âItâs critical for my mom to have something to return to when she recovers. We have to make this work,â Logan said.
âYes, we do,â Caroline said. Loganâs determination was contagious. Strange, the compassionate and purposeful man sheâd faced today didnât fit with the image sheâd had of him any more than his broad shoulders and toned arms matched the boy she used to know.
Maybe she didnât know him as well as she thought she did, she acknowledged with a sheepish smile. But when he grinned back at her, his trademark dimples popping on his cheeks, Carolineâs breath caught, and a ticklish feeling settled inside her belly.
âAre you all right?â he asked.
She nodded. But was she really okay? Something had to be wrong with her if she was reacting so strangely to Logan Warren. She wasnât usually fazed by any man, let alone a player with boyish charm and movie-star good looks. Hadnât she learned her lesson about men like him a long time ago?
started telling âpeople storiesâ at about the same time she started forming words. So it came as no surprise when the Indiana native chose a career in journalism. As an award-winning newspaper reporter and features editor, she had the opportunity to share wonderful true-life stories with her readers. She left the workforce to be a homemaker, but the stories came home with her as she discovered the joy of writing fiction. The winner of the 2007 Holt Medallion competition for novel writing, Dana feels blessed to share the stories of her heart with readers.
Dana lives in southeast Michigan, where she balances the make-believe realm of her characters with her equally exciting real-life world as a wife, carpool coordinator for three athletic daughters and food supplier for two disinterested felines.
To all teachers who recognize and nurture their studentsâ special gifts. Especially to my sixth-grade teacher, Alyce Stewart, who celebrated my love for words in front of the whole class, and to my high school newspaper adviser, Linda Donelson Spicer, who saw potential in me that I didnât recognize in myself. Your impact on my life and on those of your other students has been immeasurable.
âWeâre not open.â
Logan Warren tried to keep frustration from his voice. Someone had left the front door of Amyâs Elite Treats unlocked, and now he would have to face his first customer before heâd even located the cake order forms. He almost asked himself if the day could get any worse, but the last week had proven to him that any day could. And had.
A few headaches at his motherâs bakery were nothing, anyway, when compared to what Amy Warren was facing. Her image slipped into his thoughts. His mom looked so different lying in that hospital bed. The stroke had ravaged her body and stripped her face of expression.
Logan squeezed his lids shut and took a deep breath. She would surviveâhe realized how blessed his family wasâbut nothing could remove the mammoth lump in his throat, choking him from the inside out. Heâd made a mistake in coming here this morning. He should have stayed at Markston Area Regional Hospital, continuing to keep vigil with his brothers. He shouldâ
Logan stopped himself. She needed him at the bakery, too. Someone had to keep the business running for her. Heâd been desperate to do something. Anything. It didnât matter that his mother made her living making wedding cakes and he didnât even believe in marriage. Running her bakery was one thing he could do.
Continuing past the huge ovens and industrial-sized mixers, he pushed through the swinging door to the dining area where bright May sunshine already poured into the storeâs windows.
âIâm sorry. Weâre notââ The word âopenâ fell away before he could speak it. âCaroline?â
Sure enough, the woman standing in the shopâs doorway, finger-combing her mass of chestnut-colored hair, was Caroline Scott. He would have recognized her anywhere, even if her two younger sisters didnât happen to be engaged to, or married to, his two older brothers. And even if her high cheekbones and full lips didnât brand her as one of the Scott sisters.
She shoved all that hair behind her ears and lifted her gaze to meet his. âOh. Hi.â
âHello?â The word came out sounding like a question because it was one. He rounded the counter to face the woman whose presence was no less perplexing than the unlocked door had been. Chicago was four hours from here. Would she have come all the way to Markston, Indiana, just to visit his mother at the hospital?
âYou didnât say whyâ¦â Letting his words trail off, he indicated the room with a sweep of his hand.