Free To Heal A Heart (Love Inspired) by Arlene James

think that we should enjoy life while we have the chance?”
    “All right,” he said after a moment, whatever that meant.
    She whirled away again, muttering, “A good time just might be all the joy some will ever know.”
    She felt him move, sensed it in the instant before his big, strong hand closed on her elbow. She turned to face him, but then Vernon was there with a tray of crackers and cheese spiked with olives on toothpicks.
    “Appetizers!” he announced jovially. “Mother’s putting on the dog.”
    For an instant Mitch’s gaze searched Piper’s face, but then he smiled at his father and turned her gently but resolutely toward the sofa, asking, “What can I get you to drink? There are sodas in the fridge under the bar.”
    “Anything at all,” Piper answered stiffly, sinking onto the comfortable sofa.
    A moment later Vernon had fixed on a photograph of Mitch in a football uniform and a tale about the day he had finished a game with a broken foot. Gradually Piper felt the ugly tension inside her ease. After a while, she no longer felt as if she might fly apart at any unguarded moment, and her enjoyment in her company and surroundings returned.
     
     
    Laughter came easily to her, Mitch noticed, despite the deep well of dark emotion that he had glimpsed behind that pretty face earlier. A quick smile and an impish sense of humor were second nature to Piper Wynne, but they did not disguise her pain. His trained eye recognized the signs. She was harboring some sort of secret, some serious, perhaps overwhelming problem; yet when those amber eyes of hers lit with that personal sense of the absurd, Mitch couldn’t help smiling, even when he didn’t know what had struck her as funny.
    His parents were a little befuddled by her. They were hopeful, almost pathetically so, although she was nothing like quiet, reserved, delicate Anne. He wondered what it was about her that made his nerve endings tingle with awareness. It was more than her pretty face and womanly figure. Something in her spoke to him. It was as if he knew her on some very elemental level.
    After dinner she insisted on helping his mother clean up. His parents had a long-standing arrangement—she cooked, he cleaned. But Vernon was happy to let Piper do it, even if the look Marian sent his way promised retribution later. Mitch bit his lip and kept quiet. He could hear the women chatting about china patterns as he rose to follow his father into the den. He’d have stayed where he was and eavesdropped on their conversation if he could have—not because he particularly wanted to know what they talked about, but just to hear their voices. Listening to the two of them talking made him feel peaceful and cozy.
    Why had he waited so long to start looking for someone with whom to share his life?
    He didn’t have any answers for that, wasn’t sure they even mattered.
    As soon as the two women entered the room, Piper reached for her bag. Mitch got to his feet.
    “Do you have to go?” Marian asked plaintively.
    “I really do, yes,” Piper answered, “but thank you for a lovely dinner. It’s been a pleasure meeting you.”
    “You’re welcome any time,” Vernon said, rising from his chair with one eye on the football game playing almost silently on the television screen.
    “I promised to drive Piper home,” Mitch announced, reaching into his pocket for the car keys.
    Marian gave him a bright smile and turned to walk them out.
    “We never talked about the letter,” she said as they reached the front door.
    “Nothing much to talk about,” he told her, kissing her cheek. “I’ll let you know if something informative comes up.”
    “All right, son. Take care. Piper, do come see us again.”
    “Thank you. Dinner was delicious.”
    “You’re very welcome. Bye-bye now.”
    Mitch pulled open the wide Chinese-red front door, and Piper slipped out onto the low brick porch beyond.
    “This is a lovely house,” Piper said as she stepped down onto the