Stranded in Paradise

by Lori Copeland

  Advance Praise for Lori Copeland’s

  stranded in paradise

  “Copeland’s vivid portrayal of a tropical setting and two compelling characters in search of inner peace will delight the senses, tug at the heart, and lift the spirit. A divine read.”

  LINDA WINDSOR,

  award-winning author of Riona, Fires of Gleannmara Book Two

  “Well-written, stormy, and intense with life and love.”

  LYN COTE,

  author of Winter’s Secret

  “Stranded in Paradise gives a new meaning to the term ‘island style’ as Tess Nelson experiences everything but the tropical bliss she was hoping to find on Maui. Grab your sunglasses and come along for the frolic!”

  ROBIN JONES GUNN,

  award winning author of the Glenbrooke Series

  “Enchanting! Lori Copeland’s lively, riveting writing style and cast of quirky characters engaged me from the moment I started reading. Exciting action sprinkled with Lori’s trademark humor held my attention as I drank in the deep spiritual truth of the importance of total surrender to Christ.”

  CATHERINE PALMER,

  Christy Award-winning author of The Happy Room and English Ivy

  “This great story is Copeland at her best. I highly recommend it!”

  COLLEEN COBLE,

  author of Wyoming

  “I’ve loved Lori Copeland’s writing for years, and her latest effort is no exception. Reminiscent of yesteryear’s cinematic romantic comedies, Stranded in Paradise employs situational humor that is never slapstick, but is long on fun and love. Lori goes a step farther to blend in a gentle, but powerful message of faith.”

  JANE ORCUTT,

  author of Lullaby and The Living Stone

  “Descriptive and compelling. In Stranded in Paradise, award-winning Lori Copeland offered me a cozy, satisfying read with a subtle humor that caused a chuckle, a tender love story that brought tears, and a heroine whose flickering faith erupted into a triumphant blaze.”

  DORIS ELAINE FELL,

  author of Sunrise on Stradbury Square and Willows on the Windrush

  “Stranded in Paradise is a beautiful story of love and redemption. Lori Copeland’s wonderfully witty tale takes you on the vacation you never wanted and makes you so very glad you went. Romance, the tropics, and a strong inspirational theme make Stranded in Paradise a sure winner!”

  DENISE HUNTER,

  author of Aloha

  “I just took a wonderful trip to Hawaii with Lori Copeland and didn’t even have to board a jet. From the frozen skies of Denver to the wild tropical breezes of a Maui hurricane, [Stranded in Paradise kept] me guessing with little surprises all along the way. I’m looking forward to the next exciting getaway with this gifted writer.”

  HANNAH ALEXANDER,

  author of the Healing Touch Series

  stranded in paradise

  Women of Faith Fiction presents

  stranded in paradise

  A Story of Letting Go

  BY LORI COPELAND

  © 2002 by Lori Copeland

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any other means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews or articles, without the prior permission of the publisher.

  Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

  Published in association with the literary agency of Alive Communications, Inc., 7680 Goddard Street, Suite 200, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80920.

  Thomas Nelson, Inc., titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please email SpecialMarkets@ThomasNelson.com.

  The Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT) 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Ill. All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, organizations, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  ISBN 978-0-8499-4508-3 (trade paper)

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Copeland, Lori.

  Stranded in paradise / by Lori Copeland.

  p. cm.

  ISBN 978-0-8499-4378-2

  1. Colorado—Fiction. I. Title.

  PS3553.06336 S77 2002

  813’.54—dc21

  2002008987

  Printed in the United States of America

  08 09 10 11 12 RRD 11 10 9 8 7

  This book is a singular gift from God, and I praise His name that He would allow this author to extol His glory through Women of Faith.

  And to Thelma Jean Keithly Bilyeu: mother of nine children, grandmother of twenty-two, great-grandmother of twenty-one, and great-great-grandmother of one. Thelma was called home to be with the Lord as I was finishing this book. A devoted follower of Christ, Thelma enjoyed many hours of Christian fiction. Thelma, you will be sorely missed by family, friends, and loved ones. Until we meet again …

  Let the LORD’S people show him reverence, for those who honor him will have all they need. Even strong young lions sometimes go hungry, but those who trust in the LORD will never lack any good thing.

  —PSALM 34:9–10

  NEW LIVING TRANSLATION

  Table of Contents

  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

  Discussion questions/ study guide

  Acknowledgments

  1

  Jan. 10, 8:55 A.M.

  Denver, Colorado

  “Boy, Kim, this weather is nutty, isn’t it? Where’s the snow?”

  “Rocky, I don’t know,” the female disk jockey deadpanned. “We don’t have to worry about hurricanes here in Denver land: I WANT SNOW!”

  Tess Nelson signaled, then switched lanes on the busy interstate. The Acura surged ahead, passing a slower-moving vehicle before shooting back to the right lane. The digital clock turned to 8:56 A.M.

