Look for Me: Second Chance Christian Romance Novel with a Side of Suspense: Encounters in Key Largo (Vacation Sweethearts Book 4)

by Jan Thompson

  “Martin MacFarland, you never gave up. You’re also the only man I ever loved. I never stopped loving you, even when I was far away from you.” Tears streamed down her face. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”

  Still on his knees, Martin held both of Corinne’s hands. “I’m sorry I don’t have a ring with me. I’ll re-propose when I do, but we can pick our rings together if you like. I want you to like them and wear them the rest of your life.”

  Corinne pulled him to his feet.

  “One more thing.” Martin gently wrapped his arms around Corinne, as though she was the most fragile, the most precious person in the whole wide world.

  “What is it?”

  “Do you mind if Dahlia and Liam have my last name?”

  “MacFarland’s a long last name.”

  “So is Anderson.”

  “Well, maybe Anderson-MacFarland?”

  “That’s even worse.” Martin chuckled. “That’s a mouthful.”

  “And so is this.” Corinne lifted her lips toward his.

  Their kiss was warm and full of memories—of past grief, old sufferings, forgotten heartaches…

  The good, the bad, the ugly had all been filtered out by the God of mercy and grace, the Holy God who picked up the shattered pieces of their lives and made all things new.

  Of course, right in the middle of their reunion, Corinne’s phone buzzed.

  Corinne checked her text. “Liam’s awake.”

  “Let’s go,” Martin said. “I want to meet my new son.”

  And he meant it.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Even though Corinne felt that their May wedding date was a long way off when she and Martin scheduled it, seven months raced by with major events happening one after another.

  On the same day that Martin proposed to her back in October, he took Corinne to his stepmother’s favorite jeweler in town, where they both picked her engagement ring and their wedding bands.

  Engraved inside their wedding bands were the words “behold, all things are become new” from II Corinthians 5:17.

  When Corinne went home to Key Largo, Angelina went with her. She had quit her job at Delilah Jacobs’s office. Pete stayed behind in Savannah to work at MacMuscles for another two months until the Christmas break.

  With Angelina now working as a full-time nanny to Dahlia and Liam, Corinne was able to start applying to graduate school, which she began to do after Christmas. While she was on campus tour at the university, she discovered that the education department had jobs available. Since graduate school didn’t start until August, Corinne decided to apply for one of the desk jobs at the office of admissions.

  And she got the job.

  Martin was surprised she applied for the job at all. It was true that she didn’t need the money, considering the FBI had rewarded her three times for helping them to catch Flavian, Nikos, and Oscar—although she wasn’t sure what kind of a catch dead people could be. Oscar wasn’t dead yet, but if he stopped cooperating with the FBI and INTERPOL, they would turn him over to the FSB. That was the last thing he wanted.

  By the time May came around, Corinne had spent the least amount of time preparing for her wedding. Not only was Angelina her nanny, she had decided to be her wedding planner as well, doing almost all the hard work of organizing and pretty much getting everything done.

  “As long as we don’t have a spaghetti rehearsal dinner,” Martin warned.

  It was truly one of the first few times when Corinne disagreed with Martin, while trying to take Angelina’s side. At the end, she conceded that they better eat something else at the rehearsal dinner.

  Speaking of Martin, Corinne was proud of him. Ready to get out from under his dad’s shadow, he had worked hard to buy a fledgling auto shop in Miami and turn it into MacMuscles Miami, a small subsidiary of MacMuscles Classic Car Restoration of Savannah, Georgia.

  By February, Pete was back working for Martin again, but this time they were both in Miami. Pete regretted selling his 1959 Volkswagen bus along with his house a while back before he married Angelina, but Corinne and Martin reminded him that it would too stressful for his heart to look back and regret his decisions.

  “Just turn the past, present, and future over to God,” Martin said.

  “We should put that in our wedding vows,” Corinne added.

  With Martin’s help, Pete found another Volkswagen bus to restore. The kind man that he was, Martin let Pete keep his bus in their auto shop at no cost. The only condition was that Pete couldn’t work on his own personal pet projects during work hours.

  One month before their wedding day, Corinne and Martin found a house they liked. It had four bedrooms plus a home office and a fenced-in yard. The house was well maintained. The only thing they had to do was repaint the walls and replace the refrigerator and stove.

  While Corinne especially liked how big each bedroom was, Martin was all over the large backyard, looking for a place to put his new charcoal grill that his dad bought for him. How hard could it be to find a spot for his grill?

  “It’s a lot of yard for you to mow,” Corinne pointed to the trees in the distance. “All the way over there.”

  “I’ll get a riding mower.” Martin smiled. “When Liam gets older, he can mow the lawn.”

  “He’s only fifteen months old.”

  “Kids grow up fast.”

  “Yeah, they do. He’s weaned already.”

  Martin wrapped his arm around her shoulders as they looked out at their future new yard. “Maybe we could have our wedding here.”

  “Hmm. Now that’s an idea.” Corinne held his hand. “We aren’t inviting too many guests. They can all fit in the backyard.”

