Heart's Design: A Contemporary Christian Romance

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

Heart’s Design
is © 2015 by JoAnn Durgin. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce in whole or in part in any form or medium.

All Scripture contained within is from the New American Standard Bible. Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the author.
 

Cover Design:
Lynnette Bonner/Indie Cover Design
    
 

About the Author
~~♥~~

In addition to
Heart’s Design
, JoAnn Durgin is the author of the beloved contemporary Christian romance series, The Lewis Legacy Series:
Awakening
,
Second Time Around
,
Twin Hearts
,
Daydreams
, and
Moonbeams
, as well as
Prelude
, Prequel to The Lewis Legacy Series. JoAnn is also the author of the Amazon bestselling
Catching Serenity
as well as novellas and short novels including
Love So Amazing
(The Wondrous Love Series, Book 1),
Echoes of Edinburgh
and the popular Starlight Christmas Series:
Meet Me Under the Mistletoe
,
Starlight, Star Bright
and
Sleigh Ride Together with You
.

JoAnn loves to hear from her readers! Please feel free to contact her:

Website:

www.joanndurgin.com

Facebook:

www.facebook.com/authorjoanndurgin

You can find all of JoAnn Durgin’s books on her Amazon Author Page:

http://amzn.to/18hIgIC
 

If you enjoy
Heart’s Design
, please consider leaving a review on Amazon. Positive reviews and word-of-mouth recommendations truly honor an author and are the most effective ways to help others find quality Christian fiction.

From the Author
~~♥~~

This book is dedicated to my precious family, friends, and readers who have supported me in my writing journey. I have felt your encouragement and prayers, and I thank you most sincerely.

Every time I sit at the computer to write, I ask the Lord for His guiding hand upon me so that I may tell the story He has given to me to share. I realize how
blessed
I am to say I’ve never suffered from a lack of inspiration for characters and their stories. In fact, there aren’t enough hours in the day.

To be able to write for the Lord’s glory is my high honor and privilege, and what talent I have will never be squandered nor taken for granted.

My promise to you is that, as long as the Lord allows, I will continue to bring you the best stories I can to uplift and inspire you to live fully, love completely, and never forget the love the Savior has for each of you. Embrace His love with open arms, my friends.

His love
never
fails.

JoAnn Durgin

Matthew 5:16

Heart’s Design
Book Description
~~♥~~

Caroline wants to grab hold of the future. Seth can’t let go of the past.

Recent Wellesley College graduate Caroline Prescott’s future is set in stone. After Harvard Law School, she’ll step into place beside her two brothers in their father’s legendary Boston law firm. Caroline secretly longs for the quiet, peaceful life and a career designing jewelry with precious gemstones instead of life as a hotshot Boston attorney.

On a hiking trip with her two best friends weeks before entering law school, Caroline meets Seth Barnes in charming Evergreen, Maine. A mineralogist and part-time college professor, Seth drives a truck sporting an
I Dig Rocks
license plate, lives in hiking clothes, flannel shirts and jeans, and loves Jesus.

Two years later, when they meet again, Caroline and Seth confront both the promise of possibility and the pain of past heartaches. What’s a girl to do when the man she secretly loves has a serious girlfriend and seems determined to hold her at arm’s length? And what’s a guy to do when he can’t stay away from a certain irresistible woman no matter how hard he tries? Does the Lord have His own design for their hearts?

Heart’s Design
, a story filled with love, friendship, family, and the power of forgiveness.

Heart’s Design
Theme Scripture Verses
~~♥~~

2 Corinthians 5:17-21

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he
is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
 
Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
(Caroline)

Matthew 6:14-15

For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.

(Seth)

Ephesians 4:31-32

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

(Both Caroline and Seth)

Chapter 1

Early August

~~♥~~

Breathing in the pure mountain air, Caroline Prescott lifted her face to the sky. This had to be pretty close to what heaven is like
. Good job, God.
Not that she normally thought about heaven or God, but the foothills of western Maine, with the majestic White Mountains rising behind them, wrapped her in their beauty and heightened her every sense. This region she’d never visited before made her feel as though she was coming…home. Strange. How was that even possible?

