He loves adventures...

She only reads them...until now!

Maddie Montgomery, Castle Falls’ shy librarian, has always played it safe. Enter Aiden Kane, the town’s resident adventurer, on the mend from an accident and in need of Maddie’s help. As Maddie assists Aiden with his search for a long-lost relative, the handsome outdoorsman coaxes Maddie out of her safety zone. But can Maddie take the biggest risk of all—giving in to love?

KATHRYN SPRINGER is a lifelong Wisconsin resident. Growing up in a “newspaper” family, she spent long hours as a child plunking out stories on her mother’s typewriter and hasn’t stopped writing since. She loves to write inspirational romance because it allows her to combine her faith in God with her love of a happy ending.

Also By Kathryn Springer

Castle Falls

The Bachelor Next Door

The Bachelor’s Twins

The Bachelor’s Perfect Match

Mirror Lake

A Place to Call Home

Love Finds a Home

The Prodigal Comes Home

Longing for Home

The Promise of Home

Making His Way Home

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

The Bachelor’s Perfect Match

Kathryn Springer

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-08248-8

THE BACHELOR’S PERFECT MATCH

© 2018 Kathryn Springer

Published in Great Britain 2018

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, 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 publisher.

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www.millsandboon.co.uk

“Is there something else you need?” Aiden asked.

“As a matter of fact, there is” came Maddie’s bright response. “We’ll need a canoe.”

“Sure—”

“And a coach.”

Aiden stared at Maddie. She didn’t mean him. But the adorable dimple in her cheek clearly said that yes, she did.

“It would be a conflict of interest,” Aiden argued. “I designed the course.”

“You’d be the boys’ instructor.” Maddie smiled. “You don’t have to go out on the river with them.”

Except that Aiden never stood on the shoreline. He used the clipboard to check off names, and the rest of the lesson took place on the river.

He glanced at the teenagers.

They needed a coach...and he needed one more chance to change everyone’s minds about him.

“All right, then. Come back tomorrow at eight.

In the morning.”

“They’ll be here,” Maddie promised.

Aiden unleashed a slow smile. “And so will you.”

Dear Reader,

I hope you enjoyed your latest visit to Castle Falls! Like for Maddie, books were a constant companion while I was growing up and I spent hours in my hometown library. The librarian’s three-book rule never applied to me—she knew that I would read all of them on the walk home and always let me check out more!

When I was a teenager, that same librarian introduced me to an author named Grace Livingston Hill, who wrote sweet, faith-filled romances. Those books touched my heart and sparked a lifelong love for happily-ever-after endings that continues in the stories that I write.

Sunni Mason, Aiden’s adoptive mom, plays matchmaker to her three sons, but I think that librarians do a little matchmaking, too! They bring books and the people who love them together. The next time you visit your local library, be sure to thank them!

I would love to hear from you! Please visit my website at kathrynspringer.com and drop me a note or check out my Facebook page at kathrynspringerauthor.

Walk in joy!

Kathryn Springer

O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good:

for his mercy endureth for ever.

—Psalms 107:1

To Kayla

For being a wonderful first reader and friend!

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Introduction

Dear Reader

Bible Verse

Dedication

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

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Epilogue

Extract

About the Publisher

Chapter One

At nine o’clock on Monday morning, Maddie Montgomery brewed a cup of Earl Gray tea and opened the Castle Falls Library, ready for another quiet, ordinary day.

And then someone dropped a pirate off at her door.

A slightly disheveled pirate in flannel and faded denim, wearing a rakish patch over one eye and brandishing an aluminum crutch instead of a cutlass.

Although Aiden Kane, the youngest of the three Kane brothers, somehow managed to make the slightly disheveled part look good.

Through the narrow, two-inch gap that separated the poetry section from the biographies, Maddie watched Aiden limp past the circulation desk, each strike of his crutch against the hardwood floor fracturing the peaceful silence in the room. He lurched to a stop a few feet from where she stood and lifted his head to look around.

Fortunately, the bookcases that shielded Maddie from view also muffled the gasp that slipped from her lips.

Mottled bruises ranging in color from pale ochre to deep mauve bloomed on his jaw, reminding Maddie of the abstract painting above the fireplace in the conference room. A sling cradled the cast on Aiden’s left arm, and the bulky outline of a bandage distorted one leg of his jeans, making his knee appear double its normal size.

Maddie knew he’d been injured in an accident, but she hadn’t actually seen the extent of those injuries until now.

In a community the size of Castle Falls, which didn’t bother with a Neighborhood Watch program because everyone kept a close watch on their neighbors anyway, Aiden had been the main topic of conversation over the past week. According to the rumors, his pickup truck had left the road, sailed over the ditch and rolled several times before landing upside down—a hair’s breadth away from a towering white pine that had planted its roots in the soil of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula long before the town founders.

Aiden had a reputation for being a bit of a daredevil, so no one seemed surprised the accident had happened. Actually, based on the whispered comments Maddie had overheard in the reading nook, people were more surprised it hadn’t happened sooner.

Maddie studied the marks on Aiden’s handsome face, her stomach turning a slow cartwheel when she considered what the outcome might have been if his pickup had actually connected with that tree.

Aiden and his two older brothers, along with their adoptive mom, Sunni Mason, ran Castle Falls Outfitters a few miles outside town. When Aiden wasn’t testing the canoes the family built and sold, he hired out his services as an instructor and guide. From what Maddie heard, the man spent more time on the river than he did on land.

And it showed.

He was healthy and outgoing and strong...and, to be honest, more than a little intimidating to a girl who would have happily laid claim to even one of those three things.

Aiden reached up to bat at a swatch of black hair that had slipped over his eye, and Maddie heard an audible thunk when the cast connected with his forehead. For some reason that small but sweetly vulnerable gesture, coupled with Aiden’s quiet huff of frustration, made Maddie forget her own insecurities.

She straightened the collar of her black-and-white houndstooth dress and stepped out from behind the bookcase.

“Good morning.”

Aiden pivoted toward her, and the tip of his crutch caught the edge of the rug that divided the aisle from the children’s area. Maddie had never regarded it as a potential hazard until Aiden began to teeter. He tried to steady himself, and Maddie automatically reached out to do the same.

The muscles in Aiden’s biceps, sculpted from hours spent paddling canoes and doing other outdoorsy things, contracted beneath her fingertips.

Suddenly, he didn’t look so vulnerable anymore. He didn’t look like the Aiden whom Maddie saw at New Life Fellowship on Sunday mornings, either. The one with the mischievous blue eyes and a smile that charmed every female between the ages of one and one hundred as he sauntered into the sanctuary.

Maybe because he wasn’t smiling at all.

Maddie let go.

“Can I help you find something?” She tried not to stare at the jagged red scratches that fanned out from the gauze bandage over Aiden’s left eye like cracks on a windowpane.

“No. I’m...waiting for someone.”

Well, that explained a lot. His presence, for starters. In the five years since Maddie had taken Mrs. Whitman’s place as head librarian, she couldn’t remember Aiden ever once setting foot through the door of the library.

“The chairs by the window are pretty comfortable.” Maddie pointed to the reading nook in the corner. “And it happens to be prime real estate because it’s located right next to the coffeepot.”

Maddie had purposely set up the area to resemble a living room. Leather chairs with wide arms and generous laps circled the glass-topped coffee table. An oak buffet that had once belonged to Maddie’s maternal grandmother had been converted into a beverage station, the drawers containing everything from packages of tea to colorful, hand-stamped bookmarks.

All the regular patrons gravitated there, and the tourists who popped in during the summer months seemed impressed that a small-town library offered a quiet retreat as well as a wide variety of books.

Aiden didn’t look impressed.

“Do you work here...?” He stopped, clearly struggling, and his brows dipped together in a frown.

For a moment, Maddie wondered if Aiden had suffered a mild concussion in addition to the bruises and broken bones. And then she realized he was trying to remember her name.

“Maddie. Maddie Montgomery.” I was a year behind you in school. We see each other almost every Sunday at church.

Well, she saw him anyway. It was pretty clear Aiden hadn’t noticed her. But then, why would he? They shared the same zip code but were worlds apart when it came to everything else.

“Maddie.” There it was. A tiny glimmer of recognition. Very tiny. “I’ve seen your name on donation receipts for the animal shelter.”

While Maddie was trying to decide if she should be amused or offended that her signature was more memorable than her face, Aiden pivoted away from her and shuffled toward the reading nook without a backward glance.

He lowered himself into one of the leather chairs and then proceeded to ignore both the coffee and the magazines.

Okay, then.

Time to get back to work.

Fifteen minutes later, Maddie decided that was easier said than done. Aiden was proving more irresistible to the people who wandered into the library than the pot of freshly brewed pumpkin spice coffee.

