Twelve Years LaterSaraSara slowed her steps as she neared Andrew Spiker’s office. The Spiker Law Firm was small but conveniently located adjacent to the Cherokee County Courthouse in downtown Carson. Andrew was an old high school friend, and it seemed he was doing well for himself.Sara jammed the pad of her thumb into the sharp edges of her front teeth. The small bite of pain distracted her from the gnawing worry she felt in her middle.She could’ve refused to come, but curiosity killed the cat. She was only human, and she couldn’t live the rest of her life without knowing why Mr. Garrison had asked her to come back here. Enough years had passed that any threat to her life had grown dormant but not died. The men she hid from had been securely locked up or scattered to the four winds for over a decade, and that should’ve been a comfort to her.The door was heavy, but she pushed her way into the office where a familiar face awaited her.Tracy Sawyer sucked in an excited breath and st
IanIan set his jaw tight to restrain his protest. If he had any control over his own choices right now, he’d walk out of this room and never look back.At least, that’s what he should do. But he’d made a promise years ago that he intended to keep. Granted, he hadn’t known what he was promising at the time. Now that it was time to settle up, Ian wanted to curse the old man.He couldn’t hear half of what Andrew was saying. Seeing Liz again had captivated his attention.Correction, Sara.She looked amazing. Gorgeous, poised, and confident. She looked like she had life wrapped around her finger.She’d managed fine without him. Why did it hurt to see her doing so well? Probably because she didn’t need him as much as he’d needed her. He had wanted to pave the way for her to chase all her dreams, and it looked as if she’d managed just fine without him.He’d recognized Liz the moment she’d walked through the doorway, but he hadn’t expected her to be such a knockout. He’d always been attracte
IanThe truck door slammed, locking Ian inside the silent cab. He missed his old truck. The door had creaked and protested with the scrape of metal on metal each time he’d taken out his frustrations on it. His new, luxury pickup was a joke.Ian shoved the gear into reverse and peeled out of the parking spot without hesitation.The stop sign not twenty feet from where he’d parked really took the heat out of his storm-and-run, but he used the pause to call his friend, Jake. The one he’d now refer to as the Keeper of Secrets.Jake’s voice pounded through the speakers of Ian’s truck after the first ring. Deputy Jake Sims was always on alert.“What’s up?”“Oh, nothing. I’ve just been informed that I’m the first line of defense for a ghost. Anything you wanna tell me about Liz Jennings, brother? Or should I say Sara Williams?”There was a pause on the line before Jake stammered, “Um, I…”“Save it,” Ian barked. “Meet me at the hardware store.”“Now?” Jake asked.“Now.”“Yes, sir.” Jake liked
SaraSara snuck out of her room at Bernard’s Hotel before sunrise. She wasn’t always so cautious, but being back in the place where her lifelong game of hide-and-seek started made her want to take advantage of the cover of darkness to leave the hotel.She’d packed light and hadn’t left much of anything in her apartment in Memphis. She’d moved more than half a dozen times since leaving Carson, and this move was proving to be simple so far. Not as simple as that first move, but two suitcases now held everything she owned.Following the GPS on her phone, she drove beyond the town’s limits and slowed as she turned onto the last drive her navigation device recognized. It was a gravel road almost completely covered by trees, and there wasn’t a house in sight.Sara checked her mirrors and kept her gaze darting to one side and the other. No one was around, but she’d been living a life of caution for too long to give it up now.A dirt road with a mailbox at the end caught her attention. It was
IanIan hadn’t looked for Sara before making his way into the bathroom where he’d worked most of the day before.There had been long hours of silence while they worked yesterday, and today was starting out to be the same. He hadn’t heard a peep from Sara since he came in, and he hadn’t made a quiet entrance.The woman working just a few rooms away had been on his mind the entire day, and sometime during the mountains and valleys of his thoughts, he’d decided he should make a point to start calling her Sara. His Liz was gone, and calling her Sara made her a stranger.She was a stranger, really. He didn’t know Liz any more than he knew Sara, so what difference did it make what he called her?He’d silently practiced asking Sara what she wanted him to pick up in town for dinner, or what she wanted for breakfast. In his mind, he’d asked her what she did for a living now and why she’d left in the night when they were eighteen years old.He’d been installing the new flooring for half an hour
SaraSara wouldn’t let him see her cry, so she stormed off to her room like a coward. Ian had never upset her before, but there was a first time for everything now that she’d broken his trust.She heard him call her name—her old name—and she almost turned to him before a fresh sob choked her and urged her on. She needed a barrier between them, so she closed the bedroom door with too much force.Alone in the tomb she’d created for herself, she let the sobs break free. Once again, the decision she’d made to leave him behind hit her in the back like the sharp point of a knife. Why had she left him? In thinking that she was giving him the freedom he deserved, she’d bent a vital part of the man she loved—his faith. Any faith he had in her or the Lord was gone.She understood why he was angry with her, but not God. There had been times in her lonely years that her relationship with Christ had been her only comfort. How had Ian abandoned his faith after all they’d been through together as ki
IanIan sat in his truck outside of Rusty’s and read the letter again. It’d taken him over forty-eight hours to open Mr. Garrison’s last words, and Ian wished he’d waited longer. He wanted to crumple it up and throw the old coot’s sentiments out the window. Instead, he’d read it a dozen times since.He missed his friend. Mr. Garrison had been a constant in Ian’s life, and he wasn’t ready to let the old man go. They had lunch together every week, and he wasn’t sure what he’d do with his Tuesday afternoons now.But he did know. He’d be spending every hour of daylight at Sara’s place until further notice. His productivity floundered when she was close-by. He made rookie mistakes and had to redo more measurements than he had since learning fractions in grade school.He tossed the letter into the passenger seat and looked out the windshield at Rusty’s. The local bar and restaurant was family friendly until nine, and his friends liked to hang out here. Brian, Leah, Addie, and Lindsey were o
SaraSara spread out the curtains Ian had bought for the bedroom windows. They weren’t bad at all. She might have picked them herself, if she’d been able to shop. She rubbed the thin material between her fingers. The design was light gray with darker gray flowers and white accents embroidered in vertical rows.Maybe she wouldn’t have chosen these, after all. They looked and felt expensive. She would’ve certainly taken the price tag into consideration while shopping.Sara didn’t have expensive tastes. She wondered if Ian did or if he’d just thought she would like them. She did like them. The room was dark with its wood-paneled walls, but the gray was light enough to brighten the small space. They were also thin enough to let the sun shine through. She liked to wake at sunrise on days when she didn’t have to be at work.She missed her job. She’d been working for Memphis Mission before she’d gotten the phone call from Andrew. That call had changed the trajectory of the life she was livin