Echoes Read Online Free PDF Page B

asked if perhaps they should see a pastor or a counselor. He bristled and said he couldn’t marry her.
    She said nothing as she gave him back the ring. He slipped it into the starched pocket of his white shirt and ordered cappuccinos for them. Lauren sipped hers silently as Jeff cleared his throat and told her about the new leather seat covers in his car, as if the two of them were now officially acquaintances, amiable ex’s.
    As a final gesture of her love for Jeff, Lauren drew on every ounce of emotional strength left in her heart and honored him by not crying in public.
    She went to work the next morning and pulled Mindy aside to tell her. Mindy cried, but Lauren didn’t. She asked Mindy not to make a public scene but to let Lauren tell certain people when she was ready.
    By Friday, everyone knew, and they all presented her with a gift before the bank opened. It was wrapped in a small, flat box with a white ribbon. Inside was a note that said, “Here he is: the perfect man. He’s sweet, he’s silent, and if he gives you any trouble, you can bite off his head.” Under the tissue was a big gingerbread man. They all had a good laugh. Lauren was glad to be laughing and not crying.
    During the next week, Mindy had bits of advice, some spiritual, some practical, but all compassionate. Lauren found herself praying constantly, not so much asking God why, as asking what she was supposed to do now.
    She called Jeff once at work, which he never liked her to do. She asked if she could stop by his place that evening. He said he had plans, apologized, and then said he would try to see her before he left on Saturday.
    Now, here it was, Saturday morning, and Jeff hadn’t called or stopped by. She had known he wouldn’t. Jeff liked clean breaks. He had told her once how he skipped a year-end party at college because he didn’t want to have to say good-bye to a bunch of people who would make an emotional scene.
    What Lauren had the most difficulty with was trusting herself and her instincts. How could she be so wrong about a man’s being the right choice for her?
    She and Jeff had met in Shelbyville, a small Tennessee town where her parents had moved when Lauren went away to college. Her stepdad had this dream of raising walking horses, and Shelbyville was the place to do it. Lauren had come to live with them after she finished college and then had gone from job to job in California, never finding the right position.
    Jeff was in Shelbyville, visiting an uncle for the weekend, and met Lauren at a corner gas station. She was filling her car’s tank when he stopped and asked directions. She told him to follow her, and she would direct him to the right road. In the process, she got a flat tire, and Jeff helped her to change it. Then he asked for her phone number. They went to the movies the next night, but when she sat down in the darkened theater, the seat gave way on the left side, jarring Lauren and causing their tub of popcorn to fly into the lap of the stranger next to her. That was the first time Jeff had asked, “Do these sorts of mishaps always happen to you?”
    Early in their relationship Jeff would laugh with her. Then he took on the role of her protector. He helped her acquire her present job so she could move to Nashville and be close to him. Their dating relationship moved forward. Everyone, including Lauren’s parents, were delighted to see her at a steady job. The only problem was Lauren didn’t like numbers or money or anything about banking.
    When she moved to Nashville, her plan had been to use her English degree as the foundation for a teaching credential. It meant she had to take a few more upper division courses, and those would have to be night classes. But that was okay. She at least had a goal, finally, and planned to work on obtaining her teaching credential as soon as they were married.
    Now all those plans had vanished into emptiness. She had no plans.
    Lauren reached over the top of the couch to the