Celeste Blessing wore angel earrings and an angel wing necklace. She rode a Honda Gold Wing motorcycle, for heaven’s sake. She named her resort Angel’s Rest. Why wouldn’t the woman believe in angels?
“Allow me to share a piece of advice, Savannah. You can trust the friends you make here. They won’t betray you. They won’t let you down.”
“I’d like to believe that.”
“You can believe it. You have found a good place in Eternity Springs. You can have friends here, a home here. A life here. Perhaps even a love here. You’ve left those who betrayed you back beyond the front range. Don’t let your past blind you to the truth. Eternity Springs is true blue, Zach Turner is true blue.”
“He’s a sheriff.”
“And a pretty good kisser, from what I’m told. So, girlfriend …” Celeste grinned wickedly, elbowed her in the side, and teased, “Dish. How was his kiss? On a scale of one to ten?”
Recognizing the baiting as Celeste’s way to lighten the mood, Savannah made a zipping gesture over her mouth. “Sorry, I don’t kiss and tell.”
“Not even to your girlfriends?”
A pang of regret pierced Savannah’s heart. “Honestly, Celeste. I don’t know. It’s been a long time since I’ve been kissed. Even longer since I had girlfriends.”
“Well, you can’t say that any longer, can you? From what I saw, Zach kissed you thoroughly, and I know for a fact that you now have at least a half-dozen women you can count as girlfriends.”
Yearning washed through Savannah, fierce and hot. She wasn’t ready to deal with the whole idea of Zach, but friends … oh, how she longed to have friends. Real, true women friends around whom she didn’t have to guard every word.
Real, true friends who would stand by her once they learned her deepest secrets.
Celeste’s smile was gentle, her touch on Savannah’s arm feather light. “Friends are like kisses, blown to us by angels. You’re one of us, now, Savannah. Trust that. Trust us.
“Trust yourself.”
TEN
Memorial Day weekend and the beginning of the tourist season rushed toward Eternity Springs like snowmelt over Heartache Falls. With the holiday still two weeks away, citizens scurried about to put the finishing touches on the annual postwinter spruce-up. Victorian houses sported fresh coats of paint, sunshine glittered off the surface of newly washed windows, and half barrels filled with bright red geraniums accented sidewalks swept free of the detritus of winter. Zach parked his truck in his customary spot in front of the sheriff’s office, gathered up the paperwork he’d taken home to complete the previous evening, and then walked toward the office door, where his diminutive dispatcher stood on tiptoe to pour red syrup into the hummingbird feeder that hung from a bracket outside the office’s front window. “Hold on, Ginger. Let me help.”
“Thanks.”
Zach noted the droplets of water clinging to the petals of the petunias in the window box as he lifted the feeder off the bracket and removed the top. While Ginger filled the feeder, he observed, “Since you’re out here watering your posies and feeding the birds, I assume it’s been a quiet morning?”
“Your newest deputy is a godsend. She does the work of two people.”
Zach smiled with satisfaction. “She’s a dynamo, all right.”
As Zach reached for the door, it opened and Deputy Dynamo, aka Gabi Romano, rushed outside, her features set in a grim expression. Seeing Zach, she said, “Domestic disturbance.”
The pleasure of his easy morning melted away. “The Armstrongs?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll go with you.”
It was the first call in what quickly evolved into an extremely lousy day—a rare occurrence for his little mountain town. They arrived at the Armstrong household to find a bruised and battered Nina cradling a broken arm and her alcoholic husband passed out on the couch. As usual, Nina made excuses for her man, which totally pissed Zach off. While he pleaded with Nina and warned her about the reality of escalating violence, Ginger radioed with a report of a car accident with injuries just north of town, and the news that Deputy Martin Varney had called in sick with a stomach virus and would miss his afternoon shift. Zach left Gabi to deal with the Armstrongs and rushed off to the car wreck.
The worst call of the day had happened just before three and wasn’t a call at all, but an accident he witnessed when responding to a car burglary report at the campground up on Mirror Lake. The simple family picnic gone terribly wrong had been the most heartbreaking thing he’d seen in