Loving Read Online Free PDF

guys or girls. Her only real and true friend was Bailey Flanigan. The two of them talked a few times a week, and they planned to see each other more often now that Bailey lived in Los Angeles. But with LA traffic there was still more than an hour’s drive between them.
    Andi scrolled down the list and stopped cold the way she always did when his face appeared. And like every time, Andi could feel her eyes meet his through the window of the computer screen. She could remember his voice and feel his arms around her the few times they shared a hug. She could see into his soul the way she always could.
    The soul of Cody Coleman.
    For the longest time Andi hated herself for having any sort of feelings for Cody because he belonged to Bailey. Always and only Bailey. But all that had changed in the last year or so, as Bailey clearly had moved on. Still, her admiration of Cody Coleman wasn’t something she shared with anyone — not even Bailey. It was a dream, a figment of her imagination. Something she refused to even entertain except for moments like this. When his face was there before her. Cody in his Lyle High coaching shirt and his hat — the one with the
‘W’
on it. Bailey had told her Cody wore it in honor of his friend Art. The hat was from the University of Washington, a school that had recruited Art for its football program. Art chose the Army instead, and when he lost his life on the battlefield, Cody took possession of the hat.
    Because that’s the sort of guy Cody had always been. Loyal and caring to the depths of his being.
    A sigh eased itself up from the unsure places of Andi’s heart. Cody had suffered a lot lately. His Facebook posts had been erratic, but Bailey had mentioned that Cody’s girlfriend had died of cancer. Maybe that’s why Andi found herself thinking about him these days. Because she hated the thought of Cody hurting.
    Andi read his status a couple times, mainly because soaking in the words he’d written allowed her for those few seconds to hear his voice again. The post read, “Headed to Liberty University with DeMetri, getting him ready for college. Crazy how fast life goes.”
    Yes
. Andi agreed with that. Even when she thought she’d live forever in the dark shadows she’d created over her life, time moved on. No season — good or bad — lasted forever. All of which made her wish for the sort of loving Bailey had found with Brandon. For a guy who might think the world of her and understand about her past and feel dizzy at the thought of walking alongside through her tomorrows.
    Andi drew a slow breath and closed out of Facebook. For a long time she closed her eyes and remembered back. When she first returned to her family and her faith — after she avoided aborting her unborn baby — she had been reading the Bible when a single story changed everything about the way she thought, everything about the way she would love God from that point forward.
    It was the story of the rich young ruler.
    In the story, a guy who had lived a fairly good life came to Jesus and asked what more he needed to do to have eternal life. Jesus, knowing the guy, looked straight into his soul and told him to sell everything he owned and give the proceeds to the poor. The man went away sad because he had great wealth. Andi had known the story since she was a little girl, but she always had breezed past it.
    Her parents were missionaries, after all. They understood the principle of giving. But that day, with her life in disarray, Andi read the story in a new light. The story didn’t mean all people should sell their belongings. It meant Jesus had a way of looking deep into the soul and asking people to give up the one thing they wanted more than Him. For Andi, once she returned to the faithshe’d been raised with, she absolutely knew the desire God wanted her to give up. The one thing she had sought after more than she’d ever sought after Him.
    The desire to be loved.
    Her hope for a boyfriend had led her