Love Inspired July 2015 - Box Set 1 of 2: An Amish Harvest\The Doctor's Perfect Match\The Single Dad Next Door by Patricia Davids

Author:Patricia Davids
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Love Inspired
Publisher: Harlequin

Chapter Nine

Brooks got up from the chair, asking casually, “Want to grab some dinner before prayer meeting?”

“Actually,” Eva said, “dinner’s on me tonight.”

His eyebrows leaped. “I wasn’t aware that you had the resources to—”

“I have access to a kitchen,” she interrupted, “and if you’ll stop by the grocery on your way to Chatam House, we’ll be all set.”

“By rights,” he began, glancing around at his office, “I owe you more than a dinner for what you’ve done here this afternoon.”

“And you’re going to pay me,” she pointed out. “Now let me do something nice for you.”

Bowing his head in acquiescence, he lifted an arm toward the door. “After you.”

Slipping past him, she skipped eagerly into the hall.

She wished later that she’d splurged on the chicken breasts, but it had been so long since she hadn’t squeezed every penny that Eva didn’t even think before she picked up the package of chicken legs to go with the frozen spinach and noodles. The capers, onion, cream and chicken broth she appropriated from Hilda’s kitchen. The single-pan dish came together and cooked up in fewer than thirty minutes, and that included skinning the chicken.

Brooks hovered around the kitchen watching while she put it all together, then they ate there, just the two of them, in that big quiet house. She sliced a tomato, just to add a little color to the plate, and when they were done, there remained nothing that couldn’t be wiped up with a paper towel. Brooks sat back with a satisfied smile.

“She cooks, too,” he quipped, his golden eyes crinkling at the edges.

“She has to cook if she’s going to eat,” Eva said. “Don’t you cook?”

He shrugged. “Some people might call it that. Mostly I warm up stuff. When I’m not mooching off one Chatam or another.”

“They really are family to you, aren’t they?”

“Yes. Some are actual family.”

“Reeves and Melinda.”

“Yes. My cousins.”

“You’re lucky,” she told him. “I don’t have any cousins, and my aunt is a nightmare.”

“Not lucky,” he refuted gently. “Blessed.”

She nodded, unsure why he suddenly looked sad.

He got to his feet. “We need to go.”

The ride to the church seemed oddly strained. As they walked to the door, Brooks suddenly burst out with a comment.

“Look, it can’t hurt to request prayer for a good report for your tests on Friday.”

“I never said it could,” she muttered, wondering what had bitten him. So much had happened in the week since they’d last been here that she’d sort of gotten used to the idea of prayer.

“The point is,” Brooks went on gently, “you need to be the one asking.”

She sent him a curious glance but said nothing to that as they had entered the foyer and others came forward to greet them.

Even without the usual presence of the Chatam triplets—only Morgan’s wife, Lyla, Kaylie’s husband, Stephen Gallow, Asher Chatam and his sister, Dallas and the twins, Harmony and Lyric, were in attendance—Eva felt more comfortable than she had the first time she’d attended the prayer meeting. Perhaps that was because she knew what to expect, or perhaps it was because Brooks remained at her side.

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