Take Care, Sara

 
     
    Take Care, Sara
     
     
     
    Lindy Zart
     
     
     
     
    Take Care, Sara
    Lindy Zart
    Published by Lindy Zart
    Copyright 2013 Lindy Zart
    All rights reserved.
    Cover Design Copyright 2013 by Eden Crane Design
     
     
    License Notes
    This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
     
     
    This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
     
     
     
    Also by Lindy Zart
     
    Charmed
Charmed Again
    Safe and Sound
    Dating Husbands
    Ordinary
     
     
     
    Take Care, Sara
     
     
     
    Many, many thanks to my awesome beta readers: Tawnya Peltonen, Kim Drake, Tiffany Alfson, Migdalia Gerena, Shane Lucas, Judith Frazee, Ana Love, Melissa Yoder, Kendra Gaither, and Robin Nichols. Thanks so much for all your input. You are greatly appreciated.
     
    Thanks to Lauren Marie Sloan for the name inspiration of Cole Walker and Jessica Ryba for the name inspiration of Mason Wells.
     
    Special thanks to Cassie Chavez.
    I don’t know if I would have finished this without urging from you. I know I wouldn’t have finished it this soon.
    Thank you!
     
    This is dedicated to Tawnya Peltonen and Judith Frazee for the simple reason you are exceptional, humorous, wonderful ladies that I am so glad I had the fortune to never meet. You know what I mean.
    And that really isn’t a “simple” reason at all.
    Again, you know what I mean.
     
     
     
    Table of Contents:
    CHAPTER 1
    CHAPTER 2
    CHAPTER 3
    CHAPTER 4
    CHAPTER 5
    CHAPTER 6
    CHAPTER 7
    CHAPTER 8
    CHAPTER 9
    CHAPTER 10
    CHAPTER 11
    CHAPTER 12
    CHAPTER 13
    CHAPTER 14
    CHAPTER 15
    CHAPTER 16
    CHAPTER 17
    CHAPTER 18
    EPILOGUE

 
     
     
    1
     
     
     
    He asked her name and smiled.
    It wasn’t the blueness of his eyes or the crinkles around them when he grinned. The brown softness of his hair or the way it curled on the nape of his neck didn’t come close. The masculine beauty of his face; plain, but so much more, and yet nothing more than average wasn’t it either. It wasn’t any of those things that had made her pause and pretend her heart didn’t speed up, though the blush of her skin proved otherwise.
    It was all of that and as little as that.
    Sara blinked and drew in a ragged breath. Her eyes took in her surroundings, a reminder of where she was and what she was about to do. The park was empty, which was just as well. The wind was picking up, caressing her dark brown hair and sweeping it up and around her head.
    She had realized something over the recent months: it didn’t matter who you were or what you’d accomplished in life; none of that mattered when tragedy struck. You had no pull; no power. You had no choice. There was nothing to gamble with; nothing to do to put the odds in your favor. You were there and then you were gone, leaving those around you to realize how insignificant they all really were; leaving them to try to pick up the destroyed pieces. Sara knew now. No one mattered, not really.
    The sun, making a brief appearance moments ago, was once again behind the clouds, and it was fitting somehow. Why should the sun shine on this day, as though to applaud her actions? Sara’s flesh was bumpy and tingly and her teeth lightly chattered together.
    She looked down and reflexively jerked back. It had seemed so simple earlier, so very easy. Now that she was about to do it, it wasn‘t as uncomplicated as she‘d thought.
    “Don’t,” she told herself, “don’t you dare be a coward.”
    Sara squeezed her eyes tight against the burning wetness. It trickled past the closed eyelids and made jagged trails down her cold cheeks. He had always loved her eyes, said they were like warm chocolate. Sara let out a shaky laugh. He wouldn’t think they were so lovable right now, would he? The laughter abruptly cut off and Sara forced her eyes open.
    It registered in her mind that she was clutching her midsection, as though to hold the pain in, and she let her arms drop to her