Dark and Stormy
Page 18
And no telling what would happen in the future.
Isaac joined me outside. “There’s just one thing that I regret about the last two weeks.”
We both leaned against the back wall of the kitchen. Drinking in the cold fresh air and the star-studded night sky.
“What would that be?” I brushed the back of my bare hand against his gloved one.
“I regret giving you a reason to think that like Rolf, I take what I can from girls without their consent.” His voice broke.
I slipped my fingers into his. “I don’t think that about you.”
“But you did, for a moment.”
“I might have. But you…you did a stupid thing, and you felt awful about it. That’s enough for now.”
“I would never force myself on you. Neither in the physical sense nor in a relationship. I know you said that you’d never be forward and kiss me, and that’s okay.” He turned, a smile on his face despite his serious tone. “We live in close quarters at Tillgiven, and I have a feeling the only way to live through the year with our integrity intact is to stop right now.”
My heart fell. Stop? Was he dumping me?
“The kissing, I mean. You won’t kiss me, and I won’t kiss you. That way, we will avoid as much temptation as possible.”
I was disappointed. I admit. Because kissing him in the right romantic circumstances was probably my number one goal.
“I guess we can do anything for the rest of the school year.”
“Or do nothing as the case may be.”
I laughed even though his joke was stupid.
Then we walked under the stars and talked—about God and Thor, and Christmas and pigs feet and Jansen’s Temptation—until well after curfew. But we didn’t kiss, so that was something.
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AUTHOR’S NOTE
During the 1996-1997 school year, and the summer after, I had the privilege of being a student at the Holsby Brunn, Sweden campus of the Torchbearers Bible School. It was the best year of my pre-married life and the most important part of my education. It was also a little bit like a year of summer camp, therefore the perfect setting for any number of mysteries and romances.
Tillgiven Bible School is inspired by my year overseas, but it is fiction, and so is the larger organization it is a part of that runs the school. I would never disrespect the actual Torchbearers school system because it means so much to me. Plus, I need Tillgiven to be run in a way that suits my plot, so I don’t have to twist the plot to suit an existing school system.
Tillgiven Bible School, the staff and students of the school, and the town of Brunn Vatten, Sweden, are completely fictional. Any resemblance between them (apart from being in Sweden, being a Bible school, and having a medicinal well) is coincidental. I have worked with a student from the 1986-1987 class of the Torchbearers Bible School in Sweden to ensure that, to the best of our ability, nothing created for the purpose of this book could be mistaken for reality. Besides, the shenanigans the students got up to while I was there would be too unbelievable for fiction!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
When not writing, Traci accompanies her mandolin-playing husband on the spoons, and knits socks.
She is the author of the Tillgiven Romantic Mysteries, the Plain Jane Mystery Series, the Mitzy Neuhaus Mysteries, and Hearts to God, a Christian historical romance novella. She was the Mystery/Suspense Category winner for the 2012 Christian Writers of the West Phoenix Rattler Contest, and has a Drammy from the Portland Civic Theatre Guild. Traci served as the vice president of the Portland chapter of the American Christian Fiction Writers Association.
Traci earned a degree in history from Portland State University and still lives in the rainiest part of the Pacific Northwest with her husband, their two daughters, and their dogs, Dr. Watson and Archie Goodwin.
Traci’s photo by Jessie Kirk Photography.
Find all Traci’s books at tracihilton.com/books
Connect with Traci at Facebook.com/TraciTHilton or
tracityne@hotmail.com
Also by Traci Tyne Hilton
The Plain Jane Mysteries
Good Clean Murder
Dirty Little Murder
Bright New Murder
Health, Wealth and Murder
Spoiled Rotten Murder
The Tillgiven Romantic Mysteries
Hard to Find
Dark and Stormy
The Mitzy Neuhaus Mysteries
Foreclosed
Eminent Domain
Buyer’s Remorse
Frozen Assets
Dark and Stormy: A Tillgiven Romantic Mystery
Copyright 2015 Traci Tyne Hilton
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof
may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever
without the express written permission of the publisher
except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN-13: 978-1507699676
ISBN-10: 1507699670
Proverbs 31 House LLC
tracityne@hotmail.com
tracihilton.com
proverbs31house.com
Table of Contents
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY-ONE
TWENTY-TWO
TWENTY-THREE
TWENTY-FOUR
TWENTY-FIVE
TWENTY-SIX
TWENTY-SEVEN
TWENTY-EIGHT
AUTHOR’S NOTE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY-ONE
TWENTY-TWO
TWENTY-THREE
TWENTY-FOUR
TWENTY-FIVE
TWENTY-SIX
TWENTY-SEVEN
TWENTY-EIGHT
AUTHOR’S NOTE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Table of Contents