Everlasting Love

By Karen Woodfolk

Can two souls find their way back to each other?

Karen had just gotten out of a thirty-year marriage, her self-esteem was low, and she was afraid. She had never fully taken care of herself. She was now challenged to not only take care of herself but also her ailing mother. Life was throwing too many challenges her way all at once. Then one day, a picture fell into her lap, and it changes the course of her life. Will she receive answers to her prayers?

I’ve found her! I left her thirty-four years ago, an immature man with no direction, not realizing how much I loved her until I had gone. After failed relationships and many health problems, I found my soul mate, but will she be available, or will I have to be her friend from afar?

All Tracy knew was that he would never lose her again.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9781662468971

Book preview

Chapter 1

July 4, 1985

The Beginning

Her

I had to work on a holiday! The Fourth of July had always been a fun family day. Cookouts and beach visits were the norm. This is new for me. Growing up on a farm, we had gardens and animals to take care of. Chickens to feed and pigs to slop. Grass to pull up out of the garden and peas to pick, shell, or snap. I was so happy to get away from field work this summer, but if you have to work on the Fourth, it’s good to work at the beach. This is my first official job, unless you count my many hours working in the fields. I grew up on a farm, so there was always work.

I had been working at the hotel since June 17. I graduated high school on June 11, 1985. I took five days to relax and then went to work. Cleaning rooms on a holiday wasn’t so hard. Almost every room was a stayover. Clean towels and made beds were all they really wanted. That took maybe fifteen minutes per room. We had a few checkouts, but that was easy too.

My cousin Sharon and I worked together this summer. Sharon and I grew up together and had become close our last few years of high school. She was heading off to college and I was going to the community college in the fall. Being that it was a holiday, we decided to bring a change of clothes to work with us. We didn’t want to have to go home and then come back. We lived at least forty-five minutes away from the beach.

It was hot! Summertime in eastern North Carolina could be brutal. Sharon and I washed up in our last room and changed into matching short sets. Black and yellow were our school colors so we settled on black shorts and yellow T-shirts. We left Sharon’s mom’s car parked at the hotel and decided to take a walk on the beach. The warm breeze was blowing, and the waves were crashing onto the shore. Birds flew up and down looking for any food that might get dropped or left behind by anyone enjoying the view. If you weren’t careful, they would swoop down and take their treat right out of your hands.

After walking the beach for a while, we started hearing music coming from the Circle. The Circle was the place to go on the beach during the Fourth of July. It had a Ferris wheel, bumper boats, a go-cart track and other fun things to do along the beach. Depending on what you were looking for, it also had bars and restaurants with rooftop dining. The Circle always had music coming from different sources.

The beach was packed, and everyone was having a wonderful time. Carolina blue skies with a little haze from the heat. People were laying on towels tanning, and children were playing in the sand and squealing with glee. If you looked out at the ocean waves, you could see people swimming under them, trying to catch the tide. Later that night, the city would have a fireworks display.

Once at the Circle, I looked at my cousin and said, Sharon, how much further do you want to walk?

I don’t know, said Sharon. I suggested we hang around near an open area on the beach, away from birds.

While we were walking toward our spot, I saw two guys playing by the water’s edge. One was really tall; the other, averaged-sized. As we continued to walk slowly past them, I was looking in the crowd to see if there were any friends at the beach.

Moments later, I heard someone say, Are you twins? We stopped.

Sharon immediately snapped and said, Do we look like twins? Sharon was the outspoken one; I was the quiet, reserved one.

The guy responded, Well, you are dressed alike, so in that manner, yes, you do look like twins.

We didn’t know them, but they looked like Marines. It was not uncommon to see them at the beach since we lived near the air station. Cherry Point to be exact, home of the Marines.

One was tall with dark skin. The other was shorter with caramel skin. He was the talkative one. My name is Tracy, and this is Rick.

We tell them our names. Sharon replied with a smirk, My name is Sharon, and this is my cousin Karen. We all laughed. I explained to them that we like dressing alike, and people often confuse us and call us by each other’s names. We sometimes answer to the other names but will correct them when we need to. My skin is pecan brown, and Sharon is more fair-skinned, a little lighter than Tracy. Tracy asked what we were doing that night. We’d planned to go to our normal weekend hangout—Sensations. Sharon had some cousins who lived close by, so we would often visit then walk over to the club.

We stayed around and played in the water a little bit, trying not to get wet but failing. We started asking questions, trying to get to know each other. The guys were Marines. Tracy was from Florida and seemed to gravitate toward me. We told them we were from a place called Adams Creek—a small country area surrounded by water. Beautiful landscape. Almost everyone is family. About a twenty-five-minute drive from the town of Havelock, which is right outside the Marine Corps Air Station at Cherry Point.

Soon it was dark, and we had to go home to shower and change so we could hit the club that night. The guys said they would swing by. We walked back to the hotel and drove home.

None of us knew how our lives would change from that first meeting at the beach. But God knew!

Him

She caught my eye! Two females walking on the beach dressed in the same outfit. But she caught my eye! It was hot. July 4 in eastern North Carolina, and I am at the beach with my friend and fellow Marine, Rick. We were stationed at Marine Corps Air Station in Cherry Point. I had been here about three months. I grew up in Gainesville, Florida, so the beach was a familiar place for me. We had been here a little while. The crowd was thinning out. We decided to test the water to see how warm it was. It was a beautiful day. Sunny and bright.

I looked up in the distance, and I see yellow and black coming toward us. Two females, one light-skinned and the other pecan brown. The pecan brown one caught my eye. I got excited as they came nearer. They were talking and laughing as they walked toward us. They were going to pass by us, so I yelled out, Are you twins?

I knew they were probably not twins. They looked nothing alike. The pecan brown one had a smile that could melt your heart with lips to match! Beautiful lips! She didn’t have on any makeup. She didn’t need any. She was just the right height—and that body! Oh my God, I thought to myself. She was the quiet one; I could tell because the other one spoke up first.

Do we look like twins? the light-skinned one asked.

Well, by the face, no; but by the outfit, yes! I said.

She replied and said, We’re cousins. We just like to dress alike sometimes because people mix our names up often.

Well, what are your names? I asked.

Karen and Sharon. Karen was the pecan brown one. I heard her name, but I kept looking at those lips. She seemed kind of shy, not loud or overbearing. That smile had my heart fluttering. She was my type of girl. Even though I finally knew her name, I couldn’t help but nickname her Pecan Brown.

After introductions, we paired off. Karen went with