by Elena Aitken
Love in the Moment
The McCormicks—Book One
Elena Aitken
Cover Artist
Sara Eirew
Ink Blot Communications
Contents
Free Books
The Springs on Sale this Summer
Love in the Moment
Prologue
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
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Epilogue
The Springs
About the Author
Only for a Moment
The Springs on Sale this Summer
Promised Gifts
Also by Elena Aitken
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Love in the Moment
After ten years, Ian McCormick was finally back in town and opening a brand new business. It was long past time to put his family drama behind him and maybe even have a little fun, just like the old days. And what better way to enjoy the summer than with the gorgeous brunette he’d just met at the bus depot?
One hundred pounds lighter, with a hot new look and a successful social media career, Gwen Henderson has returned to Cedar Springs. The last time she was there, she was awkward, overweight and her heart was completely shattered. She knew there was a chance she’d run into him, but she wasn’t prepared for the man he’d become or for him to have no idea who she was.
Gwen comes up with an innocent plan, a social experiment performed solely for the benefit of her social media followers, and maybe she’d even get a little closure at the same time. Would Ian be interested in the new and improved version of her? It was the perfect idea. At least until all the feelings she thought were dead, come rushing back. She can’t back out once she starts. But can her heart survive Ian a second time? And with their hearts on the line, can Gwen continue to play a game that could hurt them both and destroy the only real chance at love she’s ever had?
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Prologue
Walking along the lakefront in front of his old family cabin, Ian McCormick was hit by a flood of different feelings. He’d had so many good memories of his summers spent there as kids. Every year, his mother would load the four of them in the van and they’d make the drive out to the lake, where they’d spend the next two and a half months playing, swimming, getting into trouble, and basically having the best summer any kid could ask for. His father would come out for a few weeks in July and the occasional weekend here and there, but mostly it was just the boys and their mother.
It had been perfect.
Until the truth came out.
The perfect family the McCormicks presented themselves to be were anything but. He’d just completed his first year of college when his father had finally announced he was leaving their mother, and them, for his other family.
His. Other. Family.
For over fifteen years, his father had led a double life and had another woman, and worse, children. Two girls. His sisters.
Ian had made a vow that day that he would have nothing to do with them.
He made his way to the waterline and threw a rock as far out as he could. He watched the ripples fan out and dissipate as they went. The ripple effect. He laughed at the irony. That’s exactly what his father’s actions had caused. He’d been successful for years in keeping his vow to distance himself from his other family. Two of his younger brothers, Declan and Cal, who were still in high school when everything went down, had been involved with their half-sisters Chelsea and Amber and even gotten to know them. They were closer in age, all four of them had been somewhere between sixteen and thirteen, and much to Ian’s annoyance, they’d become sort of friends. It was harder for Ian, and Mitch, his other brother. They didn’t look at it the same way. They couldn’t see past the hurt on their mother’s face. How she had to start over and work two jobs to scrape by while their father went on to happily live a different life. It was beyond Ian how he could have done that to her.
He didn’t blame Chelsea and Amber. Not really.
But it didn’t make it any easier to be around them. Which was why he had no idea why he’d agreed when Declan had called him and asked him for a favor. Not just a favor, but a total sacrifice.
A few months earlier, Ian told his brothers that he’d planned to return to Cedar Springs to open up the old house for the summer and check out the business opportunities in town. Recently there’d been a resurgence of business in town and Ian was always one to jump on a good investment. But when Declan had called to ask him to please let Chelsea, the youngest of the two girls, to spend the summer with him, Ian had been expecting anything but that. She was only twenty-two and according to Declan, a good girl, but lost and confused. She needed to get out of the city and away from the influences that were steering her down the wrong path.
“Whatever.” He threw another rock. “Not. My. Problem.” Ian kicked a pile of rocks and scared some ducks that nested nearby. He immediately felt guilty. Just the way he had when Declan told him how rough it had been for Chelsea. Apparently she had a lot of pent-up anger at both her parents and being around them was only feeding her rage.
“Join the club.” Ian laughed and shook his head.
In the end, he’d agreed.
And if he didn’t hurry, he’d be late to pick her up. She was set to come in on the four o’clock bus, and Ian planned to take her straight over to meet Samantha. He’d secured her a job at the Grizzly Paw, because he’d be damned if she was going to lie around in the sun all summer and not pull her weight. Leaving the beach behind, he jumped into his jeep and set into town. The row of old log homes that used to be full of activity and bustle for the summer were still mostly locked up. That would change. It was still early. But soon, when school got out for summer, his old summer neighborhood would be full of life again. It surprised him how much he was looking forward to it.
