Chapter 45
Five hours later, Sadie held a hand over her mouth as the officiator read the marriage vows for Breanna and Liam. It was happening! Her daughter was getting married in a small pavilion set in the Tongass National Forest, not a cathedral. Instead of organ music, the patter of lightly falling raindrops and the chatter of birds and squirrels from the dense woods provided the only accompaniment. Across the small space, Liam’s mother was also struggling to hold back her emotion.
After Breanna confirmed her vows, Liam took the wedding band from his pocket.
“I don’t have your ring,” Breanna whispered. Everyone laughed, except Sadie who was barely holding it together.
“It’s okay,” Liam said with a smile as he slid the band onto her finger until it was next to the diamond engagement ring she’d worn for only a few months.
“It’s my honor,” the officiator said, “to pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.”
Breanna stood on her toes before Liam had a chance to lean into her, but he quickly wrapped his arms around her and returned the kiss with a vigor that bordered on embarrassing. The small group erupted with applause as the kiss sealed the deal, completed the day, and verified that Breanna and Liam—the Viscount and Countess of Darling—had joined their lives together. From this day on, they belonged to one another. It was more than Sadie could handle, and she finally let loose the emotion she’d been holding in and sobbed and cried as everyone exchanged hugs.
Sweet Mermaids had not only made the cake—which, just as Sadie had suspected, they’d stayed up all night to replicate—they also catered the wedding luncheon with bagels and lox, crisp green salad, and the most delicious thing Sadie had eaten the entire week: their signature salmon and red potato chowder. Sadie had begged the owner for the recipe and, gem that she was, she gave Sadie a copy, which Sadie couldn’t wait to put into her Little Black Recipe Book once she got home.
Sadie had cried off the rest of her makeup by the time she needed to help serve the cake to the fifteen members of the wedding party.
A photographer and videographer had been there to capture every moment, which Sadie found especially comforting since she wasn’t sure any of them would remember much on their own, it had been such a whirlwind.
All too soon, and yet right on time, a touring Jeep pulled up. Liam had arranged for the two of them to stay in a cabin several miles from town for the next five days. The wedding party all hugged again, then waved and cheered as the Jeep drove away.
With the bride and groom gone and the party winding down, Liam’s parents and friends said good-bye to the Hoffmillers and got in their prearranged taxis that would take them to their hotel rooms back in town while Pete, Sadie, Shawn, and Maggie took a taxi back to the pier. The ship would sail in an hour and a half, but the gangways closed in thirty minutes.
Just like that, Breanna was married, and Sadie was a mother-in-law. It would take some getting used to.
Half a block from the pier, Shawn asked the cab driver to pull over. “We want to do some quick shopping,” he said, stepping out and holding the door open for Maggie.
“Why don’t we walk back, too?” Pete suggested to Sadie.
Obviously, the others weren’t as exhausted as Sadie was, but she agreed. With the wedding over, it would be nice to absorb the atmosphere of this cute village a little longer, and the sun was setting in a beautiful swirling mass of pink, gold, and purple amid the clouds overhead.
“We’ll see you on the ship,” Shawn said after they all stepped out of the cab.
Sadie and Maggie hadn’t had a chance to talk, but Sadie had a feeling they would have plenty of time to work out whatever issues might be left between them. Maggie had been a wonderful help with the whirlwind wedding, doing anything that needed to be done without being asked. As Sadie watched Maggie and Shawn walk back to the ship side by side, she felt her heart do a little jump. People came together in the strangest ways sometimes. Maybe this was the purpose Maggie would find in all this heartache.
“They better hurry,” Sadie said, realizing how few people were left on the pier and how quickly the dockworkers were moving to ready the ship for departure. “We’d better hurry, too.” She took Pete’s hand and tugged him toward the boat, but instead of following like she expected him to, he pulled her back, causing her to stumble into him. She didn’t mind—what was one more minute?—and easily wrapped her arms around his neck. “Wasn’t today amazing?” she said, going up on her toes to kiss him. It wasn’t until she was once again flat-footed on the ground that she realized he seemed a little tense. “Are you okay?”
“I’m okay,” he said, but he didn’t sound okay.
Sadie took a step back. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” he said with a laugh—a nervous laugh. He put one hand in his pocket.
“Pete,” she said, taking his free hand in both of hers, “whatever it is, we’ll—”
“Maybe you could just stop talking for a minute.”
Sadie flinched. “You’re telling me to shut up?”
Pete laughed again, a real laugh this time, and shook his head. “I’m asking you to let me say something.”
“When have I ever not let you say something?”
He lifted his eyebrows, and she took a breath, pulled an invisible zipper across her lips and turned the invisible key. They really did need to hurry back, though. If she hadn’t just zipped her lips shut, she’d have asked if they could continue this conversation on the ship.
But then she saw the excited glint in his eye, and the fact that he had just pulled something out of his pocket. Sadie’s breath caught in her throat, and she put a hand over her mouth as Peter Cunningham sank down to one knee in front of her. Even if she’d wanted to speak at that moment, she couldn’t have found a single word.
