A Forever Thing: A Contemporary Christian Romance NOVELLA Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  A FOREVER THING

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Also Available From Debra Ullrick

  About the Author

  A Forever Thing

  By

  Debra Ullrick

  www.debraullrick.com

  A Forever Thing

  Copyright © 2015 by Debra Ullrick

  All rights reserved. Copyright under Berne, Universal and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or by any other information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  Published by: Sweet Impressions Publishing

  Cover Design by Lynnette Bonner

  Cover image © Shutterstock- 22384336

  Registered Trademarks mentioned in the book:

  Keurig

  K-Cup

  eBook Edition License Notes

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook my not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Amazon Kindle Store and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

  Publisher's Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Dedication

  Once again, a ginormous thank you to my dearest friend - author extraordinaire - Staci Stallings. Thank you for all the long, hard hours you put into editing and adding your fabulous touches to my stories. Without you and God my stories would not be possible. I love you, girl.

  Thank you, Julie Blair, for going over my story one final time. Your input and notes are so valuable, and I deeply appreciate them, and you. Luv ya bunches.

  Last but not least, to my friend and fellow author Debra Lynn Collins, thank you so much for being not only a dear friend to me, but an encourager and accountability partner, as well. Luv ya high as the sky.

  A Forever Thing

  By

  Debra Ullrick

  Chapter One

  “Oh, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas,” Kelly Larkin sang as she added another shiny red Christmas ornament to her Christmas pine tree. She loved Christmas. It was her favorite time of the year and her favorite holiday, a time to celebrate the birth of her Savior. “Angie, are you coming? I need your help.”

  “Really, Mom?” Her daughter rolled her hazel eyes and went right back to texting again.

  Kelly’s chest expanded. She regretted buying her daughter a cellphone. All Angie did now was text all day long. “Yes, really.” Kelly stood by the seven foot Christmas tree and dangled a bright blue ornament from her fingers while she waited for her daughter’s response.

  “I don’t do Christmas tree decorating anymore. I’m too old for that,” Angie answered in the same snarky tone she had acquired since her father’s death, and since she had started hanging around the wrong crowd shortly after his passing.

  Kelly thought moving closer to her parents might help Angie’s attitude, but so far nothing had changed. Then again, they had only moved back to Colorado two months ago. Maybe they just needed a little more time. Kelly’s parents assured her she just needed to be patient and give Angie a chance, how sometimes a change made a huge difference. She only hoped they were right. She glanced over at Angie who sat there with her legs draped over one of their overstuffed chairs, still texting away. Seeing her daughter was like looking at a picture of herself at that age. Both had blonde hair, hazel eyes, and heart shaped faces. Only Kelly was nothing like Angie at twelve years old. She was compliant, easy-going. A people pleaser some would have said. God help me to be patient. “You’re never too old to ‘do’ Christmas,” Kelly told Angie.

  “Whatever.” Angie pulled on the gum in her mouth and wrapped it around her finger before she stuffed the huge wad back into her mouth. In seconds, her fingers flew over her cellphone once again.

  Kelly had no idea what to do with her. Ever since her dad’s death, Angie was no longer the same bubbly, sweet girl she had once been. Instead, she had become almost belligerent in any interaction they had and certainly in any fight. The sad truth was her daughter still hurt even though it had been three years since her father had died. And Kelly knew why. She just didn’t know how to help Angie anymore than she had when it first happened. She laid the ornament back in the box and went over and sat in the chair across from her daughter. “Angie.”

  Angie continued to text without so much as a glance upward.

  “Angie, look at me.”

  Still no response.

  At the end of her patience, with a snap, Kelly stood, snatched Angie’s phone from her and sat back down.

  “Hey! Marissa and I were talking.” Angie shot off the chair and went to snatch the phone from her mother, but Kelly tucked it under her leg. “No phone until you listen to what I have to say.” She sent her daughter a look that dared her to defy her. Angie knew she’d take it away and not give it back for at least a week. It had happened multiple times before, and Kelly knew that was the one thing that would make her daughter back down.

  Angie scrunched her face and flopped back down in her chair. “I hate you. You are so mean.”

  Her daughter might be hurting, but her disrespectful attitude was going to stop. And it was going to stop now. Kelly had enough. “As of this moment, young lady, you are grounded from your phone. You will not get it back until I see a change in your attitude. A genuine change, not being all sweet just so you can get it back. That isn’t going to work this time.”

  Angie’s eyes widened. Tears pooled in them. “You can’t do that,” she wailed and threw an utter fit. She stomped her feet and pounded her legs with her fists. A fit that would rival any two year old. Only Angie was twelve not two. “I already lost my dad, and now you’re taking my phone away too. It’s not fair. It’s not fair.”

