Run: Beginnings Read Online Free PDF

it all alone. She had asked for help and the world had not crumbled and the oceans had not split like Eric had said. Instead she had only found gratitude, warmth, and comfort.
                  “I think that should do for tonight,” Natalie suggested, putting away some of the unused wood into a corner. “How about some food?”
                  Eric had taken off his coat and had rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, revealing his muscular forearms. Wiping off some sweat, he nodded. “A home cooked meal by the little rabbit. Who could argue?” he grinned.
                  As Eric washed up, Natalie set the table. She pulled out the roast, her salad, and some grilled tomatoes since she hadn’t been able find the asparagus she had originally wanted. By the time Eric sat down, she was pulling the cork out of the wine.
                  “Wine?” she asked, hovering the bottle over his glass.
                  “Just a little,” he said.
                  Natalie poured less than she would normally pour for herself. She wondered if the man didn’t like to drink.
                  Eric looked around the table, his eyes glowing with appreciation. “With a feast like this as a reward, I’d gladly take this house down brick by brick and rebuild it again.”
                  Natalie laughed. “Well, do that in the summer then. I don’t fancy freezing my butt off in the cold while you dismantle my house.”
                  Eric laughed and tucked into his meal with an eagerness that warmed Natalie’s heart. She loved seeing people enjoy her cooking. It made her happy to know that she had something to offer the man who had already done so much for her.
                  Plates empty and bellies full, Eric leaned back in his seat and took a small sip of his wine. Natalie noticed he had been nursing his small glass of wine the entire dinner. She felt bad in pouring him something he clearly did not enjoy drinking.              
                  Eric instead seemed to have other things on his mind than wine. He regarded her over the rim of his wineglass. “So tell me, little rabbit. I’ve been curious about something. What would bring a young hotshot doctor like you into such a backwoods town like Lowell?” he asked.
                  Natalie took a sip of her wine. It was her second glass. She had felt conspicuous having a second glass when Eric hadn’t finished his first but Eric had been the one to see her empty glass and refill it. And she was never one to argue with wine.
                  “Well, it’s not every doctor that gets to run her own practice,” she said quietly.
                  Eric raised a brow. “Oh? And are all American doctors clamoring to open practices in the Canadian wilderness?”
                  Natalie shrugged. “It’s a family practice. Dr. Cadwell wanted to keep it in the family.”
                  Eric placed his glass carefully on the table and stretched his hands out in front of him, looking down at his long fingers. “ Dr. Cadwell, is it? Not Uncle Cadwell?” he said. “Not a very affectionate family, it sounds like.”
                  Natalie shrugged. Well. If he was going to be perceptive and nosey. “I needed to get away,” she said, holding her wineglass close to her as if it were a safety blanket.
                  Eric looked up. “From what?”
                  “From…from a mistake,” Natalie said, struggling to find the right words. She sighed when nothing came to her. “I was engaged.”
                  Eric’s eyes didn’t flicker. “But you’re not married.” He didn’t make it a question. He knew she wasn’t married.
                  “No,” Natalie agreed, taking a sip of wine. “I broke it off.