AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She raised a brow. “Well, don’t you have to work?”
“PTO, remember? When is your next shift?”
“Um, day after tomorrow.”
“So, you have the time?”
A laugh slipped from her. “Yes, sure. I have the time.”
“Then let’s have fun.”
Confusion flickered. “Fun?”
“You do know what that is, don’t you?”
“Ha. Cute. I have a vague memory of it.” She sighed. “Seriously, you just want to hang out?”
“Yep.” He walked up the deck steps to the back door and ran his hand under the windowsill on his left. And ... there it was. He pulled out the key, unlocked the house, and turned off the alarm. “Do you prefer the pontoon or the speed boat?”
“We get to take the boat out too?”
The twinge of awe in her voice made him feel like a superhero. “If you want.”
“Oh, I want. The pontoon. It’s more conducive to decompressing, I think.”
“Great choice. It also has a cover in case it rains. As long as there’s no lightning, we should be fine on the water.”
“My dad had a boat.” A pause. “My biological dad, not my stepdad.” She followed him into the kitchen where he snagged a set of keys from the hook on the wall. “We used to take it out on the lake almost every weekend in the summer. I’d bring a friend and we’d swim, snorkel, ski, fish ... I remember those days. I remember the fun.” She smiled at him—a sad, wistful curving of her lips that appeared, then vanished. “And then,” she said, “it was all over. He was gone and so was the house, the boat, the friends ... and all the fun.”
She was opening up to him, trusting him. Maybe there was hope after all. His heart pounded with the intensity of his emotions, and it was an effort to rein it in. He reached out to grip her fingers and give them a light squeeze. “Then let’s have a little fun today.”
She smiled and the shadows of her past faded from her gaze. “Okay, let’s do that.”
“I’m going to get some drinks from the fridge. Water or soda?”
“Water, please, but I can carry them.”
He passed her two bottles and they walked out of the house and down to the gazebo. Vince nodded to the built-in benches attached to the interior perimeter of the small shelter. “I helped build those two summers ago. Chip and Donna kept having to haul a table and chairs down here, and it was getting old fast.”
“This is lovely. I feel like I’m in a little valley with mountains surrounding us.”
She slid onto the closest bench, and he set the food on thetable in front of her. “Napkins and everything should be in there.”
“Perfect.” She passed him a water bottle, then unwrapped her burger and waited for him to do the same.
Vince gripped her hands and bowed his head. “Lord, thank you for your protection over us and please continue that. Thank you for the gifts of the beauty of nature and the chance to have fun. Keep our hearts centered on you and let us rest in the assurance that nothing can happen without your permission. Bless this food, thank you for this time together. Amen.”
“Amen.” Raina’s low murmur of agreement. She hesitated, hand holding her burger, eyes on him. “You really believe that?”
“What?”
“That nothing happens without his permission?”
“Absolutely. You ever read the book of Job?”
“I have. It just all seems like he asks too much of people sometimes.”
“Like what?”
