Without a song.
Still reeling from the loss of her husband, young widow Roni Marsden resolves to be strong for her precocious daughter. Invited to stay on the cleansing hills of her friend’s ranch in Nebraska, she tries to figure out the next step. Should she leave Norfolk? Could she find work if she did?
Country songwriter Dawson Bennett returns home to the quiet of his brother’s ranch when the production company for his first album goes bust. He searches his heart for new songs, but finds himself unable to write. Even as he seeks direction for his career, he attempts to mend the past with his elderly father.
Back in high school, Dawson had crushed on the lovely Roni when she dated his brother. Those emotions are reawakened when he discovers Roni and her daughter also taking emotional shelter at the ranch. Protective feelings for the child, as well as for a stray pup that arrives on the scene, work together to soften his bitterness. Will these connections enable him to write lyrics that honor God?
Or does God have a different future in mind for these searching souls?
Chapter 1
The last time Roni had attended a church service was Jim’s funeral six months earlier. She wiggled, crossed and uncrossed her ankles. Young men weren’t supposed to die and leave a woman alone to raise a three-year-old daughter. With Ivy in Sunday preschool, Roni studied the church she’d attended as a girl.
She took in the stained glass. The picture of Jesus with his arm enfolding a lamb drew a frown rather than bringing calm to her heart. She closed her eyes. You should smile inside. Jim rests in the arms of Jesus now. Roni opened her eyes. Gilded rays of sunlight graced the Lord’s head with a majestic aura. Her soul softened in repentance.
Caring people made her uncomfortable because they didn’t know what to say about her loss other than how sorry they were, or what a shame, or other useless words. None of it mattered. She missed Jim every time she looked into her daughter’s eyes, inherited from her father.
Nights were the worst.
Pastor Pullman took the stage, which yanked her out of her thoughts. “Joy to all of God’s people, this good morning. What a glorious day for us to meet in this place. We have a special treat today. Our own song-writing country boy, Dawson Bennett, is with us. Recently home from Nashville, please welcome him. Dawson will sing one of his own songs to begin our worship.”
Dressed in a lavender shirt with pearl buttons, dark denim jeans, and cowboy boots, long-haired Dawson leaped over two steps to stand at the mic positioned in front of a stool. “Thank you. I feel as though I should say y’all, but you’d laugh at me.”
Snickers and chuckles spread through the congregation.
Roni remained serious. She’d dated Wayne Bennett, Dawson’s older brother, in high school. Pleasant memories, except she’d always wondered about the boys’ home life without a mother.
Dawson balanced on the stool, lowered the mic stand, and positioned his guitar on one leg. “Have you ever considered how the songs may have sounded, the ones mentioned at various Psalm headings? I thumbed through my Bible one day looking for inspiration. At the beginning of Psalm 56, it says to the tune of ‘A Dove on Distant Oak Trees.’ Are you as curious as me about that tune? It was no doubt played on a lyre or a harp with twice the strings.”
How long had it been since Roni had turned to her favorite book of the Bible, the Psalms? Had she ever in her life paid attention to the subtitles?
“A dove on oaks made me think of home. The coo of a dove is pleasant, but the trill of a meadowlark from a distant fencepost takes me right to the surrounding grasslands of my youth.”
He scanned the congregation, passed Roni, and came back to her with a smile and narrowing of the eyebrows. Did he recognize her?
She waited uncountable heartbeats as they made eye contact.
Finally, he looked beyond her as his gaze finished roaming the room.
“The landscape of this place in northeast Nebraska is my home on earth. But I look ahead to my eternal home in heaven.” He strummed a chord and his focus turned inward. “I titled this ‘Call of the Meadowlark.’”
Dawson’s melodious voice raised the hairs on Roni’s arms in reaction to his low register. The longing in his lyrics reached her soul. His phrases accented wait, trust, and hope. Edgy and smooth at the same time, his musical story evolved.
The last chord vibrated in the silence.
Delayed clapping erupted.
Pastor Pullman shook Dawson’s free hand while encircling his upper arm. “Thank you. You’ve blessed us.” Pastor turned his attention to those in the pews. “It should no longer amaze me, but it still does, the way the Holy Spirit reaches more than one person at a time with the same ideas. Dawson’s song is a perfect segue to the message I prepared this morning on trust. But first, the choir will lead us into our first song of worship.”
