“I love you with everything in me, Dez. Which is why I need to just back off for a little while. So I can hear clearly.”

“Tell me,” she said. “Tell me what you’re hearing.”

“I’m hearing . . .” He kicked at a pile of clothes. “I’m hearing that, every time I love you with my body, I’m leading you into sin.”

“You want to hear clearly?”

“Destiny . . .”

“Hear this. Get out.”

“What?”

Wear the jacket that you got for Jesus’ birthday out the door. 

“I’ll take a ride, come back in a couple of hours.”

“Go, Luke. Please. Just go. That’s what Jesus says and for once, I agree with the dude. So just go.”

“Destiny.”

She turned her back to him, staring into the hard sand and brush of the canyon wall that framed the side of her bungalow. This was a fire trap. Anyone who lived perched up high knew a hard wind and bright spark could take their homes at any time.

Nothing really lasted. You can paint a pretty picture over your life, veneer it with good intention and solid commitment. There was no way to hold joy. You hold too tightly and you strangle it lifeless. When something begins to rot, it’s best just to be rid of it. Even when it hurts.

Luke knew it too. Which was why he fired up his Harley, gave her one last look over his shoulder, and rode away.

Destiny stood for a long moment, listening until the sound of his bike faded into the morning.

It wasn’t until she wiped away the last of her tears that she saw the dark-haired woman standing in the driveway. She had a strange cast on her hand and a stranger look on her face.

“What?” Destiny snapped. “What do you want?”

“Well, well.” The woman smiled. “I see you’ve inherited my temper.”

Excerpted from To Know You by Shannon Ethridge and Kathryn Mackel. Copyright 2013.  All Rights Reserved. Published by Thomas Nelson, Nashville, TN. Used by Permission. Not to be copied without Publisher’s prior written approval.