For the Love of God by Janet Dailey Read Free Book Online Page B

noticed her.
    “Hi there, little girl. How are you doing today?” He grabbed a lock of copper hair and tugged at it affectionately.
    “I’m doing just fine, Judge.” She smiled up at him.
    His glance went to Seth, sitting opposite from her. “Who’s this with you? A new man friend?” His teasing demand was accompanied by a broad wink.
    “No, of course not.” Abbie denied this quickly, conscious that Seth was already rising to be introduced. “This is the new minister of our church, Reverend Seth Talbot. Reverend, I’d like you to meet Judge Sessions, a family friend.”
    “Reverend?” The judge almost did a double take, then shook Seth’s hand and laughed. “You could have fooled me!”
    “I seem to fool a lot of people,” Seth admitted with a brief glance at Abbie.
    “You do look more like a man of the flesh than a man of the cloth,” the judge stated.
    “I’m the usual combination of both,” Seth replied, not at all bothered by the remark.
    Abbie thought the judge’s description was very accurate. Seth was made of flesh and blood, all hard, male sinew and bone. Not even the cloth could conceal that.
    “I’m glad to hear it.” The judge nodded. “We need a change from sanctimonious old fogies, too old to sin anymore.” He laid a hand on Abbie’s shoulder. “Be nice to this little girl here. They don’t come any better than Abbie.” Then he was moving away from their table with a farewell wave of his hand.
    This time it was Seth who brushed his knee against hers when he sat down. Abbie wondered if she wouldn’t feel more relaxed if it weren’t for this constant physical contact with him. Her skirt had inched up above her knees, but it was impossible to pull it down without touching him. He couldn’t see it, not with the table in the way, so she made no attempt to adjust it downward.
    “Have you known the judge long?” Seth asked as he picked up his silverware to begin eating his chicken-fried steak with gravy smothered over it and the mound of mashed potatoes.
    “Practically all my life.” She stabbed a piece of lettuce and sliced ham with her fork. “It’s not surprising that people are taken aback when they find out you’re a minister. You really should wear your collar, so they’ll at least have some advance warning.”
    If he’d been wearing it, the judge wouldn’t have assumed he was her boyfriend, and the girls at the bank wouldn’t have been lusting over him—and maybe she would feel a little safer.The last seemed silly, yet Abbie felt the collar would provide some sort of protection for her.
    “Do you have any idea how those stiff collars chafe your neck on a hot day like this?” Seth appeared amused by her comment.
    “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to criticize the way you’re dressed.” It had been a very rude thing to do—as well as presumptuous.
    “It doesn’t matter.” His wide shoulders were lifted in a careless shrug. There was a dancing light in his eyes when he looked at her. “I promise you that I do wear it when I make my rounds at the hospital or call on a member of the congregation in their home.”
    “In some ways, this is a very conservative community. I guess that’s what I’m trying to say,” Abbie murmured. And he seemed liberal and at the age to know about sin, as the judge had suggested.
    “Right in the heart of the Bible Belt area, I know.” He nodded.
    She glanced at him sharply to see if there was any mockery in his expression, but it was impossible to tell. Her gaze wandered downward to the white of his shirt. With the top three buttons unfastened, she had a glimpse of curly gold chest hairs, another example of his blatant masculinity. There was a chain of some sort around his neck, too.
    “Something wrong?” Seth caught her staring, and amusement deepened the edges of his mouth without materializing into a smile.
    Her pulse did a quick acceleration as Abbiedived her fork into the salad again. “You just don’t look like a