Not Until Us (Hope Springs Book 4) Read online

  Not Until Us

  - A Hope Springs Novel –

  Valerie M. Bodden

  Not Until Us © 2019 by Valerie M. Bodden.

  Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to any person, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Valerie M. Bodden

  Visit me at www.valeriembodden.com

  Books in the Hope Springs Series

  Not Until Christmas

  Not Until Forever

  Not Until This Moment

  Not Until You

  Not Until Us

  Contents

  Books in the Hope Springs Series

  A Gift for You . . .

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Epilogue

  More Hope Springs Books

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  A Gift for You . . .

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  Remember, Lord, your great mercy and love,

  for they are from of old.

  Do not remember the sins of my youth

  and my rebellious ways;

  according to your love remember me,

  for you, Lord, are good.

  —Psalm 25:6–7

  Chapter 1

  How had she messed up again?

  Jade swiped at her cheeks as she slid the key into the lock of her apartment door. If the God her roommate Keira kept telling her about had any decency, Keira would still be in bed. She wasn’t in the mood to be reprimanded by her squeaky clean friend right now. She already knew last night had been a mistake.

  One she’d made far too many times.

  She inched the door open slowly but let out a frustrated breath as her eyes fell on her roommate, perky as ever, sitting on the couch with some kind of kale-soy-banana-protein drink in hand.

  Apparently God didn’t have any decency. Or he had one wicked sense of humor.

  “Good morning.” Keira eyed Jade’s clothes—the same ones she’d been wearing when she’d left for work last night.

  Jade held up a hand. “Don’t say it.”

  “Say what?” Keira took a long sip of her drink, still watching Jade.

  “Fine. I screwed up. Again.” She tried to sound defiant, but even as the words came out, a bone-crushing weariness descended on her. She was trying to be a better person. She really was. But old habits were hard to break. Last night had been just one more name to add to her list of lifelong mistakes. Or it would be if she knew his name.

  She buried her face in her hands. She was an awful person. “I don’t know why I keep doing this.”

  When the guy had walked into the bar where she worked, she’d told herself to ignore him. But she’d been bored. And he’d had nice eyes and witty banter. Plus, he was only passing through town on business. There was no chance things would get messy or complicated. He’d go on his way, she’d go on hers, and neither of them would worry about it again.

  Besides, he’d practically challenged her to go back to his hotel room with him. What was she supposed to do?

  Walk away. The voice in her head sounded an awful lot like her big sister Violet. Not that Violet had any idea what Jade’s life was like, aside from the sanitized version Jade fed her on their weekly phone calls.

  Keira crossed the small space and pulled Jade’s hands away from her face, holding the protein drink out to her. Jade wrinkled her nose and pushed it away. After eight years in Los Angeles, she still had no interest in the stuff that passed for breakfast around here. Give her a donut and a strong cup of coffee any day.

  “Change is hard.” Keira wrapped an arm over her shoulder and steered her to the couch. “You should pray about it.”

  Jade shook her head. If there was anything she was less interested in than protein shakes, it was prayer. “I need to pack. My plane leaves in a couple hours.”

  She still wasn’t sure what had compelled her to give in to her sister’s pleas that she spend the summer in Hope Springs. But maybe it would do her some good to get away from this town of broken dreams for a while.

  Besides, the way Violet talked about Hope Springs made Jade almost homesick for it.

  Almost.

  Mostly, though, she was going because she owed it to Vi. After six years of completely cutting her sister out of her life, Jade didn’t deserve the second chance Vi had given her. The phone calls they’d been exchanging for the past couple years weren’t enough. The least she could do was spend the summer helping her sister finalize plans for her wedding.

  “Well, look at it this way.” Keira sucked down the last of her shake. “Maybe you’ll meet a nice, wholesome man in Hope Springs, and you’ll get married and live happily ever after.”

  Jade snickered. “You read too many small town romances. Trust me, there’s no one in Hope Springs I’d consider dating, let alone marrying. Besides―” She flopped onto the couch. “I’m not really the happily ever after kind of girl.”

  Keira tipped her head to the side, studying Jade. “Everyone’s a happily ever after kind of girl. It just takes some of us longer to get there than others.” She moved to the cramped kitchen to rinse out her glass.

  Jade stared after her. Keira could dream about happily ever after all she wanted. But Jade knew the truth. There was no such thing. She’d learned that lesson early, and she wasn’t going to forget it anytime soon.

  Chapter 2

  Dan hadn’t known it was possible to sweat this much.

