Publisher’s Note:
This novel is a work of fiction. References to real events, organizations,
or places are used in a fictional context. Any resemblances to actual persons, living or dead, are entirely coincidental.
All Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version,
© 1979, 1980, 1982, 1984 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
A Promise of Forever Love
Book Three in the Second Chance at Love Series
Vanessa Miller
www.vanessamiller.com
ISBN: 978-1-60374-209-2
Printed in the United States of America
© 2011 by Vanessa Miller
Whitaker House
1030 Hunt Valley Circle
New Kensington, PA 15068
www.whitakerhouse.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Miller, Vanessa.
A promise of forever love / by Vanessa Miller.
p. cm. — (Second chance at love ; bk. 3)
ISBN 978-1-60374-209-2 (trade pbk.)
1. Widows—Fiction. 2. Women clergy—Fiction. 3. African American churches—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3613.I5623P86 2011
813'.6—dc22
2010051282
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical—including photocopying,
recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system—without permission in writing from the publisher. Please direct your inquiries to [email protected].
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 17 16 15 14 13 12 11
Prologue
On days like this, Yvonne Milner wondered why she even bothered to pray. She had yelled, screamed, begged, and cajoled, yet the doctors avoided making eye contact with her when they came into her husband’s hospital room. There were no more talks of surgery or chemotherapy. They’d told her that nothing more could be done for David. But, as far as Yvonne was concerned, the doctors didn’t know diddly. David Milner was the senior pastor of one of the most notable churches in Detroit. He was the father of two beautiful daughters, and he was her beloved husband. So, she wasn’t just going to throw in the towel and believe the doctors’ doom-and-gloom predictions. She and David had been married for thirty-four years, and he had promised her a fiftieth wedding anniversary celebration. “We’ve got sixteen more years to go, David,” she urged him. “Don’t give up now.”
A vicious cough shook his fragile, cancer-racked body as he attempted to sit up in his hospital bed.
“Don’t, sweetheart. Just lie down.”
“No…I need…to tell you…something.” David labored to get each word out.
It was killing Yvonne to see her husband weak and bedridden like this. He had always been so strong, had always been her hero. She had admired this man, even when they hadn’t seen eye-to-eye about her role in the ministry. Early in their marriage, Yvonne had known that she was destined to preach the gospel. However, David wouldn’t hear of it. They had fought, and Yvonne had prayed for years that God would change her husband’s mind. Finally, David had accepted the fact that his wife had been called by God to be a preacher. Yet, even through those tough years, Yvonne couldn’t have imagined being anywhere but with the man she loved. “You can say what you need to while lying down, honey. You need your strength to get better.”
David shook his head. “I’m going home, baby.”
“I know that, David. You just need to regain your strength so they will let you out of this hospital.”
He shook his head again and then pointed heavenward. “Home…with Jesus.”
Yvonne’s eyes filled with tears. “Don’t say that, David. You and I have a lot more living to do.”
He patted her hand. “Call Thomas.”
Thomas Reed was David’s best friend. The man traveled the world, building churches and ministering to God’s people. He’d recently lost his wife to the same evil disease that was threatening to take David’s life. “Call Thomas right now? Why? What do you want me to tell him?”
“If you need help, call Thomas. He promised me—” A coughing fit cut him off.
Yvonne took the cup from David’s bedside table and filled it with water from the pitcher, then held it to his lips for him to drink once the coughing subsided. “Here, baby, drink this.” When he had taken a few sips, she said, “Now, just lie here and rest. Our girls will be here soon, and you need to save your energy for them.” Toya, twenty-six years old, was their firstborn, a self-assured attorney with political aspirations. Tia was their twenty-four-year-old “baby.” While Toya was analytical and ambitious, Tia’s strength was creativity, yet she was introspective and reserved. She could paint and write poetry from sunup till sundown and be perfectly at peace.
It had been difficult for Yvonne to manage her daughters’ very different personalities while raising them, but David had convinced her to relax and let God work out His perfect plan for each girl’s life. If it hadn’t been for David’s wisdom and prayers, Yvonne was sure that she would have broken Tia’s spirit. She had needed more time than David to understand their daughter’s passion for the creative arts. What was she going to do if he didn’t survive this illness?
No sooner had the thought crossed her mind than Yvonne tried to banish it. But that was also the moment when she noticed that David’s breathing sounded funny. And then she understood why none of the medical professionals who had come into the room today had been able to look her in the eye. They had heard it, too—the death rattle.
“No, baby, no—don’t leave me!” she begged him.
“Remember…Thomas promised…love you.”
Tears were running down Yvonne’s face as she heard her husband’s last words. She put her arms around the man she had loved for a lifetime—and yet not long enough—and whispered, “I love you, too, baby. Always and forever.”
