Savage Love Read online

  Savage Love

  Jodi Woody

  Copyright ©by Jodi Woody

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  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1 Rough Road of Regrets

  Chapter 2 All That Glitters Is Not Gold

  Chapter 3 A Merry Heart

  Chapter 4 Bedtime Prayers

  Chapter 5 Best Laid Plans

  Chapter 6 A Day Of Rest

  Chapter 7 All The World’s A Play

  Chapter 8 Fireworks

  Chapter 9 The Confession

  Chapter 10 A Helping Hand

  Chapter 11 Tender Care

  Chapter 12 Unmasked

  Chapter 13 A New Day

  Chapter 14 Unexpected Blessings

  Chapter 15 Baby Steps

  Chapter 16 Oh What Night

  Chapter 17 All Good Things Must Come To An End

  Chapter 18 And Life Goes On

  Chapter 19 The Storm Tossed Ship

  Chapter 20 I Now Am Found

  Chapter 21 It Was All A Dream

  Chapter 22 Peace On Earth

  Chapter 23 All I Want For Christmas

  Chapter 24 ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas

  Chapter 25 Between The Rock And Hard Place

  Chapter 26 The Cure?

  Chapter 27 Healing

  Chapter 28 Metamorphosis

  Chapter 29 We Know What We Are, But Not What We May Be

  Chapter 30 Out Of The Frying Pan

  Chapter 31 The Promise

  Epilogue

  Chapter 1

  Rough Road of Regrets

  Samantha drove along, trying to enjoy the scenery, when the same old unwelcome thought popped to the surface. Just what do you think you are doing? They had been on the road for less than a week, were currently driving through the mountains of Montana, and the same question had been plaguing her since her daughter, Seanna, talked her into this trip. Richard has only been gone for less than four months and you’re out enjoying yourself! What would Richard say about his perfect wife now? He wouldn’t say anything, because Richard never stuck up for himself…not once in our fifteen years of marriage. Samantha was a recently widowed, thirty-five year old on her first trip without her husband. She had buried him in March. Now she had just been to his Father’s funeral in Washington and was on a cross country trip with her seventeen year old daughter. For the past couple of hours her past had been rolling like waves in her mind until she thought she might go crazy.

  Samantha had been raised in a strict home by parents that did their very best, but were lacking in some areas of love and forgiveness. When she became pregnant during her senior year in high school, by her boyfriend from Church, her parents had sent her away in shame to an all girls Christian School. Christian in name only the atmosphere of the legalistic religious school was the final nail in the coffin of her faith. Samantha went on, in her strength alone, to keep her baby and finish high school. Her daughter Seanna had never met her birth father and Samantha had never received a penny. She had lost her family and the boy she thought she had loved all by one terrible mistake. One night of passion had changed her life forever. Seanna’s birth certificate said “father unknown.” She had not had the time or the heart to pursue a paternity test on her own. So she worked part time, lived in a small apartment and paid the little old lady next door to watch her little one while she worked and went to school.

  In the past year she had discovered more about her family and herself then she had in the past twenty years. Starting with Richard. She was only nineteen when she had met Richard. He ran a small grocery store not far from the campus and he always commented on how cute little two year old Seanna was. Most days when Samantha did her shopping the little girl left with her pockets full of goodies. Richard was almost twice her age and was the friend she needed. Somehow in their conversations Samantha told her story, and Richard never judged, but only showed concern and acceptance. Soon they were seeing each other outside of the store, and were married within the year. He patiently convinced Samantha to go to Church again, legally adopted her daughter and raising her as his own. They had lived a simple life of Church and family. Little by little she had regained her lost faith and her relationship with her heavenly Father. When Samantha earned her teaching degree, she even went to work at the small Christian School at their Church.

  He had been a good man, if not a good provider, was ever patient and loving to Seanna. Yet, it didn’t take long before Samantha realized that something just wasn’t right, though she could never quite put her finger on the problem. It wasn’t just that her husband was not attracted to her physically, or that Richard lacked any type of passion. He had been a hard worker, continuing to run the small grocery. His big heart made him a sucker for every hard luck story. Yet he never stood up for himself and had trouble making even the smallest decisions. His passiveness in all things became almost more than she could bear. She had tried early in their marriage to talk to him about it but he gotten so emotional and was so insecure that she just didn’t have the heart to hurt him. After all, he had done so much for her and Seanna. So she put all of her time and energy into being the best wife and mother that she could.

  Then after he had his heart attack she found out that their finances weren’t what she’d thought. Richard had borrowed against the house to keep the store running. She had had to sell the store and use the life insurance money to get them out of debt and be able to keep their modest house in town. Shortly after, they had gotten a letter from his mother stating that Richard’s father had passed and begging them to come. Samantha had felt compelled to go for the funeral. Everything crashed around her after that…but suddenly made sense. She had a heart to heart with her mother-in-law. His Mother stating that she needed to know that Richard had forgiven them. She had then proceeded to tell the story of Richard’s life before he moved to Wisconsin. Samantha finally understood why he had never wanted to visit his family and why they hadn’t come to see him in Wisconsin.

