“Maybe she’s working with someone else.”
When the officer shook his head, Wes slammed his hands on the table. “What’s the second reason then?”
The officer pulled out his chair and slumped into it, rubbing his face. “About ten minutes ago I got word that that child was found this afternoon. It was a case of parental abduction. Divorced father who wanted custody.”
The scowl on Wes’s face faded by degrees. “After the scare they gave us all. We turned this town upside down.” Slouching back in his chair, he covered his face with rough hands and scrutinized Laney over his fingertips. Her big, haunted eyes reflected intense relief, and he realized he had made a mistake. A whopper. He’d been accused of being an overprotective father before, but this was ridiculous even to him.
“Then I don’t suppose you have any more reason to hold me?” she asked.
The officer shrugged. “You can go now. Sorry for the inconvenience.”
Laney stood up, fighting dizziness in the wake of such emotional havoc. Her hands still trembled, and her face was even paler than it had been earlier.
Neither expecting nor wanting an apology, she looked back at Wes and recognized the self-defeated glimmer in his eyes. “That’s all right. I can understand the scare. Next time I’ll be more careful.” For a moment she kept her eyes on the man who had frightened her. The man who now knew her name and her face and would notice her the next time she went near Amy. The man who had ended her plans, shattered her hopes, and made it impossible for her to end the torment she’d suffered for seven years. Amy’s father, she thought with a shiver. Amy’s father.
Laney left quickly and was just outside the station when Wes Grayson caught up to her. He caught her arm to stop her, and she jerked free. “I’m getting tired of you grabbing me that way!”
He raised his hand in innocence and took a step back. “I just wanted to—”
“To what?” she asked. “To find some other unsolved crime to pin on me? This day has turned out bad enough. Can’t you just leave me alone?”
Wes set his jaw. “Look, you’re the one who was sneaking around in the bushes. I just followed my instincts.”
“Great instincts,” she retorted.
“You’re not too easy to apologize to, are you?”
Laney laughed dryly. “Apologize? Was that an apology?”
“Yeah,” he said, indignant.
Laney shook her head and started to her car. “You, Mr. Grayson, are a real jerk!” Her braid swayed viciously across her hips as she walked.
“What are you so hot about?” he asked, catching up to her again. “They didn’t even book you.”
Laney reached her car, the foreign sports car that the policeman had been so anxious to drive to the station for her, and searched through her purse for her keys. “They didn’t have to book me. They humiliated me in a public park and dragged me in like some common criminal.”
“I said I was sorry!”
“No, you didn’t!”
They stood glaring at each other for an electric moment, searing green eyes against furious black ones. Finally, Wes straightened and thrust out his chin.
“If you can’t accept an apology, it’s not my fault,” he mumbled, starting to his own car. Then, under his breath, he added, “And I’m not a jerk.”
Laney ignored him as she got into her car and slammed the door.
Yes, he was a jerk, Wes told himself that night. A big, stupid, paranoid jerk!
He rubbed the bridge of his nose and gave a low chuckle. If he hadn’t been so caught up in his Clint Eastwood routine, he would have realized he’d been strongly attracted to Laney Fields. That was why he had noticed her suspicious behavior in the first place. The first woman he’d been attracted to in a year, and what did he do? Instead of asking her out, he’d had her arrested!
He looked at his reflection in the window and raised his soup can in a toast. “Nice going, Grayson,” he said with a wry grin. He chuckled, keeping his voice quiet so as not to wake Amy. “A real Casanova. A little more of that charm, and you would have had her on her knees.” He shook his head. At least he could laugh about it now. He only wished she could. Maybe then he could start over and actually walk up to her and say, “Hi, do you come here often?” or whatever it was men said to women these days.
Of course, he could always start with an apology. Maybe he could even get her to smile if he admitted to being a jerk. It might give her a new idea for a story. “Paranoid Father Chokes on Apology” would be infinitely more interesting than the one on Louisiana youth.
What could it hurt, after all? Now that he knew she was no criminal, he could admit that he was overwhelmingly attracted to her…even though she was several years younger than he.