Maddie, whose first order of business was straightening the shelves after Mr. Elliott’s sixth-graders had invaded the poetry section the day before, would hear the door open and start a countdown in her head. There would be five seconds of silence and then a cheerful, “Aiden! How are you doing?”

To which Aiden would respond with an equally cheerful, “Great.”

Maddie wondered if she was the only one who knew he was lying.

* * *

If one more person asked Aiden how he was doing, he was going to run screaming from the building.

Except...he couldn’t run. At the moment, the only thing he’d be able to manage was a fast limp. Maybe.

But that would also draw the kind of attention Aiden had been hoping to avoid while waiting for his ride to physical therapy. He’d figured the clinic’s central pick-up point—the local library—wouldn’t exactly be a hotbed of activity this time of day.

He’d figured wrong. Over the past half hour, a steady stream of people had invaded his space, clucking over his injuries, their eyes filled with sympathy.

Aiden hated being the focus of anyone’s sympathy. So he’d scraped up a smile, even though the med van driver was twenty minutes late and the thought of another round of PT was making his leg throb more than usual. Not to mention the itch he couldn’t scratch without ripping off the cast on his arm first.

Six. Weeks. That’s how long he had to wear the stupid thing. With good behavior, Aiden hoped he could talk the doctor into reducing his sentence to three.

You really caught a break, the surgeon who’d pinned Aiden’s wrist back together had told him.

Yeah, well, Aiden didn’t feel as if he’d caught a break. He felt, as a matter of fact, broken.

Scratch that. He was broken.

He was angry, too, although the anger wasn’t visible, like the rest of the cuts and bruises. It wasn’t healing as quickly, either.

The telephone began to ring, and the librarian emerged from behind a wall of bookcases. She didn’t so much as glance in Aiden’s direction as she glided toward the desk, the soles of her ballet-style slippers barely making a sound against the gleaming hardwood floor.

Guilt, not pain, had Aiden shifting in his chair.

He’d gotten into a lot of trouble when he was growing up, but quickly learned there was something about his smile that always got him out of it. That he hadn’t been able to instantly produce one of those smiles in the presence of a pretty girl was further proof that some injuries didn’t show up on an X-ray.

And the librarian was pretty, a detail Aiden hadn’t noticed during their first encounter. Acute humiliation could have that effect on a guy. A month ago, he’d beaten his older brothers to the top of Eagle Rock without breaking a sweat, and now a rug, one in the shape of a ladybug, no less, had had the power to throw him off balance.

Aiden gave Maddie Montgomery another covert glance as she picked up the phone.

Champagne-blond hair was bundled into a tidy little knot at the base of Maddie’s neck, but the oversize, rectangular glasses perched on her nose didn’t detract from a heart-shaped face and porcelain skin. Coupled with a slender frame and diminutive height, the overall effect made her look like a studious woodland pixie.

A studious woodland pixie whom Aiden had been rude to.

The lack of physical activity was making him cranky, and it hadn’t helped knowing Maddie must have seen him conk himself in the head with his cast.

Aiden was used to being in control, but now he felt like a marionette with a couple of broken strings. And the fact that a woman whose head barely reached the top of his shoulder had felt the need to come to his rescue when he’d tripped on the rug...well, that made Aiden cranky, too.

“Aiden!”

Aiden stifled a groan as a woman with a helmet of iron-gray curls marched up to him. When he’d chosen the library as a hiding place, he hadn’t considered it might be the stomping grounds for retired elementary school teachers.

“Mrs. Hammond.” Aiden pushed himself up in the chair and tried not to wince when pain rocketed down his leg and funneled into all five toes. “How are you?”

Mrs. Hammond peered down at him, eyes narrowed. Aiden’s former teacher might have lost an inch or two in height over the years, but her power to intimidate hadn’t diminished at all.

“It’s sweet of you to ask, but I’m not the one with the broken bones, now, am I?” she countered. “How are you?”

“Great.” A noise that sounded suspiciously like a snort came from the direction of the circulation desk.

Aiden glanced at Maddie, but she had her back to him as she tapped away on her keyboard. It must have been his imagination. Aiden didn’t know much about librarians, but he figured she wouldn’t deliberately break the number one rule—Quiet, Please—printed on the poster above her desk.

Mrs. Hammond clucked her tongue. “That bump on your head looks bigger than the one you got when you fell off the top of the slide at recess.”

He’d jumped, actually, but Aiden decided not to mention that. Half the population of Castle Falls already thought he was reckless. “It looks worse than it feels.”

Way worse. Every time Aiden looked in the mirror, the bruises seemed to have shifted in position and color. There was no getting around it. He was a walking, talking human kaleidoscope.

“I’ve been out of town, visiting my grandchildren for a few weeks,” Mrs. Hammond went on. “I just heard about your accident at choir practice last night.”

Accident.

The word boiled inside Aiden. He struggled to clamp down the lid on his emotions, but it didn’t stop the memories from rushing back.

He’d been on his way home just after dusk. Window rolled down. Radio cranked up. Tired but exhilarated from a day spent clearing brush for River Quest, an event that Castle Falls Outfitters would be hosting for the first time during the Fall Festival in October.

Aiden’s event. His baby.

He’d spent hours plotting the course and planning a variety of land and water challenges guaranteed to stir up some friendly competition. Brendan and Liam, who’d been cautious when Aiden had approached them with the idea, were surprised at the number of teams that had already registered after Lily posted the information to their website.

That was another reason he wanted the event to succeed. The money from the entry fees would bump up the numbers in Castle Falls Outfitters’ bank account, proving he was a valuable asset to the family business.

The chance to say “I told you so” was always a bonus, too.

The thought had made Aiden grin. And he’d been grinning when a set of headlights rounded the corner up ahead. In his lane...

Aiden had regained consciousness in a sterile hospital room connected to more wires and plastic tubing than a car battery, fire streaking through his veins instead of blood. And his head. It had taken every ounce of Aiden’s energy to focus on the shadowy silhouettes of the people in the room.

His mother, Sunni, had been sitting in the chair closest to Aiden, head bowed, lips moving in silent prayer. She’d been praying for him for sixteen years, and Aiden doubted that would ever change. His brother Brendan and his wife, Lily, were engaged in quiet conversation at the foot of the bed, and his brother Liam stood near the window, his hands knotted at his sides. The only ones unaccounted for were Anna Leighton, Liam’s fiancée, and her eight-year-old daughters, Cassie and Chloe.

An image of the twins’ bright smiles had dredged up a wave of fresh pain. What if he wasn’t the only one who’d been injured that night?

“Is everybody...okay?”

Aiden’s voice—barely more than a croak—had brought everyone to his side in an instant.

“We will be, bro, now that you’re awake.” Brendan had changed since he’d met the former Lily Michaels, but he still wasn’t what you’d call a touchy-feely kind of guy. So the husky rattle in his oldest brother’s voice was as unexpected—and unsettling—as the tears glistening in his eyes.

“I meant the people—” Aiden had swallowed and tried again “—in the other car.”

Brendan and Liam had exchanged a look.

“Aiden...according to the county deputy, your vehicle was the only one involved,” Liam had finally said. “A trucker spotted your pickup in the ditch and called 911. You were unconscious, so he sat with you until the ambulance arrived.”

“The deputy thought the load of lumber in the bed of the truck must have shifted when you rounded the corner,” Brendan added. “You tried to overcorrect and ended up in the ditch.”

“That’s not what happened.” Aiden’s vehicle had ended up in the ditch because he’d swerved to avoid a head-on collision with the one barreling toward him. “I saw...lights.”

Sunni had leaned forward and squeezed his hand. “You have a mild concussion, sweetheart. The doctor warned us that things might be a little fuzzy for a few weeks.”

“No—” Aiden had struggled to sit up, but Liam’s palm, rimmed with calluses from the hours he spent in the shop, had gently pressed him into the mattress again.

“We can talk about it later. Right now you need to rest.”

As if on cue, a nurse had slipped into the room and put something in Aiden’s IV that made sure he took his brother’s advice.

Over the next forty-eight hours, the fuzziness subsided, but Aiden could still see those lights coming toward him...

“I’m sure Sunni has been worried sick about you.”

Aiden blinked and the lights disappeared. Regrettably, Mrs. Hammond was still there, glowering down at him.

“I would think you’ve caused that poor woman enough sleepless nights.”

The meaning was clear. His former teacher, like everyone else in Castle Falls, assumed the accident was Aiden’s fault. Because apparently it was easier for people to believe he’d taken the corner too fast than it was to believe someone in their close-knit community had forced him off the road and kept on going.

But the worst part?

