Hawken's Heart
Chapter One
One year earlier
It was only two days after Thanksgiving, but the city streets were already
decked with wreaths and bows and Christmas lights.
The cheery colors and festive sparkle seemed to mock Nell Burns as she
drove through the city. She'd come into Washington, D.C. that morning to
do a number of errands. Get a new supply of watercolor paper and paint for
Daisy. Stop at the health food store and get more of that nasty seaweed
stuff. Pick up the admiral's dress uniform from the dry cleaners near the
Pentagon. It had been a week since Jake had been in town, and it looked as
if it would be a while before he returned.
Nell had saved the hardest, most unpleasant task for last. But now there
was no avoiding it.
She double-checked the address she'd scribbled on a Post-it note, slowing
as she drove past the high-rise building that bore the same number.
There was a parking spot open, right on the street, and she slipped into
it, turning off her engine and pulling up the brake.
But instead of getting out of her car, Nell sat there.
What on earth was she going to say?
It was bad enough that in just a few minutes she was going to be knocking
on William Hawken's ... read full excerpt from It Came Upon a Midnight Clear ebook
