More than twenty years ago, my husband and I bought our first home in a small rural Utah town. At the time, we were focused on the charm and potential of the old house itself, too young and naive to think much about the neighbors or the community we were joining. We made friends, had our first child, settled into small-town life.

We didn’t truly realize the importance of community until after we had our second child, who was born with serious medical complications. Suddenly our neighbors and friends rallied around us with countless acts of kindness. Meals and lawn-mowing, a quick note of encouragement, a basket of home-baked treats. During our most difficult moments in the years since, our neighbors and friends have always stepped in to buoy us up.

We have seen the very best of people and we have also learned that a few determined souls can lift and strengthen an entire community, causing ripple-effect kindnesses and bringing everyone together. That’s the message I hope readers take away from Blackberry Summer—that when we reach beyond ourselves, even just a tiny step outside our comfort zone, together we can change lives.

All my best,

RaeAnne

As always, to my wonderful husband and children,

who fill my life with laughter and love.

Special thanks to Nicole Jordan for a hundred

different things, but mostly for believing in me.

CHAPTER ONE

“We are each of us angels with one wing. And we can only fly embracing each other.”

—Luciano de Crescenzo

LOUSY, STUPID HOROSCOPE.

Claire Bradford stood with one hand on the doorway and the other clutching her coffee go-cup as she stared at the chaotic mess inside her store.

According to the stars—at least according to the horoscope in the Hope Gazette she’d scanned while standing in line at her friend Maura’s coffee shop for her morning buzz after dropping the kids off at school—she was supposed to prepare herself for something fun and exciting headed her way today. She had been thinking more along the lines of a few dozen new customers at her bead store or maybe a big commission on one of her more intricate custom pieces.

Discovering that String Fever had been burglarized during the night didn’t exactly fit her personal definition of either fun or exciting.

Beads covered the beige berber in a glittery, jumbled disaster as apparently someone had yanked out an entire vast display of tiny clear drawers and dumped their contents all over the floor. Her cash register drawer was open and the small amount of cash she kept on hand to make change was missing. Her office door had been left ajar, too, something she never did, and even from here, she could see a big, dusty, empty spot on her desk where her computer should be.

She could handle the material loss and her computer was automatically backed up off-site several times a day. The mess, on the other hand, would be a nightmare to clean up. Claire gave a tiny whimper and closed her eyes, dreading the hours and days of work

Скачать книгу