She used the pen clipped to the stack of papers and quickly scratched out the guy’s license plate number. On the first page of her loan application, she realized too late.
Yep, it was just one of those days.
David Baines only made it six blocks before he had to stop, get out of his truck and re-hook the chain that kept the right side of his tailgate from working loose. He used his shoulder to shove the worthless piece of metal in place then hooked two links between the grooved notches that he’d rigged up.
His head was pounding, but at least his temper was starting to cool. He couldn’t believe he’d actually yelled at a woman for running over a plant. Yes, he cared about his cactus and other seedlings, but only a madman—a crazy demented fool—would place a higher priority on cacti than people. What was wrong with him?
So many things he couldn’t begin to count, but he knew when this change in his personality had begun. Four years ago. On August 21, to be exact. The day he’d died.
He reached over the side of his truck bed and made sure the rest of his tools were accounted for. Shovels, rakes, edger. No mower. He did landscaping, not yards. He grew the plants that he transferred to people’s raised beds and patios. He didn’t call himself a landscaper, though. That sounded too presumptuous. He was a handyman/gardener. He felt the combination sounded innocuous enough. Certainly not the kind of job a person with three postgraduate degrees would be doing.
Once he’d started his new life, he’d had no choice but to learn a new trade. He’d ceased to be a scientist with credentials up the wazoo and had become a man who worked with plants. He grew them in his makeshift greenhouse at the rear of the oversize lot behind the house he rented from his elderly and slightly whacko landlady. Mimi Simms lived in the double-wide mobile home on the adjoining lot. Her late husband had spent his final years in the shack she euphemistically called the “guesthouse.”
The rent was reasonable, so David couldn’t complain even though the one-bedroom, one-bath residence was impossible to heat or cool. And in the four years that he’d been renting from her, he’d managed to grow a wall of hardy and unforgiving thorn bushes that gave him privacy and some illusionary sense of safety.
He realized that he was hiding behind the hedge. Like an ogre in some children’s fable, he’d distanced himself from polite society, only venturing forth to fulfill his private vow to do good. He’d done enough bad to last a lifetime.
He no longer made “better living through chemicals.” He made a better world through plants. This time, on a very small, humbling scale.
Which partly explained why he lost it when someone destroyed one of his plants. Or so he wanted to believe, but he was too honest to place the blame for his temper tantrum on the lovely shoulders of the woman he’d just yelled at. He’d been in a funk for over a week. Happened every year around his daughter’s birthday. Memories would slip past his defenses. Despair would fill the hole in his heart like air in a balloon—until he blew up.
This time, at a woman. He’d terrified her. And made her cry.
But she’d laughed, too. As if his attack had been that of a crazy person. And she had a point. Sane people didn’t explode over little things. He owed that poor woman an apology. It wasn’t her fault she’d smashed his cactus on a bad day. A day when the past couldn’t be denied.
Today was Ariel’s birthday. Number nine. No doubt she would celebrate with a party, friends and gifts galore. She was probably four or five inches taller than the last time he’d seen her. Maybe she had a retainer or braces. From what he’d gleaned from his clients with young children, orthodontists were starting earlier these days.
He tried not to think about Ariel.
She wasn’t really his child, after all. He’d married her mother when Ariel was a toddler. Ariel’s real father was a rat-bastard who had abused Kay and neglected their baby daughter and twins Jordie and Randall who were two years older than their sister. The man’s only response to his wife’s request for a divorce was his fierce refusal to pay child support. “I know plenty of people who will pay me under the table. You’ll never get a dime out of me.”
David hadn’t wanted his new love to be tied to a man like that in any way. He had a high-paying job with a billion-dollar pharmaceutical company. He could certainly provide for his new family. And he had—until Kay, the children’s mother, left him for another man. A neighbor who was home when David hadn’t been.
The timing, it turned out, had been providential. Kay and the children were safe from the fallout created by David’s losing favor with his boss, a megalomaniac named V. A. “Ray” Cross. Born Vincente Aurelio Conejo, Ray went from being the first kid in his family to graduate from high school to the boardroom of one of the largest privately owned pharmaceutical labs in the country. His staff had often speculated about the number of bodies buried along Ray’s remarkable climb to the top, and the closer David got to the man he’d at one time considered his mentor, the better he understood Ray’s maxim for life. In Ray’s world, only Ray mattered. The bodies, David feared, were real. And, in a way, included his.
