Love in the WINGS by Delia Latham Read Free Book Online

anything with the oppressive shadow hanging over them. She found it hard to remember exactly what it was about the youth minister that she’d thought she didn’t like.
    David seemed to be sinking further into himself. Pia asked the prayer team to pray that it wouldn’t become necessary to make their pastor’s condition known to everyone. But apparently, the pressure was getting to her, too. Her normally cheerful demeanor had gone quiet, a washed-out pallor lay just beneath her lovely dark complexion, and she was always tired. Pia wasn’t well, and Aria found herself alone at Jewels for the Kingdom more afternoons than not.
    Today she and Corbin had made a trip into Lufkin for church supplies. Things had been so out of kilter that she hadn’t made her usual weekly trips into the bigger town to stock up. They’d come close to being completely out of some necessities at the church—things no one ever thought about when they were available, but would miss horribly if they weren’t…like toilet paper, boxes of tissue for the sanctuary, and coffee for the office. Aria realized they’d reached a must-go-to-Lufkin situation when she scooped out the last of the coffee grounds that morning.
    Corbin’s offer to make the twenty-minute drive with her had come as a welcome surprise. They’d closed the church office early, hopped into his pickup and driven out of town. Within the first mile past the town limit sign, the sticky weightiness that had choked Angel Falls for weeks simply dissipated. Aria’s window was down, and she stuck one hand outside, startled to find the air cool and pleasant. She whipped her head around to look at Corbin, whose elbow rested on his own window frame. He nodded.
    That was the only acknowledgment she’d needed. She hadn’t wanted to spoil the pleasure of getting out from under the oppression for a time.
    On their way back to Angel Falls now, Aria leaned her head against the seat behind her and thanked God for her neighbor’s steady support. Without it, she wasn’t sure she’d have made it through the past two very difficult weeks.
    They pulled under the big Heart’s Haven sign and Corbin reached across the seat to give her hand a squeeze. “You’ve been amazing through all of this.”
    “So have you.” She returned the pressure and pulled free of his hand just as he parked in front of his cottage. “I’d like to walk later, after I get a chance to rest a bit. Would you—” She paused, and gnawed at her lip. Was she being too forward? Oh, well, she was too tired to care about propriety. “Want to come along?”
    He winked and one side of his mouth tilted upward. “Sure.”
    She nodded. “I’ll call when I’m ready to go, but don’t hold your breath. I’m planning on a good, long snooze.”
    As she walked across the lawn to her own gate, she grinned. Corbin Bishop’s smile could make most girls’ hearts do a triple time quick step.
    Two hours later, she rolled out of bed, groaning. Would she never be allowed to sleep again without seeing that poor, beaten boy in the barn? She was beginning to wonder if there really was a boy somewhere close who needed help. Were the Heart’s Haven angels trying to tell her something with these unrelenting dreams?
    She splashed cold water on her face and dried it with a hand towel, then leaned against the sink and looked around the room. No harps or haloes. Not even a feather in sight. “Well, if you’re there, and you want me to know something, I sure wish you’d just tell me. If I don’t get some sound sleep—and soon, mind you—I’m going to become the first zombie with an actual beating heart.”
    She grabbed a scrunchie and pulled her hair back into a ponytail at her neck, then rolled her eyes at her pale reflection. “Now I’m talking to myself. Enough already.”
    Hurrying into the kitchen, she punched Corbin’s number into her cell phone and grabbed a bottle of water while she waited for him to pick up. “Hey, I’m headed