The Easter Miracle of Love (Preview)

Chapter One

“Thank you, Mrs. Galloway! I hope we see you again soon,” Samantha said with a smile as she passed the last box of carefully packed Triple Vanilla Chocolate to the pint-sized, kindly woman whose arms were already toppling with seven others. 

“The wee ones will be very pleased!” Mrs. Galloway replied, her face invisible behind the boxes. “I’ll try not to eat too many of them myself on the way home, but it will require all the strength I have.”

Samantha laughed pleasantly, the tinkle of her voice mingling with the sound of the door chime as Mrs. Galloway left the Maxfield Denver Chocolate Shop. Truly, one of the best parts of Samantha’s job was making others smile, and selling chocolate made that very easy.

“What children is she talking about? That woman doesn’t have any children unless she’s made some appear out of thin air,” Samantha’s brother muttered with a slight chuckle. She moved aside out of instinct, making room for him to replace the empty display tray of chocolates in the glass display case.

“She’s not talking about her own children, obviously,” she chided, in that loose way that siblings often use with one another. “She’s bringing chocolates to the new orphans who have just arrived in from out east. It’s a good deed she’s doing, really.”

“Ah, I see. What do you bet she’ll have eaten half of those boxes by the time she gets to the orphanage?” Fletcher replied playfully. 

Samantha turned to scold him, looking up at the brother who almost looked like the mirror image of herself. They shared the same bright, almost white-blonde hair, and ice-blue eyes, though Fletcher stood almost a head and a half taller than her. Before she could tell him off for speaking so flippantly about Mrs. Galloway, who was such a charitable staple of the Denver community, their father came bumbling into the shop, his arms full of empty baskets. 

“Oh good! I see that neither of you is busy. Before dinner, I need you both to fill these baskets with chocolate creams and caramels in equal measure and run them over to the Miller General Store and Rutger’s Shop. But you must be home in time for dinner! Did I say as much already?” Mr. Maxfield said, scrunching his nose in confusion.

Samantha and Fletcher both held in their laughter. Their father could be stubborn, but he was no great disciplinarian, especially with six woven baskets hanging off each of his arms. It struck Samantha as amusing that the man the city knew to be a poised business maven actually did many of the menial tasks himself. Mr. Maxfield’s silhouette was emblazoned on all the chocolate boxes that left the shop, and yet, he insisted that no one but him could organize the deliveries.

“We’ll be on time for dinner; no need to worry,” Samantha assured her father, flashing him her best smile. Since her sister left home one year earlier to get married, Samantha had been left as the golden daughter in her father’s eye, and it was a place she wanted to live up to with all her heart. 

“Good, good. Your mother’s arranged for a special roast, I believe. She’s been in the kitchen all day with Hilda. Oh! Are those the church bells? It’s after five already. I’d best get home, and you should both hurry up.” 

Mr. Maxfield left the baskets and rushed out the door, doubling back to turn the “open” sign in the front window to “closed” before leaving. 

After he left, Fletcher and Samantha got to work quickly. They did well together, moving in unspoken synchronicity as they closed down the shop and filled the baskets to take to Miller’s and Rutger’s, two of the Maxfield Denver Chocolate Shop’s largest carriers. 

The kitchen was ship-shape by the time they locked the doors behind them, and the shop looked like something out of a picture book. Samantha often fancied herself the kind of heroine from the books she read, but her story would be about a brave girl in a new city opening her own candy store. It would have a red and white awning and the kind of window displays that would make all the passing children tug at their mother’s arms. She’d rather leave the detective adventures and frontier murder plots to someone else.

Soon enough, Samantha was out the door with her brother, arms full of baskets that were no longer empty but full of delicious chocolates sure to please any palate. Denver was a bustling city with roads full of passing trolleys, horses and carriages, and carts topped with fruits and vegetables. But the two of them, with their precious goods, certainly stood out thanks to their cargo. Everyone smiled at them as they passed by, offering pleasant waves and excited glances, taking in the delicious smell that followed them. 

“Does it seem to you like Mama is even more excited than usual about Easter this year? It’s still a month away, and she’s already baking and making decorations as if it’s next week,” Fletcher asked as they walked, managing the bulk in their arms. As much as he liked to give the impression he was a mischievous trickster, Fletcher was actually quite sensitive, and noticed family dynamics that often flew over Samantha’s head. 

