Against the Wind Read Free

the date or time of her arrival. The letter she received in return said it didn’t matter, that she should just go directly to the cottage, which was another hundred yards down the road. There was a map, as well as the location of the key—beneath a flowerpot on the front porch next to the door.
    The snow was getting worse. The main house sat some distance off the lane she was traveling, and as the Mercedes drove slowly past, no one seemed to notice.Though Sarah looked forward to meeting the woman who had been so kind to her when she had called about the rental, she was grateful for a quiet night to settle into her new home.
    Sometime in the next few days, the rest of her meager possessions would arrive, not much since most of her things had been sold to raise money for the move from California. Thankfully, the cottage was furnished, so she didn’t have to worry about that. Tonight she and Holly would eat the sandwiches she had picked up in Wind Canyon and go straight to bed.
    Sarah smiled. She was back where she had been born, a town she had once wanted desperately to escape. But she was a grown woman now, not a schoolgirl. Wind Canyon was the perfect place to raise a child and she was incredibly glad to be home.
    Still smiling, Sarah pulled the car up next to the little batten-board cottage and turned off the engine. But as she sat there working up the courage to climb out into the storm, the sweet feeling of homecoming began to fade. She had a lot of regrets about her life. One of the biggest was the way she had treated Jackson Raines.

Three
    A brilliant Wyoming sun shone down on eight inches of fresh snow that blanketed the landscape. In the distance, the branches on the pine trees climbing the sides of the mountains drooped with their heavy burden of white. Already it was melting. It was mid-May, a little late in the year for a storm this size, though it wasn’t that uncommon, either.
    In the mountains, the weather was always unpredictable. It was one of the things Jackson liked best about living here, the fierce storms and wild winds, the sun so bright it hurt your eyes. As he walked toward the barn, pulling on his work gloves, he smiled. When he’d left Wind Canyon sixteen years ago, he wasn’t sure he would ever return.
    Now he was home and he was damned glad to be back.
    He glanced ahead, his steps slowing as he spottedthe Mercedes with the flat tire he had worked on last night. What in blazes was the car doing parked at the cottage?
    Jackson turned in that direction, each step leaving a deep boot print in the snow. He had almost reached the house when he heard his housekeeper, Olivia Jones, calling from behind him.
    â€œJackson, wait! Jackson!” She was breathing hard as she hurried toward him, a woman of sixty, broad-hipped, thick-waisted and gray-haired. She’d been a real beauty in her day, still had the dimples in her cheeks to prove it, and the same sweet smile she’d had when she worked at the ice-cream shop in town when he was a boy.
    She wasn’t smiling now. “Jackson!”
    â€œTake it easy, Livvy. You’ll give yourself a heart attack.”
    She cast him a look, then drew in a panting breath and slowly released it. “I forgot to tell you—I rented the cottage.”
    â€œYou what?”
    â€œWe talked about it, remember? You said we ought to do something with the place instead of just letting it sit there and rot into the ground.”
    â€œI didn’t say we should rent it. My brothers stay there whenever they come back to town.”
    â€œWhich is almost never. They’re too busy making money.”
    â€œYes, but—”
    â€œYou said do something, so I did.”
    He lifted his cowboy hat, then settled it back down on his forehead. “All right, I guess that’s fair.” He looked over at the cottage. The gabled roof had just been replaced and the slight sag in the porch had been repaired,making it nice to sit