A fresh start is a gift. So is having a hand to hold. Jade and Max share a deep love, though revelations from his past have recently shaken their marriage. And Jade is completely smitten with Max’s little son, Asa, whom she is now raising as her own. Their blended family brings her a joy she’s never known. But there is one more secret to be uncovered. One that will impact them all. Max is doing his best to “man-up” and prove himself worthy of Jade’s devotion. As well as that of his young son. It seems like life in Whisper Hollow, Tennessee, will pick up where it left off until Max is faced with an unusual opportunity—leave his family’s law firm to coach high-school football in Texas. Realizing a fresh start will bring healing to their marriage, Jade takes the leap of faith and moves with him and baby Asa, bidding good-bye to her beloved Blue Umbrella shop. The new beginning in quaint Colby, Texas, is soon sullied when Max discovers the high-school program isn’t all it seemed. While Max struggles to rebuild a once glorious football team, Jade wrestles with news that could break Max’s heart . . . and change their lives forever. “[T]ouching and emotive . . . sizzles with passion . . . a beautiful story of hope tackling betrayal and love manning up to win the game.” —–USAToday.com *Starred Review* Jade Benson feels that she can never trust her husband, Max, again. Not only did he cheat on her with her best friend, Rice, but a baby resulted from the affair. When Rice dies in an airplane accident, Max brings the toddler into their home. Two-year-old Asa is the brightest spot in Jade’s life. Despite the boy’s beginnings, Jade feels nothing but love for him. But Jade’s world is about to crash again. She receives news that Max isn’t Asa’s dad, and the biological father knows it. Jade has survived infidelity, miscarriage, and major damage to her shop by an out-of-control car, but losing Asa could very well be the thing that destroys her. Country singer and songwriter Evans and novelist Hauck (Dining with Joy, 2010) have proven to be a winning team. This third installment in the story of Jade and Max (The Sweet By and By, 2009; Softly and Tenderly, 2011) carries the same emotional wallop as the first two. Although libraries will want all three volumes, this one also works well as a stand-alone novel. --Shelley Mosley Love Lifted Me By Sara Evans Rachel Hauck Thomas Nelson Copyright © 2012 Sara Evans All right reserved. ISBN: 978-1-59554-491-9 Chapter One By the time July's heat settled over the Appalachians, Jade Benson was getting a little bit stronger. As she unlocked the front door of her riverfront Chattanooga shop, the Blue Two, she knew what she had to do. The hollow sound of her footsteps in the empty shop echoed in her soul and back again. Jade dropped her keys on the sales counter, a lovely antique case once belonging to Woolworth's, and peered in the Walmart bag swinging from her fingertips. For Sale. If she'd learned anything from the spring, it was that sometimes a girl had to let things go—the past, fears, hurts, dreams—and start over. You are here. Chart a new course. Jade wadded up the plastic bag as she pulled out the For Sale sign and considered her options. Should she sell? Surveying the shop, she considered the remodeled walls, the new windows and door. The fragrance of lumber and fresh paint lingered in the air. When a racing F350 had crashed through the Blue Two in the wee hours of a March morning, she never dreamed it would symbolize her life. But, ho boy, and boy howdy. Jade tapped the sign against her palm. Yeah, sell. She never wanted a second vintage shop anyway. The venture had been her mother-in-law's brainchild. Not for herself, of course, but for Jade. She'd resisted until the second miscarriage. But then busyness proved to be the drug she'd needed to get through the days. A lot had changed since she opened this store over a year ago. She wasn't just Jade Benson, business owner and Maxwell Benson's wife. She was a mother. At least that's what her heart told her every morning when she woke up with Max's son sleeping down the hall. Asa. The twenty-two-month-old with expressive brown eyes and bow lips called her Mama . He was the beautiful silver lining amid Max's betrayal and Jade's mama's death. The mama who forced her to take command of her life and stop being led where she didn't want to go. All this time she thought she was in control. But fear had ruled her from her core out. Asa was a complete and utter wonder. Jade never tired of him and each time his pulpy little hand slipped into hers, she changed. It was the most magical feeling on earth. Possibly in heaven. Oh Max, you broke my heart, then healed it with your son. Except things with the little charmer's father weren't settled. Their Saturday calls were charged with feelings waiting to be spoken face-to-face. Jade expected Max home any day now, but when she asked for a specific da