For the Love of God by Janet Dailey

Abbie had finished the last stack of manuscript pages the sisters had given her? But Abbie had kept her word to the women. “Maybe it had something to do with typing,” she said in a half-truth. “The word has spread that I’m doing typing on the side. I’ve gotten several calls.”
    “But what would they want typed?”
    “Who knows?” Abbie shrugged to avoid an outright lie, and turned again toward the garage.
    The acceleration of a car engine as it turned into the driveway pulled her glance over her shoulder. A dark green sports car zoomed toward her, its racy appearance making it seem to travel faster than it actually was. Excitement leaped along her veins when she recognized the car and the driver, and turned to meet them.
    “I forgot to tell you,” her mother called belatedly. “Reverend Talbot phoned, too.” When he turned off the engine and vaulted out of the car, her mother explained to him, “I was just telling Abbie that you called for her.”
    “That’s all right, Mrs. Scott. Thanks.” Seth nodded to the woman, then walked toward Abbiewith an easy, rolling stride. He was wearing Levi’s again, and a blue chambray shirt opened at the throat—with no collar.
    “I just got back.” The gladness she was trying to contain shined in the emerald-green flecks of her hazel eyes.
    “So I gathered. Here.” He reached for the grocery sack. “Let me carry that for you.”
    Her resistance took only a token form as she relinquished the sack into his arms and walked to the stairway door. “I’m sorry I missed you Thursday, Reverend. Dad said you stopped by.”
    “Are we going to start that again?” Seth challenged.
    “Start what?” Abbie paused on the first step.
    “That Reverend business.” The dark intensity of his gaze made her blood warm.
    “I call ’em as I sees ’em.” She mocked him with a provocative glance. Immediately she was attacked by pangs of self-consciousness that she had actually been flirting with him.
    “Look, Abbie.” He touched the tanned hollow of his throat with his free hand. “No collar. For the rest of the day, you’re looking at Seth. So you be sure to call him the way you see him.”
    “All right—Seth,” she agreed, her tone a little more subdued.
    “Do you have anything on your day’s agenda?” Seth asked as he mounted the stairs one step behind her.
    “The Coltrain sisters are getting anxious. I was going to do some more typing on their manuscript,” Abbie explained.
    “It’s a fine August day. What you need is fresh air and sunshine—not more hours in front of a typewriter,” he insisted. “I’m here to unchain you from that.”
    “You are?” Abbie unlocked the door and pushed it open, walking in ahead of Seth. She was alive with pleasure. The realization that he wanted to spend the day with her swelled within her, but she didn’t want to appear too eager, too overjoyed.
    “Yes, I am.” Seth walked to the counter-bar on the kitchen side of the room and set the grocery sack on it.
    Abbie moved to the opposite side to begin putting the groceries away. The brilliance of his dark gaze was difficult to meet. There was something possessive about it that started a fire licking along her veins.
    “You’ll have to give me a few minutes to change clothes after I get these groceries put away,” she said.
    His eyes made a lazy inspection of the faded blue jeans softly hugging her slim hips and the thin white blouse with its capped sleeves and half-collar. Her auburn-gold hair was pulled back in a ponytail, a white silk scarf tied around it.
    “What you’re wearing is perfect,” Seth insisted.
    They were everyday clothes, clean but showing the wear and thinness of many washings. Abbie looked down at them, then back at Seth. If her present clothes were suitable for the occasion,it raised a question. “Where are we going?” She tipped her head to the side.
    His strongly shaped mouth slanted in a half-smile. “Heaven.”
    “What?” Abbie