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Chapter One
Noah
Tolstoy once said, “The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.” I didn’t really have patience, but time kept going.
I gripped the steering wheel and pressed the gas pedal, taking the curves of the mountain with ease. I’d driven them a thousand times. My father would have disagreed, saying I didn’t come home that much. In the past eight years, I’d only come at Christmas for my mother.
Now the old man had gotten his way; I was coming home at a time that wasn’t Christmas. He’d probably staged the heart attack.
After high school, I’d gone straight to the Marines, then graduated to Delta Force. I’d quit doing that two years ago and opened my own private security company with a buddy of mine. It was the reason I hadn’t been accessible when my sister initially tried to call and tell me about my father’s heart attack.
Then all of my siblings had tried to call. I had a total of five messages, one from each of them, telling me about Dad’s heart attack and that it was time to come home.
My brother Damon, sheriff of our hometown, had said it best: “Noah, we need you. It’s time to get over your crap and come home. For Mom.”
He knew that using my mother against me was the best tactic. My mother was the exact opposite of my father: witty, funny, and always sending me text messages to update me on what everyone in the family was up to. She never guilted me, just let me know that I was loved.
I slowed as the sign for Refuge Falls came into view. Just reading the name lifted my spirits. The smell of pine overwhelmed me as I rolled down the windows on my rental Jeep. It was almost like going back in time in some ways, because tourism had somehow skipped over this town. I was grateful for that. I knew my family was too. Our family owned the main resort in town that consisted of several cabins around the lake.
I passed Main Street and kept going toward the hospital. Had my father been released yet? It felt like a big to-do to call one of my siblings and ask them. I didn’t want to hear about how I needed to stay home. I wasn’t some ogre without feelings. The man had raised me right. He’d taught all six of us to love God and country music and search and rescue.
Dad was a semi-retired pastor and search and rescue volunteer. Those were the positive points on his résumé. He’d been a gambler turned entrepreneur, getting rich after a lucky poker game, then using the money to buy land and build resort cabins. Nowadays, running the resort was left to my only sister, Kayla.
I pulled up to the hospital and parked, cutting the engine. I got out and hurried to the main part of the hospital, walking quickly and only pausing at the front desk. The receptionist was someone I didn’t know, which felt strange. From the time I was young, I had seen familiar faces everywhere we went—every ballgame, every town event, all of the locally owned stores in town. When we’d gone to the county fair each summer, I’d known everyone. That was the consequence of living in a small town.
The older woman’s eyebrows rose. Her smile was bright. “Well! Noah Armstrong, the prodigal son, is finally here. Too bad you’re late, young man. Your father checked out an hour ago. You’ll want to head out to the house.”
I nodded. Maybe Ididknow this woman. She looked vaguely familiar, and for a second, I thought about my third-grade teacher, Mrs. Hawthorne. She would be older now, probably as old as this woman was.
I didn’t have a chance to ask if it was her, though, because someone said my name.
“Noah? Is that you?”
I did recognize that voice. Of course I did, though I hadn’t expected to ever hear it again. I spun slowly, and my eyes weren’t disappointed when I drank in the sight of Ella. My heart raced, and my mouth went dry. Ridiculous. I’d been on countless ops where terrorists were threatening to kill me. With my training, I didn’t even react to that kind of danger anymore, but Ella… she was a different kind of dangerous.
She rushed toward me, putting her hand on my shoulder. “I’m so sorry about your dad.”
Confusion swirled through me. It was as though she’d forgotten what she’d done to me. What I’d done to her. I stepped back as if burned. “What are you doing? Why are you here?”
She pulled her hand back, her eyes wide. “I thought someone would’ve told you. I came back to Refuge Falls three months ago.”
Her words hung in the air, and I wanted to take them, put them into a computer, and analyze everything about them. For the first time in eight years, I wanted to know what she’d been up to and whatever had led her to this hospital. “You’re back?”
Ella nodded. “I’m back.”
For a long time, both of us just stared at each other. I couldn’t help but think of my best friend, her twin brother … the accident.
She blinked as if disoriented and took a step back. “I’m sorry. You’d better go. He just got out.” She turned away. “Go home, Noah.”
I watched her go, frozen in place. If I had the strength, I would’ve run after her and caught her, demanded answers. What was she doing back here? Where was her husband? And why the hell had she touched me?
Chapter Two
Ella
It was a good thing I was at the end of my shift, because I was close to the end of my rope. I moved toward the nurses’ station and took off my name tag, placing it next to the others, then tapped the computer and signed out.
Mercy, my boss and best friend, eyed me. “You okay?”
