The Marine's New Family by Roz Dunbar

Author:Roz Dunbar
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2015-09-25T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

“Have you eaten today?” she asked as she began brewing a pot of coffee.

“Not that I can recall,” he admitted with a shake of his head. “I haven’t really had time.”

“Join me for dinner?”

She already had the fixings out of the refrigerator for grilled cheese sandwiches, and was pouring homemade vegetable soup into a pan on the stove. He would talk when he was ready, and in the meantime, hopefully, the comfort food would help soothe his psyche.

“I’d like that.”

“Good. I hate eating alone. Plus I have a meeting this evening that I promised the aunts I would attend, so I need to eat before going.”

“So do I—hate eating alone, that is. You’re going to a meeting?”

She nodded as she put a pat of butter in the frying pan. “I told them I’d drive them because of the weather. Not that I have a clue as to what the meeting is about, mind you.”

“You’re one of God’s good souls, Tess Greenwood.”

Tess felt her cheeks warm at the gentle praise, and turned quickly toward the stove so that Luke couldn’t see her blush.

“I don’t know about that,” she muttered quietly. “He and I are still having issues over what happened the day I got hurt. I can’t get past the fact that He would let so many children die.”

“I do know you are a good soul. And what happened that day was part of His plan. You need to accept that, come to terms with it.” Luke had come up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. Turning her to face him, he looked intently into her eyes.

“You’re saying things that I know in my head,” Tess admitted. “But my heart still aches.”

“Of course it does, but you can’t hang on to that particular heartache forever. It does you no earthly good, not if you’re intent on going forward. You’ll always have heartaches in your life. The trick is not to hold on to them. Grieve, let them go and steel yourself for the next, because it will surely come. It’s called living. Life is not full of trials, but they exist as surely as every joyful thing that God gives us.”

Tess looked at Luke, slightly in awe. His take on life was amazing, particularly in light of the childhood he had told her about, not to mention the curveball fate had thrown him with Caleb.

“You know, Luke, you are truly one of God’s good souls. And just for the record, I’m making progress, thanks in large part to you.” Suddenly she felt shy, so she shooed him over to the table and changed the subject.

“Hungry?”

“Starved!”

That slow, confounding smile she had come to know so well played around his mouth, crinkling the corners of his beautiful eyes as he took his seat again. In no time she had the table set with two steaming bowls of fragrant soup, and had whipped up a couple grilled cheese sandwiches, artisan bread crunchy on the outside, with delicious hot and creamy Gruyère centers.

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