Free Abiding Love by Kate Welsh

thing, too. But I’ve learned that sharing thoughts with people of like mind is more liberating than confining. Believe me, I value my freedom too much these days to give away even a scrap of it. I assume Mark is with the youth group?”
    “It’s the weekend, you’re off duty. Where Mark is isn’t any of your concern.”
    “No. It isn’t. Tell me, do you always attack people who are only trying to help you? A simple ‘Thank you, Xandra, for helping my son get acclimatized to a new and strange school’ would be a little more thanin order. You know, you rank up there with some of the most insufferable men I’ve ever met. No wonder Mark’s so miserable. All I can say is that Beth must be blind.”
    She didn’t give him a split second to respond. Xandra pivoted and left him there with his mouth hanging open. It wasn’t until she stomped past Holly Dillon and her two-year-old twins without stopping to cuddle one of them that Xandra realized he’d done it again—sparked a shamefully angry response from her. He’d stolen her peace. Robbed her of her joy.
    Why? How?
    Remembering her conversation with Beth about her brother, she realized she couldn’t put off thinking about why she reacted to him the way she did. Something Beth had said suddenly flooded her mind. You remind me of myself when I first met Jack.
    Her body went hot, then cold. “Oh, no. That’s not possible,” she gasped as she got behind the wheel of the New Life Inn’s discreet SUV. “I’m not attracted to him. I’m not!”
    But as she steered carefully through the lot, she saw Adam waiting for Mark at his car and felt her pulse once again take off at too fast a rhythm.
    “What are You doing to me, Lord? I don’t want a man in my life. Never, ever again. Especially a man who is so much a…a man. He’s too big. Too bold. Too charismatic.”
    And maybe, just maybe that’s why he scares me.

Chapter Seven
    X andra steered out of the Tabernacle’s lot and shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She was a little stiff from riding, but that didn’t account for the fact that her nerves were stretched to their limits or that a headache bloomed behind her eyes. No, those particular annoyances could be laid at the feet of Adam Boyer alone.
    He disturbed her. Agitated her. Unnerved her. And just plain scared her silly. All for no reason. He was just the parent of a boy she was trying to help and the brother of a dear friend. There was no reason to fear him and none for her to see him except in passing. But his image still swam before her eyes.
    What she needed to help her forget her problems was another ride on the amiable Fly Boy. It was a little cold today, but she’d willingly brave more than frigid temperatures to ride off this awful tension that had her in its grip.
    Decisively, Xandra pulled over and called Beth on her cell phone. Not a minute later she accelerated back onto the road and headed toward Laurel Glen, excited about the day ahead. She was going to get her first lesson on how to care for her horse—when Jack found her one—and then she was going riding on God’s beautiful Sunday.
    It took only minutes to get to Laurel Glen but during the drive she could feel her nerves loosen and her headache ease. When she turned off Indian Creek Road and passed under Laurel Glen’s landmark iron archway, she realized her headache was completely gone. As she tooled along the lengthy drive to the stables where she was to meet Beth and Jack, however, a worrisome thought struck her.
    What if Adam and Mark decided today was a good day to take Jack Alton up on his offer of a riding lesson?
    She longed to ask that very question when she met up with Beth and Jack, but she couldn’t. She shouldn’t be thinking about a student’s father on a bright Sunday morning. If she asked she’d risk giving away her inner turmoil and mistrust of Adam Boyer, and Beth would know.
    Then Jack opened the stall door and her excitement renewed itself even if Adam and her