Aiden was pretty sure his family believed it, too.

Chapter Two

“You’re all set, Mrs. Hammond.” Maddie tapped the send key. “The book should be here by the end of the week.”

“Thank you so much, Madeline.” Beverly Hammond was the only person in Castle Falls who refused to call Maddie by her nickname. The fifth-grade attendance sheet had recorded one Madeline Rose Montgomery, so Madeline she’d remained. “I’ll stop by and pick it up first thing Monday morning.”

“You’ve been waiting a year for it to come out, so why don’t I bring it to church on Sunday?” Maddie offered.

“That would be wonderful!” Mrs. Hammond leaned closer. “But we have to make a trade. The book for a batch of pecan turtles?”

“Deal!” Her former teacher had a weakness for suspense novels, while Maddie’s happened to be chocolate in any shape or form.

It was one of the reasons Maddie had loved growing up in Castle Falls.

People knew each other.

Her gaze slid toward the reading nook, something that had been happening way too often over the past half hour.

Judging from the expression on Aiden’s face, he wouldn’t put that particular trait on the “pro” column of living in a small town.

Maddie hadn’t heard what Mrs. Hammond said to him, but whatever it was had stripped the smile from Aiden’s face the moment the woman had walked away. He’d picked up one of the magazines, but Maddie suspected it was a barrier meant to hold people at bay rather than a way to pass the time.

The cell phone in her pocket vibrated, a reminder that the historical society’s monthly meeting was scheduled to start in ten minutes.

Encouraging members of the community to see the library as a gathering place had been at the top of Maddie’s goals when she’d moved into a full-time position. She’d extended the evening hours two days a week, talked local clubs into holding their meetings in the conference room and hosted special events on the weekends.

Change had taken place slowly—another characteristic of small-town life—but Maddie persevered. Things began to turn around when she showed the mayor’s wife how to unlock the secrets of social media. The woman had told a friend...who’d told a friend...who’d told a friend...and suddenly Maddie found herself teaching classes on everything from résumé writing to basic web design. For the last two years, at the request of the high school principal, Maddie had even helped some members of the graduating class with the research for their senior projects.

Her parents had expressed concern over how much time and energy she poured into her job, but Maddie loved every minute of it. And since there was very little chance she’d be blessed with a family of her own someday, Maddie had decided to bloom in the place God had planted her, and nurture the people He brought through the doors of the library instead.

A flash of light outside the window caught Maddie’s attention as she stood up from her desk. A white van sporting the logo of a regional medical clinic was rolling up to the curb. A few seconds later, a stocky man vaulted from the driver’s seat. The back door slid open and a hydraulic ramp made a slow descent toward the sidewalk. The interior of the van was empty, and the driver looked around.

That’s when Maddie realized the van wasn’t there to drop someone off. It was there to pick someone up.

And she was pretty sure she knew who that someone was. Maddie glanced at the reading nook again. Three members of the historical society had commandeered the table closest to Aiden so they could chat before their meeting started, and two of Maddie’s “regulars” stood by the coffeepot, absorbed in conversation.

Aiden continued to stare at the magazine, completely unaware the driver of the medical van was waiting outside. Considering the way he’d reacted when Maddie tried to help him before, she couldn’t imagine he would want an audience—or assistance—getting into the van.

Maddie saw the driver look at his watch and figured she had about sixty seconds before he came in.

Without considering all the possible ramifications of her actions—and Maddie always considered the possible ramifications of her actions—she walked over to the members of the historical society and eased into their conversation with a smile.

“Good morning, ladies!” She was careful not to look at Aiden. “I reserved the media room until eleven o’clock so you won’t have to share the computers with anyone this morning.”

Janette Morrison, the society’s secretary, patted Maddie on the shoulder. “Thank you again for helping me, Maddie. I couldn’t have found Adelle without your detective work.”

“You’re welcome.” Maddie tried not to smile.

While helping the woman trace her family genealogy, Maddie had discovered a little-known connection to the mysterious Adelle Lewis, the daughter of the wealthy lumber baron who’d founded Castle Falls.

Adelle’s name had abruptly disappeared from the society pages and everyone assumed she’d died, but Maddie had traced the young woman’s life through a series of old journals and found out that Adelle’s parents had disowned her after she’d married a young circuit preacher against their wishes.

Now the historical society viewed Maddie as a sort of twenty-first-century Nancy Drew, able to track down clues in cyberspace, link by link.

“I do have a question about how to use the microfilm scanner,” Janette said. “If you can spare a few minutes.”

“Of course. I’ll grab a cup of coffee and meet you there in a few minutes,” Maddie promised, not mentioning the coffee wasn’t for her.

Janette looked relieved as the rest of the committee members scooped up their belongings and filed toward the computer room in the back of the library.

“It’s pretty chilly out there this morning,” Maddie mused out loud. “I thought the med van driver might appreciate a cup of coffee.” She filled a disposable cup and turned toward the door.

She could practically feel Aiden’s eyes follow her. But would he?

The driver waved at Maddie, and she hoped he was a flavored-coffee kind of guy. A group of men who met at the library once a month to play chess claimed that it smelled like potpourri and wouldn’t touch the stuff.

“Good morning!” Maddie raised the steaming cup. “We’ve got curbside delivery today. Pumpkin spice.”

“Mmm.” The skeptical look on the driver’s face belied the teasing sparkle in his eyes. “Does it pair well with a jelly doughnut?”

“In my experience, everything goes with jelly doughnuts.” Maddie grinned and handed him the coffee.

She heard the soft click of the door and dared a glance over her shoulder. Aiden had bypassed the handicap-accessible ramp—no surprise there—and was making his way slowly down the concrete steps.

One. Two. Three.

Maddie silently cheered Aiden on until he reached the sidewalk. And lurched past her without a word. Again.

The driver tossed back a swallow of coffee and looked Aiden over. “PT?”

“Yup.” Aiden bared his teeth in a smile. “That’s me.”

Maddie turned away, knowing it was the driver’s job to assist his passenger even if said passenger didn’t want—or appreciate—the assistance.

But at least she’d made sure that Aiden no longer had an audience.

“Thanks, Pixie.”

It took a moment for Maddie to realize Aiden was talking to her. But he had to be, considering the only other person within earshot happened to be the burly guy climbing into the driver’s seat of the van.

But...Pixie? Seriously? He’d already forgotten her name?

“It’s Maddie—”

Aiden’s smile—this time a genuine, no-holds-barred, steal-the-breath-from-a-girl’s-lungs smile—was the last thing Maddie saw before the door slid shut.

Making her wonder if he’d forgotten at all.

* * *

Aiden’s hand tightened on the handle of the crutch as he stared out the window of the sunroom.

Autumn was his favorite time of year. Crimson trees lined both sides of the bank like torches, the sapphire-blue river the base of the flames. For Aiden, it was like paddling through a fiery corridor. Even on sunny days, the breeze carried a bite that stirred his senses. Made him feel alive.

Rich Mason, Sunni’s husband and Aiden’s foster dad, had teased Aiden about having river water flowing through his veins instead of blood. But for a ten-year-old boy who’d grown up surrounded by concrete, the river had proved more fascinating than a playground.

On the water, Aiden could move at his own pace. There was no one telling him to take it easy, slow down or—his least favorite of the three—stop.

And now, sixteen years later, over the course of a day, he’d heard every single one.

Aiden’s simmering frustration had turned into a rolling boil when he got home from therapy and saw the envelope on the coffee table. A few days after he’d been released from the hospital, Aiden had called the sheriff’s department and requested a copy of the deputy’s report from the night he’d been injured.

Aiden had practically ripped the document in his haste to open it. He skimmed through it, hoping to see something—anything—that would support his claim that another vehicle had been involved.

No skid marks, the officer had noted on the bottom.

Aiden had wanted to throw back his head and howl. There weren’t any skid marks because the vehicle in the oncoming lane hadn’t braked. And Aiden hadn’t had time to, either. If he’d been a minute earlier or a minute later, things would have turned out differently.

Why hadn’t God intervened on Aiden’s behalf?

That question had continued to plague him since the night of the accident, slowly chiseling away at the foundation of what he’d thought was an unshakeable faith with the cold, relentless pull of an undertow.

Aiden tried to shore it up by reciting scripture he’d memorized and pulling up the lyrics from praise songs, but over the past few days, the doubts had slowly claimed more territory.

But his family worried enough about his injuries. Aiden wasn’t about to admit his trust in God had sustained damage in the accident, too.

The door swung open and Aiden pressed out a smile for his brothers as they strode into the room.

“Missing something?” Brendan held up Aiden’s cell phone. “I found this on the bench in the laundry room.”

That’s because Aiden had left it there. An abandoned cell phone equaled freedom from emails, text messages and happy-face emojis.

