0373447477 (R) (23 page)

“Mommy?” she said, exiting the car, waiting to be called forward.

Tabitha glanced at Boone and he nodded, stepping aside so she could move past. Run past. She nearly flew, rushing to Jubilee and lifting her into her arms.

“Ju-bee, I’ve missed you!” she cried.

No response, but Jubilee clung to her, whispered something in her ear.

“He’s...gone,” Tabitha said. “You don’t have to see him again. But, there’s somebody else I want you to meet. A few people, really.” Her voice cracked but she put Jubilee down, turned her so she was facing Boone. “Remember that story I told you a long time ago? The one about the princess who got taken from her father and had to live with a horrible ogre?”

Jubilee nodded, staring up at Boone with wide-eyed fascination. It must have been strange to see someone with her hair color, her skin tone, her eyes.

“Remember how her father, the king, was searching everywhere for years and years, and finally one day he found her and brought her home? Well, you’re kind of like that princess, Ju-bee, and this man? He’s like the king. He’s your real father, and he’s been looking for you for a long time. And that lady there?” She pointed to Scout. “She’s going to be—”

“I’m Scout,” she interrupted, her voice gentle, her expression sweet and understanding, the tears still slipping down her face. “Your father’s wife. You can call me Scout for now, if you want. Maybe in a few months you’ll want to call me something else and that will be okay, too.”

“A stepmother,” Jubilee gasped, that quick brain that Quinn had seen just a glimpse of making the connection.

“A good one,” Tabitha rushed to say. “A really good one. With two sweet little girls who are going to be your sisters.”

“But...what about you?” Jubilee clutched Tabitha’s hand, her lower lip trembling.

“She’s going to be with me, and she’ll call and come visit you all the time,” Quinn said, Malone’s hand warm on her shoulder. It felt good to do this with him, to be part of what he and his team had been working toward for years. It felt even better to know that Jubilee would be okay now. Jarrod was in jail. The police had found the blood-splattered clothes in a small chest in the attic where Tabitha had hidden them. He’d been arrested for murder, assault, money laundering.

“You’ll take care of her?” Jubilee said, looking straight into Quinn’s eyes, asking her to make promises again.

This time, Quinn knew she could keep them.

Tabitha had changed. Loving Jubilee had done that to her.

“I will.”

“Promise?”

“I promise,” Quinn said.

Chance stepped off the porch, gave Boone a gentle nudge. “You’re giant-size. You might want to get down on her level,” he suggested.

And Boone crouched, reaching into his jacket pocket, and pulling something from it. A tiny rosebud, pink and soft.

“This is for you, Jubilee. It reminds me of when you were a baby. You had a pretty little rosebud mouth and bright red hair. You were the prettiest baby I’d ever seen.”

He held the flower out, and Jubilee took it, tucked it into the pocket of her jeans. She didn’t offer a smile, didn’t say a word. Just took Boone’s hand and walked over to Lucy. The two little girls stared at each other for several long moments, and then Lucy smiled.

“Let’s swing. You like to swing, right, Ju-bee? That man is going to push us.”

She pointed at August, who gave a belabored sigh, a hint of a smile in his eyes.

And then the girls were racing to the swing. Apart and then suddenly together, holding hands as they reached August. He helped them onto the tire, cautioned them to hold on as Lucy begged to be pushed higher and higher.

“It’s going to be okay,” Boone said to no one in particular, his gaze on his daughters. “God has done this thing for us. He’s in control of it. In His time, it will be what it should be. For now, let’s just be thankful for what we have.”

That was it, the spell was broken.

The adults began to mill around, talking and chatting about kids and work and weather. The caseworker suddenly had the baby in her arms, and Scout was serving tall glasses of lemonade.

Despite the awkwardness, the newness, it was a family. Not just parents and kids, but friends, all working together for a common goal. To make the transition as easy as it could be, to maintain old relationships, to build new ones.

“What are you thinking?” Malone asked, brushing a strand of hair from Quinn’s cheek and looking into her eyes. “Because, whatever it is, it’s making you smile.”

“Just thinking you’re not the only one who gives flowers. That was sweet, what Boone did.”

“He loves her. Flowers are a small token of that.”

“You know what else I was thinking?” she asked, studying his handsome face, his dark eyes and that scar that told the story about the kind of man he was. One who would sacrifice everything for the people he loved, who’d give his life for those he cared about.

“What?” he asked with a gentle smile.

“That this is a small token, too.” She slipped the ring from her finger, slid it onto his pinky. “Take it with you when you go, Malone.”

“Are you sure?” he asked, and she nodded, her throat tight with tears of sorrow and of joy.

