A Torey Hope Novel Series: The Complete 4-Book Box Set

by A. D. Ellis

  “Thank you for sharing that, Judy, it was beautiful.” Josie spoke softly. “I have to say, with my own parents’ history and my own story, I don’t hold much faith in love and happily ever after, but your story gives me a little bit of hope at least.”

  “Never give up on finding love, Josie.” Judy hugged the younger girl.

  “It’s not so much that I’ve given up on finding love, I’ve just sort of given up on love finding me and still wanting me after it finds me.” Josie’s words were evident of her suffering; she had yet to share much of her story with the family but it was a story they all knew was there and they suspected it was not a happy one.

  Chapter 7

  Christmas was drawing closer; the children were more hyped up; the weather was turning colder. Yes, it was definitely winter in Torey Hope. Having yet to see the first snowfall of the season, the children were excitedly preparing for the day they’d be able to go sledding. The parents were secretly hoping for a white Christmas while dreading the extra layers the children would require to play outside.

  Audrey was putting last minute touches on the plans for the Christmas party. All of the invites had been mailed or delivered. Much to the girls’ surprise and joy, Captain Decker had smiled shyly and agreed that he’d like to invite Janie to the party. For her part, Janie had blushed and smiled when Captain Decker delivered the invitation to her.

  “My daughter, Audrey, is planning a Christmas party. I was hoping you’d join us if you’re not busy.” Robert had rushed the words out and quickly laid the invitation on the counter.

  “Is Audrey inviting me or are you inviting me, Robert?” Janie asked in a slyly flirtatious way. She boldly reached for his hand over the counter and held it, wondering in her mind what had possessed her to do something so brazen.

  Clearing his throat one too many times and stuttering a bit, Robert stated, “Well, I’d have to say I’m inviting you. I don’t think either of my girls has any intentions towards you, so I’m pretty sure I’m the one who wants you there,” he said with a flirty wink which left Janie with stomach flutters for the rest of the day.

  **********

  Jeremiah walked in from work. As he did every single day, he grabbed Audrey around the waist and kissed her neck before turning her around to face him; hugging her close to him he spoke softly into her neck. “Hiya, Sweets. How was your day?”

  Hugging him back, Audrey sighed as she breathed deeply of her husband’s unique scent; she would recognize him in a room of one thousand people just by smell alone. As if drawing strength from his closeness, she hugged him and breathed in a few more times before speaking. “Well, my day was about the way you’d expect it to be this close to Christmas with three kids home with me all day.” There was a smile in her voice, but he could tell she was tired.

  “We did a couple crafts, had reading time, made our own play-dough, created mini-pizzas for lunch, and did some chores around the house to stay busy; about an hour before naptime I relented and let them use electronics just so I could get some work done. Beck actually fell asleep at naptime along with Megan and Kendrick. Maybe I should be, but I’m not ashamed to admit I took a little nap along with them.”

  Jeremiah leaned in and kissed her soundly and then kissed her forehead. “You deserve a nap. You’re like Wonder Woman; I don’t know how you keep everything going during the day and still run a business. You amaze me. How about we go to the mall and let the kids pick what they want at the food court; then they can play on the playground while we talk. I’ve got something I want to run by you.”

  Never one to turn down the chance to escape fixing dinner and doing dishes, Audrey rounded the kids up, brushed hair, found socks and shoes, and they were headed to dinner in less than twenty minutes.

  While the children shared bites and ate from various meals including Chinese, hotdogs, and sub sandwiches, Audrey and Jeremiah split a pizza and breadsticks. As soon as their bellies were full, Beck took Kendrick and Megan to the playground promising to stay in sight of their parents.

  “So, what’s on your mind, J? Something going on at work?” Audrey could tell her husband wanted to talk to her about something; trying not to worry, she waited patiently for him to begin.

  “Do you remember when I had to go back home about a year ago for my buddy from high school? Kyle Martin?” Jeremiah asked as he began.

