Kindle Edition
Amazon
Lynn Crandall
Category:
Christmas
Publisher: Indie
Type: Fiction
Pages: 86
Copyright: Dec 3, 2017
Price: $0.99 (eBook)
One walked into the fire. One died in the fire. Can love survive loss at Christmas time?
A year after her sister’s death, Noël Hartley is haunted by memories of Christmas past. All around, life is going on, including all the happy celebrations of Christmas. Noël is having nothing of it, or the firefighter who failed to save her sister Regina from the deadly fire.
Firefighter Jonah Grant is going through the motions of working and living his life. The night he fought a fire in Regina Hartley’s house replays over and over, but always ends the same. He went into a fire to save her, but came out without her.
A wall of pain keeps Noël and Jonah apart and alone in their suffering, though in mid-size Cranberry Cove they're finding it challenging to avoid one another. But when a stalker puts Noël’s life in danger, Jonah has to find a way to prevent another tragedy and prove to her that their futures rely on facing the past.
Excerpt
A knock on her door startled her back down. “Yes?”
“I’m sorry to interrupt what you’re doing.” The receptionist scanned Noël’s office.
“Looking for something?”
“I thought I heard you talking to someone.” She shook her head. “Your next appointment is here.”
“Next appointment?” She opened her phone calendar. “I don’t have an appointment until one. It’s only eleven-thirty.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t update your schedule. The appointment was just scheduled thirty minutes ago. Can I send him in?”
“Who in?” Was she playing a game of who’s on first?
“Mr. Jonah Grant.”
Goosebumps bristled all over her skin. “Um, yes, um, send him in, please. Thank you.”
She had no time to think, no time to prepare or hide.
“Hi, Noël.” Jonah offered her a handshake.
“Oh, and you have a dog.” She circled the desk and knelt in front Jonah’s dog. “Hi there. Aren’t you a pretty dog?” She petted his head, enjoying his upturned brown eyes.
“His name is Carp, actually Carpe Diem. He goes places with me, not that I need him. I mean, he’s not a service dog, just a good friend.” He shifted his feet. “He seems to like you.”
Damn him. Jonah was doing a great job of letting her see his soft underbelly. Damn him.
“I love your name, Carpe Diem.”
She sat back at her desk, searching for her resentment to protect her from Jonah, the real man. “He’s a nice companion.”
Jonah’s expression broke into a smile. It reminded her of a sunrise.
What? Where did that come from? Simmer, Noël.
“I’m surprised to see you, Jonah. And really surprised you made an appointment. Have a seat.” She motioned to the chair across from her desk. “What’s up?”
He shot her a grimace. “I understand your shock. It kind of shocks me too.” Jonah rubbed his face and squirmed.
The rubbing and the squirming relaxed her nerves. He seemed so vulnerable. She did want to get some information from him, and here he was, across the desk.
“Well, how is your morning going?” He fidgeted with his dog’s ear.
“Fine. How about your morning?” She was having a conversation with Jonah. And she wasn’t dying inside?
He looked away. “On one level, really not great.”
Wait a minute. I’m not getting pulled into his problems. “Is that why you’re here to see me?”
He grabbed her gaze, unsettling her beliefs.
“No.”
“Then why? I have a suspicion you want to find absolution for what you believe you did wrong. I can’t give that to you.” His gaze zeroed in on her eyes.
“I don’t blame you. My sister wouldn’t want that of me.”
“Ah. Your sister.” He sighed. “Well, at least one of us has an idea why I’m here. I—I—I thought we should talk about things, and since you won’t talk to me, I decided to make an appointment. I can see now that that was inappropriate. Sort of like ambushing you.”
How did he know? Pieces of her beliefs—he could have done better, he left her sister to die, he had no right to invade the sacredness of her grief, he had moved on—rolled away, loose rocks on a mountain.
|
