katie had been through and how much that had bothered him, he could only imagine what Shanna might have suffered. Could it be just as bad?

And yet she greeted each day with a smile, she sang hymns of praise and thanks. She went out of her way to help others. And all the while, she had her own pain behind that sunny, sure disposition.

And that not only bothered him, it made him so angry he wanted to hit the railing and cry out to God. Why did bad things happen to innocent people?

And why had he pushed everyone around him away because he was so bitter? Marcy had been a gift, a wonderful, colorful, loving gift. A gift he didn’t really deserve. But God had His reasons for taking that gift. Simon had focused on the loss, not the time he’d had with Marcy.

He saw it all in such a different light now.

A blinding light of reality gripped him in its shining honesty. He’d been looking at Shanna as a distraction, and for that reason, he’d resisted that distraction.

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