Page 26 of Love Everlasting

She glanced up, the sobriety of his tone stilling her hand on the scorecard. The serious Sam was back—his faint smile at odds with the solemnity in his eyes.

Her heart softened. “It does, Sam, more than you know. Women want men with depth and values, not fast cars and fancy moves. They want a man they can respect. That’s the main way a woman falls in love. Prove to Jazz you’ve changed and are worth her love and respect.”

“And how do I do that?” he asked quietly, probing her with a look that said golf was suddenly the last thing on his mind.

She sighed, well aware there was only one way she knew for a person to really change, and she wasn’t sure Sam was ready to hear it. But he needed to—badly—and for the first time ever, she actually understood why God might want her to become his friend. An honest-to-goodness friend who put aside her own desires to impact someone else with the truth. In the slow blink of Sam’s eyes, she felt her perspective shift, suddenly seeing beyond the expensive clothes, good looks, and effortless charm to a man whose life truly did depend on what Shannon could give.

Faith.

And what Sam could give as well, the counter thought came.

Heartbreak.

Shaking the fear off, she jotted his score and handed the card back, her mind made up to be the person God had called her to be. Not a woman attracted to or repelled by a player she’d hoped to avoid, or even a ghostwriter desperate for research. Nope. But someone who had a chance to impact that player for good and change not only his life, but his eternity as well. A mission to mend the badly bruised heart of a rejected little boy, who drew his confidence and love from perishable things.

Warn the rich people of this world not to be proud or to trust in wealth that is easily lost. Tell them to have faith in God ...

Shannon studied him now, this self-assured man whose very confidence was as much a façade as the image he strove to project and knew God had graced her with his trust. The trust of a man who didn’t trust—or open up—to many people. A golden opportunity to lay down her own fears and insecurities for the sake of another, opting to trust the very God she espoused with her own vulnerable heart.

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.

“How do you do it?” she repeated, awed by the peace that suddenly flooded her soul. “You do it by learning to respect and love yourself, Sam, seeing yourself through God’s eyes rather than through your own shallow trappings.”

His gaze was wary. “Religion? You’re really going to play that card with me?”

“It’s not a card, Sam,” she said softly, “it’s a lifestyle that can not only help you win the game, but the very desires of your heart.”

His low chuckle vibrated the air as he shook his head. “I’m not looking to warm a pew, Teach; I’m just looking for how I should handle Jazz tonight.”

She tilted her head to assess him in that point-blank manner that always seemed to penetrate his charm and pretense. “Which, you would learn in that pew if you decided to warm it. But the basics? Forgive her, treat her with kindness, be there for her as a friend without strings attached.” She patted his face with a parental air, his sandpaper jaw reminding her he wasn’t that little boy she often saw beneath the surface. “Unconditional love, Doc, the kind that God gave to us.”

“And that really works?” He squinted at her, disbelief crinkling his brows.

Her smile indulged. “Worked for me, big boy, and the Good Book says ‘love never fails.’”

He cut loose with a grunt. “Yeah, well you can’t prove it by me.”

“That’s because your love is self-absorbed and self-serving,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone.

His jaw fell open. “Gosh, Shan, why don’t you tell me what you really think?”

“I’m trying,” she said with a squirm of a smile. Teeing her ball, she glanced up to see the wounded look he always teased her with that was more real than anyone knew. Her smile broke through, honest and tender and sweet for a friend she suspected she would come to care for a lot. “Because one of my most annoying qualities is telling my friends the truth, Sam, so I always will.” The affection in his eyes suddenly fluttered her stomach, and cheeks growing warm, she quickly looked away to focus her gaze on the ball, palms suddenly sticky on the club.

At least, most of the time ...

Chapter Fifteen

“Soooo, Daddy … I’ve been dying to ask. How did it go with Tess?”

Ben looked up, smiling despite the question that annoyed. Lacey looked like his little girl again, legs tucked to her chest as she leaned against Jack on the back seat of Ben’s Formula while they bobbed in the ocean. Arms circling her knees, she worried her lip, obviously dying to ask since she’d returned from their vacation on Sunday. Especially since he’d told them about his marina debacle with Tess right before they left.

Jack chuckled and tweaked the back of her neck. “Uh, maybe your dad’s not ready to talk about it, Lace. Ever think about that?”

Ben cut loose with a weighty sigh as he sat on the other side, one arm draped over the leather back while he sipped an O’Doul’s with the other. As always, his black lab, Beau, snored at his feet. “No, I actually do want to talk about it, Jack, because I think I may need some counsel.” He cuffed the back of his neck to deflect his embarrassment over a cardiac surgeon in his forties seeking advice on his love life from two kids. Particularly when those kids were his own daughter and the son-in-law whose mother he loved. He expelled another awkward breath as he gave Lacey a sheepish look, feeling a lot like he was back in high school. “Well, I guess you could say it went better than the marina, but not by much.”

“What do you mean?” Lacey asked, a pucker of concern ridging her brow.

His smile thinned, Tess’s limitation of their time together since their negotiations a week ago putting a crimp in his mood. “I mean Tess has certain” —against his will, heat crawled up the back of his neck— “‘conditions’ before she’ll allow us to pick up from where we left off.”