  Martin kissed Corinne’s forehead. “If we have more kids, they’ll have a lot of backyard to play in.”

  “First things first, Mr. MacFarland. Let’s get ready for our wedding.”

  After the closing, they had the house repainted, some appliances replaced, and the interior decorated in a southern beach-cottage style.

  Corinne moved in with Dahlia and Liam first, while Martin stayed in Pete’s small spare room a few miles away. Corinne wished that Pete and Angelina lived closer to them, but they didn’t qualify for a house in this neighborhood.

  Until Martin promoted Pete to General Manager of MacMuscles Miami.

  For not discriminating against Pete’s age, Martin found new respect in his fiancée’s eyes.

  Corinne also found out a few more things about Martin she hadn’t known before, and that led to their decisions about a church for their family.

  At the end of the day, they discovered that they both wanted to serve God in a local ministry of some sort. They would continue to pray about it and see where God led them. Pastor Butler had advised them to find a new church somewhere close to their home in Miami. It would make no sense for them to drive to Key Largo every weekend. It would be better for them to plug into a local church so that they could serve the greater Miami community.

  The fact that Corinne and Martin had agreed on that and many other things about their new life together made her grateful to God.

  Corinne knew that life would not always be filled with happy moments like these, but when blessings came, she reminded herself to trust the sovereignty of God over it all.

  And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.

  With the verse from Job 1:21-22 hidden in her heart, Corinne stepped forward onto the freshly mowed grass one glorious Saturday morning in the month of May. A perpetual smile on her face belied the fact that she was genuinely so nervous inside that she hadn’t slept much the night before. She had been afraid that she wouldn’t hear her alarm clock and then be late to the hairdresser.

  Thank God that Angelina was staying overnight at the house, and she woke her up just in time to leave. Martin’s stepmother, Damaris, had flown in f
rom Savannah the week before to stay with them and help around with Dahlia and Liam as Angelina flitted here and there, preparing for her wedding.

  A few hours after her hair and makeup were done, here she was.

  The string quartet that Angelina found on the internet played a melodious medley of hymns. Budget-conscious to the bone, the wedding planner hadn’t splurged at all. Her expense reports impressed Martin and Corinne to no end. They decided to give her a pay raise for her nanny duties.

  Holding on to Pete’s arm, Corinne prayed that God would let her own dad know that Pete wasn’t trying to take his place. If her father had been alive, he would have walked her down the aisle.

  All the guests rose to their feet, smiling to her as Corinne made her way toward Martin, who looked even more nervous than she was. His father was his best man, and he looked delighted.

  Pastor Butler also smiled. He was holding the same worn Bible that he had used to counsel Martin and Corinne for several months before the wedding.

  Corinne dipped her head and realized that she had been walking on haphazardly scattered flower petals on the grass. Those must have been thrown by her flower girl, Dahlia. Corinne decided she’d have to watch the video later to see it.

  She also told herself to read the guest book to see who came to their wedding. She was afraid to look to her left and right. She felt that if she saw the faces of her friends and church family who stood by her through the rough times in her life, she would burst into tears and ruin her eyeshadow.

  She spotted Damaris with her new grandson, the ring bearer. Corinne’s breath caught when she saw Liam make a face in Damaris’s arm. He was dressed in a pull-on stretchable baby tuxedo, but the moment he saw Mommy’s face, he lifted his arms.

  Uh-oh.

  Damaris cooed and rocked him, pointing elsewhere. For a moment, his attention was distracted.

  When Corinne reached the arch decorated with orchids and hibiscus and other tropical flowers of many colors, she realized that Martin’s eyes were filled with tears.

  Don’t make me cry.

  After Pete gave Corinne away, she stepped up to the podium, smiling to her friend Ruby Tanaka. She had burned out after Oscar had been captured, and left the bureau shortly afterwards. Today, she was no longer FBI Special Agent Tanaka, who can kill with a single blow. She was only Ruby, Corinne’s reluctant maid-of-honor.

  There was no one else Corinne would rather have to stand with her at her wedding. Even while Tanaka had been undercover as Stephanie in Hawaii, she had looked out for Corinne all the way. When things got out of hand, it was Tanaka who rescued Corinne from the bad place, and found a safe house for her. She had put her life on the line many times to protect Corinne.

  Somewhere along the way, the other agent had witnessed to Tanaka, and soon after Oscar was captured, she had accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. In fact, Pastor Butler had baptized her in the Atlantic Ocean only a couple of months before.

  In spite of the six-month-long preparation, the wedding ceremony itself went pretty quickly. Their vows were short and sweet and focused on God. Corinne was glad it didn’t take too long because she thought Liam was about to burst into a wail when Damaris carried him to hand over their wedding rings.

  Whose idea was it to make a fifteen-month-old baby the ringbearer?

  Then Corinne reminded herself that their wedding theme was thankfulness. A near-disaster was an opportunity to be thankful.

  The wedding favors that everyone would take from the reception to come included the verse from I Corinthians 1:4.

  I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ.

  “I now pronounce you man and wife,” Pastor Butler said. “You may kiss the bride.”