“Oops.” Aiden pointed at his head. “Concussion.”

He’d been kidding, but instead of making a smart comeback, guilt flashed in his oldest brother’s eyes.

“Sorry,” Brendan murmured.

So was Aiden. Sorry his brothers felt the need to tiptoe around him when they used to wrestle him to the ground. Sorry they had to shoulder Aiden’s share of the work around the place in addition to their own, while squeezing in time to complete the course for River Quest.

Liam’s plan to finish the cabin that he and Anna and the twins would call home after the couple exchanged their wedding vows on Christmas Eve had been delayed because of Aiden, too.

With a damaged knee, climbing the thirteen steps up to the garage apartment he shared with Liam would have been as impossible as scaling a mountain. And because all the bedrooms in Sunni’s house were upstairs, too, Liam, the brother with the mad design skills, had been charged with converting the sunroom overlooking the river into a bedroom before Aiden was released from the hospital.

His family assumed that seeing the river outside his window would comfort him. But like a kid with his nose pressed against the glass of the candy store window, all it did was give Aiden a perfect view of everything he couldn’t have.

“How did therapy go today?” Liam asked.

Teeth-gritting, stomach-turning, excruciatingly painful. “Great.”

“Great,” Liam echoed, relief chasing the concern from his eyes.

How was it that Aiden could fool his brothers—the brothers who’d lived with him for twenty-six years—and a petite librarian with fern green eyes had seen right through him? Recognized him for the faker that he was?

Aiden didn’t have time to dwell on that—or why he remembered the color of Maddie Montgomery’s eyes—because Liam was nodding at Brendan, and Brendan...cleared his throat.

Aiden’s internal alarm system instantly went on high alert. If his oldest brother was struggling to find the right thing to say, chances were good it would be something Aiden didn’t want to hear.

“Don’t tell me this is another family meeting.” As far as Aiden was concerned, the last one hadn’t gone so well.

He was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that their biological mother had kept her fourth pregnancy a secret and given a baby girl—Aiden’s baby sister—up for adoption after she was born.

And as much as Aiden loved and respected his oldest brother, he wasn’t thrilled Brendan had kept that a secret until a few months ago.

“Not tod—” Brendan caught himself. “Of course not. Liam and I need your opinion about something.”

Since when?

Aiden clamped down on the words so hard that pain shot down his jaw.

But he knew what Brendan and Liam were trying to do.

It was the same thing everyone—from Sunni to Anna’s eight-year-old twins—had been trying to do since the day Aiden was released from the hospital. They wanted him to feel useful.

But what his family didn’t seem to understand was the more they tried to make Aiden feel useful, the more useless he felt.

It was bad enough he’d been as helpless as a baby those first few days at home. Liam had had to help Aiden shower and get dressed. Brendan—Mr. Organized—had bought one of those plastic pill holders and divvied up Aiden’s pain meds in compartments that corresponded with the days of the week. His brothers had even taken turns checking on Aiden after he went to bed until he’d asked for a story, too.

They’d taken the hint and backed off. Now Aiden realized he’d simply been granted a temporary reprieve from “brother smother” while they plotted a new strategy.

“I printed out the map you drew.” A map Liam happened to have tucked in the back pocket of his jeans. “Do you have time to take a look at it?”

“Sure.” The word tasted bitter in Aiden’s mouth. Thanks to the guy who’d run him off the road, he had nothing but time.

He’d imagined being involved in every aspect of River Quest, and now he’d been reduced to the role of consultant. It was killing Aiden to watch his idea take shape under someone else’s hands—even if those hands belonged to his more-than-capable older brothers.

“The fire ring—” Liam pushed aside the flotsam and jetsam that had collected on the coffee table over the course of the day and set the map down. “It looks a little close to the victory platform.”

“It’s not a fire ring...it’s a ring of fire.”

Brendan frowned. “What’s the difference?”

Aiden couldn’t believe he had to ask. “One you roast marshmallows over, and one you run through.”

“Run through,” Liam repeated.

“Is there an echo in here?” Aiden rolled his eyes toward the knotty pine ceiling. “What did you think? We’d be making s’mores for all the contestants when they got to the end of the race?”

Judging from their expressions, that was exactly what his brothers had thought.

“You expect people to run through fire,” Brendan said slowly. “On purpose.”

“If they want to win. Hence the word challenge.”

A smile played at the corners of Liam’s lips. “It will definitely be that.”

“It will also send our liability insurance premiums through the roof,” Brendan muttered.

“Everyone has to sign a waiver,” Aiden reminded him.

“Fine...but that doesn’t mean s’mores are a bad idea.”

Aiden hadn’t expected Brendan to go along with it. Did his big brother trust his judgment? Or did this fall under “humoring the patient”?

There was no way to know for sure until Aiden could sneak the side-by-side out of the garage when no one was looking and take a drive back into the woods himself.

Being under constant surveillance had joined the list of things that made Aiden feel twitchy. And speaking of constant surveillance...

“Where’s Mom? She mentioned something about going out for dinner tonight.” Aiden didn’t look forward to being on display for the whole town to see, but sitting at the table, underneath the family microscope, was taking its toll on him, too.

“She is, but not with you.” Liam got a goofy, lovesick grin on his face. “She and Lily are meeting Anna at The Happy Cow tonight to work on the wedding plans.”

Aiden tried to hide his relief. He’d be alone.

“So we ordered a pizza.”

Or not.

“Sausage with extra mushroom,” Brendan added.

Aiden’s favorite. “Humoring the patient” it was.

“Sounds great. I’ll meet you in the family room.” At least there wasn’t a wall of glass framing the river, reminding Aiden that he could look but not touch.

Liam shook his head.

“You stay put. We’ll bring it here.”

Aiden kept the smile in place until his brothers left the room, and waited until their voices faded before he took out everything on the coffee table—including the map—with one swipe of his crutch.

Because the reminder that Liam and Anna would be exchanging their vows in a few short months reminded Aiden of a vow he’d made. He’d stood in this very room a few weeks ago and announced to his entire family that he would track down their missing sister before the wedding.

What had he been thinking?

Right now, the task seemed as impossible as sprinting through the ring of fire Aiden had designed for River Quest.

Hiring a private investigator wasn’t in the budget, and the thought of spending hours on the computer made Aiden feel twitchy all over again. He’d never understood why people would rather stare at a screen than the sky, anyway. A person should experience life, not read about it.

Aiden bent down to collect the items on the floor before his brothers returned, and he picked up the book Chloe had been reading during her “entertain Aiden” shift the day before.

A bookmark, stamped with gold and copper leaves, poked out between the pages.

Fall into a Good Book. Visit Your Local Library.

Aiden’s lips twisted in a smile.

Maybe he didn’t know where to start the search for their missing sister...but he knew someone who might.

Chapter Three

For over an hour on Friday evening, Maddie had been pounding her head against the proverbial brick wall, trying to coax even a spark of interest from the three high school seniors who’d gathered around the table in the library’s conference room.

A feat Aiden Kane accomplished simply by walking through the door.

Tyler Olsen slipped his cell phone back into the pocket of his hoodie, and Justin Wagner, whose chin had been fused to his chest from the moment he’d sat down, pushed upright in his chair. Skye Robinson, who’d been doodling on the cover of her notebook during Maddie’s opening introduction, took one look at Aiden and her cheeks turned the same shade of bubble-gum pink as her lip gloss.

Not that Maddie could blame her.

The guy took faded denim and flannel to a whole new level.

The patch that had covered Aiden’s eye was gone, and Maddie felt the full impact of his cobalt blue gaze. Her heart began to perform a series of crazy little pirouettes inside her chest that might have, under different circumstances, warranted a call to the heart specialist Maddie saw once a year.

“The sign in the window said Closed, but the door was unlocked...” A casual shrug punctuated the statement, hinting that Aiden was the kind of man who viewed posted hours as a guideline, not a hard-and-fast rule. “Sorry for interrupting.”

Maddie hadn’t bothered to lock the front door because Castle Falls rolled up its streets after six o’clock this time of year. And the only thing Aiden had interrupted was the silence that had been hanging over the room like a blanket of fog since the teenagers had arrived.

It was the second time that week Maddie had met with the three students, but she’d never met a group so resistant to her help. Maddie had a hunch it was because these particular seniors, unlike the others she’d worked with in the past, hadn’t asked for it.

When the principal had called and given her the names of the teenagers she’d be working with, he’d asked Maddie to have them sign an attendance sheet. Maddie naively assumed it was a new policy, until they’d slinked through the door.

One look at the expressions on their faces, and Maddie knew they didn’t see the library as the starting point that would set them on an exciting course to their futures. No, in their minds it equaled two hours of detention, and Maddie was their warden.

