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    Noelle
    Noelle
    Noelle
    Ebook240 pages3 hours

    Noelle

    By Emily Mims

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    About this ebook

    A VOW...
    When Ike Jeffries married Cassandra Siler he believed in their future, and he couldn’t wait to meet their daughter, born on Christmas Eve. What should have been a blessed event turned into a nightmare when Cassie disappeared with their baby girl. With a hardened heart, Ike finds them five long years later and learns that everything he thought he knew about his wife and child was a lie.

    AND A PROMISE
    Cassie Jeffries loved her husband with all her heart. But after the birth of their daughter she discovered a horrible truth about the child that forced her to run for their lives. Crisscrossing the country until she found a new home, Cassie knew she’d done the right thing until Ike found them and demanded answers she wasn’t prepared to share. But life has a way of giving you what you need, and Cassie and her daughter needed the family they had left behind, even if it meant fighting for what was right, and for what she’d forsaken all those years ago.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBoroughs Publishing Group
    Release dateDec 7, 2018
    ISBN9781948029483
    Noelle
    Author

    Emily Mims

    The author of over thirty romance novels, Emily Mims combined her writing career with a career in public education until leaving the classroom to write full time. The mother of two sons, she and her husband split their time between central Texas, eastern Tennessee, and Georgia visiting their kids and grandchildren. For relaxation Emily plays the piano, organ, dulcimer, and ukulele for two different performing groups, and even sings a little. She says, “I love to write romances because I believe in them. Romance happened to me and it can happen to any woman—if she’ll just let it.”

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      Book preview

      Noelle - Emily Mims

      THE SMOKY BLUES

      Mountains, music, love.

      A VOW…

      When Ike Jeffries married Cassandra Siler he believed in their future, and he couldn’t wait to meet their daughter, born on Christmas Eve. What should have been a blessed event turned into a nightmare when Cassie disappeared with their baby girl. With a hardened heart, Ike finds them five long years later and learns that everything he thought he knew about his wife and child was a lie.

      AND A PROMISE

      Cassie Jeffries loved her husband with all her heart. But after the birth of their daughter she discovered a horrible truth about the child that forced her to run for their lives. Crisscrossing the country until she found a new home, Cassie knew she’d done the right thing until Ike found them and demanded answers she wasn’t prepared to share. But life has a way of giving you what you need, and Cassie and her daughter needed the family they had left behind, even if it meant fighting for what was right, and for what she’d forsaken all those years ago.

      ALSO BY EMILY MIMS

      The Smoky Blues series

      Mist

      Smoke

      Evergreen

      Indigo

      Emerald

      Mistletoe

      Violet

      Ruby

      Amethyst

      The Texas Hill Country series

      Solomon’s Choice

      After the Heartbreak

      A Gift of Trust

      Daughter of Valor

      Welcome Home

      Unexpected Assets

      Never and Always

      A Gift of Hope

      Once, Again

      Other Romances

      Season of Enchantment

      A Dangerous Attraction

      For the Thrill of It All

      Noelle

      Emily Mims

      www.BOROUGHSPUBLISHINGGROUP.com

      PUBLISHER’S NOTE: 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 events, locales, business establishments or persons, living or dead, is coincidental. Boroughs Publishing Group does not have any control over and does not assume responsibility for author or third-party websites, blogs or critiques or their content.

      NOELLE

      Copyright © 2018 Emily Wright Mims

      Smashwords Edition

      All rights reserved. Unless specifically noted, no part of this publication may be reproduced, scanned, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Boroughs Publishing Group. The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or by any other means without the permission of Boroughs Publishing Group is illegal and punishable by law. Participation in the piracy of copyrighted materials violates the author’s rights.

      ISBN 978-1-948029-48-3

      E-book formatting by Maureen Cutajar

      www.gopublished.com

      This book is dedicated to my six grandchildren

      José Remigio Gracia II

      Mateo Andrew Gracia

      Caleb William Mims

      Enrique Emmanuel Gracia

      Tanner Lee Mims

      Connor Flynn Murphy-Mims

      Beautiful in their diversity

      Breathtaking in their promise

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      As always, a good book is not written in a vacuum. I want to thank Edwin Floyd for yet another great beta read, and Michelle Klayman and the wonderful editing staff for their valuable input.

