“Since when would you rather face a hospital than me?”
“You’d just told me someone … did that … to you. And then I got mad and started hitting things. If you knew, you might think … I could hit you, too.”
Lee blinked away the old memory, the moment she’d finally understood him. Trusted him. Did he still trust her? He sipped his coffee, and the mug trembled when he set it back down. She should take his hand.
No. She shouldn’t. She couldn’t.
He gazed at the table, and his shoulders quaked, once. Lee opened her palm and ordered her hand to reach out, to enfold his callused fist or curve around his shoulder, to give him this small thing after all he’d given her. To say in a way that meant more to him than words, Marcus, I … But her hands remained still, both of them in her lap, one clenched, one open.
“Lee?”
“Yes?”
“Thanks. For knowing. And staying.”
She laced together the fingers of the hands that couldn’t touch him. “You’re welcome.”
Acknowledgments
So many people are traveling life’s journey with me and taking part in my author’s journey in unique, precious ways. Thank you …
To my first writer’s group, for friendship and memories. To Heather MacLeod for telling me who my main characters were and getting me to spill sleepover spoilers because you needed to know now. To Jocelyn Floyd for MIBFTRO, Marcus-love, and meteors. To Melodie Lange for finding romance in pancakes. I go on record to say yes, all of you were right about everything.
To Rachel Hauck and Susan May Warren for encouragement and affirmation when I was an uncertain newbie at a retreat in February 2011, for praying over me and believing I would be published.
To Hannah Jacobsen for keeping the red binder.
To the Best Crit Group Ever (trademark pending)—Edie Melson, Erynn Newman, Jessica Keller, and Charity Tinnin. For support as I stepped onto the publication road and invaluable crit comments including “huh??”
To Jessica Keller (again) for the Team Marcus shirt and for expressing more excitement than I can.
To Charity Tinnin (again) for character therapy, hours of phone chats, and dragging me off my ledges. For loving Marcus and Lee even though you’d slap them in real life, and for being my friend.
To Andrea Taft for physician assistant expertise (“she should clean that again to avoid osteomyelitis”), for unsolicited story-related texts (“Marcus would like this coffee”), for impatience to hold this book in your hands, and for being my friend.
To Jessica Kirkland, my amazing and extroverted agent, for tearing this manuscript apart, for freaking me out with your fire hose of ideas, and for pushing me and this story to be our best.
To the David C Cook digital team and editor Jon Woodhams, for dedication to excellence.
To my siblings, Joshua, Andrew, and Emma, for being your awesome selves and loving me, and especially to my sister Emily, for being the best sister a writer could ask for. You know all the reasons why.
To my parents, Bill and Patti, for love and encouragement and Christ-like examples. To Dad for thinking I’m a genius and telling me the obvious goal here should be the New York Times best seller list. To Mom for home schooling and reality checks, and for texting me when the book made you cry.
Lastly and above all, to the Creator God Who gave me an inner fire to create, the Father God Who loves me more than I could ever love these fictional children of mine, the righteous God and King Who left His throne to come down here and pay for unrighteousness. Dear Lord, receive glory from my little offering.
SEEK AND HIDE
Published by David C Cook
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David C Cook U.K., Kingsway Communications
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All rights reserved. No part of this ebook may be reproduced, scanned, resold, or distributed by or through any print or electronic medium without written permission from the publisher. This ebook is licensed solely for the personal and noncommercial use of the original authorized purchaser, subject to the terms of use under which it was purchased. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.
The website addresses recommended throughout this book are offered as a resource to you. These websites are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement on the part of David C Cook, nor do we vouch for their content.
This story is a work of fiction. Characters and events are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to any person, living or dead, is coincidental.
ISBN 978-1-4347-0865-6
eISBN 978-0-7814-1175-2
© 2014 Amanda Stevens
The Team: John Blase, Renada Thompson, Susan Murdock
Cover Design: Nick Lee
Cover Photos: iStock, Shutterstock
First Edition 2014
Photo by Emilie Hendryx
(E.A. Creative Photography)
As a child, AMANDA G. STEVENS disparaged Mary Poppins and Stuart Little because they could never happen. Now, she writes speculative fiction. Holding a Bachelor of Science degree in English, she has taught literature and composition to home-school students. She lives in Michigan and loves books, film, music, and white cheddar popcorn.
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Seek and Hide: A Novel (Haven Seekers) Page 32