And Then I Found You Read Online Free PDF

things. She soon discovered that this work filled her up, changed
     her as she grew into either new Katie or the real Katie; she wasn’t sure which and
     frankly didn’t care either. Katie had always needed a goal, an end point, something
     to work toward with greedy need. But this job—and it was so much more than a job—took
     her to a place both inside and outside herself she never knew existed. Helping wounded
     young girls to heal instilled in her a generous feeling, one that extended past her
     own demands and desires. Meg had been right—working with these girls was a miracle.
     Although she missed Jack, most thoughts of self were buried under the work she was
     doing.
    Needing to see Jack and also explain why she was staying longer at her job, Katie
     gathered her savings and bought a plane ticket to Birmingham. When she arrived at
     the off-campus apartment that Jack shared with two other law school students, a party
     was in full swing. A real college party with a sweaty keg floating in a trash can
     and girls sitting on countertops and floors.
    The room smelled like sweat and old beer. Katie wound her way through the apartment
     until she found Jack in his bedroom, standing in front of his closet, talking to his
     roommate about who would pay for the keg this time around.
    “Baby, you’re here!” he said, when he saw her standing in his doorway. He moved towards
     her and in two steps lifted her off the floor.
    “I’m interrupting a party, I think.”
    “You don’t interrupt anything of mine,” Jack kissed her, an unassailable kiss that
     made her weak and indecisive about anything and everything.
    “You two are ridiculous,” the roommate said and laughed, slamming the door behind
     him as he left them alone.
    “So,” Jack said, “Tell me that you’re here to say you are never returning to that
     faraway place where I can’t even get you on the phone. Please say that.”
    She couldn’t.
    “I committed to this year.” Katie cringed as she said the words. “You’re so busy with
     school, and I love what I’m doing. I thought one more year and then you’d be almost
     done and we would … settle in a little bit.”
    He sat on the edge of his single bed, unmade and rumpled. “A year is a long time.
     A really long time. You’ll miss so much.”
    “But then I’ll have everything else forever.” She had practiced this steady proclamation
     on the plane.
    Jack didn’t answer.
    “I have to do this. For the first time in my life, I’m making a difference in someone
     beside myself. There’s this girl, Sara—her dad died last year. She was the angriest
     person you’d ever met, and she graduated last week with a new heart. You can’t imagine
     the beauty out there. The mountains turning to desert to mountain again. The—”
    Jack held up his hand. “I know. I know. I read it all in your letters. The feathers
     you collect. The things you’ve learned to make. You sound happier than you’ve ever
     been.”
    “Not ever been, but happy, yes. Making a difference, yes. If I stayed here, I’d be
     passing the time waiting for you to graduate. So this seems a much better way to wait.
     Right?”
    “You see this as a way to wait? Wait for what?”
    “You, of course.”
    “I would never leave you for a year,” he said.
    “I’m not leaving you. I’m taking a job. There’s a huge difference.”
    “It doesn’t feel like there’s any difference. What about us?”
    “Us?” She kissed him. “There is always us. You’re going to be buried underneath a
     stack of books taller than me. If I don’t do this, if I don’t try this now, I know
     I will regret it for the rest of my life.”
    “We made it through four years at separate colleges, now it’s time to be together.”
    “I’m begging you to understand.” She took both his hands and squeezed them. She tried
     to explain that if she didn’t do this one thing she would never again do what she
     wanted, that if she could let