Chapter
One
Eighteen months later
Yvonne Milner collapsed into her office chair and heaved a sigh. Pastoring Christ-Life Sanctuary by herself was far from easy, and it seemed that her situation was only getting worse. For years, the church had grown and thrived; it had even reached megachurch status with more than five thousand members. But since David’s death, two thousand of their “You can count on me” members had left the ministry. The head elder, Ron Thompson, had broken away to start his own ministry, taking another two hundred church members with him. Tithing was down, charity fund expenditures were up, and Yvonne knew that the church’s board of directors blamed it all on her.
Several of the board members had challenged her authority to her face and as good as said that they wouldn’t be having those problems if David were still around or if their senior pastor wasn’t a woman. Yvonne acknowledged that some people could not accept having a female in the highest position of church leadership, but she also knew that not all twenty-two hundred members had left for that reason.
Sighing again, she stood up and stepped over to the bay window to gaze out at the new Family Life Center—or, rather, what was supposed to be the new Family Life Center, the final phase of their latest building project. The Family Life Center had been her vision. After the sanctuary had been expanded to make room for their growing congregation, Yvonne had convinced David that they still needed to do more. She had envisioned a brand-new facility that would provide space for recreational activities, especially for the children and young adults, as well as a café and a bookstore. In addition, she had intended for one of the rooms to be set up theater-style, with tiered seats and a movie screen, where they could organize movie
nights or perform stage plays.
Five years ago, when Yvonne and David had first proposed the building project to the board, they had developed a financial plan based on the church’s finances and projected that they would have more than enough funds to cover each phase of the project. But Yvonne hadn’t foreseen the death of her husband or the annihilation of Detroit’s economy. How could she have known that General Motors and Chrysler would go crying to the government for a bailout and then lay off thousands upon thousands of workers, many of whom attended church at Christ-Life Sanctuary?
Now Yvonne was stuck staring at a half finished Family Life Center, as it would probably remain. After all, the coffers were empty. She really couldn’t blame the board of directors for asking for her resignation. While her husband had been alive, Yvonne had stood side by side with him as they’d built this church from the ground up. She had installed three of their seven board members herself. And she knew that God wasn’t finished with her yet. The work He had begun in her—and in the church through her ministry—was far from over, and she would be dead and buried before anyone took her out of the pulpit permanently. She just needed a plan, needed to pray about knowing the right things to say at the board meeting tomorrow in order to convince the members to give her more time to turn things around.
A knock at her door drew Yvonne’s eyes away from the window. She turned toward the sound. “Come in.”
The door opened, and in walked Thomas Reed. Actually, he didn’t walk; he swaggered like a man who had the keys to the kingdom. If she hadn’t known Thomas for almost thirty years, Yvonne would have thought he swaggered so confidently because he was a millionaire several times over. But Thomas had strutted like that even when he had been as poor as a man carrying a “Will work for food” sign.
Thomas had a way about him that caused men and women alike to stop and stare. He was one of those fine, chocolate, Denzel Washington types of brothers, with wavy black hair and heavenly hazel eyes.
David had met Thomas thirty years ago in seminary and had joked about marrying Yvonne to keep her away from pretty boys like Thomas so that he didn’t have to worry about her running off. But David had never had reason to worry; he had always been her prince, and she’d never wanted anyone but him.
When Thomas got married, David became less worried about his friend’s captivating charm. The four of them—David and Yvonne, Thomas and Brenda—had settled into their own ministries yet maintained a lasting friendship. David and Yvonne opened Christ-Life Sanctuary a year after David graduated from seminary, and the church had flourished from its inception. Thomas, on the other hand, was forced to close the doors to his church after struggling for five years to make a go of it. He hadn’t let that stop him, though. Thomas became a Christ-centered motivational speaker and took his ministry on the road. He now pulled in fifty thousand dollars per speaking engagement. He also had written nearly a dozen New York Times best-selling books.
“Thomas!” Yvonne gave him a hug and stepped back to admire his suit. “Look at you, dapper as ever on this hot summer day.”
“You don’t look so bad, yourself,” he said with a grin.
“I can’t believe you came all this way.”
“I wouldn’t miss this board meeting for anything in the world. And besides, I have a promise to make good on.”
Just before David died, he had told Yvonne to call Thomas if she ever needed help. She’d seen Thomas at the funeral, where he had asked if she needed anything. No, she’d said, and for eighteen months, she hadn’t bothered her husband’s best friend for assistance, even though he’d called her from time to time to check in. But today, she was finally calling in a favor. Thomas had been installed as a board member of Christ-Life Sanctuary about ten years ago but rarely showed up for meetings. The board had always been in accord with David, so he’d never needed to rely on his friend for a tie-breaking vote.
Yvonne had had no such luck, and so she’d asked for Thomas’s help on this vote. Yet she hadn’t expected him to make an appearance—not when he could have simply phoned in with his vote.
“Please, sit down,” Yvonne said, gesturing to the couch and seating herself. “Before we talk about church business, I want to know how you’ve been doing.” It had been months since they’d caught up, and she was eager to hear about his speaking ministry and his family.
Thomas unbuttoned his suit jacket and sat down on the couch next to Yvonne. “So, what do you want to know?”