He nodded, leaning in, his lips brushing hers.

“I love you, Quinn,” he whispered. “More than the ocean loves the shore.”

“I love you, too,” she responded, and he kissed her again. With hope. With love. With promises for the moment and for the future.

“Hey, lovebirds!” August called. “Break it up! The kiddos are watching.”

“That brother of yours is becoming a pest,” Malone muttered.

And Quinn laughed, the sound ringing out into the afternoon, floating on wings of joy into the beautiful summer sky.

* * * * *

Keep reading for an excerpt from
DECEPTION
by Elizabeth Goddard

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Dear Reader,

Quinn Robertson knows what it’s like to walk the path of sorrow and despair. After losing her husband to brain cancer, she struggles to see the goodness of God through the difficulties she faces. Her journey is one we all must take. None of us is untouched by difficulties, and as I wrote Quinn’s story, I couldn’t help thinking about how much greater God is than the temporary challenges life brings our way. It isn’t just an attitude of acceptance that gets us through these difficult times, but a deep-seated understanding that in the darkest moments, we are not alone.

May you find peace through Him today!

I love hearing from readers. You can drop me a line at
[email protected]
or connect with me on Facebook or Twitter!

Shirlee McCoy

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Deception

by Elizabeth Goddard

ONE

Dead Man Falls
Mountain Cove, Alaska

E
dging closer to the precipice that overlooked the plunging waterfall, Jewel Caraway risked a glance down. Vertigo hit. Dizziness mingled with worry.

Meral and Buck should have beaten Jewel to the falls where they had planned to meet up.

“Meral!” she yelled.

The roar of the water that cascaded hundreds of feet below drowned out her calls, sucking them down with the rushing water. A foaming whirlpool twisted where the frothing, tumbling force pounded the pool at its base. Misty spray drifted up and enveloped Jewel in a sheen of moisture. The sound of her voice could never compete with the rumbling growl of the cataract.

She tugged out her cell phone before she remembered she would get no cell signal here. The only signal she ever had was in Mountain Cove proper. She put the cell away, her gaze drawn back to the waterfall.

Powerful and dangerous.

Beautiful and terrifying.

Dead Man Falls was a force to be reckoned with. That was if one were to take the plunge and get sucked into the swirling torrent at the base.

Kayakers had attempted to navigate the drop and failed.

Part of a rainbow, transparent and fading into the mist, caught her attention. Mesmerized, Jewel stood at the edge of the rocky, moss-covered ledge that was flanked by spruce and hemlock, firs and cedars in the lush, temperate rainforest. She watched the churning at the bottom of an endless vortex that would trap anyone or anything unfortunate enough to fall. She wondered what secrets it held in its depths—then flinched at the memory of how she had buried a secret of her own and never thought about it again. That was until Meral, the sister she hadn’t seen since Jewel had eloped twenty years ago, had arrived on her doorstep with her new husband.

And now they were both missing.

“Meral!” she called again. “Buck!”

Uncertainty roiled inside, tumultuous like the falls.

Those two had gotten lost somehow, which seemed impossible. They’d been hiking together when Jewel realized she’d forgotten her water and had needed to go back. They had gone on ahead of her on the well-defined trail, and the plan had been they would stop at the falls and wait until Jewel could catch up. Where could they have gone?

A twig snapped. Before she could turn, a blunt object smashed into her back. Pain erupted along with her scream as the force of the blow propelled her forward.

Airborne, Jewel plummeted through the clouds and mist, feeling as if her stomach had been left behind on the cliff’s edge.

Terror was catching up with her.

The spray of the waterfall engulfed her. At the last possible moment, she dragged in a breath and fell into the jaws of the beast she’d admired with a healthy fear only moments before. The wrath of the whirlpool plunged her deeper, twisting and tossing, bashing her against sunken boulders.

Dizziness and nausea held her captive within the vortex. The pounding water pushed her deeper, then turned her over again in the same way a crocodile rolled its meal to make it tender.

I’m not ready to die!

Lungs burning, Jewel shoved down the fear. The most important thing she’d learned from self-defense classes with local police chief Colin Winters was not to panic. The violent water was nothing more than an assailant bent on harming her. She could only escape by slipping out of its grip. On the fringe of consciousness, Jewel did a flutter kick, swimming with all her might, and forced her body down and deep below the backwash.

Then she felt it.

The smooth water.

She’d escaped!

Disoriented, unable to tell which way she should go, she allowed the current to sweep her downstream and away from the falls. Jewel opened her eyes and fought through her exhaustion to try to swim toward the surface.