Page 154 of Share with Me

Skye introduced Brinley to a couple of people around them. One of them, Emmeline O’Hanlon, seemed to know who Brinley was.

“Ivan has told me a lot about you,” Emmeline said.

“Has he?” Really, Brinley was skeptical.

“He and I travel a lot together. I play harp in SISO.”

Her emphasis of together bothered Brinley. Then she reminded herself that she and Ivan weren’t an item anymore, their erstwhile closeness notwithstanding. “I like harp music.”

“But you like violin better.”

Whatever.Brinley turned to the other person standing there. “And you are?”

“Tristan Rao. Geriatrics.” He seemed to have startled himself with his own words and started to mumble.

“We’re not at a medical convention, Tristan.” Skye laughed. To Brinley, she said, “He gets nervous in front of beautiful women.”

“You’re very pretty.” Tristan then backtracked. “Sorry. Did it again. Foot in mouth.”

Before he made any announcements, the Sunday School teacher for this twenty- and thirty-something class introduced himself to newcomers as Benicio Ketteridge. He asked Skye to tell everyone about their visitor.

“Thanks, Ben. This is Brinley Brooks. She’s a new believer. Yun McMillan led her to Christ about two months ago, right?” Skye turned to Brinley.

Brinley noticed now that Skye spoke with her hands, and she had some burn marks at the base of her palm. The shape looked like the handle of a pot. Poor girl. What happened there?

“Yes. The week before Christmas.” The night before Ivan broke his wrist that changed his life and ended their relationship.

“Are you attending any Bible Study?” Ben asked.

“Olivia Gonzalez has invited me to her Tuesday night’s.”

“I hear she’s got a good group going. Several ladies here are in that group, including Skye.”

“Good to know. I’ll try to go as soon as I get settled.”

Ben raised an eyebrow. “Settled into town?”

Brinley nodded. “I’m moving to St. Simon’s from Atlanta. I have family here.”

“Nice. Let us know if you need help in anyway. We’ll pray for safety and a smooth transition.”

“Thank you. I want everything to go well.” Was that too much to ask for? All Brinley wanted was a miracle from God to make her general contractor, Tobias, stop fighting with her interior designer and rental manager, Meg Zimmerman. Then the house would be renovated on time for her to move in next week.

Next week!

“Since Brinley is new here, let’s go around the room and introduce ourselves.” Ben waved his pen in the air. “That way we won’t be strangers to her when we see her at church.”

There was Matt Garnett, whom Brinley had met on Christmas Eve when he went with Ivan to pick her up in the church van for the evening service. He looked tired and his long-sleeved shirt was all wrinkled. He sat next to Sebastian Langston, who looked like a hunky male model. Turned out he was Skye’s older brother and chef-owner of that expensive Saffron restaurant on Jekyll Island that had been the last straw for Ivan.

It also turned out that Sebastian was very needy. He had many prayer requests for his girlfriend whose name Brinley couldn’t remember, but should have since he had mentioned it umpteen times in the same sentence.

When Ben started to teach, Skye helped Brinley find Ephesians in her Bible. She could have searched for it on her iPhone, but she wanted to read it out of a printed book today. And so she did. After Sunday School she made a note to herself to read that passage again because Ben had said way more than she could process.

Something about God instructing the husband to love his wife.

Love.

Ben said that if the husband didn’t love his wife, he was sinning against God. Thus, Brinley reasoned, a man shouldn’t marry a women he didn’t love. Brinley mulled over that as several people in the Sunday School class walked together to the sanctuary for the service.

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