Sweet Blessings by Jillian Hart

Author:Jillian Hart [Hart, Jillian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, fiction, General, Christian, Religious fiction, Religious
ISBN: 9780373873050
Publisher: Steeple Hill
Published: 2005-04-01T14:10:53+00:00

Chapter Eight

Amy sat in her car, shivering in the chilly dampness. Paige’s black SUV blended with the dark world, the taillights floating pinpoints of light as smokelike fog rose from the sodden earth like thousands of souls to heaven.

Amy had felt much better after Heath’s cup of cocoa. The rich velvety brew had melted the shock from her system and warmed her up enough for her synapses to start firing again. She’d helped Heath and Frank hold and nail the sheets of plywood, while Paige swept up the glass, and, with a wet vac, dried up most of the rain damage.

Except for the two booths nearest the door, every table was fine. They’d be open for breakfast bright and early at 6:00 a.m. as usual, which, according to her battered sports watch, was two hours and five minutes away. She could snatch a little sleep—it wouldn’t be much, but some was better than none. It sounded like a good idea, but the dark windows above the diner kept drawing her attention.

She remembered how hard Heath had worked alongside Frank, competently driving nails with a hammer as if he’d been a carpenter somewhere along the line. She could picture it, him in a hard hat, a T-shirt and jeans, thick heavy boots and a carpenter’s belt at his hips. His face, neck and arms were sun-browned, as if he’d worked outside in his last job.

So, what was he doing working as a cook? He’d make so much more as a union tradesman. And why was his bag packed and dropped, as if he’d been on his way out for good without so much as a goodbye, just as she’d pegged him for.

Yeah, she could pick ’em. The only type of man she seemed to attract was the kind that left. Commitment-shy, free-and-easy, or simply wanting an entanglement-free life. That’s why she’d given up hoping she’d ever find a good man to marry. She had a son, she had a mortgage payment and she had responsibilities to her sisters that went beyond part ownership of the restaurant.

Responsibility was a concept few men grasped—maybe it was just the effect of testosterone on the brain. Whatever it was, she’d found out it was easier and safer to keep every single one of them at a reasonable distance. Tonight had been illuminating for very good reasons—every time she began to weaken God had a way of reminding her.

Deeply grateful, she shivered in the cool blow of the defroster, waiting for the engine to warm up. If she closed her eyes, she could still see it. The smashed window crisscrossed with fractures like a giant spider’s web. The dresser’s mounted mirror in the little bedroom she’d rented in an older neighborhood in Seattle’s university district. The tiny window in the front door. The windshield of her car. Glass shards cutting her bare feet as she hurried to sweep them up. From her favorite little juice glasses with the daisies on them. From a beer bottle thrown against the kitchen wall.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.