  In his early college years Richard had lived the lifestyle of a homosexual. His family had been devastated and had sent him to a counselor who specialized in lifestyle changes. He had broken off his relationship, packed up and transferred to a new college in Wisconsin. He had begun going to Church and started his life over, writing to his parents to let them know about the change. They couldn’t get past his past and never returned a single letter, though Richard continued to write an occasional letter to let them know he was alive and well. Richard had never spoken of his past to anyone in his new life, not even his Pastor. Though he had never been comfortable with intimacy with his wife, he stayed faithful to her and his new found faith in God, and never returned to his previous lifestyle. Samantha believed that even though he had given up the gay lifestyle, he had never been able to truly overcome his past.

  If he would have confessed I could have helped him, or at least he could have asked Pastor for help, thought Samantha. How our life would have been different if he would have just explained. Well…we all do the best we can and he raised that beautiful young lady sitting next to you. Now stop all this negative thinking and let it go
! You don’t want to be a bitter old woman. Disgusted with her thoughts, she clicked on the radio and started flipping through the static trying to find something to occupy her mind.

  She looked over at her daughter curled up in the passenger seat leaning against the window. Seanna was a younger version of Samantha. They were both petite. Seanna was thinner and more muscular. She was also darker complected and had dark brown curly hair, while Samantha’s was a lighter brown and only wavy. Seanna got her coloring from her birth father who was tall, dark and handsome, while getting her looks from her mother. They both had green eyes with small flecks of gold. Samantha had lighter skin and some freckles scattered across her nose and cheeks. She was just about to wake Seanna up to keep her mind from the frantic roller coaster ride when the car lost all power. She pulled over to the side of the road, the thump, thump, thump of the rumble strips waking her daughter.

  “What’s wrong mom? Do you need me to drive for awhile?” yawned her daughter.

  “No, I’m not tired… the car just lost power,” answered Samantha.

  “Not funny.” Seanna rubbed her sleepy eyes. “You’re kidding right?”

  “Not funny and not kidding.” Samantha put on the emergency flashers, popped the hood and got out of the car. Seanna grabbed her cell phone and came around by her mom.

  “No service here, Mom. I’ll check your phone. Is it in your purse?”

  “It’s in the side pocket, but it probably won’t be any better than yours. You have the fancy phone, I’m the one with the low budget phone for the technologically impaired,” she laughed.

  Samantha looked under the hood, not at all sure of what she was supposed to be looking for. Nothing looked out of sorts that she would know anyway. The only time she had ever looked under the hood of a car was when the salesman insisted she look under the hood when they bought this one. She had taken a leap of faith in making this purchase. Her husband had always handled their vehicles. If it was something Richard didn’t know how to fix he would take it into the shop for repairs. Thankfully, he knew enough that he hadn’t been taken advantage of by shady repairmen.

  “Nope, no bars here either. Now what?” asked Seanna.

  “Since we both know absolutely nothing about cars, unless you took auto shop and didn’t tell me about it, I guess we better hope someone drives by. Its 6:15 it’ll be getting dark in a couple of hours. Surely someone lives out here and is on their way home from work,” said Samantha.

  “Well, let’s let the car sit for a minute and then try and start it again. Maybe it got overheated or something. We have been driving through the mountains. Did the temperature light come on?”

  “I don’t remember seeing one. Let me check…no light. How about we break out some snacks and we can give it ten minutes,” said Samantha for her daughter’s sake, while silently praying. Lord, don’t leave us stranded out here. No phone, no car mechanic. Either start this car, or send someone trustworthy to help.

  Seanna got the small cooler out of the back seat and grabbed some grapes and cheddar cheese as well as a couple of bottles of water. They munched for a few minutes, looking around at their surroundings. They were pretty much high in the mountains and not a house or road was to be seen. After five minutes, Samantha got impatient and turned the ignition. The car coughed and choked and finally started. The girls looked at one another, eyebrows raised and both quickly buckled up. Samantha put the car into gear and took off slowly watching the temperature gauge.

  “Whoo, hooo,” shouted Seanna. And right about then the car sputtered and died. There was no time to get the car off the road so there they sat in the far right hand lane.

  “Ok, Girlie, let’s see if we can get this dead beast off the road,” said Samantha.

  After putting it in neutral both of them got out and leaving their doors opened, pushed the car over to the side, Samantha keeping one hand on the wheel. Thankfully they had not been going up an incline.

  “Well, that’s that, it must not have been too hot,” said Seanna.

  “Ok, let’s pray.” Samantha joined hand with her daughter and said, “Father, you see we are stuck here. We don’t know what is wrong, can’t fix it and don’t know what to do. We ask that you make a way where there is no way. We thank you that it won’t cost too much to fix and that we will be safe with whoever you send. Thank you. Amen.”

