A Brush of Wings Read Online Free Page A

morning midway through a long meeting at the Youth Center, Sami immediately stepped into the hallway.
    “Hello?” Her heart skipped a beat. “Tyler?”
    “Baby.” He was breathless, as if hearing her voice had given him permission to inhale. “I’m so glad you picked up.”
    She closed her eyes. “I miss you.”
    “I knew it would be a long month, but it feels like a year.” He sounded so close, like he was holding her in his arms. “I need you, Sami.”
    She leaned against a cool wall and pictured him, Dodgers baseball cap, shorts, and a polo shirt. “I can’t wait to see you.”
    “Me, too.” Wherever he was, the spot was quieter than usual. More intimate. “Skype tomorrow?”
    “You have time?”
    “I do. Finally.” He sighed. “Where are you?”
    “At the Youth Center. Back-to-back meetings this morning.” She peered into the room. A volunteer was speaking to the group. “Things are great here, Tyler. Every program is full. And the teen mentoring class starts tonight.” She smiled. “Lexy will be here. I just wish we could have Mary Catherine.”
    “She leaves in two weeks, right?”
    “Yes.” Sami glanced back at the meeting. “My friends from college are helping tonight in her place. Five of them.”
    Tyler laughed. “It’ll take five of them to replace Mary Catherine.”
    “True.” Sami exhaled. She would miss Mary Catherine so much.
    The subject bounced back to Tyler and Marcus and spring training.
    Tyler sounded subdued as the conversation ended. “Sometimes . . . I think about the past. My years in the minors. I was such a fool, Sami.” He fell quiet for several seconds. “I’d give anything to have that time back. To never have left you.” His sincerity rang through the phone line. “I love you.”
    “I love you, too.” She was touched to the depths of her heart. “The past is behind us. All that matters is now.”
    When the call was over, for a long moment Sami could only stand there and relive the conversation. God was so good to give her this new, faithful Tyler Ames. The conversation was proof of something that filled Sami with joy.
    Nobody would ever love her the way Tyler Ames did.

    THE LAST TIME IN program had always been a short-term answer to a long-term problem. Scare teens with the reality of prison and follow up with a series of counseling meetings.
    But then what?
    Sami and Mary Catherine had worked together when the program ended last year to come up with a next step. A place where troubled girls could find hope and faith and a future.
    In the end the answer was obvious—a mentoring program for teenage girls. Another way the Chairos Youth Center could make a difference in Los Angeles.
    Tonight’s meeting was the first, but Sami believed it would be the start of a long-running forum where girls were given an alternative to gangs and crime. She had prayed that many girls from the Last Time In program would come tonight, and sure enough, several were among the twenty-four teens from the community who showed up for the meeting.
    But Lexy Jones was not one of them.
    When Sami asked about Lexy, the response from the teens was guarded. Maybe Lexy was hanging out with her new boyfriend, one girl said. The thought broke Sami’s heart. She made a mental note to contact Lexy tomorrow, maybe take her for lunch.
    For now, the conversation was already going deep, something else Sami had wanted. A slender, slightly graying counselor, Lauren Sandall, sat quietly in one corner of the room. The woman had trained Sami and her friends from UCLA earlier today. Mainly advising them to listen well and hold off on giving advice until the girls were ready for it.
    Before the teens arrived Lauren explained that she wouldn’t lead the discussion, just monitor it. In case one of the girls showed signs of abuse or criminal activity. Something that would need private follow-up.
    Sami’s friends were split up around the circle, so the teens could sit between them. For this first