smile with Kaylie, who understood perfectly that seeing Brooks’s name on the caller ID would add weight to Hypatia’s plea.
Kaylie told herself that she should just get up and go, not let the company, food and the beauty of the day seduce her away from her duty. But it was just one meal, after all. Just one. Hypatia made the call, saying that they had coerced Kaylie into staying for lunch because Brooks had arrived and inviting Hub and Kaylie to join the sisters for dinner the following evening. No mention was made of Stephen until Hypatia passed the small phone back to Brooks.
“We’ll expect you to join us, too, of course, Stephen dear,” she said in an amiable tone that allowed no refusals.
He smiled wryly and inclined his head. “My pleasure.”
“And you, as well, Brooks,” she went on in a somewhat lighter vein.
He lifted a hand. “Sorry as I am to say it, I have a prior commitment. It’s my evening at the free clinic.”
“In that case, will you honor us now by praying so that we may eat?”
“Delighted to.”
Everyone bowed their heads as Brooks offered simple but eloquent praise and thanks for the company, the surroundings and the meal. Carol reappeared with tall, frosty glasses of iced tea garnished with lemon slices and mint leaves. To Kaylie’s surprise, Stephen took a long drink of his.
Lifting his glass, he said, “I’ve tried telling my friends in the Netherlands that this is how you’re supposed to drink tea.”
“Hear, hear,” Brooks agreed, eliciting a number of politely indignant arguments from the aunts.
Finally, Odelia sat back, smiled indulgently and declared, “Oh, you wretches. You’re teasing us!”
Stephen and Brooks just smiled, saying nothing, while the aunts twittered with amusement. Kaylie bit her lip and sent Stephen a laughingly censorial glance from beneath her brow, but he refused to look at her, most likely for fear of giving himself away. One thing she knew about the man was that he could not abide hot tea. Actually, she mused, she’d come to know a good deal more about him than that.
She knew that he could be cross, arrogant and demanding but also thoughtful, sweet and charming. Tough as nails and boyish at the same time, he could display a remarkably selfish nature and then a poignantly needy one as if they were two sides of the same coin. She knew that he was not a believer but that he was respectful enough of her beliefs to discipline his language and behavior so as not to offend. She also knew that his kiss could make her heart explode, his tender touch could curl her toes and his joy could make her positively giddy, all of which seemed to war with the purpose for which God had brought him here, or purposes, as the case might be.
His lifestyle and her own felt at odds, and too many mysteries remained for her comfort, mysteries she increasingly longed to uncover. She thought of this Cherie with whom he was supposedly involved and wondered why she had not put in an appearance by now. Were Stephen her own boyfriend, even if they were just casually dating—and she suspected there was nothing casual about it—Kaylie knew that she would not be so inattentive. She knew, too, that he was a man of whom her father was not likely to approve. Perhaps, she mused, if her father came to know him as she did…
Oh, but what was she doing? Building castles in the air. Forgetting her purpose. Yielding to temptation.
She looked at Stephen, smiling with undisguised delight, and knew that her heart, and perhaps even her faith, was very much at risk.
Chapter Eleven
Despite Kaylie’s private misgivings, lunch became a relaxed, drawn-out affair. Brooks was the first to leave, but the aunts lingered until the heat, rising into the nineties, drove Hypatia and Odelia indoors. Mags always seemed oblivious to the temperature and trundled off to the greenhouse. Kaylie didn’t find the temperature uncomfortable, either, but she was surprised when Stephen suggested that they sit out on a pair of chaises near the fountain.
“Are you sure? It’s not too warm for you?”
“No, I love the heat.”
“But you spend so much time on the ice.”
“Maybe that’s why I like it warm the rest of the time. Spending half my life on sixteen-degree ice has given me an appreciation for the other end of the spectrum.”
“Sixteen degrees!”
“Yeah, that’s why I have to keep moving back there even when the puck’s in play on the other