Sunshine and rain, p.1
Sunshine and Rain,
p.1
Sunshine and Rain
Book 9
Rain Series
Publisher’s Note:
This short story is a work of fiction. References to real events, organizations, or places are used in a fictional context. Any resemblances to actual persons, living or dead are entirely coincidental.
Vanessa Miller
www.vanessamiller.com
Printed in the United States of America
© 2016 by Vanessa Miller
Praise Unlimited Enterprises
Charlotte, NC
No part of this ebook 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.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Sunshine And Rain (Rain Series, #9)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
Epilogue
Books in the RAIN series
Excerpt | Former Rain
Prologue
1
Other Books by Vanessa Miller
Sunshine and Rain (rel. Oct. 29, 2016)
Family Business Book III (Love & Honor)
Family Business Book II (Sword of Division)
Family Business Book I
Rain in the Promised Land
After the Rain
How Sweet The Sound
Heirs of Rebellion
Heaven Sent
Feels Like Heaven
Heaven on Earth
The Best of All
Better for Us
Her Good Thing
Long Time Coming
A Promise of Forever Love
A Love for Tomorrow
Yesterday’s Promise
Forgotten
Forgiven
Forsaken
Rain for Christmas (Novella)
Through the Storm
Rain Storm
Latter Rain
Abundant Rain
Former Rain
Anthologies (Editor)
Keeping the Faith
Have A Little Faith
This Far by Faith
EBOOKS
Love Isn’t Enough
A Mighty Love
The Blessed One (Blessed and Highly Favored series)
The Wild One (Blessed and Highly Favored Series)
The Preacher’s Choice (Blessed and Highly Favored Series)
The Politician’s Wife (Blessed and Highly Favored Series)
The Playboy’s Redemption (Blessed and Highly Favored Series)
Tears Fall at Night (Praise Him Anyhow Series)
Joy Comes in the Morning (Praise Him Anyhow Series)
A Forever Kind of Love (Praise Him Anyhow Series)
Ramsey’s Praise (Praise Him Anyhow Series)
Escape to Love (Praise Him Anyhow Series)
Praise For Christmas (Praise Him Anyhow Series)
His Love Walk (Praise Him Anyhow Series)
Could This Be Love (Praise Him Anyhow Series)
Song of Praise (Praise Him Anyhow Series)
1
Isaac Judah Walker rolled out of bed drenched in sweat. He was having that dream again. The one where God showed him things that he did not want to see, hear or even know about. As he got out of bed and jumped into the shower, trying to shake the feeling that he was supposed to be doing something about his dream. He didn’t have time to get involved with anything other than what he was currently doing, so he wished that God would stop invading his sleep.
His father told him that being able to see into the supernatural was supposed to be some kind of gift. If that was true, he wanted to return that gift to the sender.
“You want company in there,” Alexa his live in girlfriend asked as she opened the shower door.
She looked so seductive in that short nighty, that he almost invited her in. But he didn’t have time for any delays this morning. There was too much on the line. “I’m just getting out.” He turned off the water and wrapped a towel around himself.
“Your loss,” she said as she took out a tooth brush and started brushing her teeth.
“I’ve got an important meeting, but I’ll make it up to you by taking you some place nice later on tonight.”
She spit the tooth paste out, and rinsed out her mouth. “Sounds good. I’ll make the reservations.”
He quickly dressed and headed out of the house. He hadn’t even stop to kiss Alexa goodbye. As he jumped into his two-seater convertible his cell phone rang. “Speak,” he said, using his hands-free car phone.
“Boy, I know I raised you with better manners than that,” Nina Walker yelled into the phone.
“Sorry about that, Mama. I have a lot on my mind, so I wasn’t paying attention when I answered the phone... didn’t know it was you.”
“What difference does that make? Do you really think that answering the phone like that is the right thing to do, Judah?”
Years ago his mother and the rest of the family called him Ikee. After college he was able to convince them that he was a full grown man who should be called by a grown man name. Instead of using his first name, which belonged to his father, the dynamic Pastor Isaac Walker, he decided to use his middle name. Now everyone referred to him as Jude, which was short for Judah. He had his mother to thank for the fact that his middle name meant praise, but Jude wasn’t giving out much praise to the Lord these days. Which is the reason he went by the shortened version of his middle name. But his mother refused to shorten it. “I’ll do better, Mother. Now what can I do for you. I have back to back meetings this morning so I can’t stay on the phone long.”
“Not planning to keep you long. I just want to know if you’ll be home for Thanksgiving or Christmas this year.”
Frustration edged the tone of each word, “This is the end of August. How am I supposed to know what I’ll be doing in a few months?”
