Broken Things (Faded Photograph Series) Read Online Free PDF Page A

wouldn’t know the Lord today, if Jack hadn’t shared his beliefs with me.”
    Logan’s brown eyes narrowed suspiciously, so Allie recounted the story...

 
     
     
    Chapter Three
     
     
    Jack remembered. Clearly.Too clearly.
    Lying on his back in bed in the darkness of his bedroom, he rested his forearm across his eyes. After work tonight he’d consumed several beers, hoping to dull his senses and perhaps he’d succeeded in that respect. Except he hadn’t been able to stem the memories. They came forth in droves.
    Allie. He never thought he’d see her again. Against his will, Jack recalled the last time their paths had crossed―it had been the day she told him goodbye and walked out of his life. September 5, 1969.
    “Don’t go, Allie.” He’d just come off a double shift only to arrive home and find her in the front yard, ready to spring for the airport.
    She flicked strands of her long blond hair over one, slender shoulder. “I have to go, don’t you see?”
    “No, I don’t see.” He placed his hands on her upper arms and pulled her close. “Allie, I love you. Marry me. I’ll make you happy. I promise. We’ll have a great life together.”
    She stepped backwards, out of his grasp. “I can’t.”
    “Why?” His heart knotted painfully.
    “Because...” Taking a deep breath, Allie looked upward momentarily before bringing her gaze back to his. “I don’t have a high opinion of marriage, Jack. Look at my parents and step-parents...what did marriage do for them? It didn’t last, and now my mom’s dead―”
    “Marriage didn’t kill her,” Jack said, trying to understand the comparison. The woman had died of a ruptured brain aneurysm. Allie had told him her mother complained of a terrible headache that morning. When she returned home from school, Allie learned her mother was gone.
    “Maybe marriage did kill her,” she’d replied on a sour note. “All the arguing she and my stepfather did would kill anybody.”
    Jack shook his head, trying to clear the confusion. “Hold it. Didn’t you once say your mother and her husband loved each other?”
    “Sure, but who needs their kind of love? Love that hurts...that maims.”
    Jack softened. “It’s different with believers, Allie.”
    “Maybe, but I’m not ready to commit my whole life to somebody. I’ve got to find out who I am first. I’ve got to get my head together. Taking this job with my dad in California―”
    “Don’t kid yourself. You can get your head together and still be my wife. Everything you need is in God’s Word, not California.”
    With a wag of her head, Allie let him know she wouldn’t be persuaded.
    Jack clenched his jaw against the mounting disappointment. “I thought you loved me.” The comment was but a whisper on the early fall breeze.
    “Oh, Jack...” Allie closed her eyes in apparent remorse.
    “Were you lying to me all this time?”
    “No.” Her sapphire eyes now snapped to attention. “Not lying. I just...”
    “Just what?”
    “Please understand.”
    “I can’t!”
    “Well, I can’t either. And I can’t explain it. All I know is I’ve got to go. I’ve got to get out of here.”
    “Then you don’t love me.”
    She swallowed hard. “I’ll write to you.”
    “Don’t bother!”
    “You don’t mean that, Jack. I know you too well.” Her gaze hardened to blue ice. “But suit yourself.”
    With that she’d turned and walked away, down the sidewalk, across the lawn, and into the waiting taxi. His pride wouldn’t allow him to do anything but watch the vehicle pull away.
    Time after time, days and months later, he thought about contacting Allie in California. However, it wasn’t him who had the problem with marriage. It was her . He prayed fervently, begging the Lord to work in her heart, change her mind, and Jack looked forward to the day when she would return, tell him she was sorry, that she wanted him back. But the day never came. The truth was she didn’t love him. And the