Page 36 of Love Everlasting

He stared at her for several tics of his jaw before his scowl surrendered into a sigh. “Yeah, I trust you,” he muttered, “way more than God, I can tell you that.” He managed a forced smile of thanks to the waitress when she delivered their drinks. “But you already know how I feel about that, Shannon. God wasn’t there for me when I was shuffled from foster home to foster home, so I don’t see any reason to be there for Him now.”

She paused. “But you do believe in Him, right?”

He pushed the menu away, face pinched in a frown. “Yeah, I believe in Him. But only because of this crazy cop who took me under his wing after I got into trouble on the streets. And only because he pounded it into my brain that God cared about me, saying that was the reason he reached out to me in the first place—because God told him to.”

Sam’s gaze lapsed into a dead stare, a sudden sheen of moisture glazing his eyes, which immediately pricked tears at the back of Shannon’s own. “He was a crazy old coot, but I’ll tell you what. Whether God told him to or not, Gus Garavelli was the only one who ever really took the time to know me, care about me. The only one who even bothered to steer me straight.” He swiped at his eyes, the strain in his face softening as one edge of his mouth tipped. “Used to bribe me to go to church with him—in exchange for shooting baskets or taking me out to eat, and other cool stuff he knew I’d wanted—so I did.” His eyes connected with Shannon’s. “I still wasn’t too keen on God, mind you, but I couldn’t deny there was a strength in Gus that drew me, a faith in him that gave me hope.” He reached across the table to take Shannon’s fingers in his, his touch tender. “Just like I see in you, Shan.”

The waitress returned, and Sam released Shannon’s hand to order for them both. When she left again, Shannon paused, absently twining the wrapper from her straw around her finger as she broached a question weighing on her mind. “This Gus Garavelli,” she said quietly, “is he still in your life?”

Sam grunted, ripping the paper from his own straw. He crumpled and hurled it at the smiling-pig mold on top of the BBQ sauce caddy. “Nope. Died of a heart attack during my first year of college, which pretty much crushed me, leaving me alone all over again.” He lifted his DP in a mock toast, his smile as plastic as the pig’s. “So, yes, in honor of a stellar human being named Gus, I do retain a faith in God, Angel Eyes, but our relationship is rocky at best.”

“Yes, but that’s the beauty of faith,” she said as she set her drink aside. “God’s precepts work even when our relationship with Him doesn’t.”

His gaze narrowed as he studied her with another scowl, grabbing the menu to peruse it again like a barrier against the conversation. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means if you get back with Jazz and honor God by staying celibate till marriage, He will bless you.”

The menu dropped to the table, Sam’s eyes as wide as the paper coasters beneath their drinks. “Are you on drugs? You want me to commit to Jazz, put a ring on her finger, and not make love to her till we say ‘I do’?” Thrusting the menu aside, he issued a grunt. “Impossible.”

“For you on your own, maybe, but not with God’s help.”

His smile went flat as he slanted back with a tight fold of arms, assessing her through sullen eyes. “No. I value your advice, Shannon, you know that, but that is just flat-out crazy and wouldn’t work at all, so you may as well forget it.”

Watching him over the rim of her glass, she took a leisurely sip. “Okay,” she said with a nonchalant air, her smile as sweet as the drink in her hand, “but it sure worked for Jack.”

Sam blinked, lips parting as awareness eased the hard line of his jaw. “It did, didn’t it?” he whispered, mouth curving in a slow smile as the truth dawned in his eyes. “I remember now because Jazz and I remained friends after we broke up, so I was her sounding board when she started dating your brother.” A grin inched across his handsome face. “Man, how he ticked her off with his strict moral code, driving her up the bloomin’ wall. But there was a part of her that liked it too, she said. Kind of like it gave Jack this strength of character that ramped up her respect and attraction. Jack was a challenge, and she was determined to take him down, only he took her down first when she fell head over heels.” He shook his head. “Now I wonder if his playing hard to get just made her want him all the more …”

“No wondering about it, Sam, because it sure didn’t hurt,” Shannon said with a gentle smile. “And he wasn’t ‘playing hard to get.’ He was committed to a moral tenet established by God, even though he was angry at Him. A moral tenet, I might add, that not only kept him from marrying the wrong woman, but gave him the desire of his heart in Lacey, the girl he’d been in love with since high school.”

He sent her a shuttered look, skepticism tingeing his tone. “And you really believe that all happened because he followed some tenets?”

Her chin rose in a rare show of pluck. “Not ‘some tenets,’” she said with a firm set of her jaw, “God’s tenets. And, yes, I absolutely believe that, especially after Jack’s faith was restored. Because, Dr. Love, faith and obedience in applying God’s precepts—are the epoxy glue that strengthens relationships. A two-step bonding, if you will.”

“Okay, let me get this straight.” He leaned in, forearms on the table and that resolute look in his eyes. “You’re saying if I apply this so-called ‘tenet’ with Jazz, it will not only strengthen our relationship, but it will help me win her back once and for all?”

She angled in, too, nose-to-nose with a man she knew thrived on a challenge. “Yes, it will definitely strengthen your relationship and very possibly win her back.”

“Possibly?” He slugged back a tall swig of his drink, brows bunched over the rim.

“If Jazz is the woman God has for you, then yes, I believe this could very well win her back. But if she’s not?” She lifted her shoulders in a definitive shrug. “Then this will probably chase her away, preventing you from marrying the wrong woman in the first place, like it did for my brother.”

Sam’s lips gummed into a thin line. “Don’t worry, Teach, she’s the one,” he said with another healthy swig of his DP. “The woman’s been under my skin since the first moment I saw her, and me under hers, so I’ll do whatever it takes to close the deal.”

“Whatever it takes, huh?” Shannon grinned, hoping to close a ‘deal’ of her own. She lifted her glass in a toast. “Even faith?”

He stared for several seconds, his jaw shifting almost imperceptibly before he clinked his glass to hers. “Even faith,” he said in a near growl, glass tipped straight up as he downed the rest of his drink.

“Good. Because I have a feeling that’s what it’s going to take, Dr. Love. And the fringe benefits? Not only do you completely solidify Jazz’s opinion of you as a man of strength and character, but you convince her it’s her you want and not just her body. Effectively reaffirming the change she’s seen in you as a man she could marry. And all because of a ‘so-called’ tenet where you honor God’s precepts.”

Gouging fingers through his hair, Sam sagged back in the booth, his gaze veering off into a cold stare as if he just realized what he was about to give up. “Gosh, Shan, I don’t know if I have the strength to do that—or the faith.”

“Nope, but you’re in luck, big boy, because I know just the place you can get it.”

Sam paused, lids narrowing to slits. “Why do I think I’m not going to like this?” he bit out, those beautiful coffee-colored eyes deepening all the way to dark roast.

She gave him a secret smile, chapter twenty-two of Love Everlasting already sketched out in her mind. The waitress delivered two platters of ribs with all the trimmings, one for her and one for Sam, and her stomach rumbled on cue. “Thank you,” she said with an appreciative smile, suddenly ravenous—both for ribs and for Sam to scratch the surface of a faith that could set him free. “Oh, and ma’am …” Shannon offered the waitress a shy smile. “Would it be possible to get a few more wet naps?” she asked meekly, chewing at the edge of her lip with a penitent look. “I have a sneaking feeling I’m about to make a real big mess.”

“Yeah, I know the feeling.” Sam delivered a mock scowl, drilling Shannon with a gaze that only made her grin. He unfolded his napkin, his smile veering toward dry. “And something tells me it ain’t gonna be pretty.”