The bus had just pulled up when Ian arrived. He realized he had no real idea what Chelsea looked like beyond a few old pictures he’d reluctantly looked at years earlier; he probably hadn’t seen a picture of her in the last few years. He scanned the crowd. There were a few elderly women who probably had been in the city visiting children and grandchildren, a few couples and then—Chelsea.
He strode through the small crowd and bent to pick up her bag before she could get it. He might not be happy about the situation, but he was still a gentleman. His hand locked around the handle of the duffel at the same time hers did. “I got it.”
“What the—” She whipped the bag away from him hard and
fast with a strength that surprised him. “Get your hands off my stuff!”
“Whoa.” Ian dropped the bag and held his hands up. “Chelsea, I’m your—”
“My name is not Chelsea.” The woman, who now that he had a chance to look at her properly, had actually no family resemblance to him, glared at him.
“I’m sorry, I—”
“Thought that maybe you could just steal my things because I’m a woman traveling on my own.” The woman stood tall and although she tried to appear tough, she likely hadn’t accounted for the shaking of her hands as she held fast onto her duffel and tried to keep the giant tote bag she had over her shoulder from sliding off. Ian tried not to smile at her bravado, but there was something about her; he couldn’t help it. “Oh,” she said, her words pointed. “I suppose you think this is funny now? You would.”
“I would?” He shook his head. “I don’t. I assure you, I didn’t mean to offend you. I thought you were—”
“Ian?”
He turned to see Chelsea—the actual Chelsea, he could see right away, because like it or not, there was definitely a strong McCormick family resemblance. “Chelsea?”
She shrugged and gave him a weak smile. She had one small duffel bag at her feet, and nothing more besides a purse over her thin body.
He hesitated for a moment, not knowing whether he was supposed to go to her, hug her or shake her hand. In the end, she came to him and smiled before she tucked her hands in her back pockets. Good. If she wasn’t the hugging type, that would probably make things easier.
“Well, it’s good to…meet you, I guess.”
“Yeah,” he said lamely. “It’s nice to finally meet you.” His words sounded hollow, and he instantly regretted them. It wasn’t her fault their father was an ass. “Should be a fun summer,” he added quickly and immediately regretted it because it sounded even lamer. “Let’s get going.”
He picked up her bag, which was even lighter than it looked. He gave her a questioning glance, but she didn’t look at him. “I’m just parked over here.” He pointed to his jeep. Before he walked away, he turned to apologize one more time to the woman he’d somehow inadvertently offended, but she was gone.
A twinge of regret he couldn’t explain flared in his gut.
He would have liked to apologize again, maybe even learn her name.
Ian shook his head, clearing any ideas before they could take root. He didn’t need any other complications. He headed toward the jeep, where Chelsea was already settled in, tapping something on her phone. No doubt he already had his hands full. He had a feeling it was going to be a very interesting summer.
Chapter One
Ian McCormick stole a glance at the woman sitting next to him. He’d picked her up only ten minutes earlier from the bus station and already he’d run out of things to talk about. In fact, beyond the general introductions they’d exchanged, they really hadn’t spoken at all. He felt as if he should say something to break the silence, but every time he opened his mouth, he drew a blank. What was he supposed to say to the younger half-sister he’d never met?
The sister that he’d never had any desire to meet, not since finding out about her existence almost ten years ago. As far as he was concerned, Ian could have gone the rest of his life without knowing about Chelsea or her sister, Amber’s existence. And he really didn’t see any need to get to know either of them. After all, they were the reason his entire life had imploded all those years ago.
Okay, that wasn’t entirely fair. It wasn’t their fault that their father had led a secret life, with a completely different family. A family he’d finally left his other family for, leaving Ian, his brothers, and his mother all alone. No. It wasn’t the girls’ fault. But all of the reasoning in the world hadn’t made it any easier for Ian to wrap his head around it. Despite the fact that it had been almost a decade ago.
He snuck another look at the girl who had barely looked up from her phone since she’d sat down in the jeep. There was definitely a family resemblance. She had their father’s green eyes, just like he did. And the dark, thick hair. He hated to admit it, but there was no denying she was his sister. And it wasn’t as if he could spend the whole summer not talking to her. He’d made a promise to Declan, his second youngest brother.
“It’s not her fault,” Declan had said on the phone. “Chelsea and Amber aren’t to blame, Ian. You need to get over it.”
Dec was right. He did need to get over it, especially since she was going to be staying with him all summer. He took a breath and opened his mouth to say something, but didn’t have a chance.
“I know you hate me.”
Ian shut his mouth dumbly.
“And I suppose you think you have a reason to,” Chelsea continued. “But it wasn’t my idea to come here, you know? Declan pretty much insisted that it would be good for me or something, and…well…I kinda trust Dec. Besides, I didn’t really have anywhere else to go.”
