Children of the Promise, Vol. 5: As Long As I Have You

“Bea, I'm excited about the way things are falling together for our family,” President Thomas said to his wife. “It sounds like Wally wants to be part of us now. And Alex already got his feet wet at the plant before he left. Once those boys are working for us, I don't see why we couldn't go after a lot more contracts. I've already talked to. . .”

“Al, slow down just a minute. Alex never did like working in that business. And there's nothing that says he's changed his mind.”

“Oh, I think he will. He's got a family to raise now, and he'll never find a better opportunity than I'll offer him.”

“Be careful, Al. Okay?”

“Careful? What do you mean?"

“You always tell me that you've learned your lesson, but then you jump right back in. You can't run these kids' lives for them.”

The war is over, and the Thomas family is slowly coming back together at home in Salt Lake City. But that doesn't mean all is well in Zion.

Alex seems to be doing fine, but more and more often he wakes up with nightmares from the war. In addition, what he thought would be an idyllic life with Anna and their son, Gene, brings a variety of new challenges.

Bobbi is in love with Richard, but she still struggles to know if she should marry him — especially since he can't seem to deal with a harrowing experience he had at sea.

Wally, getting stronger every day after his experience in a Japanese POW camp, finds that adjusting to civilian life isn't as easy as he had thought. And Lorraine, the girl of his dreams, is engaged to someone else.

LaRue, more mature and not so boy-crazy, wants to go to school back east, but her parents aren't happy about the decision.

Beverly is thrilled that her family is coming home, but she doesn't always understand how they think or the decisions they make. She's also having to confront another challenge — boys.

And finally, Alexander and Bea have their own problems to overcome. President Thomas is ready to fulfill his dream of a vast business enterprise run by his children. But, as Sister Thomas tries to make him see, the children may have different plans.

In As Long As I Have You, the final volume of the Children of the Promise series, author Dean Hughes presents a moving picture of what life was like for an ordinary LDS family at the end of World War II.