Softly and Tenderly
A
DVANCE
A
CCLAIM FOR
Softly & Tenderly
“Popular country-singer/writer Evans (“A Little Bit Stronger”) and talented Christian fiction author Hauck have teamed up to pen this second installment in Jade’s journey (
The Sweet By and By
, 2010). Hang on for an emotional ride as a woman who “married into a Southern soap opera” learns to forgive and trust again.”
—
B
OOKLIST
“[E]xquisitely written, an achingly beautiful story about lost and found relationships . . . this story is not to be missed.”
— S
USAN
M
AY
W
ARREN
RITA
award-winning, best-selling
author of
Nightingale
“Fans of Karen Kingsbury’s tender family stories will love this southern-flavored tale of triumph and grace.”
— L
ISA
W
INGATE
best-selling author of
Tending
Roses
and
Larkspur Cove
A
CCLAIM FOR
The Sweet By & By
“Enter the magic of Whisper Hollow and open your heart. Like Sara Evans’s bittersweet songs, the notes and melody of Jade Fitzgerald’s past sing a new future. In a world of wounded souls, forgiveness and redemption are the lyrics of this enchanting story.”
— P
ATTI
C
ALLAHAN
H
ENRY
New York Times
best-selling
author of
Driftwood Summer
“A heartwarming collaborative debut.”
— P
UBLISHERS
W
EEKLY
“
The Sweet By & By
is the flowing story of a family struggling across the generations for redemption and reconciliation. The women in this novel are sometimes funny, sometimes serious, but always interesting. I was hooked from page one.”
— H
OMER
H
ICKAM
best-selling author of
Rocket Boys
and
Red Helmet
“. . . witty dialogue, believable characters and a page-turner of a plot. Just what I look for in a good book!”
— C
ASSANDRA
K
ING
author of
The Same Sweet Girls
“Conveys a meaningful message about forgiveness.”
— CBA R
ETAILERS +
R
ESOURCES
“Beautifully real characters shine in this even more beautiful story. A wonderful first novel.”
— E
VA
L
ONGORIA
P
ARKER
actress and model
“Wow! I am completely inspired by this book. I have always admired Sara’s ability to tell stories through her music, and now I can say wholeheartedly that she is able to make a great story sing on the pages of this book. This is a beautiful, breathtaking novel full of redemption, reconciliation, and grace. I fully recommend it!”
— R
OBIN
M
C
GRAW
#1
New York Times
best-selling author
Softly
&Tenderly
Other Books By Sara Evans with Rachel Hauck
The Sweet By & By
Other Novels by Rachel Hauck
Lost in NashVegas
Diva NashVegas
Sweet Caroline
Love Starts With Elle
Dining with Joy
Softly
&
Tenderly
S
ARA
E
VANS
WITH
R
ACHEL
H
AUCK
© 2010 by Sara Evans
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Thomas Nelson, Inc., titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, e-mail [email protected].
Scripture quotations are taken from the KING JAMES VERSION. Public domain.
Published in association with the literary agency of Alive Communications, Inc., 7680 Goddard Street, Suite 200, Colorado Springs, CO 80920.
This novel is a work of fiction. Any references to real events, businesses, organizations, and locales are intended only to give the fiction a sense of reality and authenticity. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Evans, Sara, 1971–
Softly and tenderly / Sara Evans with Rachel Hauck.
p. cm. — (Songbird ; bk. 2)
ISBN 978-1-59554-490-2
1. Illegitimate children—Fiction. 2. Domestic fiction. I. Hauck, Rachel, 1960– II. Title.
PS3605.V3765S64 2011
813'.6—dc22
2010040269
Printed in the United States of America
10 11 12 13 14 QG 1 2 3 4 5
To my mom, my granny,
and all the women out there just
trying to live a little stronger.
Contents
Whisper Hollow, TN
Along the first of spring, when winter began to ease its grip on Whisper Hollow mornings, the word
barren
began echoing over the shadowy recesses of Jade’s mind.
“You’re quiet.” Her mother-in-law peered at her from the passenger side of Jade’s truck. She looked out of place perched on the faded red, torn vinyl seat wearing a haute couture pink suit.
“Thinking.” Jade forced a smile just as the tires hit a bump in the road, jostling the passengers from side to side.
June grabbed the dashboard. “Mercy me.”
