Burning Memories

By B.J. Daniels

USA Today bestselling author B.J. Daniels offers three short stories set in her beloved state of Montana.

In Burning Memories, Adelle thinks she has lost everything. That is until a grass fire threatens to take not only her house, but the man who wants to give her a reason to live again.

In Just Like Riding a Bike, Tom thinks a lot of things in life are behind him until a woman comes riding by his house on a bicycle with a squeaky pedal.

In A Little Good Advice, Grandma Carlton has her own ideas about love and the perfect man for her granddaughter Kylie. It takes a rodeo and a reminder of a boy from her past for Kylie to realize her grandmother might be right.

• Language: English
• Publisher: B.J. Daniels
• Release date: Jun 14, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458132338

B.J. Daniels

New York Times and USA Today bestselling authorB.J. Daniels lives in Montana with her husband, Parker, and two springerspaniels. When not writing, she quilts, boats and always has a book or two to read. Contact her at www.bjdaniels.com, on Facebook at B.J. Daniels or through her reader group the B.J.Daniels' Big Sky Darlings, and on twitter at bjdanielsauthor.

Book preview

Burning Memories

By B.J. Daniels

Copyright 2011 B.J. Daniels

Smashwords Edition

Table of Contents

Burning Memories

Just Like Riding a Bike

A Little Good Advice

A Clear Cut Case

Later she couldn’t remember what had made her look up from the dishes she was washing. She gazed out through the dusty kitchen window to rows of dried cornstalks standing golden in the sun.

Beyond the garden, ripened grain shimmered in waves of heat. A hot wind sucked at the faded green gingham curtains at the window, drawing her attention to the far horizon.

What Adelle saw made her drop the half-washed cup in her hand. It shattered on the edge of the porcelain sink unnoticed as she stared at the skyline.

Where the wheat fields turned to foothills, a rough edge of charcoal gray stained the summer sky.

The dishrag slipped from her fingers.

Let me be wrong, she whispered as she turned and ran for the front porch. Please. Let me be wrong.

At the rickety old screen door, a fly buzzed lazily against the puckered screen, reminding her of another summer day when she’d opened the same door to bad news.

Just three summers before, she’d pushed open the screen to find Sheriff Hanson standing with his head down, his hat in his hands.

I’m sorry, Adelle. It’s William. He’s been in an accident.

His gaze had dropped again to the porch floor, the same porch where she and William had spent warm evenings watching the lights come on across the wide valley.

I’m afraid he’s dead, the sheriff said.

They’d married young. Adelle hadn’t been quite 18. William had just turned 20. Everyone said the marriage wouldn’t last.

On the day Sheriff Hanson knocked at her door, Adelle became a 32-year-old widow.

She brushed back a wisp of hair from her face as she shoved the screen door aside and hurried out to the edge of the porch.

Just as she’d feared, there it was along the thin line of the horizon.

Smoke.

She gripped the porch railing.

Grass fire.

As she watched, smoke trailed across the skyline, the plume growing larger as the seconds ticked by. The wind carried the wail of sirens and a promise.

She closed her eyes, recognizing that promise. The house stood directly in the fire’s path. The wind, now whirling her hair playfully around her face, would eventually bring the blaze. She and the large old farmhouse William loved would be