Between Blinks (In Between, #1)

When Mark Davidson sees Kristine Cavanaugh for the first time as she sings in a small, white church he is instantly captivated. He has seen an angel, but the demons of his life howl at him and call him a fool. He feels far too unworthy to capture the heart of such a delicate rose. Time and again he visits the church to see her, but before the minister says, "Amen," he steps out into the white of winter.
When Kristine first sees Mark she believes God has whispered to her he is the one. He captures her young imagination, and she eagerly waits each Sunday morning to catch a glimpse of him, hoping each time he will stay longer to meet her.
When Kristine and Mark finally meet they see tomorrow in each other's eyes. However, fear dwells inside of Mark that if Kristine knew him—really knew him—he would lose her, so he hides his most private thoughts and deepest regrets from her. Kristine knows that one day her love will tear down Mark's walls of protection and scare away those demons haunting him.
In His special way God brings them together, and Mark knows with even more certainty Kristine is the girl of his dreams. With innocence he woos her young heart, and they fall sweetly into a pure love which enfolds both in joy.

When I was a teenager I had two primary dreams. I wanted to write and publish novels that readers would enjoy and find meaning in, and I wanted to be married with four children—two boys and two girls (in that order). I wanted to stay home and not have them go to babysitters like I had to.
I met my husband the second week of my freshman year. I fell instantly into like when I met him and knew we'd be kindred spirits. As our friendship progressed over six months, I fell in love. We were engaged a few months after we started dating. We married two years later.
For my degree I chose English Literature with a minor in technical writing. I chose technical writing because I thought it would be a practical way to have a career as a writer. I didn't think I was any good at writing fiction, and I wasn't. I had no "grand" idea. I was a fair poetry writer. I loved writing about literature, and I enjoyed technical writing. I sort of planned on that being my career when I finished college, but I lived perpetually in the moment.
We married the summer before our senior year. The first five months of our married life was incredibly romantic. We were students, so we were poor. We lived in a small one-bedroom studio apartment. We had no air conditioning, so the summer nights were quite hot and humid in Wisconsin.
Our car didn't work, so we biked and walked everywhere. On summer evenings my husband loved to watch spiders spinning webs. He would stand their fascinated by the intricate patterns. I stood there fascinated with him. For groceries, we pulled a rickety wagon. We found coupons on campus for free two-liters of pop. Every day we redeemed these coupons for a bit more than a month. We had a lot of free pop to drink, which is kind of funny because neither of us are all that into pop. We would bike to a bakery for day-old bread.
The November after our wedding, we became pregnant with my oldest son. I was sick for months. I made it through finals and then through another semester of class. Living perpetually in the moment helped me adjust to the fact I would be an at-home mom and wouldn't start a career as a technical writer. I was thrilled! But being so young as a mom I was ill-prepared to meet the demands of an infant.
I fulfilled one-fourth of my dream. #1
My husband thought I needed more education. He thought English was a degree in the obvious and that I'd never get a decent paying job with only t...