Melbourne Memories (Heart of Australia)

by Marion Ueckermann

  “Taylor!” Mother’s hand smacked the jetty between them. “I most certainly did not sleep around. I’ve only been with Alistair.”

  Taylor clamped her bottom lip between her teeth. That was uncalled for. What had she been thinking, accusing her mother of being promiscuous? Especially at a time like this when she was already dealing with so much with Alistair’s illness, and trying to keep the restaurant running on her own. Poor woman was spent. Part of Taylor wanted to lean over and wrap her mom in her arms, tell her she was sorry. The other half…

  But if her mom had only been with Alistair, unless she’d come from a test tube, that only left one thing—

  “I’m adopted?” Taylor could barely hear her own voice, the enormity of those two words spinning her shattered world off course.

  Mother gave no response. Had she not heard her?

  “I’m adopted?” Taylor tried again, finding her voice this time. “You’re not my mother, either? Or was I conceived in a petri dish, the product of some unknown sperm donor?”

  “Taylor… Of course I’m your mother. I raised you. As did Alistair. We are your parents.”

  Taylor lifted her legs and spun them around, planting her brown boots on the wooden jetty. She pushed to her feet. She needed to be alone, to think.

  “Taylor, stop. Where are you going?”

  “Back home.”

  “And after that? Taylor, I know you— Don’t do anything rash.”

  Mother scurried behind, her Merrells thudding against the planks as they made their way back toward the restaurant. Boats bobbed lazily in the calm waters beside them—a contrast to the storm crashing down on the Cassidy household. Life would never be the same after this deluge.

  Pivoting, Taylor faced her mother. “New York, Mom.” Perhaps in returning to the place of her birth, at least according to her birth certificate, she’d find the answers to who she really was.

  ENDS

  When his wife dies in childbirth, conservationist Simon Hartley pours his life into raising his daughter and his orphan elephants. He has no time, or desire, to fall in love again. Or so he thinks.

  Wanting to escape English society and postpone an arranged marriage, Lady Abigail Chadwick heads to Africa for a year to teach the children of the Good Shepherd Orphanage. Upon her arrival she is left stranded at Livingstone airport…until a reluctant Simon comes to her rescue.

  Now only fears born of his loss, and secrets of the life she’s tried to leave behind, can stonewall their romance, budding in the heart of Africa.

  1972. Every day in Belfast, Northern Ireland, holds risk, especially for the mayor’s daughter. But Dr. Olivia O'Hare has a heart for people and chooses to work on the wrong side of a city where colors constantly clash. The orange and green of the Republicans pitted against the red and blue of those loyal to Britain. While they might share the common hue of white, it brings no peace.

  Caught between the Republicans and Loyalists’ conflict, blue-collar worker Ryann Doyle has to wonder if there’s life before death. The answer seems to be a resounding, ‘No’. His mother is dead, his father’s a drunk, and his younger brother, Declan, is steeped in the Provisional IRA. Then he crosses paths with Olivia O’Hare.

  After working four days straight, mopping up PIRA’s latest act of terror, Olivia is exhausted. All she wants is to go home and rest. But when she drives away from Royal Victoria Hospital, rest is the last thing Olivia gets.

  When Declan kidnaps the Lord Mayor of Belfast’s daughter, Ryann has to find a way to rescue the dark-haired beauty, though it means he must turn his back on his own flesh and blood for someone he just met.

  Writer’s block and a looming Christmas novel deadline have romance novelist, Sarah Jones, heading for the other side of the world on a whim.

  Niklas Toivonen offers cozy Lapland accommodation, but when his aging father falls ill, Niklas is called upon to step into his father's work clothes to make children happy. Red is quite his color.

  Fresh off the airplane, a visit to Santa sets Sarah’s muse into overdrive. The man in red is not only entertaining, he’s young—with gorgeous blue eyes. Much like her new landlord’s, she discovers. Santa and Niklas quickly become objects of research—for her novel, and her curiosity.

  Though she’s written countless happily-ever-afters, Sarah doubts she’ll ever enjoy her own. Niklas must find a way to show her how to leave the pain of her past behind, so she can find love and faith once more.

  Holly Blume loves decorating people’s homes, but that doesn’t mean she’s ready to play house.

  Believing a house is not a home without a woman’s touch, there’s nothing more Reverend Christopher Stewart would like than to find a wife. What woman would consider him marriage material, though, with an aging widowed father to look after, especially one who suffers from Alzheimer’s?