Water. Maybe she should drink some water since it was quite possible she was dehydrated and delusional. Digging into the pocket of her backpack, Caroline pulled out the water bottle and downed half its contents before stopping.

“If I don’t get a decent meal and a hot shower soon, I’m going to die. How’d I ever let you two talk me into this torture?” Katherine Corrigan stopped beside Caroline on the two-lane country road. Bent over, hands on both knees, her breathing was labored.

Caroline tucked the water bottle back in its place and readjusted her sunglasses. “Last time I checked, gross exaggeration wasn’t a valid cause of death, delivered with a charming southern accent or not.” Kat’s issue wasn’t stamina. A stellar athlete, she’d won every tennis match her senior year at Wellesley College and then soared to the state title. She’d also played a lead role in most of their college drama productions.

The corners of Kat’s mouth twitched. “Want to bet I’ll have a gold statue celebrating my acting achievement within five years?”

“I’ll take that bet, my friend.” Paulina Graham’s perfectly arched brows shot upward.  “You won’t earn one for humility, that’s for sure. I’ll say one thing: we’ve proven to the naysayers that we can survive three nights in the forest without being eaten by wild bears or going through designer shoe withdrawal.” She shot a pointed look at Kat.

“Speak for yourself. These hiking boots are the height of fashion.” Kat raised one long, slender, shorts-clad leg in the air and rotated it. Even in hiking gear, the girl was effortlessly beautiful. And barely covered. The past two days in the mountains they’d basically lived in workout gear—long nylon pants and long-sleeved shirts—with bug spray their perfume out of necessity, not by choice.

As they’d dressed that morning, Kat had pulled on a tiny pair of shorts, a barely-there tank top, and declared her freedom from restraining clothing. “It’s August and I’m putting the shorts back on if I have to pay the price with bug bites,” she’d said. In contrast, Paulina always dressed more conservatively and wore long denim shorts with a sleeveless cotton top and a jacket slung around her shoulders.

Caroline’s gaze traveled over her own pink T-shirt and khaki shorts. She grinned when she reached her sturdy brown hiking boots. Her mother had been stunned speechless, a rarity, when Caroline paraded onto the marble foyer of their Beacon Hill home and announced her intention to go hiking with her two best friends from Wellesley. These boots killed her ankles, and it’d taken two solid weeks to break them in. She’d gotten some interesting glances stomping around the streets of downtown Boston wearing her power suits and the boots as she’d run errands while clerking for her dad’s law firm. One thing she’d learned: Epsom salts were a gift from God.

Huh. There it was again. The God thing.

Her mother’s words came to her mind. “You obviously haven’t thought this plan through, Caroline. You’re a well-educated young woman from one of the finest, oldest families in the Social Register. Why on earth would you want to go traipsing about in some God-forsaken wilderness like some common mountain person?” Eleanor Prescott had waved her well-manicured hand in the air and wrinkled her perfectly sculpted nose in disdain. As always, her words were delivered with the proper, clipped tones befitting a woman who’d known nothing but wealth and privilege her entire life.

Leave me alone, Mother. Not here. Not now.

Her mother probably considered this trip a passing fancy indicative of her only daughter’s stubborn nature. Caroline counted that quality as one of the better Prescott traits she’d inherited from her father.
Thank you, Dad.
After almost 22 years, her mother should have known her chastising words couldn’t deter her from doing something she’d set her mind on doing.

In all the things that mattered most, Caroline always followed the rules. Always did the expected. She’d earned a few days away. Matter of fact, it’d been
her
idea to escape the constant pressure which had ramped up considerably since her graduation from Wellesley in late May. Paulina and Kat had been more than happy to come along for the adventure, calling it their “last fling” before going their separate ways—Kat to seek fame on Broadway, Paulina to her marketing job in Philly, and Caroline to the hallowed halls of Harvard Law School, the alma mater of her father as well as her two older brothers.

