Child of Grace (Love Inspired) by Irene Hannon Page A

more about her solitary state. The two of them had hit it off, and she’d already told his sister more than she’d told him in a week.
    Not that he intended to pry, of course. Or ask Hannah to reveal confidences. But if a few discreet questions ferreted out a nugget or two of information, he wasn’t averse to asking them.
    Because the more he saw of Kelsey, the more he was convinced she carried a burden that was weighing down her slender shoulders.
    And whether it was wise or not, he wanted to help her shed some of it.

Chapter Seven
     
    L uke slipped his arms into his sports jacket and tapped on the bathroom door as he passed. “Five-minute warning.”
    The door opened, and Hannah poked her head out. “I need ten.”
    “Eight.”
    “Okay, okay. Why do we have to go to the early service anyway? This is supposed to be a vacation.” She stifled a yawn.
    “I thought it might be less crowded. We can go later next Sunday, if you’d rather. There’s one at ten, too.”
    “I vote for that.” She shut the door.
    While he waited, he booted up his laptop and checked his email. Messages had been flying all week among the youth fellowship board members, and they’d hammered out a lot of the fundraising plan. At tomorrow morning’s meeting, they’d finalize it and move ahead on all fronts—including implementing the communications and PR initiatives Kelsey had been tweaking for them as the plan solidified. She already had a newspaper interview lined up for him tomorrow afternoon with The Record in Saugatuck, and one with The Holland Sentinel on Wednesday.
    When Hannah appeared nine minutes later, he checked his watch and arched an eyebrow.
    Heaving a long-suffering sigh, she planted her hands on her hips. “Chill, big brother. It’s only five after eight. How long will it take to get to church?”
    “I’m not sure.” He clicked his computer shut. “This will be my first visit. I was too jet-lagged last Sunday to do more than veg.”
    “Hmph. Good thing God doesn’t veg out on you .”
    He grinned. “You sound like Mom.”
    She made a face at him. “Ha-ha. So let’s get this show on the road.”
     
     
    Twelve minutes after they pulled out of their driveway, Luke angled into a parking spot beside the small, white church in Saugatuck, where Reverend Howard presided. The man had impressed him at last week’s board meeting, and Luke had toyed with giving the man’s church a try.
    Finding out Kelsey was a congregant had clinched his decision.
    Funny how his attitude about his neighbor had done a one-eighty in the past week. When he’d found her on his beach, he’d been annoyed at the intrusion. Now he looked forward to their encounters.
    Go figure.
    They slipped into a pew near the back, and a few minutes before the service began Kelsey walked past them down the aisle. Alone, as usual. And so focused on the stained glass window above the sanctuary, with its soaring representation of the Resurrection, that she didn’t even notice them.
    He expected her to sit alone, too. But he was pleased when Dorothy waved at her and slid over to make room in her pew.
    The organ music swelled, and Luke did his best to immerse himself in the service. Yet he found his gaze wandering to the blond-haired mother-to-be far too often. A nudge in the side from Hannah’s elbow after he skipped a verse in one of the hymns helped him refocus.
    As he’d expected, Reverend Howard’s sermon was excellent—and appropriate to the day’s reading from Matthew, about Peter’s faltering trust as he walked toward the Lord across the water.
    “How often in our lives have circumstances overwhelmed us and undermined our faith?” the pastor concluded. “How often, in the midst of crises, does our trust in the Lord waver and we, like Peter, begin to sink? Not into water, but into despair and desperation and depression?
    “My friends, the message of today’s reading is simple. No matter what perils befall us…no matter how many bad things