  Kelly wanted to roll her eyes at the dramatic performance her daughter put on, instead she settled back into her chair, crossed her legs, and waited for the show to be over. “Let me know when you are finished with your dramatics.”

  Angie stopped instantly and pursed her lips. “You don’t even care that he’s gone, do you?” She sniffed and wiped her nose on her shirt sleeve. Something they both knew drove Kelly bonkers. It seemed as if Angie did a lot of that too. Anything she didn’t like, Angie went out of her way to do.

  It was a fight to breathe and to not completely lose her cool as Kelly lowered her eyes and stared at her hands, not really seeing them. She only saw her deceased husband’s handsome face. The memory still stung, but that face was becoming a blur with each passing year. She missed Brad terribly. Just as much if not more than Angie did. Her feelings for him lingered on her heart as her gaze slid to Angie, who sat with her arms across her chest, a smirk on her face.

  Angie knew how to hurt her. But not this time. Anger instead of sadness burned inside her. She’d had enough of Angie’s attitude. She met her daughter’s stare head on and all but hissed out the words, “How dare you act like you’re the only on
e who loved your father. Like you’re the only one who misses him. I miss him too.”

  “You don’t act like it.” The snarky tone returned.

  “Why? Because I don’t throw a temper tantrum like you do and go getting into trouble every chance I get?”

  “No. Because every Christmas you go around all happy like, singing and acting as if nothing happened. Daddy died on Christmas Eve. How can you celebrate like you do knowing that?” Angie jumped up, ran to her bedroom, and slammed the door behind her.

  The crack jolted through Kelly, and after a moment she laid her head back on the chair, closed her eyes, and slowly exhaled. “Lord,” she shook her head. “Please help me. I know Angie’s hurting, but I don’t know how to help her. If there’s someone who can help me with her, can show me something I haven’t tried already, would you please send them my way? And soon.” With no way to fix any of it, Kelly stood and went back over to the Christmas tree standing tall in the corner of her ranch-style home. She picked up an ornament, her joy from earlier, gone.

  Woodenly, she placed the remaining ornaments on the tree, gathered the empty boxes, and headed to take them out to the garage when the doorbell rang. Strange. No one came out here. “Who can that be?”

  She set the boxes down and went to answer the door.

  When she opened the door, her mouth fell open. Directly in front of her stood Tate Baker, wearing a police uniform, and holding her daughter by the arm.

  Angie looked up at her as she yanked her arm from Tate’s grip. She shot past Kelly and ran to her room, the familiar bang of the door echoed through the space. Kelly didn’t know whether to go after Angie or talk to Tate, who she hadn’t seen in years, and who she’d had a huge crush on in high school. She had no idea he still lived here.

  “Angie? Is that you?” he asked, his brown eyes searched hers.

  “Yes. It’s me.” Her gaze flitted from Angie’s room back to Tate. “W—what are you doing here? And how…how… My daughter… You…”

  “Your daughter ran right in front of my patrol car. I came within inches of hitting her.”

  ♥ ♥ ♥

  Tate stood there, and watched Kelly’s face go from shocked to confused to… The color drained from her cheeks as terrified understanding came over her. Without waiting for an invitation, he stepped inside, took Kelly by the arm, and led her to a nearby couch. Once she sat, he sat down next to her. It was good to see her again even though she had broken his heart fifteen years before. Truthfully, he’d never really gotten over her nor had he ever married. He was a one woman man. And that woman was married. He needed to remember that. Tate gazed down at her. What should he do next? He should probably go, but Kelly was clearly upset and he hated to leave her like this.

  In a daze, Kelly shook her head. “I…I don’t understand. She was mad at me and she went to her room. What was my daughter doing outside?” Her eyes came over to his as if he could supply the answer.

  He shrugged and shook his head. “I don’t know. All I know is, she ran out in front of my car and froze.”

  Kelly tilted her head as new thoughts went through her eyes. “What are you doing here anyway?”

  “There’s been a lot of break-ins around here lately, so I was out patrolling the neighborhood before I headed home.”

  “Break ins?” she squeaked. Her eyes widened and then narrowed. “I haven’t heard of any break-ins around here.”

  With a frown, she tilted her head and peered around him. With no warning, she shot off of the couch and fled outside.

  Tate took off after her to see what the problem was.

  “Angie! Come back here!” Kelly yelled and ran after her daughter who barreled down the sidewalk and headed straight toward the trees behind the subdivision. “Angie!”

  He didn’t need an explanation. Tate ran past Kelly, trying his hardest to catch up to her daughter before she fled into the woods. With the sun setting within the next hour, if she made it into the woods, it would be hard to find her in the dark. Plus, the temperature was supposed to get down into the mid-teens overnight. That was not a scenario he wanted to let happen.

  The gear on his belt rattled against his hip as he ran harder and faster to try and catch up to Kelly’s daughter who ran like an Olympic runner.

