Her Heart's Disappointment: "Love is..." Series, #4

By Lila Diller

A disappointed newlywed. A confused husband. Will Morgan learn how to communicate her true feelings or drive Jason away for good?

 

Her Heart's Disappointment continues Morgan's search for agape love in the newlywed phase. Now that the honeymoon is over, Morgan finds her newlywed life turning out to be less perfect than she expected. Now all the statistics about most divorces happening in the first two years suddenly seem realistic.

 

Morgan wants the perfect fairy-tale marriage but was unprepared for how much hard work it takes for a marriage to just survive. All the little annoyances and disappointments take their toll, leaving Morgan blindsided by the big problems — a friend's failed marriage and possible infertility. She tries a mentor, a marriage conference, and a baby to right their relationship. But she's forgetting one thing.

 

Will Morgan save her marriage?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lila Diller
• Release date: May 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201961046

Lila Diller

Lila is both a hopeless romantic and a grammarian. A “multipotentialite,” her interests reach across the creative spectrum, from photography to scrapbooking to music to painting to writing. She claims not to be an expert in anything but a life-long learner in many things. Her 42 years have given her a passion for fellow believers, and she tackles spiritual problems one blog post at a time at liladiller.com and through four Christian novels since 2017. Join her at www.liladiller.com.

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Lila Diller

©2020 BY DILLER DESIGNS

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at www.facebook.com/loveisseries.

Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise stated, are taken from the KJV translation.

English Standard Version (ESV). Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Some content (Scriptures verses marked NLT) taken from the New Living Translation of the Bible by Copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

Cover photo by Ryan Holloway, used by permission from Unsplash.

ISBN: 9798721532092

DEDICATION:

I want to dedicate this book to all the newlyweds facing disappointment out there. I was there, too. I don't remember anyone ever trying to tell me how hard marriage is or how lonely you can still feel even with your supposed soulmate.

I don't want you to expect marriage to be miserable, but I also don't want you to set unrealistic expectations for your spouse that they will never be able to fill. Jesus is our only satisfaction, the only One who will be able to meet all our needs.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:

Thanks to the encouragement of several writers' Facebook groups, giving me advice, cheering, and sometimes even the kick in the pants that I needed to finally finish this book! This was the hardest story I've ever written, not only because it was the most biographical about my own marriage in the beginning but also because I feel so strongly about this that I wanted to do it justice.

Thanks to the Compel Fiction group, the Compel Devotion group, and the Create If Writing group.

Thanks also to my husband for his ever-increasing support and love.

Thanks to the Lord who gave me the idea in the first place and for showing me that marriage is a picture of His love for His bride.

RECOMMENDATION FROM AUTHOR

Her Heart's Disappointment is the fourth in the Love is... Series. It can be read separately, but the author recommends the reader first acquaint themselves with Morgan and Jason in #1, Her Heart's Decision, free if you sign up to my email list at liladiller.com.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8, ESV

"Love is patient and kind;

love does not envy or boast;

it is not arrogant or rude.

It does not insist on its own way;

it is not irritable or resentful;

it does not rejoice at wrongdoing,

but rejoices with the truth.

Love bears all things,

believes all things,

hopes all things,

endures all things.

Love never ends."

CHAPTER 1

Itossed my head and rolled my eyes. But it's your job.

Jason frowned. Since when?

Since...well, it just is. Since you're the man of the house. Taking out the garbage is man's work.

Says who?

Well... My rising anger was hard to think through. My dad always took out the trash. Mom never did.

You just assumed that all men must take out the trash from one example?

Jason's logic was hard to deny, but I wasn't in the mood to accept it. Not graciously, anyway.

Okay, fine. So, who's job is it going to be in our family? I crossed my arms over my chest and stared at him, just waiting for him to push the responsibility back on me. As if I didn't already have enough to do.

