Secret Admirer Read Free

except in the peak of summer, when the sun bleached it almost blond. People always counted on him to liven up any situation, which he always did. Except for when she bore the brunt of it, which was most of the time, Shannon hated to admit she also enjoyed his sense of humor.
    â€œAll I wanted to do was ask if you would be as busy this week as you were last and if you were going to start taking your lunch break again.”
    She couldn’t lie. She expected he would eventually figure out she was avoiding him. This week she refused to play mind games with herself. If Todd was in the lunchroom at the same time, it didn’t matter. He wasn’t going to stop her from eating. She refused to give him control of her life or let him intimidate her anymore. “I’ll be taking my lunch break at the regular time.”
    His grin returned, and his brown eyes lit up. Eyes a woman could get lost in. Shannon forced herself to remember this was Todd Sanders.
    He leaned forward and covered her hands with one of his. “Would you give me the honor of sitting with me?”
    Shannon yanked her hands away. “Never.”
    He snapped his fingers. “Can’t blame a guy for trying.”
    Why he wanted to sit with her, she would never know. A week had passed, and everything was normal except for the constant reminders of his presence. Shannon wondered if perhaps she might have misjudged him by expecting that he would still play foolish pranks or bring up embarrassing moments in front of their workmates. But just because he was behaving himself at work didn’t mean she could trust him to be the same when they were alone. Even if she could eventually trust him, that didn’t mean she wanted to spend her breaks with him.
    Over the weekend, she’d spent much time in prayer, trying to convince herself to forgive and forget. When she’d done the same over the years he had disappointed her again and again. After his little performance Sunday morning, Shannon decided to err on the side of caution.
    â€œIf you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.” She picked up her pencil and continued with her calculations.
    â§
    Todd returned to his station. He tried to be happy but couldn’t. He still felt guilty knowing she had avoided going into the lunchroom the previous week because of him. It gave him some relief to know she had progressed to sitting voluntarily in the same room with him. But Todd wanted more.
    He wanted to sit at the same table with her and start fresh. He wanted her to like the new, slightly improved Todd Sanders.
    It had been over a year since he’d left the old Todd behind. At the time, he’d had a serious heart-to-heart talk with Craig, and in that one day, his life c hanged forever. Craig had always been a steadying influence, especially throughout the years leading up to his parents’ divorce. While growing up, he spent more time at Craig’s house than his own. There he’d seen the way a normal family lived, compared to the constant fighting, bickering, and even violence he was used to.
    Craig had taken him to his church’s youth group meetings a number of times and talked to him often about the love of Jesus, but Todd had always shrugged it off, not feeling very lovable. Then one day, when he was talking to Craig, years after he’d become an adult and stopped going to youth group, something inside him snapped. He thought he’d been handling things just fine, but suddenly, everything came spilling out. He surrendered control of his life to Jesus, and in finding Jesus he found himself.
    It was time to move forward and correct some past mistakes, and Shannon was one of them. Not just one—Shannon was the most important.
    He watched from a distance until Shannon was settled in the lunchroom with her lunch spread in front of her so she couldn’t move then to another table without looking odd to her friends. Todd sucked in a deep breath and gathered