“Sorry . . .” Jade urged the truck up the hill to Orchid House, her husband’s childhood home. “You feel everything in this truck. No matter how new the shocks.”
Truck shocks aside, Jade had managed to hit all the holes today. Holes in the road. Holes in her business. Holes in her heart. With a slow exhale, she propped her elbow on the door and pressed her fingers against her forehead.
Today it seemed that every woman,
every
woman, who came into Jade’s downtown shop was pregnant. Nearly picked clean her retro maternity clothes. She’d been folding and hanging the remaining items when June called and asked Jade to give her a ride home.
“It’s beyond me why you still drive this old bucket of bolts, Jade. Why don’t you just buy a new truck?” June brushed a piece of foam from the crumbling ceiling off her skirt. “You’re a Benson now. A successful business owner in Whisper Hollow and riverfront Chattanooga. Surely you can afford a vehicle better than this. Max would buy you one if you asked. I’m quite sure he—”
“Your pink suit is beautiful. Did you get it on your girls’ shopping trip in Atlanta?”
June cut Jade a glance. “Paris, last spring. I figure I could risk wearing it another season.”
“Do I get dibs when it’s out of season in twenty years?”
“Shug, this thing will be completely out of vogue in three months. And by the end of summer, sold at the club auction.” June ran her hand along the three-quarter sleeve, finally smiling. Ever since Jade had picked her up from the Read House Starbucks, she’d been fuming beneath a stone face.
“So Rebel got tied up with a case or something? Couldn’t bring you home?” Jade asked. June had yet to say why she was stranded at Starbucks, and so steamed.
“Oh, who knows? That man. He can be so self-focused. I specifically told Rebel that Honey Andover could not drive me up to the house when we returned from Atlanta. Her granddaughter’s birthday party is up in Knoxville, so she wanted to get back on the road. So . . .” June fiddled with the air-conditioning vents. “Rebel agreed to meet me at Starbucks.”
“The truck doesn’t have air, June.”
“Well, why not? Mercy, Jade, buy a decent truck. What’s this thing, a hundred years old?”
“Thirty-eight. So what happened with Honey? What’s got you riled?”
“Nothing happened with Honey. She dropped me off at the Read House Starbucks like we planned, right by Benson Law, right by my husband’s office, where he agreed to be. But Rebel’s nowhere to be found.”
“You tried his cell?”
“I’m angry, not addled, Jade. I called his cell and his office. Gina didn’t know where he was—and if she doesn’t know, he’s gone. Vanished into thin air.” June twirled her hands in front of her.
“Maybe Reb hit the golf course, taking a break from the class action suit the firm’s been handling. That case has Max preoccupied and bleary-eyed.”
“Nice try, Jade, but Reb hasn’t
worked
a case in years. He just
oversees
. Charms. Asks a few tough questions in court when they want to intimidate someone.” June snatched her handbag from the seat and stuffed it into her lap. “He’s probably schmoozing someone in the governor’s office, hoping he’ll get a special appointment should one ever open up.”
“Reb has political aspirations?” Jade crested the hill and rounded the bend toward the Bensons’ white brick estate.
“Jade, have you learned to tune out his ramblings already? Reb wants to run the universe from his throne on the moon.”
A fawn suddenly leaped onto the road from the cluster of trees tucked into the curve of the bend. Jade hammered the clutch and brake.
“Sake’s alive.” June smacked the dashboard with her Gucci bag.
Stiff-arming the steering wheel and mashing the brake, Jade winced as the truck drifted into a blinding patch of sun. Anticipation drilled a hole between her ribs.
When there was no impact, breath exploded from her lungs. Just beyond her windshield, a black-eyed doe and her two spotted fawns crossed the road into the woods on the other side.
“My heart is thumping in my throat.” June spanked the dash grit from the smooth leather of her handbag. “Can you imagine if you’d not seen?”
“I wouldn’t have been able to sleep for a week.” Jade watched the doe as she led her young to the other side, her head high, her steps neat and sure. Jade pressed the clutch and shifted into first with a final glance at the creature.
In the grass, just beyond the trees, the doe turned and fixed her polished gaze on Jade.
Yes, I know .
. . A motor roared, and the doe dashed into the tress the moment a car whizzed around the bend.
“Farrel Lawrence,” June said. “She’s got a lead foot.”
Run, girl. Run
. Jade eased off the clutch, and the truck chugged up the last few feet of the hill, the heart of the doe and the sensation of beauty resonating within her.