“You haven’t been home in three years, Judah. I know you work hard and your building a career, but family is important too.”
“True that... look, all I can say is that I’ll try my best to get away from work this year. Okay.”
“I guess I’ll have to take that and add a bit of prayer to it,” Nina told her son as they hung up the phone.
Jude pulled his car into the executive parking spot. He turned off the engine and just sat there a moment. Life had been so much simpler when he was a kid and believed like his parents. But the education he received at college and the years he’d been away from home had caused him to question the ‘just believe’ mantra Christians crammed down the throats of non-believers.
What was the use anyway, preachers keep preaching and sinners keep sinning. And the real sad part was that preachers were doing just as much sinning as the congregation. But Jude didn’t have a negative opinion of all pastors like a lot of his friends. Because Jude had been raised by Isaac Walker a man who loved God, his family and the church. The man he was named after, even though his mom had slipped Judah in as his middle name, Isaac Walker was a man after God’s own heart. Jude had much respect for his father and for preachers because of the man who raised him. But at this point in his life he was just trying to do him, and to make as much money as he possibly could, while he was still young enough to enjoy it.
Right out of college he and two friends had a great idea for an online commerce business, but no money to purchase the product. His father had loaned them the money and it had been full speed ahead ever since. But now they were dealing with growing pains, and his partners thought selling the company was the best thing for all. Jude had put blood sweat and tears into this company and didn’t want to let it go. The meeting this morning would determine if he had persuaded one of his partners over to his side of the fence.
Micah Davenport was already seated in the conference room when Jude arrived, which didn’t surprise him. Micah was always the early bird. Stephen Johnson their third partner often had no regard for other people’s time. Glancing at his watch, Jude asked, “Have you heard from Stephen?”
Micah shook his head. “Not since last night. But he’s the one who called this meeting, so I’m sure he’ll be here shortly.”
Jude sat down across from Micah and gave his friend and business partner an awkward smile. During his senior year in college Jude, Micah and Stephen had been inseparable. They had stumbled on to developing an app that helped the average person study the Bible. But the more they worked on the app, the more Jude and Micah allowed Stephen to expand the idea so that it was no longer just for studying the Bible, but it also became a study guide for history, science and economics. Their app became all the rage for college kids looking for a quick and easy way to pass tests without actually reading their books chapter by chapter.
Even though the three of them started their app with the same purpose in mind, they were nothing alike. Micah was white, but had lived just one step up from a trailer on the poor side of town. The only thing Micah had going for him was his 4.0 GPA. That 4.0 had earned him a scholarship and a way out of a life he wanted nothing to do with.
Stephen was the dark skinned brother that the ladies went wild over. He grew up in the Midwest wh
Jude should have been the biggest and best advocate for keeping the bible app pure because he’d grown up in a Christian home. He’d seen first-hand how the preached word of God could bring about a revival. But he too had been seduced by the money that could be made by expanding the idea.
“Look Micah, I really don’t understand why you want to force this sale. We’re doing good... making money.” Jude just didn’t understand why his old college buddy suddenly wanted nothing more to do with a business that had made him rich. Maybe he was getting greedy and needed to be as rich as God before he was satisfied.
Shaking his head, Micah told him. “I’m not letting you take the easy road on this one. You know why I want out. You just can’t admit it or you’d have to call yourself a sellout.”
“I’m a sellout because I like making money?”
“No, you’re a sellout because you’ve never stood up for the original principals behind Find It.”
Find It was the name of the app they developed. Jude had come up with the idea as he was leading a bible study group during college, and kids had so many questions that Jude started talking about the need for an app. Micah, who had been attending the bible study told Jude that he could make the app. So, Jude and Micah started working on it. Then Stephen, Jude’s roommate at the time, convinced them that they needed a pitchman in order to sell the app, and the three-way partnership was born.
“I don’t get why you’re so ticked off about everything.”
Micah stood up. He started to walk out of the conference room, but he then hesitated and turned back to Jude with sadness in his eyes. “When I attended your first bible study I was searching for something real, something that I could believe in. I gave my life to the Lord because of those bible studies.”
“I know that, Micah. What I don’t know is why you are tearing down everything that we’ve built.”
“Because I will not be a part of a company that promotes cheating. Stephen wants me to create apps that provide test answers. I have no idea how I would do that, but even if I could, the whole idea goes against my faith and belief system.”
“When Stephen gets here, we can talk to him about that. Let’s just tell him that our company isn’t going in that direction.” Jude tried to reason with Micah.
But Micah wasn’t having it. “You should have told him that when he took our focus off of creating an app to answer bible questions. But we all had dollar signs in our eyes. I’m just thankful to God that money no longer defines me.”
