Hunted at Christmas by Dana R. Lynn

Author:Dana R. Lynn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2023-06-21T22:13:30+00:00

* * *

She’d seen the glance he’d tossed her way. For a single breathless moment, she was sure Isaiah Bender intended to kiss her. What really shocked her was she knew she’d let him.

Then he’d backed off, physically and emotionally, and she knew the moment was gone. She sighed. He was the first man to touch her heart since her husband died.

“Jerry’s out. He’ll be back later.”

She nodded, unsure what to say next. An awkward silence fell. Was he contemplating the kiss that wasn’t, like she was? She puttered around, trying to keep busy to keep her mind off him. Several times, she realized she’d been staring at him too long. Would she ever stop blushing? Honestly, she was acting like a lovesick teenager. She hadn’t been that bad when she was a teen.

“What happened to your friend Raymond?”

Did that question really fly out of her mouth? She hadn’t intended on asking him, although she’d been curious since she heard the incident referred to the night before. For a moment, she thought he’d ignore her question. She wouldn’t blame him if he did. It was none of her business how his childhood friend had died.

“It’s not a pretty story,” he shocked her by saying.

“If you don’t want to tell—”

“I have never talked about it.” He turned to face her and leaned back against the counter. “Raymond and I were best friends. We did everything together. We even picked rocks with Jerry and his brother Scott during the summer.”

She sipped at her tea, making no comments lest he change his mind about telling her the story.

“When we were sixteen, we went hunting together. Raymond was pumped. He’d bought a new gun and had never used it before. When he saw a deer, he took aim, and the gun misfired. He died in my arms.”

Her hand covered her mouth. It was so much worse than she’d expected.

“The final straw was that the man who sold him the gun knew it wasn’t functioning right. Knew, in fact, that the gun was stolen. He was so concerned with making a profit, he sold a broken, illegal gun, and my best friend lost his life.”

He pushed away from the counter and stalked around the edges of the small room. “When his parents were made aware of it, they were devastated. And the man who had sold the gun got off on a technicality.”

“Isaiah.” She had no idea what to say.

He halted and pivoted to face her. “At that moment, I lost some of my faith. Or at least, I thought I did. I’ve been thinking about God more lately.”

“That’s why you became a bounty hunter. Because of Raymond.” It made sense, in a sad way. He must have felt so angry. Angry, scared and helpless. She didn’t comment on his loss of faith. He was finding his way back; that was the important thing. And, she had to admit, sometimes faith became stronger when it was questioned. If you believed simply because your parents did or you were supposed to, it was never really your faith.

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