  This had to be the hottest Hope Fest parade on record. Of course, that might have something to do with the heavy lion costume he was wearing. Grace had borrowed the local high school’s mascot, insisting that if they were going to have a Noah’s ark float, they needed the animals too. Lucky for him, he was exactly the right size for the costume.

  Despite the sweltering heat, Dan had t
o admit that the float had turned out better than he could have imagined. And judging from the crowd’s cheers as they walked past, he wasn’t the only one who thought so.

  Dan swiveled to catch a glimpse of the others marching with him. There had to be nearly one hundred people representing Hope Church in the parade—all of them in some sort of animal costume or another.

  His heart filled. He knew many of them were there in tribute to his father, who had been their spiritual leader for nearly forty years. Dan had almost canceled the church’s entry in the parade this year. His grief over Dad’s death was still too raw for him to dedicate the time needed to plan it. But when he’d brought it up to the church board, they’d reminded him that the congregation was looking to him as their new head pastor for guidance in how to move on. He was glad now that he’d listened to them. The parade seemed to have brought his members together in a way nothing else had lately.

  “Hey. This turned out really well.” His sister Leah sidled up to him, decked out in a colorful parrot costume. “Dad would have loved it. I could totally see him hamming it up in that costume.”

  “I was just thinking that. Thank goodness Grace came through with all this stuff.” It was almost a miracle, considering he’d asked her to be in charge of the parade only two weeks earlier. And she’d done it all with a smile.

  “Speaking of which―” Leah poked him in the side, and Dan knew what was coming. “How was your dinner last night?”

  “You mean the one you tricked us into?”

  Dan, Leah, and Grace had worked on the float until late the night before, and afterward Leah had suggested they grab a bite at the Hidden Cafe, before conveniently remembering she had to take care of a friend’s cat.

  “How was the cat, by the way?”

  “What cat?” Leah waved to the cheering crowds. “Oh, yeah. The cat was good.”

  Dan gave her a little shove. “There was no cat.”

  Leah laughed, completely unashamed. “Nope. But you didn’t answer my question. How was dinner with Grace?”

  Dan sighed into his costume, then wished he hadn’t, as his breath only made the small space steamier. “It was fine.”

  “And?” Leah poked him, as if waiting for more.

  He lifted his hands, the claws of his costume clacking. “And that’s it.”

  There’d been no fireworks. No amazing revelation that this was the woman for him. Just some good food, a bit of conversation, and a wave goodnight.

  Which was fine.

  Just fine.

  “You should ask her to the fireworks tonight.”

  This time Dan managed to contain his sigh―barely. “I just don’t see this going anywhere, Leah.”

  It wasn’t like he was looking for a relationship anyway. Sure, he’d been performing marriage ceremonies for his friends more frequently lately, and every once in a while, he longed for what they had. But mostly, he was too busy with his ministry to consider marriage and a family.

  “Famous last words.” Leah flitted away to pass out candy to the parade goers.

  Dan shook his head at her. His sister was a meddler, there were no two ways about it. Her heart was in the right place, but sometimes he sure wished that place was somewhere else.

  By the time they reached the final stretch of the parade, Dan was tempted to pull his lion head off. But he forced himself to wait until they’d gone past every last spectator.

  When he’d finally taken the costume off, he grabbed an abandoned water bottle from the float and poured it over his head. The few kids whose parents hadn’t yet plucked them from the realistic-looking ark giggled, and he grabbed another half-empty water bottle and gently tossed a few drops their way. They shrieked but laughed harder.

  “You’re good with them.” Grace came up next to him, looking cool and comfortable in her shorts and t-shirt. She’d ridden along in the truck to manage the speaker system. She started pulling decorations off the float.

  “Ah, kids are fun.” Dan lifted a little guy dressed as a turtle down from the ark and passed him a lollipop from the bag of extra candy. Soon, a group of kids had gathered around him. Dan couldn’t help but smile. He knew the kids were surrounding him more for the candy than for his company, but that didn’t make him feel any less like a rock star.

  “Bribing them again?” Dan’s friend Nate, who really was a rock star—or at least the lead singer for the church’s worship band—clapped him on the back.

  Dan grinned. “Whatever it takes. I’d better bring some of these along to camp next month.” Dan was excited to resurrect the annual trip to Camp Oswego that the church had taken when he was a kid.

  “Oh.” Grace popped up from the other side of the float. “I almost forgot to tell you. Cassandra Murphy said she could chaperone, so we should be all set.”

  “Seriously?” Dan could have hugged her. He’d been trying for weeks to find one more female chaperone. He’d asked Cassandra himself at least twice, but she’d said it’d be impossible to get time off. Apparently Grace really was a miracle worker.