He got back in the truck and drove carefully, never exceeding the speed limit. Faster cars passed him impatiently, but David was a follower of rules. Most of them, anyway.
“Thou shalt not kill”—unless you count poisoning thousands of unsuspecting consumers.
“Thou shalt not lie”—unless the truth means losing profits in any given year.
“Thou shalt not covet your neighbor’s wife”—well, he could honestly say he’d never done that. His neighbor’s life, maybe. All he’d ever wanted was a home and a family of his own. The kind he’d known as a child, before his parents were killed in a car accident and he was told he had to stay with his grandmother, who had considered her work over and done when the daughter she raised got married.
June, as his grandmother preferred to be called, did her duty. She even sent her grandson to the best college his inheritance money could buy, but it hadn’t occurred to her to try to replace the love he’d known in his parents’ arms.
He’d tried to find that as an adult, and thought he’d succeeded with Kay and the children. Until, fate ripped that family out of his hands, too. And seldom a night went by that he didn’t think about the pain his “death” must have caused the children he’d called his own.
As he pulled into his driveway, he caught a glimpse of his landlady. Mimi Simms was eighty if she was a day. Her red hair was brighter than a poinsettia in bloom. She was an odd combination of nosy and antisocial. David preferred the latter. Once he’d made up his mind to speak out, to become a high-profile whistleblower, he’d had no choice but to leave the past behind and disappear.
For four years, he’d been lucky. He’d also never once had an altercation with a customer and drawn attention to himself. He could only hope that the beautiful lady with the kind eyes would shrug off his embarrassing faux pas and forget about him.
“You’re a fool,” he muttered as he pulled the truck to a stop in front of his little shack. “You had your chance at a normal life, but you chose to work for Ray Cross, instead. Now, you can’t ever go back.”
Nor could he start a new life with someone else. He’d made a vow never to put anyone through that kind of torture and distress again. His decision to give up his old life and enter the federal Witness Protection Program had been relatively easy—it was either that or wake up some morning with Ray Cross’s gun in his face. The deputy U.S. marshals who had been assigned to his case had come up with an elaborate plan that included an inferno at the lab where David had spent most of his time. No body. No funeral. No fuss. Or so David had assumed. But apparently no one had informed his ex-wife.
Dying had been difficult, but it had been a lot easier on him than on his loved ones. He would regret that for the rest of his life.
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About the Author
Winner of Romantic Times Reviewer's Car
eer Achievement "Series Storyteller of the Year" award in 2006, Debra Salonen's 26 titles for Harlequin Publishing sold more than 2.3 million copies, worldwide.
A six-time nominee for RT's Best Superromance of the Year award, Debra took home that honor in 2010.
Channel your inner maverick with dynamic, sexy, take charge heroes and the Montana women who know what they want and make their own rules to get it. Read all the titles in Debra's Big Sky Mavericks series from Tule Publishing. Satisfy your sweet cravings with the 12-book, six-author Love at the Chocolate Shop series. #whatlovetasteslike
And come join the rendezvous in the Black Hills of South Dakota where Hollywood meets the real wild west. Available on all platforms and coming in print soon.
Don’t miss a single new book in her West Coast HEA series and her Betting On Love series set in Las Vegas. Sign up for Debra’s newsletter and receive a short, sweet romance for FREE: Newsletter.
Reviews:
"Debra Salonen captures readers' attention with multifaceted characters, layered conflict and fast pacing." ~ Pamela Cohen, RomanticTimes Bookclub
"No one writes drama like Debra Salonen." ~ Huntress Reviews
"This novel had everything, family drama, love, a little bit of sexy and a lot of heart."