He reluctantly dragged his mind back to the apology. If nothing else, it would give him an excuse to see her again. He raised his can for another toast. “To second chances,” he said with a smile. His reflection gave him a deprecating smirk. He only hoped Laney Fields had a soft spot in her heart for self-admitted jerks who learned humility very quickly.
Never Again Good-bye
Available at Christian bookstores.
(ISBN: 978-0-310-20707-8)
Other great books from Terri Blackstock
SECOND CHANCES SERIES
Softcover: 978-0-310-20710-8
Softcover: 978-0-310-20707-8
Softcover: 978-0-310-20708-5
Softcover: 978-0-310-20709-2
Pick up a copy today at your favorite bookstore!
Other great books from Terri Blackstock
NEWPOINTE 911 SERIES
Softcover: 978-0-310-20710-8
Softcover: 978-0-310-20707-8
Softcover: 978-0-310-25767-2
Softcover: 978-0-310-25768-6
Softcover: 978-0-310-25769-9
Softcover: 978-0-310-25769-2
Softcover: 978-0-310-25770-7
Softcover: 978-0-310-20708-5
Softcover: 978-0-310-20709-2
Pick up a copy today at your foworite bookstone!
MORE GREAT BOOKS FROM TERRI BLACKSTOCK
SUN COAST CHRONICLES
Softcover 978-0-310-20015-4
Softcover 978-0-310-20016-1
Pick up a copy today at your favorite bookstore!
CAPE REFUGE SERIES
This bestselling series follows the lives of the people of the small seaside community of Cape Refuge, as two sisters struggle to continue the ministry their parents began helping the troubled souls who come to Hanover House for solace.
Softcover: 978-0-31023592-7
Softcover: 978-0-31023593-4
Softcover: 978-0-310-23594-1
Softcover: 978-0-310-23595-8
Pick up a copy today at your favorite bookstore!
Other great books from Terri Blackstock
A RESTORATION NOVEL SERIES
Softcover: 978-0-310-25767-7
Softcover: 978-0-310-25768-4
Softcover: 978-0-310-25769-1
Softcover: 978-0-310-25770-7
Pick up a copy today at your favorite bookstore!
Books by Terri Blackstock
Intervention
Double Minds
Soul Restoration
Emerald Windows
Restoration Series
1 | Last Light
2 | Night Light
3 | True Light
4 | Dawn’s Light
Cape Refuge Series
1 | Cape Refuge
2 | Southern Storm
3 | River’s Edge
4 | Breaker’s Reef
Newpointe 911
1 | Private Justice
2 | Shadow of Doubt
3 | Word of Honor
4 | Trial by Fire
5 | Line of Duty
Sun Coast Chronicles
1 | Evidence of Mercy
2 | Justifiable Means
3 | Ulterior Motives
4 | Presumption of Guilt
Second Chance
s
1 | Never Again Good-bye
2 | When Dreams Cross
3 | Blind Trust
4 | Broken Wings
With Beverly LaHaye
1 | Seasons Under Heaven
2 | Showers in Season
3 | Times and Seasons
4 | Season of Blessing
Novellas
Seaside
Other Books
The Listener
The Gifted
The Heart Reader of Franklin High
The Gifted Sophomores
Covenant Child
Sweet Delights
Copyright
ZONDERVAN
Broken Wings
Copyright © 1998 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.
ePub Edition MARCH 2010 ISBN: 978-0-310-87157-6
Requests for information should be addressed to:
Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530
* * *
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Blackstock, Terri, 1957–
Broken wings / Terri Blackstock.
p. cm.—(Second chances)
ISBN 978-0-310-20708-5 (softcover)
I. Title. II. Series: Blackstock, Terri, 1957– Second chances.
PS3552.L34285B76 1997,
813’.54—dc21 97–36086
* * *
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
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Published in association with the literary agency of Alive Communications, Inc., 7680 Goddard Street, Suite 200, Colorado Springs, CO 80920. www.alivecommunications.com
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Table of Contents
Cover Page
Title Page
Dedication
Dear Reader
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
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Acknowledgments
Preview
Books by Terri Blackstock
Copyright
About the Publisher
Share Your Thoughts
Terri Blackstock, Second Chance - 04 - Broken Wings
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