Step with Me: Love Amiss... A Christian Romance (Seaside Chapel Book 2)
Page 23
Brinley stopped walking the moment she heard the familiar first four bass clef staccato notes on the piano. She had played that many times on the piano herself. She turned toward the orchestral platform up ahead—
And saw him.
He was all she saw.
Ivan McMillan.
He looks different from last summer.
Perhaps it was the way his left hand brushed against the neck and fingerboard of the violin. Or the way his right hand moved the bow over the strings. Perhaps it was that fresh haircut, perfectly trimmed sideburns, clean-shaven face, Mona Lisa smile. Or the way he stared right at her as Johann Sebastian Bach’s Air on the G String rose from his violin and filled the entire ballroom.
Brinley had heard him play the violin before.
Why does he look different tonight?
The rest of the Sea Islands Symphony Orchestra faded away into the trompe l’oeil wall behind the platform and the antique copper ceiling above them as the clarity of that violin reached Brinley’s ears. She couldn’t help it if her heart wafted toward the threaded consonance of violin and piano, two of her favorite instruments. She’d been to many orchestral performances elsewhere. Yet something about this espressivo delivery tugged at her.
Air had come alive and swirled around her.
An anodyne for her painful weeks, months, years…
She closed her eyes to savor the notes from the second movement of Suite No. 3 in D Major. For a moment, Brinley felt that the evening was meant for her.
How would Air sound if it were played on one of her Stradivarius violins that Grandpa Brooks had given to her from his personal collection?
Perhaps it was time to take those old Strads out of the vault and let them make music again. They had been hidden away too long. But she hadn’t done anything with them because they were common Stradivarius specimens. The pièce de résistance was the stolen 1698 Damaris Brooks Stradivarius that still hadn’t been recovered after seventy years.
I’d like to hear him play Air on that.
When she opened her eyes, Ivan was gazing at her, a glint of surprise in his own eyes. Something passed between them, something she could not explain. They’d known each other for a year or thereabouts. Always in passing. And often through oblique references in those emails that Conductor Petrocelli had sent her in Zurich to keep her updated about life in SISO, emails the conductor had sent to Grandpa Brooks when he had been alive.
But she knew one thing. This Air had become their song.
Our song.
How could this be? There had been nothing going on between her and Ivan.
Why does he look different tonight?
Before Brinley could dissect the vagaries of that moment in time, Bach wrapped up. Brinley didn’t want it to end, but end it did.
Was it the violinist or was it the violin?
Brinley’s eyes were still on the platform as stirrings roiled in her heart. She watched Ivan bow and return to the first violin section. He sat down in the concertmaster’s chair and nodded to her.
That was all it took.
Her breath caught.
Share with Me is book 1 in Jan Thompson’s Seaside Chapel series blending inspirational women’s fiction with contemporary Christian romance to celebrate the grace of God and hope in Jesus Christ.
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Seaside Chapel
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Collections & Series by Jan Thompson
Savannah Sweethearts
JanThompson.com/savannah
Vacation Sweethearts
JanThompson.com/vacation
Seaside Chapel
JanThompson.com/seaside
Seaside Cottages
JanThompson.com/cottages
Coming Soon!
Protector Sweethearts
JanThompson.com/protector
Coming Soon!
International Thrillers with Romance
JanThompson.com/thrillers
Coming Soon!
Complete Book List: JanThompson.com
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Books by Jan Thompson
SAVANNAH SWEETHEARTS
Beach Town Sweethearts:
Book 1: Know You More
Book 2: Tell You Soon
Billionaire Sweethearts:
Book 3: Draw You Near
Book 4: Cherish You So
Summer Sweethearts:
Book 5: Walk You There
Book 6: Love You Always
Hometown Sweethearts:
Book 7: Kiss You Now
Book 8: Find You Again
Holiday Sweethearts:
Book 9: Wish You Joy
Book 10: Call You Home
From USA Today bestselling author Jan Thompson comes the Savannah Sweethearts collection of 10 clean and wholesome, sweet and inspirational, contemporary Christian romances set on the beaches of Tybee Island and in the city of Savannah, Georgia, two of the most romantic coastal towns in the world.
