Kicking Eternity Read Online Free Page B

open in front of him. She stopped. “Morning, Drew.”
    “Hey, Rainey.”
    She frowned. “Raine.”
    He grinned at her. “Right.” He reached for his guitar and Bible as he stood. “Cute feet.”
    She looked at her stubby toes and scrunched her nose. “What?” She always wore closed-toe shoes to hide them.
    “I said, you have cute feet. Those little bitty toes—”
    “They’re ugly.” She dropped down to the sand and dug her socks and shoes out of her pack. She had forgotten to be self-conscious. Until now. She scrubbed her foot with a sock to rub the sand off. She wanted to get her feet out of sight. Now.
    “Nothing about you is ugly.” Drew tossed her the towel he’d been sitting on. “Come on, there’s a spigot up on the seawall.” He held out a hand to help her up.
    Raine looked at him, thinking she must have heard him wrong. She took his hand.
    Drew stood next to the stone bench while water gushed over her feet from the spigot. “ Your feet are pretty . What makes you think they’re ugly?”
    Couldn’t he leave it alone? “My brothers used to call me ‘stubby toes.’”
    Drew sat beside her. “Here, let me see.” He reached for her foot and grabbed the towel that lay between them.
    “What are you doing?”
    “What’s it look like I’m doing?” He gripped her heel in his palm and buffed her foot like he worked at Shiny Bright Car Wash.
    She tugged free. She was so having a talk with him about personal space—as soon as her feet were safely inside her shoes.
    “Let me have the other one.”
    Raine blew out her breath.
    “I can’t make a logical deduction by only inspecting one foot.” His tone was serious, but Raine would put money on it he was teasing her.
    She gave up the other foot.
    Light years past uncomfortable, she watched Drew dry each chunky toe as though he were conducting a science lab.
    Finally, he let go. “Just as I thought.”
    Raine squinted into the morning sun at him.
    “Your toes are perfectly proportioned to the rest of your foot. I can measure when we get back to camp and prove it to you mathematically, but I have a pretty good eye for stuff like this.” He was as serious as a doctor discussing a patient’s surgery.
    She couldn’t stand it any longer, she burst out laughing. “Honestly, Drew, give it a rest.”
    Drew threw his head back and laughed with her. They started back toward camp. “I stand by my opinion.” He stopped on the shell-riddled blacktop. “If anybody has hideous feet, it would be me. See how that second toe on each foot takes a hike away from my big toes?”
    Raine looked down at his flip-flop-clad feet.
    “My brother-in-law calls that the Martin toe. We all have it. Disgusting.”
    “Now you’re making fun of me.” She kicked a pinecone and watched it bounce end over end down the road. “I’ve got three older brothers to torture me without your help.”
     
    #
     
    Drew breathed out a prayer of thanks as he walked across the Canteen porch to the equipment cupboard. Rainey had been the comfort he needed this morning. Kurt was gone, but God was there for him—today, through sparring with Rainey. He smiled at her embarrassment over her short—and seriously cute—toes.
     
    #
     
    After breakfast, Raine walked the long way to the lodge—behind the Canteen, along the parking lot, past the four-square court, behind the laundry—praying for her first day of teaching. And putting off the possibility of running into Cal. She didn’t need Cal dumping her shopping cart of emotions upside down.
    At least she taught in the morning and Cal taught in the afternoon.
    She pushed open the screen door to the lodge. She hesitated in front of her classroom, but something propelled her toward Cal’s room at the back of the lodge. No matter that she’d spent an extra ten minutes avoiding Cal, who was likely still in bed. She had to see whether he decorated his classroom, didn’t she? She’d spent yesterday getting her room ready for students,