Where My Heart Belongs
Where
My Heart
Belongs
Where
My Heart
Belongs
T
RACIE
P
ETERSON
Where My Heart Belongs
Copyright © 2007
Tracie Peterson
Cover design by Andrea Gjeldum
Unless otherwise identified, Scripture quotations are from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION.
®
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
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—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Published by Bethany House Publishers
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Bloomington, Minnesota 55438
Bethany House Publishers is a division of
Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN 978-0-7642-0361-9
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Peterson, Tracie.
Where my heart belongs / Tracie Peterson.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-7642-0396-1 (alk. paper) — ISBN 978-07642-0361-9 (pbk.)
I. Title.
PS3566.E7717W54 2007
813'.54—dc22
2007023747
In memory of Landon Ruth Meece
1994-2007
What precious joy you brought
to those who knew you.
And to Karen, Ed, and Edison Meece
May Jesus heal your wounded
hearts and hold you close
to Him.
Books by Tracie Peterson
A Slender Thread
•
What She Left for Me
Where My Heart Belongs
S
ONG OF
A
LASKAN
Dawn’s Prelude
A
LASKAN
Q
UEST
Summer of the Midnight Sun
Under the Northern Lights
•
Whispers of Winter
Alaskan Quest
(3 in 1)
B
RIDES OF
G
ALLATIN
C
OUNTY
A Promise to Believe In
•
A Love to Last Forever
A Dream to Call My Own
T
HE
B
ROADMOOR
L
EGACY
*
A Daughter’s Inheritance
•
An Unexpected Love
A Surrendered Heart
B
ELLS OF
L
OWELL
*
Daughter of the Loom
•
A Fragile Design
•
These Tangled Threads
Bells of Lowell
(3 in 1)
L
IGHTS OF
L
OWELL
*
A Tapestry of Hope
•
A Love Woven True
•
The Pattern of Her Heart
D
ESERT
R
OSES
Shadows of the Canyon
•
Across the Years
•
Beneath a Harvest Sky
H
EIRS OF
M
ONTANA
Land of My Heart
•
The Coming Storm
To Dream Anew
•
The Hope Within
L
ADIES OF
L
IBERTY
A Lady of High Regard
•
A Lady of Hidden Intent
A Lady of Secret Devotion
R
IBBONS OF
S
TEEL
**
Distant Dreams
•
A Hope Beyond
W
ESTWARD
C
HRONICLES
A Shelter of Hope
•
Hidden in a Whisper
•
A Veiled Reflection
Y
UKON
Q
UEST
Treasures of the North
•
Ashes and Ice
•
Rivers of Gold
*with Judith Miller **with Judith Pella
TRACIE PETERSON is a popular speaker and bestselling author who has written over seventy books, both historical and contemporary fiction. Tracie and her family make their home in Montana.
Visit Tracie’s Web site at:
www.traciepeterson.com
.
C
ONTENTS
KATHY HALBERT OPENED THE front door to stare face-to-face at a ghost from the past. In a tone that wavered somewhere between shock and horror, she whispered the name of her nightmare.
“Sunshine.”
A warm June breeze blew through the younger woman’s bleached hair, ruffling the top layers to reveal darker roots. Her face was careworn, yet beautiful. The twelve years since Kathy had seen her sister—her only sibling—had altered Sunshine into a woman who scarcely resembled the eighteen-year-old who’d deserted her family.
“Hi, sis. Guess you’re surprised to see me, huh?” She offered a smile, revealing perfect white teeth—maybe too white.
Kathy stiffened.
How dare she call me sis? How dare she
show up here after twelve years without our knowing if she was
dead or alive?
“What do you want?” Kathy couldn’t even bring herself to pretend polite indifference.
Sunshine seemed genuinely perplexed by Kathy’s attitude. “What do you mean by that? I’ve come back . . . I’ve come home.”
Kathy shook her head. “If you’re here after all these years, there has to be a reason bigger than that. If you want money, forget it. There’s none here for you. You’ve had your inheritance—twice, as I recall.”
Sunshine’s confusion seemed to grow. “Where’s Mom and Dad?” She strained to look beyond the screen door and into the house where they’d both spent their childhood.
