Butternut Summer (47 page)

But Mila had no opinion about this. Until three days ago, she'd never even heard of Butternut, Minnesota. Still, she had to admit, what she'd seen of it so far didn't look very promising. There was no bus station here, for instance, only a rest area, whose cracked asphalt was overrun with weeds, and whose sole amenities were a lopsided bench and an old bus shelter.

“I hope your ride comes soon,” the driver said. “I hate to leave you here alone, but I've got to be getting back to the Twin Cities.” He added, “My grandson's got a Little League game tonight.”

“Well, good luck to him,” Mila said. “And thank you.”

He started to get back onto the bus then, but Mila had a sudden thought. “Excuse me, sir,” she said. “Can I ask you a favor?”

He stopped, halfway up the bus's steps, and turned around. “Name is Bob,” he said, indicating his name tag. “And you can ask me a favor. I'll be happy to do it for you, too, if it doesn't take too long.”

“It won't,” she said. “I was wondering if . . .” Her voice trailed off. She had no idea how to phrase this. She thought about it and started over. “I was wondering, Bob, that if someone was looking for me, and they tracked me as far as, say, the bus station in Minneapolis, and they asked you if you'd seen me . . . if they, you know, described me to you, or showed you a photograph of me, could you . . .” She hesitated again. “Could you tell them you haven't seen me?”

Bob frowned. “Are you asking me to lie, miss?”

“Not lie, exactly,” Mila hedged. “More like forget.”

“Forget I ever saw you?”

She nodded.

Bob shifted uncomfortably. “Are the police looking for you?” he asked. “Because if they are—”

“No,” Mila said, relieved to be telling the truth. “No, I promise, it's nothing like that. I'm not a criminal. I'm just . . .” She paused again here. “I'm just someone who's trying to start over, that's all.”

Bob gave her a long, speculative look. “So you want a fresh start?”

“Exactly.”

“And you don't want to bring any old baggage with you?” he asked, with a smile. “None,” she said, smiling back. “Except maybe this,” she amended, swinging her suitcase.

“Okay, that's fair,” Bob said. “If anyone asks—anyone not in a uniform, that is—I'll say that I've never laid eyes on you before.”

“Thank you, Bob,” Mila said, gratefully, swallowing past something hard in her throat. But she caught herself.
Don't you dare cry, Mila
. Because then he really
will
remember you. Besides, he can't start comforting you now; the man's got a Little League game to go to.

“Well, good luck,” Bob said. He climbed up the rest of the steps, slid into the driver's seat, and pulled the lever that closed the bus's door.

“Thanks again,” Mila called, relieved that the danger of her crying had subsided. Bob held up his hand to her in a good-bye gesture, started the engine, and eased the bus back onto the road. Mila watched him drive away, then dragged her suitcase over to the bench. She sat down on it, but no sooner had she done this than it began to rain. Not a hard rain, just a dull, gray rain. It had been a cool, wet spring in Minnesota, and now, she could see, it was shaping up to be a cool, wet summer, too.

So she stood up and carried her suitcase over to the bus shelter's narrow overhang, hoping to get a little protection from the rain. It was better there, but not by much. She shivered in her thin cotton blouse and skirt and wished she'd worn something warmer. But she'd tried to dress as innocuously, and as forgettably, as possible, and this was the outfit she'd settled on.

She saw something then out of the corner of her eye, and she flinched. But when she turned to see what it was, she realized with relief that it was nothing more than a crow alighting on a nearby telephone line.

Would this ever end? she wondered. This constant looking over her shoulder? This fear, always, of being followed? Of being discovered? But she knew that it would not end. Unless the unthinkable happened. And he found her.

 

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UP AT BUTTERNUT LAKE

It's summer, and after ten years away, Allie Beckett has returned to the family cabin beside tranquil Butternut Lake, where as a teenager she spent so many carefree days. She's promised her five-year-old, Wyatt, they will be happy there. She's promised herself this is the place to begin again after the death of her husband in Afghanistan. The cabin holds so many wonderful memories, but from the moment she crosses its threshold, Allie is seized with doubts. Has she done the right thing uprooting her little boy from the only home he's ever known?

Allie and her son are embraced by the townsfolk, and her reunions are joyous ones—with her friend Jax, now a young mother of three with one more on the way, and Caroline, the owner of the local coffee shop. And then there are newcomers like Walker Ford, who mostly keeps to himself—until he takes a shine to Wyatt . . . and to Allie.

Everyone knows that moving forward is never easy, and as the long, lazy days of summer take hold, Allie must learn to unlock the hidden longings of her heart, and to accept that in order to face the future we must also confront—and understand—what has come before.

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Up at Butternut Lake

Cover photographs: dock © by Dave

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This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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BUTTERNUT SUMMER
. Copyright © 2014 by Mary McNear. Excerpt from
Moonlight on Butternut Lake
© 2014 by Mary McNear. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverseengineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

FIRST EDITION

EPub Edition June 2014 ISBN 9780062283177

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