Read Online And the Greatest of These Is Love: A Contemporary Christian Romance Novel by Staci Stallings - Free Book Online Page A

really was trying to make it sound like it wasn’t killing her.
    “But you have to know you can’t save them all.” He said it as if it was the most practical, logical thing that had ever been said.
    However, practical and logical weren’t in her grasp at the moment. In one step, she spun on him, and they both stopped only feet from her beaten-down car. “Oh, yeah? Well then, tell my heart that. Look, I might not have a whole lot of choice in the matter, but I don’t have to let them go without a fight, and believe me, Mr. Clark, I intend to keep fighting.”
    His gaze never wavered from gentle though it was laced with some surprise. “Well, to be honest, I admire your determination.”
    Despite her best efforts to stop it, to not feel what it felt like to have him look at her like that, she blushed.
    Then he smiled softly. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
    Fighting to get back to angry and in control she glared at him. “Count on it.” And with that, she climbed into her broken down car and slammed the door. The car roared to life, and she drove off leaving him standing right where she’d left him.
     
    Slowly, Andrew turned and walked to the little red sports car that had been so important to him only — when was that? Yesterday? Yes, it was yesterday. But now climbing into it and driving away from here, back to the safety of his own neighborhood made him feel very guilty and very, very selfish. He’d never met anyone like her, and he was pretty sure even as he drove out of the lot that he never would.
     
    Everywhere Gabi turned she saw his eyes — those green eyes that melted her to the very core. Her brain still whispered to her at odd moments that she had seen him somewhere, but where? It wasn’t likely that their paths had crossed in any of the usual places she hung out. And it was clear by the way he talked about the kids that he hadn’t done much “slumming” in his lifetime.
    “Face it, Gabi. He’s an arrogant, obnoxious jerk,” Gabi told the can of mushroom soup she held in over the pan. “He’s here for a story, and then he’ll be gone. Forget about him, and concentrate on what’s really important.”
     
    There were only a handful of people left at The Herald by nine-thirty. It was late, and most sane reporters had gone home for the night.
    A thousand tiny dots covered the paper that lay in front of him — made by the unconscious tapping of his pencil as his thoughts drifted again back to her as they had repeatedly since she’d driven away. Gabi at the piano, Gabi in the park, Gabi with leaves in her hair. He smiled at that thought. He had so loved seeing her like that.
    “Yoo-hoo! Andrew! You in there?” Rob asked from across his desk as he crumpled a piece of paper and sailed it across, pegging Andrew squarely on the forehead.
    “Hey! What was that for?” Andrew asked, snapping out of his daydream though not at all happy about it.
    “Kersh… Earth to Andrew,” Rob said, speaking into his hands. “Come in, Andrew.”
    With no enthusiasm, Andrew leaned back in his chair. “Ha. Ha.”
    Rob narrowed his eyes. “Okay, what’s her name?”
    “Who’s name?”
    “The girl.”
    “What girl?” Andrew asked as if he had no idea what Rob was talking about.
    “What girl? Yeah, right. I know you better than you know you, Drew, and you’ve got it bad.”
    “I do not,” Andrew said defensively, however, he couldn’t meet his friend’s gaze.
    Rob grinned. “Oh, you don’t, do you? Yeah. Then let me ask you this. Who gave away the story of his career to his arch enemy?”
    Anger and annoyance with himself snapped into him. “I didn’t realize we were arch enemies.”
    “In the newspaper business, everyone’s your arch enemy,” Rob said in a brusk matter-of-fact tone as he scrutinized his friend carefully. “And you gave this story to me on a silver platter. Why?” He narrowed his model-like eyes once again. “To go to Collins? To some ghetto center? A place so far on the