Roni choked up and could sing few words of the first verse.” She braced her hands on the back of the pew in front and listened. At the end of each refrain, she heard Dawson’s pure baritone as he sang from two rows in front of her.
She swung her braid over her shoulder as the congregation took their seats, closed out the elder’s announcements, and only stirred at the return of a couple from the choir loft who slid past her to take their seats.
“As I mentioned earlier, this morning I want to focus on the word trust. Depending on the version you prefer, the Bible refers to trust over and over.” Pastor Pullman paused. “According to my internet browser, trust is mentioned in the Bible 127 times.”
Roni slid her gaze to Dawson where he sat slanted in the pew ahead and to her right. He brought up one knee, smoothed a lock of light-brown, blondish tinted hair behind his ear, and shot a glance back at her.
His slow smile and deep brown eyes let her know he knew exactly who she was.
She nodded, and turned back to the sermon.
“We all have trials and tribulations. We all have a tendency to wonder and worry about the uncertainty of tomorrow.” Pastor waved a hand to the stained glass on either side of the room. “Take a look at these pictures in colored glass. Peer into the eyes of our Lord. Accept His outstretched arms. Rest in Him. Trust Him with whatever lays on your heart. Open your Bibles to the middle. Find the Psalms.”
Pages turned. The riffling sound drew a comforting response within her heart.
“You should be used to this by now, but stick something in the Psalms and go further back to Second Samuel. Find chapter twenty-two, verse three. ‘My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior.’” Pastor looked out over his flock. “I want you to read this again. Every day this week. How can we not trust our great Savior who promises that we have refuge in Him?”
Roni turned to each verse in Psalms Pastor asked them to find. Psalm 7:1, Lord my God, I take refuge in you; save and deliver me from all who pursue me; Psalm 9:10, Those who know your name trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you. Psalm 16:1, Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge.
Through the remainder of the service, her heart cried out in pain. Jim had always held her hand in church. He’d balance the Bible on his leg while she turned the pages with her free hand.
The hole in her heart gaped wide open. Forgive me. I do trust You, Jesus. It’s so hard at times. Be patient with me. Show me the way to trust You with my future as I face it without my husband.
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Without-Song-Ivys-Inn-Book-ebook/dp/B0D48Z8TS8
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/213665431
Pelican Book Group:
https://pelicanbookgroup.com/ec/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=37_46&products_id=1675
WITHOUT A HOME
Fawn loses her father, her home, and her memory during the Niobrara River flood. When friends invite her to Ivy' s Inn, she has no choice but accept their help... and to believe what others tell her about who she is.
As a young man, Jarett loved Fawn, but she betrayed him. Now she' s back, doesn' t remember him, and seems like a different person. He has to fight a growing attraction to this new and improved version of his lost love. Tangled in those emotions is the yearning to embrace his former heritage of owning ranch land for his cattle, now in a leased pasture that's up for sale.
As circumstances bring them together Fawn falls for Jarett, but Jarett is wary, standoffish, and obviously has a secret.
Love. Trust. Second chances. Will the return of her memory destroy them?
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Without-Home-Ivys-Inn-Book-ebook/dp/B0D48YR5L7
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/213667397
Pelican Book Group:
https://pelicanbookgroup.com/ec/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=37_46&products_id=1676
WITHOUT A DREAM
Josey Dale has come to a crossroad in her life. The hopes and dreams of the past are gone, the present looks bleak, and what the future holds is a mystery. A respite at Ivy's Bed & Breakfast will give her time to contemplate what to do now that she has nowhere to go.
Dr. Thunder Wade, the local veterinarian, has to stop by Ivy's Bed & Breakfast Inn to pick up the owners' dog since Aurora, the temporary caretaker, can't handle the enormous St. Bernard puppy. He is intrigued by the single guest, Josey, in residence. An invitation to tea turns into a fight for their lives as a powerful thunderstorm rages outside, floods the area, and causes a giant cottonwood to fall on the only road out.
Three strangers stuck together without electricity and phone service share their stories. As the days lengthen they learn more about each other and the secrets that rule their lives. And facing their pasts, their fears, and their hearts might be the biggest challenge of all.
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Without-Dream-Ivys-Inn-Book-ebook/dp/B0D48YKQ78
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/213693440
Pelican Book Group:
https://pelicanbookgroup.com/ec/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=37_46&products_id=1677
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