Sugarplum Homecoming & The Lawman's Honor
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Linda Goodnight
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Prologue
“Come on, Nathan,” nine-year-old Paige whispered with urgency. “Hurry before Daddy wakes up.”
Nathan cast a worried eye toward his father sprawled on a blanket beneath a tree, hands behind his head. The remnants of an early autumn picnic were strewn about the quiet glade deep in the Ozark Mountains. “We’re going to get in trouble.”
Paige fisted a hand on one slight hip. “Do you want a mom or not?”
Nathan’s gray gaze went from his dad to the twenty-foot-high waterfall only yards away. “Well, yeah, but Whisper Falls is kind of big and scary.”
Impatiently, Paige tugged on her little brother’s arm. He could be such a baby sometimes. “You can do it, brother. God will help you.”
Paige knew her brother well. Give him a challenge, tell him God was in it, and he would give everything he had. Which wasn’t much considering how little he was.
As she expected, Nathan thrust out his dinosaur T-shirt and trotted toward the waterfall. The noise from the water tumbling over the mountainside was really loud but not that scary to Paige. Daddy had brought them here before. They loved Whisper Falls. They loved wading in the pool below, beyond the foam and current, where even now three teenagers splashed and yelled.
But fun wasn’t Paige’s mission today. She’d thought up the picnic as an excuse to get here, to do the one thing she was certain would bring her their heart’s desire. To pray. Everybody said it was true. The story was in the brochures all over town. Anyone brave enough to reach the secret place behind the falls would get their prayer answered. And Paige had decided the time was now.
With her pointed chin as determined as her brother’s, Paige jogged toward Whisper Falls. Nathan tagged along, a little reluctant but willing. Like her, he was ready to do anything to get a mom.
They reached the slippery gray rock face and started the climb. Natural cleaves in the mountainside offered a foothold but over the years so many people had made the climb that the path was well worn. If they clung tight, like the slugs Joel Snider brought to fourth grade for show-and-tell, they’d make it all the way up to God’s special place.
“Why do we have to pray up here?” Nathan asked, his face wrinkled with worry as he crept along in front of her, small hands gripping the rocks. If Daddy caught them, they’d have to do more than pray to get out of trouble.
Paige grunted as she took another handhold and waited for her brother to inch forward. The waterfall grew louder by the second, so she raised her voice. “I told you already. We’re on a mission. Like in the movies when that guy had to bring back the ring to save the world. We have to prove ourselves worthy of a new mom.”
“Oh.”
She hoped that satisfied him for now because she was getting out of breath trying to talk and climb. Climbing was harder than she’d imagined. Harder than the sixth graders said. Maybe none of them had really climbed the falls at all.
“We’re almost there,” she huffed.
Paige glanced down and wished she hadn’t. Daddy looked tiny, like a Ken doll, and the pool looked huge and bubbly. Spray dampened her skin. The smells of trees and leaves and water swirled like the pool below. One of the teenagers saw her and pointed.
Please, please, don’t let him tell.
She gave a casual nod, hoping the teen believed she wasn’t nearly as scared as she was. When she turned back toward the climb, Nathan was gone!
Panic seized her. Her hands were cold and wet, but she climbed faster, praying that the stories were true, that a secret room existed behind the waterfall, that Nathan hadn’t fallen to his death.
She stretched her leg as far as her muscles would go, felt a foothold with the toe of her tennis shoe and lunged...and found herself standing on a wide ledge behind a terrifying rush of water. There was Nathan grinning at her.
“This is way cool.”
Paige heaved a shaky sigh. “Let’s pray and get out of here fast.”
“I like it up here.” He stuck his fingers into the violent spray of water whooshing in front of them.
Paige grabbed his hand and pushed him back. She had to get him out of here before he did something childish. Like fall off the mountain. “Never mind about that. Close your eyes and think about Jesus and a new mom.”
“But—”
“Do it, Nathan. Dad might wake up any minute.”
This was enough to get his attention. He nodded and clasped his hands beneath his chin. “Okay. Do we want a mom with blond hair or brown hair?”
“Silly, I don’t care about that kind of stuff. I want a mom who reads to us and tucks us in and bakes cupcakes for school parties.”
“Daddy does that. Well, except for the cupcakes. He gets those at the bakery.”
“That’s not the point. We need a mom. Dad can’t even fix my hair.” She slapped at the side of her super short cut, the only kind of hairstyle Daddy could manage. She was nearly ten, for goodness’ sake. Most of all she longed for a mother to love. Sometimes her heart hurt so bad at night when she prayed that she thought it might burst right out of her chest.
“I want a mom with brown hair,” Nathan said stubbornly. “Our other mom had brown hair.”
Paige smothered a sigh. She loved her brother a great big lot but sometimes he didn’t understand what was really important. Not the way she did. “Then pray for a mom with brown hair. I don’t care. Just pray.”
With all the reverence she’d been taught in Sunday school and children’s church since the day she was born, Paige folded her hands beneath her chin.
“Dear God, we need a mom. Daddy needs a wife. He’s been sad long enough and Aunt Jenny says it’s time for him to move on. Please send us a mother. Before Christmas would be nice.”
“With brown hair.”
Paige opened one eye. Nathan didn’t even remember their mother. He’d only seen pictures. Like the one at Daddy’s bedside. A piece of her heart felt really sad for him about that. “Yes, God, if it’s not too much to ask, send a great mom with brown hair. And make her pretty so Daddy will like her, too. Amen.”
“Amen.”
“Now, let’s get out of here before Daddy wakes up.”
“How do we get down?”
Oh, boy, she’d not considered that part.
“Nathan! Paige! Where are you?” Daddy’s voice came as a faint but worried echo through the silver curtain of water.
Nathan turned accusing eyes on his sister. “We are in so much trouble.”