  “And Father, keep Mom from stressing out, give her your peace, in Jesus name, Amen.” Seanna added, smiling at her mother.

  “Me…stressed?” They both laughed. While Seanna was the more positive of the two, Samantha tended to be the worrier.

  “Why don’t we lock up the car and walk up the road just a bit. Maybe we will see a driveway or some sign of people over that next little rise,” Seanna suggested.

  After locking up they started walking. The weather was nice and there was a slight breeze. The air was clean and fresh and the scenery was beautiful. They had just topped the small rise when they could hear a vehicle approach from the way they had come. Both turned at once and in the distance they could see a large black limo slowing down by their broken down car. It rolled to a stop and then started heading their way.

  “What do you think, Mom, is that our night in shinning armor?”

  “Who would be in a limo way out here? Well…we prayed. If they don’t stop, we’ll just let them go by. If they stop, we’ll have to trust God and trust whoever is in there,” said Samantha.

  The car came steadily on. Samantha and Seanna just continued walking until the big car slowly pulled up beside them. The windows were dark and Samantha was just starting to worry when the driver window descended. A dark handsome face with big white smile poked out the window. He had very short super curly hair and big brown eyes. He seemed normal enough and Samantha’s anxiety lowered a bit.

  “Do you ladies need some help?” He asked.

  “That’s our car back there. I am afraid it’s quit on us and we’re stranded with no cell service. If you could call a tow service when you get to where you’re going we would be most grateful. We could just wait in the car until they can come,” answered Samantha.

  A voice came from the back of the car and the man turned to listen. Then he smiled at the them and said, “The closest town is fifty miles away and their service shop closes at five. It isn’t safe for you two to be out here alone, there isn’t too much traffic, but you shouldn’t stay out here. My boss lives only a few miles up the road. Why don’t we go back and get your things and you can come and home with us until we get someone to come and look at your car.”

  He must have seen the worried look on Samantha’s face, because he quickly added, “My wife can get you all comfy for the night. We have plenty of room and we can call the mechanic first thing in the morning.”

  Samantha turned and whispered to her daughter, “What do you think?’

  “I think we don’t have much choice,” then turning back to the limo she said, “I am Seanna Shepperd and this is my mom, Samantha. We’d like to take you up on your offer as long as you’re sure it isn’t a problem, we wouldn’t want to put you out.”

  Over the quiet laughter coming from the back the man replied, “Nice to meet you, I’m Leal Johnson. Just hop in front with me and we’ll go get your things.”

  As they walked around the front of the car a sliding window came up between the front and the back of the limo. Samantha tried to get a peek of the person in the back but was too late. Who would be driving this big limo out in the wilderness? Why doesn’t he want us to see him? Lord, I am trying real hard to trust you here.

  Leal got out to help. He was good looking, tall and well built. With his creamed-coffee colored skin, he had to be at least part African American. Right off the girls felt comfortable. It was quick work getting their things out of the car and into the trunk of the limo. Once they were on their way Seanna started some small talk about the mountains and how pretty it was. Leal chatted about the area and how he and his wife loved it there.

  “Wh
ere are you from?” he asked.

  “We live in a small town in Wisconsin, Bear Ridge. It’s pretty much in the center of the state.” Samantha finally joined the conversation.

  “What brings you to God’s country?’

  “We’re on our way home from my Dad’s Father’s funeral in Washington,” said Seanna.

  “Wasn’t your Dad able to make it?” asked Leal.

  “Dad passed away this March,” answered Seanna before Samantha had a chance to reply.

  “I am sorry to hear about your loss. Wow, Wisconsin to Washington, why didn’t you just fly?” Leal quickly changed the subject.

  “Well, Mom hates to fly. We flew there and since we are both off for the summer I talked her into taking the scenic route home and having some mother-daughter time. I just graduated and mom teaches school. I thought it was a great idea, until the car we just bought gave up the ghost,” said Seanna.

  “I could have handled the flight back, but it just sounded like fun to take some time together before Seanna has to leave for college in the fall. I haven’t been out of the Midwest and wanted to see some of the sights on the way home. It’s the first impulsive thing I’ve done in years,” said Samantha. “I’m sure when this is all over, it will be something exciting to tell our friends back home,” explained Samantha.

  “But right now it isn’t too much fun,” drawled Seanna.

  “My grandma used to say ‘this too shall pass’ when things weren’t going as planned. Sometimes it would make me so mad. But she was always right. Even the most frustrating things don’t look so bad once you’re on the other side of them,” said Leal. The cynical laughter from the back stopped the conversation in the front until finally Leal said, “Well…here we are.”

  Leal turned the big car onto what looked like little more than a dirt trail that curved through some hills. About a hundred yards in, there was a locked gate and the road turned into blacktop. Leal punched a remote and the gate slid open for them to pass. They topped a rise and he slowed so they could enjoy what they were seeing. Nestled in the mountains was a group of buildings, and gardens. From the road you would never even know it was there.