"...one of the most heartfelt novels I've ever read." ~ Kaitie Campbell
"Debra Salonen pens a bittersweet love story with a fresh storyline and a love that stays with you long after the book is over." ~ Tami Sutton, The Best Reviews
Please keep in touch!
www.debrasalonen.com
[email protected]
Also by Debra Salonen
THE BLACK HILLS RENDEZVOUS series:
BOOK #1: BLACK HILLS BABY - His sperm for a share in her gold mine? What could possibly go wrong?
Hollywood heart-throb Cooper Lindstrom needs money to get his late mother's homicidal bookie off his back. Black Hills postmaster Libby McGannon has a trade in mind: Cooper's sperm in return for a share in her family's gold mine. Both wind up with more than they bargained for.
BOOK 2: BLACK HILLS BILLIONAIRE - What if his $$ isn’t enough to save his first--his only--love?
Success can hide a multitude of secrets, but when Hollywood's "wunderkind" producer/director Shane Reynard agrees to set Cooper Lindstrom's new TV sitcom in the Black Hills he knows he’s risking more than a boatload of money--especially when he meets a girl from his past: Jenna Murphy. A girl who has every reason to hate him.
BOOK 3: BLACK HILLS BAD BOY - Bad to the bone...in his dreams.
Jack Treadwell's plan is simple: hop on his Harley and experience life. The grit. The heat. The passion of the biggest motorcycle rally in the Black Hills. Life can't get any better...until he meets single mom Katherine Robinson.
BOOK #4: BLACK HILLS BACHELOR - A miner and a Hollywood princess? That sort of make-believe only happens in the movies.
Single by choice. That's what Mac McGannon tells himself. With both feet firmly on the ground--or in his family's gold mine beneath terra firma--Mac has no time for the "Hollywood types" that have invaded his hometown of Sentinel Pass. But try telling that to his little daughter who believes Morgana Carlyle is a real life princess sent to be her new mommy.
BOOK #5: BLACK HILLS NATIVE SON - A journey of discovery brings him the son he never knew, and the woman he was meant to love.
Eli Robideaux’s vision quest takes him down a road he never wanted to walk—to the past. His mistakes—even the ones he made for the right reasons—have come back to haunt him. He doesn’t understand why, but stumbling across Char Jones feels like grabbing on to a lifeline that might keep him from falling into the bone-deep despair that had been his father’s ruin.
BOOK #6: BLACK HILLS OUTCAST - Hiding out from life worked just fine…until he met Rachel.
Ask anyone in Sentinel Pass. They’ll confirm: Rufus Miller is an enigma. An outcast. A mystery man content to live and work in his Black Hills cabin with little or no contact with people. Where’d he come from? What’s his story? What’s a Dream House? Those answers are pure speculation...until marketing guru Rachel Grey shows up with plans to make Rufus’s art the next big thing.
BOOK #7: BLACK HILLS WHITE KNIGHT - A white knight? Hardly. His suit is Armani--not armor.
A-list agent William Hughes leaves high drama to his Hollywood A-list friends and clients. There’s only room for one crusader in the family and that role falls to his saintly mother, a doctor who has devoted her life to the children of the world…seeming to forget she has a son of her own. But when asked to fly Daria Fontina and her two daughters to a safe house in the Black Hills, William doesn’t hesitate.
BOOK #8: BLACK HILLS RANCHER - Picking the right twin to be a role model for his daughter should be easy--not dangerous.
A stunt-woman? Cade Garrity’s new short-term tenant risks life and limb for a living? Oh, hell, no. The Black Hills rancher is a single dad with an impressionable young daughter who’s recently expressed an interest in bull riding. But when Jessie Bouchard drops out of the sky into his arms, he realizes he can’t let her go.
BOOK #9: BLACK HILLS STRANGER - He’s no stranger to her. He’s her dream lover and worst nightmare combined.
Jonas Galloway has a lot of nerve asking for help from Remy Bouchard—his high school sweetheart whose heart he broke after a terrible lie destroyed their hopes for a future together. But his seven-year old daughter, Birdie, has disappeared and Remy is the only one he trusts to find her—after all, Remy’s unique abilities saved his life when he was a child.
BOOK #10: BLACK HILLS LEGACY - Nothing like an unconscious doppelgänger to ruin a perfectly good day at the Mystery Spot.