  “Yeah, sure, I remember that. Kyle Martin, your best friend from high school; tattooed rebel bad boy, marches to the beat of his own drummer, motorcycle rider, tattoo artist, that Kyle Martin?” Audrey loved listening to her husband speak of his old high school buddy and all of the shenanigans they found themselves in. She knew Kyle had been going through a lot recently and felt bad for him; she could tell her husband was worried about his friend.

  “Well, he’s still struggling a lot. He called me the other day, and I could tell he’d sort of reached the end of his rope. He said he needed to get out of that town, but didn’t know where to go. I offered to let him come stay with us. At first he balked, but he called me today and said if the offer still stands he’d take me up on it. I’m sorry I didn’t discuss it with you first, I was just trying to help him out; he’s a mess, Angel. I told him we have that spare room; it’s tiny but it should work for him. I’m not sure how long he’ll stay, but I think he really needs a change of scenery and he needs friends and support. I know he can get that here in Torey Hope.” Jeremiah spoke with concern in his voice; not concern that his wife would refuse his friend, but concern for his friend’s well-being.

  “JJ, you know I’d never turn away a friend in need. It breaks my heart what he’s dealing with and if he needs a new place to try to work through it all, I think our town and our families are perfect for that.” Audrey leaned over and kissed her husband as he took her hand.

  “Thanks, Angel, I knew you’d be OK with it; I just hated to spring it on you like this. He’s going to store the little bit of stuff he’s keeping in the storage place out by the highway, and he’ll be here to stay in a couple days. I’m worried about him. He just sounds dead inside, not like my old buddy; it’s like he’s going through the motions but they don’t mean anything.”

  With heavy hearts and a bit of excited apprehension of having Kyle move in with them soon, Audrey and Jeremiah gathered the kids up and walked them down to see Santa. They knew their time with Beckett being willing to sit on Santa’s lap with his siblings was drawing near to an end, so they celebrated each picture while they could.

  As they approached the line to see Santa, Beckett pulled his parents to the side while the younger two threw pennies in the fountain nearby. “I just need you both to know that I no longer believe in Santa since I’m ten now, but I will keep the secret for the little ones for as long as I can. I’ll also sit on his lap with them until they no longer believe. We’ve got to keep the magic alive for them, right? I’m just going to put it out there though and say that if Kendrick still believes when he’s twelve and I’m eighteen, I may have to put my foot down.” The three of them laughed and Jeremiah hugged his son to his side. This boy never ceased to amaze them.

  Chapter 8

  The day before Christmas Eve dawned cloudy and cold. The party was going to be at John and Cindy Morgan’s home the next day so the entire clan was spending the day decorating and putting last minute touches together for the festivities.

  The addition of Josie and Kyle to the families and activities had gone smoothly. Josie was opening up more having been there longer. Kyle was pleasant and helpful, but it was evident he was just going through the motions. Both Kyle and Josie were broken and lost; different heartbreaks in their pasts had caused so much pain and damage. More than one member of the family thought Josie and Kyle would be good for each other, but it was clear that neither of them were ready for that just yet; so everyone sat back and waited and watched as these two new family members healed and struggled to regain their footing in life.

  After a very long day of extra festive decorating and heav
y lifting to bring in tables and chairs, the family was done, and the party was 99% set up. Audrey would do table cloths and lay out the plates and silverware and cups and food right before the party.

  Cindy and Judy had put enough baked potatoes in the oven to feed an entire army earlier in the day. The whole crew piled into the kitchen for Baked Potato Bar as the kids liked to call it. Cheese, bacon, broccoli, chili, sour cream, salsa, butter, chives, all the favorite toppings lined the counters so that each person could build their own personal potato. Milk, tea, and water were available to drink and the whole kitchen fell into a hushed silence as everyone settled in to devour their food.

