Where Angels Tread Read Online Free PDF

water.
    Santa Barbara would always hold a special place in her heart for another reason: it was where she first met John. On that morning, she had woken up to a brilliant sunshine, and decided to bring her textbooks to the beach, where she could read in peace while enjoying the soft breeze blowing through her hair. She stayed there, her toes curled in the sand, until her stomach began rumbling with hunger. The town’s historic wooden pier was only steps away, and every so often the tantalizing aroma of fried food wafted by, so Heidi gathered up her books and made her way over, her mind fixated on the juicy burger she planned to devour.
    Her eyes on the hamburger joint, she failed to notice where she was going until she ran into something very solid. “Ouch!” a voice cried, snapping Heidi out of her trance. “Watch where you’re going, please.” She glanced up to find herself face to face with a young man about her own age, rubbing his hand along his sandy blond hair and surveying her with an expression of distaste.
    “Sorry,” she stammered, her face flushed with embarrassment. “I didn’t see you there.”
    “I’m as solid as a rock,” he said with a grin. “What on earth are you so fascinated with over there?” He followed her gaze to the row of colorful food stands dotting the pier.
    “A hamburger,” she admitted. “I’ve been out in the sun all day and I’m starving.”
    He stroked his chin, which was etched with a few days’ worth of stubble, and stuck out his hand to shake hers. “I’m John. Tell you what. I’ll forgive you for barreling into me if you let me buy you a burger.”
    “You’re on,” she said happily, and followed him through the clusters of tourists perusing the vendor booths, which were selling colorful seashell necklaces, caricature drawings, and hand-painted knick-knacks.
    Long after the hamburgers were gone, they sat on the benches overlooking the dock and talked about life in Santa Barbara. “I’ve lived here since I was a kid,” John had said, his blue eyes sparkling in the sun. Heidi had been unable to take her own eyes away from him. “My father’s a fisherman, and I followed in his footsteps.” He gestured to one of the boats bobbing gently in the waves. “That one’s ours. She’s a real beauty, isn’t she? We take her out six days a week and bring back what we’ve caught—mostly oysters, clams, and mussels. Then we sell them to the local restaurants.”
    “What’s it like?” Heidi asked, following his gaze out to the horizon. “Being out on the water all day long?”
    “Peaceful,” he said. “Gives you a lot of time to think. You’ve never felt so small and insignificant until you spend your days surrounded by nothing but water for as far as the eye can see.”
    He insisted on walking her back to her tiny apartment, and they ended up sitting on her balcony and talking until the sun disappeared through the palm trees. John came back the next weekend, and the next, until Heidi found herself falling head over heels in love with him. A year later, three months before she graduated from college, he proposed to her on bended knee as they strolled along the beach hand in hand one night.
    Despite her precautions, Heidi found herself pregnant a few weeks later. John’s eyes shone with happiness when she told him, and he cried openly when they found out that they were having a boy. They decided to move back to the Santa Ynez Valley to be closer to Heidi’s parents, and John took on odd jobs as a handyman while searching for more stable work.
    When she first laid eyes on her infant son, Heidi couldn’t imagine leaving him to go to work every day; after much discussion, she and John decided that Heidi would stay home to raise Zachary. Every so often, as she chased her squealing toddler around the house, Heidi’s mind would stray to her college diploma collecting dust somewhere in the back of the closet.
    The night of the accident, Heidi had watched