Rick made some mistakes as a boy, and as a young man, his worst was hurting Grace Evans. His heart still belongs to her, even if she doesn’t know it. Unfortunately, in the last confrontation between them, she demanded he never speak to her again.
Now, Grace’s best friend (and Rick’s sister) Hannah has invited her to a ten-day summer work-vacation to babysit Hannah’s teen cousins. A palatial cabin, a patio boat on the lake, and all the comforts of the rich and famous at their fingertips? A vacation made in heaven.
At least until they arrive and Grace finds Rick there. And neither can leave. Rick’s car is in pieces in the garage, and Grace forgot her driver’s license at home.
How will Grace survive it? Can she find a way to forgive? Can Rick learn to take
responsibility for his past mistakes? And even if they succeed, what will they do when Rick’s most recent wantabe girlfriend shows up on their doorstep, determined to make Rick hers?
Susan raised a tribe of children, making ends meet as a registered nurse and lactation consultant, and now her tribe members have tribes of their own and she doesn’t get to see enough of them. She loves to travel and is thrilled with a good movie or a great book, but writing is her passion. She writes almost anything, especially epic fantasy and romance.
Susan would love to hear your comments. Please review her book at your favorite retailer or at Goodreads. Take a peek at her website, susantietjen.blogspot.com, and/ or drop her a note at:
stietjen.author@gmail.com.
Top Ten List:
- My husband and I have seven children between us and twenty-two grandchildren. We would need five seven-passenger vans to take all of us somewhere together. My mother passed away almost three years ago, but my father just turned 92 and is a WWII vet. He was in the navy and was stationed in San Francisco. Our youngest grandchild just turned 2 in April.
- I love to garden, and roses are my favorite flowers. After that, in no particular order, are irises, fuchsias, pansies, and gladioli. I also love carnations (which I can’t grow), but I love to stop and smell them when vendors peddle flowers on the streets.
- I’ve always been horse-crazy and loved the opportunities I had as a teenager and young adult to ride, show and train horses. I love Quarter horses and Morgans, but I am in awe of all of them, everything from the mystical Friesian, to the Lipizzaner, to the adorable miniature horse and the Budweiser Clydesdales. Arabs, Paints, and gaited horses take my breath away.
- I love to travel. I’ve been to twenty of the states in the US and lived in three of them: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. I wish I could travel to other countries. Mexico is the extent of my forays over the border, but I’m not dead yet!
- Besides reading and writing, I love everything “artsy.” I learned to play the violin and dabbled at the piano and the organ. As a child, I learned to oil paint, acrylic paint, and water color. I took lessons as a child from a wonderful artist who was one of the judges for the Seattle Worlds’ Fair in 1962. I only knew him as Mr. Porter, but I was delighted years later to have him as a high school art teacher, too. He was a wonderful artist and a fun teacher.
- I love needlework and have won many awards with crocheting and knitting. I just took Best of Show at our Del Norte County Fair this August with a crocheted tablecloth. A couple of years ago, I took Best of Show with a cabled sweater in Utah’s Weber County Fair, and the year before that I took the Sweepstakes Award for a beautiful knitted shawl. I’ve been submitting to fairs for decades, and other than for one exception, I’ve never taken anything less than 1st place.
- If I had one other talent besides writing that I think I could excel at, it would be photography. I’ve had a few okay cameras, but my goal is to someday get a really nice one. The right camera and the right lenses make all the difference in the world. One of my daughters is a pro, and I’m so proud of her—but I wish she could be my teacher. I see a beautiful “picture” in the world around me and wish I could capture both what I see and what I feel about it. A good photographer can do that.
- I love to cook, but I also love to create recipes. I have plans to publish my own cookbook someday, but for now, I just keep playing with recipes until I get them right for our family. At this point, I have more than 300 of them.
- I’m an RN, but I spent a good part of my career as an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. Breastfeeding isn’t for everyone, and yes, there are people who can’t. Some women have no interest, and I completely understand. I was there, however, for the new mom who really wanted to get off on the right foot with it, and I worked hand-in-hand with pediatricians and families in working out difficulties from helping the mom with milk supply problems, the baby with disabilities, and the family that is suffering the loss or the impending loss of a baby.
- My husband used to be a professional truck driver for a well-known shipping company. I had the chance to travel with him from Utah to Arizona to see his cousin. It was quite an experience. We as a nation have no idea how hard that job is, and I came away with a deeper respect for the sacrifice many people make to bring us the goods and food supplies that we tend to take for granted.