Emily March - Hummingbird Lake

S AGE WATCHED a tall man dressed in jeans and a blue chambray shirt make his way forward. From her position in the front of the crowd, she noted his long, lean build, wide shoulders, and thick, wavy black hair. When he turned to face the crowd, she saw that he had blue eyes. Striking blue eyes, the color of Hummingbird Lake in summer. His face was a study of sculpted angles and masculine planes that the artist in her itched to sketch. In a tone just shy of miffed, she observed, So, thats the great Colt Rafferty, hmm?

Ali looked at her friend in surprise. You have a problem with him?

Sage shrugged. Ive never met the man.

Lori Reese sighed. Dr. Rafferty is the reason I decided to go to college. Im hoping all my professors look like him.

Sarah slung an arm around her daughters shoulders and said, If all your professors look like Colt Rafferty, Im going to enroll in classes myself.

Leaning forward, Sarah added to Ali, Sage has had a stick up her butt about Colt ever since one of his carvings beat one of her paintings for the blue ribbon at the summer arts festival last month.

A LSO BY E MILY M ARCH

Angels Rest

Hummingbird Lake is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

A Ballantine Books Mass Market Original

Copyright 2011 by Geralyn Dawson Williams

Excerpt from Heartache Falls copyright 2011 by Geralyn Dawson Williams

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

B ALLANTINE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

This work contains an excerpt from the forthcoming novel Heartache Falls by Geralyn Dawson Williams. This excerpt has been set for this edition only and may not reflect the final content of the forthcoming edition.

eISBN: 978-0-345-51837-8

Cover illustration: Robert Steele
Cover design: Lynn Andreozzi

www.ballantinebooks.com

v3.1

For Amanda.
Welcome to the madhouse
otherwise known as our family.
We love you!

The echo of the gunshot jerked Sage Anderson out of her nightmare. Her eyes flew open. She lay in the darkness, panting, sweating, her heart pounding in fear, her hands clenched into fists. Oh, God.

The images. The sounds. Oh, dear God.

It was a dream. Just a dream. One of those old, horrible, terrifying nightmares that had haunted her since the events she dreamed about had been her reality.

Slowly the past retreated. Her pulse calmed and her fingers relaxed. At that point, the shivering began, a reaction to both the chill in the room and the aftermath of the dream.

Sage rolled up and reached for the bedclothes shed kicked off the end of the bed during the dream. This was the first time in months that shed been plagued by one of these nightmares. She had thought shed put them behind her.

I am so totally done with this, she said aloud as she yanked up the sheet, tugged up the comforter, and fished for her discarded socks at the bottom of the bed. When she finally cuddled beneath goose down and Egyptian cotton, she turned her head into the pillow and tried to cry.

She badly wanted to succeed in the effort, to sob and wail and release these vicious emotions churning inside her. As usual, the tears wouldnt come. In the past few years shed managed to find catharsis in tears only a handful of times.

When her eyes remained stubbornly dry and the possibility of sleep appeared completely beyond reach, she focused her attention on more pleasant thoughts. She thought about weddings. Her best friends wedding. Well, one of her best friends, anyway.

Yesterday Nic Callahan had returned to town and reconciled with her husband. They planned to reaffirm their wedding vows at St. Stephens church later this morning prior to the grand opening celebration for Angels Rest, Celeste Blessings healing center and spa. Sage was thrilled for Nic and Gabe. She was pleased for Celeste and excited for Eternity Springs. Today promised to be a lovely day.

And Im not going to let a bad dream ruin it.

With that determined thought uppermost in her mind, she glanced at the bedside clock, where 4:07 glowed in red numerals. Today promised to be a lovely dayand a long one, she realized with an inner sigh. She knew she wouldnt get back to sleep at this point.

Sage sat up and took stock of her options. She could read or watch TV or surf the Net. She could catch up on paperwork or tackle the painting shed begun yesterday for her upcoming show in Fort Worth. Except she wasnt in the mood for the first three, and she needed to let that painting sit for a few days. Something wasnt working with it, and experience had taught her that walking away for a day or two almost always helped her figure out the fix.

Her thoughts returned to the wedding, and at that point she knew what she wanted to do. Shed grab a new canvas and see if she could create a gift for Gabe and Nic to mark their special day. Shed do something simple, but light and bright and beautiful.

Perfect. She blew out a breath, rolled out of bed, and headed for the studio shed set up in the cottages second bedroom. This was what she needed nowsomething positive to think about, a task to take her out of the shadows and away from the pain and the past.

In the studio, she placed a blank canvas on her easel and studied it, opening her mind to inspiration. She shied away from one image that hovered in her head, a leftover from her nightmare. Instead, she thought about Nic and Gabe and the obstacles theyd overcome while finding their way to today. She opened her mind to the promise of their bright and happy future, and inspiration flowed. An idea took shape in her imagination. She picked up her paintbrush and went to work. When she stepped away from her easel three hours later, she studied the finished painting and smiled. Good job, Anderson.

She had managed to shake off the lingering ugliness of her dream and create something she knew her friends would treasure. All before breakfast. Not a bad start for the day.

She showered and dressed and had just decided to toast a bagel when, to her surprise, someone rapped at her front door. Warily Sage peeked through the window blinds.

Celeste Blessing stood on her front porch, a canvas tote bag in one hand, a relaxed smile upon her face. She had gorgeous silver-gray hair and youthful, sky-blue eyes. This morning she wore a stylish bright red jacket, and gold earrings shaped like angels wings dangled from her ears.

Sage relaxed. When she grew up, she wanted to be just like Celeste. The woman was the kindest, friendliest, smartest, and most active senior Sage had ever met. She rode a Honda Gold Wing motorcycle for fun, watched DVDs of The Mary Tyler Moore Show for entertainment, and never missed a Sunday at church or failed to give her opinion about the preachers sermon. It had been her idea to turn the Cavanaugh House estate into Angels Rest Healing Center and Spa, and construction alone had already proved a boon to the economically depressed town even before todays official opening.