  The disk jockeys kept up their banter, “Imagine a summer thunderstorm, a dark, hulking brute towering over ten turbulent miles into the heavens—black, rolling clouds spewing blinding rain, hailstones, and lightning. Then picture a line of these monsters seventy-five miles long, standing shoulder to shoulder,” Rocky said of an approaching storm in the South Pacific. “Take that line and wrap it around into a circle 230 miles across and spin it counterclockwise at 140 miles an hour and you’re in the eye of a hurricane… . Must be something to experience …” She frowned at the radio, as she wondered how long it took for those storms to fizzle out. She had a business trip planned for the following week in Hawaii and the last thing she needed was some tropical depression to foul up her plans.

  The Acura wheeled into the underground parking garage. Tires and power steering screeched as she ascended from the first floor to the second level. She turned into spot seven, shut off the engine, and looked at the clock. 8:57—oops. 8:58. On time.

  Her newest twenty-something temp was waiting when the elevator doors opened to the fo
urteenth floor.

  “Suit wants to see you.” Judy chewed gum and pointed an acrylic-nailed, three-ringed finger toward the executive suite one floor up.

  “I need to drop these things off in my office and get a cup of coffee—”

  “No time, Kiddo. The Man says now. Mucho pronto.” The temp blew a bubble and popped it back into her mouth in one swift move.

  Tess shifted the armload of folders, sunglasses, briefcase, and purse, then pilfered a notepad and pen from her secretary’s desk. “Please spit out your gum.” She pointed to the wastebasket.

  “Yes ma’am.”

  Ma’am? Tess flinched. She had to speak to Nick in personnel about the help he was sending her lately. The last one had taken breaks every hour to do her yoga stretches right there on the office floor. She didn’t know how long she could deal with the endless array of teenyboppers behind the desk.

  Stepping into the elevator, she punched floor thirty-seven and tapped the pen against the notepad as she watched the numbers change above the elevator’s doors. To hear Len refer to the executive office as “his office” sounded strange. He’d taken over as chief executive officer of Connor.com upon the sudden death of his father, Dave Connor, the man who had started the company five years earlier. While dot com companies had been rising fast in the late nineties, Dave Connor had moved with caution, investing back into the business instead of buying new equipment and hiring employees he wouldn’t be able to keep for the long haul. He was a man of vision. But Dave hadn’t planned on dying at the age of sixty-one of a heart attack.

  Dot com companies sell service, not a product, and Dave had built a strong, self-sustaining business because he cared about his customers. Connor.com allowed clients to let bids on large-ticket or small-ticket items online. If they wished, they could even do a closed bid.

  Under Dave’s management, changes were constantly made to meet a client’s needs. Most of the schools in this area used Connor.com to order supplies like hand soap, detergent, grease-breaker soap, and soap for mopping kitchen floors, tile floors, and hardwood floors. One catalog they maintained listed over twenty thousand different soap items.

  A company of this size needed a lot of people: a chief executive officer, chief financial officer, chief operations officer, chief technical officer, plus middle management people and a ton of technical geeks. Not everyone could manage a company this size the way Dave had done. She hoped Len was up to it.

  Tess had met Dave at a Chamber of Commerce mixer five and a half years ago. He was a kind old man who had treated her like a daughter almost from the time they met. When he had asked her to join his company a few months later, she’d jumped at the opportunity.

  The job was a human resource manager’s dream, with a lot of potential for advancement. She was ready for the challenges. For the past two years Dave had been grooming her to take the position of vice president of human resources, second in command of Connor.com.

  Apparently, this morning Len was ready to announce that he was moving her into the job. She knew she was ready to steer the company through the turbulent waters of mergers and acquisitions, setting up profit sharing and a 401(k) program that would attract experienced and loyal employees. This was the crowning achievement of all her hard work.

  As she reached Len’s office, his secretary, Nancy, was coming out. “Hello,” Tess chirped.

  “Go on in,” Nancy murmured, refusing to meet her eye. Odd. Nancy Silva was one of the friendliest people Tess knew. From the look on Nancy’s face she wondered if something awful had happened to her.

  “Thanks,” Tess said as Nancy turned her back.

  She opened the door. Len had made few changes to Dave’s office. When she entered the world of mahogany and Prussian blue she found Len leaning back in Dave’s chair, phone to his ear, staring out the big window behind the large desk that had been his father’s for over twenty years. Len had that familiar pose, forefinger tapping the back of the phone as he spoke as if prompting whoever was on the other end to hurry it up. His sandy hair fell against his forehead in that boyish way he had. Tess felt her back stiffen as the old feelings tried to wedge their way back in. Yes, Len had his charms, she told herself, but there was a selfish side to the man.

  “See you the first of the week,” Len said into the receiver, then hung up the phone and swung around. “Ah, Tess.”

