TITLE – Second Chance Hearts
SERIES – Holiday Vermont
AUTHOR – Heather Lire
GENRE – Contemporary
PUBLICATION DATE – August 1, 2014
LENGTH (Pages/# Words) – 148 pages
PUBLISHER – Desert Breeze Publishing
Jessica Chase has always done what's expected of her, including betray the love of her life. But that has never earned her the love of her parents. She's decided to throw off their superficial values and actually contribute to society.
Case Sanderson should be happy; he has his three year old daughter, even though the women he was about to marry turned against him in the paternity suit. But, until he learns to forgive her he can't seem to put himself back on the market.
Case and Jessica must come together to help a refugee in the battered women's underground. And they have been given the perfect opportunity at a second chance to heal their broken hearts and find love.
#1
Jessica closed the flap of a box and stood, rubbing the small of her back with the knuckles of her right hand. With this box her office was officially all packed up. All of her cases had been reassigned to other attorneys, and she was ready for the next phase of her life.
A phase she was in complete control of.
"What in the hell is this?" A voice thundered from her door.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She'd been hoping to be out of the office before he returned. She'd timed her resignation for when he took his month-long vacation every year, so she wouldn't have to have this confrontation. She'd wanted to be gone before he came back. With two other senior partners she'd been hoping HR didn't inform him.
She turned and faced the man who had helped to destroy her dreams..
"What does it look like I'm doing?"
She caught the flash of anger and surprise in his eyes before he narrowed them.
In twenty-eight years she'd never once talked back to him. She'd always done exactly what he'd told her, never bucking under his or her mother's plans for her.
"It looks like someone throwing a fit because she didn't get her way."
She wasn't throwing a fit. She was throwing away a life, a life that was all but destroying her.
"No, I'm not throwing a fit. I'm taking charge of my life. I'm no longer going to do what you and mother want me to, to suit your plans. I'm living it for me."
She didn't need or want to hear what she knew would be a tirade on her responsibility to him, to her mother, and to the family.
Jessica put on her coat and picked up the box. Ignoring the sputtering and yelling coming from her father she walked out the door of the office she'd never wanted or deserved. Just because her great grandfather had started the law firm didn't mean she shouldn't have had to prove herself before making junior partner.
She guessed she had proved herself years ago when she'd had to let the best thing to ever happen to her walk out the door because of a case.
She'd put it aside, because there was nothing she could do about it. She'd seen the anger and hatred in his eyes when Case had walked into her office that day. It hadn't mattered her heart was in pieces on the floor to anyone in the room, as she'd watched the man she'd been planning on spending the rest of her life with and the daughter she'd never get to have, walk out the door.
She'd gone home, opened a bottle of wine, and cried deep gut-wrenching tears. Three days later she walked into the Cobble Hill women's shelter and volunteered her services. If she couldn't have Case in her life, she could do something that was important to him and his family.
It was a move that had changed everything for her. Effective today, she was now the family attorney in residence. For once she was going to be doing something good with the degree she'd gotten because of parental pressure.
#2
Case watched the taillights of Justin's car disappear down the drive and contemplated his own life. He was thirty years old, a single dad, had a company he was proud of, and helped those who needed it desperately.
He had a great life, but gods he missed sex.
He envied Justin and his attitude toward it. It's what made it possible to have the sex life he had, one Case wished he could have.
He'd never been one for random hook-ups with women. His dad had instilled in him a respect for women at an early age. When he'd reached the age where sex had been the number one thing on his mind his dad had pulled him aside and asked him to think about his sisters and how he would feel if a man had hooked up with one of them for the sole purpose of having sex.
It hadn't sat well in his stomach the thought of his sisters being treated that way so he'd never developed the habit.
From the time he was seventeen till he was twenty-two he'd had a steady girlfriend, one he'd thought he'd marry after college. Until she'd shown up at his apartment on one of the worst days in his life. He'd thought she was there for moral support, only she hadn't been.
She'd handed him a box of the things he'd had at her apartment and informed him she was getting married in two weeks.
In one move she'd gutted him.
Morgan hadn't missed the fact she'd been missing from Jacks funeral. Afterward she'd confronted him about it, and then helped him to cover up the breakup with his family. Telling everyone they'd broken up earlier than when it had actually happened.
For a year he'd forgotten all about the promise he'd made to his dad about random hookups and slept with whatever girl sparked his interest.
Then Morgan had turned up pregnant, and he'd stopped. He didn't want to be like the son of a bitch who'd gotten her pregnant and then disappeared from her life.
After that he'd developed several friends with benefits women in the different cities he worked in, letting him have the regular sex he not only wanted but needed.
All of that had changed, however, when he'd met her. He'd fallen for her hard and fast. He'd thought she felt the same, and discovered, once again during one of the darkest times in his life, it had all been a lie. The only good thing that had come from that time period was Kayle.
From the moment she'd been placed in his arms she'd gotten all of his focus and energy, a decision he didn't regret.
Even when Justin had dragged him to one of his clubs in Boston, he hadn't been tempted by any of the women.
