For Better or Worse (Book 2 in the Forgiving Hearts Trilogy) Read Online Free

handing his credit card to the waitress, Jackson smiled in Hannah’s direction. “I appreciate you coming with me tonight. This has been a nice break from unpacking boxes. Now I have to find my dress clothes so I can go to church in the morning.”
    “It’s great that you still go to church.”
    “There’s nothing stopping you from going. On your next Sunday off, come with me. We’ll be newbies together, and it won’t seem so strange.”
    She avoided answering him by reaching for her purse. When he moved to stand behind her chair, she said, “You’re the total package, aren’t you?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “You open doors and hold chairs. I’m not used to that.”
    Jackson shrugged. “It’s the way I was raised.”
    “I guess that’s what I was trying to say. You do it without thinking about it. Thank you for dinner.”
    “I should be thanking you. You made my first and second day in a new place special.”
    She smiled uncertainly as if she didn’t believe him. “My apartment is only a mile further down this road. Do you mind dropping me off?”
    “Not at all.”
    * * * *
    To say that Jackson was surprised by what Hannah told him was an understatement. In truth, he was still trying to get his head around it as he walked her to the door. What had happened to the girl he fell in love with? Hannah had been the posture child for ‘good Christian girl’, and he’d been around her enough to know she lived what she believed. She was the last person he would have expected to lose her way.
    It angered him to think that after all she’d been through Mitchell let her down in the end. Jackson wanted her to be happy, not sad and disillusioned the way she was now. When she turned to him in the darkness, his lungs did their usual ‘refusing to suck in air’ thing. Was he never going to outgrow such juvenile reactions? He was a grown man!
    “I guess I’ll see you around – at the store, I mean.”
    He jiggled the keys in his hand. “Is that the only way I can see you? I was hoping we could get together again.”
    She looked at him in disbelief. “You still want to after all that stuff I told you?”
    “What does that have to do with anything? I haven’t lived a perfect life, either.”
    “No, but at least you can look at yourself in the mirror every morning. I won’t know my schedule for next week until tomorrow. Give me your number, and I’ll call you when I have a free evening.” She handed him her phone.
    “A pink case. Why am I not surprised?”
    She chuckled as she took the phone from him. “Goodnight, Jackson.”
    As he drove home, Jackson compared his eager anticipation for the evening with reality. The dream of love he carried within his heart had received yet another blow. Mitchell might not be here physically, but it was clear he was still very much in Hannah’s life. Everything she’d done had been for the sake of a guy who wouldn’t marry her.
    His hands clenched on the steering wheel. If he could get close enough, he’d teach that ungrateful, selfish jerk a lesson he’d never forget. A long, ragged sigh escaped him. “Yeah, that’s what you should do, Jackson,” he said out loud. “That’s exactly how men of faith handle these kinds of situations.”
    He couldn’t help thinking how complicated and intricate love was. It turned a rational human being into a bundle of uncontrollable urges that were, for the most part, the exact opposite of what he or she really needed. If that wasn’t enough, it meddled with one’s common sense before aiming straight for the heart. Once it had taken up residence there, it was almost impossible to evict.
    * * * *
    Hannah spent the rest of the evening wishing she’d followed her first inclination and stayed away from Jackson. It wasn’t that she hadn’t enjoyed their time together. Far from it. She liked it too much for her own good. Being with someone who actually listened was a heady experience. That was why she’d told Jackson all those