Finding Hope by Brenda Coulter Read Free Book Online

a wilderness. Could she help him find his way to God?
    With all her heart, she wanted to. She looked up, straight into the hazel eyes that were now carefully guarded. “Okay, let’s get to work,” she said briskly. With her fingertips she wiped moisture from the corners of her eyes.
    Charles leaned back in his chair as if to distance himself from her. “Get to work on what?” he asked cautiously.
    She gave him her sweetest smile. “Our friendship. It’s clear that you need me, Charlie, and I’ve decided to take the job.” She offered her right hand so he could shake it.
    He turned his head and looked at her sideways. “Not a good idea,” he cautioned, ignoring her hand.
    She leaned forwards, taunting him, her eyes boring into his. “Scared?”
    His head jerked slightly and he gave her a thin-lipped smile. “Of a Girl Scout? Hardly.”
    She again extended her hand and this time it was clasped briefly. As he started to withdraw, Hope impulsively tightened her grip, holding his large hand captive in her slender one. “You won’t regret it, Charlie.”
    He looked pained. “Must you keep calling me that?”
    She released his hand. “Don’t worry. You’ll get used to it.”
    That didn’t seem to comfort him any. He looked at his hand, flexing it as if she had injured him. “Hope, I’m not a nice guy,” he warned.
    â€œI’m a better judge of that than you are, Charlie.”
    Their gazes locked in a silent showdown, and when he sighed Hope knew he’d given in. For now, at least.
    â€œEat your mussels,” he said, “or I will.”
    Â 
    Two nights later he called just before nine o’clock and asked Hope to join him for a late dinner. She’d already eaten, but she told him she could really go for some cheesecake.
    He was phoning from his car, and he was not far from her house. “Can you be ready in ten minutes?” he asked.
    She could. She hung up the phone and turned to her dog. “Oh, Bobby, I hope I know what I’m doing.” She peeled off her T-shirt and shorts and tossed them onto her bed. “It’s not actually dating, is it—just having dinner and talking? It’s no different from going out with Claire or Barb, is it?”
    She stood in front of her closet and wondered which of her six dresses to put on. She didn’t know where they were going, but she guessed he’d be wearing another of those snazzy suits. “Must be nice to have money,” she mumbled as she pulled a sleeveless, beet-red sheath off a hanger and wriggled into it. The nails of her long, straight toes were already painted deep red, so she eased her feet into strappy black sandals.
    Hope couldn’t remember the last time she’d enjoyed herself as much as she had when she’d gone to dinner with Charles. She could barely scrape together money for a monthly pizza, let alone a to-die-for meal at one of Chicago’s finest restaurants, so it had been a wonderful evening. But the best part had been getting to know Charles. He was amazingly intelligent, remarkably articulate and he had a delicious sense of humor.
    Even apart from her facility with languages, Hope had always been considered by her teachers to be extremelybright. But this man’s brain could dance circles around hers. She had never known such a stimulating conversation partner.
    â€œI like him, Bob,” she said. “I’ve never come across anyone as interesting as he is. He needs a friend and I’m just a girl, not a woman, to him. So it’s really pretty safe, don’t you think?”
    Bob didn’t disagree.
    She gave her long hair five licks with a brush, then twisted it into a loose chignon, securing it with hairpins. She uncapped a tube of deep red lipstick and stroked color on her curvy top lip. Hearing Charles’s car in the driveway, she gave her bottom lip a quick swipe. Then she