Jude laughed out loud. “Easy to say now that you’re rich. And the sale of the company would only make you richer.”
“Look, I’m tired of arguing with you and Stephen over this matter... Buy me out, then we won’t have to sell the company.”
“You know we can’t afford to buy you out.”
“Then we have nothing else to talk about.”
“Sit back down, Micah. This company has made you a millionaire. So, the least you can do is hear me and Stephen out before making any final decision.”
Micah sighed. He pulled out the chair and sat back down.
Jude glanced at his watch. Stephen was late most of the time, but he normally ran in a minute or two after the meeting began. They’d been sitting in the conference room for almost twenty minutes, but hadn’t heard a word from Stephen.
Jude took out his cell phone and started to call Stephen. But at the same time, the conference door opened. His administrative assistant, Tyra Malcom walked in. Tears were streaming down her face as she tried to wipe them away with the balled up tissue in her hand.
Jude put his cell down as he stood and rushed to her. “What’s wrong, Tyra? Why are you crying like this?”
“I-it’s Stephen. He’s dead.”
Micah jumped out of his seat as Jude said, “What do you mean? What happened? Did he get into a car accident on the way to work?”
Tyra violently shook her head. “The police shot him.”
2
For a long time after those words had been uttered, nothing seemed real. How could it be true that marketing genius, Stephen Johnson, had been shot dead during a routine traffic stop? But it was true, and the trigger happy cop who’d killed an unarm man as he tried to unstrap his seat belt hadn’t been arrested. The only punishment that cop received was a three month suspension with pay.
Jude just wasn’t sure how he felt about that. He wasn’t sure how he felt about much of anything lately. He had lost a friend and a business partner, never mind the havoc some of Stephen’s ideas were wreaking throughout the company. Jude wouldn’t have wanted Stephen dead just so the business wouldn’t be sold off and neither did Micah. He and Micah mourned every day for Stephen’s loss, and they even commissioned a six foot painting and put it on the first wall visitors saw as they entered the building.
Stephen died without a will, because most twenty-eight year old men don’t believe they need one. Even so, Jude and Micah opened the books and allowed Stephen’s parents to understand what the company was worth and the amount they would be paying out to them. But Jude still didn’t think they had done enough to honor Stephen’s life and death. He walked around in sadness because he couldn’t figure out what else he should be doing.
“Why are you still moping around here with your dusty old house coat on?” Alexa asked as she entered the kitchen.
Jude looked down at the robe his mother had given him three Christmases ago. The robe was earth tones with green, brown and tans swirled around like little tad poles. “My robe isn’t dirty.”
“Okay, the robe isn’t dusty, but you look dusty because you’ve been in that thing since yesterday.”
“What do you want from me, Alexa? It’s Sunday. Can’t I sit around my house in my robe on the weekend if that’s what I choose to do?”
“We were supposed to go out to brunch this morning, or did you forget about our date again?”
“Don’t put your hands on your hip and shake your head at me woman.” Jude had been dating Alexa for two years now. She was a hot tempered, exotic beauty from south of the border. They met at a business expo Jude, Stephen and Micah had attended in order to market the updated version of their app. But as far as Jude had been concerned Alexa was the main event.
She was coming down a runway modeling a sea green off the shoulder mid length dress that took Jude’s breath away. He had to have her, and since he had been nursing a broken heart for a year, and was getting tired of being alone, Jude made his move.
He’d pursued Alexa for a month before she went out on a date with him. Six months later she moved into his house and he hadn’t been able to get rid of her since. Which would be a good thing if Jude was still infatuated with her, but the luster of their relationship wore off after about a year of living together. Partly because his family vehemently disagreed with his decision to shack up, and partly because he and Alexa had nothing in common. He liked football and basketball, Alexa thought that sports were silly. Jude was an early riser, believing as his mother used to say, ‘the early bird gets the worm’, while Alexa didn’t get up before noon. Which was the reason she wanted to do brunch instead of breakfast.
“I’m going to do more than shake my head. I’m getting tired of just hanging around this house doing nothing. I want to party and you’ve declined every party we’ve been invited to in the last few months.”
“I didn’t turn down the invitation for you. Nothing stopped you from going to those parties.”
“I’m glad you said that because there’s a party tonight that I really want to attend.”
Jude nodded. “Then go.”
Alexa smiled gleefully as she kissed Jude on the cheek. “You mean it? You’re okay with me going out tonight?”
He didn’t respond because in truth, her excitement over going off to some party was another thing that didn’t sit well with Jude. He wasn’t a party animal and never had been. Growing up it was more about church than hanging out. During college he spent his spare time heading a bible study group and now that he had money and time to do whatever he wanted, partying still wasn’t on his list.
