The Red Door Inn Read Online Free PDF Page A

strands behind her neck. Her cheeks stung even more with each step farther into the open.
    But oh, the open. How had she not noticed it the day before? She’d completely missed the rich blue of the bay across the street from the inn. The ground dropped off on the far side of the road, straight to the shoreline. Straight to the line of pine trees, two months late for Christmas but still decked out in their finery. The gentle waves from the wake of a fishing boat beckoned her like the beach at the Hamptons never had.
    If only she could find a place to sit and watch it. Just her and the sea. And the goose bumps breaking out across her arms.
    She picked up her pace, hurrying in the direction that Jack had pointed the night before. If she wanted something more than the flimsy blanket he’d given her to ward off the chill of her underground room, she had to find the antique shop.
    And it had to carry the bedding she needed. If it didn’t, her first attempt at helping Jack would fail. And likely his patience along with it. He wouldn’t put up with her wasting his time or spending his money frivolously. She didn’t know him well, but she knew business owners. It took guts and a strong will to run a business. He wouldn’t hesitate to do what was best for his bed-and-breakfast, even if that meant sending her packing.
    Maybe she should just keep walking and not go back.
    The thought froze in her mind as her gaze met two of the biggest brown eyes she’d ever seen. She stumbled back a step, her stare glued to the unblinking eyes. Until the cow mooed.
    Black and white spots swayed as it lumbered toward her, chewing like it had never met a piece of cud it didn’t like.
    Did cows charge like rhinos? Would it attack?
    Panic bubbled in her chest, gripping her lungs and sending her heart into overdrive. Again. This always happened at the worst possible moment. The horizon tilted, nearly sending her to her knees, and her vision narrowed. She couldn’t possibly run if the beast charged her.
    Bending at the waist, she sucked in a stilted breath just as tears formed in the corners of her eyes and slipped down her cheeks. What was she thinking leaving Boston? There were no cows in Boston. No four-legged creatures set on attacking her for no reason. Why hadn’t she just done what her father wanted her to do?
    Because he’d cared for nothing and no one but himself.
    Even thinking of his words made her stomach roll likeshe was going to retch. Or maybe that was the memory of an attack she hadn’t been able to ward off.
    Either way, she needed to be free. But she didn’t need to have a heart attack along a road in Nowhere-ville, Prince Edward Island. She needed the freedom of the open space, not a hulking black and white monster charging her.
    Leaning her hands on her knees, she tried again to grasp the edge of a breath like the string on a balloon before the wind carried it away. There it was. A wisp of air seeped in, and the spinning in her head slowed down.
    The next breath filled her lungs almost halfway, enough to give her the strength to look back up to meet her attacker—who had apparently decided she wasn’t interested in Marie anymore. The heifer tossed her head, training those big brown eyes on the far side of the green pasture, and ambled off toward a water trough beside a bright red barn set at least fifty yards off the road. The weathered wooden panels served as a portion of the fence, connecting to thin wire that followed fence posts all the way around the pasture where Big Brown Eyes and six others lazed away their morning.
    Of course there was a fence. No farmer would risk his cows wandering into the road. Even if not a single car had passed in the five minutes since Marie came face-to-face with the cow.
    Of course.
    Feeling every bit the fool she was, she pushed aside the remnants of the panic attack, managing a shaking breath with every step toward the antique shop. The