Return (Baxter Family Drama--Redemption) - Softcover

Kingsbury, Karen; Smalley, Gary

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1414333021 ISBN 13: 9781414333021

Verlag: TYNDALE HOUSE PUBL, 2009

Inhaltsangabe

Book 3 in the bestselling 5-book Christian fiction series that has sold nearly 2 million copies! A story of tenacious love and longing for a lost son, from Karen Kingsbury, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of "heart-tugging and emotional" (Romantic Times) life-changing fiction, co-authored with Gary Smalley. Return is the third book in the original Baxter Family Series, which has gone on to captivate tens of millions of readers and is currently being made into an original television series, produced by Roma Downey and Will Packer. A Shattered Relationship Luke, the Baxter family's golden boy and only son, has walked away from everything that mattered most to him: his faith, his family, and Reagan, his only love. Devastated by the events of September 11, 2001, Luke decides that life is random, faith a fraud, and God a fantasy. A Secret A baby is about to be born, but with Reagan a thousand miles away in New York City, Luke has no idea he's the father. Now, though, someone in his family learns the truth. But she has a secret of her own, one that will change the Baxters' lives forever. A Revelation What will it take for Luke to return to the family who loves and aches for him? And what extremes will a certain young firefighter take to help bring the Baxters together again, and in the process, find his place in the family? Winner of Christian Retailing's Retailer's Choice Award for Best Series! This touching novel reunites readers with the Baxter family and focuses on the only Baxter son, Luke. He is determined to leave his faith and his past behind and embrace a new, free-thinking future. But what he doesn't realize is that his past holds a secret even he doesn't know. When Luke finds out, his comfortable new life is turned upside-down, and he must turn back to his roots. Fans will enjoy a personal note from Karen Kingsbury and Gary Smalley as well as discussion questions for book group use.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

New York Times Bestselling author Karen Kingsbury is America's favorite inspirational novelist with over fifteen million books in print. Her Life-Changing Fiction has produced multiple bestsellers, including Take One, Between Sundays, Even Now, One Tuesday Morning, Beyond Tuesday Morning, and Ever After, which was named the 2007 Christian Book of the Year. An award-winning author and newly published songwriter, Karen has had several movies optioned for production, and her novel Like Dandelion Dust is in post production as a major motion picture release. Karen is also a nationally known speaker with several women's groups. She lives in Washington State with her husband Don, and their six children, three of whom were adopted from Haiti.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

What will it take to get Luke Baxter's attention? A shattered relationship Luke, the Baxter family's golden boy and only son, has walked away from everything that mattered most to him: his faith, his family, and Reagan, his only love. Devastated by the events of September 11, 2001, Luke decides that life is random, faith a fraud, and God a fantasy. A secret A baby is about to be born, but with Reagan a thousand miles away in New York City, Luke has no idea he's the father. Now, though, someone in his family learns the truth. But she has a secret of her own, one that will change the Baxters' lives forever. A revelation What will it take for Luke to return to the family who loves and aches for him? And what extremes will a certain young firefighter take to help bring the Baxters together again, and in the process, find his place in the family? A story of tenacious love and longing for a lost son.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Return

By Karen Kingsbury Gary Smalley

TYNDALE HOUSE PUBLISHERS, INC.

Copyright © 2003 The Smalley Publishing Group, LLC, and Karen Kingsbury
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4143-3302-1

Chapter One

Reagan Decker's hands shook as she picked up the telephone and dialed.

The number was so familiar once, back in a time that seemed forever ago, before her world tilted hard off its axis and stayed that way.

She waited, her heart pounding in her throat.

One ring ...

What will I say? How will they take the news?

Two rings ...

"Hello?"

"Mrs. Baxter?" Reagan froze.

"Yes?" A slight pause. "Can I help you?"

"Uh ..." She doesn't recognize my voice. I must be crazy to call after so long. "This is Reagan. Reagan Decker."

"Reagan ... my goodness. It's ... been a long time, dear."

Luke's mother sounded strange, as though the mention of Reagan's name had cast a shadow over the moment. Reagan considered saying a quick few words and then getting off. But that would never do. This was a call she'd had to make for one reason alone.

She couldn't hide from Luke Baxter forever.

"Mrs. Baxter, I need to talk to Luke, please." Reagan squeezed her eyes shut. A year earlier she'd been quick-witted and outgoing, but not anymore. The spark was gone from her voice. Luke's mother had to notice. She drew a determined breath. "I have something to tell him."

* * *

His past had sprouted legs and was chasing him.

That had to be it. Luke had no other way to describe the breathless anxiety marking so much of his time. Sometimes he could almost hear footsteps pounding the ground behind him, and on days like that he would even turn around. As though he might see a person or a being, whatever was after him. But no one was ever there.

The feeling was always accompanied by memories, so Luke finally convinced himself the thing chasing him was nothing more ominous than his past.

