Love Lifted Me Read Online Free PDF

hold on the affair and lies. She wanted to punish him. Hadn’t she earned that guilty pleasure?
    But how could she when he readily spoke of his failures and owned his mistakes? Maybe he could handle the news about Rice.
    She’d imagined telling him several times tonight but couldn’t bring herself to do it. She needed proof. Max would ask a hundred questions once she unfurled the news and her answer had to be more than, “Taylor said.”
    If not for Max, then for herself.
    Max’s footsteps tapped on the marble foyer floor in time with hers. In the kitchen, Jade jerked opened the fridge door and reached for a soda can.
    â€œDo you want one?” She peered back at Max standing on the other side of the island.
    â€œYeah, sure.” He took the can from her with the same piercing look he’d worn in Asa’s room.
    Jade leaned against the sink as she popped open her drink. If she wanted more space between them, she’d have to go out to the porch. And he’d just follow her.
    â€œI already loved you, Jade, but coming home and seeing how you love Asa as your own . . . it makes me want you even more.”
    Max’s tone and inflection swirled a warm bevy of her emotions against her cold heart.
    Jade took a long sip of her soda.
    â€œHe’ll be two soon,” she said, moderating her tone to between casual and cool. “I researched potty training for boys who sleep deep. Did you know we can buy an alarm to wake him up at the first drop of urine?”
    Max shot her a sleepy grin. “What deep psychological ramifications will that have on the poor kid?”
    â€œI know, right?” Jade swallowed, fighting the power of his pull. How was a girl to resist when a man kept looking at her like he could get lost in her charms? Jade had standards to keep. A litmus test for establishing trust. “Hey, baby, I want you,” just wasn’t going to cut it.
    But deep down she yearned to wrap in his arms and burrow into his chest. Live in the moment.
    â€œTell me about you, Jade. How are you doing, really? Any more episodes of panic, the depersonalizing?”
    Right. Those . Last time Max saw her, she was running freaked-out down the road after Mama’s funeral. She had been diagnosed with severe anxiety and depersonalization disorder, but she’d been on her own healing journey. Not as intense as Max’s, but focused on God’s truth.
    â€œI saw the counselor in Des Moines all spring. Met with Carla Colter’s pastor twice a week. All we did was pray, but those times were the ones where I left changed.” She paused. She’d never assessed her time in Iowa verbally before—not in those terms. A breeze of relief cooled her heart. Prayer worked. “No attacks since Mama’s funeral.”
    He smiled. “I prayed for you, a lot. Axel’s big on prayer. ‘What is the counsel of men compared to the counsel of God?’ ”
    â€œI prayed for you too.”
    â€œSo maybe we start there, Jade. The first stepping-stone toward healing us is prayer.”
    She nodded. “And we’ll see where it leads.” It seemed like a safe place. Prayer with Max, and God sitting in between. “Oh, I’m selling the Blue Two.”
    â€œYeah? You never were sure about that place anyway.”
    â€œFor a while, it was a necessary burden. But not anymore.” So, I met this woman, Taylor Branch . . .
    She breathed in, ready to speak.
    â€œI’m sorry about the kiss in the shop.”
    Jade stared at him. See, there was never the right segue. “It was a good kiss.”
    A toe-curling, heart-caressing kiss.
    â€œIt was a great kiss,” Max said.
    His sleepy-sexy was about to do her in. It would be so easy to surrender. Jade felt suddenly weary of flashing her palm and telling life to stand back, she didn’t want to get hurt. But if she waved Max back into her bed, would she regret her late-night impulse in the