Evergreen by Susan May Warren

Author:Susan May Warren
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FICTION / Christian / Romance, FICTION / Romance / Contemporary
ISBN: 9781496400109
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers
Published: 2014-08-31T16:00:00+00:00

INGRID COULDN’T EXACTLY put her finger on it, but somehow, over the past week, a switch had flipped in Romeo.

He’d gone from being the charmer to the boy she’d expected—aloof, angry . . . trouble. He no longer greeted her when he came home and had even shut Butter out of his room. Ingrid had found the dog sleeping in the hallway outside his door the last two nights.

Lifting a shoulder to hold the phone against her ear, she opened the oven and pulled out a tray of chocolate chip cookies. A birthday treat that she hoped might shake him out of his funk. Outside, the weather had turned pale and bleak, the temperatures dropping. Trick-or-treaters would show up in parkas—if they made the trek to the resort at all. Usually she left the lights off and went to town to celebrate at the community party.

Tonight, however, they’d have a party here.

A full-out jamboree, if she could end this call with a holy family lined up for the live Nativity. Jason and Nicole Backlund would be perfect for Mary and Joseph, and their eight-month-old would make an adorable baby Jesus. “I know it’ll be cold, but you can wear warm clothes under your costumes, and little Neil will be all toasty in his snowsuit—”

“I don’t think so, Mrs. Christiansen. Jason’s family has their annual Christmas Eve party, and we haven’t attended the live Nativity in years.”

Right. “Okay, thank you.” She hung up and crossed the Backlunds off her very short list.

She set the cookies to cool and headed to the entry, grabbing her jacket, her UGGs. The phone rang just as she retrieved her keys. She picked it up in case it was John.

“Ingrid, hey, it’s Seb. I wanted to talk to John about Romeo.”

“John’s in town, and I’m just headed out to pick up Romeo from practice.”

“That’s the thing. . . . Uh, Romeo wasn’t at practice today.”

She sat down on the bench. “What?”

“I didn’t want to mention this, but he wasn’t at practice yesterday either. And he showed up late two days before that. I haven’t talked to Coach Knight, but my guess is that he’s probably off the team.”

“No, Seb—he’s worked so hard.”

“For a month, yeah. And frankly we could use him in the game tomorrow. But you can’t ditch the team and expect to show up and play.”

“Of course not. I’m just—”

“Ingrid, is everything okay with him? Because at practice on Monday, I barely recognized him. He played angry, then picked a fight with another player, and I heard a string of words out of his mouth I had never heard him use. Is he okay?”

“Maybe he misses his mom. I’ll find him. Thanks, Seb.”

She hung up and closed the door behind her. What could Romeo be thinking? And if John discovered he’d missed practice . . .

Just in case he’d returned to the school, she went there first. The school was dark, so she drove down to Licks and Stuff, searched for him through the windows, then headed over to the Java Cup.

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