      CONTENTS

      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

      About the Author

      NOELLE

      Chapter One

      Ike looked down at the map on his phone and swore at the traffic on the expressway leading from the airport to downtown San Antonio. Traffic was traveling at a snail’s pace and the LED monitor over the highway warned of an accident up ahead. The air conditioner in the miniscule rental was no match for the hot, muggy air that had slapped him in the face as he walked out of the airport terminal. Unlike Eastern Tennessee, where the air was cooling down in the mountains and the leaves were turning to red and gold, October was a summer month in South Texas, with green leaves on the trees and heat shimmering off the streets and bridges. Sweat beaded his forehead and dampened his shirt. He considered that the heat and humidity weren’t making him perspire, but the possibility that he’d finally found her was. Tonight he may well see his runaway wife and their daughter, Noelle, for the first time in almost five years.

      The expressway curved around a bend and traffic finally sped up a bit. From the road he could see the downtown San Antonio skyline, crowned by the famous Hemisfair Tower rising high above the hotels and office buildings. Tension coiled in his stomach. He wondered what had made Cassie come here with a newborn baby after running away in the middle of the night—on Christmas Eve, of all nights.

      That was, if the woman Deke Gregory located, going by the name Sandra Jameson, who worked in a doctor’s office by day and acted in a small community theater by night, was Ike’s wife, Cassandra Siler Jeffries. He knew better than to get his hopes up. He’d been disappointed too many times. The first year, he and his father-in-law Hugh had checked out leads from Denver to Pensacola, none of which had panned out. But the trail grew cold and Hugh lost interest in the search, preferring instead to spend his time and energy espousing bigotry with his white supremacist buddies, and indoctrinating his young son Davy with his racist philosophy.

      After all that searching, and not a word from his wife, something inside Ike hardened. His love for Cassie had given way to anger and bitterness to the point that he too had pretty much given up. The only reason he’d broken down and hired Deke Gregory was because of Cassie’s grandmother, Mae Jameson. Granny Mae, worn out from eighty-eight years of living in the holler and suffering from congestive heart failure, had pled with him to try once more. I ain’t gots much longer in me, Ike. She’s all I gots left of my daughter Josie. I don’t wants to die with Josie’s girl and her baby on my heart.

      So here he was, on what was probably a fool’s errand spurred by a dying woman and his own bitterness over the loss of his daughter. What the hell had Cassie been thinking running off with his child? Even if she didn’t want him any longer, even if she wanted to end their marriage, she’d had no business robbing him of his daughter.

      If this woman was indeed his estranged wife, he had every intention of asking her that and one hundred other questions. But first, he wanted to see Noelle.

      The GPS beeped and announced an upcoming exit. He took the exit onto Cesar Chavez Boulevard, a wide avenue clogged with trucks and cars. The sun had dropped down on the horizon, and the reds and golds of early twilight bathed the jumble of high-rises in a golden glow.

      Cesar Chavez Boulevard was busy on Friday night. The sidewalks teemed with a mixture of smartly dressed professional types, and folks who looked like tourists in their T-shirts and shorts. Under other circumstances, Ike would have parked the car and joined them, having developed a taste for the urban vibe on his many trips to Nashville with his band.

      But tonight all he wanted was to find the small theater where Sandra Jameson was playing Dorothy in a local production of The Wizard of Oz to learn if she was his long-lost wife.

      He had driven a couple of miles and could see another expressway up ahead when his GPS announced his arrival at the Durango Street Theater. There was no parking at the theater, but the public lot across the street had a few empty spots. Ike paid the elderly parking attendant the requested ten dollars and waited impatiently for a green light in the crosswalk.

      He crossed the street and studied the theater. It was older and a bit rundown and had at one time been a movie theater. Still, something about the old building was appealing. The ancient vertical sign read Durango, and the marquee letters spelled out The Wizard of Oz.

      Ike’s heart gave an extra thump. Cassie had loved old theaters and had always wanted to work in one. This is exactly the kind of place I want to act in someday, she’d said once in an older theater in Asheville. Where I can connect with my audience and they can connect with me.

