The Sweet By and By by Sara Evans Read Free Book Online

in your heart? Do you know God is glad over you?”
    The reverend didn’t get it. God would never want her. Not if He was truly good. He couldn’t possibly. Inviting her in would darken the splendor of His beauty.
    â€œWhat’s in my heart? That I love Maxwell Benson. That I want to spend my life with him. I can’t believe how lucky I am to have found him.”
    Max wrapped her in his arms, kissing her cheek.
    â€œWhy not take a few classes with me, Jade? Be sure of your salvation,” the reverend said.
    â€œJade, no, you’re not required.” Max shoved her chair aside and opened the door. “The Bensons founded this church. Paid to have the west wing addition.
    And I believe we can be married here if we want.”
    â€œMax, yes, but there is a requirement for a religious ceremony—”
    Down the main sanctuary aisle, his footsteps echoing, and out to the parking lot, Max fumed. He aimed his key fob at the Mercedes like a light saber.
    â€œMax, calm down.” A sour taste swirled in her throat. “I don’t mind taking classes if—”
    â€œHe’s got some nerve.” Max fired up the engine.
    â€œFor what? The reverend seems to think marriage is more than pomp and circumstance. Why can’t he ask his questions?”
    â€œBecause he challenged our integrity.”
    â€œAnd you challenged his. Call it even.” Light from streetlamps fell over Jade’s legs as Max turned out of the parking lot, heading toward Main Street.
    â€œHe’s a man of the cloth. Wouldn’t you check a new client’s credentials, or make sure a new attorney actually passed the bar?”
    â€œIt’s not the same.” Max stopped at the four-way, gunned the gas, then fired across the small intersection.
    â€œNot to you and me, maybe, but to him.”
    â€œDon’t defend Reverend Girden, Jade. Are you hungry?”
    â€œA civil ceremony is fine. I have a frozen pizza at home.”
    â€œI know, I know, but the Bensons and Mom’s family, the Carpenters, have been members of First Baptist Congregation since 1890-something. It would feel cheap to not include God somehow. I’m okay with your faith. Why can’t he be?”
    â€œWhat you told him about me made me love you more.” Her eyes welled up.
    â€œAll true, babe.” He looked over at her. “I love you. Guess that’s why it bothers me he’s making such an issue of whether you profess faith in Jesus Christ or not.” One of Whisper Hollow’s two traffic lights caught Max with a red at Divine Drive and Cherish Hill. As they waited for green, Max turned to Jade and pressed his lips to her forehead. “I think I’m addicted to you.”
    Jade settled into the plush leather seat as the light turned green and Max eased toward the Blue Umbrella. She hung Max’s confession in the secret room of her heart, and she’d visit there on the hard, blue days.
    He loved her, and she was counting on him.

Four
    Saturday morning, Beryl woke with a hankering for something she couldn’t explain in a single word. Phantom scents and sounds from the old house lingered around her—the clatter of her mother in the kitchen frying eggs and bacon, the scent of brewing coffee and a hickory fire.
    She drew the bedcovers over the pillow and padded to the bathroom. Her bones creaked in harmony with the dry, splintered floorboards.
    In the bright, bare light, her complexion appeared more sallow than she remembered. And her breasts sagged under her nightgown. Turning sideways, she tried to hike them up, but they didn’t stay where she shoved them. Forty short years ago, she’d been a tight-bodied flower child without one thought of ever being fifty-nine.
    In her day, they believed the world wouldn’t survive 1984 and 1999. Beryl drank from life’s cup by the moment and never danced with regret. Then she met Harlan, fell in love against her better