It was a rainy day in Hope Valley, New York. The rain had fallen all night and even though it was early in the morning, the sun had not come out yet. Elizabeth Thatcher used to love the rain as a child. She would run through puddles as a child with her sisters, never wanting to come inside. When her parents finally got her in the house, she would sit by the window and watch the rain fall for hours.
Not anymore. Elizabeth sat huddled on the couch with her knees up to her chest. She had a cup of coffee in her hands with a blanket around her and all the blinds in the house were closed. If it hadn't been for the sound of the rain hitting her roof and the windows, she wouldn't have even realized it was raining. She was grateful it was Saturday so she didn't have to make an excuse as to why she wouldn't be at work.
Elizabeth picked up the remote from her coffee table and turned on the tv. She turned on a movie from the list on her DVR and sat there as it began to play. She didn't care which one it was, she just wanted to drown out the sound of the rain. She looked up and it was one of her favorite romantic movies. She settled into the couch and began to watch.
Her home was a one-story house that she had purchased three years ago when she moved to Hope Valley. She had come to town from Chicago where she had lived most of her life. Her family was part of society in Chicago and her father owned a very successful business there. In Chicago, if Elizabeth said her last name was 'Thatcher', everyone knew who her family was. The town of Hope Valley was so small that no one knew who she was and if they did, they didn't care. The people were kind and treated her just like everyone else which she appreciated.
After the movie ended, Elizabeth realized she couldn't hear the rain anymore. She hesitantly walked over to her front window and moved the blinds slightly to peek through them. She saw that the ground was wet but the rain had stopped. Elizabeth took a deep breath of relief. She set the blinds back in place and then walked to the kitchen to get something to eat.
Elizabeth stood in the kitchen with a million thoughts running through her head. She came to Hope Valley for a change three years ago, but if she was honest with herself she was running away. There was too much in Chicago that reminded her of the life she had. The life that she thought she was going to have in the future. Too many things reminded her of him.
She met Jack while walking on the street outside of her father's office. It was raining so she grabbed her umbrella and went outside between meetings. She had worked for her father as his assistant since she had graduated from college. As she stood looking up at the sky, she stepped off the curb not noticing that a cab was heading right for her. Jack had pulled her back onto the curb and she almost fell over if he hadn't been holding her up.
Jack was an assistant district attorney in Chicago. The two of them had dated for five years before Jack proposed. Elizabeth was thrilled and she wanted to plan a wedding as soon as possible. Jack wouldn't agree to a date telling her that they had all the time in the world. Elizabeth thought he might have been putting it off because Jack never got along with her father. Elizabeth told Jack it didn't matter but it did worry her.
A month before their sixth anniversary, Jack called her to cancel a date saying that he needed to go into the office for a case. Elizabeth didn't want him to go because it was late and it was raining. Jack told her not to worry and he would call her later. Elizabeth fell asleep on the couch waiting for Jack to call. When she woke up in the morning, she saw that she had five missed calls from Jack's mother, Charlotte. She called her back and all that Elizabeth heard was crying on the other end of the phone. After a few minutes, Charlotte told her that Jack had been driving home late and he had crashed his car. The road was wet and he lost control. There was nothing anyone could have done and he had died. Elizabeth dropped her phone and fell to her knees.
Elizabeth felt a tear fall down her cheek at the memories. She wiped it from the back of her hand. After his death, she knew she couldn't stay in Chicago. She tried to explain it to her parents but they told her she was being unreasonable. Elizabeth had received her teaching license when she was in college and she had always loved children. She started researching small towns that needed teachers. With her trust fund and savings, she didn't need to worry about the salary. A friend of hers from college, Faith Carter, sent her a message about a spot that was open at her school in Hope Valley. When Elizabeth heard the name of the town, it seemed like the perfect place for a restart. She sent in her application and she was moving a week later.
Her parents didn't talk to her for a year after she moved. Shortly before Christmas on the second year, her mother called to see how she was doing. The two women cried on the phone because they were reconnecting. Her mother sent her a plane ticket to come visit them so they could hear all about her life in Hope Valley. Elizabeth's father was a little more hesitant but he came around when Elizabeth came to visit. Since then Elizabeth called her parents from time to time and she tried to visit at least once a year.
About a year ago, Elizabeth started getting involved with a charity that would raise money for children with cancer. Even though Hope Valley was small, the hospital was well known for its cancer center. The doctors there were recruited from all over the country to come and work. The charity that Elizabeth worked with helped to raise money for equipment and supplies as well as programs for the children that had to spend time in the hospital.
When she joined, she met Rosemary Coulter. Rosemary was a romance writer who helped with the charity in her free time. Elizabeth loved all of the books Rosemary had written and they became fast friends. Elizabeth also introduced Rosemary to Faith and the three of them became the best of friends.
Elizabeth went and sat down at the table in her kitchen. She had planned dinner with Faith and Rosemary tomorrow night at her house. She started to look at recipes on her phone to decide what to make. Elizabeth would also need to look in the fridge and see what she would need to get at the store. Elizabeth never planned too far into the future, whether that was as simple as groceries or as big as a vacation. Since Jack, she was afraid to think of anything past today. She knew that some plans would be ok, but she couldn't get the fears out of her head.