âDonât do this, Rosemary,â he said.
âDonât punish yourself or me this way. Think about us. Think about this.â He reached out a hand. âPut your hand in mine.â
âNo,â she said, a plea in the one word. âI canât.â
âRosemary, God doesnât want you to be alone. Heâs not cruel that way. Together, with His guidance, we can figure this out.â
âNo,â she said again, her heart breaking. âLetâs just leave it the way it is. Go,â she whispered. âBefore we wake my father.â
âIâll wake him,â Kirk replied, angry now. âIâll wake this whole town and tell all of them that I care about you and I want to be with you and thereâs nothing wrong with that.â
Hearing him say the words aloud made her realize she felt the same way. But she was still afraid to make good on her feelings. Yet she knew Kirk was right. She had asked God to forgive her, to give her a second chance. Maybe this was that chance.
Slowly she reached out her hand to him. Kirk pressed his hand to hers, his eyes searching her face in the moonlight.
âTell me youâll pray about this, Rosemary. Promise me youâll ask God to guide us.â
âI will,â she said, meaning it. âIâm asking Him right this very minuteâ¦â
grew up in a small Georgia town and decided in the fourth grade that she wanted to write. But first, she married her high school sweetheart, then moved to Atlanta, Georgia. Taking care of their baby daughter at home while her husband worked at night, Lenora discovered the world of romance novels and knew thatâs what she wanted to write. And so she began.
A few years later, the family settled in Shreveport, Louisiana, where Lenora continued to write while working as a marketing assistant. After the birth of her second child, a boy, she decided to pursue full time her dream of writing. In 1993, Lenoraâs hard work and determination finally paid off with that first sale.
âI never gave up, and I believe my faith in God helped get me through the rough times when I doubted myself,â Lenora says. âEach time I start a new book, I say a prayer, asking God to give me the strength and direction to put the words to paper. Thatâs why Iâm so thrilled to be a part of Steeple Hillâs Love Inspired line, where I get to combine my faith in God with my love of romance. Itâs the best possible combination.â
âTo everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.â
Rosemary Brinson read the familiar words of Ecclesiastes and took comfort in the sure knowledge that God was watching over her, and that a new season was on its way.
Today would be different. Today was a new beginning, Rosemary decided as she gazed out her kitchen window, toward the tall spire of the First United Methodist Church of Alba Mountain, Georgia.
Today the steeplejack was coming.
Everyone was talking about Kirk Lawrence, the man Rosemary had personally hired, sight unseen, to come to the little mountain town of Alba to restore the fifty-foot-tall steeple of the one-hundred-and-fifty-year-old church, as well as renovate the church building itself. The small-town gossip mill had cast Kirk Lawrence to heroic proportions. From what Rosemary had found while doing phone interviews and research on-line, the man could leap tall buildings with a single bound, provided he had a good pulley and a strong rope and cable, of course.
In spite of her pragmatic, levelheaded approach to hiring the steeplejack, Rosemary couldnât help feeling the same excitement as the townspeople. Sheâd last spoken to Kirk Lawrence two days ago, and she still remembered the way his lyrical accent had sent goose bumps up and down her spine.
âIâll be arriving sometime, probably late afternoon, on Monday, Ms. Brinson. Iâve studied the plans and the photographs you sent me, and I do believe I can have your church looking brand-new in a few weeks. I look forward to taking on the task.â
âPlease, call me Rosemary,â sheâd stammered, in spite of trying to sound professional and all-business. âAnd youâre sure you donât need a place to stay?â
âNo, I have my trailer. Iâll be comfortable there.â A slight pause, then, âItâs home, after all.â
Home. A travel trailer with another trailer full of equipment attached to it. What kind of home was that?