Free to Love, page 1
Free to Love
Inspiration Point Series: Book One
By Kelsey MacBride
Table of Contents
Book Description
AVAILABLE TITLES BY KELSEY MACBRIDE
Inspiration Point Series
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Book Description
This is Book #1 of 2 and Offers a
Free Preview of the Inspiration Point Story
*This is not a standalone book*
If you would like to be notified about sales and new book releases, be sure to sign up for my free newsletter at the following link: http://kelseymacbride.com/newsletter-signup
Free to Love is the first Christian Romance book in the Inspiration Point series and begins the story of Julie Petersen’s struggle to escape from a controlling mother and the clutches of a rich controlling fiancé who won’t stop at anything to make her his wife. This story highlights Julie’s journey to freedom, her hopes, her struggles, and her achievements as she trusts God to help her grow.
In this first book, Julie Petersen escapes James, her soon to be fiancé, and her mother, who tries to make Julie conform to the lifestyle of the rich. She leaves home under cover of darkness with nothing more than a handful of clothes, little money to her name, and a strong faith that God will help her survive. During her journey, she meets Mark, a handsome man who touches her heart with his helpfulness and genuine concern for her well-being. But before their relationship can blossom, disaster strikes when her fiancé tracks her down and changes the course of her life.
Mark is a resident of Newport Beach, who still suffers from the sting of being dumped by his ex-fiancé. Refusing to give up on love, he hopes to find the right Christian woman to settle down with someday. Mark bumps into Julie at his favorite hangout, Inspiration Point, and is instantly attracted to her. Julie goes missing, and now he must figure a way to rescue her from her crazy fiancé who has kidnapped her. Can he rescue Julie in time and profess his love for her? Or will he be too late and miss out on marrying the love of his life?
AVAILABLE TITLES BY KELSEY MACBRIDE
Inspiration Point Series
Unforgettable Love: Book 2
Glen Ellen Series
Fall From Grace: Book 1 (Coming Soon)
Saving Grace: Book 2 (Coming Soon)
Bradley Sister Series
Choices of the Heart: Lauren’s story (Free)
Desires of the Heart: Megan’s story
Passions of the Heart: Tiffany’s story
Redemption of the Heart: Katie’s story
Please visit www.KelseyMacBride.com for release dates of future books and to find out how to join my community of followers.
Copyright © 2015 by Kelsey MacBride
All rights reserved.
Cover design by Jimmy Gibbs.
Book design by Kelsey MacBride.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Kelsey MacBride
Printed in the United States of America
First Printing: January 2015
New Prosperity Publishing, Inc.
ASIN-
Chapter 1
Newport Beach, California
Julie Peterson sat alone on the faded stone bench shrouded under the shade of the rare Silver Linden tree in the backyard of her parents’ house. This was her private sanctuary, a place where she could secretly admire most of the two-acre backyard, which boasted a swimming pool lined with elegant mosaic tiles, a tennis court, and a guest house that could accommodate five people comfortably. When her parents had company over, it wasn’t uncommon to see guests stopping to check out the koi ponds, exotic flowers and rare species of trees that offered plenty of cool shade. This backyard could easily rival the best botanical garden in town.
Most days, she loved to be out there alone. From the house, this particular bench remained hidden, surrounded by an audience of lavender plants, and Julie found it to be the perfect getaway when she needed time to relax or do some serious soul searching.
She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, allowing the soothing fragrance of lavender to refresh her senses. Julie stretched her neck and arched her back to get the kinks out. For the first time in a long while she was able to put every worry out of her mind, even if only for a short hour, and just listen to the sound of her own breath. There were no worries about appointments, phone calls and questions and all those wedding plans.
But, even though she was enjoying her little respite, she couldn’t help but feel those things were just waiting around the fringe of her mind for an opportunity to bound back into the center and take up all her energy. It began to make her chest feel tightened as if she had slipped into an invisible corset. Shaking her head, Julie tried to suppress the images and little ideas screaming, “Look at me! Pay attention to me!” falling right out of her ears. She even tried distracting herself by looking at the beautiful flowers in bloom all around the yard. But the arboretum-like beauty surrounding her still failed to quell the nagging voices inside.
As she indulged in the landscaping of her future house, her cell phone rang. Looking down at the number, she saw it was her friend Danielle. She hadn’t spoken to her much in the past couple of months, and she missed her. But, James would be arriving soon, and he always had such a fit if Julie were talking on the phone when he was around. Sighing sadly, she let it go to voicemail and would try and answer it later. Then, she shut the phone off completely so it wouldn’t ring while she was with James, possibly leading to any kind of argument.
