Her Forgotten Life by Maggie K. Black

Author:Maggie K. Black
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2022-10-04T22:45:19+00:00

SEVEN

The door chimes jangled as Owen pushed the front door open and stepped inside the Kilpatrick Hardware Store. The air was soft and dark. He breathed deeply, letting the familiar smell of wood fill his lungs. Then he walked in, flipping on the lights as he went.

“Welcome to my store,” Owen said.

Sara followed him inside. She’d changed into a long dark dress and simple bonnet. A long piece of cloth wrapped around her torso and shoulders, holding Juniper to her chest.

He closed the door behind them, locked it and double-checked the blinds were thoroughly closed. He hadn’t known what to think when she’d asked if she could go with him to the hardware store to pick up the tools they’d need for digging up the grave. He half suspected she’d come along because she wanted to talk him out of what he was planning. But now that they were here, she seemed genuinely interested in seeing his business. And to be honest, he was thankful for the opportunity to show her what he’d built.

Travis sat in his truck on the other side of the street, casually keeping watch, and Jess was on the top floor of Tatlow’s bookstore getting an aerial view. All four of them were connected by hidden walkie-talkies and could talk to each other at the touch of a button. And yet, none of that did anything to ease the butterflies in Owen’s stomach at realizing he was alone with Sara inside his store.

“When my cousin died, I discovered that a lot of the stores I remembered had closed,” he said, “and the residents that did remain were deeply in debt to various unscrupulous loan institutions. In fact, a few months earlier, some tacky real estate company had tried to buy all the stores on Main Street and turn this into some perpetual winter-fair tourist trap.”

Which reminded him, the calls on his phone had been piling up from residents wanting to suggest more elaborate things they could add to next month’s fair.

He watched as Sara walked through the store and took it all in—the meticulous wall of tools, the small plastic drawers filled with every kind of nut, bolt and screw that anyone could need, the racks of safety gear and the spinning shelf of DIY books.

“This place is amazing,” Sara said. Awe filled her voice.

Pride swelled in his chest.

“You should’ve seen the wreck the place was in,” he said. “There were broken and dusty shelves filled with the kind of cheap stuff you’d find in the bottom of the bin at a dollar store. Nothing people could actually use. Nothing of value. But something inside me was just drawn to this place. I figured if the town was going to rebuild itself, what it needed was a good hardware store. I wanted to give people a fighting chance, and you can’t build anything without the right tools.”

She stopped in front of the huge bulletin board beside the cash register. Brightly colored cards filled every corner, advertising

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