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  PRAISE FOR DENISE HUNTER

  “Denise Hunter’s newest novel, Sweetbriar Cottage, is a story to fall in love with. True-to-life characters, high stakes, and powerful chemistry blend to tell an emotional story of reconciliation. Readers will sympathize with Josephine’s tragic past and root for her happy ending as old wounds give way to new beginnings.”

  — BRENDA NOVAK, New York Times BESTSELLING AUTHOR

  “Sweetbriar Cottage is a wonderful story, full of emotional tension and evocative prose. You’ll feel involved in these characters’ lives and carried along by their story as tension ratchets up to a climactic and satisfying conclusion. Terrific read. I thoroughly enjoyed it.”

  —FRANCINE RIVERS, New York Times BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF Redeeming Love

  “From start to finish, Sweetbriar Cottage is a winner! Heartache, intrigue, and complex character issues all wrapped in Denise Hunter’s signature style of romance make this a must read for lovers of this genre.”

  —TAMERA ALEXANDER, USA Today BESTSELLING AUTHOR

  OF To Whisper Her Name AND The Inheritance

  “Warning: sleep deprivation, palpitations, and acute soul-searching may occur . . . and you will devour every single moment! A powerful novel of second chances, Sweetbriar Cottage is a haunting love story that will take you from the depths of divorce to the breathless heights of a marriage transformed.”

  —JULIE LESSMAN, AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE DAUGHTERS OF

  BOSTON, WINDS OF CHANGE, AND ISLE OF HOPE SERIES

  “Hunter has a wonderful way of sweeping readers into a delightful romance without leaving behind the complications of true love and true life. Sweetbriar Cottage is Hunter at the top of her game—a rich emotional romance that will leave readers yearning for more.”

  —KATHERINE REAY, AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF Dear

  Mr. Knightley AND A Portrait of Emily Price

  “In Sweetbriar Cottage, Denise Hunter has written one of the best stories about emotional healing and forgiveness that I’ve read in ages. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough to reach the resolution. Suspenseful, heartbreaking, and ultimately sigh-worthy, you don't want to miss this one.”

  —ROBIN LEE HATCHER, RITA AND CHRISTY AWARD WINNING

  AUTHOR OF You'll Think of Me AND You're Gonna Love Me

  “With cameos of favorite characters from previous novels set in rural Summer Harbor, Maine, Hunter delivers what her audience expects: sweet romance and intriguing mystery involving seriously likeable characters.”

  —Publishers Weekly ON The Goodbye Bride

  “Can romance be any more complicated than a bride who doesn’t remember running away from her groom? Denise Hunter’s take on a woman’s attempt to find her way back to happily ever after again is sweetly endearing. Readers will keep turning pages, wanting to know how true love ever went so wrong . . . and if The Goodbye Bride gets her chance to say ‘I do.’”

  —BETH K. VOGT, 2015 RITA FINALIST AND AUTHOR

  OF Crazy Little Thing Called Love

  “I’ve been a long-time fan of Denise Hunter’s, and The Goodbye Bride has everything I’ve come to love about her romances: a plucky heroine with lots of backstory, a yummy hero, and a terrific setting. Her fine attention to detail and the emotional punch of the story made me want to reread it immediately. Highly recommended!”

  —COLLEEN COBLE, USA Today BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF

  Mermaid Moon AND THE HOPE BEACH SERIES

  “Denise Hunter has done it once again, placing herself solidly on my must-read list! The Goodbye Bride is a tender, thoughtful look at the role memories play in a romance. The clever plot kept me up way past my bedtime—and happy to be so!”

  —DEBORAH RANEY, AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE CHICORY INN NOVELS

  “The Goodbye Bride is one heart-stopping, page-turning romance that will leave the pickiest romance reader delighted and asking for just a few more pages.”

  —CARA C. PUTMAN, AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF Where

  Treetops Glisten AND Shadowed by Grace

  “Hunter’s fans will want this one.”

  —Library Journal ON Falling Like Snowflakes

  “With her usual deft touch, snappy dialogue, and knack for romantic tension, inspirational romance veteran Hunter will continue to delight romance fans with this first Summer Harbor release.”

  —Publishers Weekly ON Falling Like Snowflakes

  “Hunter is a master romance storyteller. Falling Like Snowflakes is charming and fun with a twist of mystery and intrigue. A story that’s sure to endure as a classic reader favorite.”

  —RACHEL HAUCK, AUTHOR OF The Wedding Dress AND THE ROYAL WEDDING SERIES

  “A handful of authors dominate my must-read list, and Denise Hunter is right at the top. Falling Like Snowflakes is a taut romantic thriller that will warm you to the core.”

  —JULIE LESSMAN, AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE DAUGHTERS OF

  BOSTON, WINDS OF CHANGE, AND HEART OF SAN FRANCISCO SERIES

  “[Married ’til Monday] . . . leaves one knowing that love is worth fighting for.”

