And the Greatest of These Is Love: A Contemporary Christian Romance Novel Read Online Free PDF Page B

of her, but the sight of him standing there at her door made her stop short with concern.
    “We had a visitor today,” Jerry said slowly. He stepped in as if the next step might in fact plunge him to his death.
    “A visitor?” she asked, already wary because of how wary he looked.
    “Yeah, a guy from The Herald. Andrew something-or-other. He’s going to be doing a story about us in tomorrow’s paper.”
    She went back to cleaning. “Oh, yeah? Why?”
    “I figured it couldn’t hurt.” Jerry leaned on the bookcase and folded his arms, looking more tired than she’d ever seen him. “Truth is, I don’t know what else to do, Gabi. 18 years this place has been my life. 18 years...”
    “And look at all the kids you’ve helped,” Gabi said in defense of him and all he had done.
    “But there’s so much more to do.” He shook his head, and his smile was tight and sad.
    “Look.” She quit cleaning and stabbed the multi-colored cloth in the air like a sword. “I’m not going to say I don’t know how you feel, because I do, but I will say this. I’m not going down without a fight, and neither should you. Now, I don’t know how, but we’re going to find a way to do this — we’re going to keep this place going.” Passion, anger, and fear sounded in her voice overlapping each other. “I’m not giving up on these kids. Not now. Not ever.”
    Going over to the other wall, she stuffed the remaining paints in the drawer as he watched her, saying nothing. She straightened and went to her desk
    “Now, I’m going home to work on these,” she said, holding up the now dwindling stack of papers. “And I want you to go home and get some sleep. You dying is not going to help this place one bit. Do you hear me?”
    He nodded with resignation lacing the movement. “Yes.”
    “Good, now let’s get out of here before it’s time for us to be back.” Gabi took hold of his elbow and steered him out of her classroom.
    “Gabi, I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
    “Believe me, Jerr, you’re never going to have to find out,” she said as she turned off the lights and locked the door.
     
    “Dang it,” Andrew said under his breath as he tried to edit his story down to ten inches of copy. Writing had never been a problem — editing, however, was a different story.
    “Problem, Son?” Bill asked, appearing above him.
    “It’s this story.” Andrew squinted at the screen, looking for something to excise.
    “The Center story?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Not enough info?”
    “Just the opposite.” Andrew sighed, deleted a word and then shook his head and replaced it. It was hopeless. There was no way to fit everything he wanted to say about the place in ten inches.
    “Ahh, a much more difficult problem,” Bill said with a knowing nod.
    “Tell me about it.” Then like a shot a thought struck him just as Bill turned to leave. “Hey, Bill, why don’t we run some kind of series on the place?”
    “A series?” Bill turned back in surprise. “But I thought you didn’t even want to write this one.”
    “I could do it, Bill. We could kick it off in Sunday’s edition. I could get on it this week — interview some of the kids, the teachers,” he said, thinking of one in particular he’d like to interview but pushing that down under professional.
    “I don’t know, Drew. What about Woodruff?”
    Woodruff. The story of a lifetime. It would hit the streets in just under six hours. Andrew thought about it for a moment.
    “Rob might be able to pick up some of it for me,” he said, indicating the empty desk across from him.
    That surprised Bill even more. “Rob?”
    “Yeah, but only if I need it — which I won’t,” Andrew said, the determination to make both stories work flooding through his veins. “Come on, Bill. This is important.”
    Bill’s eyebrows arched as he tilted his head. “Well, I guess if it’s that important to you…”
     

Chapter 4
     
    Jerry stopped by the newsstand on his way in.