A Distant Shore by Karen Kingsbury (books for students to read .txt) 📕

The way her heart would belong to Jack.

She spent the last month of her service as an HLCI in the office, identifying traffickers from surveillance footage and helping decipher illegal solicitations. And then suddenly it was July 9, her twenty-third birthday, and her years of working for the FBI were over.

To celebrate, the bureau surprised Eliza with a ceremony. In the room were every case agent and teammate she had worked with except Jack. He was completing a mission in Honduras. One fraught with the very worst kind of danger.

Oliver had flown into Washington, D.C., to join the celebration. He handed over her final check. “Your record has been expunged of all charges. We will set you up wherever you’d like to go, Eliza. You’ll have a new name, a new identity.”

She had known that was coming, and she had the name picked out. Lizzie James. The name she had been given by her parents would be the one she would finish life with. She liked the sound of it. As if nothing bad had ever happened to her, and she was still that little girl headed to the beach with her mama and little Daniel.

When the ceremony was over and the other agents had said their goodbyes, Oliver approached. He handed her a satchel, the way her case agent had done before every mission. “Sir?” She had been told she wouldn’t get her new paperwork for at least a week. “Is this… for me?”

“Open it.” Oliver took a step back and smiled. Like a proud father, anxious to see her reaction to what was clearly her best birthday gift.

Eliza opened the leather cover and pulled out the contents. It was her new paperwork, a California driver’s license with her new name—Lizzie James. Next was a birth certificate and a passport and finally a travel itinerary.

To Belize.

“What?” Eliza held her breath so she wouldn’t gasp. “I can’t… Sir? What is this?”

“Belize is safe for you, Eliza. You’ll fly into Belize City and then to Placencia.” He smiled. “Someone will be waiting for you.” Emotion sounded in his voice. “Someone who will make a very fine professor one day.”

Eliza wondered if she would drop to the floor from sheer joy. How could this be happening? She put the paperwork back in the satchel and hugged Oliver. “Thank you. I can’t… I can’t thank you enough, sir.”

“Go…” He gave her one last smile. “Live your life, Lizzie. You deserve it.”

And with that, Eliza gathered her things and left the FBI building for the last time. At six the next morning she was on a flight back home to Belize. Her country, the country of her childhood and her family. And she was headed to Placencia and the Belizean Great Barrier Reef and sixteen miles of sand that she’d never walked in all her life.

But that wasn’t what kept her on the edge of her aisle seat. The reason was a small note she’d found at the bottom of the satchel. It was in Jack’s handwriting and it said only two words.

Wear white.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride; you have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes.

—Song of Solomon 4:9

Their eyes met as soon as she stepped off the small plane, and Jack had to force himself not to run to her. How could a whole year have passed without Eliza near him, without her in his arms?

Jack had on white khaki pants and a white short-sleeve button-down. Five days ago he was nearly killed in Honduras, but that was behind him now. Somehow he had finished his last mission with breath in his lungs.

And now he was here. Ready to start the rest of his life.

There was a yellow line on the ground, one he couldn’t cross. He watched her take her bag from the cart and then turn to him. She must’ve found his note because the look of her made his heart skip a beat.

Her white sundress fluttered in the breeze.

She also wore a wide-brimmed straw hat, as if she still had to be careful about who saw her and what danger that might put her in. There was no danger now, but the hat worked. It made her look like the true princess she was. Like royalty from a faraway land.

Then, in a way he would remember as long as he lived, she came to him. She didn’t look around or seem aware of the other people deplaning. Her eyes were on his alone. And finally she was in his arms.

He removed her hat and dropped it to the ground. Then he kissed her like he’d wanted to since they’d said goodbye in Cancún. The years and danger and missions were behind them. From this day forward it would be him and Eliza. Nothing could tear him away from her.

She looked into his eyes. “Every day I missed you, Jack.”

“You’re so beautiful.” And all he could think was that she was here, in his arms. He wasn’t dreaming. Once more he kissed her. “Don’t ever leave me again, Eliza. Promise.”

She laughed, the sort of unguarded laugh he wanted to spend the rest of his life listening to. “I promise.”

They collected her things and walked to his rented BMW, then he drove south down the peninsula. Jack had worked out a deal with the owner of a private resort. Four bungalows and a luxury suite all on the most beautiful strip of sand he’d ever seen. He pulled into the parking lot and cut the engine.

“I have a surprise for you.”

“I see that.” She stared out the window at the stretch of shoreline ahead of her. “I’ve always wanted to walk this beach. Did you know that?”

“I did.” He smiled. That wasn’t the surprise. “We’ll get your things later. Come on.”

He opened her door and led her to a path lined with lit lanterns and Mason jars of white flowers. His heart pounded and his breathing was shallow. He’d worked