Read Online Tying the Knot by Susan May Warren - Free Book Online

him.
    “Ha!” she slammed her fist against the steering wheel. She wouldn’t spend a minute, let alone the summer, with prehistoric, chauvinistic Noah Grizzly Bear.
    A man who saw in you potential and hope. Anne gritted her teeth, forcing herself to ease off the gas lest she take the bend in the road on two wheels. Potential and hope. Now how could he see something she didn’t have? Her potential had nothing to do with a bunch of rich suburban kids needing a nurse nanny. As for hope, any fragments had been excruciatingly demolished a year ago when a bullet ripped through her body. In its wake remained a consuming fear.
    Anne swallowed the bitterness that still pooled in her mouth at the recollection of that day. She knew that she ought to be well along the healing road, but she couldn’t hurdle the fact that God had allowed her life to spiral into darkness. She couldn’t trust Him. This latest fiasco was perfect proof.
    And if she couldn’t trust the One who was omnipotent, how could she possess anything remotely resembling potential or hope? Both, she guessed, entailed trusting in the unseen, having faith that God had the future safely in pocket and confidence that it was a good future at that.
    No, Noah Standing Bear didn’t see anything in her but sheer despair. The destruction of both potential and hope.
    Anne sailed past Hedstrom’s Lumber Mill, then slowed as she headed toward the hospital. Compared to the institutions in the Twin Cities, Deep Haven Municipal Hospital resembled some back-hills clinic out of the novel Christy —a whitewashed one-story building, a weed-sprouted parking lot, and an ambulance bay that housed one rusty unit. For a moment Anne smiled, remembering her hours spent as an EMT for the Minneapolis Fire Department. If Noah searched for hope, he’d find it in those heroes. They gave away a little chunk of their life every day in their desire to make a difference in the world. Anne’s smile faded and she shook her head.
    She pulled into the parking lot, turned off the vehicle, and drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. Now that she’d had a little time to calm down and think, she couldn’t deny that inside her lurked the smallest longing to dive into Noah’s hopes. The idea of steering children toward Christ and down a path that would help them say no to drugs, crime, and the abuse of their bodies tugged at a latent desire. Noah Standing Bear, for all his rough edges, had righteous goals guiding him.
    Too bad he resembled so many of the hoodlums she’d grown up with, complete with roughshod manners and callousness to a lady’s feelings. He didn’t smell like a dream either, with all that roofing material coating his arms and army pants.
    Anne tried to ignore the notion that underneath his uncouth coating, gentleness had reached out and intrigued her. His ears had turned red from her accusation that he’d stalked her, and his chagrined expression chipped at her anger. In spite of what she’d said, she wasn’t blind to the fact that he’d put an ugly abrasion on his leg yesterday trying to dodge Bertha. Without his quick reflexes, she wouldn’t have her Saint Bernard waiting at home right now, chewing on her aunt’s futon.
    I’m not Bigfoot. The echo of his words tugged at the corners of her mouth. She could argue that point, with his hair spiking around his cap, a smattering of whiskers on his chin, and his towering height. Magnetic honey brown eyes made her wonder at his ancestry. Native American obviously, but the color hinted at a genealogical story. She had a good working knowledge of the plight of Native Americans in Minnesota and guessed his history might not be pretty. Had he grown up on the Indian reservation? or in a foster home in some ghetto?
    A tap on her window nearly sent her heart arrowing out of her chest.
    “Anne, are you okay?” Sandra smiled as Anne rolled down the window. “I saw you sitting here and was worried. Something about the way you leaned