Kicking Eternity

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter 17

Cal had been rolling around like a chicken in a Winn Dixie rotisserie for the past hour. He shoved the dew-damp sheet onto the floor beside his bunk. He’d finish Raine’s portrait. She was all he was thinking about anyway. He pulled on a T-shirt in the dark, grabbed his flip-flops, and headed for the lodge.

The shop light clamped to the easel shone on Raine’s portrait. He sat back and feasted his eyes. He hadn’t stood a chance. If she’d only been intriguing, he might have resisted. But her beauty fascinated the artist in him.

Terror lurked under the surface. Could he actually win her? Was he man enough—spiritually man enough? Raine set the bar high. Africa, he could do. Sure, it was a stretch, but easier than the internal remodeling he wasn’t sure he could pull off.

#

Raine stopped and eyed the spot where she usually found Drew. The beach was empty. The sun simmered on the horizon, boiling the humidity in the air. She dragged an arm across her forehead and drooped down under the shade of a pine. She was too hot and tired to make it to the jetty this morning. She brushed away the needles that dropped into her hair and let the sound of the waves lull her.

She didn’t hear Drew until he dropped on the sand in front of her with a grunt. Bloodshot eyes studied her, then looked away. His hair hadn’t seen a comb. He wore a misshapen, faded Triple S T-shirt with a hole in one shoulder and baggy shorts.

“You look awful.” She shifted away from the rough bark poking her between her shoulder blades.

“Short night. You don’t look so hot yourself.” His tone was wry.

She squinted at him trying to decide whether he’d seen her with Cal last night. A gull cawed over the water. A puff of air lifted her bangs off her forehead and let them fall. Drew held her gaze, his expression giving nothing away.

She sucked in a deep breath. “I…I’ve gotten myself into a big mess… I don’t know how to get out of it. …Or, if I want to get out of it.”

He looked at her for several heartbeats. Slowly, a smile spread across his face. “You wouldn’t call it a mess if you wanted to stay in it.” His smile was infectious.

“Let’s say that it feels like a mess at the moment.” Smiling made her feel a little better. “I’ve been praying, but I’m not getting any answers. Would you… would you pray for me?”

Drew held out his palms to her, and she placed her hands in them. His long fingers cupped hers, his thumbs resting across her knuckles. She closed her eyes, feeling safe.

Drew’s voice, gravelly with the dregs of sleep, wrapped around her. “Lord, Rainey needs to know You’re listening. She needs Your comfort. Your peace. And she needs Your wisdom to know what to do—at least for today.”

Drew was right. She only needed to know what to do today.

The timbre of his voice touched her soul with a desire to surrender Cal and Eddie, and even herself, to God. And he wasn’t even singing.

Drew squeezed her hands, and her eyes popped open. She needed to pay better attention. “Thanks. I feel better.”

She started to pull her hands back into her lap, but Drew held onto her left hand. “Tell me about the scar, Rainey.” He ran the back of his finger over the jagged pink flesh in the crook of her arm.

She owed Drew after he told her about Sam. But she’d never told anyone about the scar. She breathed in the peace from Drew’s prayer and stepped into the lava field of the past.