The Secret Life of Bryan by Lori Foster Read Free Book Online Page A

interested in finding solutions.”
    Shay nodded, very introspective for the moment. Then she leaned forward, propping her elbows on the table. “You said I seem different from the other women here. Well, you’re certainly unlike any preacher I’ve ever met.”
    Not good. Back up, Bryan. “Because I work in the field, instead of a church?”
    “Working in the field,” she repeated. “I like that. But no, I meant because you don’t preach about the evils of the flesh.”
    “No.” Their father preached, endlessly, on everything under the sun. He was good at it, both effective and entertaining. People who would normally doze in the pews would be alert and engrossed when his dad got started.
    His sons didn’t seem to have the same charisma when it came to relating, though Bruce was certainly heads and tails ahead of Bryan, who, according to his dad, tried to communicate with grunts.
    Bryan grinned, thinking of how his dad and Bruce always harassed him about his lack of social skills. Then he caught Shay watching him and pulled himself back to the present.
    What was it Bruce always told him? Oh, yeah. In righteous tones, Bryan repeated, “These women won’t accept words, so instead I try to offer options. Maybe a few solutions.”
    “Like what?”
    Because he was familiar with Bruce’s operation, he could answer without hesitation. “Safety and physical comfort have to come before they can be spiritually content.”
    Shay reached out and touched him, her fingertips light against his wrist.
    Yeah, she was asking for it. But for the time being, he’d have to refuse her. He slowly pulled away.
    “What happened to you, Bryan? Why aren’t you in a nice little church somewhere?”
    If he hung out in a church, the roof would probably cave in. He snorted. “Why should I be?”
    She raised a brow.
    “Everyone deserves a safe place to go for spiritual guidance. It’s just that…” Damn it, Bruce, I’m going to kick your ass when I see you. He sighed, locked his jaw, and murmured, “I want to do more.”
    She stared at him, her expression rapt. “Why here? Why this cause?”
    Good question. Why couldn’t Bruce have taken in stray dogs, or assisted the elderly? Why did he have to enmesh himself in overly sexual floozies who all wanted to torment him, this one more than the others?
    He drummed up the last speech Bruce had given him. “There’s a lot of misery in the world. But this is in my own backyard. I want to change things and I can’t do that from a safe distance in a safe little church, with safe people. To put out a fire, you have to get close to the flames.”
    “That doesn’t mean you have to live in them.”
    Damn. He’d told Bruce that exact thing many times, and always gotten the same answer. “Maybe not, but it’s difficult to survive in both worlds, the tidy little communities and the crumbling ones. It scares people on both sides. They’re afraid you’ll carry something back with you, that you’ll somehow spread a disease they won’t be able to run away from.”
    Shay nibbled at her bottom lip before nodding. “I suppose you’re right. People fear things they don’t understand. Maybe if they were aware of how the problems originated, that no one chooses to be born into poverty, then maybe they wouldn’t fear it so much.”
    Her forthright speech threw him. She sounded just like Bruce. “Maybe,” he said, conceding the possibility of truth in her words.
    “It’s difficult to teach ethereal ideas like morality and pride when you have no electricity and no food on the table.”
    He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a lengthy, meaningful discussion with a woman. And damned if she didn’t have an uncanny insight into the obstacles Bruce faced every day.
    “An awareness program is real low on the list of priorities, with so many other things to be done.”
    “So what’s high on your list?”
    He tried a smile that fell flat. “Right now, you are.”
    Her eyes were big and