The flash of headlights coming up the lane dragged him from his thoughts.
Who in the hell was coming out here at this time of night? He lived too far out for a casual drop by from his sisters or their husbands.
He stayed at the window and watched the car approach. He took a swallow of his apple ale and hoped whoever it was didn't wake up Kayle.
She'd been so excited to have kids on the farm she'd missed her nap and had been cranky all evening. She'd finally crashed a half an hour ago.
The car stopped, and the driver stayed in the car, leading him to wonder if they were lost. Just when he decided to go out on the porch to see who they were the driver side door opened. From his position at the window he could make out a long leg.
A female leg.
As the car wasn't one of his sister's or Audrey or Brooke's cars, she wasn't related him. He briefly wondered if it was Shelly, but discarded that thought.
The woman continued getting out of the car and slammed the door. She turned to the house, and he got his first look at her. Recognition was a fist to his boys.
He didn't need the light to know the color of the hair she had caught up in a ponytail or see the color of her expressive eyes to know how her body fit perfectly against his.
His emotions warred within him. Half of him wanted to greet her with anger. She'd been part of the reason his reputation had been shredded. She'd been the person he thought he'd found what his parents and sisters had with. She'd also ripped his heart out and handed it back to him with no regard for what she'd done.
On the other hand she'd also helped to give him his heart, Kayle. When he'd walked into the lawyers' office to pick up the baby that had been conceived with his stolen sperm, the very last person he'd expected to see holding her had been the woman he'd been on the verge of proposing to.
He watched, hidden in the shadows as she looked at the house. They'd had no contact since the day he'd walked out of her office, not that he hadn't been tempted to seek her out whenever he'd been in New York. Every time he'd thought about it though he'd remembered what it had felt like to walk into that office and see the one person he'd thought would have his back standing there holding his baby girl.
He watched her slam the car door and move toward the gate. The lithe grace of her movements had other parts of him stirring, parts that hadn't stirred in far too long.
Sure, he'd gone through the mechanics of sex, for the last couple of years, but it had been emotionless. A necessary release.
The creak of the gate drew his attention back to the woman moving toward the front porch.
For a heartbeat he considered ignoring her presence, but curiosity got the better of him.
He left the window and moved through the house, stopping only to close Kayle's bedroom door before he reached the stairs. The knock on the front sounded as he reached the bottom step.
If his sisters could see the way he was acting now, they'd never let him live it down.
That thought had him shaking off the mood he'd been in all evening and open the door.
The light from the porch cast a shadow over him, so she couldn't see who had answered the door, but he could see her.
He felt like a man who'd been denied food and drink for months and then been taken to an all-you-can-eat buffet staring at her.
"Hello, I'm looking for Shelly Harger's cottage. I was told it was on this farm, but I think I missed a turn."
Case swore viciously in his mind. A wrong turn had landed the one person he should stay away from, and had managed just barely to stay away from for years.
He stepped into the light and heard her gasp what he assumed was surprise. They'd see if it was a good surprise or a bad surprise.
#3
Jessica drank in the sight of Case. Her stomach and heart were flip-flopping like they were on a taffy puller. He looked even better than she remembered.
All of the emotions from the events surrounding their break-up rushed through her. A deep-seated anger at her father and his thirst to destroy Case's family, a hopelessness that Case would never forgive her, even though she'd been trying to protect him, and the fear she'd just destroyed the best thing that had ever happened to her.
She'd lain in her bed the night he'd walked out of her life, exhausted from her crying jag and realized she'd made the Pearl Harbor of mistakes letting Case walk out the door without her.
She should have told her dad he could take her job and shove it. She should have left with Case and Kayle. She should have defied her parents, even if the thought would have given her hives, but she hadn't.
Staring at Case through the screen door, she wondered, hoped really, if this was a sign from the fates telling her this might be her second chance at the family she'd always dreamed of. The one that had been stolen from her. That she'd given away.
"Case." There was so much more she wanted to say. Needed to say. The only thing her brain could come up with was his name.
He leaned against the door jam, propping his shoulder up against it, and crossed his arms. Arms that were much more defined than they'd been the last time she'd seen him. He was dressed in a pair of frayed jeans that made her want to lick him. His shirt had a crude saying which surprised her. His hair was longer and very disheveled, and it looked like he hadn't shaved in at least three days.
This was not the Case she knew.
The Case she knew, kept his hair a respectable length, shaved every day and while he would dress casually in jeans and shirts, they were never graphic shirts.
Maybe this Case would forgive her for being the attorney against him in his battle for his daughter.
"Jessica." The deep timbre of his voice made her hands and feet sweat. She curled her toes in a futile effort to relieve the pressure.
She swallowed. "I didn't know you lived out here?"
He'd disappeared from New York Society after Kayle's birth, and she'd wondered if he'd moved to the small town his sister lived in. She'd combed the pages of the society and business sections for news and pictures of him. There had been the occasional write-up about his business, but no pictures. The only time he was seen was at his family's annual gala.
"I do."
She wondered if he was going to open the door for her or make her stand out on the porch.
