Free Handful of Heaven by Jillian Hart

a good day, Evan.”
    She watched the door swing shut, and she felt horrible. She’d been so stunned and confused she hadn’t handled the situation right. She hated it when she made a mistake that hurt someone else, and she’d bungled this one but good.
    This wasn’t about the fact that Evan was a good customer. This was personal. She thought he was okay, for a man. Probably one of the most responsible men she knew, and responsibility was something she thought was a virtue in a man. He didn’t deserve her rather cool response to him. He didn’t deserve that kind of treatment at all.
    And what if this stopped him from attending the Bible study? What if he’d been asking her so he wouldn’t be going into a social situation alone, without a friendly face, and she’d blown that for him, too?
    I have to fix this. I have to make this right. Somehow, someway, she vowed, telling herself it was her conscience that was troubling her.
    And not her heart.

Chapter Six
    E van shoveled the foot-high accumulation of wet, sloppy snow off his front walkway and grimaced as his back spasmed in protest. He’d leave the stuff to melt on its own, except that the local station had broken in to the baseball-game coverage to announce freezing temps and more snow expected overnight.
    Yippee. He loved Montana weather… not, as Cal would say. With any luck, spring would return in full force soon and he could start planning that trip up into the foothills.
    Until then, it looked as if he would spend the rest of the weekend snowed in.
    Good thing I stopped by the grocery store on the way home. It looked like he might be snowed in for a day or two.
    As he slipped the edge of the shovel under the block of snow and heaved, humiliation rushed over him like the bite of the north wind. He’d needed something to do after leaving the diner. He’d called Phil on his cell to say he was going without explaining why he hadn’t waited. He felt bad about that, but he’d fill him in the next time they were face to face.
    What he felt even worse about was how he’d come on to Paige McKaslin like a teenager asking for his first date.
    It wasn’t just his inexperience with these matters. No, that wasn’t what was eating him up inside. It was worse than that. It was that he hadn’t even given it any forethought. Any planning. The question had just rolled impulsively off his tongue—and he didn’t date! He didn’t want to date. He planned on never dating again.
    And, of course, the worst part of all was that she’d turned him down flat.
    What was it she’d said? That’s hysterical had been her exact words, and she’d looked as if she were trying not to laugh. She didn’t date; okay, he could live with that. But he knew it wasn’t the truth.
    Why on earth didn’t Paige date? She was a gorgeous, hardworking, together woman. Come to think of it, it was strange she’d never remarried. He knew the rumor was that her husband had had enough of her and run off, but that was gossip he’d accidentally overheard around town years ago and he didn’t believe it.
    Not anymore, he figured, remembering the vulnerable woman he’d gotten to know last night
    Unfortunately, that same Paige McKaslin didn’t seem to be available when he’d asked her out. The professional, every-hair-in-place businesswoman had shown up to say no.
    He didn’t feel put down or even put out. But his chest was knotted up so tight and he couldn’t explain it. See why he’d given up dealing with women long ago? See the kind of tangled mess they tied a reasonable man up in?
    He didn’t want to admit that regret was building up in him like the snow on the ground. Cold, and growing colder, he gave the contents of the shovel a good toss—and his back snapped, lightning-fast pain searing down his back and into his left leg.
    That can’t be good. He didn’t dare move. Not at first. The pain was too searing. He took a few quick breaths and tried moving the leg that wasn’t wracked with