Into the Fire

Breath of Life is available in print only for below cost. A true romance . . .

Breath of Life tells the story of embittered, wounded, and divorced Michael Jamison, who, after a prolonged period as the casual observer of a lovely woman, discovers his attraction to her supersedes remaining a stranger. With a smarting ego and nothing to lose, he figures out a non-threatening way to introduce himself and is overwhelmed with her pristine beauty and challenged to change everything about the way he's lived his life so far.

      (From Chapter One)

      It was so strange to see her anywhere besides leaning against the building that I actually turned in my chair as she walked by the front of the coffee shop with an attractive, also impeccably groomed, silver-haired woman some years older than herself. Her mother? They were discussing something, and she listened intently when the older woman spoke. I was so tempted to get up and follow them it surprised me. What would that accomplish? I felt foolish for thinking it and tried to refocus on my laptop screen when I could no longer see them. But I failed completely. She was . . . unique. Maybe not in how she looked—I couldn’t deny I thought she had true beauty. There was just that something indefinably—I didn’t know. Indefinable. I began to wonder how I might . . . what? Meet her? Learn about her? What? And how? 

     I started assessing myself. Not bad looking. Every bit of 6 feet. Women came on to me sometimes. And good looking ones, too. I knew the signals. I’d given them myself—mostly just for fun. Flirting gave your ego—and theirs—a boost without having to deliver, you know? Right now, I didn’t feel like I could deliver a newspaper, let alone . . . Divorce has a way of taking every facet of your self-confidence and devouring it through clamped jaws filled with razor teeth. 

     I wanted to forget about it—“the sighting”, I mean. But it followed me back to the office and made me realize she wasn’t just a lovely mirage, a sensual distraction standing outside Tully’s leaning against the wall of the adjacent building having a smoke once in awhile. She was a person. A beautiful, real person. I was sure of it. And that thought haunted me like an unscheduled visit to fantasyland.

Father, again and again: apart from you I can do nothing. Thank you for every word. Thank you is never enough. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.