“Easter is her favorite holiday. She looks forward to it all year, and this is the first with a grandchild to celebrate with,” Samantha reminded him. 

“I doubt little baby Ethel will notice or remember how many painted eggs we have, but if it makes her happy, then I suppose Mama should paint a hundred a day and bake a thousand hot cross buns.”

Before Samantha could respond, a voice coming from behind stopped the brother and sister in their place.

“Hasn’t anyone told you it’s illegal to carry around that many sweets at one time?” The voice carried a good deal of authority, but Samantha wasn’t nervous for a moment. 

“Cassidy! If you want some chocolate, you just have to ask. No need to arrest us or anything,” Samantha shot back without turning around, a sly smile on her face.

“Except you hardly give me any when I stop by the shop! I swear, being the sheriff’s daughter hardly gets me any perks around this town. Here, let me help you. Where are you off to?” Cassidy asked, nodding her head at Fletcher and taking a basket from each of them.

Though they were the best of friends, Samantha and Cassidy had very little in common besides a love of chocolate and each other. When Samantha’s family first moved to Denver from Chicago, she hadn’t had a friend in the world. Cassidy would come into the shop each and every day, asking about the different kinds of sweets until she knew almost as much about the shop as Samantha did. 

“Wait! Don’t tell me where you’re going. I’ll guess. Let’s see now… we’re close to Larimer Square, and the only store there that carries Maxfield chocolate is… Rutger’s! Am I right?” Cassidy asked gleefully, already knowing the answer.

“Yes, you’re partially right, but we’re only taking half the baskets there,” Fletcher added, encouraging the guessing game. As the daughter of Denver’s sheriff, Cassidy had long ago developed a keen sense of investigation. She loved to ask questions and could see what most couldn’t in a split second. 

As Cassidy continued to pepper them with queries, Samantha shifted the weight of the baskets on her arms and pulled her coat up around her neck. Though there was the hint that winter was ending, there was still a chill. Suddenly, there was a change in the air and the whinnying scream of a spooked horse soared over them. Samantha almost slipped on the lingering ice underneath her feet and struggled to catch herself. Crowded by people, Samantha couldn’t see what was happening around her. 

She turned to look at her brother, just in time to see his face explode with horror as their fellow townsfolk started fleeing to the sides of the street‌. She could see that he was screaming her name, but the sound never hit her ears. Instead, a warm, strong hug encircled her, squeezing the breath out of her lungs and lifting her feet from the ground.

A second later, she was flat on her back, looking up at the sky while those same strong arms held her safe. Above them, the spooked horse leaped, having escaped from his reins. Just feet to Samantha’s right, the toppled horse’s’ wagon came to a screeching halt. Protecting her with his body, the man on top of her held out his hand to make sure Samantha remained untouched by the wayward cart or any of its escaped contents. 

All she could hear was the pumping of her own blood in her ears. Samantha tried to make sense of what had just happened. The man who had pulled her away to safety in the first place propped himself up, and his face came into focus. He was handsome. Shockingly so. His worried green eyes pierced Samantha’s as she tried to catch her breath, and for a moment, she felt pure peace. 

Then she recognized him. 

“Cole?” she muttered, coughing on a bit of snow kicked up by the now subdued horse. Instead of answering, he climbed to his feet and took her hands in his, sweeping her up to standing. Based on the width of his shoulders, she ought to have known he would be so strong, but it still surprised her. She wobbled slightly, resting on his solid arm for support. It was nothing like how her brother’s or father’s arms felt. 

“Are you alright, Miss Maxfield?” Cole asked. 

Gathering herself, Samantha let go of him and smoothed her apron down, imagining what a complete mess her bonnet and hair must be. Chocolates were strewn on the street all around her, but to their credit, everyone nearby was helping Cassidy refill the baskets instead of lining their pockets with the sweets. Fletcher, of course, was getting into an argument with the wagon’s owner over his reckless driving.

“What happened?” Samantha didn’t like how demanding her voice sounded, but there wasn’t much she was in control of. 

“A horse spooked. Tipped over the cart and came careening down the street. I saw that the horse was coming your way, and so I thought I’d better do something about it,” he explained. He spoke so softly that it was hard to hear him, but Samantha caught the gist of it. 