“For starters, you haven’t been traveling as much lately. Has the world received all the motivation it needs?”
Thomas laughed. “I’m still getting more requests for speaking engagements than I can accept, but I guess I’ve kind of lost my wanderlust.”
Yvonne knew that for years, Brenda had asked Thomas to spend less time on the road and more time at home. It seemed strange that now, more than two years after her death, he was finally willing to limit his travels. “What brought this on?” she asked.
“Since Brenda died, I’ve spent a lot of time putting things into perspective. I want to have time to reconnect with my son, which is going to be hard since he has his own career now.”
Yvonne understood exactly where Thomas was coming from. She and David had spent many years on the preaching circuit, and then, one day, they looked up and saw that Toya and Tia were grown. She wished that she could take credit for the woman Toya had become, and she definitely wished that she had spent more time helping Tia mature. If life didn’t turn out right for Tia, Yvonne knew she’d be tempted to blame herself. “I should have spent more time with my girls as they were growing up, too.” She slapped her hand against her thigh as she sat up a bit straighter. “But, hey, I figure I’ll get a second chance when they give me some grandchildren.”
“Speak for yourself, Granny,” Thomas said, nudging her arm. “I’m not trying to become a poppa for at least another five years. We didn’t have Jarrod until I was thirty, so I figure he can at least return the favor and not have his first kid until he’s thirty, maybe even thirty-five.”
Yvonne chuckled, then laughed outright, so hard that she doubled over. When she finally regained composure, she sat up again and wiped the tears from her eyes. “Okay, maybe I don’t want to be a granny so soon, either.”
“You certainly don’t look like any granny I know. I mean, look at you. You’re fifty-two, but you don’t look a day over forty.”
Yvonne had been told that her looks were what Olay would want in a model to advertise its facial products. Fifty was definitely the new forty where she was concerned. People often said that with her long, coal-black hair, light skin, and eyes that sparkled and danced, she could pass for a relative of Lena Horne. “We’ve known each other entirely too long. There’s no way you should know my real age.”
Thomas lifted his hands in surrender. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll take your secrets to the grave with me.”
Yvonne felt her droll mood depart. “I don’t want to hear anything about you going to your grave.”
Thomas put an arm around Yvonne’s shoulder and gave her a squeeze. “I shouldn’t have said that. I’m sorry.”
With his arm still wrapped around her, Yvonne took a deep breath to steady her nerves. She had seen two deaths too many in the past two years, and she didn’t know if she could make it through funeral number three anytime soon. With David and Brenda gone, Yvonne felt that she had fulfilled her quota of homegoings for a lifetime. “Don’t say stuff like that. I don’t consider it funny.”
“Again, I’m sorry,” Thomas said as he stood up. “Are you ready for the meeting tomorrow morning?”
Yvonne shook her head and leaned back in the couch. “I’ve been in ministry for thirty years, copastored Christ-Life for twenty, and now some board that my husband and I formed wants to vote me out. I don’t know how to get ready for something like that.”
“But I’m here to cast my vote in favor of you staying senior pastor of Christ-Life,” Thomas reminded her. “And I believe
several others will vote in your favor, also.”
Yvonne pushed herself to her feet and planted a kiss on Thomas’s cheek. “God love you for what you’re doing, Thomas. But I don’t know how much good it’s going to do. If Deacon Brown has his way, I might need to take on a few of those speaking engagements you’ve had to turn down.”
“Don’t worry,” Thomas said. “This meeting is in the Lord’s hands. He knows that you’re meant to pastor this church, and I plan to do everything in my power to make the other board members realize that.”
Chapter
Two
At home that night, Yvonne found herself reviewing Scriptures on faith. She desperately needed to trust that God had a plan that would get her out of the jam she was in. In times of doubt, she always opened her Bible and relied on the Word of God to boost her faith. She turned to the eighth chapter of Luke and began to read one of her favorite Scriptures, starting with the eighth verse.
Now it happened, on a certain day, that He got into a boat with His disciples. And He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side of the lake.” And they launched out. But as they sailed He fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water, and were in jeopardy. And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” Then He arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water. And they ceased, and there was a calm. But He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and marveled, saying to one another, “Who can this be? For He commands even the winds and water, and they obey Him!”
Right now, rather than calming the wind and water, Yvonne needed the Lord to calm the deacons, elders, church board members, and congregation so that they didn’t hastily decide to throw her out. How had things gotten so out of control since David’s death? Yvonne simply didn’t understand. She had been copastor of Christ-Life for more than two decades and had always been treated kindly and respectfully by the leadership and the members.
Yvonne was turning the pages of her Bible to another favorite passage when her phone rang. She did not like to answer her phone when she was studying her Bible or praying, but when she glanced at the caller ID and saw that it was Tia, she had to pick up. Her younger daughter had daily “drama” in her life, and Yvonne was afraid not to answer the phone. If someone was holding her baby girl hostage, and Tia had managed to break away and call for help, Yvonne would never forgive herself for not taking the call. Tia’s drama seemed that extreme at times.
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