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Prologue
Trying to keepthe tears at bay, Vivian Miller looked up at the Sacramento house where she’d spent her childhood. Annie and Mitch, her only siblings, were standing next to her on the sidewalk.
This was nottheirhome anymore. Even though all three of them had moved out long ago and were now living their own lives, for twenty-eight years this had always been the place she called home.
Now another family would move in here to live their lives, make memories, share experiences. The lump in her throat was getting bigger by the minute.
Next to her, Annie sniffled. Mitch, their brother and rock over the past year, put an arm around both of them.
“It hasn’t been home since Mom and Dad—” Annie gulped in the rest of her sentence.
None of them could say it out loud yet. Their parents had been killed while her mom was doing her job. They were gone. The funeral had been months ago.
“I’ve been thinking,” Mitch said. “Let’s move away from here. Cross state lines, go anywhere. We’ll find a small town and settle down. Annie, you could start the B and B you’ve been talking about forever. Vivian, as a doctor, I don’t think you’ll have difficulty in finding a job anywhere.”
“I’d love to get away from everyone’s sympathetic stares, believe me. But what about you?” Annie asked. “You work in finance. Won’t you have to stay here in Sacramento?”
Mitch shook his head adamantly. “It’s a dog-eat-dog life, and I’ve had enough.” He grinned sheepishly. “I want to write a novel. I could combine doing that with a teaching job. I remember being so angry with Mom when she insisted way back when that I do a teaching course as well, before I venture into the world of finance. Now I’m glad I have options.”
“Are you sure?” Annie asked. “It’s a huge change.”
“I’ve never been so sure about anything. We could start over, all of us. Annie, there won’t be the possibility you’d run into your ex-fiancé, and Vivian, you don’t have to face freaking Brett Carson ever again. I still don’t know why you stopped me when I wanted to slug him the other day.”
“Maybe because hitting people in the street in front of a number of witnesses is a stupid thing to do?” Vivian asked wryly.
Before Mitch could respond, Annie clapped her hands and looked at them, her eyes sparkling. “I know exactly where we should relocate to.”
“Yeah?” Mitch grinned.
“Remember that beautiful little town we visited with Mom and Dad when we went to Yellowstone National Park for a holiday? We were all still in school.”
“Mary… no, Marietta?” Vivian asked, recalling the quaint town at the foot of a beautiful mountain.
Annie already had her phone out. “Yes! I’m going to look for a house to turn into a B and B right now. We’ll have a home again until you two find the loves of your lives and get married.”
“And what about you?” Mitch asked Annie.
“Nah. Believe me, being dumped weeks before my wedding has made it clear I’m not marrying material. I’ll be the old-maid aunt rocking your babies to sleep. Men don’t like women who just want to stay at home and cook, I’ve been told. Look!” she called out excitedly, her finger pointing toward her phone. “I’ve found a house.”
Vivian looked at the picture on Annie’s small screen. “It looks friendly,” she said.
Annie touched her hand. “Are you sure you won’t mind moving so far away?”
Vivian hugged her sister. “The farther away from Sacramento, the better. We’ll be together, I’ll be okay. There should be a hospital or at least a clinic, I suppose.”
“You can always start your own practice,” Mitch said. “You’ve mentioned it once or twice?”
Vivian shrugged. “It’s an option and one I’ll look into somewhere in the future, but right now, leaving Sacramento with you two, starting afresh somewhere new, sounds good to me. If you guys are serious about this, I’m in.”
Mitch nodded. “Then that’s what we’ll do.”
As Annie hugged them both, Vivian glanced at the house again. Who knew? She might just find a place she could call home in the small town of Marietta.
Chapter One
Vivian ignored theknocking on her office door. Five more minutes and the report on her latest patient would be done.
She was bone-tired. It was the beginning of a cold February, and it had been a long Friday in the ER. Nothing major, but throughout the day, they’d had a steady stream of patients either with broken bones or mild ailments. As she’d quickly discovered in the year she’d been here at Marietta Medical, the local hospital, some patients, like Carol Bingley, the town gossip, would find ways into the ER merely to gather tidbits about other people’s lives. Others who would call for help were merely lonely and wanted someone to talk to.