The icebreaker she had chosen for the opening session on Monday night had been a complete failure, and they didn’t seem particularly interested in this evening’s presentation about the importance of research, either.

As a matter of fact, the three teenagers didn’t seem to be interested in anything.

Until Aiden crashed the study session.

Maddie had no idea why he was here, but she closed her laptop. “You’re not interrupting. We’re almost finished.”

A collective sigh of relief traveled around the table and Maddie tried not to take it personally.

“Great.” Aiden smiled his quicksilver smile. “Do you mind if I hang around for a few minutes?”

Fortunately, he didn’t wait for her answer.

Because the musky scent of autumn leaves and fresh balsam clinging to Aiden’s jacket as he claimed an empty chair was overriding the “walk in the woods” diffuser on the mantel—and apparently Maddie’s ability to put together a coherent sentence, as well.

Focus on your notes, Maddie.

She put a checkmark next to The Importance of Research. “On Monday, I’d like everyone to bring a list of possible topics, and we’ll try to narrow it down to your top two.”

“Why can’t you just tell us what to do?” Tyler asked.

“The faculty wants your senior presentation to be more personal than a term paper or essay,” Maddie said. “They’re not only interested in what you’ve learned over the past four years, they’re interested in you.”

“Yeah, right,” Skye muttered.

Maddie knew better than to engage in something that could potentially turn into a debate. “If you’re having trouble finding a topic, I’ve encouraged other students to look at the results of their career assessment surveys for ideas.”

Her suggestion was met with blank stares.

“You haven’t taken it yet?” Maddie asked cautiously.

“What’s a career assessment survey?” Skye wanted to know.

Well, that answered her question.

“It’s a series of questions that helps you determine what career might fit you best.”

Skye’s eyes narrowed. “Sounds like a test.”

“Actually, it can be kind of fun,” Maddie said. “The questions are designed to help you pinpoint your interests, discover your gifts and abilities. And the results can help you decide what degree you’ll pursue in college.”

“College?” Tyler scoffed. “I’m not even sure I’m going to graduate from high school.”

Maddie made a mental note to call the guidance office first thing on Monday morning and find out more about the students she’d volunteered to help.

“Okay.” She exhaled a silent prayer for wisdom. “If you can’t find time to take it at school, I’ll see if you can take the test online at the library during our next session. Trust me—it will make choosing a topic for your presentation much easier.”

The word presentation elicited another group sigh.

Maddie stifled one of her own. Unless the principal had made attendance for the study sessions mandatory, there was no guarantee she’d ever see them again.

“I think that’s it for tonight.” Maddie waited for the inevitable stampede out the door, but suddenly the teenagers who’d fidgeted through her entire PowerPoint no longer seemed to be in a hurry to leave.

Justin drifted over to the plate of chocolate chip cookies Maddie had set out before the meeting, and Skye began to apply another layer of lip gloss. Tyler, who hadn’t paid any attention to the folder Maddie had given him, took his time sliding it into his empty backpack. When he finally got it positioned just right, his eyes locked on Aiden.

“I saw your picture in the paper.”

“Yeah?” Aiden stiffened, but Tyler didn’t seem to notice.

“Yeah. That rope bridge you’re building over the river...it sounds pretty sweet, man.”

The confused look on Aiden’s face told Maddie he hadn’t seen the most recent issue of the local newspaper. She retrieved the copy draped over the wire rack in the corner and set it down in front of him.

“It’s an article highlighting the activities for the fall festival.” Maddie had read it, too. Castle Falls Outfitters would be hosting a new event called River Quest during the weekend-long celebration, and the reporter had interviewed Aiden because he was the one who’d come up with the idea.

Some of the challenges sounded downright dangerous to Maddie, but she supposed that was part of their appeal. Until now, the most risky event in town had been the Five Alarm Chili Cook-Off.

Aiden’s gaze dropped to the black-and-white photograph on the front page. It had obviously been taken before the accident. He was leaning against the Castle Falls Outfitters sign, wearing jeans, a T-shirt with the Castle Falls logo on the front, and his signature grin.

“The headline is clever,” Maddie said, then read it out loud. “River Quest Promises Thrills, Chills and Possible Spills.”

* * *

Aiden might have agreed—if a knot the size of a baseball wasn’t clogging his throat.

He remembered the day the reporter had called and asked if he would be available for an interview.

“Let me check my calendar,” Aiden had joked. What he’d really needed was time to absorb the fact that the reporter wanted to meet with him instead of Brendan or Liam.

Aiden’s name was listed on the home page of the Castle Falls Outfitters website, but unlike his brothers, it wasn’t as if he’d accomplished something significant enough to earn his spot there.

River Quest was supposed to have changed that.

The interview had taken place a few weeks ago, and Aiden assumed the reporter had scrapped the whole thing after the accident, but here he was. On the front page. And apparently it didn’t matter that some of the details were no longer accurate.

Aiden had told the reporter that he planned to test the entire course himself before the fall festival, and now he’d be watching from the sidelines as a spectator.

On top of the world one day. Trapped underneath his pickup truck the next.

I don’t get it, God...

“Is there really a cave behind the waterfall on your property?” The girl with the lavender stripes in her hair pressed closer for a better look.

The fragrance she was wearing made Aiden’s nose sting, but he jerked his chin in a nod. “The cave is the starting point for the competition. Each team has to go through the tunnel and retrieve their flag. The one with the best time gets to skip the next challenge.”

The kid sitting next to Aiden shrugged. “That doesn’t sound very tough.”

Aiden found himself staring into the restless, prove-it-to-me eyes of his younger self. “It’s not. Just really, really dark.”

“No flashlight?”

“No light at all,” Aiden said. “Just you and a space about two feet wide.”

The buzz of the kid’s cell phone extinguished the flicker of interest in his eyes. He was on his feet before he’d even finished reading the incoming text and, without a word to Maddie or his friends, bolted for the door.

The other two exchanged a look, snatched up their backpacks and followed.

“If you have any questions before our next meeting,” Maddie called after them, “don’t hesitate to email me or stop—”

The door snapped shut.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure I won them over.” A dimple that had been hiding in Maddie’s cheek came out to play. “Are you waiting for someone again? Or did you want to check out a book?”

Aiden was still distracted by that intriguing dimple, and it took a moment for the words to sink in.

“I don’t read.”

“You don’t...” Maddie stopped. Cleared her throat. “Then why—”

“I came to see you.” Aiden suddenly realized that hadn’t come out quite the way he’d intended it when Maddie’s big green eyes got even bigger. “One of the women who was here on Monday morning...she said you’d helped her find someone named Adelle.”

“Janette Morrison.” Maddie tipped her head, and a strand of pale blond hair slipped free from the bun at the base of her neck. “You’re interested in tracing your family genealogy, too?”

His family genealogy?

“Never mind.” Aiden planted his crutch against the floor and levered himself out of the chair. “It was stupid...”

And so was he. For eavesdropping on a conversation. For totally misunderstanding said conversation.

For thinking this was a good idea.

He made it two steps before Maddie landed in front of him, cutting off his escape.

“Aiden...wait.”

Even with a broken wrist and two cracked ribs, Aiden could have brushed Maddie Montgomery aside with no more effort than it would have taken to shoo away a butterfly. But because Sunni insisted her sons use good manners, he produced a grin instead.

“Look, no worries. I’m sorry for barging in on your study session tonight.” Aiden tried to ease around her and found his path blocked again.

“Who do you want to find?”

Aiden opened his mouth to tell Maddie that he didn’t want her help after all, but what came out instead was, “My sister.”

“I...I didn’t know you had a sister.”

“I didn’t either, until a few months ago.” Aiden couldn’t prevent the bitterness from seeping into his voice.

But Maddie didn’t gasp or pelt him with questions. She waited, her silence giving Aiden the freedom to retreat or explain.

Retreat seemed like the better option. Until now, it hadn’t occurred to Aiden that asking for help would mean opening the door to the past and allowing someone to see the skeletons rattling around in the Kane family closet.

He and his brothers had moved to Castle Falls when they were kids, but the past cast a long shadow. People still didn’t understand why the Masons had become foster parents and opened their home—and their hearts—to three troubled boys. And when Rich had unexpectedly passed away from a heart attack six months later, some of Sunni’s closest friends had encouraged her to send Aiden and his brothers back to Detroit.

Sunni had listened to God and adopted them instead, although they hadn’t legally changed their last name to Mason. Aiden hadn’t questioned the reasons behind that decision—or who’d made it—until Brendan had finally gotten around to telling the rest of the family they had a sister out there who might want to find them someday.

And family meant everything to Aiden.