“I vote we find a place to land for the night,” Paulina said. “I’m pretty sure I stink, and I can’t sleep with myself another night without a shower. How far to the nearest civilization, fearless leader?”

“Hold up a minute and I’ll check.” After lowering her backpack and rolled sleeping bag to the ground, Caroline rotated her sore shoulder and tucked a thick strand of blonde hair back into her unruly ponytail. “And you don’t stink. You’re. . .earthy.”

Kat laughed. “You’re too politically correct for your own good, Prescott, but it’ll serve you well when you’re Boston’s newest hotshot attorney.” She moved closer to Paulina and wrinkled her nose. Paulina swatted her and they quibbled over the rights to the last apple in their waning food supply.

After locating the serrated knife from her backpack, Caroline grabbed the apple from Kat’s hands. With one clean swipe, she sliced it down the middle before handing half to each of them. “Here you go. Partake in good health.”

“Thanks.” Paulina grinned as she polished her half on her lightweight sweatshirt. “Always the peacemaker. Good thing you’ve got excellent eye-to-hand coordination skills or we could have had ourselves a tragedy on our hands just now.”

Caroline wiped off the blade, wrapped the knife in a paper towel, and then replaced it in her backpack. Then she pulled out the map and squinted in the glare of the late morning sun. The early August temperature was near perfect. New England weather, even in the summer months, was the best. Not too hot or too humid and just enough of a breeze.

With the banter of her friends in the background, Caroline’s thoughts dwelled on her family. Again. Talk about dysfunction. She’d come on this trip to get away. Seemed that hadn’t worked out so well. Heaven knows, Duncan Prescott had spent a lot of money for his wife’s psychiatric care through the years. He never seemed to mind as long as Eleanor adorned his arm for the many obligatory charitable and civic functions befitting a man of his status. Coming from scrappy beginnings in a not-so-prosperous area of Boston, hard work and a strong work ethic had propelled her dad to the top of the legal profession.

Always an overachiever, Duncan had been determined to build his name without the benefit of Mom’s long established, old money connections. He’d succeeded. That same drive had also been a detriment in his relationship with Caroline’s mother. Eleanor had been raised by nannies and butlers. A pampered, spoiled woman who’d been taught from the crib never to raise her voice except in the most extreme circumstances. Doing so would be deemed improper and undignified. Emotions were forever kept in check, tempers moderated to the point of mediocrity.

“You’ve got the look again.” Taking a bite of the apple, chomping on it, Paulina studied Caroline.

“What look is that?” As if she needed to ask. Thank goodness for the sunglasses. Caroline schooled her features into an expression of neutrality, an irony if ever there was one. Maybe she’d picked up more of her mother’s bad habits than she’d realized. Perhaps unkindly, she’d termed it the “Botox effect.” Not even a fissure or a hairline crack was permitted, and Eleanor had become a master of camouflaging her emotions to her own family as well as the outside world.

“Like a woman facing the gallows.” Paulina’s glance was empathetic. “Reality will hit you—hit all of us—in the face soon enough.” After taking the last bite of her apple, she grabbed a small plastic bag from her backpack and tossed the core inside.

Wrong, my friend. That reality has smacked me in the face all my life.

“You tell it like it is, and that’s why I love you, my friend. Thanks for keeping me straight.” Caroline pulled Paulina into a quick hug. Her friend knew as well as she did that the trip was only bandaging a larger, festering problem. But, at least for now, her advice was wise. As best she could, she’d push aside the troubling thoughts.

Caroline rolled the map and returned it to the outside pocket of her backpack. “If we stay the current course, we should be a little over a mile away from a little town called Evergreen. Sounds charming, don’t you think?”

Kat shook her head, sending her long, auburn ponytail swinging. “You sound like a seafaring captain.” She gave her a one-handed salute. “As long as Evergreen has a place to rest my head, running water and decent food, then I’m good.”

