Never Again Good-Bye

182 Pages·1996·1.16 MB·English

by  Blackstock Terri

Dear Reader,
The book you’ve just bought from my “Second Chances” series is truly
evidence of the second chances God gives us. The books in this series have been
published before, some by Dell, some by Harlequin, others by Silhouette and
HarperCollins. I was a Christian when I entered the romance market in 1983,
hoping to take the world by storm. What I found, instead, was that the world
took me by storm. One compromise led to another, until my books did not read
like books written by a Christian. Not only were they not pleasing to God, but
they embraced a worldview that opposed Christ’s teachings. In the interest of
being successful, I had compartmentalized my faith. I trusted Christ for my
salvation, but not much else. Like the Prodigal Son, I had taken my inheritance
and left home to do things my own way.
I love that parable because it so reflects my life. My favorite part is when
Jesus said, “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him …” I can
picture that father scanning the horizon every day, hoping for his son’s return.
God did that for me. While I was still a long way off, God saw me coming. Early
in 1994, when I yearned to be closer to God and realized that my writing was a
wall between us, that my way had not been the best way, I promised God that I
would never write anything again that did not glorify him. At that moment, it
was as if God came running out to meet me. I gave up my secular career and
began to write Christian books.
Shortly after I signed a contract for Zondervan to publish my suspense series,
The Sun Coast Chronicles, something extraordinary happened. The rights to
some of my earlier romance novels were given back to me, and I was free to do
whatever I wanted with them. At first, I thought of shelving them, but then, in
God’s gentle way, he reminded me that I was free to rewrite them, and this time,
get them right. So I set about to rewrite these stories the way God originally
intended them.
As you read these stories, keep in mind that they’re not just about second
chances, they are second chances. I hope you enjoy them.
In Christ,
Terri Blackstock
Books by Terri Blackstock

ZONDERVAN
Never Again Good-bye Copyright © 1996 by Terri Blackstock All rights
reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By
payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-
transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of
this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse
engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval
system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now
known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of
Zondervan e-books.
ePub Edition June 2009 ISBN: 0-310-86324-4
Requests for information should be addressed to: Zondervan, Grand Rapids,
Michigan 49530
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Blackstock, Terri, 1957—
Never again good-bye / Terri Blackstock.
p. cm.—(Second chances)
ISBN 978-0-310-20707-8 (pbk.)
I. Title. II. Series: Blackstock, Terri, 1957-Second chances.
PS3552.L34285N48 1996
813’.54—
dc20 96–17275
Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers printed in
this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or
imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content
of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic,
mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in
printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.
Published in association with the literary agency of Alive Communications, Inc.,
7680 Goddard Street, Suite 200, Colorado Springs, CO 80920.
www.alivecommunications.com
This book is lovingly dedicated to the Nazarene.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Acknowledgments
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
About the Author
About the Publisher
Share Your Thoughts
Acknowledgments
I
’d like to thank my friends from both sides of adoption, who shared their
painful stories with me for the sake of this book. Special thanks to my daughters,
Michelle and Marie, through whom I’ve known all the joys and wonders of
motherhood.
Chapter One
K
idnappers don’t look like criminals, Wes Grayson thought as he moved closer
behind the young woman he’d been watching for the last half hour. At least, that
was what he’d told his daughter so many times. They looked trustworthy and
pleasant, and that was how they deceived.
Why, then, was it so hard for him to believe that this five-foot-three, hundred-
pound woman, who looked barely old enough to qualify as a legal adult, was
about to strike?
Yet he’d seen her behavior himself, and it was suspicious, if not threatening.
Moving closer without making a sound, he held his hands poised to catch her if
she tried to run when she realized she’d been seen. The shutter of her camera
clicked, and she stepped deeper into the shade of the pine trees that edged the
park, adjusted her lens, and focused again.
With eyes narrowed in a natural squint from years of construction work in the
harsh Louisiana sun, Wes followed her aim to the children scaling the monkey
bars and watched the camera pan to the right as his seven-year-old daughter left
the cluster of her friends and went to her baby-sitter. A vein in his temple
throbbed with the pressure of waiting. Why had the police department taken so
long to respond to his call? Did they think she’d hang around indefinitely?
As if in reaction to his thoughts, a Shreveport PD squad car pulled up and two
uniformed officers got out, hiking up the waists of their pants and glancing
around as if wondering which tree to settle under for their afternoon nap. The
woman spotted them and snapped her camera back in its case. As she took a step
back, Wes moved within grasping distance.
She smelled of apricots, he thought as the early spring breeze rustled the black
wisps of hair that had escaped from her long braid. Criminals didn’t smell like
apricots, did they? And they didn’t have that look of vulnerable fragility or wear
designer jeans and silk blouses. But this one did. Drawing his brows together, he
watched her partial profile as she looked across the park at his daughter.
Her suspicious interest in Amy sent a chill of panic through him, and Wes
clenched his teeth, silently willing the policemen to hurry. But when they
stopped at his baby-sitter, who had no idea that he had been standing in the