Brendon stomped off.

"Ari, we need to pack your things for Grandma's."

"Okay, Mom." She jumped off the swing and skipped up the stairs to the deck.

A few minutes later, Becca watched her former in-laws and her kids drive away. Fortunately, they'd been running late, so she hadn't had to talk with them much beyond finding out when they'd be bringing the kids back tomorrow. She walked to the kitchen, poured a gla.s.s of ice tea and took a carton of yogurt from the refrigerator before going back out onto the deck. Brendon had left his magazine on the umbrella table. She sat on the matching chair and leafed through the magazine to a page with a picture of Jared standing beside a racing bike with his helmet tucked under his arm. His hair was tousled as if he'd just taken off the helmet, and he oozed masculine bravado. In the accompanying article, Jared talked about starting a motocross school for kids, particularly underprivileged and fatherless kids.

She closed the publication and placed it on the table. Brendon wasn't underprivileged, but she often felt he was growing up fatherless. She'd taken her wedding vows seriously. Tried and prayed so hard to keep her marriage together, and, despite knowing better, couldn't shake the final remnants of failure that she hadn't been able to. As if to block out the pain, her mind went to Ari and Brendon sitting on either side of Jared on his grandmother's couch looking at Ari's storybook. A perfect family picture. Something beyond her reach. Obviously, she wasn't cut out for marriage if she couldn't make a go of it with someone she'd grown up with and had known as well as Matt. Or thought she'd known.

The picture of Jared with her kids popped back into her head. She had no idea why her mind was flitting from him to marriage and back to him. Regardless of what he'd said at his grandmother's about getting used to Adirondack winters again, she couldn't imagine he was back to stay. What attraction, besides his family, could Paradox Lake hold for someone who'd traveled all around the world?

Becca pushed Jared and her failed marriage out of her head. Looking past her yard beyond her property to the meadow and woods that Bert Miller had owned, she wondered what would become of the acreage. Her ex-mother-in-law had been sure Bert would leave it to her, his only relative. But that didn't seem to be the case. She placed her elbows on the table and rested her chin on her entwined fingers. Last year, she and the two other families on Conifer Road had heard Bert was considering selling it to a resort syndicate that was vying for one of the gambling casino licenses New York State had up for grabs at the time. They'd banded together in an informal homeowners a.s.sociation, ready to oppose that project or any other undesirable one that might endanger the quality of life they wanted for their families.

She hoped it wouldn't come to anything like that. Recently, hanging on to her property had become enough of a fight for her. She didn't need another one. Raising two kids and paying the mortgage on the dream house she and her ex-husband had built was tough on a teacher's salary, especially a teacher's salary at a small school such as Schroon Lake. She nudged a stone under the table with her toe. Getting the job she'd applied for running The Kids' Place at church for the summer would really help. Disappointment welled inside her. She'd thought she would have heard back by now. The only other jobs available were in the tourist trade and wouldn't pay enough for her to make any money once she'd paid for day care. Unless she asked her ex-mother-in-law to watch them, which she wasn't about to do. Ari and Brendon could come with her to The Kids' Place. She kicked the stone and watched it arch up and hit the deck rail before landing on the gra.s.s several feet away.

She rose to go inside. Why did she always have to second-guess herself and overthink everything? Why couldn't she simply accept G.o.d's plan for her? Her mind flashed back once more to Jared reading to her kids and she halted midstep. That couldn't possibly be what He had in mind for her.

Copyright 2015 by Jean Chelikowsky Gordon.

ISBN-13: 9781460381472.

Books by Felicia Mason.

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Cedar Springs.

The Fireman Finds a Wife.

The Single Dad Finds a Wife.

Sweet Accord..

Sweet Harmony.

Gabriel's Discovery.