“Oh, well, thank you. If you’ll excuse me, I should be-”

“Samantha, are you alright? I’ve just had a very serious word with that driver about riding so fast. What did he think he was doing? I thought you were going to get clobbered. Are you really alright? Where’s Cassidy?” Fletcher asked, rushing to Samantha’s side and checking her cheeks for bruises. 

“I’m right here! Putting all these baskets back together!” Cassidy called out from her place on the ground. She’d worked fast, and almost everything was back to how it had been before the fateful crash.

“I’m fine. I think. I’m not really sure… everything happened so fast. Cole happened to see me, and…” Samantha trailed off, looking around for her reluctant hero, but he was nowhere to be seen. Somehow, in the split second she’d been talking to her brother, he’d just disappeared into the crowded street.

“I thought he looked familiar. I wanted to thank him for saving you, but I guess I’ll have to get him another time. He is the man I’m thinking of, right? Cole Becker?” Fletcher asked, his eyes narrowed. 

“That’s right. Cole Becker.” 

“Wayne’s younger brother,” Cassidy stated, standing up with the fixed baskets. Her curly red hair was loose and almost as wild as her eyes as she held out the goods to Samantha and Fletcher. The name “Wayne” hung in the air.

Eventually, the three of them got moving once more. After all the bits and bobs had been accounted for and no one seemed gravely injured, the incident and identity of Samantha’s rescuer was still on her mind. 

Samantha didn’t know Cole very well at all, so it was strange to still have the feeling of his warm, rough, blacksmith’s hands on her wrists so clearly. About a year and a half earlier, Samantha’s older sister, Amelia, had been engaged to Cole’s older brother, Wayne. The engagement had not ended well. Wayne’s eye wandered, and Amelia’s heart paid the price. 

Amelia was happily married now to a man her father had introduced her to. They even had a child who was almost six months old, sweet baby Ethel. Amelia had made it clear that she felt the past was in the past, but Samantha still held a grudge against Wayne, the man who’d hurt her sister so. She alone could tell that Amelia was just pushing the heartbreak away out of convenience, and not because she was truly past all the feelings of betrayal. No matter how often Amelia insisted that the marriage her parents had arranged for her was for the best, Samantha still believed there was a romantic side to her sister that had been dashed across the coals. 

“I know we’re not supposed to like Cole, but forgive me… I can’t quite remember why. Why is it that we don’t like him?” Cassidy asked after a few minutes of walking in silence. “It was so long ago… it seems so foggy.”

Samantha answered before anyone Fletcher could. “Because he knew his brother Wayne was going about town with that Sophie girl, and yet he said nothing. He knew his brother was engaged to another woman and stood by silently! For that, I can never forgive him.” 

“I mean to say… he did just save your life, didn’t he?” Cassidy muttered softly. 

“Well, he was walking by and saw that I was in danger. Anyone would have done the same. Fletcher would have saved me himself if he’d been able to reach me in time, right?” 

“Of course! Still, a man can change, you know,” Fletcher added.

Samantha rolled her eyes, anger rising inside of her. Yes, she was grateful that Cole had happened to be in the right place at the right time, but she would never be able to look past what he’d let happen to Amelia. There had been many a night when Samantha had held her crying sister by the shaking shoulders. It was not a memory she would soon forget.

“It’s unlikely. I’ll tell you that much. Regardless, I have no interest in finding out whether he’s a changed man or not. It was very nice of him to help me. It isn’t as if I owe him anything else.” 

She hoped her statement would put an end to the discussion, but she could tell that Cassidy was rolling her eyes beside her. Luckily, they soon happened upon Rutger’s, where they dropped off the first six baskets of chocolate. After they made it to Miller’s General Store, Fletcher and Cassidy stopped talking about Cole Becker altogether, though the near crash with the cart and horse was on everyone’s lips.

Samantha looked up at the tall buildings around them as they approached home, and she tried to forget about his piercing, worried eyes looking into hers. She knew a man like Cole couldn’t possibly hold as much empathy in his heart as the man who’d saved her seemed to. It was all an act. She was sure of it. 

Chapter Two

Cole walked away from the accident without looking back. Everything was under control, and he knew when he wasn’t wanted. For what reason, he wasn’t sure, but Samantha Maxfield in particular had always looked at him with an inexplicable coldness. Perhaps it was a rudeness meant for his brother, and Cole was simply guilty by association in her eyes.