He swallowed hard, giving himself a moment. “I don’t hate you.” As he spoke the words, he realized they were true. “I just don’t know you. And Declan’s right. It will be good for you here.”
“You don’t even know why he said that.”
“I don’t need to.” Ian slowed the jeep to take the turn that would lead them out of town, toward the cottages. His house sat at the end of a row of other log cabins that were used primarily by summer people. Most of the houses were built by families who came from the city for the summer months, and they were still locked up tight because the season wouldn’t start for another month or so. It was quiet, but Ian liked it. At least for now, while he was getting settled. And it was true, he didn’t know why Declan thought it was a good idea for Chelsea to get out of the city for the summer, but he had a few guesses, and there was no doubt that a little bit of quiet would be good for her, too. “I trust Declan, too,” he said as the jeep bumped over the dirt road. It was impossible not to trust Declan. Out of all of his siblings, Dec was definitely the most trustworthy, and the most compassionate and caring and…he was pretty much everything good in the world. “If he thinks it’ll be good for you out here, he’s probably right.”
She shrugged and turned back to her cell phone, looking up a moment later in horror. “The service is terrible here.”
“One of my favorite features.” He smiled.
“Why would that be a good thing?”
He ignored the question. “It’s not that bad, really. Just a little spotty sometimes. Besides, you’ll be able to get Wi-Fi at the Dockside as soon as I get it hooked up.”
“The Dockside?”
“The new marina.” Ian couldn’t help but smile. “Cool name, right?” The main reason he’d returned to Cedar Springs was because the economy was starting to pick up, and there were business opportunities to be had. One of the first he’d found was the old marina. It was just next to the Grizzly Paw on the beach in town and Ian remembered it as the meeting place for summer fun. He picked it up for a bargain basement price, probably because it needed so much work. By the looks of things, it had sat empty for years and it would definitely take a little elbow grease to get it up and running again. Not that Ian was afraid of hard work. In fact, that had always been his favorite part of a new business: turning nothing into something. “I just closed on it yesterday. And with any luck, it will be open and ready for business in time for the season to start. But if that’s going to happen, I’m going to need a little help.”
She looked at him sideways. “And I suppose you want me to help.”
“You got it. Call it…the price of admission.”
She rolled her eyes and shoved her phone into her duffel bag. “Why not? I guess a summer job won’t hurt.”
“Oh no.” Ian braced himself for her response to what he was about to tell her. “Helping at the marina isn’t a summer job—it’s just an expectation. I got you a job, too. You’ll be starting at the Grizzly Paw right away. Sam’s an old friend of mine, and she’s doing me a favor by giving you this
job, so I know you won’t let me down.”
“Two jobs?”
“No.” He shook his head. “Just one. And a family project.”
“But I’m never going to have any time to have fun,” she wailed.
That was the point, at least as far as Ian was concerned. He didn’t know much about twenty-two-year-old girls, but from what Declan had told him, Chelsea was making far too many poor choices. And as the big brother—whether he wanted to be or not—it was going to be his job to help her make good ones. Or keep her too busy to make anything but.
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When Gwen Henderson had dreamed of her triumphant return to Cedar Springs after years of hard work and sacrifice, she’d dreamed of driving an expensive convertible down Main Street, her dark hair floating in the breeze as all the men’s heads turned to see the beautiful and famous celebrity she’d turned out to be as they kicked themselves for not dating her when they had their chance.
Yes, in her fantasies, it was perfect. In reality, however, she had not imagined that on the eve of her summer visit to Cedar Springs, her secondhand Mustang would have some random, and likely expensive, engine problem that would require her taking the bus into town. And she most certainly did not expect that the one man who’d not only turned her down as a teenager, but had publicly humiliated her ten years earlier at the Summer Equinox Festival, would be there when she got off the bus.
Ian McCormick.
He didn’t even live in Cedar Springs. What were the odds the one man who still haunted—no, not haunted…visited—her dreams would not only be standing there when she got off the stupid, humiliating bus, but would also look her square in the eye and not even recognize her?
If she was honest with herself, and she’d made that a habit over the last few years, that was the part that hurt the most. Ian McCormick had been her biggest teenage crush. No, her only teenage crush. Every summer for four years, she had lusted after him. Practically threw herself at him that final summer. But he’d barely even noticed her and when she thought she’d finally had a date with him at the festival, he’d stood her up. Left her there all alone. She knew now he’d only said yes to the date out of pity. After all, it didn’t make sense for someone as handsome and smart as Ian McCormick to go out with fat, pimple-faced, four-eyed, frizzy-haired Giant Gigi. At the time, she’d been heartbroken—totally destroyed, really. But time and distance had taught her social order. The other thing time and distance had taught her was the impact that health, fitness, contacts, clear skin, a new hair-do, and a name change could do for social order.