Page 4 of A Forgotten Heart
Snow soaked through her boots, freezing her toes. She forced them faster toward Merritt’s.
She’d left the empty schoolroom, but her feet hadn’t turned toward the room she rented in the family home of one of her students. The family had left to visit a far-off daughter for Christmas. The house would be entirely too quiet. Elsie needed to talk through this disaster. Needed to find a solution.
Merritt would help. She was her sister Darcy’s friend, Elsie’s by proxy. She might even be able to tell Elsie how to fix this mess.
The letter crinkled as Elsie hugged her middle.
Love? How had these letters gotten so out of hand? She’d only agreed to the correspondence to avoid disappointing her parents. She’d known Arnold forever but had never felt that way about him.
The thought of marrying Arnold closed in around her as if smothering her. She wanted to teach. Not marry. Her mother couldn’t understand how Elsie felt. Pretended she didn’t hear when Elsie brought it up.
Arnold was an attractive, polite gentleman that most women would welcome as a suitor. But his charm did nothing to make Elsie’s heart beat faster.
Her classroom was a refuge. It was steady. Day in and day out,sheplanned the day for her students.Shecreated the rules.
There, she didn’t worry about betrayal leaving her raw and vulnerable.
She reached Merritt’s house and climbed the porch but stopped in her tracks. Beside the door sat a beautiful dog with shaggy, spotted fur and intelligent blue eyes.
She held out her hand for the dog to sniff. “Well, where did you come from?”
The dog nuzzled into her hand, and she scratched its ears. She hadn’t known Merritt liked dogs.
With a final pat, she straightened and stomped the snow off her boots, then after a short hesitation, opened the front door.
When Elsie had first arrived in Calvin, Merritt had taken her under her wing, insisting they were family. And family didn’t stand on formalities like knocking on the front door.
A wind gust blew a dusting of snow across Merritt’s floor as Elsie practically tumbled in, almost knocking her friend over. “Sorry, Merritt!” With her shoulder, she rammed the door closed behind her. “Brr, the temperature is dropping fast.”
She fumbled with the buttons on her coat while she turned around. “I really need to talk to you.”
Elsie’s hands stalled mid-motion. It wasn’t Merritt behind her.
Her breath stuck in the back of her throat. Whether from surprise or dread, she didn’t know.
Nick. Nick McGraw.
The very man who’d broken her heart five years ago.
He looked the same except for the stubble darkening his jaw. And the new shadows darkening his eyes.
Never had she thought she would see the greatest regret of her life again.
He stepped back, eyes narrowing as if she had become a threat simply by walking through the door.
At his reaction, an echo of her old anger rose in response.
Five years ago, he’d given her an ultimatum.
That night flooded back. She could almost feel the way the winter air had sliced her cheeks as she’d watched him mount his horse. He hadn’t even looked back as he’d ridden away. Hurt and betrayal had vied for the most awful sort of win.
Now the air sizzled with the bite of that familiar betrayal. Something hot.
“Nick?” She whispered his name, barely audible above the wind rattling the windows.
His eyes narrowed.
Idly, she noticed that his hair had grown over his ears. “What are you doing here in Calvin?”
