Free And the Greatest of These Is Love: A Contemporary Christian Romance Novel by Staci Stallings

his gaze slipped to the hard concrete at their feet.
    She wondered vaguely how much that car had cost but quickly pushed the thought to the back of her mind. Who cared anyway?
    “So, what time will the parents get here?” Andrew asked as she got the door open, and he caught it on her pull.
    “Pretty soon.” With a half-glance, she checked her watch over and through her belongings.
    Completely beyond belief, he followed her down the hall. “Are you always the first one here?”
    “No, most of the time Jerry beats me. In fact, I’m surprised he’s not here yet,” she said, opening her classroom door and wishing she could figure out how to give him the brush off, but he wasn’t going anywhere. Instead, he followed her inside like he had nowhere better to be on the whole planet.
    “So, do you think I could talk to your kids today?” he asked as he fingered the raggedy doll on the shelf.
    “My kids?” she asked, stopping cold at her desk and looking at him with a stare that could have frozen ice.
    He let go of the doll and came toward her, sliding one hand into the pocket of his pants, looking every bit the handsome big city reporter. “Yeah, I thought they might be able to give me another angle on this place.”
    Anger sliced through her. “Oh, they’d give you an angle all right.” She glared at him as if prepared to rip out his liver if he took even one more step toward one of her kids. “But no, I don’t think you can talk to them.”
    His gaze slipped into puzzlement just as he got to her desk. “Why not?”
    “Because they’re kids, that’s why,” she said, slamming the book in her hand to the desk in annoyed frustration. “Because they might understand what you mean when you say they don’t have a chance, because I don’t want them to worry about the center’s problems, and because I think you are an arrogant, self-centered jerk who will say the wrong thing and crush some poor kid’s spirit and then go back to your little newsroom high up on the hill and leave us to pick up the pieces.”
                 
    The anger and passion in her voice echoed throughout the room, and Andrew’s heart fell into his shoes. So she did think he was a jerk. Worse than that, he couldn’t blame her for thinking it. “Gabi...”
    “Look, Andrew,” she said, gazing at him evenly. “I know that Jerry thinks your little article thing will help, but personally, I don’t think we need your mightier-than-thou attitude spread around this place. We’ve got enough problems as it is. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a class to prepare for.”
    With that and only that, she started rifling through the papers on her desk, and it was clear that this conversation was over. Andrew stood in shocked silence wishing he knew what to say, but he could think of nothing. This wasn’t what he’d had in mind at all. She hated him — that much was obvious, and sticking around here was a very bad idea. He decided to cut his losses and disappear.
    “I’m really sorry you feel that way,” he said slowly backing toward the door. “Umm, I guess I’ll be going now.”
    And then, he turned on his heel, strode out, and closed the door softly behind him.
     
    The second he was gone, Gabi put her head down and shook it slowly. She didn’t want to be mean to him, but his thoughtless comments tossed out for everyone’s benefit had to stop, and if she had to be mean to get that accomplished, then so be it. At that moment Mrs. Williams knocked on the door, and her day began.
     
    Andrew sat outside Jerry’s office until 7:30, waiting. He watched as harried parents dragged in half-awake children, dropped them off, and then hurried to work. It occurred to him that most of these parents were no different than many of the people he worked with — trying to provide the best they could for their kids and running in circles trying to make that happen.
    Gabi was right. This was a world he had done whatever he could to avoid until