Free Lover's Knot by Emilie Richards

decision.”
    Kendra gazed at the car. It really deserved better than a driver who was terrified to turn the key. She wiped her damp palms on the legs of her jeans. “Let’s do it.”
    “I will be right beside you.”
    Kendra crossed the clearing and unlocked the door to slide behind the wheel. Elisa got in beside her and put on her seat belt. Kendra followed suit. She took a deep, shaky breath, then, before she could change her mind, put the key in the ignition. The car purred to life.
    Kendra’s hand was trembling on the gearshift. But she shifted into Reverse and touched the gas pedal. She backed up slowly until she could turn the wheel and position the car on the gravel drive that led out to Fitch Crossing Road.
    “How am I doing so far?” she said, her voice pitched too high.
    “You drive like a pro.”
    “That was only Reverse.”
    “If worse comes to worst you can turn around and back up all the way to the parsonage.”
    Despite herself, Kendra laughed. “I can do this.”
    “I have no doubts. Let’s go see that barn.”
    The driveway was worse than she remembered, but the new car knew exactly what to do with the ruts and bumps. By the time she finished carefully navigating her way to Fitch Crossing, she felt confident enough to pull onto the larger road. She had it to herself and gently increased her speed.
    “Sam drove the car to the cabin,” Elisa said. “He claimed since it was new it might have some kinks that needed working out, so he told me to drive ours, and he drove this one.”
    “And you fell for that?”
    “I let him have his fun.”
    Kendra drove faster until her speed approached half of what was considered normal on the country road. But her hands no longer had a death grip on the wheel, and her spine was unlocking, one vertebra at a time. In a matter of minutes they neared Carter’s Mill Road, and Kendra slowed to a crawl.
    “I hope the barn will have a For Sale sign.”
    They spotted it just before the crossroads. The two-story barn stood back on a hillside, about fifty yards from Fitch Crossing, an architectural skeleton that had been stripped of siding so that only the huge old logs were exposed. Kendra judged it had held perhaps six stalls on each side, with lots of room in between for extras. There was a hand-lettered sign tacked up on the end facing the road.
    “It won’t last long,” Elisa said. “Somebody’s going to buy it. There is such an emphasis these days on using old things in new ways. Someone will see the possibilities.”
    Kendra pulled into the drive leading up to the barn and stopped with the engine running. “It’s a lot of barn.”
    “It would triple the size of your house.”
    Kendra had seen enough. She was definitely interested. “I’ll call Manning Rosslyn and see what he has to say.” She backed out to take Elisa home.
    At the brick ranch parsonage, Elisa patted her arm in congratulations. “You drive like you were born to it. You will be all right going back?”
    Kendra didn’t want to give that too much thought. “I’m on the road again, I guess.”
    Driving home, she forced herself to breathe deeply when other cars passed and panic stirred. But by the time she pulled up to the clearing, she knew she could get behind the wheel again tomorrow. And to make sure she would, she promised herself a shopping trip to buy porch furniture.
    Inside, she hung the keys on a nail and settled into the rocker, pulling Leah’s quilt over legs that were still faintly trembling. As she rocked she fingered the panels, closing her eyes and letting her mind drift.
    Despite Isaac’s lack of interest, she planned to indulge her curiosity about the woman he had never known. But even after seven years of marriage, she was just as curious about the real Isaac Taylor. She wasn’t sure what uncovering information about Isaac’s birth family would teach her about the man, but she hoped it would teach her something.
    She snuggled deeper into the Lover’s Knot quilt