Legacy (The Restoration Series Book #4)

Walsh Dan, Gary Smalley

Description

Doug Anderson has been drifting slowly but steadily away from both his family and his faith. His parents, along with Christina, a young woman taken into the family during a crisis pregnancy, have been trying to reach him before he falls too far. But sometimes you have to hit bottom before you're ready to grow up and give your life over to God. Christina's feelings for Doug have been growing, even though he writes her off as not worth his time. Will Doug's own crisis finally clear his vision and help him focus on what he has right in front of him?Readers who have been on this emotional and romantic journey with the Anderson family will fall in love with this satisfying conclusion to the popular series.

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 31 mars 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781441221162
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

© 2015 by Dan Walsh and Gary Smalley
Published by Revell
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www . revellbooks .com
Ebook edition created 2015
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4412-2116-2
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son.
—Luke 15:20
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Epigraph
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
Dan’s Interview with Gary about The Legacy
About the Authors
Other Books by the Authors
Back Ads
Back Cover
1
J im Anderson watched his son back his red Mazda out of their driveway, drive it down the one lane road behind their home, turn left at the road’s end, wave once, then disappear behind a row of ligustrum hedges. Jim knew Doug hadn’t really disappeared. He was simply leaving River Oaks and driving back to college and his graphic arts degree. But on the level that mattered most, Doug had disappeared.
Not just now. Years ago.
Jim couldn’t shake the sick feeling in his stomach that something new was going on with Doug. Not good new, either. Just what, he couldn’t figure out. Soft hands reached around his waist, followed by a kind embrace. It was his wife, Marilyn.
“Are you doing okay?” she said. “I could tell what you were trying to do back there, but he wouldn’t open the door.”
“Was I being too obvious?”
“Not in a way Doug could tell,” she said. “I just know you and how much pain you feel about this . . . this gap.”
“It’s more than a gap. Feels like the Grand Canyon.” He reached down and intertwined his hands with hers. They were still standing in the driveway, facing the direction Doug had gone. “It doesn’t bother you?”
“It does. I just handle it differently.”
Jim knew what she meant. It wasn’t said as an insult. She was referring to her level of faith for the situation, which clearly exceeded his. Her faith always seemed to exceed his, especially when it came to relationships. They had talked about this many times. Jim had a hard time recognizing the moments when words did more harm than good. When faith and silence were better tools to reach for.
He’d always had that problem, especially with the kids. More so when they were younger, but it was still a weakness. With Marilyn’s help, he’d made some progress with the silence part. Shutting up was something he could do. Stopping the pain in his heart or trusting God to fix things with Doug was another matter.
“He’s in God’s hands now,” she said. “He’s working even when we can’t see.”
“I know.” But it was just something to say. It didn’t feel true. At least not to him.
Marilyn released her hug but kept her arm around him as they turned and walked back into the garage.
“Did he find the box he was looking for?” Marilyn asked.
“It took awhile, but he did.” Jim looked down at the empty space in the garage where the box used to be. Doug had come home for one of his rare weekend visits. Apparently, he and a friend, Jason, had started working on a graphic novel. He’d come home to get a certain box of comic books from his old collection.
“What was so important about that one box?” she asked.
“Doug said he needs to make sure some of the ideas for their new graphic novel aren’t rip-offs from his old comic books. Jason’s writing the story and Doug’s doing the artwork. Jason thinks they’re fine, but Doug’s pretty sure some of Jason’s ideas might be too close for comfort.”
“Well, I’m all for whatever gets him home.”
Jim was too. He was tempted to just insist Doug came home on a regular schedule. That didn’t seem too much to ask, considering they were paying for his college education. Jim’s real estate business was doing better now than it had been a couple of years ago, but money was still tight. It was a serious sacrifice keeping up with Doug’s expenses. They shouldn’t have to beg him to come home for a visit a couple times a month. And would it kill him to call his mother once a week to let her know he was still alive? But Jim knew that if he said anything, it would just push Doug further away.
“What are you doing?”
Jim looked at her. “What do you mean?”