  —RT Book Reviews, 4-STAR REVIEW

  “A beautiful story—poignant and heartwarming, filled with delightful characters and intense emotion. Chapel Springs is a place anyone would love to call home.”

  —RAEANNE THAYNE, New York Times BESTSELLING

  AUTHOR ON The Wishing Season

  “. . . skillfully combines elements of romance, family stories, and kitchen disasters. Fans of Colleen Coble and Robin Lee Hatcher will enjoy this winter-themed novel.”

  —Library Journal ON The Wishing Season

  “This is an emotional tale of overcoming the fear of loss to love again and God’s love, made manifest through people, healing all wounds. The heroine’s doubts, fears, and eventual acceptance of the gift God has given her are told in a sympathetic and heartwarming way. The hero’s steadfastness is poignantly presented as well.”

  —Romantic Times, 4 STARS ON Dancing with Fireflies

  “Romance lovers will . . . fall for this gentleman who places his beloved’s needs before his own as faith guides him.”

  —Booklist ON Dancing with Fireflies

  “Hunter’s latest Chapel Springs Romance is a lovely story of lost and found, with a heroine struggling to accept that trusting God doesn’t make life perfect—without loss or sorrow—but can bring great joy. The hero’s love for her and willingness to lose her to save her is quite moving.”

  —Romantic Times, 4 STARS ON Barefoot Summer

  “Jane Austen fans will appreciate the subtle yet delightful Austen vibe that flavors this contemporary cowboy romance—and not just because Pride & Prejudice is protagonist Annie’s favorite book. The Trouble with Cowboys is a fast, fun, and touching read with the added draw of a first kiss that is sure to make my Top 5 Fictional Kisses of 2012. So saddle up, ladies: We have a winner!”

  —USATODAY.COM

  OTHER NOVELS BY DENISE HUNTER

  SUMMER HARBOR NOVELS

  Falling Like Snowflakes

  The Goodbye Bride

  Just a Kiss

  THE CHAPEL SPRINGS ROMANCE SERIES

  Barefoot Summer

  Dancing with Fireflies

  The Wishing Season

  Married ’til Monday

  A December Bride

  THE BIG SKY ROMANCE SERIES

  A Cowboy’s Touch

  The Accidental Bride

  The Trouble with Cowboys

  NANTUCKET LOVE STORIES

  Driftwood Lane

  Seaside Letters

  The Convenient Groom

  Surrender Bay

  Sweetwater Gap

  Novellas included in Smitten, Secretly

  Smitten, and Smitten Book Club

 
Sweetbriar Cottage

  © 2017 by Denise Hunter

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc.

  Thomas Nelson, Inc., titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fundraising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail SpecialMarkets@ ThomasNelson.com.

  Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

  Publisher’s Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Hunter, Denise, 1968- author.

  Title: Sweetbriar Cottage / Denise Hunter.

  Description: Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, 2017.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2016055698 | ISBN 9780718090487 (softcover)

  EPub Edition May 2017 ISBN 9780718090494

  Subjects: LCSH: Married people--Fiction. | Reconciliation--Fiction. | GSAFD:

  Christian fiction. | Love stories.

  Classification: LCC PS3608.U5925 S94 2017 | DDC 813/.6--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016055698

  Printed in the United States of America

  17 18 19 20 21 LSC 5 4 3 2 1

  Contents

  Praise for Denise Hunter

  Other Novels by Denise Hunter

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Epilogue

  The Story Behind the Story

  Discussion Questions

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  Copper Creek, Georgia

  Present day

  There was nothing like a letter from the IRS to stop a man in his tracks. Noah Mitchell came to a halt outside the Copper Creek post office, an uneasy dread leaking into his veins as he stared at the envelope.

  He should’ve known better than to come down off the mountain and ruin a perfectly good Saturday. Granted, this wasn’t the way he’d feared it would be ruined, but it was still a kick in the pants.

  He sank onto a nearby bench, dumping the bundle of mail beside him. A cold breeze blew across the valley, but heat prickled beneath his jacket. Though March had arrived in northern Georgia, Mother Nature hadn’t gotten the memo. The grass lay brown and dull against the semi-thawed earth, and the branches of the skeletal trees clacked together in the wind.

  He pulled a finger through the envelope’s seal, sending a plea heavenward. He supposed he was due. He was thirty-one and had never experienced the joy of an audit. Unfortunately, he’d filed for himself last year.

  Noah unfolded the paper as the sun broke through the clouds, its reflection nearly blinding on the white paper. He scanned the paragraphs, squinting against the light, his eyes stopping on a key sentence in the second paragraph.

  He reread the sentence, blinking in disbelief. Of all the idiotic . . .

  Noah was as patriotic as they came. He’d served overseas for a tour, for crying out loud. Stars and stripes, baseball, apple pie, all that. But sometimes the ineptitude of the American government left him scratching his head.

  “Well, look who’s come off the mountain.”

