Valley of Shadow
an excerpt

Finished with her selection, her arms full, she made her way toward the counter in the back. For a couple of minutes she had actually forgotten to worry about the children. Now that she looked around the store, her heart starting to race again. Where were they? Both of the, and the stranger, were gone. What had she done…? She was almost in a full blown panic when both Dalton and Anica from the hall that lead to the bathrooms, followed by the man. When he saw her expression his grimaced slightly.
“Sorry about that. Anica heard old Cotton scratching at the back and she went running. Dalton and I went to get her.” He explained. Adrienne’s first impulse was to snap at him again, but she could see the children were okay. She had to get control of herself.
“Ole Cotton is his dog,” Dalton cried in delight, “a HUGE one!”
“He’s Max’s dog, actually. The fellow who owns this store. I’m just minding things for him for awhile.” The man said, his smile showing a small dent just at the corner. “I’m Luke, by the way.” This time he offered his hand and, not wanting to be rude, Adrienne took it. At the same time she tried to not look at his eyes. The last thing she needed was a flirtation right now. And it was tempting. She couldn’t remember the last time a man looked at her with any sort of real interest, and that included her own husband.
“I don’t want to be rude,” she said, pulling her hand from his. The warmth of his hand stayed on hers, as if it had been imprinted there and Adrienne swallowed a sudden lump in her throat. “I need to check out. I want to set up camp before it gets dark.”
Adrienne wished she could take back her words as soon as she said them. She was getting flustered and giving away too much information.
Camp? Luke examined the woman out of the corner of his eye as he rang up her purchases. She hadn’t given her name when he introduced himself. It was obvious she didn’t want to answer questions. Even the kids were acting a little skittish. Something was going on with them. Something not good.