Saving Sara (Redemption #1) Read Free

new start here. It had taken her a long twelve months to realize she owed it to Lucy to start living her life rather than existing.
    Increasingly maudlin at the thought of Lucy and how much she would’ve loved it here, Sara headed to the kitchen. She’d stocked up on groceries in town yesterday on her way here, knowing she’d be exhausted from the drive and the overwhelming emotion, a sense of coming home.
    That’s exactly what had happened. She’d managed to unpack the car, put away the perishables and dump her suitcases inside the front door, before bone-deep fatigue had set in and she’d fallen into bed, half-clothed.
    As she walked the long hallway, more of her pyrography caught her eye. A bunch of plump grapes embossed into birch wood. An intricate sprig of rosemary. A fruit bowl. A towering oak. She’d been going through a nature fad and Gran had adored everything she’d made.
    She reached out and touched the first piece, traced the outline of a grape, her fingertip tingling with the urge to feel wood again.
    As she stood in the hallway, surrounded by evidence of her past, she wondered if she could still do it.
    If she found the perfect piece of wood and picked up her tools, could she create again?
    Only one way to find out.

2.
    C illa Prescott felt more alive at dawn than any other time of the day. When the first streaks of mauve, marigold and sienna streaked the sky, she was already up, dressed and tending to the plants that were the basis of her naturopathy business.
    Not that she could call it a business per se, considering she didn’t advertise or sell online. But she’d been helping the folk of Redemption cure their ailments for nineteen years and it made her feel worthy in a way that marriage or motherhood never had.
    As she puttered among the sage, lemon verbena and tarragon, she spied movement next door. A good half acre separated her house from Issy’s, who’d passed away a month ago, and Cilla had been looking out for a glimpse of her new neighbor ever since.
    There wasn’t much that happened in Redemption that Cilla didn’t know about, and Bud the lawyer had informed her that Issy’s granddaughter Sara would be moving in.
    A sad business, Sara losing her young daughter a year ago. Issy had adored Sara and the old lady had been heartsore. On her philosophical days, Cilla liked to think Issy was playing ring-around-the-rosie with her great-granddaughter in heaven.
    Cilla slipped off her gardening gloves and hung them on a hook by the back door. As she did, she caught a glimpse of herself in the window and chuckled. What right did she have to think of Issy as old when she wasn’t far behind? She’d turned sixty the week before and looked it. Short grey hair cropped into a spiky style, too many laugh lines to count and a chin that was fast defying gravity.
    She’d never bothered about her looks, not since Vernon had died twenty years ago. She’d never forget that day when the local sergeant knocked on her door, telling her he suspected Vernon had deliberately driven his car into a tree at high speed.
    No one was told the truth but her and Tam. No one needed to know. So Cilla had moved on. Completed the naturopathy course Vernon had deemed a waste of time. Started dispensing natural remedies to the community. Embraced her new lifestyle.
    Every day when she looked in the mirror and saw her paisley kaftan tops and her striped leggings and her beaded sandals, it proved how far she’d come.
    A car pulled up in her drive and she walked the length of the house, curious to see who’d be visiting her at eight a.m. As she rounded the corner, she caught sight of an attractive man. Tall. Broad-shouldered. Chiseled jaw. Expensive charcoal suit. Not the kind of visitor she was used to, and her hand unconsciously fluttered to her hair.
    The closer she got, the more familiar he looked. When he flashed a welcoming movie-star smile, she recognized him.
    Bryce Madden. A much older Bryce Madden since the last