Leap of Faith (25 page)
Authors: Jamie Blair
I slam back inside my head. Maybe I imagined the knock. My heart races, until I remember nobody’s after me. Nobody cares enough about me or Addy to send the cops after us. We’re not wanted—by the police or anybody else.
But I would swear I saw his blue-green eyes through the peephole.
What if he came to find me—to find
us
?
Addy squeals, breaking my stare at the door. I glance down at her, watching for a few seconds, making sure she’s real, that this isn’t all a dream. I pick her up, then reach out and turn the doorknob, ready to face whatever is on the other side.
acknowledgments
Like the Little Engine That Could,
Leap of Faith
has had a long journey into readers’ hands. If it wasn’t for a fantastic author and friend, Kathleen Peacock, this novel would be only a manuscript saved in a file on my laptop.
Faith’s story had the extraordinarily good fortune to be read by the best agent a writer could ask for, Emmanuelle Morgen, while, coincidentally, Emmanuelle was in Jacksonville, Florida. It was meant to be!
Leap of Faith
’s editor, Alexandra Cooper, spent so much time and attention to every detail and facet of this story, it wouldn’t be what it is without her. Editor Kristin Ostby took over at the finish line with the smooth and graceful transition of a seasoned professional to get
Leap of Faith
released into the wild. I’ve been very fortunate to work with both of them.
I couldn’t imagine a more perfect cover for
Leap of Faith
. Krista Vossen and Shasti O’Leary Soudant surpassed all my wildest dreams.
Annie McElfresh, you are Faith/Leah and Chris’s number-one champion. I can’t count the number of messages you sent in a year’s time, urging me to keep believing in their story. Thank you for that!
Several talented writers have read
Leap of Faith
and given me invaluable feedback and encouragement: Jen Alexander, Rebecca Rogers, Jennifer Wood, Debra Driza, and Kristin Otts, to name a handful. Also, a big thank-you to everyone who read and cheered me on during Teaser Tuesday snips!
I’d be amiss not to mention the online writers’ community on Absolute Write, where several authors gracing the shelves of bookstores learned the ins and outs of the industry. I was fortunate to stumble into the AW Water Cooler and meet a group of women who have been insanely supportive over the years. Cheers, Lit Bitches! You’re an amazing group of women.
Lastly, a huge hug and thank-you to my family, who never stopped believing that I could find my way onto the shelves of bookstores. Claudia and Ethan, you are my treasures.
photo © Kellie Marochino
Jamie Blair
lives in northeast Ohio with her husband, their two kids, and a cat that broke into
their house and refused to leave. She won a young author’s contest in third grade,
but it probably shouldn’t count since her mom wrote most of her entry.
Leap of Faith
is her first novel. She promises her mom
didn’t write one word of it. Visit Jamie at
jamiemblair.com
Simon & Schuster, New York
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An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people,
or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events
or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2013 by Jamie Blair
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction
in whole or in part in any form.
is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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Book design by Krista Vossen
Jacket design by Krista Vossen
Jacket photo-composite by Shasti O’Leary Soudant copyright © 2013 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Jacket photographs (left to right) copyright © 2013 by JonPaul Douglass/Flickr/Getty Images; Fotosearch/Getty Images; Klaus Vedfelt/Riser/Getty Images
The text for this book is set in Sabon LT Std.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Blair, Jamie M.
Leap of Faith / Jamie Blair. — 1st. ed.
p. cm
Summary: Seventeen-year-old Faith shepherds her neglectful, drug-addicted mother through her pregnancy and then kidnaps the baby, taking on the responsibility of being her baby sister’s parent while hiding from the authorities.
ISBN 978-1-4424-4713-4 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4424-4715-8 (eBook)
[1. Kidnapping—Fiction. 2. Runaways—Fiction. 3. Fugitives from justice—Fiction. 4. Parenting—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.B53783Le 2013
[Fic]—dc23
2012043125
Contents