Shoulda Been A Cowboy. Charlotte Douglas

with sorrow and a sense of loss, Ethan sank onto the running board of his pickup. “I had no idea. She sounded so much younger in her postings and on the phone. So…alive.”

      Caroline smiled through her sadness. “That was Eileen in a nutshell.”

      Ethan had known that Eileen was a widow and a good bit older than he was, but he’d never guessed that she was in her nineties. When he’d confided to the support group that he needed to get away from Baltimore to try to put his life back together, she’d offered to rent her cottage with a promise of as much peace and quiet as he wanted. And she’d been savvy as well as generous. Fearing that he’d withdraw into a shell in the isolation of Orchard Cottage, she’d insisted that he share meals with her. She’d made the demand under the guise of needing company, but he’d known better. Eileen Bickerstaff had seemed too self-sufficient to need anyone.