He resented being painted with the same brush as Wayne, especially as the whole affair between him and Samantha’s sister had taken place ages ago. Hadn’t time healed those wounds yet? It seemed unnecessarily painful to hang on to the ills of the past, especially when Amelia Maxfield had moved on. From what he knew, she was happily married. There was a time when they had truly loved each other, and Cole still didn’t understand why his brother had betrayed Amelia so, but he’d long ago stopped trying to explain the human condition.

There was probably a better explanation for Samantha’s disdain. More likely, she was just a snobby rich girl who thought poorly of a lowly blacksmith like him touching or being near her. Even when Wayne had been courting Amelia, Samantha had always been standoffish. Cole didn’t need to ask to know what she was thinking. Her family owned a fine business, kept their hands clean, and served Denver’s finest and best-dressed citizens. His family worked with horses’ hooves and wagon wheels. Their hands were rough with callouses. 

Still, he wasn’t going to let Samantha Maxfield die just because she was too impolite to thank him properly. Not even the spoiled deserved to be trampled by a horse and cart. 

He tried to turn his mind to other matters. The sight of Samantha’s impossibly blue eyes staring up from below him, coupled with a gentle, glowing sweat on her brow, made it very difficult. It was supremely unfair that such beauty should be given to such a soured soul, but so it was. One smile from her would probably send his pulse racing (should she ever deign to flash him one), despite the fact that he thought she was likely rotten inside. 

Despite himself, Cole placed some blame on people like Samantha for his brother’s decision to leave town. It was the sideways glances, cruel comments, closed doors, and turned backs that made Wayne decide to leave Denver and try his luck in California. Wayne had hoped his absence would help the family business since many folks had turned their backs on them after how he’d treated Amelia. Business remained difficult without him, however, and now Cole just missed his brother. 

Cole quickened his pace, knowing that his friend Luke would be toiling all the harder in the workshop while he was gone. Soon, the blacksmith shop appeared in the distance, at the end of a street that backed onto a field of debris where a rooming house had once stood. Three years ago, it had burned down, and no one had seen fit to erect anything else there. 

The blacksmith shop his father had built many years ago still stood firm and proud, regardless of the other stores opening and closing all around them. Times had changed since Becker Sr. had started the shop, but he’d always been able to pivot their services to what was needed by the city. It was the reason they’d survived as long as they had, and it was why Cole trusted his father’s stalwart good sense more than anyone else’s. 

“Took your time, didn’t you?” Luke teased predictably as Cole stepped back inside the barn doors of the boiling blacksmith shop. 

“Well, you’d be late coming back from deliveries too if a horse spooked in the middle of Larimer Square, toppled the wagon, and went careening straight into Samantha Maxfield,” Cole revealed, immediately explaining the disturbing events of the afternoon. 

Luke had stood by Cole despite the Wayne and Amelia affair. He’d been one of the few people in the neighborhood who hadn’t turned on him or his brother. Instead, he’d taken up a lot of the work that Wayne had left in his wake. In many ways, Luke was the stocky, good-natured brother Cole had thought he’d had in Wayne.

“Samantha Maxfield? Is she alright? I heard she’s made of sugar, after all. I hope she didn’t crumble after one brush of a rogue horse’s tail.” Luke laughed. Cole found himself on the brink of defending her, having had a first-hand view of just what a dangerous position she’d been in, but he stopped himself and laughed along instead.

“She’s fine. I had to pull her out of the way, or else she would have ended up like a flattened chocolate waffle.”

“Let me guess. Instead of thanking you for saving her life, she scolded you for touching her with your dirty hands?” 

Cole forced out another chuckle. “She didn’t say it out loud, but that’s definitely what her eyes were saying. I think she might have muttered out a ‘thank you,’ but she certainly wasn’t brimming with gratitude. It’s fine. I wasn’t expecting anything else. What are you working on?”

“Another wheel hub. We’ll be nothing more than a horseshoe and carriage repair shop before long, not with all these factories opening up. I heard the Filmore blacksmith shop down on Blake Street closed down. Further west, there are no factories to compete with, yet.” 