He hadn’t been wanted—something Carla Kane had reminded Aiden often enough—but it was tearing him apart inside that their younger sister might have grown up believing the same thing.

“Our biological mother gave the baby up for adoption after she was born,” he finally said. “I thought...”

“I might know how to find her,” Maddie finished.

“Right.” Aiden touched the bandage on his forehead, hoping Maddie would dismiss the crazy notion as a side effect of his injuries. Playing the concussion card had worked pretty well with his brothers, after all.

“Maddie?”

They both turned toward the doorway, and Maddie’s face lit with a smile.

“Dad! I didn’t expect to see you until tomorrow night.”

A man with thinning gray hair and a frame the width of Aiden’s fly rod stepped into the room.

“I didn’t mean to intrude.” His gaze bounced from Maddie to Aiden and then back again. “I found some of those apples you like at the grocery store and thought I’d drop them off on my way home.”

“That wouldn’t be because you’re hoping I have time to make a pie for dessert tomorrow night, now, would it?” Maddie teased.

“Of course not.” Her dad flicked a look at Aiden. “I know how precious your free time is, sweetheart.”

Aiden didn’t miss the subtle implication that there were people in the room who didn’t.

“The door to my apartment is open.” Maddie’s smile didn’t waver. “I’ll meet you upstairs in a few minutes. Aiden just had a question for me.”

The only thing that moved was the man’s eyebrows. They sank together over the bridge of his nose in a frown that had probably scared away every guy who’d dared to ask Maddie out on a date.

It was a good thing Aiden didn’t scare easily.

Whoa. Where had that thought come from?

Not that Aiden had a problem asking a girl out. But like his brother Liam had so helpfully pointed out a few months ago, Aiden’s problem was that he never followed up with a second or third date.

Because of that, he’d gotten a reputation for avoiding commitment when the opposite was true. Because of his childhood, Aiden understood its value more than most guys his age. He never made promises he didn’t intend to keep. Aiden wasn’t a heartbreaker, but until he met a woman he could trust—with the good, the bad and the ugly—he stuck to the shallow end of the dating pool.

“That’s okay.” He tucked the crutch under his arm. “I have to go, anyway.” Sunni, who’d dropped Aiden off while she ran a few errands in town, was probably wondering where he was.

He took a step forward, but this time, instead of stopping him, Maddie escorted him past her father and into the narrow hallway outside the conference room.

“You don’t have to walk me to the door, you know.” Aiden’s lips twisted in a wry smile. “I’ll watch for rugs this time.”

Maddie tilted her head back to look up at him, and Aiden waited in vain for the dimple to appear.

Nope. Not happening. Once again, Aiden got the feeling she could see right through him.

“The library closes at two o’clock tomorrow,” she said. “But I’ll be working a few extra hours, going through donations for the used book sale.”

Her meaning was clear—if he wanted to continue their conversation. But Aiden didn’t respond.

Because right now, as anxious as he was to find his sister, Aiden wasn’t sure Maddie Montgomery and her fern green eyes wouldn’t prove more of a hindrance than a help. Because, oh man, he was distracted around her.

Chapter Four

Maddie started the countdown as her dad followed her up the staircase to the second floor.

Five. Four. Three. Two...

“I don’t like the idea of strangers wandering in off the street when you’re alone in the library at night, sweetheart,” he said.

Maddie tamped down a smile. When it came to her dad, the saying about old habits being hard to break had proved true. William and Tara Montgomery had loved and protected Maddie for twenty-five years. She’d been out on her own for several years now, but her dad never failed to come up with a reason to stop by and “check on things.” What he was really checking on was her.

“Aiden isn’t exactly a stranger, Dad,” she reminded him. “You see him every Sunday morning at church.”

“I see him staring out the window while Pastor Seth gives the message,” her dad grumbled. “He might be sitting in the chair, but it’s obvious his mind is somewhere else.”

Maddie wasn’t about to admit she’d noticed that, too. Because it would mean admitting that she’d noticed Aiden Kane.

You and every other unattached female in town, she chided herself.

“I left the door unlocked in case another student showed up for the study session, and Aiden saw the lights on,” Maddie told him. “He didn’t realize the library was closed for the evening.”

Her dad reached the door at the top of the stairs before Maddie, and it swung open at the touch of his hand. “You should keep this one locked, too.”

“No one can access my apartment from the street,” Maddie reminded him.

When the title of head librarian had transferred to her after Mrs. Whitman’s retirement, Maddie had been given the keys to the studio apartment on the second floor of the building, too.

The space was small, but Maddie loved every inch of it.

She’d sewn slipcovers for the sofa and decorated the interior with an eclectic style she liked to call thrift shop chic. A folding screen separated the kitchen from the living room, and African violets bloomed in the window. An old steamer trunk served double duty as a coffee table and storage for the surplus of books when the shelves began to overflow.

Growing up, the characters in the books Maddie read had become her closest friends, so she hadn’t been able to part with a single one. For Maddie, sharing a favorite book was like sharing a secret. You weren’t just giving people a book. You were offering them a glimpse into your heart.

I don’t read.

Maddie was still having a hard time processing what Aiden had said. Not only the words themselves, but the matter-of-fact tone in which they’d been delivered. The way someone might say, “I don’t eat kale.”

“Maddie?”

Oops. “Sorry, Dad. What did you say?”

“I just want you to be careful, that’s all.”

“I am careful. And I’ll lock the door from now on,” Maddie promised.

“I wasn’t talking about the door.” Her dad hesitated. “I was talking about Aiden Kane. From what I’ve heard, he can be impulsive and a little reckless. Not the type of man who’s looking to settle down.”

“Settle—” Maddie almost choked on the word. “Aiden isn’t interested in going out with me, Dad.”

Even if she couldn’t deny that for a moment—a teeny tiny moment—her heart had performed that crazy tap dance again when he’d said, “I came to see you.”

A response as ridiculous as Aiden asking her out on a date. They had nothing in common. Whenever New Life Fellowship sponsored a hiking trip or a weekend of downhill skiing, Aiden would be listed as the contact person in the church newsletter. Maddie knew that information before anyone else in the congregation because she was the one who typed the monthly newsletter.

She also knew the first four or five names on the sign-up sheet would inevitably be grown-up versions of the athletic, outdoorsy type of girls Aiden had dated in high school.

Maddie hadn’t dated in high school. Guys never asked her to go out for a movie and burger. They’d asked her for her help with English homework instead.

“I think that sigh—” her dad pressed a kiss against the top of Maddie’s head “—is my cue to leave.”

“Sorry, Dad. I’ve got a lot on my mind tonight, I guess.”

He gave her a look. “That wouldn’t be because you have too much on your plate, now, would it?”

“I like being busy.” Maddie linked arms with him as they walked to the door. “But if you want me to cut something out of my schedule, I don’t have to make dessert for Saturday night,” she teased.

“Never mind.” Her dad’s eyes went wide with mock horror. “I take it back!”

The weekly dinners had become a tradition, Maddie’s way of showing her parents she hadn’t abandoned them, she’d simply moved into her own place like a lot of other people her age. They always spent the evening catching up on each other’s lives, and then her dad would break out Scrabble or the cribbage board.

Yet another reason Maddie wasn’t Aiden Kane’s type.

“I thought you’d say that.” Maddie hugged her dad goodbye and closed the door before another sigh slipped out.

Contrary to what her dad feared, Aiden didn’t want to date her. He needed her help finding his sister.

Maddie flopped into a chair and curled her feet underneath her, questions multiplying like the maple leaves underneath the tree outside the window.

Did Aiden regret telling her? Did his abrupt departure mean he was going to give up the search before he’d even begun?

Maddie wouldn’t. She would have gladly given up half her bedroom—and space on her bookshelves—for a sister or brother. But her parents had found love later in life, and Maddie’s traumatic birth and the two heart surgeries that followed had dictated she remain an only child. It had also significantly reduced the chances of her ever having a child of her own.

She knew that God had richly blessed her in other ways—a job she loved, a purpose and a passion—so the pain of knowing she’d never be a mother had eventually subsided. But there were times—like right now—when Maddie felt the ache all over again, a weight pressing down on the sensitive scar tissue of an old wound.

She’d never told anyone her secret. It was her burden to carry. And the truth was, there’d never been a need. The boys who hadn’t noticed her in school had grown into men who’d fallen in love and married her pretty, more outgoing classmates. Maddie had been the quiet girl in the library.

Her lips tipped in a smile.

She was still the quiet girl in the library. And although Maddie liked and accepted that girl a lot more than she had in high school, it stirred up all kinds of dreams she had no business dreaming. Especially about Aiden Kane.

Maybe there was a woman out there who would eventually change his mind about settling down.

