Lost Without You: A Soul Mates Novella: Soul Mates

By Catherine Chant

If you enjoyed the young adult rock 'n' roll time travel romance WISHING YOU WERE HERE (Book 1 in the Soul Mates series), LOST WITHOUT YOU picks up where events left off back in 1957 in the small town of Shelby Falls at the end of WISHING YOU WERE HERE, and follows Sable Courtney as she mourns the loss of her fiancé and tries to build a new life for herself.

Locked into a Future She Didn't Want...

Fighting for the One She Deserves...

Joey Tempo's fiancée Sable Courtney thinks her world has just ended with his fatal plane crash, but around the corner, waiting to be discovered, is the future she was destined to have all along. Watch Sable as she breaks free of the role she's been forced to play since childhood--that of a meek, obedient female expected to marry well and rear children--and finds the courage to forge a new path for herself, on her own terms. And she just might find her true soul mate along the way.

LOST WITHOUT YOU is a sweet young adult historical romance set in the 1950s, appropriate for ages 12 and up.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Catherine Chant
• Release date: Aug 28, 2014
• ISBN: 9781513040967

Book preview

LOST WITHOUT YOU

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A Soul Mates Novella

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Catherine Chant

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Copyright © 2014 by Catherine Chant

All rights reserved.

First Edition

e-Book Edition ©2014

Cover Design © 2014 Catherine Chant

Except as permitted under the U. S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

Lost Without You is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

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For all the fans of

WISHING YOU WERE HERE

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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TITLE

COPYRIGHT

DEDICATION

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

EPILOGUE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Chapter 1

Saturday, July 20, 1957

We have entrusted our brother Joseph Tempo to God's mercy. Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust...

Sable Courtney bowed her head as the priest's words, softly spoken, joined together into one long, monotonous drone. Before her, a coffin as shiny and black as the Gretsch guitar Joey used to play descended into a pit of dry earth.

Joey wasn't in the box, of course. The plane had gone down in the ocean near Greenland. No one had been recovered. Instead, Sable had gathered personal items that had been waiting in the cottage by the lake for Joey's return and given them to the undertaker for burial. Joey didn't have a lot of possessions—mainly some clothing, some books, a few records. His record.

The burial might be merely symbolic, but Sable needed it. Many people in the small town of Shelby Falls, Tennessee did, too. They needed a way to say good-bye to someone they'd come to know and love over the past fifteen months. Sable tried to say the word good-bye, only to herself at first, but her heart rebelled. Before he'd left for the tour, she'd said, See you soon. Now she wanted that more than ever.

Just one last time.

She'd rather continue to think he was still performing overseas, due back any day, than to think she'd never see him again, never hear him call her his best girl, or grab her hand for support when the cameras started flashing.

Better to think that she would see him soon. He'd never miss their wedding, after all. She'd had it planned for months, even though it wasn't to take place until next June. She'd picked the perfect dress—well, narrowed down the choices to a select few—written up the guest list, even inquired about the grand ballroom at the Peabody for the reception.

Let us pray... The priest's sudden exuberance to join in the Lord's Prayer cut into her dreams of a future that would never be.

Our Father, who art in heaven... the gathered responded, but for Sable the exultation of giving thanks to the Lord fell flat.

That monotone voice quickly returned to a soft buzz in her ear, her attention riveted to the hole in the earth. The box was almost out of sight now, moving away from her forever. Her vision blurred at the thought of never seeing Joey's smile again, never touching him, never kissing him. Everything was about to be covered by dirt, and eventually, like the priest said, returned to dust.

Except she'd saved something. Something she couldn't bear to part with.

Sable had kept the scrapbook she'd started for Joey shortly after they'd met. In it she'd documented every moment of his career from the minute Walter discovered him in Memphis back in April, 1956 through early May of this year when he'd left for his U.K. tour. Last night she'd added the write up about the plane crash that had appeared in Thursday's Shelby Falls Press.

The scrapbook had also documented their life together. The up-and-coming rock 'n' roll star and the pretty hometown beauty queen. She wasn't ready to bury those memories yet. She wasn't ready to say good-bye to any of it.

Part of her wanted to walk away right now and pretend this wasn't happening, but one glance at her mother's rigid form next to her and she knew she'd never do it. She could never make a scene like that.

One by one the mourners dropped handfuls of soft dirt onto the lowered coffin, while Sable froze in place. The blood in her veins suddenly became too cold to move a muscle despite the sweltering summer heat. She reached out like the others only when her mother roughly nudged her shoulder.

Margaret Courtney had rushed back from her summer sojourn in Savannah, Georgia when she’d heard the news. Not to comfort her daughter, but to put on a show of family unity, family strength, for all the press attention that was sure to follow. Margaret never missed an opportunity to show the world how far the daughter of a dairy farmer had come in life. Pretty, poised and graceful, Sable was her crowning achievement. Margaret herself had poise and grace as well, but had inherited her family's strong Nordic features, rather than the softer, more feminine face Sable had received from her father’s Irish ancestors.

Sable clawed at the loose soil with her gloved hand, then watched as it slipped through her fingers, like all her hopes and dreams, to become just another spray of dust coating that smooth, black box. The shine was all gone now. Just like her future.

She bit her lip to keep from making a sound as she silently tried to force herself to say good-bye to the boy she loved more than anything in the world. Get past this one part and you'll be all right. But her throat tightened against the words. Acceptance refused to sink in.

The pressure built until everything inside her wanted to burst out. Her pounding heart, the toast she'd choked down for breakfast, the scream of anger that had lived inside her ever since she'd heard the news. She'd lost the one person who meant everything to her, and she was forbidden to show it. She was expected to murmur a quiet good-bye and be done with it. But there was so much more inside her that ached to be heard, to be felt, to be understood. Feelings that would surely cause a scene.

So she had to swallow it all down, bite harder, draw blood. Dark veils hid so much. No wonder her mother had insisted on them.

Despite her best efforts, tears seeped from Sable's eyes as she dutifully followed her mother away from the grave. She didn't dare try to wipe at them or call attention to herself in any way. Don't embarrass me had been her mother's motto for as long as Sable could