“Well, that ought to mean we have more business to ourselves here,” Cole replied, trying to keep an optimistic attitude. The last couple of months had been hard on the shop, but Cole was sure his father knew what he was doing. They’d gotten through hard times before, and they would again. Spring was in the air, and the clouds would surely break soon.

He started to tie his apron on again, wanting to finish the last two horses that were waiting before their owners would be back for them by the end of the day. Luckily, Luke didn’t seem to want to dwell on the slowness of the business either and quickly changed the subject.

“Was the sheriff’s daughter with Samantha? Cassidy Hunter?”

Cole had no idea why his friend would ask such a thing, but he was just glad the question wasn’t about his next week’s pay. Luke had left his family in New York City to make his fortune out west, and occasionally he would send money back to them. Cole was dreading the day when Luke might have to move on to greener pastures. 

“The red-haired, freckled girl?”

“Yes, that’s right. Her.”

“She was there. Odd-looking thing.”

Luke shrugged. “I don’t know. I think she’s alright. Better than the stuck-up Miss Maxfield. I don’t know why they’re friends. I heard Cassidy’s been helping her father out down at the station. Not often you meet a girl who’s interested in detective work.” 

“Luke Flint, do you fancy the girl?” Cole asked while he took measure of the horse’s hoof size before moving to the fire. 

“So what if I do? As long as I fancy one at a time, I think it’s a good thing. You don’t think… you don’t think Samantha, being her friend, might hurt my chances with her?”

“Why would it?” Cole smashed the soon-to-be horseshoe with his hammer, annoyed that questions such as these were still haunting him. 

“You know. Samantha doesn’t like you, and I’m your best friend. Samantha’s the kind of girl to warn Cassidy against someone like me. She might think I’m the type of man to do… to do what your brother did.” 

Again, Cole brought his hammer down hard. A bead of sweat dripped off his brow, immediately evaporating as it hit the red-hot horseshoe. 

“If you think she’s that much better than Samantha, then she won’t make the same judgments of people. To be honest, I think what Wayne did has little to do with why Samantha doesn’t care for me. She only thinks about her fine dresses and sweets. If she warns Cassidy away from you, it will be because of what you do for a living.”

Neither of them said anything for a bit, each bent over their work. They moved back at forth from the fire like coordinated dancers, knowing instinctively what to pass one another and when they needed to move to make room. The clanging echoed through the barn, making for hot work that Cole knew few were cut out for. His father was too frail for the job now, though he sometimes came into the shop when the workload was too much for just Cole and Luke to tackle on their own. 

Cole’s mother hadn’t stepped foot in the place since Wayne’s departure, not because she didn’t want to see the place without him, but because she’d fallen quite ill in his absence. At night, her coughs rattled through the thin walls of the adjoining house. There was nothing the doctors could do, but everyone silently believed that if prosperity returned to the business, her condition would improve. 

“Did you know that Wayne was running about town with Sophie?” Luke asked out of nowhere. 

The question took Cole very much by surprise. He put down his hammer and looked up at Luke, who’d also put his down. They hadn’t really talked about the details of the affair at the time, and as the months went on, it seemed less and less important. Life went on.

“Not at first. Not for long,” Cole confessed for the first time. The guilt he’d tried to forget for a long time seized in his chest. 

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I… I knew he was friendly with the baker’s daughter. I thought that’s all it was. He really did care about Amelia. Then one day, just two weeks before he was to marry Amelia…” 

“What happened?” Luke pressed quietly. 

“I was taking out the wastewater. There, in the back alley, I saw Wayne kissing Sophie. Poor girl’s been shunned worse than he ever was. At least Wayne had the option of leaving town. I doubt Sophie will ever make a good marriage or escape all the ignorant comments.”

It was true. In all the mess that Wayne had left behind him, it was Sophie who had carried the heaviest burden. As a man with a skilled trade under his belt, Wayne was free to escape the wagging tongues and make a fresh start somewhere new where no one knew anything about his past. Sophie was still the baker’s daughter, and she still had to serve the same prying customers day in and day out. 

“What did you do?”

“I confronted Wayne. We had an argument about it. I told him he had to call things off with Amelia. He didn’t want to, so I seriously considered telling her myself. It seemed wrong to let him go through with the marriage when his heart lay elsewhere, both for himself and Amelia. Two days later, however, she called it off herself. I don’t know how she found out about Sophie, but it wasn’t from me,” Cole confessed. 