But Maddie knew it wouldn’t be her.

* * *

Lights illuminated the row of windows on the second floor as Aiden let himself out of the library. A gray Subaru idled at the curb, and before Aiden could take another step, Sunni had hopped out from the driver’s seat and jogged around the front of the vehicle to open his door.

Needing a chauffeur was another humbling side effect of Aiden’s injuries. It ranked right up there with knowing he’d lose to his mom in a footrace.

“I hope I’m not late. I ran into Rebecca at the grocery store and we chatted for a few minutes.”

Aiden didn’t have to ask what—or rather whom—the topic of conversation had been. Rebecca Tamblin was Pastor Seth’s wife and the head of New Life Fellowship’s prayer chain. Aiden’s name had been at the top of the list for almost two weeks.

“Not a problem.” Aiden squeezed out a smile as he folded himself into the passenger seat.

Sunni waited until he buckled up before she steered the car back onto the street.

“Are you too tired to take a little detour on the way home? Dr. Voss called me a few minutes ago and asked if we have room at the shelter for another dog.”

Aiden had passed tired a few hours ago and was skidding toward exhausted, but he nodded. “Go for it.”

His mom took her responsibilities as the recently appointed chairman of the animal shelter as seriously as she did the family business.

“I was hoping you’d say that!” Sunni flashed a smile and turned left off Riverside, Castle Falls’ main street. “Did you find what you were looking for at the library?”

An image of Maddie Montgomery’s face danced in Aiden’s mind, and he batted it away.

“No.” Aiden wasn’t ready to confide in his mom yet. If the search for his sister ended in a crash and burn, he wanted to spare his family a ringside seat. Not only that, given Sunni’s growing reputation as a matchmaker, Aiden ran the risk she might read something more into his decision to ask a certain librarian for help.

“Wasn’t Maddie there?”

“You know her?” As soon as the words slipped out, Aiden realized how ridiculous they sounded. Unlike Aiden, Sunni had lived in Castle Falls most of her life. She probably knew Maddie’s favorite color and her birthday.

“I know you didn’t graduate together, but she’s at church every Sunday.” Sunni slid a sideways glance in Aiden’s direction. “I’m surprised your paths haven’t crossed.”

Aiden wasn’t. Not after he’d seen Maddie flinch when he said he didn’t read. What he should have said was that he didn’t read well. Reading usually involved sitting still, and sitting still had never come easily to Aiden, either.

He’d rather stick to the things he was good at.

“How is the plan for the new addition coming along?” Aiden steered the conversation to safer ground.

“Wonderful. Between the silent auction last June and a generous donation from the bank a few weeks ago, we should be able to break ground in May.

“The committee decided that since the last meet and greet for the shelter went over so well, we’re going to host another one during the Fall Festival.” Sunni chuckled. “Of course, Cassie and Chloe voted that we set up the tent in the backyard.”

The gathering point for River Quest. Aiden was glad the darkness cloaked his expression. He gritted his teeth behind a smile. “Good idea.”

Everyone was full of good ideas these days. Orders for Liam’s new line of vintage canoes had picked up after Lily, the family marketing whiz, had posted a photograph of one on the home page of the website. Anna had taken charge of the Trading Post, and the twins helped on the weekends, straightening shelves and greeting customers.

Everyone, it seemed, had something valuable to offer. Everyone except Aiden.

Although he should have been used to that by now.

Lights glowed in the windows of the veterinary clinic, but Sunni cruised past the front entrance and drove around to the back of the building.

The door swung open before Aiden had a chance to knock, and Dr. Voss motioned them inside.

“Sunni. Aiden. Come in, come in.” The veterinarian’s eyes were bloodshot, and the tufts of reddish-brown hair that sprouted from his head now lay as flat as stalks of wheat after a killing frost. “It’s been a long day. Two emergency surgeries, which is the reason I called you. I’m afraid there’s no more room at the inn.”

“That’s why we’re here.” Sunni gave the man’s arm a comforting squeeze. “I’m glad the shelter could help.”

“Follow me.” The tails of the veterinarian’s wrinkled lab coat flapped against his legs as he led them down the hallway.

It wasn’t the first time Aiden had been to the clinic—he’d transported at least a dozen critters there for vaccinations since the shelter’s official grand opening—so he expected Dr. Voss to usher them into the spacious room that housed the kennels. The veterinarian walked past the door and took a sharp turn down another, shorter hallway instead.

“Is the dog in quarantine or something?” Aiden whispered to his mom even though he knew it didn’t matter. Sunni had a soft spot for hard-luck cases.

If Aiden was ever in danger of forgetting that, all he had to do was look in the mirror.

“Not in quarantine.” Dr. Voss was the one who answered the question. “He’s kind of a loner...being around the other dogs seems to agitate him. Our facility isn’t set up for long-term convalescence, so that’s why I called your mother.”

“Why isn’t it going home?” Aiden asked.

“He doesn’t have one at the moment,” Sunni said.

Dr. Voss’s steps slowed, and he matched his pace to Aiden’s. “A hiker found the dog caught in a trap by the river and called the sheriff’s department. When Deputy Bristow brought it in, the animal was dehydrated and hypothermic. Its leg wasn’t broken, but infection from the wound had spread, so we had to get that under control. What he needs now is rest and a little TLC.”

Aiden figured the “TLC” part was where his mom came in.

“What about its owner? Don’t you think someone is looking for him?”

A look passed between Dr. Voss and his mom, a hint they’d had this conversation before.

“I highly doubt it,” the vet finally said. “The X-rays I took show...older...injuries. The deputy found evidence the owner was hunting out of season, so if he does step up to claim the dog, he’d be facing questions he won’t want to answer.”

So rather than get into trouble, the owner had simply abandoned the animal.

Dr. Voss stopped in front of a door and slipped his hand inside to flip the light on. A row of large wire crates—all empty except the one filled with rags—lined the wall.

“Where—” Aiden’s throat convulsed, sealing off the rest of the sentence, when the bundle of rags moved. Took on the shape of a dog.

His mom’s gasp of dismay broke the silence, and the veterinarian’s lips flattened in agreement.

“Believe it or not, he actually looks better than he did when the deputy brought him in. Sunni, I’ll need you to sign a few papers, and then we’ll go over the list of medications,” Dr. Voss said. “He’s on a strong antibiotic and will need a dose of the pain medication every four to six hours for the next few days.”

“Every four to six hours?” Aiden hiked a brow at his mom. “You’re going to have to run back and forth to the shelter to give the dog a pill?”

“Of course not, sweetheart.” Sunni gave him a bright smile. “He’ll be at the house for a few days.”

At the house.

Aiden should have known.

“You can take a seat in the waiting room, Aiden,” Dr. Voss said. “It won’t take very long.”

After they left, Aiden approached the crate cautiously and bent down. A pair of bottomless, espresso-brown eyes stared back at him.

The dog was a mix of some sort. Coonhound and Labrador retriever, maybe, with a pointed nose, floppy ears and a tail hinged in the middle like a broken windshield wiper. It was also thin to the point of emaciation, with uneven patches of gray and brown bristles instead of fur. Even at the peak of health it wouldn’t be the adorable, cuddly kind of pup most people wanted to adopt.

“You know what Sunni is up to, right?” Aiden whispered. “We’re both invalids, and she’s hoping we bond during our convalescence.”

The dog bared its teeth and growled.

Aiden nodded. “I totally agree.”

Chapter Five

Mondays.

Maddie decided there were times they deserved their reputation.

She clicked the mouse and brought up slide number twelve, even though she was fairly certain she’d lost the teenagers at number four.

Tyler’s eyes were glued to his cell phone, Skye was drawing on the cover of her notebook and Justin appeared to be napping.

But at least they were here. Maddie had expected to spend Monday evening catching up on her emails, but the teens had drifted into the conference room one at a time and claimed their seats at the table.

The high school guidance counselor had given Maddie the link for the career assessment survey, so they’d spent the first hour in the computer lab, filling out the questionnaire. She planned to go over the results at their next session, but there were still twenty minutes left in this one.

I could use some help here, Lord.

No sooner than Maddie sent up the silent prayer, Aiden limped into the room.

“The door was unlocked again.” He claimed the empty chair at the table as if it had been reserved especially for him.

As if he hadn’t been a no-show on Saturday afternoon, even though Maddie had stayed an extra hour—or two—waiting for him.

Aiden’s decision not to follow up on his request for help didn’t surprise Maddie. What did surprise her was the disappointment that had clung like a burr on her favorite cardigan for the rest of the day.

She hadn’t seen him at New Life Fellowship on Sunday morning, either. Maddie served in the church nursery twice a month, and by the time the last set of parents had picked up their child, everyone had left the building.

