Light in the Storm by Margaret Daley

Author:Margaret Daley [Daley, Margaret]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781488080340
Publisher: Love Inspired
Published: 2005-07-14T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

Beth stiffened in his arms. Samuel pulled away, dazed by the reaction that had taken hold of him when his mouth had covered hers. He felt as though he had come home. That wasn’t possible. Quickly he stepped back, dropping his arms to his sides. Guilt began to gnaw at his insides. How could he forget Ruth so easily? He shouldn’t have kissed Beth. They were only friends.

From the expression in her eyes, he realized her conflicting emotions raged inside as his did. She touched her mouth, rubbing her fingertips across her lips as he had done only a moment before. As he wanted to do again. He took another step back, shocked at the direction his thoughts were taking him—away from Ruth, his high school sweetheart.

He could not place his heart in jeopardy again. Beth was leaving in a few months—she had made that very clear from the beginning. He still loved his wife, even if she was gone. He couldn’t betray those feelings so easily. Easily? He laughed silently at that thought. There was nothing easy about the war waging inside him. Beth made him feel like a man again. She made him feel whole, as though the fragmented parts that had split with Ruth’s death were coming together.

He wouldn’t apologize for the kiss, but he did say, “I shouldn’t have done that. I—I’d better go.”

She didn’t stop him when he turned to leave. Her gaze pierced him as he headed toward the door. Outside on her porch the cool spring air flowed over him, carrying on its breeze the scent of newly blooming hyacinths from the bed in front of her house.

Why had he kissed her?

He didn’t want to ruin their friendship. What if he had? He thought of their talks over the past few months and didn’t know what he would do if she avoided him because of the kiss.

But too quickly summer would be here and she would be gone. Maybe it was for the best they kept their distance. As he walked toward his car he turned to the Lord, as he was doing more and more of late for guidance.

* * *

“Are you mad at Samuel?” Zoey asked while standing back and watching the children pour into the rec hall right after choir practice Wednesday evening.

Beth glanced at her friend. “Mad? What gave you that idea?”

“Usually you two are talking constantly with each other. Tonight you haven’t exchanged one word and only one look that I could tell. Something’s going on.”

Beth stepped away from the children gathering to surprise Crystal. Tanya was going to wheel her daughter into the room on the pretext she had forgotten something at the piano. Beth leaned toward Zoey and whispered, “He kissed me the other night.”

“That’s great!”

“Shh.” Beth glanced about, making sure no one heard Zoey’s remark. Thankfully everyone’s attention, even Darcy’s and Jesse’s was on the door into the rec hall. “No, it isn’t a good thing. I’m leaving in a few months. Everything’s settled except getting my passport in the mail, getting my physical and shots and packing.

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