Faith (Rescue Me, A Contemporary Romance) by Elizabeth Nelson Page A

would be there for another 200 long after he was gone. It was comforting and intimidating at the same time. So far, that was a good way to describe his experiences in Nashville to date.
    Faith watched him merge with the other students and walk up to the front doors and disappear inside. She sent up a silent prayer that he would be okay and make some friends. She was overwhelmed at how thankful she was to her mother for making this happen. She would never have predicted how helpful Myra would be in this transition.
    Not only had her mother arranged for Liam to have a place in school at the start of the new semester , but she had also put a bug in the ear of another church member and gotten Faith a job at the Nashville Tourists Bureau. The offices were downtown, not far from her mother’s house in East Nashville, and they were right next door to the Country Music Television (CMT) building, a very prestigious address.
    The holidays had been difficult but they’d gotten through them. Helped by a lot of chocolate for Liam and wine for her, she wasn’t too proud to admit. Her mom had been great then too. Presents for her and Liam, Christmas festivities at church, and she’d even sat up with her and held her hand as Faith wept when the clock struck midnight on a New Year, a year without Mac by her side for the first time in two decades almost.
    That was all behind them though, Faith reminded herself as she joined the morning commute towards the downtown skyline. A New Year, a new start, she promised herself.
    She had a job. Liam had a new school full of potential friends, and she had a mother for the first time in what felt like forever, and that was the most surprising new start of all.
    The bell squealed overhead as Liam stared confused at a map of the school. How was he supposed to find his way to Algebra? And who’s dumb idea was it to assign anyone algebra at 9AM anyway?
    He’d been in the office registering, so he’d missed his normal homeroom class, the office aide was quick to point out, but he didn’t have an excuse to miss Algebra, so now he had to find it in about two seconds flat or he was going to be officially late for his first class on his first day. Good lord, what a shitty start this is, Liam thought.
    “Are you lost?” A girls voice said somewhere over his shoulder.
    He spun around, still clutching the offending map that made him look as clueless as a tourist standing naked in the middle of Times Square.
    “Yeah, is it that obvious?” He blushed. Damn, he hated it when he blushed. It was such a loser move.
    “No worries. I just started here in September and it’s a crazy big building.”
    Sweetly, and not a little bossy, she grabbed the map out of his hand and turned it around for him.
    “This should help, for starters.”
    Leaning over him, she pointed out an area and whipped out a ballpoint to mark it for him so he could see better.
    “We’re standing right here, see?”
    Liam could see. He could also feel, and right now this stranger was pressed up against his side so close he could feel the gentle swell of her breast on his arm and the sway of her skirt against his thigh. Against his will he could feel his penis hardening. Oh my god, he had to get away from this girl before she noticed!
    “Yeah, thanks I got it from here,” he said, grabbing the map and moving quickly down the hall.
    He didn’t know where he was going, probably wasn’t even headed in the right direction, but he had to get the hell away from her pronto. He just hoped she hadn’t noticed.
    Downtown, Faith wasn’t having a much more inspiring morning. So far, she’d spilled her coffee all over her boss’s desk, cracked a vase when she tried to water the – artificial – flowers in the lobby when she’d been searching for something to keep her busy, and hung up on at least four callers because the switchboard was more complicated than the equipment she was used to in Alaska.
    “Holy geez,” she said with her head in