She’d told herself it was for the best, but here he was again. And once more, the teenagers were giving Aiden their full attention.

Maddie set down the clicker and went with it.

“Aiden, what was the topic of your senior presentation?”

“My senior presentation?”

She nodded. “You were a year ahead of me in high school, and I had to give one, so I’m pretty sure you did, too.”

“Maybe he skipped that day,” Tyler interjected.

The gleam in the boy’s eye told Maddie he was contemplating it, too.

“It wouldn’t matter.” Skye slid lower in her chair. “They just make you do it the next day.”

“What if he hadn’t come back the next day?” Tyler retorted. “Or the next? What if he hadn’t come back at all?”

Why did Maddie get the feeling that Tyler wasn’t talking about Aiden anymore?

Skye tossed her mane of brown-and-lavender-striped hair. “Then he would’ve been stupid—”

“Survival camping.”

Skye and Tyler, who were glaring at each other across the table, spun toward Aiden.

“What’s that?” Skye blurted.

“You go into the woods with nothing more than you can carry in a backpack,” Aiden explained. “You find your own water. Food. Make a shelter to sleep in.”

The girl’s eyes widened. “That’s crazy.”

“The faculty board thought so, too.” Aiden grinned. “But I still got an A.”

“It sounds like one of those shows on TV,” Tyler said. “I saw one episode where a guy climbed into a hollow tree and it was full of wasps. He got stung, like, a thousand times.”

Aiden shrugged. “I didn’t have to worry about bugs. It was February.”

He’d gone camping. In February. On purpose.

“Where did you sleep?” Justin unexpectedly joined the conversation. Maddie grabbed onto the back of a chair for support.

“I made a snow cave. Snow is actually a great insulator.” Aiden dropped his voice a notch. “That’s why you don’t see bears putting on sweaters before they go into hibernation.”

Skye giggled.

Giggled.

Justin had spoken up, Skye was acting seventeen instead of twenty-seven and Tyler was actually looking at Aiden instead of his cell phone.

And Maddie? She was a little in awe—and a whole lot of envious—at how effortlessly Aiden had connected with the three teenagers.

“You’re supposed to write an outline and do research and stuff.” Tyler tossed an accusing look at Maddie, as if she were the one who’d written the guidelines for their senior presentation.

Aiden laughed. “You don’t think I did some research before I ventured into the woods when it was only ten degrees outside?”

Tyler crossed his arms, covering his interest with a skeptical look. “They really let you talk about camping?”

“I didn’t just talk,” Aiden said. “I brought in my backpack and showed them how I made it through the weekend with the supplies I’d packed. Like Maddie said, the whole idea behind the senior presentation is to learn more about something that interests you...and in the process maybe learn something about yourself.”

At least someone remembered what Maddie had said during their study session the previous week. She just hadn’t expected it to be Aiden.

An alarm chirped, and Tyler reached for his backpack. “I gotta go,” he mumbled.

“Hold on a second.” Maddie decided it was time to take control of the conversation again. “Does anyone have any questions before our next meeting?”

She was greeted with silence.

“All right... I’ll see you at six thirty this Friday.”

They all grabbed their things and bolted for the door.

Everyone except Aiden. He raised the hand that wasn’t in the cast.

“I have a question. How do we find my sister?”

Maddie gripped the back of the chair again to counteract the unexpected weakness in her knees.

“But I...when you didn’t show up on Saturday, I thought you’d changed your mind.” The words came out in a rush, and the light in Aiden’s eyes disappeared as swiftly as the sun on a winter afternoon.

“No one in my family had a reason to come into town that day,” he said after a moment.

And Aiden couldn’t drive.

Maddie realized how difficult it must be for such an independent man to rely on others—even his own family—for help. Which made the fact that Aiden had returned to the library to enlist hers a little scary.

“Anna had to finish up an order tonight and get it ready for shipment, so I hitched a ride with her,” Aiden continued. “Bracelets...not ice cream, just in case you were wondering.”

Maddie didn’t know Anna Leighton very well—she’d been several years ahead of Maddie in school—but it was common knowledge the young widow had converted the second floor of The Happy Cow, her family-owned ice-cream shop, into a combination studio and boutique where she designed and sold a unique line of nature-inspired jewelry.

It was also common knowledge that Liam Kane had proposed to Anna a few weeks ago.

Maddie had overheard a group of women talking about how excited Sunni Mason was that two of her adopted sons had found love.

“Only one more to go,” one of them had said.

“I have a feeling Sunni will have a long wait with Aiden,” came her friend’s laughing response. “I’m not sure there’s a woman fast enough to catch that boy. Not that they haven’t tried, mind you.”

Maddie was used to people speaking freely in front of her. She was a permanent fixture in the library—like her desk or a lamp—and everyone seemed to forget she was there.

Still, Maddie didn’t want to analyze too closely why the details of that whispered conversation had been stored away, when so many others had slipped from her mind.

“Can you post this on your community message board?” Aiden dipped his hand into his jacket pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. “I had to come up with a legitimate excuse for turning down Anna’s rocky road sundae.”

Maddie glanced down at the flier. The top half gave detailed information about River Quest, and underneath the dotted line was a registration form for those adventurous enough to sign up.

Suddenly, Aiden’s words sank in. “Your family doesn’t know you’re looking for your sister?”

Something dark flashed in Aiden’s eyes. “They know I promised I would...they just don’t know I started yet.”

* * *

Aiden was relieved when Maddie didn’t press him further and ask why. Not when he wasn’t sure of the answer himself.

All Aiden knew was that he couldn’t fail and disappoint his family. Just once, he wanted to be the hero who swooped in and saved people from trouble instead of the one causing it.

Maddie pulled her chair out from the table. “I...I’ll need some basic background information from you, and we can go from there.”

“Now?”

Aiden’s question seemed to surprise her. “Isn’t that why you’re here?”

“Yeah, but I thought we’d be setting up another day and time to meet,” he said slowly. “You worked all day and then had to spend the evening with Dallas and Ponyboy—”

“Aiden!” Maddie clapped a hand over her mouth but couldn’t quite suppress the laughter that backlit her beautiful green eyes. Beautiful green eyes that narrowed with suspicion a split second later. “Wait a second. You said you don’t read. The Outsiders is a classic.”

“There’s a book, too?” Aiden cocked his head, careful to keep his expression neutral. “I thought it was just a movie.”

He waited for the look of horror or pity, but the suspicion only deepened, which kind of took the fun out of teasing her.

Aiden had figured out at an early age that people didn’t think he had a lot going on upstairs. He wasn’t like his brothers. Brendan could crunch numbers and decipher complicated spreadsheets, and in his spare time, Liam could assemble a rocket from a box of spare parts.

In one of his Sunday morning messages, Pastor Seth had told the congregation that God gave all His children unique gifts. For Aiden, though, finding those gifts felt more like combing the grass for Easter eggs rather than spotting a brightly wrapped present under the tree on Christmas morning.

In other words, he was still looking.

“I don’t mind starting tonight.” Maddie pulled out the chair next to his and sat down, stirring the air—and Aiden’s senses—with the scent of lily of the valley. He recognized the fragrance because the flowers appeared every spring. They weren’t showy like Sunni’s roses or the hydrangeas that bloomed along the foundation of the house. Lily of the valley blossoms were small and delicate. Easily overlooked. But if a person was paying attention, the flowers were surprisingly strong, brightening the shadowy places in the yard and thriving where others would have faded away.

“Aiden?”

He hadn’t been paying attention. “Sorry.” Aiden shifted restlessly, rattling the joints of the high-backed wooden chair. No doubt the conference room was a cozy, comfortable place to hold a meeting, but at this time of night, the pain from his injuries would normally have already forced him to the couch. “What’s your first question?”

“What is your sister’s name?”

“I don’t know.” Aiden pushed the words out through gritted teeth.

“But...” Maddie paused and searched his face. “How can you find your sister if you don’t know her name.”

“That’s why I asked you for help.”

“Okay...” Maddie drew in a breath. Released it again. “We’ll do what we always do when we’re not sure where to start, then.”

“Dive in headfirst?”

“Ask God for direction.”

“Ask God.”

Aiden shouldn’t have been stunned by Maddie’s suggestion. She was a believer. Attended church every Sunday, just like he did. But the fact that prayer hadn’t crossed Aiden’s mind showed how far he’d drifted from God since the accident.

He tried. He really did. But Aiden didn’t know what to say—and he wasn’t sure God was listening. In his darkest moments, Aiden wasn’t sure God cared about the details of his life at all. If He did, where had He been the night Aiden had ended up in the ditch, leaving both his body and his plans for River Quest temporarily out of commission?

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