by Piper Rayne
Copyright © 2021 by Summer Love: A Steamy Small Town Romance Anthology Authors
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
Foreword
Longing for a Second Chance
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
About Piper & Rayne
Also by Piper Rayne
Missing Linc by Marika Ray
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
About Marika Ray
Also by Marika Ray
Sweet on You by Stefanie London
Author Note
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
About Stefanie London
Also by Stefanie London
Treasured by Delancey Stewart
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
About Delancey Stewart
Also by Delancey Stewart
Too Enticing by Bethany Lopez
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
About Bethany Lopez
Also by Bethany Lopez
Finally Yours by Elena Aitken
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
About Elena Aitken
Also by Elena Aitken
Sipping Seduction by Dylann Crush
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
About Dylann Crush
Also by Dylan Crush
Maybe It’s You by Claudia Burgoa
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
About Claudia Burgoa
Also By Claudia Burgoa
A Cowboy To Remember by Megan Ryder
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
About Megan Ryder
Also by Megan Ryder
Love, Me by Erika Kelly
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Epilogue
About Erika Kelly
Also by Erika Kelly
Stormy Hearts by Julia Gabriel
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
About Julia Gabriel
Also by Julia Gabriel
Montana Inspired by Kim Law
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
About Kim Law
Also by Kim Law
Inevitable by Hollis Wynn
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
About the Author
Also by Hollis Wynn
Risky Shot by Kelsie Rae
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
About Kelsie Rae
Also by Kelsie Rae
Foreword
Thank you so much for purchasing this charity anthology. By doing so you’re helping to empower women in business. All proceeds for this set will be donated to The Women’s Venture Fund whose mission is to turn their client’s passions and creativity into profitable and sustainable businesses that help drive the economy.
Each of the authors in this set is in essence a female run small business. We understand how hard it can be to turn your dream into a reality when you’re juggling marriage, children, caregiving for elders and the plethora of other things women handle on a day-to-day basis.
We all wanted to come together to do something to help support other women who are trying to achieve their dreams. As readers, you’ve helped all of us to achieve ours and we want to pay it forward.
Thank you for being a part of such a great cause!
Copyright © 2021 by Piper Rayne
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
About Longing for a Second Chance
In our small town of Lake Starlight Alaska not much stays secret. Somehow, I was able to hide the happiness I’d found with a six foot five tattoo artist named Moose years ago.
We never truly got to explore the spark between us because I was scared and pushed him away. Mostly because I had a lot on my plate with caring for my ailing mother.
Now, it’s time to step out of my grief and begin to live my life again. I’m still scared. But lucky for me Moose is more than willing to drag me—however unwillingly—out of my comfort zone.
One thing is certain, there’s no hiding him this time around.
Chapter One
Reagan
Brooklyn and Wyatt’s son, Lance, plays in front of me on the couch with some action figures in their farmhouse on the outskirts of Lake Starlight while Brooklyn makes us tea. Their home is beautiful, as is their life together. I’m happy knowing my best friend found her place in this world.
Me, I’m still searching for mine.
“Here you go, lots of sugar just like you like it.” Brooklyn sets down the steaming cup on a coaster
on the coffee table and carries hers to the corner of the plush couch where she crosses her legs and faces me.
“Thanks.” I smile.
“So, how’s work going?” she asks.
I tilt my head. “I’m sure you know.”
Brooklyn’s husband, Wyatt, is the owner of Glacier Point Resort and my boss. I’ve worked my way up to being the manager of housekeeping, which in itself is a small miracle given that I’m pretty sure he wanted to fire me when he first showed up in town.
She shrugs. “I hear about things from his end, but I want to know how it’s going from your end.”
I pick up my mug and blow on the steaming liquid. “It’s going well. I enjoy being the manager. It’s a different set of responsibilities, so the challenge is nice, and I definitely do not miss cleaning up after the benders the tourist college kids leave when they come up for their ski trips.”
Brooklyn chuckles, understanding full well what I mean. Before she married her millionaire husband, she worked alongside me, cleaning rooms in the resort. “Oh God, do you remember those kids who came in from California that year who booked one of the suites and thought it would be fun to throw ham and cheese slices into the ceiling fan?”
I giggle and sip my tea, just so it won’t spill while I’m laughing. Who knows how much this couch cost? “It took us hours to clean up all those little pieces of meat and cheese from the ceiling and walls.”
We both start laughing uncontrollably. It was so gross, but it’s funny as hell to relive the memory now.
“Mommy, what’s funny?” Lance asks.
Our laughing steals his attention away from his toys.
Brooklyn ruffles his mop of brown hair. “Nothing, buddy. Reagan and I are just laughing about something from when we used to work with each other at the resort.”
He smiles sweetly at his mom. “Daddy’s resort?”
She nods. “That’s the one.”
“I wanna go see Daddy!” He throws his hands up in the air.
