Choices of the Heart by Sarah M. Eden

Author:Sarah M. Eden [Eden, Sarah M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mirror Press
Published: 2022-01-10T18:30:00+00:00

“…you are avoiding them in order to do work meant to impress him…”

“…feeling like their doctor’s ashamed of them won’t help at all…”

“…until you decide that success can look different from what you imagined in Chicago, no amount of furnishings are ever going to be enough…”

Sophie’s words didn’t merely stay with Burke over the following days, they pierced him.

Burke didn’t want to believe he was ashamed of the good people of the Hope Springs valley. He admired them in so many ways. He was grateful to them for giving him this practice when he had lost all hope of building one.

When Ryan Callaghan, a member of the extended O’Connor family, had come across Burke, he had been working as a clerk in a mercantile, having come west on the promise of a job that had not materialized. Burke had all but abandoned the career he had worked so hard to prepare for. Without references, without knowing for certain he was good at what he did, Burke was given a chance. And though it had been rough going the first little while, he had found a home here.

Why, then, was he doing just as Sophie had insisted and working so hard to make this place seem like what Alexander would expect it to be? Why was he trying so hard to change things, to hide the struggle he’d had?

His assessment of himself fluctuated widely as he pondered those questions. Sometimes he was convinced that he was, in fact, embarrassed of the place where he worked. Sometimes he felt, with sadness, he was every bit as arrogant as she had claimed he was. But most of the time, he couldn’t escape the hard truth that he, who had overcome every obstacle, who had fought for every opportunity he had, was terrified. And he had been terrified his whole life.

He remembered all too well the predictions of his failures, the insistence even while he was still at the orphanage that a child with nothing to recommend him wasn’t going to amount to anything. Those long-ago words of cruelty dogged his heels because, deep down inside, he feared they might still prove true.

He didn’t see Sophie for days. She looked in at the inn regularly, but he kept to his side of the wall during those visits. He had people in town and out at the ranches he needed to look in on. He had some people stop by the infirmary in need of his help. And he kept working on the projects needed to put the place to rights. The distraction wasn’t quite enough. His mind was still heavy with her words.

The evening of the next céilí arrived. Burke spent a full hour debating with himself about attending. He was overwhelmed with questions, lost in his own confused thoughts. He was embarrassed, ashamed. He had, though he’d tried to convince himself otherwise, been neglectful of the good people of Hope Springs in his pursuit of the appearance of perfection. He worried so much

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