Their Unexpected Love. Kathleen Y'Barbo

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      Chapter Three

      Logan waited for her smile and was rewarded by laughter instead. “So,” Pippa said as she swept an errant strand of hair back over her ear, “how exactly does a guy make the career change from missionary to carpenter?”

      “Involuntarily” slipped out of his mouth before he realized what he said.

      That got her attention. Logan stifled a groan as he waited for the barrage of questions that usually came along with any admission of what he had once done and what now occupied his days.

      “Yes, I suppose that happens, doesn’t it? But then the Lord tells us our plans won’t always be His,” she said instead.

      How many times had he heard that one? Or the statement about how everything happened for a reason? That one usually had him wanting to demand just what reason a loving God might have for taking the life of a woman whose only crime had been to listen to him when he insisted that she be on the flight that day.

      Of course, he’d never actually said those things or responded to any of the other comments of those who were so sure of God’s good plans. Nor would he say them now. Only a few of his closest friends, fellow widowers at the church’s Starting Over group, had heard any of them.

      “Granny says your missions work has to do with kids.”

      Logan thought of the orphanage, of the little ones and teenagers he hadn’t seen in more than three years. Some would be grown by now, others likely unrecognizable from the babies and toddlers they once were. “Yes, it did.”

      “Did? As in the past, then?”

      Logan recalled the planes he and his wife had ridden, skimming the treetops before dropping down for a landing that almost instantly had them surrounded by happy and eager young faces. Resolutely he pushed away the image. “Yes.”

      Pippa turned to face the beach and then lifted her hand to shade her eyes. “Oh?” she said almost as an afterthought. “Would it be prying to ask why you’re not involved in anything like that now?”

      It would, but he told her anyway. “I’ve got obligations in Vine Beach to see to first.”

      She glanced over her shoulder to meet his gaze. “And then what will you do?”

      Go back to Zambia. That’s where he’d left his heart. And yet the longer he was away, the less he felt the Lord leading him back.

      The truth was, for the first time since he gave his life to Christ, Logan had no idea what God wanted him to do after his late wife’s property was sold and the money distributed. So until He gave other instructions, Logan intended to put all his effort into making that sale happen.

      Pippa must have sensed he had no answer, or perhaps she realized he did not want to reply. Whatever the reason, she offered a wry smile and then nodded toward the spot where the satellite dish lay askew. “So, tell me more about your thoughts on a covering for the deck portion of the roof. Is that possible up there or would the wind make a structure like that a bad idea?”

      And so it went, a smooth transition from the uncomfortable to the comfortable. Only later when Logan had deposited Pippa at her grandmother’s doorstep did he wonder if she had managed that transition on purpose or by accident.

      “Thank you for taking the time to show me your idea,” she said as she climbed from the Jeep, her hand still on the door handle. “You probably noticed I like it very much.”

      And I like you.

      The words came so close to the tip of his tongue that he actually bit down on his lower lip to keep from speaking. He glanced beyond her to where several people were loading catering equipment into the back of a Pop’s Seafood Shack truck.

      “Thank you for missing out on the party to come along and see it firsthand.”

      Her laughter caught his attention. The wind had whipped strands of her very proper do into a more casual style. In the waning light from the afternoon sun, Pippa Gallagher looked absolutely stunning. When she smiled and offered a goodbye, Logan found himself wishing he could stay just a few minutes longer.

      “So I’ll see you at the meeting next week,” she said as she closed the door.

      “Wednesday morning. Ten sharp,” Logan said through the open window. “And I’ll have the preliminary sketches to you by Monday afternoon.”

      Pippa rested her hand on the car door and leaned slightly forward to meet his gaze. “I would hate to be responsible for making anyone work on what is supposed to be a beautiful СКАЧАТЬ