Pete reached for her left hand—a hand that hadn’t worn a ring for a very long time. The setting sun caught the diamond on the ring he held, and Sadie’s chest tightened even more.
“I knew if I waited to do this until after Breanna was married, you’d be expecting it and I couldn’t have that.” He looked up at her with those beautiful hazel eyes of his, and she didn’t dare blink for fear she would miss an instant of this. “I’d hoped to find the perfect moment to say the words I’ve spent weeks planning to say, and now I’ve forgotten all those pretty words.”
Sadie moved the hand still covering her mouth. “I don’t need pretty—”
“Shhh, I’m not done.”
She zipped her lips again and gave the key an extra turn.
Pete cleared his throat. “Since that first day when I helped you make applesauce in your kitchen, I’ve been inspired by your energy and impressed by the size of your heart. As we’ve grown together in the years since then, and as I’ve lived through adventures I never imagined could happen in real life, I find myself surprisingly hungry for more.” He held the ring poised at the end of her ring finger. “You said that you didn’t feel like I benefitted as much from our relationship as you did.” He paused, and it was all Sadie could do to hold back the tears. “Sadie, you bring life into my living, and joy into my journey. I can no longer imagine a future without you in it, and I welcome whatever lies ahead for us. Sadie, will you marry me? Will you be my wife?”
The tears started to fall, and Sadie nodded several times.
“You can talk now,” Pete said.
“Yes,” Sadie said, pushing her finger through the ring Pete still held and falling to her knees on the pier in front of him. A jarring pain shot up her left leg, but she ignored it. “A million times, yes.”
He took her face in his hands and kissed her so hard and deep that she felt it in every cell in her body.
When she finally pulled back, she looked into his eyes and could see the years ahead of them. They were a beautiful sight. “I love you, Pete. More than I can say.”
“Oh, Sadie, Sadie, almost married lady, I love you, too.”
Salmon and Re
d Potato Chowder
5-pound bag of small, unpeeled red potatoes, cut into 1-inch cubes (peel half, if desired)
3 to 4 bacon strips, diced
1 large onion, diced
4 celery ribs, diced
2 quarts milk
4 cups Knorr’s Chicken Stock (or water/chicken-stock equivalent)
¼ cup dried parsley
1 teaspoon salt (optional)
½ teaspoon pepper (or to taste)
¾ cup butter
¾ cup flour
1 cup whipping cream
2 cups of cooked, flaked salmon (not smoked)
Place potatoes in a large pan, cover with salted water and bring to a boil. Cook until potatoes are tender. Drain in colander and set aside. (Do not return potatoes to original pot.)
In the pot you used for the potatoes, sauté bacon on medium-high heat until it just begins to crisp. Add onion and celery and sauté until vegetables are tender. Add milk, chicken broth, parsley, salt, and pepper. Heat through, but do not boil after adding the milk.
In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add flour and stir constantly for 1 minute, allowing to brown slightly. Add whipping cream slowly and stir constantly until thickened. Do not burn.
Stir flour-cream mixture into soup, stirring constantly. Add cooked potatoes and salmon. Let simmer 10 minutes, until soup is thick. Keep on low heat.
Serves 20 (feel free to double as necessary).
Note: Substituting chicken, turkey, ham, or corn for the salmon creates a variety of chowders.
Note: A touch of mustard brings out the flavor of the salmon—but just a touch.
Note: Don’t tell Shirley or Debi, but canned salmon works in a pinch.
Enjoy this sneak peek of
Rocky Road
Coming Fall 2013
Chapter 1
Bittersweet Anniversary
On the two-month anniversary of Dr. Trenton Hendricks’ disappearance during a hiking trip in the Paradise Point area, his wife, Anita Hendricks, has announced a memorial service to be held in his honor on Thursday, June 20, at 2:00 at the Bloomington Funeral Home.
Dr. Hendricks was last seen on Saturday, April 8,when he set out on an overnight backpacking trip alone. “He is an experienced hiker,” his wife said on April 12. “And he often takes to the backcountry in an attempt to clear his head following a busy workweek.”
When Dr. Hendricks failed to return from the hike, Mrs. Hendricks contacted Search and Rescue on Monday afternoon. Dr. Hendricks’ car was found at the Chuckwalla trailhead, but after six full days and thousands of man-hours, the official search was called off.
The memorial service will be held just one day prior to the Red Rock Cancer Walk, a Breast Cancer Awareness fund raising event that Dr. Hendricks and his business partner, Dr. Jacob Waters, began nine years ago. Though rumored to have been cancelled this year due to Dr. Hendricks’ disappearance, Mrs. Hendricks has confirmed that the event will take place as it has in previous years. When asked about the decision to continue with the event, Mrs. Hendricks said, “It is what Trenton would have wanted. He was passionate about his work, and I take comfort in knowing that while the hole he has left in so many lives will never be filled, he left this world a better place than he found it.”
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Red Rock Cancer Fund, an organization which provides free breast cancer screenings to low-income women in Iron and Washington Counties.
