Believe in Me

By Mishael Witty

Reconciliations can occur. Broken hearts can be mended. If you believe...

Trina Gray leaves a stack of paperwork on her desk and heads home for the holidays. There’s just one slight problem. Her mother has invited her soon-to-be ex-husband, Walt, to spend Christmas with them. Walt’s presence sends Trina running to a friend’s house, where she runs into another ex—her old high school boyfriend, Kurt.

Trina and Kurt almost immediately pick up where they left off. Will Trina and Kurt rekindle their young romance? Or will she repair her relationship with Walt? These questions, and more, are answered within the pages of Believe in Me.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mishael Witty
• Release date: Jun 25, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476334394

Mishael Witty

Mishael Austin Witty was born in Kentucky in 1977. She completed her undergraduate work at the alma mater of Pearl S. Buck and went on to obtain a M.A. in psychology from the University of Louisville. In 2005, her flash fiction work, "Today You Will Be With Me," won an Editor's Choice award and was published in the Faithwriters anthology, A Year of Celebration. Ms. Witty self-published her first novel, Unyoked (formerly titled Shadows of Things to Come), in 2007. It is now available as a Kindle download. She is currently working on the sequel.

Book preview

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Believe in Me

Mishael Austin Witty

Copyright © 2013 by Mishael Austin Witty

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

without the express written permission of the publisher

except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing, 2012

Second Printing, 2013

ISBN: 1478100885

ISBN-13: 978-1478100881

Mishael Austin Witty

11516 Lower River Road

Louisville, KY 40272

www.wittyonlineeditor.com

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Cover created by Mishael Austin Witty using PicMonkey.com and http://www141.lunapic.com/editor/. Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and Geograph.org.uk.

As always, this book is dedicated to Robert,

who is better than any fictional romantic hero.

Acknowledgments

So many people have helped me in the writing and editing of this work. I especially want to acknowledge the invaluable help of new friends Carol J. Hess and Pauline Creeden. You ladies are awesome writers and readers!

1.

Trina Gray snapped her newly monogrammed Louis Vuitton suitcase closed and patted the hard side of the bag down, just as she used to do to the cheap set of soft-sided luggage she’d used before she’d decided, on a whim, to purchase the $5000-plus travel case. It was an extravagant expense. Not something Trina would have ever bought before. But she’d started a new life within the past six months, and the new Trina wanted to make a big impression with her designer luggage.

That’ll show Tammy, she thought smugly, even as the personalized initials on the neutrally-colored tag taunted her. TAG. It wasn’t merely the irony that her initials spelled out the word tag that bothered her so. It was the fact that, until just a few months ago, those hadn’t been her initials. At least, they hadn’t been for five years. For that length of time, the maiden G had been replaced by her married M.

Maybe I made the switch back too soon, Trina thought as she gazed at the letters. Then she shook her head. No. Her marriage to Walt was over. They weren’t officially divorced yet—only separated—but there was no going back. Not after what he had done.

In spite of her steely exterior, the bridge of Trina’s nose buzzed, and her eyes ached. She closed them and leaned her head back, taking in a few deep breaths of the honey vanilla scented air freshener she’d sprayed just a few minutes earlier. That particular scent always helped to calm her nerves and comfort her in a way that no other scent had ever done. It reminded her of Mim’s kitchen. She’d always felt safe there.

That was one good thing about going home. She’d get to see Mim again. It had been too long since she’d talked to the woman who was like a second mother to her. Better than a mother, actually. She felt more comfortable talking to Mim than she did to her own mother. She always had.

Trina smiled, remembering Mim’s warm green eyes and her always frizzy, frazzled silver gray hair. She almost laughed out loud, not caring that she was the only person in the room who would hear the happy sound. Trina was just extremely grateful that the urge to cry was fading.

She moved the bag to set it down on the lush forest green bedroom carpet before limping over to the matching weekend rolling bag, which had set her back another three-and-a-half thousand dollars.

