Emma

to Begin Again

by Debbie Brown

Cover links to Amazon

As an ER nurse, Emma knows life can change in the blink of an eye. When fate comes knocking, she finds herself far away from the city and back on the mountain ranch where she grew up -with the intention to close up and sell the house so she can move on.

But fate isn’t done with her yet, and that’s when she finds him, the one Two-Feathers calls ‘Star Brother’. Wounded and unconscious, Emma assumes he’s a military test pilot, until he opens his amethyst eyes and stares into the very essence of her being.

Praise for Emma

"Emma" is an original romantic science fiction tale with a twist. As an emerging talent, Ms. Brown weaves a tale that I have never read before with colourful characters that are quite uniquely believable, the situations realistic and the dialogue outstanding mixed in with a big dose of mystery and intrigue really makes this an excellent choice for anyone's reading list.

Excerpt

Emma walked into the dark living room and was immediately assaulted by the smell of abandon and neglect. She coughed and raised a hand to her mouth. No matter, she could manage to improve it somewhat, she hoped. Her heart felt heavy as she realized just how lonely this place felt. Unpacking would have to wait until she’d managed to clean up a bit first. In any case, all she had to do was perk it up so she could sell it; then she’d be gone from here for good.

The room looked like something from an old creepy movie, complete with cobwebs and drop cloth covered furniture. This had been her grandparent’s farm house, where she had lived with her parents, but the only ghosts here were the ones inside of her. Ghosts that haunted her day and night, no matter what she did. Swallowing her guilt, she held back her tears. It had been five years since her parents had died flying out to her graduation and it was time she took care of business. Life as a nurse and teacher in Vancouver had kept her busy, had allowed her to ignore her responsibilities, but with her roommates moving on, it was time for her to deal with her past. She was done teaching at the university until September, and had taken personal time off from the hospital. She had four months to finally settle her affairs.

Emma surveyed the room again, feeling small before the task at hand, and in all honesty, she didn’t know where to start. Dust caught in her nose as she opened the curtains. Room after room, she pulled open the drapes, letting daylight in, and secretly hoping the light would somehow reach her soul. The broom still hung in the mudroom, just off the kitchen as expected. Everything was as she’d remembered, everything that is, except for the loneliness, something that had never been there before. She shivered and pushed the thoughts away.

Back at her starting point, she swept around the covered furniture, pushing the dust right out the door and onto the wooden porch that ran around the two-story house. The vacuum would come later, once the electricity had been restored. No one had come back here since her parents had passed away, since the funeral, she realized, and no one had even bothered to clean out their belongings. As an only child, she couldn’t blame anyone but herself. Somehow, she hoped she could go on and rekindle the spark that had fuelled her love of life so long ago. She’d tried to ignore her loss, throwing herself into her work in the city, but with her roommates, Renata and Maggie moving on, the past had come rushing back to slam into her with a force that had shaken her, leaving her right back where she’d been five years ago.

Author Bio

Over the years I have worked as a nurse, a school teacher, a martial arts instructor, baseball, figure-skating and gymnastics coach as well as an artist, selling my paintings in an art gallery. I have been part of an orchestra, flown planes and gone on wilderness hikes. I am an officer in the Canadian Forces, and though I have taught on different military bases, for now I work primarily with cadets. Writing full time is my next goal.

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