The Envelope by Emily Josephine

Author:Emily Josephine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: christian romance contemporary fiction christian romance novel inspirational romance clean romance novel inspirational romance novel christian fiction

CHAPTER 15

Evelyn replaced the receiver with a sigh. Perhaps a wiser woman would just let go. Perhaps if she quit calling and leaving messages, Sheila would eventually call her when she was ready to talk.

But Linda seemed not to be improving, and Evelyn feared that there was little time left for her two daughters to reconnect and release the past. She had to keep trying.

As she turned to stir the leftovers warming up on the stove, she glanced at the calendar. February nineteenth. Five months and twelve days since Linda’s diagnosis.

No, Evelyn couldn’t let go. She would call again tomorrow. She had to keep trying.

* * *

Hank wished he’d said no.

That was going to be his first answer when Sheila asked if he’d go with her to her church the last Sunday in February. Raised to believe in one’s loyalty to his home church, Hank rarely strayed away from his home church of Agape Fellowship, and never on a Sunday morning. But he couldn’t say no when Sheila invited him to hear a guest preacher at her church. If it was any sign that she was beginning to take an interest in him beyond friendship, he wanted to encourage her. Besides, they’d been going out for a month and a half by then, and he was beginning to spend most of Sunday morning service distracted by thoughts about Sheila, wondering if she missed him as much as he missed her on the days they spent apart.

Barbara was quickly becoming a memory. He hadn’t heard from her since she’d asked him for prayer about a job, and the more he got to know Sheila, the more he was convinced that his feelings for Barbara had been misguided and that their relationship would never go beyond a friendship. And the more strongly he believed his growing feelings for Sheila were from God.

So he said yes to her invitation, and went.

And regretted it for weeks afterward.

But when he first arrived at her church, Abundant Grace, he walked through the glass doors, whistling a tune, eagerly anticipating the day. Sheila stood against the wall a few yards away from the entrance, waving to him as he waded through the throng making their way into the church. When he walked up to her and saw her blue eyes shining with excitement, it was all he could do to keep from kissing her.

While she lifted up her voice in song during praise and worship, he had trouble focusing on the Lord. During the offering he made himself pay rapt attention to the church’s senior pastor so that he wouldn’t begin to have thoughts he would have to repent of. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Sheila glance at him from time to time, but he didn’t dare look at her. He hoped she wouldn’t take his inattention the wrong way.

The guest speaker was incredibly gifted. Hank had not heard of the man before, but Sheila was right. He knew the Word of God

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.