Robyn Craine, new owner of The Mystery Spot, has big plans for the Sentinel Pass tourist attraction, and she gambled her surprise inheritance--a gift from billionaire Harold Hopewell that Robyn’s late mother chose to keep secret--to buy the adjoining piece of property to turn her business into a year-round travel venue. Robyn doesn’t have time to fall for Liam Temple, a handsome actor whose father is ready to go to war over Robyn’s land.
BLACK HILLS RENDEZVOUS, Volume I, Books 1, 2, 3, & 4 Boxed Set
BLACK HILLS RENDEZVOUS, Volume II, Books 5, 6, & 7 Boxed Set
BLACK HILLS RENDEZVOUS, Volume III, Books 8, 9, & 10 Boxed Set
WEST COAST Happily-Ever-After series:
Book I: HER FOREVER COWBOY – What if one summer isn’t enough?
Book II: NEVER SAY NEVER – Some second chances come with big secrets.
Book III: CALEB’S CHRISTMAS WISH- How far would you go for the sake of a child?
Book IV: A BABY AFTER ALL – When divorce is the answer, maybe two people in love need a new question.
Book V: LOVE, AFTER ALL - A match made in heaven? In what universe?
Book VI: THAT COWBOY’S FOREVER FAMILY – Can a woman who’s given up on love help a single dad reconnect with the daughters he thought he’d lost forever?
Book VII: FOREVER AND EVER, BY GEORGE – Even the dog knows the importance of happily-ever-after.
WEST COAST HAPPILY-EVER-AFTER Boxed Set Volume I, Books 1, 2, & 3
WEST COAST HAPPILY-EVER-AFTER Boxed Set Volume II, Books 4, 5, 6, & 7
* * *
BETTING ON LOVE ~ Even in Vegas, the odds on love aren’t in their favor.
PRINCE CHARMING UNDERCOVER, Book 1
THE DADDY GAMBLE, Book 2
RISKY BABY BUSINESS, Book 3
A MATCH MADE IN VEGAS, Book 4
The Big Sky Mavericks series from Tule Publishing:
MONTANA COWGIRL - "Cowgirl, you can go home--and love--again."
MONTANA COWBOY - "He's nobody's cowboy until his new neighbor rocks his world."
MONTANA DARLING - "Her land. His tent. And this is Montana, where property disputes can lead to a range war...or love."
MONTANA MAVERICK - "A lone wolf PhD rescues a rancher--and gains a life."
MONTANA GIFT - "The system failed him, but she never would."
&
nbsp; MONTANA MIRACLE - It takes a Montana village to create a Christmas miracle.
The Love, Montana series from Tule Publishing:
HER HERO TO LOVE - He may be her hero, but who's going to save him?
HER ROGUE TO TAME - He's more than meets the eye--eye candy, that is.
HER REBEL TO KISS - Defying death is all part of the game...until you have something to lose.
* * *
And I’m so pleased to be part of the 6-author, 12-book Love at the Chocolate Shop series from Tule Publishing. These connected books can be read independent of the other, but where’s the fun in that, right? #whatlovetasteslike
Book 1: MELT MY HEART, COWBOY by C.J. Carmichael
Book 2: A THANKFUL HEART by Melissa McClone
Book 3: MONTANA SECRET SANTA by Debra Salonen
Book 4: THE CHOCOLATE CURE by Roxanne Snopek
Book 5: THE VALENTINE QUEST by Melissa McClone
Book 6: CHARMED BY CHOCOLATE by Steena Holmes
Book 7: THE CHOCOLATE COMEBACK by Roxanne Snopek
Book 8: THE CHOCOLATE TOUCH by Melissa McClone
Book 9: SWEET HOME COWBOY by Marin Thomas
Book 10: SWEET SUMMER’S KISS by Debra Salonen
Book 11: CAPTURED BY CHOCOLATE by Steena Holmes
Book 12: SWEET DREAMS BABY by C.J. Carmichael
For something naughty and wildly irreverent, meet 54-year-old, self-proclaimed "trailer trash" heroine Judy Banger. (Warning: frank sexuality, profanity and outrageousness. Judy is Judy, what can I say?)
The Daddy Gamble Page 23