  Once dinner was finished and cleaned up, Beckett announced that he was taking all the kids to the basement to work on Christmas presents. Unbeknownst to the adults, Beck had spent quite a bit of time fashioning homemade books from paper and yarn; he planned on letting each child make a book of their own for their parents and grandparents. He had already made his own so he would be helping the littlest ones on theirs while Megan and Abby worked on their own. He made the adults swear to staying upstairs and not peeking; the whole crew of children trouped down the stairs.

  Earlier that morning, the ladies had tried their hands at making macarons for the party. After several attempts, they finally got them perfected; they had salted caramel, crème brûlée, vanilla, white chocolate, chocolate almond, and gingerbread macaroons for the party. Since the failed attempts were edible, just not presentable, the adults sent a plate of the delicate cookies downstairs with the children and kept the rest of them in the kitchen for themselves. Coffee and tea was made and the exhausted adults settled in for a visit.

  **********

  “Well, now, it appears that we’ve heard stories from me and Jack and Judy. We all know how these three younger couples met. It seems we’re just waiting on a story from John and Cindy.” Captain Decker spoke to the group. Everyone was curious as to Josie’s story as well as Kyle’s, but they knew those two would need more time before they could completely share their pasts.

  “I think you’re right, Dad, we need to hear the story of how John and Cindy met.” Libby smiled at her in-laws. “Let’s head into the living room and get comfy with these ugly cookies and our drinks.” Everyone laughed and slowly proceeded to the couches.

  **********

  Before the story could get started, Nate cleared his throat and said, “Mom, Dad, let’s keep in mind that I’ve walked in on the two of you in some compromising positions that are now burned into my delicate mind; please don’t add anymore trauma to my already scarred psyche.” Everyone laughed at Nate’s statement. “You all think I’m joking but I’m really not. You don’t know the images that still float through my mind.” Nate teased his parents and pulled Libby against him as they settled onto one of the couches.

  John smiled at his wife as she leaned into him. “Well, I guess this is mostly my story to start.” Cindy laughed and patted his leg encouraging him to go ahead.

  “I first saw Cindy when my brother and I were mowing a lawn. It was the middle of one of the hottest summers on record and we were mowing lawns to save up money for college. We had our senior year of high school ahead of us, but we knew we wanted to go to college. The business was booming and we were making great money; well, the money was great for two seniors in high school. Anyway, we were mowing this one yard and I saw Cindy walk out the door to head to the home’s swimming pool. She was pretty, but I was concentrating on getting the yard done; we had three more before we could quit for the day. I almost fell off the mower when another girl walked out of the house; she was drop-dead gorgeous. Long blonde hair, curves in all the right places, a perfect pair of….” Cindy raised an eyebrow and cleared her throat in her husband’s direction.

  “Legs….I was going to say legs.” John smiled and pretended to stammer as he teased his wife.

  “Yeah, well, let’s get to the actual story rather than describing my Barbie doll friend.” Cindy popped him in the stomach and he let out an exaggerated grunt. The teasing, playfulness between these two people was refreshing and touching; the group was already intrigued at where this story was going.

  “Ok, so, I knew in that moment that I was in love with Paula Jones. She was perfect for me; I needed to meet her. So, I spent the next couple weeks friending Cindy so that she could hook me up with Paula.” John shook his head at the memory as his wife took over for a bit.

  “Now, I knew that my friend Paula was never going to date this guy here. She had always gone for older guys and had her sights set on a sophomore in college; but I was so attracted to him that I decided I’d try to ‘help’ him get the girl even if it wasn’t ever going to happen. I just wanted him to be around.” Cindy rolled her eyes a little at her naivety.

