Valerie Hansen - The Wedding Arbor

Cover Page

Excerpt “Don’t you get lonely out here?” Sara asked. “This is beautiful country and all, but if I were you, I’d miss people.” Adam couldn’t help noticing everything about Sara. She was attractive. Appealing. Almost endearing. He would have turned away and fled if there was anywhere else to go. He finally found his voice. “I don’t miss people at all.” “But you did once, didn’t you?” Sara’s words were soft, gently spoken. Without realizing it, she’d drawn on her internal resources to express the spiritual love Adam needed. The love that he’d banished from his wounded soul. He stiffened. “My life is none of your concern, so don’t try fixing it.” That statement acted like a bucket of ice water in Sara’s face, negating the compassion blossoming in her heart. If anybody’s life needed fixing, it was hers. Still, she sensed that Adam needed her in his life—more than he even realized…

About the Author VALERIE HANSEN was thirty when she awoke to the presence of the Lord in her life and turned to Jesus. In the years that followed she worked with young children, both in church and secular environments. She also raised a family of her own and played foster mother to a wide assortment of furred and feathered critters. Married to her high school sweetheart since age seventeen, she now lives in an old farmhouse she and her husband renovated with their own hands. She loves to hike the wooded hills behind the house and reflect on the marvelous turn her life has taken. Not only is she privileged to reside among the loving, accepting folks in the breathtakingly beautiful Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, she also gets to share her personal faith by telling the stories of her heart for Steeple Hill’s Love Inspired line. Life doesn’t get much better than that!

Title Page The Wedding Arbor Valerie Hansen www.millsandboon.co.uk

Epigraph Call unto me and I will answer you and will tell you great and hidden things which you have not known. — Jeremiah 33:3

Dedication To my special prayer partners, Angie, Bette, Brenda, Chris, Karen, Wanda and the wonderful, caring ladies of the Seekers Sunday school class.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Epilogue

Dear Reader

Copyright

Sara asked. “This is beautiful country and all, but if I were you, I’d miss people.”

Adam couldn’t help noticing everything about Sara. She was attractive. Appealing. Almost endearing. He would have turned away and fled if there was anywhere else to go. He finally found his voice. “I don’t miss people at all.”

“But you did once, didn’t you?” Sara’s words were soft, gently spoken. Without realizing it, she’d drawn on her internal resources to express the spiritual love Adam needed. The love that he’d banished from his wounded soul.

He stiffened. “My life is none of your concern, so don’t try fixing it.”

That statement acted like a bucket of ice water in Sara’s face, negating the compassion blossoming in her heart. If anybody’s life needed fixing, it was hers. Still, she sensed that Adam needed her in his life—more than he even realized…

was thirty when she awoke to the presence of the Lord in her life and turned to Jesus. In the years that followed she worked with young children, both in church and secular environments. She also raised a family of her own and played foster mother to a wide assortment of furred and feathered critters.

Married to her high school sweetheart since age seventeen, she now lives in an old farmhouse she and her husband renovated with their own hands. She loves to hike the wooded hills behind the house and reflect on the marvelous turn her life has taken. Not only is she privileged to reside among the loving, accepting folks in the breathtakingly beautiful Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, she also gets to share her personal faith by telling the stories of her heart for Steeple Hill’s Love Inspired line.

Life doesn’t get much better than that!

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Call unto me and I will answer you and

will tell you great and hidden things

which you have not known.

— Jeremiah 33:3

To my special prayer partners, Angie, Bette,

Brenda, Chris, Karen, Wanda and the wonderful,

caring ladies of the Seekers Sunday school class.

“How do I get myself into these things?” Sara Stone said to herself, gripping the steering wheel of the compact car and hoping the road ahead hadn’t washed out. Not that she’d know for sure until it was too late!

Peering into the sheeting gray rain she gritted her teeth and pressed on. Red-clay-colored runoff water was cresting uneven berms on the upper side of the road, carrying with it rocks the size of tennis balls and all sorts of other rubble.

Sara’s knuckles were white on the wheel. She started to pray silently for safety, then paused, uneasy. There was a time when she had blithely sworn God answered all her prayers. Lately, however, she found herself anything but confident.

“Please, Lord?” she said cynically, only half believing she’d be heard. “I’m nowhere near ready to die. Okay?”

Suddenly the compact little hatchback began to fishtail. Losing traction it kept sliding no matter what she did. Finally it came to rest precariously on the edge of the roadway. One rear wheel hung off in space. The other was bumper-deep in the sticky clay.

“I can still get out of this.” She gunned the motor. The wheels spun. The car’s chassis shuddered and bucked as it sank even deeper into the mire.

Disgusted, Sara shut off the engine, sat back and took a deep breath. Rumbles of thunder shook the skies. Isolated and alone, she held perfectly still, waiting for whatever peril was sure to follow. Her whirling mind returned again and again to the old comedy line about being in “a fine mess.”

If only she hadn’t panicked and run away when the police refused to believe she was being stalked. Tensing, she glanced in the direction she’d come, half expecting to see the headlights of Eric’s car. That would serve her right, wouldn’t it?

Samson’s ears pricked up. He raised his broad, white head to stare at the door, then at his master, Adam Callahan.

“You should have thought of that before the rain started,” Adam warned gently. “If I let you out now you’ll have to spend the night on the porch.”

The enormous white dog looked back at him wisely.

“I mean it, boy. There’s no room in this cabin for a soggy dog the size of a Shetland pony. I don’t care how lovable you are.”

Samson rose. Walking slowly to the door he appeared to listen for a moment before returning to stand beside Adam’s chair. His chin rested on the man’s knees, his chocolate-brown eyes pledged sincerity. When Adam made no move, the dog nudged him gently.

“Okay, but you won’t like it out there. You’re going to get soaked.”

Already waiting at the door, Samson was not wagging his tail, an unusual reaction Adam found rather disquieting. “Don’t go far.” He flicked on the porch light and eased open the door.

The dog burst out into the night. Adam’s jaw dropped. “Hey, you, come back here!”