A past that colored today and tomorrow and kept him inches ahead of a suffocating fog, a fog in which his new freethinking life was all but impossible.

At first the feeling had hit him every few days, but now it was almost constant. This morning it was worse than ever. Throughout Economics and Political Science and now in Modern History, it made Luke so restless he couldn't concentrate.

The professor was diagramming something on the board, but all Luke could see were images of himself and his family the last time they'd been together before September 11. Little Maddie holding her hands up to him. "Swing me, Uncle Luke, swing me." His parents arm in arm in the background. "How's school, Luke? Have you heard from Reagan?"

With broad strokes, the professor ran his eraser over the board, and the images in Luke's head disappeared. The man turned to the class and started talking, but Luke heard Reagan's voice instead, the way he'd heard it that awful night when everything changed forever.

"It's okay, Luke; I'll call him back tomorrow ... it's okay ..."

But she never had the chance.

Luke squeezed his eyes shut. He was ready to move on, right? Wasn't that what he'd been telling himself? Then why were these memories dogging him so? With all the freethinking he'd been doing, all the clubs and organizations Lori had introduced him to, he should be consumed with life as it was. Not as it had been.

The professor changed his tone. He was saying something about foreign arms deals, but Luke wasn't paying attention. A conversation kept playing in his head, the one he'd had with his mother a few weeks ago.

"You think you have it all figured out, Luke, but the Hound of Heaven isn't going to let you go this easily."

"The Hound of Heaven?" Luke hadn't even tried to hide his frustration. His mother knew how he felt about God, so why couldn't she let it go?

"The Spirit of God, Luke." Her voice held no apologies. "When someone strays from the Lord, it's usually the Spirit, the Hound of Heaven, that hunts him down and brings him back."

The Hound of Heaven, indeed.

As if God-if there was a God-would care enough about Luke Baxter to chase him. Luke tapped the eraser of his pencil on his notepad. No, that wasn't why he felt this way. He narrowed his eyes and focused on the professor. What was the man babbling about? And why was everyone else taking notes?

A tingling worked its way down his spine, and he shifted in his desk.

Maybe it was culture shock. After a lifetime of holding to one set of beliefs, he'd done an about-face, and some kind of fallout was bound to come. That explained the pounding in his chest, the breathlessness that sometimes hit him square in the middle of a college lecture, and the constant stream of memories. Memories that had a vise grip on his mind and soul.

Sure, it was a setback. But no need to tell Lori. She'd only blame it on the mind control his family had held over him for so many years. And he didn't care to discuss mind control with her. He didn't like the way it sounded. For all their shortcomings, all their narrow-minded ways of thinking, his family had not performed mind control on him.

Not hardly.

He'd been a willing participant, and though their beliefs were off base, his family loved him back then. They loved him still. That much he was sure of. But he was just as sure that he wanted to move on, to explore a world without absolutes and-what was it Lori called it?-an antiquated morality system? Yes, he was ready to move away from that.

"Mr. Baxter, I expect you to answer me the first time I call on you."

Luke jumped in his seat. Two students sitting near him stifled their snorts of laughter. "Excuse me, sir?"

"I said-" the professor's voice dripped sarcasm-"perhaps you could explain the significance of specific arms deals made in the late seventies?"

"Yes, sir." Luke did a desperate search of his mind and came up blank. His fingers trembled and he coughed to buy time. "Sir, I don't have that information at this time."

Another bout of muffled laughter.

"Very well, Mr. Baxter; then may I make a suggestion?" The professor lowered his glasses and peered hard at Luke.

"Yes, sir?" Luke's throat was dry. It was all he could do to keep from running out of the room.

"Either get more sleep or get out of my Modern History class." The man raised his voice. "Is that understood?"

Fire filled Luke's cheeks. "Yes, sir."

When class was over ten minutes later, Luke was one of the first to leave the room. Not only because he didn't want any further discussion with the professor, but because he still needed to run, to keep moving away from whatever was chasing him. His past maybe, or his prior convictions. Perhaps his unfamiliarity with all he'd surrounded himself with.

But definitely not the Hound of Heaven.

* * *

Reagan didn't visit Ground Zero often.

She looked out the back window of the taxicab as it rumbled south on Broadway, past boarded-up storefronts and American flags. It was late afternoon and she planned to finish up by dusk. A few more blocks and she'd be there. She narrowed her eyes and found a piece of the skyline far above. Daddy, if you knew how much we miss you....

She'd attended two Ground Zero memorial services, and over time she'd come to accept that the pile of rubble and ash that once was the World Trade Center was now her father's resting place. Still, as much as possible, she avoided going there. The roar of...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: TYNDALE HOUSE PUBL
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2009
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1414333021
• ISBN 13: 9781414333021
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 384
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: GPSR Kontakt; gpsr@libri.de; ; Europaallee 1; Bad Hersfeld; 36244; Deutschland