Hearts in Harmony

Hearts in Harmony
Gail Sattler

Playing guitar for his church's worship team was not going as well as Adrian Braithwaite expected. Which was why he was thrilled to find a talented keyboardist in new church member Celeste Hackett. But there was more to the lovely Celeste than met the eye - the skill that Adrian so valued came from her former career in a rock band.And though the pastor welcomed her, a threat from Celeste's past could destroy what she'd worked so hard to build, unless her musical partner could become her partner for life.

“Wow! You’ve got an electric grand piano,” Adrian said, following Celeste into her living room.

“Since you own something this nice, it’s probably redundant to ask if you play. Maybe we could do something together one day. I’d bring my guitar.”

She broke out into a cold sweat. Her hand shook too much to put on the CD she’d chosen. Her past was behind her. What Adrian was asking was entirely different.

She forced the words out. “I just play for my own enjoyment. I don’t think so.” Her words were truer than Adrian would ever know. When she played for her own enjoyment, she now only played alone. She’d exchanged the joy of making music with others for something of far greater value…even if at times the loneliness hurt.

GAIL SATTLER

lives in Vancouver, British Columbia (where you don’t have to shovel rain), with her husband of twenty-six years, three sons, two dogs, five lizards, one toad and a degu named Bess. Gail loves to read stories with a happy ending, which is why she writes them. Visit Gail’s Web site at www.gailsattler.com.

Hearts in Harmony

Gail Sattler

Therefore, my brothers,

I want you to know that through Jesus

the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.

—Acts 13:38

Dedicated to Colleen Coble, TD.

Without you, this wouldn’t have been possible.

SD

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Letter to Reader

Chapter One

The engine began to spit. The car chugged, slowed and died.

Celeste Hackett steered her mother’s decrepit sedan onto the gravel shoulder of the deserted country road and came to a complete stop. The endless expanse of farmers’ fields seemed to mock the silence of the dead car.

She refused to accept being stranded in the middle of nowhere.

Celeste attempted to restart the car, but the engine only made a horrid grinding sound, turning over and over with no contact.

With a groan, she lowered her head to the top of the steering wheel. She had been a fool to trade cars with her mother. She should have known her mother’s hunk of junk wouldn’t make the long trip back without something going wrong, but she tried to convince herself now that it was far better that her own reliable car was sitting in her mother’s garage, ready for her mother to begin her vacation tomorrow, and that it was she, Celeste, who was stranded in the middle of nowhere. If the car couldn’t make the shorter trip fifty miles between her home and her mother’s home, it definitely wouldn’t have made the fifteen-hundred-mile trip from her mother’s home to her aunt’s home, which was where her mother was going on an extended holiday.

Celeste now had two options. She could either walk ten miles ahead to the gas station at the highway entrance to ask for assistance, or thirty-five miles back to her mother’s house where she could call for a tow truck.

At the thought of all that walking, Celeste gritted her teeth and whacked the top of the dashboard with her fist. The needle on the gas gauge quivered, then dropped to the E.

Celeste tried not to scream. Her mother had given her a list of the car’s problems but apparently had forgotten to mention the malfunctioning gas gauge. However, if her mother knew about it, list, or not, there would be a container of gas in the trunk.

Celeste froze. Carrying a can of gas in the trunk was dangerous, but it was also dangerous for a woman to be stranded alone in the middle of nowhere.

Praying for the best, Celeste pushed the heavy door open, trying to ignore the creak of the rusty hinge. As she stepped onto the highway, a blast of heat hit her in the face. She did her best to ignore the stifling temperatures and walked to the rear of the car, where the stench of the car’s last, fatal backfire caused her to cough painfully. Once she caught her breath, she jabbed the key in the trunk lock. After a series of calculated wiggles, a click sounded and the lock opened. When she hoisted the heavy lid of the trunk, gas fumes wafted up.

The gas can lay on its side. Beside it lay the plug for the container’s air hole. She picked up the plastic container and shook it, confirming that it was indeed, empty.

Celeste squeezed her eyes shut for a brief second. Taking the short cut through the country rather than the longer but well-traveled main highway had not been a good choice.

She slammed the trunk shut. The bang echoed into oblivion over the surrounding fields, taunting her.

Grumbling under her breath, she replaced the plug to the empty gas container, pocketed the keys, hiked her purse strap over her shoulder, and began the long walk down the deserted country road.