He liked to argue a lot these days. It had to just be the stress of the wedding, the idea of taking on a wife and new responsibilities had to be scary for him too. At least that was what Julie was telling herself. But she tried to remain optimistic, hoping after they were married he’d see how easy she was to live with and how she was good wife material, that his responsibilities wouldn’t be as heavy because she would be there to help shoulder the load. Not that either one of them had the normal worries other newlywed couples had. They both had generous family trusts, and both their parents were alive, healthy and very wealthy.
That should make everything easy, right?
She didn’t take the time to answer her own question. She didn’t want to. The answer was a little bit too scary, too real. Standing up, Julie brushed off her skirt and headed into the house just as James pulled his car up to the front door. He was there to take her to lunch. Julie would suggest Wang Ho for some Chinese food. She was dying for their egg rolls and the little bit of excitement that comes with cracking open a fortune cookie, but she knew James would say no. He liked to say no a lot these days. It would be off to the country club, again, to watch James shake hands with half the members and trade jibes with the upper crusts while she stood back and smiled.
It’s just nerves, she thought, as she climbed into his car and received a quick peck on the cheek in between a phone conversation James was having with some client of his. He held his finger to his lips to indicate she needed to be quiet. And so she was, all the way to the country club. She didn’t even have a chance to suggest Chinese food. The scenery zipped past her. Julie didn’t even notice the other cars on the road, the traffic lights, and the people walking. They were all there but not important or even interesting to her.
Her mind was desperately trying to think of a reason she was in this car. But Julie could barely come up with one. She settled on the fact that she was hungry, and James was taking her someplace where there was food. Not just any man, but her fiancé, the one who should be the most important person in her life besides her family, was taking her some place to get food. It sounded so pathetic, but the fact it was all she could come up with made Julie shrink in her seat.
“I don’t know what he sees in that girl,” Lisa Nardy said as she sat with her longtime friend Mary Kathy Casey at their usual table in the southeast corner of the clubhouse restaurant at Sutter Hill Country Club. Sutter Hill was located smack in the middle of downtown San Francisco.
Although it was a refuge for some of the most prestigious names in politics, movies, sports and philanthropy, most members were not recognized for their athletic agility. That was not a qualification for membership. Paying the ten thousand dollar entrance fee and a couple more in pocket change monthly for dues, was all that was really required.
Lisa Nardy was the daughter of the Sutter Hill Country Club’s first female member, Lorraine Hollinsworth, who was allowed to join in 1978. Even though Lisa herself was now quickly approaching the ripe age of sixty that didn’t stop her from declaring her position of authority at every opportunity. And there was always an opportunity. Lisa Nardy wore her celebrity like a badge of honor. There wasn’t a member in the club who hadn’t been told over a dozen times that Lisa Nardy, daughter of the very first female accepted into the club, was somewhat
“Which girl?” Mary Kathy Casey said, sipping her afternoon lemonade leaving a bright pink stain of lipstick on the rim.
Lisa lifted her chin in the direction of the entrance where a large, muscular man with short, wavy black hair wearing the traditional jacket and tie strolled into the clubhouse restaurant in front of a petite blonde girl.
Aside from being the daughter of a distinguished member at Sutter Hill, Lisa Nardy was also the eyes and ears of the place and had no problem voicing her opinion on everything including the number of drinks Alan Quincy had with his lunch, to how long Marcia Feldman spent with her private tennis coach, or to the engagement of James Turner to the underwhelming Julie Peterson.
Mary Kathy Casey looked in the direction of the couple and then turned to Lisa, rolling her eyes and nodding in agreement. Had she ever shaken her head no in disagreement with Lisa Nardy it would be the same day the polar ice caps dissolved and pigs sprouted wings to fly south for the winter.
“Isn’t that the truth,” she said, again raising her glass to her lips, holding the toothpick with two cherries stabbed through the middle out of her way with her index finger.
“The Petersons,” Lisa said with disdain. It wasn’t that she disliked them. But, they came to San Francisco from Chicago only twenty years ago, and to people like Lisa and Mary Cathy that just wasn’t enough to be completely accepted into the inner circle of Sutter Hill elite. The Petersons may as well have spoken in clicks and grunts and wore animal hides.
They watched as James led the way and Julie sauntered in behind him, always a little slower, always looking around.
Julie Peterson was the one and only child of Margaret and Richard Peterson. Richard had ambition, and while living in Chicago developed a computer program that revolutionized the insurance agency, streamlining data, cross-referencing locations, speculating costs for procedures all in an attempt to help make the insurance business more simple. He was recruited by a software company, worked over sixty hours a week, and within a year after moving to the Sunshine State was living in a modest 6,500 square foot house where Margaret could do what she did best, entertain and fund raise.
