0 (14) Contemporary Romance: LIKE LIGHT REFRACTED

TITLE: Like Light Refracted
GENRE: Contemporary Romance

When recovering alcoholic and cancer survivor Annette Miller takes charge of a historic Minnesota lighthouse, she gets more adventure than she bargained for in artist and fellow AA member Nils Egeland. But opening up to love exposes old wounds, and when a family crisis strikes, she must come to terms with her past to preserve her sobriety and her first chance at happiness in years.

If there was anything more perfect than cruising down Highway 61 on a June morning with The Boss on the stereo, Nils had yet to discover it. Oh yeah, he believed in a promised land. Here it was: Lake Superior glistening on the left, trees leafing up the hills to the right, and the dark flank of Palisade Head rising against a blue sky in front of him.

He couldn't have asked for a better day to start the paintings he owed Thordahl. Good thing. He'd already lost the first two weeks of tourist season; if this project was going to pay, he needed to get those prints into the Split Rock gift shop now.

At Silver Bay, he turned off the highway and climbed the long hill to High's Diner. Nothing had changed here while he was gone. The poster for the high school musical still hung in the dusty front window, a month after the show had ended. Pete Hakala still hadn't fixed the side panel on his F-150 from when he clipped that deer in November. Lazy S.O.B.

"Egeland!" Clint Hansen waved from their booth.

Nils limped forward, his bad leg stiff from yesterday's drive. Da**it. Summer and Springsteen notwithstanding, right now, he felt about as beat up as Hakala's piece-of-s*** truck.

He slid into the seat across from Clint, next to Jeff Palo. "When did you get back?" the pastor asked.

"Last night." Under the table, Nils massaged the old break. "Drove straight through from Ottawa."