A Family Reunited Read Online Free PDF Page B

He remembered her girls’ names? She hadn’t seen Dr. Dane in months and couldn’t recall that she’d made more than a handful of comments in his class. Sure, all the students filled out an information form at the beginning of the semester, but for him to remember her daughters...
    Pamela didn’t know how to respond.
    He grinned and leaned closer. “Maybe another time.” Her heart stopped beating when he whispered, “At least now I know where to find you. Dr. Mays’s financial management class.”
    He turned and walked away. Dumbstruck, Pamela blinked and watched him go. What had just happened? Surely, her ultracute professor wasn’t interested in her. But what if he was?
    She and Jack had never divorced. She’d never sought him out for one. For years, part of her had hoped one day he would clean up his act and come back to her. Those hopes had died away soon enough. Returning to college had given her an independence she hadn’t realized she’d missed so desperately.
    She wasn’t quite nineteen when Emma was born, and Emmy joined them just one year and a day later. Pamela hadn’t known independence at all until she’d gone back to school. Now she relished it. Soon she wouldn’t need her parents’ help. She most assuredly didn’t need to pine after Jack. And Dr. Peter Dane was gorgeous with a capital G.
    Now that she knew where Jack was, maybe the time had come to ask for a divorce. It wasn’t as if they’d had any semblance of a marriage the past eight years. And abandonment was biblical grounds, wasn’t it? Not that she cared what God thought. At least, she didn’t want to care. She headed back toward the classroom. It was something to think about.

Chapter 5
    “S o, what did you think of the service?”
    Jack sat in the chair across from Owen and his wife, Karen. “The sermon was terrific. The pastor spoke the truth. No mincing of words. I like that.”
    Owen picked up the menu. “Yeah, and I can relate to the apostle Paul and the whole trying not to do what I want to do.”
    Jack took a drink of water. “Fighting our natural desires is not an easy thing.”
    “Yeah, like the temptation to order one of the diner’s famous cheeseburgers and fries instead of the chicken salad and diet soft drink,” Karen said as she placed her and Owen’s young son in the high chair.
    Owen chuckled. “I don’t know if I’d put the temptation of food in the same category as alcohol.”
    “Why not?” Karen lifted a cracker out of the diaper bag and handed it to Wyatt. The toddler cackled and clapped his hands before taking the treat. “We all have battles, and mine plagues me, as well.”
    “True,” said Jack. “But overeating won’t land you in a homeless shelter.”
    “But it can land you in the hospital.” Karen pulled out her wallet and handed Jack a photo. “That was me in high school.”
    Jack raised his eyebrows at the picture of a teenager double Karen’s size.
    “I was fifteen years old and a borderline diabetic.”
    Jack handed the picture back to her. “What did you do?”
    She pointed to both of them. “Just like you two, I surrendered to the Lord. Then I got some help from a dietician, joined a gym with an accountability partner and worked with a vengeance to get healthy.”
    A woman with long brown hair pulled back in a braid walked up to the table to take their orders. Jack had planned to get the cheeseburger and fries, then thought of the apostle Paul’s admonition to never be a stumbling block to a brother or sister. He handed the menu to the waitress. “I’ll take the chicken salad and a regular soft drink.”
    When the woman walked away, Karen shook her head. “Jack, you could have ordered the burger you said you wanted when we pulled up.”
    “Would you have ordered a beer in front of Owen and me?”
    Owen chortled and pointed to his wife. “She’s never even touched the stuff.”
    She looked from Owen back to Jack. “No. I wouldn’t.”
    “Which is why I didn’t get