Even though it’s Saturday, Wyatt’s the owner of the resort, so he has owner responsibilities. Lucky for me, I’m middle management, so I have the weekends off unless an issue arises.
“Daddy’s working,” Brooklyn says in a soothing voice. “But he’ll be home soon.”
Lance frowns. “But I want to see Daddy now.” His voice holds a whine.
“Sorry, buddy. Not today.”
He pouts, his full bottom lip curving down toward his chin and trembling like he’s about to burst into tears.
“Tell you what. Why don’t I turn on the TV for you and after Reagan and I are finished talking, we can take her out to the greenhouse and show her our new plants?”
“Yay!” Lance looks over at me with a proud smile.
Brooklyn had a greenhouse put in on the property a few years ago so that she could grow all the plants she uses for her essential oil business year-round.
“Will you show me all the new plants you and your mom are growing?” I ask him.
He smiles and walks to my end of the couch. “They’re gonna be huge.” He stretches his arms out as wide as they will go.
“I bet they will.” I can’t resist the urge to tickle his ribs, because he’s so damn cute.
He giggles and rushes over to the small chair in the middle of the great room, ready to watch television.
Brooklyn turns on the kid’s TV channel, then turns the volume down before rejoining me on the couch. “I swear if I have to listen to any more toddler shows, I’m going to lose it.”
I chuckle. “The last time I was here, I had the damn song from whatever show Lance was watching stuck in my head for a week.”
“Seriously. It’s like some kind of brainwashing, I swear.”
We both laugh and then take a sip of our teas. The mood between us falls somber as I knew it would at some point.
Brooklyn looks across the couch at me with concern. “How are you really doing?”
Tears instantly well in my eyes. My best friend knows me well and although the general catching up was nice, I’m not surprised she turned the conversation. I would do the same for her.
Jeez, it’s been almost a year since my mom passed. You’d think I’d be able to hold it together, but grief is a tricky thing. It hits me sometimes when I least expect it.
“You know, good days and bad days,” I manage to say without any tears falling.
She sets her tea down on the coffee table and shuffles closer to me, taking my free hand.
I was being literal when I said she understands. Both her parents died when she was a teenager in a snowmobiling accident, so although it’s a little different since my dad is still alive and living in Utah, we’ve both lost our mother.
“Have you given any thought to what you want to do next week?” she asks, squeezing my hand.
I shrug. This coming Thursday is the one-year anniversary of my mom’s passing. I’d mentioned to Brooklyn last month that I feel like I need to do something to honor the date, but I wasn’t sure what.
“I haven’t decided. It feels wrong to let the day pass without acknowledging it in some special way, especially with this being the first anniversary, but I’m not sure what to do.”
She looks at me for a beat, like she wants to say something.
“What is it?” I ask.
“Well… I had one idea. It’s not super original or anything.”
I tilt my head in question.
“How about a tattoo? Something to remember your mom by, not just on the anniversary of her death, but every day.”
I roll the idea around in my head. A tattoo hadn’t occurred to me, which is surprising given that the majority of the Baileys have tattoos to honor their parents. I’m not against tattoos or anything, I just never felt strong enough about something to want it permanently etched into my skin. Hell, I love the look of a guy covered in tats. One particular guy comes to mind, but I push the thought away. He’s long gone out of my life now.
“If I did it, I know what I’d get,” I say.
“A rainbow,” the two of us say in unison and smile at each other.
My mom loved rainbows. Was always excited whenever she saw one and used to pull over on the road to snap a picture when we’d come upon one. Even well into her early onset of dementia, she still had her love for rainbows. I smile wistfully at the thought of her room in the nursing home filled with pictures of rainbows.
“What do you think?” Brooklyn interrupts me.
I slowly nod, setting my mug on the coaster. Something about her idea feels right. “I think it’s perfect.”
“Yay!” Brooklyn claps her hands in front of her. “I’ll make all the arrangements with Liam if you want.”
Brooklyn’s brother-in-law, Liam Kelly, owns Smokin’ Guns Tattoo Shop. I try not to think of who else works at the shop that I could possibly run into. I’ve done a great job at avoiding him for years now, but I can’t tell Brooklyn that, so instead I just nod and cross my fingers the universe will be on my side and Moose won’t be working that day.
“Perfect. What time works for you?” she asks.
“Since your husband was nice enough to give me the day off, I’d planned to visit my mom’s grave in the morning, then go home and cook her favorite meal, look through some photo albums, so… evening? Any time works.”
“Do you want me to spend the day with you? I could get a babysitter for Lance.”
I shake my head. “I feel like this is something I need to do alone.”
“I understand.” And I know she does, which is why I didn’t have to feel bad about turning her offer down.
“Okay, I’ll chat with Liam and text you to let you know the time.”
“Mommy,” Lance says, abandoning his chair and coming over to the couch where we sit. “Can we go to the greenhouse now?”