Regardless of her lack of actual quality family time, Julie had enjoyed life with private tutors from Kindergarten through fifth grade and then life at the Columbia Christian Preparatory School from sixth grade through senior year in high school. After that, Julie was accepted to Stanford University where she met James Turner in the middle of her junior year. Despite the distraction of James being her first serious boyfriend, Julie managed to keep a high B+ average and graduated with a liberal arts degree with her primary focus in Art Therapy. It was a budding field, allowing Julie room to grow in the study of how the arts impacted children with Autism, Downs Syndrome or any number of conditions.
Julie was popular with her small group of friends. The teachers enjoyed her in their classes. There was never any trouble, aside from perhaps being out past curfew once in a while or when her and her roommate, Stephanie Delgato, played their music a little too loud.
Now, she was the envy of every twenty-two-year-old single female and their mothers, within a hundred mile radius by being engaged to James. He was the son of Robert Turner, who in addition to being the CEO of Kaleidoscope, a chemical company that created an essential mineral needed in all water purification plants, was also a major stockholder in the Santa Anita Race Track. His mother Tousa had ties, very thin ties but ties nonetheless, to the royal Arab family in Egypt and was a model since the age of sixteen until she retired at the age of thirty-five. Now, she, like Lisa Nardy, spent most of her time organizing or attending charity events when she wasn’t gossiping.
As James and Julie were led to a table for two in the center of the restaurant where everyone could see them, James spoke quietly into his cell phone while Julie stopped to say hello to an older couple, the Madias, who she knew very well.
William and Mary Jean Madia had been married for over fifty years. They broke many of the club’s unwritten rules like not playing golf, laughing loudly and ignoring the likes of Lisa Nardy.
“I’ m too old to care,” was Mary Jean’s mantra when she was snubbed from an event or party. Her husband Willie, although secretly liked by the majority of men in the club for his honesty and sense of humor, was also treated as an outcast due to guilt by association. But it didn’t seem to bother them at all. Nor did that kind of judgment bother Julie. However, that kind of comfort in your own skin was what bothered the likes of Lisa Nardy and Mary Kathy Casey the most.
“Why do you insist on talking to them?” James asked in an annoyed tone, shutting off his phone when Julie finally took her seat.
“What? The Madias? Oh, I like them. They make me laugh. That Mr. Madia is always so funny.”
“They don’t belong in a club like this,” James said, almost angrily. “I heard they could barely pay their dues last year, and he had to sell his Mercedes and get a Chrysler.”
“Why do you have to be so critical of a nice senior couple?” Julie protested, keeping her voice quiet while her eyes showed the hurt at her friends being picked on.
“I’ll tell you who does,” Julie said, answering herself while James busied himself checking his phone. “People who don’t want you to know that they’re the ones who couldn’t pay their own membership dues last year. That’s who.”
James snapped a piercing look at her.
“I don’t want you talking with them anymore,” he said, his gaze bouncing back to his phone and to the menu as if the matter was unanimously settled.
Julie looked at him and sighed.
“I guess I’ll just add them to the list, right?” she said, suddenly realizing she was no longer hungry or even in the mood to be at the same table as James.
“Just like with Thomas and Danielle and everyone else who I’ve known my whole life. I’ll tell you what, James, why don’t you give me a list of who I can talk to. That list is a hundred times shorter and will be easier to remember.”
His eyes snapped up over the top of the menu, and he glared at Julie.
“I think you are forgetting who you are talking to, Julie. You don’t talk to me like that.” His voice was quiet and controlled, but Julie could almost feel the heat of his anger in each word.
“I think you’d prefer it if I didn’t talk at all,” Julie replied sadly, looking down at the menu in front of her but not seeing the words to read.
“You need to be concentrating on the wedding plans and not socializing with any person who happens to feel sorry for you and gives you two seconds of extra attention. Did you call the three florists I told you to or did you forget again?”
Julie had always been under the impression that when most weddings were being planned, it was the bride-to-be who got to plan her special day and pick the flowers, food, color schemes and her bridesmaids. But so far, James had made it clear that he was running the show.
“I forgot again,” Julie replied, feeling like a teenager in high school being sent to the principal’s office for not turning in her homework. The smirk on James’s face made her stomach sink. It was as if he were saying, How stupid you are? You can’t even remember to make a phone call. I should have known you wouldn’t be able to handle it.
It was like he didn’t even like her, let alone be her fiancé.
“See, I ask you to do one simple thing, and you can’t even do that.” His voice was quiet but dripping with disgust.
“You know Julie, while I am out working I have to be in reality. Not the fantasy world you live in where your parents take care of everything for you, but reality where time is a luxury, not something to be wasted. You need to stop thinking about yourself and start living in reality.” He picked up his glass of water and took a sip.
Julie looked around the restaurant. Her cheeks were red with embarrassment, which wasn’t helped by the stares of several patrons watching her, including Lisa Nardy and Mary Kathy Casey who quickly looked away and resumed their conversation which Julie could bet she was the topic of.
