Free For the Love of God by Janet Dailey Page A

the corners of his mouth deepened in a faint smile. “Would you be willing to do some typing for me?”
    “I understood you had a lot of volunteers,” she countered.
    “Ah, but not necessarily volunteers who can type,” he explained with a mocking look. “Or maybe I should say—who can type with more than one finger.”
    “I’d like to help you out but I’ve already agreed to type a manuscript for—someone else.” She kept the Coltrain sisters’ authorship to herself, as they had requested. “Between doing that at nights and working here during the day, I don’t have time to do any more.”
    “It sounds like all work and no play.”
    “It has been hectic,” Abbie admitted, but refused to feel sorry for herself. “But I’m treating myself to a night off this evening.”
    “Do you have a date?”
    In a small community like this, there was no point in lying. If she claimed to have a date, she’d have to produce one or be caught out. “No,” she answered indifferently to show it didn’t matter.
    “Good. Then how about having dinner with me?” Seth invited, and leaned both hands on the front of her desk.
    It was the last thing Abbie had expected. Shewas so tempted to accept but—she shook her head. “Thanks but I was really planning to have a quiet evening and an early night.”
    “That’s no problem. We’ll have dinner and I’ll bring you straight home so you can have a restful evening,” he reasoned. “What do you like? Mexican food? Pizza? Steak?”
    It was so hard to refuse. “I don’t think you heard me,” she said weakly.
    “I’ll wear my collar tonight—just for you,” Seth mocked.
    Abbie took a deep breath and held it a second. “You don’t understand what it’s like living in a small community like this, Reverend.” She sighed. “If I had dinner with you tonight, by tomorrow morning, rumor would have it all over town that we’re having an affair.”
    “So?” he challenged.
    She wished he wasn’t so close. Even with the desk separating them, the way he was leaning on it brought him much nearer. She could even smell the tangy fragrance of his after-shave lotion.
    “So
—you’re a minister.” Abbie wondered why she was reminding him. “And a bachelor. You can’t afford to have that kind of talk going around.”
    “Empty talk can’t hurt me.” He hunched his shoulders in an indifferent shrug without changing his position. “It doesn’t bother me, so you shouldn’t let it bother you.”
    Abbie had run out of arguments. “It doesn’t.”
    “Then you’ll have dinner with me,” Seth concluded.
    “Pizza.” The atmosphere at a pizza parlor would be more casual, invite less intimacy. Plus there wouldn’t be any lingering after the meal. It seemed the safest choice all around.
    “I’ll pick you up at six-thirty. Is that all right?”
    “Yes, that’s fine.” Abbie nodded, certain that she had lost her senses completely. “Do you know where I live?”
    “Yes. Your address is in the membership files,” he said, indicating he’d already checked. Deliberately or just as a matter of course, Abbie didn’t know.
    “It’s probably my parents’ address that’s listed. I live in the apartment above the garage,” she explained.
    Seth straightened from her desk. “I lived in a garret when I was attending the seminary. My friends and I had some good times there.”
    “I like it,” Abbie murmured in response.
    “I won’t keep you from your work any longer,” he said. “I don’t want to get into any more trouble with your father over that.” But he was smiling in a way that belied his expression of concern. “I’ll see you tonight.”
    “Yes.” Abbie just hoped that she knew what she was doing.

Chapter Five
    At ten after five that afternoon, Abbie was clearing her desk to leave. Her father stepped out of his office, a pair of reading glasses sitting low on his nose and a letter in his hand.
    “I’ve changed my mind about the way I want this letter