      Maybe Cassie had gotten her wish.

      The line at the box office moved quickly and the smiling teenager in a The Wizard of Oz T-shirt gave Ike a flirtatious grin. What name are the tickets under?

      I don’t have tickets reserved. How much do I owe you? I need only one.

      Twenty-five dollars. Unless you’re a student or military.

      No to both. He pushed the money through the opening and got a ticket printed with a seat number.

      It’s in the back. The good ones are all taken.

      This will be fine.

      He wandered in the theater. Volunteers were selling sodas, wine and popcorn at the concession counter. Patrons of all ages were making their way from the lobby into the seating area. The house lights had dimmed and the prelude had already started by the time he was finished in the men’s room. A volunteer handed him a program and shined a small flashlight on his ticket. Come with me. Your seat’s on the aisle.

      Ike followed the girl. She indicated an aisle seat on the far left. He slid into the chair, grateful he wouldn’t have to crawl over a row of seated patrons. The house lights dimmed further, making it too dark to read the program. His curiosity burned to learn what Sandra Jameson’s bio would say about her.

      The prelude ended and the curtain rose. The character of Dorothy came running down the middle aisle, frantically calling for her little dog Toto. Ike’s pulse pounded in his throat as Dorothy ran up the side stairs to the stage. She’d gone by in a flash, dressed in the traditional costume of a blue-and-white-checked dress and saddle oxfords. The long dark hair of a wig was pulled into pigtails on either side of her face. He’d not gotten a good look at her facial features, between the bangs and pigtails and the heavy stage makeup, but they seemed different somehow, bolder and more firmly chiseled than Cassie’s. Her speaking voice didn’t give him a clue. Though it was high and sweet like Cassie’s, the soft flat vowels and run-together phrases of the Tennessee holler were gone. This girl, whoever she was, had only a trace of the South in her voice, and her words were enunciated perfectly.

      Dorothy found Toto and ran home. Ike studied the actress on the stage. Damn the makeup and the wig. Between them they obliterated so much of her natural appearance that he couldn’t tell what she looked like underneath it all. He gave up on the face and instead compared the figure beneath the kitschy costume to the slender girl he’d had in his bed so long ago.

      Again, the costume obscured much of what lay beneath it. But the girl’s figure seemed fuller and lusher than Cassie’s. His wife had been slender and delicate almost to the point of ethereal, even when she was due to deliver Noelle. Dorothy, whoever she was, had a shape that was all woman. A figure that under other circumstances he would have admired.

      Ike drummed his fingers on the armrest. He was beginning to think this had been a fool’s errand. This woman didn’t look like Cassie, she didn’t sound like Cassie, and she wasn’t built like Cassie. Still, he would stick around and meet her after the play, shake her hand and tell her he’d enjoyed the performance to satisfy himself she wasn’t the runaway wife he was looking for.

      His eyes drifted back to the stage. Auntie Em was in the process of admonishing Dorothy to stay out of trouble. The stage lights dimmed and Dorothy stepped into the spotlight. The orchestra played the intro and she launched into the famous opening lines of Over the Rainbow.

      Ike started to tremble as the soaring soprano notes filled the theater. He stared unbelievingly at the girl singing so poignantly. His hands shook in his lap. Her face might have changed. Her speech patterns might have changed. Her figure might have changed. But her voice was still the same. The beautiful, rich, vibrant soprano that had blended so beautifully with his soaring tenor. The voice he’d not heard in the last five years. The voice that still haunted his memories and his dreams.

      The voice he’d missed hearing so much.

      Cassie’s voice was coming from that stage.

      Ike stared, mesmerized, at this new version of his wife as she sang Over the Rainbow. A part of him, the part that had loved her once, wanted to grab her and kiss her silly. The other part, the man he’d become over the last few years, wanted to run up on that stage and demand to know what the hell was going on and why she’d run away from him.

      Disrupting the show would get him thrown out at the least, and possibly arrested. But she wasn’t getting away from the theater tonight without a confrontation, either in the parking lot or perhaps greeting the audience in the lobby, as was customary in community theaters. Ike’s teeth ground together as he fought back the familiar anger and the why that had raged in his thoughts for the last five years.

