Kicking Eternity Read Online Free PDF Page B

have to admit you’re the Christian bubble girl—über protected.”
    “I am not.” She pinched her lips together. She refused to bleed all over Cal.
    “Why are you so weird with me?”
    Her head jerked up.
    “For every word you say, there are five hundred you don’t say.”
    I’m so into you. There were four more words she wasn’t saying.
    “Sometime, will you say the five hundred words?”
    Would she?
    “Cal! Take down the spinnaker,” Jake yelled.
    Cal jumped up and grabbed a nearby line and loosened it from its cleat.
    Her gaze slid to his solid pecs and biceps, then to the ballo on-like sail as it deflated and flew toward them. Raine helped Cal gather the neon green canvas and stuff it into the sail bag.
    Cal looked over at her from where he was winding a line around a cleat. “We’ll finish this conversation later.”
    Raine watched his sculpted back move along the Queen’s deck. She shook her head to clear her vision. But she had more to deal with than Cal’s looks.
    Cal was a nucleus of safe neutrons—a preacher’s kid who knew the Bible, intelligent—and dangerous protons, like his interest in Eastern religions and alcohol. Electrons of all the things she didn’t know about him zinged around him, tantalizing her.
    Enough. She tortured herself crushing on a guy who saw her as hopelessly white bread. Cal had an agenda—something to do with educating her about the world. Once he proved his point, he’d lose interest. This crush would bury her if she didn’t do something. Fast.
     
    #
     
    Drew leaned against a sand pine that skirted the inlet. The coarse bark dug into his back through his T-shirt like Jesse’s marriage jabs at lunch. White sun pierced through the pine needles, blinding him. Did marriage belong in his future?
    Once upon a time he thought God told him to marry Samantha. But she hadn’t gotten the memo. He probably heard wrong. But what if he hadn’t? He’d blocked marriage out of his mind—until Jesse poked him about it.
    Kurt went all the way to Japan to force him into dealing with Samantha. He and Jesse sang the same song. And Drew had the sinking feeling God made it a three-part harmony. He had to face Sam—probably not literally, but he had to face the questions she raised.
    The first question: Was Sam married?
     

Chapter 4
     
    The person Raine most wanted to avoid this morning stood in the hall waiting outside her classroom. “Cal.” She kept her voice cool.  Their conversation from yesterday on the boat flew through her mind.
    He nudged the classroom door open for her.
    Her gaze skittered away from his. She looked down at the muscle flexing in his arm as he sandwiched a stack of cardboard squares against his chest, and back at the intensity in the blue depths of his eyes. She brushed past him putting space between them and slipped into the chair behind her desk.
    He followed her. “We have unfinished business from yesterday.”
    She looked up, feigned ignorance. “Oh?”
    “I asked you if you were ever going to say those five hundred words.” He stood beside her desk looking down at her. “Are you?”
    Raine dropped her gaze to his hand wrapped around a Folgers can of brushes. It wasn’t an artist’s hand, but thicker, like a wrestler’s. The memory of Cal’s taking her by the shoulders with those hands flitted through her mind. She met his eyes. “Maybe.” Not in this millennium. I am so sunk.
    “Now?” His eyes burned through her.
    “I have to teach now.”
    “Ouch. Cold.”
    She tensed. Nobody ever called her cold. Cal stood too close. She could smell the clean shampoo scent from his damp hair. She inched her chair away from him. “I’m sorry, Cal, I’m just distracted. Thanks for opening the door for me. Gentlemen are hard to find, even at Bible college.” She smiled at him, a small smile meant to be kind, but not encouraging.
    “Whatever, Raine.” Cal walked out of the classroom and toward the front door of the lodge. She felt the slap of