Tying the Knot Read Online Free PDF

interview on Monday.”
    The wind rustled a nearby balsam. Anne shivered. She wasn’t quite ready to dive into the social life of Deep Haven, even if corporate worship did speak to a lonely place in her soul. For the near future, she’d worship on the Lake Superior shore, thanking God for a time of rest.
    Anne measured her aunt. Edith had aged so beautifully, with soft laugh lines around her eyes and mouth and a lush mane of gray. The elderly woman made a jade green leisure suit look like a fashion statement. Edith stared out toward the lake, a fresh breeze combing her hair from her face.
    “This is a beautiful place to retire.” Anne had to admire the house Aunt Edith and Uncle Maynard had built. The two-story, white-pine A-frame sat at the lot’s pinnacle. One could survey the lake through its floor-to-ceiling windows. Anne stored away the effect in her dream files for future use. It was the type of place she could easily hide herself in—and planned to someday.
    “After years of looking at the lake from this porch, it seemed time to build something bigger.” Aunt Edith’s smile faded. “Are you sure the cabin isn’t too rustic?”
    Anne settled into a folding lawn chair and pulled her legs up to her chest. “I love the guest cabin, and I love you, Aunt Edith.”
    Her aunt gave her a smile that made Anne blush. “I just hope you can find your footing and escape some of those demons.”
    Anne nodded. If she couldn’t do it here, she never would.
    The older woman waddled up the trail toward her home. Anne sipped her tea. The spicy liquid went straight to her bones. Oh, how she’d longed for just this moment. She’d clung to it like a bulldog during her three months in rehab, rebuilding her strength after the bullet had ripped out half her insides. She had one less kidney and a scar that meant she’d never wear a bikini. Skimpy swimwear had never been her attire of choice; nevertheless, it felt like one more thing the drugged-up punk had stolen from her. If it hadn’t been for that fateful afternoon, she would have graduated with her nursing class in December. Bitterness filled her throat and she swallowed it back down to her chest, where it simmered. Yes, perhaps here she could escape the inner city and its painful tentacles.
    I’m sorry to hear that. The words of a stranger came back to her like a cold splash. She narrowed her eyes. What would he know? Did he live with the scars of someone else’s sins on his body? Anne shook so violently, she sloshed tea onto the cuff of her sweatshirt.
    She put the cup on the rail of the porch and clenched her fists against the image of his piercing brown eyes. The look he gave her still made her tremble. She couldn’t shake the familiarity of those eyes . . . and his name, Something Running Bear, had rattled her. Certainly he couldn’t be the same man who’d sung a hymn of comfort to her as she descended into months of suffering?
    She hated to admit how much that hymn had meant to her. The memory of the man who’d held her hand tugged her mouth up in a soft smile. Now there was a real hero. A man who could replace Bertha without a second’s hesitation. A man brimming with faith, ready to risk his life for her. She felt a twist of sadness that she’d never been able to track him down. To thank him, of course.
    Obviously not all strangers were drug-crazed murderers. Take her newest stranger, for example. The hero-mechanic with the mysterious eyes who had helped get her car back on the road with nary a rude remark or advance on her turf.
    It had been ages since she’d lowered her guard with a man. She’d learned the hard way that men wanted one thing . . . something she wouldn’t offer. Her chest tightened, and she fought a horde of bad memories. Perhaps it was only certain men, from certain walks of life. She cast another look at the horizon, appreciating the deep crimson separating day from night. She’d sorely missed perfect sunsets—those unblemished