Waiting for Dusk
Authors: Nancy Pennick
Tags: #romance, #love, #magic, #lost, #book, #dream, #time travel, #forbidden love, #missing, #back in time, #out of time, #fictional, #boy of her dreams, #call of the canyon, #nancy pennick, #waiting for dusk
Book One
by Nancy
Pennick
Published by
Fire and Ice
A Young Adult Imprint of Melange Books, LLC
White Bear Lake, MN 55110
Waiting For Dusk, Copyright 2012 by Nancy Pennick
ISBN: 978-1-61235-524-5
Names, characters, and incidents depicted in this
book are products of the author’s imagination or are used
fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales,
organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental
and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher. No part of
this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording,
or by any information storage and retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publisher.
Published in the United States of America.
Cover Art by Lynsee Lauritsen
WAITING FOR DUSK
NANCY PENNICK
Read a book.
Fall asleep.
Meet a boy.
is it real or just a dream?
Katie's everyday life suddenly turns exciting
when she travels back in time and meets the boy of her dreams.
Thinking of nothing else, willing to leave the real world behind,
she's determined to find out if it's all a dream...or not.
Returning again and again, Katie almost has her answers until one
day her precious book goes missing.
Dedication
To
Bonnie Urbancek McGarry,
the best friend a girl could ever have
Acknowledgments
To my wonderful husband, Ron, who only reads
the sports page, but read my rough draft and encouraged me to
finish.
To my son, Matt, my creative tech guy, who
supported me along the way.
To my sister, Sue Gesing, and niece, Megan
Gesing, who were the first to read my book and are my biggest
cheerleaders.
To Ashley Dombrowski, who unknowingly was my
inspiration to keep writing.
To Lynsee Lauritsen for designing the
wonderful book cover that captured the essence of the book.
And finally to my publisher, Nancy Schumacher
for giving my book a home and a huge thank you to her and everyone
at Melange-Books who’s helped me through this exciting journey, my
first published book.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Boredom, boring,
bored. Kathryn Roberts couldn’t think of any more ways to say she
was bored. Summer vacation was supposed to be fun. It was something
everyone looked forward to and yet...she was bored. Katie sighed.
She picked up her phone, looked for any new messages, and set it
down. She strolled over to her desk and grabbed her laptop. As she
flopped on the bed, Katie thought she heard a door slam
downstairs.
“Katie! Katie! Are you home?” her mother
called from the kitchen.
“Yeah, I’m home.” Katie ran down the stairs
and collapsed on the sofa in the family room. Her soft, light brown
hair flowed over the pillow. It had streaks of gold from the summer
sun, and was showing a slight wave from the humidity that hung
thick in the air.
“What have you been doing since I left?”
“Nothing, I’m bored.”
“Bored? Did I just hear you say that?” Her
mother sounded irritated. “Well, all you do is stare at your
laptop, stare at the TV and stare at your phone. When I was your
age, I actually met my friends to do things. We went for ice cream,
went to the beach, movies, you name it. We did things. I’ll give
you bored. You’re bored of staring. That’s what it is. Go do
something.”
“Easier said than done. Most of my friends
are gone for the summer. Lindsey went to stay with her aunt at her
ranch out west somewhere. Tyson’s at basketball camp. Jordyn is in
China on a cool vacation, studying her roots with her two moms. And
me? I’m here.”
Kate could tell her mother was gathering her
thoughts and heard her calmly say, “We went on a vacation last
year. If I remember correctly, someone said they would never go on
a vacation with her nerdy parents again.”
“Okay, sorry about that. What I really meant
was that it was hard to be cooped up in a car with your parents for
three weeks. The Grand Canyon was worth seeing, I guess.”
Katie bounced off the sofa and gave her
mother a hug. She knew she had to calm her down before she thought
of some chore Katie could do.
“Apology accepted!” her mom stared into
Katie’s blue eyes. “Thanks, Blue Eyes. Now you can help me with
dinner.”
Katie rolled her eyes but didn’t say
anything. She didn’t like it when her mother called her Blue Eyes,
but kept quiet. Katie opened the refrigerator instead. “Just you
and me?”
“Actually, no. I’ve invited Mrs. Johnson over
for dinner tonight.”
Maya Johnson was the Roberts’ neighbor. They
became close when Katie’s mom was a college student and Maya worked
at the university’s library. Her mother spent a lot of time in the
library and got to know Mrs. Johnson very well. They became like
family.
After college graduation, Katie’s mom married
Jackson Roberts and moved away. A teaching opportunity opened up at
the college so the family moved back home.