  Noah looked up to find his best friend, Jack McReady—“Pastor Jack” to most of the town—ambling toward him. Even though it was a Saturday morning, he wore khakis and a button-down. His lips stretched into the smile that had half the single females in his church swooning. He was oblivious to it all.

  “Hey, Jack.” Noah rose, grasping his friend’s hand and pulling him in for a shoulder bump. “Good to see you, buddy.”

  “I was starting to think I was going to have to come up there and drag you down.”

  “The ranch is keeping me busy.”

  “Even horses sleep. How are you? Make it through the winter okay?”

  “Lost a foal back in January. Other than that, it’s going well. I’m finishing the attic in the cottage. How are things here in town?”

  “Oh, you know, the usual. Rumors, Facebook drama, town council tiffs. Let’s grab a bite. I was just heading over to the Rusty Nail.”

  Noah thought of the letter, now burning a hole in his coat pocket. “I’d like to, but I have a few errands. Have to be back to the ranch by three. Let’s do it soon though.”

  Jack’s blue eyes fastened on Noah’s, doing that thing where he seemed to look right into his soul. “Everything okay?”

  Nothing had been okay for a long time. Not since the divorce. But Jack already knew that. “Yeah. Just . . . life . . . you know.”

  “Sure.” Jack nodded, his eyes still piercing. “Sure.”

  They parted ways a few minutes later, promising to touch base in the next couple weeks.

  Noah gathered his mail and started the short walk toward Walt Levenger’s office. He tugged down his cap and lowered his head—against the wind, he told himself. After all, her shop was on the other side of town and no doubt bursting at the seams on a Saturday morning. Chances of running into her were slim.

  The downtown of Copper Creek was straight out of a movie set. Diagonal parking along Main Street. Two-story shops with colorful awnings, proudly facing the street, their Open flags fluttering in the wind. You could walk from one end to the other in fifteen minutes, and a few minutes later Noah was most grateful for that.

  When he stepped into the CPA’s office, the phone was ringing. Two people waited by the front desk where a harried teenager shouldered a phone and jotted on a yellow Post-it.

  He took his place in line, his mind going back to that one jarring sentence in the letter. Walt was a family friend. He’d tell him how to straighten this out. Then Noah would just put this behind him.

  But somehow the letter had stirred up all kinds of things he thought he’d already put behind him. Memories—the best of his life, the worst of his life—swirled together in a confounding cocktail of joy and pain. A vise tightened around his heart, squeezing until his breath stuttered.

  “Can I help you?” The teenaged girl peered at him through a pair of thick-framed glasses.

  He eased forward. “Hi, I’m here to see Walt.”

  The phone pealed. “Do you have an appointment?”

  “No, but it’s a pressing matter. He’s a friend of the family.”

  “Name?”

  “Noah Mitchell.”

  “Have a seat, please.”

  She answered the phone while he joined the others in the waiting room. The letter crinkled in his pocket as he settled against the curved plastic chair.

  He took out his phone and made a l
ist of items he needed from the Piggly Wiggly. He could hit Buddy’s Hardware while he was in town too. He needed mud and sanding paper for the attic. Might as well get the paint too. Save him a trip back to town. Maybe he’d hunt down his brother and grab a cup of coffee if he had time.

  “Noah, you can go on back.”

  He followed the short hall to the first open door on the left and tapped on the frame.

  Walt stood up behind a cluttered desk and extended his hand. “Noah, come on in.”

  Noah shook his hand. “Good to see you, sir.”

  Walt was winning the weight war that often accompanied a desk job, but he was losing the battle with his hairline.

  “Thanks for seeing me on such short notice. I’m sure you’re swamped with the tax season.”

  Walt pulled off his bifocals. “I have some help this year. Young sprig, fresh out of college. He’s going to be the death of me.”

  Noah’s lips tugged northward.

  “You look more like your daddy every time I see you,” Walt said. “Good-looking son of a gun. Have a seat, why don’t you. How are your folks?”

  “Enjoying retirement. They’re in Las Vegas this week. Last week they were hiking the Sierra Nevadas. Next week, who knows?”

  “Good for them. They’ve been looking forward to this a long time.”

  “They have. How’s your family?”

  “Fine and dandy. Here’s my new grandbaby.” He handed Noah a framed photo of a newborn, swaddled and pink-skinned. “Lori Ann, after my wife.”

  “Congratulations. She’s a beauty.”

  “That she is.” Walt settled the photo back in place. “Well, what can I do for you, Noah? Needing some help with your taxes this year?”

  “Not exactly.” He pulled the letter from his pocket and handed it over the desk. “Got this in the mail today. Was hoping you could advise me on how to go forward.”

  Walt settled his readers in place. A frown creased his brow as he read.

  It seemed like an hour passed before the older man’s eyes finally lifted, meeting Noah’s gaze over the straight rim of his glasses. “When was your divorce finalized, Noah?”

  Divorce. Would he ever get used to the word? “Before January of the tax year in question.”