Luke nodded, taking in all the new information. Cole dearly wished they could go back to hammering and laughing at the occasional odd joke or horse’s bray, but the conversation could not be avoided now. 

“I understand. I would have done the same, I’m sure. Strange that we never talked about it until now.”

Cole shrugged. “It was all very painful. Working with you let me pretend that everything was normal. Everything felt like the old world, only… Wayne wasn’t here. That’s all. You became the brother he couldn’t be.” 

Just then, the venerable Mr. Becker strolled into the shop, his hands in the pockets of his worn-down trousers. His shoulders were slimmer than they’d ever been in his life, but Cole’s father still maintained his intimidating height and intense glare. Cole and Luke fell silent, not wanting to continue their discussion in front of the patriarch.

“Good evening, Father. You’re looking well today. How’s Mother?” Cole asked. Knowing how important consistency and productivity were to his father, Cole went back to the horse, picking up the last hoof, holding it between his knees, and affixing the show on it. 

“She’s as well as can be expected. Cough has worsened somewhat, but the air has been particularly dry this season. With spring here, I hope she’ll improve. I heard there was some kind of accident in Larimer Square. Did you run into it, Cole?”

He flashed a look at Luke before looking back down at his work and addressing his father again. The last thing he wanted to do was mention the Maxfield name and put his father in a rotten mood for the rest of the night. 

“Yes, I did see it. No one was hurt though, thankfully.”

“Good, good. Listen, I’ve come to tell you that Abdiel is going to start his apprenticeship with you next week.” 

Cole bristled. His youngest and last brother was only nine years old. He was far too young to start working. No matter how desperate they were, he wouldn’t stand by and let Abdiel take on the work of an adult. 

“Abdiel has only just learned his letters. He needs to stay in school for another four or five years at least, don’t you think?” Cole protested. Wayne had been forced to stop school early to start working, but Cole had been lucky enough to stay through all the way. It was a privilege he wanted to extend to the younger generations instead of moving backward.

“Don’t worry. He’s going to come straight to the workshop after school, only after the bell’s rung. I want him just as educated as you are, but we can’t afford to spend two straight years training him once he’s finished at school. You know that as well as I do, Cole. Best to get him started now.” 

His father gave him a significant look and nodded his head before leaving again. Cole knew exactly what he was referring to. When Cole was a child, they’d built a house beside the blacksmith shop big enough for the whole family. It put an end to their time at the boarding house. Finally, there was plenty of room for the boys to run around to their hearts’ content.

What was a secret to everyone but Cole was that his father had taken out a large loan to pay for the house. Even fifteen years later, he was still paying it off. Now that business was getting worse, the payments were getting harder and harder to make each month. It didn’t feel right to Cole, but his father probably knew best. If starting Abdiel out in the workshop was what they needed to do, then Cole would make sure he got the best training possible.

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“The Easter Miracle of Love” is an Amazon Best-Selling novel, check it out here!

Samantha Maxfield is the perfect daughter. Working at her family’s chocolate shop brings her great joy, and her ability to brighten even the dreariest of winter days has endeared her to a beloved figure in Denver. She’s even agreeable when her parents first introduce her to the man they’ve arranged for her to marry; a wealthy, fun-loving, and impressive man of business. Despite his shady reputation, Samantha trusts that her father knows best with regard to her future husband.

However, fate has other plans for Samantha when a certain blacksmith, Cole Becker, steps into her life…

Cole is a man of few words, but his piercing blue eyes and rugged charm could leave anyone breathless. Despite his initial wariness towards the privileged city girl, once he discovers her gentle, charitable, and carefree personality he can’t stop tumbling down the road toward love. Yet, when her husband-to-be catches wind of their flirtation, he does everything he can to make sure Cole stays far, far away from her.

Except, Cole is not one to back down from a challenge, especially when it comes to the woman he loves.

Easter, the busiest time of year at the chocolate shop, comes and goes, while Samantha and Cole find themselves drawn ever closer. With the help of their faith, their love only grows stronger. Will Samantha have the courage to stand up to her fiancé and follow her heart, or will she be forced to marry a man who will never truly love her?

“The Easter Miracle of Love” is a historical western romance novel of approximately 80,000 words. No cheating, no cliffhangers, and a guaranteed happily ever after.

Get your copy from Amazon!