Washed by the Water, page 27
When she couldn’t eat another bite, she set down her fork and pushed away her plate.
“Alright,” she said. “You’ve kept me waiting long enough.”
Peter’s eyes widened, and he burst out laughing. Heat flushed Kate’s cheeks. She tried not to smile.
“You know what I mean,” she said, lobbing her wadded up napkin across the table at his chest. “What’s the big secret?”
Still chuckling, Peter wiped at the corners of his eyes. Then he reached across the table and grasped both her hands in his. He took a deep breath.
“I gave Lugar my resignation today.”
Kate sucked in a breath. She tried to pull her hands back, but he held them tight.
“You can’t do that,” she stammered. “I would never ask you to do that.”
“I know. That’s why I didn’t tell you until now. I’ve actually been thinking about this for months.”
His words acted as an emergency brake to her spinning thoughts. For months? She stared at him, speechless.
“My job was an obstacle, but only as long as I let it be,” he said.
“But you love your job,” she said, unable to hide the tremble in her voice.
“No, you love your job,” he murmured. “And I would never ask you to give it up. Especially not when I had a much better plan.”
Kate swallowed against the lump in her throat. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to the mission field.”
His words felt like a slap in the face. “Overseas?” she finally squeaked.
He chuckled and squeezed her hands. “Only for quick trips, and probably not that often. I’m going to serve as a security consultant for missionary sending agencies.”
“What does that mean?”
“I’ll assess potential threats, train teams heading to new assignments, and step in if anyone gets in trouble.”
“What kind of trouble?”
He shrugged, then grinned. “Nothing too dangerous. I’m sure I’ll mostly be bored to tears.”
She frowned. “That sounds terrible.”
Peter’s fingers tightened around hers. “Bored to tears, but happy. Deliriously happy.”
Kate’s breath caught in her throat. Her eyes filled with tears, and she jumped to her feet. Before she could take a step, Peter stood and pulled her to him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her cheek to his.
After several moments, she whispered the only thing she could think to say. “Me, too.”
Afterthoughts
From the moment I began writing Kate and Peter’s story, I wanted to give them a hurricane to live through. No narrative based in Galveston would be complete without one. My encounter with Hurricane Ike was a formative experience for me, both personally and professionally. Of course, I didn’t have a vengeful murderer hunting me, but many other events in this story are based on things I saw and reported on. Students of hurricane history will even notice that the track and effects of the fictitious Hurricane Julio are strikingly similar to Ike.
That storm made landfall directly over Galveston as a Category 3 storm on September 13, 2008. For about a year, it felt like the island would never be the same. But by the two-year anniversary, few signs of the devastation remained. Ike taught me that humans are remarkably resilient. And it echoed the spiritual renewal we experience when we’re “washed by the water.”
Fans of Needtobreathe will recognize that phrase as the title of their hit song by the same name. It came out in 2007 and became a number one hit just a few months before Ike spun to life off the coast of Africa. It perfectly captured the message of death and rebirth I wanted this story to convey.
Thank you to my beta readers, who helped polish the story before I unleashed it on the world.
Thanks to my family for helping me keep my weekly writing night date, and for cheering me on!
And thanks be to God, without whom nothing is possible.
Book 1
Look The Other Way
Book 2
Adverse Events
Book 3
Washed By The Water
Available in print or e-book everywhere books are sold!
www.leighjonesbooks.com
The Jumper tells the story of Kate’s first encounter with Tommy Gage.
He Must Pay gives you a sneak peek into Peter’s past.
Ellie’s Revenge is a Halloween-themed story best read after Adverse Events.
Read all three for free when you sign up for exclusive access to the Galveston Crime Scene!
www.leighjonesbooks.com
About the Author
Gripping stories grounded in faith
Leigh Jones started her writing career in elementary school with a story about an enterprising hamster making a bid to take over the world. But after college, she set all dreams of fiction writing aside to chase the daily adrenaline rush of seeing her byline in print. She covered school board meetings, city council intrigue, and the occasional heart-warming feature for several daily newspapers in Texas. She even covered a few murders and one very big hurricane.
She never considered returning to fiction until she became an editor and no longer got to see her byline on the front page. Facing serious adrenaline withdrawals, she began plotting her first novel. Eight years later, it finally hit the virtual store shelves as Look The Other Way, book one in the Galveston Crime Scene series. Adverse Events, the second book in the series, came out a year later.
When she’s not writing fiction, Leigh works as the executive features editor at WORLD News Group, a national Christian media outlet that practices biblically objective journalism. There she shepherds long-form story projects for print and podcast.
She lives with her husband and daughter near Houston.
Leigh Jones, Washed by the Water
