Read Online Patrick's Promise (Cloverleaf #3) by Gloria Herrmann - Free Book Online

their small home in Portland, when the doorbell rang. When she had opened the door and saw two policemen standing there in the light drizzle, sympathetic looks hanging on their faces, she knew the truth before they even had to utter a word. Peter was gone. He had been on the Portland P.D. before he had even met her. He came from a family of men that were all in law enforcement, and it’d only seemed natural that he would follow in their footsteps. Amber had met Peter at a local bar, when she had been there with a small group of friends she had made from work. Their eyes connected, and he had approached her. After laughing for hours and finding they had nothing in common, they never spent another day apart, until that moment when his buddies stood in her doorway. Their lives had been robbed.
    “You almost ready to head home, dear?” her mother, Lynn, called from a distance, bringing Amber back to reality.
    “Yeah, Mom.”
    They locked up the diner, got inside Lynn’s pick-up truck, and headed home, which was only a couple of blocks away. Amber planned on riding her bike to work. She needed to, as it had been part of her routine back in Portland, and it was one of the ways she tried to exercise. It was actually the only form of exercise that she didn’t mind. Sit-ups, no thanks; jogging, not likely. But riding offered more than toned legs; it gave her a sense of freedom and peace.
    “Dylan seemed happy when he came into the diner today.”
    To Amber, he seemed anything but happy. He had started his first day at the junior high in Birch Valley, and he’d walked to the diner after school, where his grandmother spoiled him with an enormous strawberry shake. Amber chatted with him during a brief lull but had to get back to work, and only learned from Dylan that he wasn’t thrilled about his new school or not having any friends. She hoped to learn more about how his day went, and she wanted to reassure him that school would only be in session for two more weeks. He could survive this.
    “So, Mom, do you know of any homes for rent?” Amber asked as they turned onto their street.
    “Why? Are you in rush to be in your own place?”
    “Well, I just think it might help Dylan adjust better, and now that we are going to be here…”
    “I think you guys should stay with us for a little while. You just got here,” her mother said firmly.
    “I know we did, but I just want to get settled,” Amber responded. She looked out her window and saw their home coming up. The small Craftsman-style home was similar to all the others on the tree-lined street. It was painted a dark slate color and had black shutters. There was a decent-sized porch, and a beautiful deck in the small backyard that her father had built. But the home was far from large, and living here too long would make Dylan and Amber feel cramped and that they were in the way.
    “Amber, I hate asking you to stay. Your father and I are so grateful you have come home to help us out.” Lynn’s voice grew wobbly. “I don’t know what to expect with your father, and it’s just nice for us all to be together right now.”
    She had a point. Amber couldn’t argue that her parents would be relying on her now more than ever and that spending any time that they could with her father was important. Her husband had lost his father to cancer, and Amber remembered how difficult that had been for the family. She sort of knew what to expect and hoped that the outcome would be different for her father. Imagining him going through the treatments, the pain, and suffering was more than Amber’s heart could bear.
    “Well, there’s no rush finding a place, Mom.” Amber could see relief wash over her mother’s face.
    Once inside, Amber found Dylan on the couch. A laptop reflected a blue light on his face, and headphones covered his ears as he zoned out.
    “Hey, Dylan, what are you up to?” she asked as she plopped down next to him.
    He lifted one side of the headphones and gave her