A Love So Strong. Arlene James

he should stick out like a sore thumb, too.”

      Marcus bowed his head, fingering his chin, and said uncertainly, “Nicole, I could…that is, I’d be glad to—how should I put this?—front you some money on Beau’s behalf.”

      She was on her feet and shaking her head before he got the words out. “Uh-uh. No way. Treating him to dinner is one thing, but buying clothes is something else.”

      “Think of it as a loan,” he urged, but she was even more adamant in her refusal of that.

      “Absolutely not. I couldn’t pay it back, not for a long, long time, anyway.” She folded her arms. “We’ve held out this long. We can hold out until I’ve paid next semester’s tuition. After that we can start taking care of some of this other stuff.”

      He wanted to argue. It tore at Marcus’s heart to see Beau going around so bedraggled because Marcus so vividly remembered being that boy. But he remembered, too, the pride that had gotten him through the worst of it, and well-deserved pride was better than new clothes. He wasn’t thinking of the sort of pride that Scripture warned caused downfall but rather the pride that came from doing the difficult thing for the right reasons. Funny that Nicole should be the one to remind him of that.

      “You’re right,” he said, rising to his feet. “Forget I mentioned it.”

      “That’s okay.” She smiled. “It just shows you care.”

      “Yes,” he agreed unthinkingly. “Exactly. I do care.”

      “Thank you for that,” she said, and then to his shock, she flung her arms around him in a hug.

      For a moment Marcus froze, his arms trapped between them. Heat flashed through him, exploding into red blossoms on his cheeks. To his horror he realized that several of the kids were standing in the open doorway looking in at them, Beau in their midst, with none other than David Calloway in the background.