A Family Reunited Read Online Free PDF Page A

ignored and trampled the gift God had given him.
    I can’t do this, God.
    He grabbed the car door handle.
    “Jack, is that you?”
    He looked to the house and spied Tammie standing on the porch. Eight years could have been eight days. She hadn’t changed a bit. Dark hair rested on her shoulders. She wore a green sweatshirt and jeans. Her expression was kind and caring as ever. Mike stepped out of the house. He had more salt in his salt-and-pepper hair, but other than that, he’d changed as little as Tammie.
    Mike waved for him to join them. “Well, come on up here, son. Let’s have a look at you.”
    Son? How could Mike say that? Jack had left their daughter and two grandbabies.
    The Spirit nudged him to just trust Him, and Jack put one foot in front of the other. Somehow he made it to the porch. He took Mike’s extended hand in his. Before words could leave his mouth, Tammie had enveloped him in a hug.
    “It’s good to see you again.”
    Jack swallowed back the tears threatening to spill down his cheeks. Why would they be nice to him? How could she so willingly embrace him? “You have no idea how good it is to see you two, as well.”
    She released him, and Mike patted his shoulder. “Let’s go inside and talk.”
    Jack nodded as he followed them inside. The living room looked just as he remembered. Old-fashioned, homey furnishings, the smell of cinnamon. The land, the house, his in-laws...only days could have passed rather than years.
    Until he scanned the walls and tables covered with pictures of his daughters at various ages. Proof that more than a day or two had slipped out of his grasp.
    “Why don’t you look at the pictures while Mike and I get the sandwiches and chips?”
    Jack moved toward the fireplace. He bit his bottom lip at the photo of the girls smiling cheesy grins, probably three and four, sitting at a small table. The next photo was of them and Pamela sitting in front of the Christmas tree. Emmy was just a baby. Emma not much bigger. Pamela was smiling, but she seemed tired. Alone.
    He looked away and spied pictures of the girls with Pamela’s brothers, Kirk and Ben. Emma sat on Kirk’s shoulders. Emmy on Ben’s. They were dressed in red-and-white outfits and had probably been heading to Bloom Hollow’s annual Fourth of July celebration.
    “They’re beautiful girls.”
    Jack started at Tammie’s words. He turned toward her and Mike as they set a tray of food on the coffee table. “They look like their mother.”
    “They do,” said Mike. He motioned toward the food. “Go ahead and get yourself a plate.”
    Jack placed a ham-and-cheese sandwich, chips and a pickle on his plate and sat in the wingback chair. He lifted the sandwich to his mouth, then placed it back on the plate. “I need to talk first.”
    “Okay,” said Tammie. Her gaze was kind, open to whatever he had to share.
    “What do you need to tell us?” said Mike.
    “Everything.”
    With the one word came a waterfall of confessions. He shared about his battle with alcoholism, of bouncing from his parents’ home to friends’ homes until he finally ended up in a homeless shelter in Texas.
    “It was the night the woman showed up there with her two daughters. The woman’s eyes were blackened. The girls were cold and terrified.”
    Jack swallowed, trying to shake away the vision that still plagued him at times. He thought of the night Pamela told him to leave the house. He was drunk, yelling at her, and he’d come close. So close to... He couldn’t even think the words. Wouldn’t allow them to form in his mind.
    “When I saw that woman and those girls, I became physically ill, knowing they could have been my girls. I cried out to God. Jermaine was there. He prayed with me. Became my mentor. He’s the one who helped me get back in school. Gave me the job at the shelter. Accepted me as a friend.”
    Tammie swiped a tear from her cheek. She and Mike held hands and leaned toward each other.
    Jack went on, sharing about