"I guess I have the wrong place then," she pulled her phone out of her back pocket and turned the screen on. "I'm looking for CE Corporate Retreat. Do you know where I can find it?"
"I do."
She raised her head and glared at him through the door. She was beginning to hate his clipped answers. She wasn't going to give up. "So, where is it?"
He stood away from the door jam. "You're there."
He was CE Corporate Retreat? She'd read everything she could find on him in those articles, and she honestly couldn't recall what they'd said his company's name was.
"Can you tell how to get to your assistant's cottage?"
Something in her voice must have told him how anxious she now was, because he opened the door and stepped out onto the porch with her.
"Why?"
"Because she called me in a panic, and I need to talk to her." She'd been in court when Shelly had called. The stark terror in her voice had Jessica dropping everything, packing a bag, and rushing to find Shelly.
"Is something wrong? Does her husband know where she is?" He pulled a phone from his pocket and called someone, not giving her a chance to answer him.
He paced away from her. As much as she'd like to ogle him, she needed to connect with Shelly.
When she'd called her earlier, she was sure her husband would find her, and the man who'd been there to greet them, had scared the bejeezus out of her.
Case's voice carried, and she couldn't help but overhear his conversation.
"Justin, sorry to interrupt your fun, but something's come up with our newest resident, and I need you back here," he paused listening to the other person, "Yeah, they're my next call," another pause, "Nah man, she's crashed to the world. I'll see you in a couple then."
"Who was that?" Jessica asked. She'd trusted Chrissy and Kyle knew what they were doing when they'd had her send Shelly here, and while she knew Case, at least the Case he used to be, she didn't know anything else about the people who worked here.
"Justin Wilson, my head of security. Once the women have settled in and are a fraction less afraid he teaches them what they need to know to not only protect themselves but their children."
She remembered Justin, but she'd thought he'd told her he was a SEAL. From the way he'd talked about it when he'd been her shadow in Paris, she'd assumed he'd be in the Navy until he either died or was too old to be a soldier.
"Is he the one who greets the women?" She gathered from what he'd just told her. Shelly wasn't the first battered woman to pass through his farm.
"Not normally, no. Typically it's either Mrs. Evans or my mom. If not them then my sisters, or my partner's wife. Whoever is available. Mrs. Evans is who we prefer to greet them as she has this way about her. Within a day one of my brothers-in-law stops by in an official capacity."
Jessica was stunned. This was a well thought-out organization they had here. She still needed to see Shelly and find out what had prompted the panicked call.
"I'll take you over to her house. Give me a sec."
He disappeared into the house. She turned her back to the house and looked out over the expanse of Case's new home. She'd been so busy concentrating on not getting lost she hadn't really looked at where she was.
She could make out the dark outline of fences and trees before, but what grabbed her and held her were all the stars in the sky. She'd never seen so many. Living in the city her whole life stars were something you saw on T.V., not something you actually saw. She knew the names of the constellations, but she had no clue what she was looking at, and she wanted to know.
She didn't turn around when she heard the front door close. Her eyes drifted shut, and she breathed in the night air. There was a mixture of fresh cut grass, horses, a flower that intrigued her, and the scent of the man next to her. It was a smell that was uniquely his.
One she'd missed.
"Let's go."
The harshness of his voice belayed the peacefulness of the night.
He didn't give her a chance to respond before he was down the porch steps and halfway across the yard to the gate. She moved to catch up with him and met him at her car.
Case was standing by the driver's side door, and she assumed he would want to drive to Shelly's house, but he surprised her when he simply opened the door for her and waited while she climbed in before heading around the car to the passenger side.
"Follow the lane around the back of the house."
She started the car and followed his instructions as he took her around his house and down the lane. She could see the small house lit up ahead of her.
"It's about five hundred yards from my place," he pointed to another building that was dark except for a porch light, "That's our main office building."
"I understand this is a corporate retreat for families. What does that mean?"
"So many corporations put careers ahead of family, not realizing that having a healthy balance between the two makes for better and more productive employees. So companies come here with their employees' families and learn how to balance the two. Other times companies use this as a bonus for their employees by having their families come here for a week of fun."
She could hear the pride in his voice as he talked about his company. When they'd been together he had thrived on the constant travel and business deals. This was just another thing that was different about Case.
She wondered what else was new about him, and if she'd get the opportunity to find out.
She pulled up in front of the small house and turned off the engine. He didn't say anything before climbing out of the car and walking back toward his house.
Heather has traveled all over the world, speaks several languages, collects romance books like they're going out of style, and has multiple book boyfriends. Ok, she hasn't been all over the world, except in her mind. She does however speak multiple languages and collect romance books. Her long-suffering husband and sons roll their eyes at all her book boyfriends. When she's not busy on her next novel she can be found at one of her sons many sporting events or on twitter talking about what else, romance books. She loves to hear what you think about her stories so please drop her a note.
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Second Chance At Forever(#1): Amazon
Second Chance At Happiness (#2): Amazon
A Holiday Christmas (#2.5): Amazon
Second Chance At Passion(#3): Amazon
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