The Winds of Change

Fall is just around the corner, the kids are back in school, it is almost time to yank the sweatshirts from the closet.  As fall approaches the air turns crisp, the scent of leaves hangs heavy in the air, and we pull the last of this year’s harvest from the vine. We close up the pool, put away our gardening tools, and maybe pick up a book or two to read when the weather is damp and gloomy.

So much like everything else, my blog will change slightly too, beginning September 1^st.  Since gardening topics peter out over the course of the winter, I will only cover gardening on Mondays.  I’ll talk about winterizing your garden, what an avid gardener does during the cold months, and how to get a head start on your garden for spring 2015.

On Wednesdays, I’ll post garden ideas and topics de jour.

On Fridays, I will post a chapter a week from my story Romancing Summer. 

I hope you enjoy the changes and come next spring I’ll start back to my two-time a week garden schedule.

Romancing summer is about: 

Mason Alexander, paramedic and father, made one mistake too many and it cost him the love of his childhood sweetheart—Summer Madison. After his wife tires of his do-good ways and files for a divorce, Mason returns to his home town to start over and provide a solid home for his six-year-old son, Justin. Then when Summer walks back into his life, he wants to believe God is offering him a second chance at love. The problem is she wants nothing to do with him.

They had grown up together, been best of friends, and planned to marry until Mason's indiscretion drove him into a loveless marriage based on nothing more than responsibility. Despite starting a new family, he had never stopped loving Summer. 

Summer Madison returns to her memory-infested home town for one reason only—to take care of her grandfather. She expects to see Mason Alexander occasionally, but within her first twenty-four hours of returning to Shady Meadow? Life couldn’t be so cruel.

But as time goes on, Summer finds herself struggling with her feelings toward Mason. He's become a dedicated, honest, and respectable man. All the qualities she ever wanted in a husband. But the fact that he walked out on her six years prior, begs the question . . . if a man breaks your heart, do you give him the chance to break it again? Not knowing what to do, she follows her sister's advice—just be his friend.              

Nearly drowning as a child instilled a fear of water in Mason. His father's death in the waters of Lake Erie shortly thereafter, solidified it. However, when Summer stands toe to toe with him in the pool, encouraging him, and reminding him to breathe, he begins to overcome his fear. Then for the first time, he shares with Summer the details about his father’s boating accident and the guilt he has lived with since he was a child.

As much as Summer tries not to fall in love with Mason again, she has. As he opens his heart to her, shares the fear-filled memories that has held him captive since his childhood, she vows to do whatever it takes to help him achieve his goal—to take his son swimming. And with Summer's help, Mason accomplishes the impossible.

Summer wants to believe Mason is the man for her. Every other man she’s dated has fallen short of the large footprint he left in her life. Her soul. Her heart. It has taken her nearly six years to come to grips with their past, and when she does she realizes he did the right thing under the circumstances.

But when her Grandfather dies after suffering a stroke and Mason fails to keep his promise to attend her future, she believes he has left her again.  Only when both of them turn their pasts over to God will the two be able to overcome their past to build a future.