  He couldn’t help but wonder what was so wrong in the young girl’s life that she felt the need to run away. Kelly had always been great with children. The ones she’d babysat adored her as did their parents.

  Minutes later, he lost sight of the girl as she ducked into the thicket, and ran deeper and into the woods. Finally, Tate pulled up, unsure which direction she had gone.

  In seconds Kelly caught up to him. “Where…where did she go?” she asked between gasps, her fear-filled eyes darted wildly to the left, to the right, and straight ahead.

  “I don’t know.” He took in a short gasp of his own as he formulated a plan. “But, I’m going to call this in and see if we can get some help here fast before it gets dark.”

  Kelly glanced up at the sky and back at him as he called the situation in to dispatch using the radio mic on his left shoulder. Her eyes mirrored his own thoughts. Darkness was quickly descending on them.

  Call in, he assessed the situation further and made a decision. “We need to head back.”

  “What? No! I’m not going anywhere until I find her.” It was all the warning she gave him before Kelly took off, weaving through the trees.

  Frustrated by her lack of wisdom, Tate caught up to her and grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stop. “Kelly, listen to me. You have to come back with me. I can’t have both of you lost out here.”

  “I…” Her head shook as she looked around wildly. She dragged in one shaky breath after another until finally her shoulders slumped. Her eyes slammed shut and anguish marred her face. She ran her hands up and down her arms. “You’re right. We should go back.”

  As he led her all the way back to his patrol car, Tate watched as Kelly continued to glance back into the woods.

  “She’ll be fine. We’ll find her.” They weren’t supposed to make empty promises, but Tate couldn’t bear to see her like this. When he reached his patrol car, he radioed in once again to find out what resources were being deployed.

  In front of him, Kelly paced back and forth, her eyes never once left the woods. Within minutes, patrol cars, search and rescue vehicles, and canines filled the area.

  With only a few minutes of light left, a plan was formulated. As teams, they headed out to find the girl. Tate would be with three other officers from the station who would form a cordon going east.

  “Tate.” Kelly raced up to him just as they prepared to head out. “Please, let me go with you?”

  “No. Kelly, you can’t.” He hated to tell her no, especially when those pleading hazel eyes stared back at him. But some things were for the best. “Listen, we need you here. In case she comes back. If she does, call me.” He pulled out a pad from his inside coat pocket, scribbled down his cellphone number, and handed it to her. He locked eyes with her. “We’ll find her. I promise.” With those words and only one quick look back, he rushed to catch up with the others, praying they would find the girl before anything happened to her. With every step he took, the ache in his gut told him he should have never promised something he might not be able to fulfill.

  Chapter Two

  Worry laced with fear twined with anger clutched her as Kelly paced the floor in front of her living room window. She tugged on her lip until it was sore. The lights from the rescue team had disappeared into the dense forest long before. She wondered where Angie was.

  If she was cold.

  If she was hungry.

  If she was okay.

  What if the burglar was here and he found her? Kelly’s fear and her pacing escalated. “Lord, please, I can’t stand this. I can’t just sit around doing nothing. I have to go looking for her.” She grabbed her jacket along with one of Angie’s and headed out the door but stopped just feet from the porch.<
br />
  Torn between the clawing desire to go and the rational need to stay, her mind yanked her back and forth.

  What if Angie came home and found the house empty? Would she be frightened? They could all be out searching for her and wouldn’t know she had returned.

  Then, worse thoughts streamed over those.

  What if she didn’t come home at all? What if the fight this afternoon was their last? No. She shook her head. She couldn’t think like that. She tried to be positive, but worry won over as she wondered if Angie was scared.

  What if she got hurt? Was she already hurt?

  What if they didn’t find her? Then what?

  Anguish washed over the irrational need to enter those dark, dense woods. Kelly flopped down on the cold ground and pulled Angie’s jacket to her face. The tears quaked through her as every horrible thought assaulted her senses. Still, her gaze never once left the woods. Angie had to be all right. She had to come home. No way could another Christmas be marred by tragedy.

  Then, suddenly, she perked up. Was that a light?

  She unwound her legs, swiped at her eyes, and stood.

  Another light appeared.

  And another.

  Faint, but lights nonetheless.

  They grew brighter and brighter.

  They were heading her way. Did that mean they had found Angie?

  Just as fear relinquished its grasp to hope, the search crew emerged from the woods.

  Kelly sprinted toward them, slip-sliding all the way. “Angie!” she yelled the instant she spotted her daughter. Angie was walking next to Tate, secured in his arms, and wrapped in a blanket. “Oh, Angie,” she sobbed as she took her from Tate. Angie stiffened, but Kelly didn’t care, she held her as close as she could. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I don’t know what I would do if something happened to you. Please don’t ever do that again.”