The Valentine Verse: A Contemporary Christian Romance by Durgin JoAnn & Durgin JoAnn

Author:Durgin, JoAnn & Durgin, JoAnn [Durgin, JoAnn]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2017-05-05T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

Sunday Afternoon

After a short knock, Rose cracked open his bedroom door. “Thornton, a word?”

“Come on in, Rose. I’m still trying to digest that meal. I ate too much.” He rolled onto his side and, elbow on the mattress, propped his head on his fist. He didn’t have to worry about being proper with her. This woman had seen him in his sleep pants and messy hair. Caught him in his skivvies on the way to the shower. She’d done his laundry, cleaned up after him when he’d been sick as a child and after an unfortunate night of drunken carousing when he was 17. She’d known him to be saint and sinner and everything in-between.

“It was indeed a wonderful meal,” she said. “It was nice to go into the city. Thank you for treating us today at such a nice restaurant.”

“I enjoyed it, too, and it was my honor. You work hard and deserved a break. Take the rest of the day off if you want. I’ll help with Nana.”

“We’ll see,” she said. Thornton understood that was “Rose speak” for thanks for the offer, but no. Speaking of saints, she’d undoubtedly wear a lot of sparkling crowns in heaven.

“I’m sorry to disturb your nap time.”

He chuckled. “I haven’t had a formal nap time since I was a child.”

“There’s nothing wrong with a grown man taking a nap, especially on a Sunday afternoon. New sleep pants?”

He grunted. “Point taken. Next topic, please.”

“It was wonderful to take Charlotte to church this morning.” Rose turned the chair beside his small desk and took a seat facing him.

“Yes, it was.” Pushing up in the bed, Thornton crossed his arms behind his head. “You have that look. You know you can’t fool me. Something’s on your mind. Did Charlotte complain that we dragged her to church against her will?”

“Not at all. I think the fuss the D’Angelo sisters and Myrna made about her coming pleased Charlotte.”

“Good. Let’s hope she might have taken something to heart from the pastor’s message. The new guy’s good, by the way.”

“Yes, we’re very pleased with Pastor Matthew. He had big shoes to fill, but he’s stepped into them quite nicely.”

“You can’t go wrong,” he said. “Without exception, every Matthew I’ve ever known has been a good man in spite of the Matthew in the Bible being a tax collector named Levi before Jesus called him to be a disciple. Doesn’t the name Matthew mean ‘gift of God’?”

“That name as well as almost every other name known to mankind,” Rose said with a smile. “As usual, I’m allowing you to distract me. You have a way of doing that.”

“That seems to be a common observation these days.”

“Which brings me to my point.” Rose skewered him with one of the looks she’d been giving him since he was a boy. “Since Charlotte isn’t able to articulate as well as she’d like, she asked me to speak with you about Miss Vara.”

Thornton’s senses jumped to full alert. “What about Vara?” His humor quickly drained.

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.