  She smiled, reminding herself of what this meeting was no doubt about. “Ah, Len.” She’d waited a long time for this moment, put in many a long day and given up countless weekends to make deadlines.

  She sobered when he didn’t return her smile, and uneasiness grew in the pit of her stomach. His life had changed tremendously when Dave died, she reasoned, he was just having a hard day.

  She could be of invaluable help now that Dave was gone, of course, and she would. She knew the ins and outs of the company better than anyone, Len included. “Have a seat,” Len invited.

  She sank into one of the familiar leather chairs where she’d spent many an evening after five sitting, talking business, and laughing over Dave’s corny jokes. She wondered briefly if she and Len would have the same kind of relaxed, creative relationship after working hours. Maybe the man could change. She looked up into his eyes.

  “You know the dot com business is a little bizarre right now, with so many companies folding,” Len said quickly as he raked a hand through his blond hair.

  “Yes …” Tess replied uncertainly, wondering where he was headed. Was Len thinking of merging with another company? Connor.com was financially stable but right now wasn’t the best time—

  “The good news is a lot of qualified people are suddenly available.”

  She shrugged. “True.”

  “I was talking to a friend I went to college with. We were fraternity brothers, in fact.”

  “Oh?” She crossed her legs and focused on him, wishing he’d get to the point. “What’s his background?”

  “Chuck Vinton has been V.P. of human resources at a West Coast firm, but they were bought out …”

  A prickle of apprehension snaked down her spine.

  “—and he’s free, so I’ve hired him as our new vice president.”

  For a split second, she felt nothing, as if she were in a tunnel without sound or reason. Vice president, he had said—vice president of human resources.

  “I don’t understand,” she said through her fog.

  Len met her eyes. He enunciated the words this time, speaking slowly as if she were unable to comprehend. “Chuck’s going to take over. He’s exactly what Connor.com needs.”

  Tess shifted forward in her chair. “You hired a fraternity brother for my job?”

  “I knew you would have a hard time with this, Tess. Chuck isn’t exactly taking your position. Your situation here with Connor.com has been unusual—Dad gave you a lot of responsibility. He may have made promises but that was when he was …”

  “Promises be hanged! Len, you know me. I’ve worked seventy-hour weeks, skipped vacations, erased my personal life—”

  “And I appreciate your hard work but I think the company’s better served by hiring someone with more experience. Chuck has ten years under his belt.”

  He toyed with an eraser, sitting up in his chair to slam dunk the rubber into a glass ashtray.

  She seethed. Her life was falling apart and the dunce was shooting hoops.

  So there it was: all her hard work, setting up the department from the company’s foundation, was being tossed aside because Len Connor ran into an old college buddy. She should have known he’d pull something like this.

  “I see.” She struggled to hold on to some shred of professionalism. “Then you’re saying that I will be working for Mr. Vinton.”

  Len swirled a gold pen between his fingers. “Well, you could, I guess, but the thing is …” he paused and she could see his jaw tense. “Chuck is bringing his own people; you’ll have to apply for any openings that are left.”

  “He’s bringing—” She trie
d to absorb the shock. Her mind whirled. “So either I start from square one or I’m fired?”

  Len shrugged. “Sorry.”

  “You’re firing me?” She stood up, pen and pad fluttering to the floor. The Uniball rolled under the desk.

  “There is another open position in which you would fit well—”

  “Where?” Her voice was almost a screech.

  “Payroll.” He smiled, but there was a hint of condescension in that twinkle in his eyes.

  Her lashes narrowed. “You’re offering me a job in payroll?”

  He lifted his shoulders. “It’s a good position. Decent pay. Punch out at five o’clock.”

  She stopped him cold. “I am a manager, Len, not a payroll clerk. I have five years of experience hiring and managing departments full of payroll clerks and a dozen other employees. Len, this is a huge professional insult!”

  His tone firmed. “I’m only doing what’s best for Connor.com. You know that we’ve tightened our belts, that we’ve frozen new hires—”

  Anger welled inside her.

  “But you can bring in your fraternity brother and his people? Do I look that stupid, Len?”

  He shifted closer to the desk. Beneath the polished wood, his foot tapped erratically. “Your years of service have been duly noted, Tess. It’s a tough break, but you’re resilient. In a few years, who knows, maybe you’ll prove me wrong.”

  She swallowed back an acid retort. “I’m thinking you’re right. I can do better than Connor.com. Chuck does sound like the man to head the helm.”

  Len shrugged. “Of course the choice is yours. Perhaps you need a few days to think about it … ”

  “I don’t need a vacation.” Right now she needed a two-by-four. A good solid plank to wipe the smirk off his silver-spoon-fed Harvard face.

  He calmly met her wintry stare. “I’ll hold the payroll position until I hear from you.” The phone rang and he picked it up, dismissing her with a nod.