  And Martin did. Long and sweet, with such an unabashed display of public affection, as if they wouldn’t kiss again the rest of their lives.

  The string quartet stirred up again, and the newlyweds strolled down the aisle, hand in hand, to the cheers and applause of the guests.

  Corinne smiled to Martin’s sister, Tina, and her family. She spotted Ming and Sabine in the crowd. And she nodded to all her friends from Beach Town Church.

  Then she turned her attention to Martin, who was beaming from ear to ear.

  She loved this man. So down-to-earth and genuinely more caring than she had given him credit for all these years. Not only had he given up much for her and her children, he was totally fine with wherever they wanted to spend their honeymoon.

  Corinne had to make him decide where to go so that he wouldn’t blame her for it later on. And would anyone believe it if all he wanted to do was sit in a cottage looking at the ocean in Key West?

  Well, that was what they were going to do all week on their honeymoon.

  Their bags had been packed the night before and loaded into the tiny trunk of Martin’s dad’s new Corvette—once lime green, now painted red—for the three-hour drive to Key West, where they had rented an oceanfront beach house, complete with a personal chef so that they didn’t have to cook.

  Corinne looked forward to praying with Martin, reading the Bible together as a couple, walking along the beach whenever they wanted, and taking it easy without worrying about lurking dangers.

  But first, the wedding reception.

  After they stepped into their house, Angelina closed the door behind them to give them time to change in private. After that they were due to go back outside to a reception in a giant tent.

  “How are you doing, Mrs. MacFarland?” Martin asked as they walked down the hallway to their master bedroom.

  “It’s surreal.” Corinne thought her hands shook. She held her hands together.

  “Are you nervous about our new life together?”

  “I think I am.”

  “Me too.” Martin wrapped his hands around hers. “Let’s trust God to lead us forward.”

  Corinne nodded.

  Their foreheads met and they closed their eyes.

  “Heavenly Father,” Martin began to pray, as if it was the most natural thing for them to do. “We give to You our new life together as husband and wife. Thank You for Your peace that passes all understanding. Thank You for bringing Corinne into my life.”

  He squeezed Corinne’s hands. “We both want to be in Your perfect will now and for the rest of our lives. I pray that we would be godly to each other and to our children, and that we would handle all matters biblically, that our lives would be pleasing to You in everything that we think, say and do. Lord Jesus, may You be glorified now and forevermore.”

  “In Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen.” Corinne closed the prayer for them.

  “Now let’s go change quickly before our wedding guests get any idea that we’re busy doing something else that we’re not doing right now.”

  Corinne chuckled, and laughed when Martin scooped her up and carried her all the way to their wedding chamber.

  Key Bible Verses in LOOK FOR ME

  Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.

  Luke 12:6-7

  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

  II Corinthians 5:17

  The Next Book is PRAY FOR ME

  Vacation Sweethearts Book 5

  He thinks he has found love at work…

  But they can’t work at love

  when she’s all work and no love…

  When we first met Byron Moss’s cousin, Augustus, in Smile for Me (Vacation Sweethearts Book 1), he had left the corporate world and was the landscape gardener at Chapel by the Sea Christian School in Nassau in the Bahamas.

  Pray for Me is Gus’s story. Recovering from a broken relationship and needing a vacation, Gus visits his cousin Byron in Atlanta, Georgia, where he finds himself volunteering at Byron’s church, Midtown
Chapel, in its ministry to homeless teenagers. Coming from a wealthy family, Gus has never seen people that poor and in distress.

  When Judy Fitzpatrick, the ministry director, asks for volunteers to help build tiny houses for homeless families in the community, Gus signs up to do landscaping. He gets so involved in the project that he doesn’t want to leave. Is he more interested in the ministry itself or in the single and unattached director of the ministry?

  Pray for Me (Vacation Sweethearts Book 5)

  JanThompson.com/pray

  Pray for Me is Book 5 in USA Today bestselling author Jan Thompson’s Vacation Sweethearts collection of contemporary Christian travel romance novels celebrating the immeasurable grace and undeserved mercy of God. These standalone Vacation Sweethearts novels are a spin-off of Jan’s Savannah Sweethearts coastal city and beach town Christian romance series. Some of the novels in Vacation Sweethearts are also a prelude to the Protector Sweethearts Christian romantic suspense series.

  Vacation Sweethearts

  JanThompson.com/vacation

  Jan Thompson’s Book News Mailing List:

  JanThompson.com/newsletter

  Acknowledgments

  Many thanks to my Georgia Press publishing team for keeping up with my writing schedule.

  With God-given eyes for copyediting details, Lenda Selph is my patient proofreader extraordinaire. I appreciate her and thank God for her invaluable hard work.

  I am grateful to God for my husband and son for their support and encouragement.

  And I’ll always remember my beloved mother and my late father for having instilled in me the love of reading and writing from a very early age. I miss my father here on earth, but I will see him in heaven some bright day.

  Most of all, I am eternally thankful to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross to save me from my sins and rose again from the grave to give me eternal life. Without Him, I can write and do nothing.