Kathy put her hands on her hips and squared her shoulders. “I asked what you wanted. I think my question deserves an answer first.”
Sunshine folded her arms defensively. Kathy noted she was dressed stylishly in cream-colored linen slacks and a tan and cream short-sleeved sweeter. Small gold hoops graced each ear and a gold cross hung from a delicate chain that draped Sunshine’s neck.
What hypocrisy! Since when does she care about God?
“Kathy, I don’t expect you to necessarily be happy that I’ve come home, but I figured you’d at least be civil.”
“This
is
me being civil. You can’t demand your own way and turn your back on your family and not have some kind of repercussion for your actions.”
“There have been plenty of repercussions, I assure you,” Sunshine whispered.
Kathy felt herself harden even more. Every sad and painful moment from the past twelve years could be pinned to one source, and that source was her younger sister. Kathy didn’t want to be uncaring; the entire family had dreamed of the day when Sunshine might once again return to the Kansas family farm. Kathy had practiced long tirades of things she would say, but every established thought fled from her now.
“I didn’t expect to find you here,” Sunshine finally said, shifting her purse from one shoulder to the other.
“I want to know why you’re here.” Kathy forced her mind to remain focused. The memories were pouring in from all sides, much like a dam that had sprung multiple leaks. Feelings, thoughts—even smells and sights—trickled in and began to puddle in Kathy’s brain.
“Well, it’s kind of a long story,” Sunshine finally yielded. “I suppose you could say the bottom line is that I’ve turned my life around. I want to set things right with the people in my life, so I figured I should start at the beginning.”
“You can’t set the past right,” Kathy said, shaking her head. “You have no idea what you’re even asking.”
Kathy’s memory took hold of her like a raging lion about to feast on its prey. Twelve years faded away and in its place came a vibrant picture of the moment that started the demise of the entire Halbert household.
“I’ve changed my name,” eighteen-year-old Amy Halbert declared rather pompously. She was dressed in very short cutoffs and a halter top—two pieces of clothing their mother had expressly forbid her daughters to wear.
Kathy looked up from the breakfast table in dumbfounded surprise. “You did what?” she finally asked. Only moments ago the focus had been on Kathy’s own wonderful declaration. Kyle Dexter had asked her to marry him, and she had announced it to her parents at breakfast.
Amy had a way of dripping sarcasm without ever speaking a word. That expression was on her face just now, and Kathy detested it. When Amy looked like this, there was no reasoning with her and no getting her to listen to anything you had to say.
“Amy, why don’t you sit down and tell us what you’re talking about,” their father said with a smile. “Your mama has fixed some mighty fine waffles.”
“I don’t eat waffles,” Amy said with an emphasis on the apparently hated food.
Kathy didn’t understand the harsh tone or the lie. Amy could have eaten them all under the table when it came to waffles.
Mom turned in surprise. She had just put a fresh waffle on a green glass plate and seemed at odds as to what she should do next.
“What are you talking about, sunshine?” Dad said, calling her by his pet name. “Of course you eat waffles.”
“Not anymore,” Amy declared. “I’m a new woman, and I’m starting a new life.”
“What do you mean?” Mom asked.
“I mean I’ve legally changed my name, and I want my inheritance so that I can blow this stupid farm town. I went to the bank, but they wouldn’t let me draw out the trust fund. They said until I was twenty-one, I would have to have your permission to take it out. So I want you to cut me a check for it or go with me to the bank so I can get my money.”
Mom nearly dropped the plate as she put it back on the counter. “I don’t think I understand.”
Kathy recognized fear in her mother’s tone. She looked up to study her mother’s expression.
“I know I don’t,” Dad agreed. “What do you mean you changed your name?”
Amy leaned against the back of the chair that had always been hers at the Halbert table. “I saved up my money and went and got my name changed.”
“Changed it to what?” Kathy questioned. The whole thing sounded like a big joke.
“Well, in a way Dad kind of helped me decide that,” Amy said, dropping some of the sarcasm from her tone. “I changed my name to Sunshine.”
“Sunshine?!” Dad looked at his younger daughter in disbelief.
“Don’t you love it? It’s such a great name—nothing like boring old Amy. In fact, it’s like nobody else’s name. That’s why I did it. I’m an individual kind of person, and I needed an individual kind of name.”