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She chewed on that as they walked into the boutique. They were organizing a bunch of books when she had an idea. “Do you want to drop everything here and go walk on the beach?”
Raine lifted his brows. “I would love that.”
They spent the next hour strolling along the beach, picking up seashells as they talked about her history of dating Matt while growing up. She told Raine about the beach crew, who he’d sort of met around town, and explained that Matt was one of the best guys she knew; he was just trying to do what was right for his little family.
“Long story short,” she said, “I don’t know what to do about any of it.”
Raine nodded. “I’ve never been in love, but I have heard that matters of the heart are … hard.”
“You’ve never been in love?”
“Nope. I mean, I’ve dated, but my previous life wasn’t conducive to staying anywhere very long.”
Lucy didn’t know how to feel about this. “Hmm.”
“And I’m scaring you.”
“No, it’s just … different.”
“Different from Matt.”
She didn’t know how to respond to that.
“Lucy, it’s fine. I told you, we’re friends. If you want to be.”
She tipped her head back and grinned at him. “I do want to be your friend.”
“Matt. Matt Townsend.” Raine snapped his fingers like he was putting something together. “The construction guy who just moved.”
“Right.”
“Oh my gosh, when I first moved here and started the project of rehabbing my house, everyone told me there was this amazing construction guy who would be perfect on the project, but he was moving.”
Sadness washed over Lucy. “Well, that was him.”
“Sheesh, it is a small world around here.”
“South Port is definitely that.”
Raine hesitated. “Can I ask you for a favor? Would you come with me to see Pastor Henry and read the Bible the night after tomorrow?”
She was hesitant. “Um. Sure.”
He let out a breath. “I’m thinking of getting baptized, but I just want to make sure it’s right for me.”
This was a shock to her. “Oh.”
“Now you really think I’m weird.”
“No, I don’t.”
He nudged her. “Enough about me and my faith crisis or finding or whatever. There was something you didn’t say about Matt today when Dawn was quizzing you. What is it?”
“Is this your con man skill?”
“Intuition. Let’s call it intuition.”
She laughed. To be honest, she did want to talk about it.
