For the Love of God Read Online Free PDF Page B

someone tells you that?” she asked.
    “I pray on it.” Then he addressed himself to her mother. “My way of doing things is sometimes regarded as unconventional, but it doesn’t necessarily make it wrong.” He seemed to bequietly warning her that his methods wouldn’t be the same as those of their previous pastor.
    “I’m sure we all have some adjustments to make,” her mother conceded smoothly, but there appeared to be reluctant admiration in her look. “I guess we can start out by being thankful that you don’t have long hair and a beard.”
    “You mean like Jesus,” he murmured.
    Her mother breathed in sharply, then smiled. “You have me there, Reverend Talbot.”
    “I prefer to have you at church on Sunday mornings,” he replied with a silent laugh that slashed grooves in his lean cheeks.
    “Our family will be there,” her mother promised as her glance strayed beyond him. “Abbie, you’d better finish putting those spoons out. We want to start serving.” She seemed to suddenly remember her initial purpose in coming to the refreshment table.
    “Excuse me, ladies.” He inclined his bronze head in their direction and withdrew.
    As Abbie watched him walk away to mingle with the growing crowd, she tried not to notice how becoming he looked in black, and the way the cut of his suit showed off the tapering width of his chest and shoulders. It seemed wrong to be observing those things about him.
    “Abbie.” Her mother’s prompting voice pulled her gaze from his compelling male figure. “Put the spoons out.”
    “I will.” Then she asked, “What do you think of him?”
    There was a long pause while her mother’s gaze traveled across the room to where he was standing. “I haven’t made up my mind,” she answered finally.
    People were starting to drift toward the refreshment table as Abbie laid the last few spoons out. She helped herself to two cups of coffee from the urn and went in search of her father. One of the cups was for him and the other for herself. Like a magnet, her gaze was drawn to Seth. She forced it to move onward until she spied her father in the far corner of the room, talking to one of his fishing buddies.
    It wasn’t easy to work her way through the throng of people, carrying two cups of hot coffee, but she made it. Engrossed in his conversation, her father looked startled when she extended the cup within range of his vision. He glanced up.
    “Is that for me?” he asked.
    “I thought you might have talked yourself dry with all your fish tales,” Abbie said.
    “There are fish
tales
and there
are fish
tails, get it?” His friend, Ben Cooper, chuckled at his own pun.
    Abbie groaned in mock dismay at the poor humor. Ben Cooper had his insurance office next door to her father’s law offices, so he was a frequent visitor, dropping in regularly for coffee.
    “I’d offer you this cup of coffee, Ben, but it’s black and I know you prefer yours drowned in milk,” she explained.
    “That’s all right. I’ll get my own.” He hitchedthe waistband of his suit pants higher around his middle as he stood up. “Save my chair for me, will you, Abbie?”
    “Sure.” She obligingly sat in it when he moved out of the way.
    “That Ben is a character,” her father murmured with a shake of his head.
    “Mmmm.” Abbie made an agreeing sound as she took a sip of coffee from her cup. Her gaze wandered idly over the crowd of people and stopped when it found Seth Talbot. She felt again that quiver of purely sexual reaction to his rough good looks.
    “Penny for your thoughts?” Her father tipped his head curiously at her. “Who are you staring at?”
    “Our new pastor,” she admitted, and this time managed to keep her poise. “Have you met him yet?”
    “No. Which one is he?” He turned to survey the crowd.
    “That tall man over there, talking to Mrs. Smith.” Abbie pointed him out with one finger, not wanting to be too obvious.
    “Him?” There was vague surprise. “He