A Father's Place

A Father's Place
Marta Perry

THE PRODIGAL FATHER COMES HOME….Summoned home for a family emergency, engineer Quinn Forrester could no longer ignore a painful past. And though he didn' t plan on staying long, it seemed his precocious daughter had been praying to God a lot lately…and decided He wanted her daddy to marry Sunday school teacher Ellie Wayne.Drawn to the handsome widower, Ellie yearned to ease his burden with everything in her heart. But she feared that her most closely guarded secret could drive Quinn away. Now she sought a miracle. For if God truly meant for them to become a family, He' d somehow show Quinn where he belonged….

“You need a new wife, and I’ve decided maybe God picked out Ms. Ellie to be her.”

Kristie clasped her hands together. “Remember the Bible story yesterday about how God picked out Rebecca for Isaac, to be his wife? Well, I was helping God’s plan by letting you be together without me. So maybe you’d kiss Ms. Ellie.”

Ellie couldn’t look at Quinn—not until the memory faded of that moment in the meadow when she’d thought he was going to kiss her.

“Kristie, none of us knows what God intends,” she finally said.

Kristie grabbed her hand. “But don’t you like my daddy, Ms. Ellie?”

She willed her voice to be steady. “Of course I do. But that doesn’t mean I’d be the right wife for him. That’s something you have to let your daddy decide.” But in spite of her words, she prayed Quinn would. Because she’d begun to fall in love with him.

MARTA PERRY

began writing children’s stories for Sunday school take-home papers while she was a church educational director. From that beginning she branched into writing magazine fiction and then book-length fiction. She’s grateful for the opportunity to write the kind of books she loves to read.

Marta lives in rural Pennsylvania with her husband of thirty-seven years, and they enjoy visiting their three grown children scattered around the globe. In addition to writing and travel, Marta loves hearing from readers and enjoys responding to their letters. She can be reached c/o Steeple Hill Books, 300 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017.

A Father’s Place

Marta Perry

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

Many waters cannot quench love;

rivers cannot wash it away.

—Song of Songs 8:7

This story is dedicated with love and gratitude

to my friends in Christ at First Church.

And, as always, to Brian.

Contents

Prologue

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

Epilogue

Letter to Reader

Prologue

Prayers from Bedford Creek, Pennsylvania

Father, please remember my son, Quinn. He’s so bitter now, and if only he’d come home, maybe I could help him….

Please, Lord, bless my brother, Quinn, and help him to see that he has to forgive….

And God bless my daddy, and bring him back home to stay. Please don’t forget that I’d like a new mommy, and if it’s okay with You, I think my Sunday school teacher, Ms. Ellie, would be just perfect….

Chapter One

He’d come home to the town where he no longer belonged, to break up his mother’s romance. Put like that, Quinn Forrester decided it didn’t sound like a creditable goal. It wouldn’t impress the woman he was about to see, and he needed Ellie Wayne’s cooperation. Either that, or he needed her surrender.

The tension that had driven him for days cranked up a notch. His natural instinct was to explode, demanding explanations, but that wouldn’t work. He’d have to exercise diplomacy to get what he wanted from Ellie Wayne, and his talent for that had grown rusty over years of fighting nature’s rampages in places considerably wilder than this one.

He glanced along the narrow street. Bedford Creek, Pennsylvania, spread up a narrow cleft in the mountains from the river. Its frame houses climbed the hillside in steps, as if they’d been planted there.

Ellie Wayne’s craft shop was on the lowest street, along with the police station, a few other small shops and a scattering of houses. Opposite it, the park spread along the flood-prone land by the river. His practiced engineer’s eye automatically noted the water level, higher now from the frequent rain than was usual for August.