  “So, Cindy strung me along for about a month; she taught me all about things that Paula liked and things that Paula would want to do on a date. Little did I know that she was feeding me all of the things that SHE liked and would want to do on a date. Looking back, I realize I had NO chance with Paula and I’m really glad she wouldn’t give me the time of day; but at the time, it hurt. Although, as time went on, I started realizing just how much I looked forward to spending time with Cindy; she had the most gorgeous brown hair, beautiful smile, and the best laugh I’d ever heard. School had started by this point and I was starting to realize that Paula was never even going to glance my way. I admitted as much to Cindy, and she thought I would be heartbroken; she hugged me and my gut clenched. In that split second, I knew I’d been lusting after the wrong girl while spending time with the right girl.” John tightened his arm around his wife’s shoulders.

  Cindy giggled a bit as she remembered how she had tricked John. “I never planned on ‘playing’ him. I didn’t know much about Paula; she was cool to hang around with because her parents were rich and had a pool, but we weren’t super close. She was extremely snooty and didn’t really have a lot of time for deep relationships. So, when John would quiz me for information on her, I would just give him answers based on myself. I was afraid if I told him I really didn’t know much about her then he’d stop coming around. I knew, at first, that he was just using me, but I was a stupid high school girl, and I loved the attention. As time went on, I started thinking that maybe he liked hanging around me; or at least that’s what I let myself believe. Then, when he realized Paula was unattainable, he just looked so down that I had to hug him. I definitely felt sparks that day, but I wasn’t sure if he did.” Cindy turned the story back over to her husband.

  “Once my hormone-laden brain cleared from lusting after Paula, I began to realize that Cindy had fed me her own info; I’d gotten to know her well enough in the last month or so and I knew a lot about her. I started bringing her things she liked and asking her to go do things with me that I knew she would enjoy. We were inseparable. I finally fessed up to knowing that she had played me; I also had to fess up that I had fallen in love with her. It took some doing to convince her that she wasn’t just my rebound girl.” John said this last part in a teasing tone.

  “The rest is pretty boring. We dated through the rest of high school. I completed a two-year degree while John completed his four-year teaching degree; my heart wasn’t really into furthering my education because I knew I just wanted to stay home with our future children, but John insisted that I get a degree so I’d have it in case I ever wanted to use it. We married after I got my degree, thinking we’d have a baby right away; but it took almost two years for us to get pregnant. John was finishing up his student teaching at the middle school and had already procured the job of teaching English there when we found out we were pregnant with the boys.” Cindy looked at both of her boys with adoring eyes in only the way a mother can.

  “As those of you who are parents know, everything changes in the blink of an eye when you know a baby is on the way; those changes double when you know two babies are on the way.” John chuckled as he recalled the early days of finding out he was going to be a d
ad. “My priorities had always been for me and then they were for Cindy and me; now I was living for the babies who were on the way. Best moment of my life, scariest moment of my life up until that point, most overwhelming moment of my life; knowing that I was going to be responsible for raising two human beings was a stressful bit of knowledge.” The way John spoke it was easy to see the pride he had over the outcome of those two babies coming along.

  Nicky spoke up, “I made things harder on you; you had two babies and one of them had problems, I’m sorry.”

  “Nicky, no, you didn’t make anything harder. Having two babies was hard and our life was busy, but it was just the normal learning curve for new parents. Having you and Nate was the best thing that ever happened to us. Would you have blamed Zach if he’d have been born with complications?” At the vehement shake of her son’s head, Cindy continued. “And we never blamed you for those complications; you’re perfect just the way you are, and we are blessed to have both of our boys.” Nicky smiled at his mom, and Nate pulled his brother into a hug to emphasize his mother’s point. Carly smiled and laid her hand on Nicky’s leg; he grabbed her hand and kissed her knuckles.

  “Well, I loved that story and this has been fun, but we’ve got a big day tomorrow. It’s Party Day and it’s Christmas Eve! So, we better get everyone gathered up and to bed so we can be back here for the party tomorrow.” Audrey spoke in a voice that commanded action; Jeremiah, Nate, and Nicky headed toward the basement, stopping only to be sure the coast was clear for them to head down the stairs. Beckett assured them that all evidence was cleaned up.