  “I don’t know how you did it, but thank you.” He pulled a stuffed giraffe off the side of the ark. “And thank you for putting this float together. It looked amazing.”

  Grace ducked her head. “It was nothing.”

  Leah bounced over to them. “What was nothing?”

  “The float.” His voice was guarded. The last thing he needed was for his sister to overreact to his compliment to Grace. Next thing he knew, she’d have them walking down the aisle.

  But to his relief, Leah turned away from him to Grace. “Oh my goodness, yes. Thank you so much for designing it. My attempts the last few years have been kind of . . .”

  “Pathetic,” Dan filled in for his sister.

  “Ouch.” Leah swatted at him. “But yes. Pathetic is a good word to describe it.” She slid the parrot wings off. “Are you coming to the fireworks tonight, Grace?”

  There it was. Dan shot his sister a look, but she only winked at him.

  Grace shifted the handful of stuffed animals she’d picked up from the float. “There are fireworks?”

  “Oh yeah, better than the fourth of July.” Leah gestured toward the sky, as if she could see them already.

  Even though he knew what was coming, Dan couldn’t figure out a way to prevent it. He took a step away from the float, but that didn’t stop his sister.

  “Actually, I know Dan is going. I bet he could pick you up on the way. He has to drive right past your house anyway.”

  Dan froze but didn’t turn around.

  After last night, Grace would recognize his sister’s blatant matchmaking and say no.

  Wouldn’t she?

  “If that wouldn’t be too much trouble, I’d love to go.”

  “It’s no trouble,” Leah assured Grace, and Dan almost snorted out loud. Of course it was no trouble for her. She’d just set her little brother up on a date. He’d have to thank her later. Once he’d come up with a suitable revenge.

  But for now he turned to Grace. It wasn’t her fault he had a meddlesome sister. And he really did owe her after all she’d done to make the parade a success. “It’s no problem at all. How about I pick you up around eight?”

  Leah beamed at them both, then sashayed off, saying something about making sure everyone handed in their costumes.

  “I’m sorry if you don’t want―” Grace said. “I don’t need to go.”

  “No, it’s fine. I’m looking forward to it.” He offered her the most genuine smile he could muster. “It’ll be fun.” Anyway, it wasn’t like a trip to the fireworks was a marriage proposal.

  He stood awkwardly, trying to figure out something else to say. Thankfully, Nate’s fiancée, Violet, walked up at that moment, winding her arm through Nate’s as he leaned down to kiss her forehead. Dan couldn’t have been happier for his two friends, whose wedding was coming up at the end of summer.

  “We’d better get going. We need to be at the airport by seven.” Violet tugged Nate towa
rd the parking lot.

  Nate patted her arm. “It’s only four now.”

  “I know, but there could be traffic, or . . .” She gave him a playful swat on the arm. “Stop laughing at me. I’m excited.”

  “Are you two skipping out of town? Without seeing the fireworks?” Dan’s heart fell. He’d been hoping he and Grace could sit with them, so it’d seem less like a date.

  “Nope.” Violet’s face lit up brighter than any firework. “We’re going to the airport to pick up Jade.”

  Dan fought to keep his expression neutral, even as his heart surged at the name.

  It had been eight years. He shouldn’t still react that way to something as insignificant as her name.

  “I didn’t know Jade was coming home.”

  If possible, Violet’s smile got even brighter. “I’ve been begging her for weeks to come home for the summer, and she must have gotten sick of it because she finally said yes. She’s staying until after the wedding.” Violet pulled on Nate’s arm. “Come on. We have to go.”

  Nate shrugged at Dan, then followed his future wife toward the parking lot.

  “Save us a seat for the fireworks,” Violet called over her shoulder. “We may be late.”

  “Who’s Jade?” Grace’s question made Dan jump.

  “Violet’s sister.” And his— His what?

  His almost-girlfriend?

  They hadn’t dated. Not officially. But they’d spent so much time together in the last few months of high school that they’d forged a connection deeper than dating ever could.

  At least that’s what he’d thought.

  Right up until she disappeared, leaving him only a note. He hadn’t seen or heard from her once since then.

  But apparently that was about to change. So he’d better get a grip on how he felt about it.

  Fast.

  Chapter 3

  Thirty thousand feet in the air probably wasn’t the best place to change her mind. As the captain announced over the intercom that they had started their descent, Jade’s eyes went to the window, where the sun was low on the horizon, throwing a blinding light across Lake Michigan. She pressed a hand to her stomach.