Trina cursed aloud as she set her foot down on the floor. The pain shot up through her calf and down into her toes at the same time. If she hadn’t been in such a hurry to get out of the office and get on the road tonight, she wouldn’t have twisted her ankle by slipping on that patch of ice.

She hadn’t bothered to wrap it. It wasn’t broken. She knew that because she could still walk on it. What Trina didn’t know, though, was whether it was an actual sprain or just a little strain. Either way, she should have been resting on the couch in front of the television with her foot propped up on the light brown suede ottoman she’d recently bought to add a touch of class to the place.

But she didn’t have the luxury of sitting and resting her foot tonight. Trina had to get on the road right now. Her mother had already been calling every fifteen minutes for the past three hours to see when she was starting out. Trina didn’t want to delay the trip any longer than she already had.

She winced as she took a few more steps toward the front door, and she felt her Blackberry buzz in her pocket. Oh, Mom!

Trina fished in her pocket for the buzzing instrument and gasped. It wasn’t her mother’s number that showed up on the LCD caller ID screen. The number was unfamiliar, but the name above the number was not. Tammy Gray. Her sister.

What? You little…How did you get this number? Trina fumed as the phone continued to buzz. Then she took a deep breath.

She’d told her mother that she would come home for Christmas this year, and she knew there was a chance her sister would be there, too. A very good chance. It was only natural that their mom would tell Tammy that Trina was coming.

Of course she would. Ever since Trina had made the decision to quit talking to her sister last year, their mom had been on a crusade to repair the relationship between her two daughters. This, in Trina’s mother’s mind, was going to be the first step in that process—the two sisters being under the same roof again. Trina had told her mom that she would suck it up and play the dutiful daughter, and she assured her mother that everything would be fine.

Except Trina wasn’t at all sure that it would be.

She sighed again—in relief, this time, as the call switched over to voicemail. Well, I didn’t say that I would talk to Tammy before I got to the house. Trina justified her decision to ignore her sister’s phone call and pocketed the Blackberry.

True, they hadn’t talked for almost a year, but there was a very good reason for that.

Trina winced again as she forgot to not put all her weight down on her injured foot.

Reviews for Believe in Me

[arlenadean · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

By: Mishael Austin WittyPublished By: Create spaceAge Recommended: AdultReviewed By: Arlena DeanRating: 4Review:"Believe In Me" by Mishael Austin Witty was a nice contemporary romantic novella in that there was plenty of 'tension, romance and characters that were likable, well developed and believable.' The story is of a marriage that is almost over. "It's Christmas again, and Trina's parents allow their son-in-law to come stay with them for the holidays. When Trina arrives and is told that Walt will be staying, she is livid." So Trina leave her parents home and take refuge at her friends home and guess who comes there... a old boyfriend.... now this story will take off. I know you are wondering what will happen next ...well you will have to pick up "Believe In Me" to read it for yourself. You may be somewhat surprised in the ending. If you are looking for a short good romantic story...you may enjoy "Believe In Me" and I would recommend this one to you.

[Debbie DiFiore · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

She caught him kissing her sister and flipped out. I would too. Some of the other stuff she did wasn't for me. I hated when she made out with her old boyfriend, who was married. So was she. They weren't divorced her. And suddenly she forgives them and I didn't get it. Just a short weird story.

[pat1egan1fordyce · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Believe In Me.........by Mishael WittyThis an engaging short story about Christmas Past and Christmas Present. We meet Trina Melton, traveling to her parents for the holidays after a heartbreaking Christmas the previous year. She is separated from her husband Walt and is totally shocked when she sees him on her parents couch when she walks in the door. He wants to talk....she wants to run....she runs!Trina runs to the B&B her "Aunt" Mim runs in town. One of Mim's guests is Walt, an old high school friend in town because of the death of his father. He causes a little more stress in Trina's already stressful holiday.This is a short story that I feel would have benefited from some more pages. The characters are fun, the story delightful, but there just wasn't enough time or space to really connect. I would enjoy reading something else by this author.