“Maybe kismet, karma, or whatever is leading us there.” Paulina shrugged her slender shoulders and ran a hand through her short, stylishly cut dark hair. “Sounds good to me. Might as well head there and find a place to stay.”

As they began walking again, Caroline frowned. Something about Paulina’s comment didn’t sit right. None of the three of them had been raised in a church with any regularity. From the time she’d been a child, Caroline’s world had revolved around the logical, the finite and tangible. What she could see and feel as opposed to the idea of a higher being who ruled the world and lived in people’s hearts. But karma? Kismet?

“I’m not sure I can accept that as truth.” Although her voice barely registered above a whisper, Caroline knew they’d heard.

Paulina’s glance conveyed her skepticism. “What do you mean?”

Inhaling a quick breath, Caroline wondered how she could put her feelings into words that might make some kind of sense. In their four years together at Wellesley, and living in the same house the past two years, they’d quibbled over plenty of silly issues and hotly debated others, but never once had they touched on anything to do with religion.

“Karma or kismet don’t have anything to do with God from what little I know.” Caroline flicked a pesky bug off the front of her T-shirt. “God is a name Dad calls upon to bless our food on holidays before we get into a rousing discussion of politics or history. Or some higher power a minister calls upon to bless a couple at their wedding or a departed soul at a funeral. We’ve never talked about God as if He’s real and lives in our hearts the way I know some people do.”

“You must be talking about Christians.” Kat’s frown mirrored Paulina’s as they walked three across on the side of the narrow road. “I dated a guy once who claimed to be born again.
Once
being the key word. I can’t recommend it. I thank God all the time, but it’s an expression. Doesn’t mean I believe in all that mumbo jumbo. If you ask me, it’s a crutch that insecure people use when they can’t figure out things for themselves. Caroline, don’t tell me you’re getting all religious on us all of a sudden. Where’s this coming from?”

“I’m not sure.” Although honest, that explanation sounded inadequate. “There’s something about being here in this place.” Caroline motioned to the foothills with the White Mountain range in the background as she struggled to find the right words. “I can’t help but wonder how it all came to be, you know?”

“Easy.” Paulina bumped her fists together. “The Big Bang theory works for me.”

“Yeah, me too,” Kat said. “You’re welcome to your own theory, Caroline. Just promise you won’t start spouting Bible verses, singing ‘Kumbaya,’ and trying to convert us to Jesus. That would be too weird.” Caroline’s quick glance at Paulina, who nodded with more enthusiasm than was warranted, confirmed her agreement with Kat’s sentiment.

“All I’m saying is we should keep an open mind to the possibility that science and logic can’t explain everything.”

“Whatever you say as long as you lead us to the nearest town.” Kat offered her the last of her apple. “Here. You finish it. Don’t mind my heathen germs.”

Caroline took the apple and bit into it, ignoring Kat’s barb. She’d rather focus on how refreshing the apple tasted. Maybe it had something to do with being in the outdoors, but it quenched the dryness in her mouth. When Paulina held open the bag a minute later, Caroline tossed the empty core inside. Kat and Paulina were right about one thing. Nothing sounded better than the promise of a long, hot shower and a home-cooked meal. They’d stay a night or two and then hop the train back to Boston.

“My, my. I vote we follow
that
guy.”

Glancing to the opposite side of the road where Kat pointed, Caroline spied a man hiking a good five hundred yards or more ahead of them. Broad shoulders strained a red T-shirt and khaki shorts revealed his strong, tanned, muscular legs. He carried an oversized, heavy-looking backpack and wore the requisite hiking boots as he maintained a brisk pace. The gnarled wood walking stick was the final tip-off this guy was no novice and took his hiking seriously.

“Where’d he come from?” Paulina retrieved her belongings. “I mean, seriously? He wasn’t anywhere in sight a couple of minutes ago. Whoa. Come to mama.”