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“Don’t feel stupid. You saw the woman he was with tonight. She was taken in by him too. You’re no more stupid than she is.”
She hadn’t thought about that, but it was true. She had admired that woman, thought she looked suave and sophisticated, but that woman was just as stupid as what Chi was.
Or just as susceptible to someone’s lies.
“I don’t think I’ll ever trust a man again,” she muttered.
“I guess I can’t really blame you for that, but I don’t think that’s fair.” He didn’t give her a chance to reply but said, “I’ll pray.”
She bowed her head and listened to him say grace over their meal. James never had. She realized that now. Although she hadn’t noticed it at the time. She’d been so starstruck and eager to catch his eye that his character had never crossed her mind.
It was easy to see now that she had been looking at the wrong things.
“Amen,” she said as Griff finished his prayer.
“This smells really good. It’s something I’ve been thinking about adding to the menu at the diner. Folks seemed to like it today.”
“I agree. It’s one of those things that I think will be a huge crowd-pleaser and perfect for winter.”
He grinned. Like he liked her enthusiasm.
“Except you,” she murmured, picking up the thread of the conversation that she had been talking about before they prayed.
“Except me?” His brows furrowed as he dished out a spoonful of chowder into her bowl.
“I will never trust men again, except for you. You... You have been nothing but kind to me, and I’m sorry that I haven’t appreciated it.”
“We’re all like that. We get stuck on ourselves, we forget to look at the people around us. I’ve been like that too.”
“But not with me.”
He didn’t look at her, but he murmured, “No. Not with you.”
That made her wonder what exactly made him notice her and be so kind to her. Did he feel bad for her? After all, starting a diner in the dinky little town of Strawberry Sands wasn’t exactly a get-rich-quick scheme. It was more likely the path to bankruptcy.
“Why did you stop at the diner that day?”
“It was the Lord,” he answered without hesitation.
“God told you to stop?” she asked, a spoonful on her chowder in midair as she waited for his answer.
“Not in an audible voice. But have you ever had those things that happen and you just realize that the timing was perfect and it can only be God? That’s what that was.”
“Getting hired as a line cook at a dinky diner in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere was God?” She always thought God worked in bigger ways than that. Richer ways. More lucrative ways.
“Yeah. That is exactly what I mean.”