“So glad we moved next door to her. I know I
was only three, but I remember how she baby-sat while you went to
work.” She was excited Mrs. Johnson was coming over to break up the
monotony of the day
The doorbell suddenly rang and she knew who
it would be.
“I’ll get it!” Katie bounded out of the
kitchen to the front door, opening it wide. “Mrs. Johnson!” Katie
wrapped her arms around her and gave a quick hug.
She had always been like a grandmother to
Katie. She called her ’MiMi’ when she was little. As she got older,
her mother insisted on proper respect and told Katie that she
should call her “Mrs. Johnson”. That didn’t make sense because they
were family.
“MiMi,” Katie whispered in her ear.
“Child, I swear you grow taller every time I
see you!” Mrs. Johnson’s brown eyes glistened. “You should be a
model!” She walked into the house and through to the kitchen.
“Maya,” Joanna outstretched her arms, “So
good to see you! How was your vacation?”
“Good to see you, too. My vacation was too
short, just like all vacations are. Now I’m back to the real world
of paying bills, cleaning and grocery shopping.”
She looked at Katie with a twinkle in her
eyes, almost like she knew what Katie was thinking.
That is why Katie loved Mrs. Johnson so much.
Even though Mrs. Johnson lived alone, she seemed to have a history
that was fascinating, yet mysterious. She always told wonderful
stories about how she and her husband traveled the country when
they were young. They settled down in the house next door when Mrs.
Johnson was expecting Carl Jr. He now lived on the California coast
working as a marine biologist. Mrs. Johnson always took long
vacations to visit him, and just got back from one of those
trips.
“So how is Carl Jr.?” Katie’s mother
asked.
“Looking more and more like his father every
passing year, God rest his soul.”
Katie whispered the words with her under her
breath. Mrs. Johnson looked at her and smiled. “So what have you
two been up to while I was gone?”
“Mom is teaching a summer class, and I’ve
been hanging out here at home with nothing to do. I guess I just
got bored of staring.”
“Bored of staring?”
“Inside joke,” Kate’s mother quickly
responded. “Plus you know Jackson is gone for most of the summer on
business. We really didn’t plan a vacation.”
Katie really missed her father. Jackson
Roberts was a world traveler with business taking him far and wide.
He wrote books, lectured and went on many promotional tours. Most
of his books were nonfiction, from self-help to nature. Katie
didn’t have a clue how he got all of this knowledge and didn’t
really care. She just missed him because he would have made the
summer enjoyable. There had been no word from him in quite a few
days. Her mom said he was either somewhere with no service or he
let his battery die again. Nothing new for her dad.
Mrs. Johnson, Katie and her mom sat outside
to eat their dinner. They laughed and talked until the sun began to
set. Katie excused herself at that time. “If it’s alright with
everyone, I’d like to go up to my room now. Glad you’re home again,
Mi...Mrs. Johnson.” Katie stammered.
Mrs. Johnson chuckled. “Of course you are
excused. Your mother and I need to make some plans to add some
excitement in your life. First come over here and give me a kiss
goodnight.”
Katie skipped over to Maya and hugged her
tightly. Maya kissed her cheek and whispered in her ear, “Sweet
dreams.”
Katie went upstairs, turned her TV on,
grabbed the laptop and settled in for the night. Maybe Linds would
call or Ty. That would be a bonus. Having Mrs. Johnson home for the
summer was great because Katie didn’t feel so alone. She could
visit her during the day and maybe she could look for a summer job.
Not that she wanted a summer job, but it would fill the days with
something to do while waiting for her friends to get back in
town.
It was close to midnight when Katie’s mom
came in to say good night. “Good night, sweet girl,” she said and
placed a book on Katie’s nightstand. “Here’s something to read. It
may help put you to sleep.”
“What is it?”
“Some romantic historical fiction. Just an
old book I had. You loved to read when you were young, but I
thought it was a little grown up for you back then. You’re just the
right age to read it now.”
“Oh, thanks. Good night.”
She glanced at the book on the nightstand and
went back to what she was doing.
What am I doing?
She looked at her webpage every ten minutes,
updated her profile and watched some dumb short films people posted
online. She sent texts to her father, Linds, Ty, Jordyn and a few
school friends plus planned her outfits for tomorrow. Katie looked
at the book again.
She didn’t read books anymore.
What’s my
mother thinking?
Katie wasn’t really tired though. If the book
could help put her to sleep, she’d give it a try. It was old but
well taken care of. One could tell it was read many times as she
flipped through the pages of the black leather book. Katie opened
to chapter one and began reading.
Suddenly, there was a banging on her door.
“Miss Kathryn, time to get up! You overslept. Get up!”
Katie turned over in the bed. Sun streamed
into the room from the window.