Meet a group of multiracial and multiethnic churchgoing Christians who love the Lord, work hard in their careers, and seek God’s will for their love lives. Against a backdrop of ocean, sand, and sun, these inspirational romances showcase aspects of the human need for God and for one another.
Have some tea, settle on a comfortable reading chair, and enjoy these sweet celebrations of faith, hope, and love in Jesus Christ.
Savannah Sweethearts:
JanThompson.com/savannah
VACATION SWEETHEARTS
Book 1: Smile for Me
Book 2: Reach for Me
Book 3: Wait for Me
Book 4: Look for Me
Book 5: Cheer for Me
Travel with our friends from Savannah, Georgia, to the coast and to the mountains. Cheer them on as they celebrate the immeasurable grace and undeserved mercy of God through Jesus Christ.
The Vacation Sweethearts novels are a spin-off of Jan’s Savannah Sweethearts series, and fans will recognize familiar faces from Riverside Chapel, a church in the coastal city of Savannah, Georgia. In fact, we might even visit the beach town of Tybee Island from time to time to visit old friends and beloved families...
The collection begins with Smile for Me, the story of Byron Moss and Tina MacFarland, spending their summer on the Caribbean islands of the Bahamas where the water is blue and hearts are warm…
Vacation Sweethearts:
JanThompson.com/vacation
SEASIDE CHAPEL
Book 1: Share with Me
Book 2: Step with Me
Book 3: Sing with Me
The novels of Seaside Chapel blend flavors of inspirational women’s fiction with contemporary Christian romance to celebrate the grace of God and hope in Jesus Christ.
Visit Jan’s favorite beach town of St. Simon’s Island, Georgia, where our friends live and attend Seaside Chapel, a little church by the sea known for its beach weddings and fair shares of love and life.
As these Christian men go through the Seaside Chapel Men’s Bible Study to grow in their knowledge and understanding of God, they are tested in their spiritual maturity, their relationships with others, and their love lives. Share their heartaches and healing, and cheer them on as they celebrate faith, family, friends, and yes, happily-ever-afters.
The Seaside Chapel novels are all about life by the Atlantic Ocean, which in essence, is not much different from life in landlocked cities. Inherently, the human nature is such that we have in our hearts a need for the Lord, for His salvation, sustenance, a
nd sanctification.
Seaside Chapel:
JanThompson.com/seaside
SEASIDE COTTAGES
The Seaside Cottages novels are a spin-off of the Seaside Chapel series. Find out what the rest of our Seaside Chapel friends are up to as they live their lives on St. Simon’s Island on the Atlantic Coast of Georgia.
Seaside Cottages:
JanThompson.com/cottages
PROTECTOR SWEETHEARTS
A Christian romantic suspense series, the Protector Sweethearts collection a sister series to the Savannah Sweethearts, Vacation Sweethearts, and Seaside Chapel series.
Protector Sweethearts:
JanThompson.com/protector
INSPIRATIONAL INTERNATIONAL THRILLERS
If you like Christian suspense with romance or inspirational thrillers with a love story in them, check out this new inspirational international thrillers coming soon from USA Today bestselling author Jan Thompson. Stay tuned!
Thrillers:
JanThompson.com/thrillers
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Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
―I JOHN 4:10
About Jan Thompson
USA Today bestselling author Jan Thompson writes clean and wholesome multiethnic contemporary Christian romance, Christian romantic suspense, and international thrillers with inspirational romance. Her books are for readers who enjoy stories of faith, hope, love, and happy endings. Always.
Jan graduated from the University of Georgia with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science, and worked as a database programmer and information technology consultant for over a decade before transitioning from writing software programs to her lifelong dream job of writing fiction books that she wants to read.
When she is not busy writing and publishing, Jan is a wife, mother, educator, family scribe, avid reader, and chief of staff to the family cat.
Jan loves to hear from her readers! Connect with her on social media, and join her mailing list to receive book publication news, sales and specials, cover reveals, and exclusive details and content.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
―JOHN 3:16
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