Kicking Eternity Read Online Free PDF Page A

but she hadn’t heard anyone else in the building. She couldn’t focus on teaching until she cleared up this detail.
    The door handle stuck. She applied more pressure and it twisted with a clunk. The door swung open. She took a step inside and caught her breath. Fifteen to twenty canvases of varying sizes and shapes haphazardly lined the classroom.
    Her gaze swept the room again. No, the paintings had been carefully placed to look haphazard. There was a sense of skewed balance with a large portrait as the focal point. Dredging up Humanities 101, she recognized an impressionistic flare in Cal’s work. The colors were bold, the strokes broad, but not devoid of delicacy. Like Cal himself, the art was intoxicating.
    She studied the portrait of the blond girl on the large canvas. A much younger Aly. Crude compared to the study of surfboards piled like pick-up-sticks beside it, Cal had still managed to capture Aly . The way she held her shoulders, the thrust of her chin, suggested a teenager waking up to her sensuality.
    “Hey.’” Cal’s voice came from directly behind her.
    She whirled around. How had she not heard the squeak of the screen door? “Were you in love with Aly when you were younger?”
    “And, good morning to you, too.”
    “Sorry. I just see how you caught Aly’s mix of defiance and vulnerability. I thought maybe you had to know someone really well to get their spirit.”
    “In high school I had to do a portrait for my senior art project. Aly was the only one I could get to sit for me.”
    Right. It all started to make sense, Cal’s almost protectiveness toward Aly. But if he didn’t want to own up to it, that was his business. “Your paintings are—” She couldn’t think of a word to describe them.
    “Genius? Interesting, as in, ‘Gee, that certainly is a painting?’”
    “Monet-ish, but the colors are muted. Your brush strokes are smoother, the subjects sharper.”
    “Monet?” Shock and wonder warred on his face.
    “What? Didn’t you think a Bible teacher would take humanities in college?” Touché. “See you later. I have a class to teach.” She edged through the doorway inches from Cal’s dark brown stubble, the pale waves of hair brushing his shoulders. His eyes still looked dazed. Good. Her turn to knock him off balance.
    She walked the fifteen steps to her classroom memorizing the citrus scent that clung to him.
     
    #
     
    Cal listened to Raine’s steps move down the hall to her classroom. He tossed the ream of art paper onto a table in his empty classroom and it landed with a thud. He should have told Raine he’d been in love with Aly off and on for years. That would make her back off. But he’d rather swim through an army of man-o-war than split his gut open in front of Raine or anyone else.
    The truth was Aly had never been in love with him as far as he could tell. And he’d been over her for a year and a half this time—as good as cured.
    Last night, he held Raine in his hands and watched her heart swirl in her eyes. Today she compared him to Monet. So what? He sure wasn’t going to fall for the girl—like falling into his parents’ life. No thank you. Raine was self-righteous waiting to happen. Mom served sanctimony like vegetables, three servings a day, and he had a gut full.
    The picture of Raine spitting out the beer floated through his mind and he nearly laughed out loud. She intrigued him. He’d give her that.
     
    #
     
    Drew sat across the dining hall table from Jesse and his pregnant wife, Kallie.
    Their three-year-old, Jillian, held court at the head of the table. “Macawoni and cheese is Pwincess food!” she announced. Her plastic tiara wobbled atop a mop of chocolate curls as she climbed off her chair to follow her mother out the swinging doors to the porch.
    Drew swallowed the lump in his throat. He hadn’t thought about marriage and children for years—ever since Samantha slammed that door shut. Drew used to think he’d marry Sam and have a house