Read Online Paige Rewritten by Erynn Mangum - Free Book Online

pray and I start pulling off the tender meat, slicing it onto the plates, and adding scoops of potatoes and carrots.
    â€œGoing to set her down to eat?” Natalie asks Rick.
    He shrugs. “I can eat one-handed.”
    Rick is softening and I love it.
    â€œSo,” Natalie says to me, chewing a bite of bread. “Tell me about your huge personal problems that have nothing to do with monthly visitors.”
    I growl into my delicious dinner. “Ugh. Don’t ask.”
    â€œI already did.”
    I was still dating Luke when I moved here for college, but it ended fairly soon after. I wasn’t super close with Rick and Natalie then. They were spared a lot of the drama.
    â€œThis guy I used to date is back in town,” I say.
    â€œPlease tell me it’s not Michael the Martian,” Rick says around a bite of pot roast.
    â€œThat’s not very nice, and no.” Michael was a little too into space-related things. On our first date, he took me to the planetarium. Which sounds romantic until he made me sit through a four-hour discussion on whether or not some comet’s tail was long enough to be considered a comet.
    Or something like that. I think I nodded off six times that night.
    â€œWho?” Natalie asks.
    â€œLuke. And uh, I don’t know if you remember or not, but he’s also Layla’s older brother.”
    Natalie swallows and squints at Rick. “I kind of remember that. Tall guy. Dark hair. Really cute?”
    I nod.
    â€œI don’t see the big deal,” Rick says.
    â€œThat’s so awkward,” Natalie says at the same time. She frowns at Rick. “Seriously?”
    â€œWhat? They’re adults. It was what? Five years ago?”
    â€œAround there.” I nod.
    â€œEh.” Rick shrugs. “ Hakuna matata .”
    I look at Natalie as she shakes her head while stabbing a carrot. “I’m seeing now why he needs me to counsel the kids,” I tell her.
    â€œNo sympathy. No sympathy. Want to know what his Bible college professors said would be his biggest weakness?”
    â€œI’m going to assume the no sympathy.”
    â€œNo sympathy.” Natalie is stuck on repeat. “They said, ‘Rick, you’ve got to learn how to have some sympathy as a youth pastor.’”
    â€œHey,” Rick says, rising to his own defense. “I have sympathy. In certain cases.”
    â€œLike what?”
    â€œLook.” Suddenly Rick changes into Pastoral Rick. You can see the change like it’s physical. His shoulders get straighter, his posture gets better, his voice gets deeper and more thoughtful.
    It’s very weird, honestly. I glance over at Natalie and she’s just leveling Rick with a look of annoyance.
    â€œThere is a big difference between sympathy and compassion,” he states. “I have compassion. I have compassion in abundance. But I do not think sympathy is as much of a biblical character trait as others might think.”
    â€œTherefore you don’t need it,” Natalie says.
    â€œExactly.”
    She is quiet for a minute, chewing a bite of potato. “Our kids are so going to favor me.”
    I’m pretty sure I snorted up some of the carrot.

    I get home late. Typical for a night over at Rick and Natalie’s. We always end up getting on some random conversation train, and before I know it, it’s way past my bedtime.
    I climb the stairs wearily, unlock my apartment door, and then lock it behind me. I’d left a lamp on in the living room so I wouldn’t be coming home to a dark house.
    That creeps me out to no end.
    I hurry through my nighttime routine and climb into bed ten minutes later, yawning. I pull my Bible over and on my way to Galatians, I end up in Psalms. I am a big fan of this book of the Bible. There aren’t too many other places where the writer just lashes out about everything to God and then praises Him with the next sentence.
    Something about that