“Your face. You’re doing that thing, aren’t you?”
“What?”
“Giving it to Doug in your head.”
Jim laughed.
“I knew it,” she said. “Well, I guess it’s better if it only happens in your head. Two years ago, you would have let him have it out loud.”
She was right. He would have. And it would have made things worse. Now if he could only add faith to the silence. Find a way to trust God so that he wouldn’t worry about Doug so much. Another thing that talking with Marilyn had helped him see was that anger was a secondary reaction for him, the place his heart went after worry. Neither one was better than the other; both left God totally out of the equation.
For that matter, was God even in this equation? It didn’t feel like he was. Jim restacked the boxes of comic books to make a little more floor space in the garage. “I suggested he just bring the rest of these back to school with him. Try to sell them or something, but he didn’t want to.”
“I’m kind of glad he said no.” Marilyn opened the top box and pulled out one of the comic books. “If he did, it would be the last of his things left in the house.”
“None of the things in the apartment upstairs are his?”
She shook her head no. “They either belong to us or Christina.” Christina was a young woman who’d come to live with them last year. Marilyn had been her counselor at the Women’s Resource Center, helping her through a crisis pregnancy that had ended with Christina placing her child for adoption with a young Christian couple. Now, Christina was like family. “Little by little over the past year, Doug’s been taking more of his stuff back to school with him. These boxes are all that’s left.”
Then Jim didn’t want them gone, either. “I wish there was some way to get him to open up to me, let me know how he’s really doing.”
“He’s been this way since the last few years of high school.”
“I know,” he said, “but it’s worse now than it was then. Right after you and I went through our difficult time, I thought Doug and I were starting to connect a little better. Last fall when Christina came to live with us, he started coming home more often, remember?”
Marilyn nodded then glanced at Christina’s car on the far side of the garage, signaling she was upstairs. Jim got the message. But he hadn’t said anything inappropriate, had he? Still, he lowered his voice. “Now he’s back to hardly coming home at all. And when he’s here, he doesn’t seem like himself.”
“I know,” she said. “It feels like that to me too.”
Jim sighed. “I get the impression he’s not doing well at all. Spiritually, I mean. I’d be surprised if he’s even going to church anymore.”
“I don’t think he is,” she said. “I almost asked him this morning, but I stopped. I didn’t want to hear his answer.”
They both heard the sound of footsteps coming down the last few stairs from the apartment. They turned to find Christina carrying a laundry basket.
“Sorry if I startled you,” she said. “I started down the stairs then heard you guys talking. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but I couldn’t help overhearing. You’re talking about Doug, right?”
They nodded.
She set her basket on the dryer. “Are you guys on Facebook?”
2
C hristina wasn’t sure this was a good idea, talking about Doug like this with his parents. It didn’t feel right keeping things from them, considering how close they had become this past year. On the other hand, it didn’t feel right talking about Doug behind his back. She hated being caught in the middle.
“I go there sometimes,” Marilyn said.
“I signed up a while ago,” Jim said, “but I hardly ever use it.”
“To be honest,” Marilyn said, “some of the things I’ve been seeing lately concern me.”
Christina leaned back against the dryer. She had to agree. It seemed like Doug was starting to head in a different direction.
“Like what?” Jim said.
Marilyn sighed. “He seems to be developing some new friends this year. Hanging out with a lot of people I’ve never seen before.”
“What about them bothers you?” Jim said.
“It’s nothing serious, not yet anyway. I’m just seeing a lot more party pictures lately. Lots of people his age laughing, holding glasses of beer. Definitely not a youth group crowd.”
“Is Doug drinking beer in these pictures?” Jim asked.
“No, not in any I’ve seen. It seems like most of his friends are.”
To Christina, in a few of the pictures, Doug’s eyes looked a little too red, but she couldn’t tell for sure if he’d been drinking. He could have just been overly tired. Then again, Doug would have enough sense not to be caught holding a beer when someone was taking pictures that could show up on the internet.
“Are any of them in bars or nightclubs?” Jim said.
“Doug’s not old enough to go to bars,” Marilyn said. “Of course, he could have gotten a fake ID somehow.”
Jim sat down on one of the steps. “They’re a lot harder to get now than when we were his age.”
“Not really,” Marilyn said. “You can get anything online these days. But I didn’t see any pictures in bars. They were mostly in dorm rooms and people’s houses. It’s just there were lo