Page 1 of Unexpected Gifts

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ABBY

Abby Parker understood the fragility of life. At any moment, everything could change for worse or better. Change for the better was less clear, more stretched over time, subtle as it unfolded. But tragedy? It arrived with shattering brutality, not caring if it left one weeping on the bathroom floor, wondering how anything so horrific could happen to someone so good, so decent. A single mother of two children who lies down on a Sunday afternoon for a well-deserved nap and never wakes? Impossible to understand or reconcile or make absolutely any sense of at all, and yet it was true.

Abby’s beautiful thirty-two-year-old cousin, Ramona, had died from an undetected heart condition, leaving her nine-year-old daughter and six-year-old son to face the rest of their lives without her.

Abby was somewhere in the middle of Nevada when she got the call. She’d been singing along to the radio on her way to her new life in Colorado. She’d accepted a partnership with her best friend from veterinarian school in the small town of Emerson Pass, Colorado, and had all her earthly possessions in her car.Breck had taken over his mother's practice upon her retirement. Since then, he’d married, and now his wife was pregnant thus he wanted more time to spend with them. She hadn’t had to think twice about the offer of a full partnership. The little town was idyllic. His practice was well run. And she’d be working with her best friend. Although cautiously optimistic by nature, she’d felt excited for her new life.

The number had been a Vermont area code, or she might not have answered at all.

Given how Abby and Ramona had once spent many warm summers days daydreaming about the hunky Hayes brothers who lived on the maple syrup farm next to the Parkers’ farm, it was surreal that Logan Hayes was the one who called to tell her. There had been four Hayes siblings, all boys, each as handsome and smart as the other. Apparently, Logan, the third Hayes brother, was now an attorney. Ramona had hired him to put together her will, which included who would take the children should she die unexpectedly.

When she answered the phone, Logan Hayes had somehow known she was in the car. “If you’re driving, I’d suggest you pull to the side of the road.”

She’d known immediately something was wrong. Her palms dampened, and her pulse quickened, knowing what he was about to say before he said it.

“I’m afraid I have some terrible news. It’s about your cousin, Ramona.”

She’d held her breath, waiting.

“She’s passed away. As I’m sure you remember, she has named you as the guardian of her children. Sophie and Jack.”

Sophie and Jack. Motherless.

No, no, no. Impossible.

In shock, she’d listened as Logan rattled off details, not fully comprehending what he was saying.

When Ramona had asked if she would take the children if anything should happen to her, she had not hesitated to agree. What could she say, after all? She and Ramona, other than Sophie and Jack, were the only two family members still living. There was no one else. Ramona’s husband had been killed in Afghanistan during his third tour, prompting Ramona to put her will in place. At the time, Abby hadn’t thought much of it, figuring the odds were slim that Ramona’s children would lose another parent. How much tragedy could one family endure?

Apparently, a lot.

She’d wanted to scream into the phone, demanding Logan Hayes admit it was all a lie. Heart failure in a young woman who appeared fit and healthy? Impossible.

Now, she slowed as she saw the sign for Sugarville Grove. Her stomach fluttered with nerves. She’d only been to Sugarville Grove twice since her mother died. Before that, she’d spent a month every summer in Vermont, delighted to get out of noisy, hot Los Angeles and escape to one of the most beautiful places in the world. Ramona had been her favorite person, more like a sister than a cousin. Her aunt Sally was Abby’s mother’s sister, and the two of them had grown up in the very house that Abby was headed to now.

Although the idea of taking on two children she barely knew was daunting, leaving that work to a stranger was unfathomable. Abby had made a promise, and she intended to keep it. Even though she knew nothing about kids. Animals were more her speed.

As if he agreed, Rufus, her yellow Lab, woke from his nap in the back seat and raised his head.

“Yep, we’re here, buddy. This is our new home.”

Rufus whined and placed his chin on the back of the passenger-side seat.

“You’re a country dog now.”

She heard his tail thumping against the side of the door.

“I think you’re going to like it here. Maybe I will, too. I don’t know.” She’d been excited to live in Emerson Pass. How different could a small town in Vermont be?

Because Emerson Pass wasn’t full of memories like Sugarville Grove.

Sugarville Grove was all tangled up in memories of her mother.

Abby had been only fifteen the summer her mother had been diagnosed with cancer. Sharon Parker had sent Abby out to Vermont for the entire summer. At the time, Abby had felt shipped off, as if her mother wanted to rid herself of anything that distracted her from healing. Abby knew now, however, at the ripe old age of thirty-two, that her mother had merely wanted to spare her the pain of watching the cancer eat away at her until there was nothing left.

Sharon had gone into remission that fall, and Abby had hoped her mother had beaten it. Her mother had been a warrior. There wasn't much she couldn't do, after all, including raising Abby on her own. But it was not to be. The cancer returned the year Abby graduated from high school. It had swept in fast, wrecking her angelic mother. All Abby could do was watch helplessly. Six months after the doctors told her the cancer had returned, she was gone.

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