When We Were In Heaven ~ A Love Story

By Robynne Rand

Sarah Atwater is on the fast track to life. Finalizing the deal with her firm’s latest client has secured her a coveted partnership, which means she and her fiancé can finally plan their wedding. Until the unthinkable happens.

One minute, she’s on a plane headed home from Charlotte, the next she’s stuck in Kennedy Plaza in downtown Providence watching the buses depart with passengers. Funny thing is she doesn’t know how she got there. And why is she wearing her old clothes? Her cell phone is missing; she has no money, and has no clue how to get home.

Then she meets Michael, a strange man, who seemingly knows everything about her. He smells like cotton candy and brings her breakfast.

Sarah thinks she’s stuck in a dream, but when Michael finally reveals the truth of her situation, it’s up to Sarah to fight for her very life. But when she does, her life isn’t what it used to be. She’s not the same person, and the longing for something she never wanted takes hold of her and won’t let go.

The question is – will she ever find it?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Robynne Rand
• Release date: Feb 11, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463425206

Robynne Rand

Robynne Rand grew up on the shores of Rhode Island. Now living in the Foothills of the Piedmont in North Carolina with her daughter, two dogs, and a cat named Henry David Thoreau, she writes about home and the people she misses.Rand also writes Regency romance under the pen name Anne Gallagher.

Book preview

When We Were In Heaven

Robynne Rand

Shore Road Publishing

Bethania, NC 27010

U.S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2013 Shore Road Publishing

All rights reserved

The reproduction or utilization of this work, in whole, in part, in any form by any print, electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of any copyrighted materials in any form. To do so is a violation of the author’s rights.

Cover by Logan Hendricks © 2019

Cover Photo by keencarlene/www.morguefile.com

FF 2.11.19

When We Were In Heaven

One

Sarah Atwater walked quickly along the concourse at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport. The Kate Spade bag she used for overnighters hung from her shoulder and banged into her thighs. Ticket in one hand, phone in the other, Sarah stopped to look at the departure board. The flight to Providence was on time. She glanced out the long windows, thankful she had left the hotel before the rain started and hoped the other passengers wouldn’t dally. Getting up at the ungodly hour of four a.m. had already put her in an over-caffeinated state and just thinking of what she needed to do at the office had her jumpy. She didn’t need a delay.

As she started to walk through the TSA line, her phone rang. She took off her jacket and shoes, dropped them in the bin along with her purse, and answered on the third ring.

Good morning, Mom.

How did you know it was me?

Sarah smiled. Her mother’s picture stared at her from the phone. Who else would call me at five in the morning? What’s up? She put the overnight bag in the next bin.

Daddy wanted me to confirm your arrival. You know how he gets.

I’m still on time. Sarah walked through the ex-ray machine and it beeped.

Sorry, miss, the guard said. You can’t be on the phone as you go through.

Sarah stepped back and smiled sheepishly at the other passengers waiting. Look, Mom, I’ve got to go. I’ll call you back.

No, don’t bother. I’ll just tell your father you’ll be there on time. Love you.

Love you, too, Mom. I’ll see you in a few hours. Bye. She slid through ex-ray. Gathering her jacket, overnighter, and purse, Sarah slipped on her shoes before she headed to the food court. She needed something to settle the coffee in her stomach. She hated coffee, but it was the only caffeine the hotel offered. At the McDonald’s, she bought a chocolate milk and gulped it down. It would have to do until she got home. Her mother, she knew, would have breakfast waiting.

Walking to Gate 11, she smiled as she passed a mother and baby sleeping on the uncomfortable chairs. Just a few more years and that could be her. Glad she and Ted had decided to wait a little while longer before getting married, at thirty-two, Sarah still didn’t think she was old enough. Or financially stable enough. Let me make partner first, she’d said. And he’d agreed.

And here she was. Noreen had said if she could pull off the Goldenham deal, the partnership belonged to her. Bennett, Karpinski, and Atwater had a very nice ring to it. She’d been with the architectural firm for a decade, since graduating from RISD, moving her way up slowly but surely over the years. Noreen had finally taken Max’s advice. Nor, we can’t keep passing her over. She might quit, open up her own shop, and where would that leave us. He’d said it in front of Sarah and she blushed, thinking of it now. Max was unconventional, a hippie, a renegade, not only in his character, but with his architectural designs as well. His influence was I. M. Pei, and everything Max built was with glass, chrome, and geometric shapes. He said he liked the cleanliness of it.

Noreen, on the other hand, was pure Boston Brahmin, with descendants of the Lowell’s on one side, Peabody’s on the other. Dedicated to the art of restoration, her work was lauded as the best in 18th and 19th century remodeling.

Sarah was not modern, nor was she classical. Her main love was contemporary beach design developed from the style of the Martha Stewart boom in the 90’s. Big flowing rooms, white wainscoting, sea blues and greens, with a touch of yellow or red for contrast. Her latest client, Mrs. David Goldenham, was a wealthy New Englander wintering in Charlotte. She had bought the old Greene estate in Narragansett and wanted it completely redone. Unfortunately, none of Sarah’s designs had wowed the woman at their first meeting last summer. Over the course of the next several months, she had approved the reworked plans Sarah had sent via email, but Goldi, as she liked to be called, wanted to hold the final sketches in her hand and meet with Sarah personally to go over the changes. She refused to leave Charlotte, so Sarah had flown to her. With the final details in place, Sarah had called Noreen right after the meeting.

So, what did Goldi have to say? Noreen asked.

Sarah smiled into the phone. She approved everything I showed her, but she wanted the bathrooms changed a bit. Nothing major, so it’s a go whenever we want Charlie to start the demo.

That’s great, Sarah. What time is your flight?

Six. I took the first one out. I should land by eight-thirty and be in the office by ten.

Ten? Noreen asked.

My mother wants to see me first. Make sure I’m safe. She hates to fly.

"Okay, but try to get in a little earlier than that. Treadwell’s coming down and I want you in on the