      And what about Noelle? His daughter would be nearly five. He wondered where she spent her time while her mother took to the boards. Ike’s teeth ground together. Had Cassie been a responsible mother or had Noelle been neglected while her mother went on her merry way night after night? The Cassie that he’d married wouldn’t have done that. No matter what else she would or wouldn’t have done, she would have taken good care of her child. But that was the girl he’d known and loved five years ago. That didn’t mean she was a good mother today.

      Ike sat up a bit straighter when Dorothy’s house crashed down in Oz and a troupe of Munchkins took to the stage. The Munchkins were being played by children, who looked to be between the ages of four or five and nine or ten. Maybe Noelle was in the cast with her mother.

      He tried to read the program, but the theater was far too dark. His eyes flickered over the girl Munchkins one by one as they recited their lines and broke into song. Too tall. Too old. Noelle would probably be blonde. His hair had been blond until he was in his teens and Cassie’s had been blonde as an adult.

      Ike sighed with disappointment. None of the kids on the stage appeared to be his daughter. But some of them sure were cute. A perfectly adorable little girl who was about the same age as Noelle caught his eye. Dark hair and eyes, caramel-colored skin, biracial or perhaps Hispanic, she absolutely sparkled from the stage as she sang and danced and delivered her lines. Long, complicated lines, and she delivered them with aplomb.

      Ike smiled despite the tension gripping him. Somewhere in the audience, a mother and father were busting their buttons with pride.

      Act One came to its inevitable conclusion. Too nervous to eat or drink anything, he made another foray to the men’s room and settled down into his chair to read the program.

      Interestingly, Sandra Jameson’s resume was lengthy, and listed production after production she’d performed in, beginning about four years ago. Maybe that was when she’d come to San Antonio. The picture beside the bio was not the typical studio shot. Instead, someone had captured an image of Cassie outdoors, with the wind ruffling her hair as she smiled at someone to one side of her as the picture was taken.

      Jealousy ripped through Ike at the thought that she’d been smiling at the new man in her life. She was still his wife, damn it. She had no business having a man in her life.

      He glanced down at the list of Munchkins. He found Noelle Jameson on the list. But there was no blonde four-year-old girl in the Munchkins.

      The minutes dragged during the second half. Ike’s neck stiffened and his head started to pound, as he wondered what he was going to say to Cassie after all this time, and what she had to say for herself.

      He’d demand answers. He wouldn’t let her run, and he had to see Noelle.

      The play finally came to its exciting finale. The cast took their bows and someone presented Cassie with a bouquet of roses. The cast exited the stage down the middle aisle and a young man stepped to the mic and announced that the cast would be doing a meet and greet in the lobby.

      Ike’s hands trembled as he pushed himself up from his chair. This was it. No waiting for her at the stage door. He would be confronting her in a lobby full of fans. There would be no ranting and raving, nothing that would get him thrown out of the place before he had a chance to find out what he needed to know.

      He wondered how Cassie would react as he held back until most of the audience had gone through the line. Cassie’s smile was warm and genuine as she accepted their praise and thanks. She stood next to a tall, broad-shouldered actor who, despite his scarecrow costume and makeup, was every woman’s dream come true.

      The man laughed at something a flirty woman said and shook his head, pulling Cassie close for a quick hug before resting his hand on her shoulder. Ike seethed as his wife and the scarecrow smiled at one another.

      He’d be happy to knock the bastard’s hand off his wife’s shoulder. Come to think of it, he’d be happy to knock the bastard into the next county.

      The last of the audience was shaking hands as Ike approached them. He could tell the minute Cassie spotted him. She froze, staring at him like he was a varmint on the front porch.

      But he was staring at her, too. Up close, he could see that she’d changed less than he’d first thought. The same wide-winged eyebrows, the same light-blue eyes, the same high cheekbones, the same straight, chiseled nose. Her cheeks were fuller now, but her lips were still small and bowed at the top. He still couldn’t make out that much of her figure under the costume, but she definitely had a woman’s body these days. A body he felt himself responding to on some

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