“Is this the surprise you talked about, Mom?”
Somewhere in her mind, Frankie Munro registered her daughter’s tremulous question and felt Rae’s small, sweaty hand clutching her own. But she couldn’t find the words to answer her.
A surprise, indeed, but not a pleasant one and not at all the one she had been planning to share.
The cabin that she had booked for the summer was covered in violent-looking splashes of paint and offensive graffiti. In no way did it represent the rustic yet pristine atmosphere she had pored over in the brochures advertising Silver Lake Park in Saskatchewan, Canada. It had been a six-hour drive from their home in Regina, Saskatchewan, and they had passed the time talking of the possibility of bear sightings with a kind of gleeful fear, and speculating how cold the water would be.
Since Frankie’s husband walked out on them several months ago, she wanted to do something to return the light to Rae’s eyes. Rae was an intuitive ten-year-old with an advanced talent for art, but it had been months since Frankie had seen her enthusiastic about drawing or painting. She hoped that spending the summer together, away from their house and the memories it held, would help return a spark of artistic interest to Rae, and with that would come a return to the happy, inquisitive girl she had been.
She hoped the time away would help restore some of her own motivation, too. She’d had goals—she wanted to be a nurse—and although those goals had been put on the back burner due to her ex-husband’s demands, they still simmered within her. Frankie wanted to use the summer to rediscover the woman she had been before Trevor left: the woman who’d had goals...the woman who’d had faith.
Frankie worked as a nurse’s aide at a senior-care home in Regina. She usually liked her job very much and had a true affinity for the seniors she worked with. But in the months after her husband left, she’d been a mass of nerves, mistakes and indecisions, until the manager of the home had called her in and explained that she had to take some time off and find an effective way to deal with her obvious stress.
Thus, a paid leave of absence, combined with financial help from her parents, which Frankie had accepted only after they signed a note saying she would pay them back in full as soon as she could, cleared the pathway for her to plan this summer getaway with Rae.
Research and word of mouth had brought her to the conclusion that Silver Lake looked like a positive place with the right balance of nature and town activities. The beautifully scenic photographs of trees, flowers and local animals gave her hope that Rae would feel compelled to capture them on canvas. As the plans came together, her hope for a new start began to grow tentatively. She had not yet decided if that new start would include a church.
But now, as they looked at the vandalized cabin, Frankie prayed silently, an ache of regret in her throat. God, I wanted You to meet us here.
Suddenly, rapid footsteps came up behind them and Frankie spun quickly around. The man approaching them was very handsome. He was also very angry.
“What are you doing?” the stranger demanded. His dark blue eyes seemed to give off sparks of fury. “Why are you lurking around these cabins?”
Frankie attempted to give Rae a reassuring smile and stepped in front of her, adopting a defensive stance. Not that she thought she had any real hope of intimidating this stranger, since she stood at five foot four and he had to be at least six feet tall. Still, if he imagined he was going to threaten them or get anywhere near her daughter, she’d do whatever she could to prove him wrong.
“We’re not lurking,” Frankie told him, hoping that if she spoke loudly enough it would mask the way her voice was shaking. “I paid to rent this cabin and we get here and—this!” Her hand flipped toward the vandalized cabin with a gesture that managed to be both defiant and defeated.
The man studied them with a speculative look on his face, then relaxed his shoulders and stepped back.
* * *
Ben Cedar felt decidedly chagrined. He had thought the small, slight figure wearing cutoff shorts, a T-shirt and a baseball cap was a teenage boy, with his little sister, but he’d already launched into his tirade before he realized his mistake.
This woman, whoever she was, might be dressed in a boyish fashion, but up close she was unmistakably female. He didn’t think he’d ever seen skin quite as smooth and golden peachy or features so delicate. He could see the sheer resilience it took for her to keep her brown eyes locked to his. Behind her, the girl peeked out, her eyes wide and her hands over her mouth.
Ben felt even worse and tried to give the little girl a friendly smile, but she gave an audible gasp and retreated.
The woman looked like she would take great pleasure in maiming him or worse.
“I’m sorry,” he said, attempting to rectify the situation. “I didn’t mean to frighten you.” He tried to push out another smile, but the truth was that he didn’t need any more complications added to his summer—or