Community members are invited to join the event this Friday at 7:00 p.m. The 12-hour Night Walk will begin at 7:30 and end with a pancake breakfast Saturday morning at 8:00 a.m. Entry for the walk is $25 per person. Each participant will receive a T-shirt and a gift bag containing contributions from local sponsors.
This paper would like to officially extend our condolences to the Hendricks family. The staff grieves for your loss—one that is shared by many in this community.
Sadie finished reading the article and looked up at Caro, Pete’s cousin and Sadie’s friend. She and Caro had just checked into their hotel room in St. George, Utah, as part of an extended girls’ weekend they’d planned last month—before Sadie’s unforgettable cruise and unexpected trip to Anchorage. If she’d felt she could have stayed home without hurting Caro’s feelings, Sadie likely would have—she’d been traveling for most of the month of June—but she loved spending time with Caro and didn’t know when she’d have another opportunity to visit with her like this.
Was it Sadie’s imagination that Caro had been a little too excited to have her read this article as soon as they got into their room? And did Caro also seem too expectant of Sadie’s response?
“That’s too bad about Dr. Hendricks,” she said, refolding the newspaper carefully and placing it beside her on the bed.
“It is too bad,” Caro said from where she sat on the other double bed. “And weird, right?”
“Weird?” Sadie repeated, wondering at Caro’s pointed interest. “Weird how?”
“He disappeared. . . . And everyone seems to be assuming he’s dead, but there’s no proof. I read some other articles about it, and no one has found anything. Not his pack, a shoe—nothing.”
“Disappearances are always hard to deal with,” Sadie said, ignoring what she feared was behind Caro’s comments. Caro wanted to investigate; Sadie could feel it, but she didn’t share her friend’s anticipation. Sadie had come to St. George to enjoy a few days with her good friend, not to investigate the disappearance of a man she’d never met.
“He was Audrey’s doctor, you know, when she found the lump. She said he was really great—sympathetic and up-to-date on the latest treatments. She and many of his other patients are really heartbroken over this.”
Sadie put her hands in her lap and pondered a few seconds before speaking. “Please tell me this isn’t why we’re here,” she said with a faltering smile. “Please tell me we came to attend some plays and eat yummy food and be part of the walkathon with your cousin?”
“Of course that’s why we came,” Caro said, looking sheepish. “Audrey and I have participated in this walkathon every year since she was first diagnosed, and I’m so excited that you’re with us this year. You’re going to love Audrey; she’s so much fun.” She looked at the newspaper still beside Sadie on the bed. “I didn’t think much about Dr. Hendricks’ disappearance when Audrey first told me about it either, but the more I read about it and talked with her, the more I thought . . . well, here, let me get the other articles for you. Audrey gave me a whole stack when I got here Monday.”
Caro hurried for her suitcase by the door. Once her back was turned, Sadie let out a breath, wondering how best to tell her friend that her interest level in solving mysteries was at an all-time low. A glance at the diamond ring on her left hand initiated the familiar zing she felt every time she looked at it. She was engaged. Engaged! To be married! Though eager to seal the deal, planning the wedding required some flexibility on her and Pete’s part if they wanted their families to be there—which they did. July 26 was chosen as the big day—but that was still five weeks away. For that reason, it was probably a good thing that Sadie had plenty to do between now and then, this trip with Caro being one of the things that would fill her days while she waited to become Mrs. Peter Cunningham.
“Sadie?”
Sadie blinked and looked up to meet Caro’s bemused expression. “What?”
Caro was sitting on the bed across from Sadie again, holding a stack of papers in both hands—the articles, Sadie assumed. “I asked if Dr. Hendricks’ disappearance seems strange to you. Have you dealt with anything like this before?”
“Not like this, no.”
Caro nodded, but seemed disappointed in Sadie’s response. Caro was a natural when it came to investigative work. She was detail-oriented, smart, and uninhibited when it came to sneaking around. Plus, she found it all very exciting. When she’d helped Sadie with an investigation several months ago, Sadie had loved those qualities about Caro. But Sadie’s head w
as in a different place now—she had a wedding to plan, a married life to prepare for.
“I wonder,” Caro said, boldness coloring her words, “if you and I could look into things while we’re here, ya know? Answer some of the as-yet-unanswered questions and figure out what happened to Dr. Hendricks.”
“Search and Rescue looked for six days, Caro.”
“I don’t mean searching the backcountry. You and I both know that’s only part of the mystery. I mean, why did he go out by himself? And why hasn’t anyone found any of his gear? And what was his personal life like? Professional life? Was anyone angry with him? Did he have debts to hide from? St. George isn’t a big city, and the people are nice. I bet we could gather a lot of information.”
Sadie tamped down the curiosity that began to stir in response to Caro’s questions. Her own investigative instincts were never far below the surface. Instead of giving into the tingle and pull, however, she shook her head and tried to think of what Pete would say. “I’m sure the police are investigating, and you’re jumping to some pretty extreme conclusions with no evidence. Did Audrey put you up to this?”
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