Do we have to decide on an all or nothing, Morgan? It doesn't need to be only mine or only yours. We could set a schedule for when you take it out and when I take it out. Wouldn't that be fair?

At this point, I didn't care. Fine. Whatever you want to do. I just want the trash emptied so that I can get this kitchen cleaned!

He pursed his lips and arched an eyebrow. Our eyes locked in a battle of wills.

He reached for his cell phone and turned it on. He brought his eyes down and his finger up to begin scrolling. Without looking at me, he said, Well, you know the saying, 'If you want something done right, you've got to do it yourself.'

With that parting quote, he dismissed me from his thoughts and was lost again in his mindless scrolling through Facebook.

I let out an exasperated sigh and picked up the tied trash bag. I stomped through the kitchen and living room, throwing open the front door louder than normal. I pounded my feet as hard as I dared on the sidewalk through my dainty slippers and dropped the trash bag in the bin with a satisfying thud.

I turned around to head back into my campus-loaned house, but my puppy wagged his tail and began to run back and forth on his chain to show he wanted to play.

I'm not in the mood to play right now, Copper.

My mood didn't phase him, and he attacked my left slipper as soon as I was in reach.

Copper, stop! Those are my only pair of slippers now since you moved in!

But I had to smile. His whole body wiggled with mischievous glee. I had a hard time staying angry when this adorable creature wanted to be in my presence. Unlike my husband.

I pushed that negative thought away and focused on Copper. I pulled him, attached to my slipper, until I could reach one of his tennis balls lying near his dog house, fuzz hanging off one side.

The summer twilight in western North Carolina still provided enough light to play. Here, boy! Copper, fetch!

I threw the ball out into the yard, hopefully not too far for his chain to reach it. I never was great at judging distances. Copper raced after it at full speed, his back legs getting in the way of his front ones. He reached it near the end of his chain and began chewing on it, tail waving like an air-traffic controller's sticks.

All right, Copper, come on, bring it back. Let me throw it again.

He just looked at me and adjusted the ball in his mouth, his tail wagging hard. Come on, boy, don't you want to fetch it again?

He answered by laying down in the grass, holding the ball between his two chubby paws, and tearing the fuzz with his baby teeth.

So much for fetch.

I was about to turn around and head back into the house, but the thought of returning to my discussion with Jason deterred me. I gazed into the deepening twilight, noticing the first two stars were beginning to shine. The brightest one had to be Venus, the Morning Star.

As always, remembering the planet's nickname reminded me of that verse in Revelation. Where was it again? Those references are hard to remember, since I don't remember numbers well, but I guessed it didn't matter. All I remembered was, I am the bright morning star, Jesus said [Revelation 22:16 NLT].

The summer breeze blew over my face, cooling my irritation. I closed my eyes and emptied my mind of Jason, our argument, and my growing dread that our marriage may have been a mistake.

I breathed deeply of the fragrances of summer honeysuckle and the peppermint plants that insisted on growing near Copper's doghouse. The familiarity embraced my discontented heart. I once again imagined that nature's beauty represented the Lord's arms wrapping me in a big, comforting, gentle hug.

After a few more deep breaths of honeysuckle, I decided I had better get back to cleaning. The evenings ended too soon when both of us had to work all day.

I turned and headed into the porch again. Just as I was about to lock it, I called to Copper, Do you want to come in yet, boy? Did you disembowel that tennis ball enough?

He brought the ball in his mouth while he bounded to me. I unhooked the chain from his collar and let him trot in front of me. I locked the screen door, picked my way back through the porch to the front door, and opened it for the dog.

While I turned to lock the front door for the night, Jason looked up from his phone and asked, Are you okay, darling?

His pet name for me seemed forced. Maybe that was just because I wasn't willing to be mollified yet. I'm fine, I said and strode through the front room into the kitchen.

I put a new trash bag in the can and finished throwing out leftovers from the refrigerator that were growing red and black mold in the plastic containers. Dreading my least favorite part