  When Christopher arrives at his new parish, he discovers the church ladies have arranged a welcome surprise—an office makeover by congregant and interior designer Holly Blume. Impressed with Miss Blume’s work, Christopher decides to contract the talented lady to turn the rectory into a home. When they begin to clash more than their taste in color, will the revamp come to the same abrupt end as his only romantic relationship?

  Despite their differences, Holly resolves to finish the job of redesigning the Stewart home, while Christopher determines to re-form Holly’s heart.

  Needing a respite from child welfare social work, Heather Blume is excited about a short-term opportunity to work at a busy North Yorkshire day center for the homeless. When one of the men she’s been helping saves her from a vicious attack, she’s so grateful she violates one of the most important rules in her profession—she takes him home to tend his wounds. But there’s more to her actions than merely being the Good Samaritan. The man’s upper-crust speech has Heather intrigued. She has no doubt he’s a gentleman fallen far from grace and is determined to reunite the enigmatic young man with his family, if only he would open up about his life.

  Paxton Rathbone is desperate to make his way home. His inheritance long spent, he stows away on a fishing trawler bound from Norway to England only to be discovered, beaten and discarded at Scarborough’s port. On home soil at last, all it would take is one phone call. But even if his mother and father are forgiving, he doubts his older brother will be.

  Paxton has grown too accustomed to the disdain of mankind, which perhaps is why Heather’s kindness penetrates his reserves and gives him reason to hope. Reason to love? Perhaps reason to stay. But there’s a fine line between love and gratitude, for both Paxton and Heather.

  Womanizer. Adulterer. Divorced. That is Lord Davis Rathbone’s history. His future? He vows to never marry or fall in love again—repeating his past mistakes, not worth the risk. Then he meets Magnolia Blume, and filling his days penning poetry no longer seems an alternative to channel his pent-up feelings. With God’s help, surely he can keep this rare treasure and make it work this time?

  Magnolia Blume’s life is perfect, except for one thing—Davis Rathbone is everything she’s not looking for in a man. He doesn’t strike her as one prone to the sentiments of family, or religion, but her judgments could be premature.

  Magnolia must look beyond the gossip, Davis’s past, and their differences to find her perfect match, because, although flawed, Davis has one redeeming quality—he is a man after God’s own heart.

  Opera singer, Skye Hunter, returns to the land of her birth as leading lady in Phantom of the Opera. This is her first trip back to bonnie Scotland since her mother whisked her away to Australia after Skye’s father died sixteen years ago.

  When Skye decides to have dinner at McGuire’s, she’s not going there only for Mary McGuire’s shepherd’s pie. Her first and only love, Callum McGuire, still plays his guitar and sings at the family-owned tavern.

  Callum has never stopped loving Skye. Desperate to know if she’s changed under her mother’s influence, he keeps his real profession hidden. Would she want him if he was still
a singer in a pub? But when Skye’s worst nightmare comes true, Callum reveals his secret to save the woman he loves.

  Can Skye and Callum rekindle what they lost, or will her mother threaten their future together once again?

  “If women were meant to fly, the skies would be pink.”

  Those were the first words Anjelica Joergensen heard from renowned wingsuiter, Kyle Sheppard, when they joined an international team in Oslo to break the formation flying Guinness World Record. This wouldn’t be the last blunder Kyle would make around the beautiful Norwegian.

  The more Anjelica tries to avoid Kyle, the more the universe pushes them together. Despite their awkward start, she finds herself reluctantly attracted to the handsome New Zealander. But beneath his saintly exterior, is Kyle just another daredevil looking for the next big thrill?

  Falling for another wingsuiter would only be another love doomed.

  When a childhood sweetheart comes between them, Kyle makes a foolish agreement which jeopardizes the event and endangers his life, forcing Angelica to make a hard choice.

  Is she the one who’ll clip his wings?

  Can he be the wind beneath hers?

  Three weeks alone at a friend’s summer cottage on a Finnish lake to fast and pray. That was Adam Carter's plan. But sometimes plans go awry.

  On an impromptu trip to her family's secluded summer cottage, the last thing Eveliina Mikkola expected to find was a missionary from the other side of the world—in her sauna.

  Determined to stay, Eveliina will do whatever it takes—from shortcrust pastry to shorts—to send the man of God packing. This island’s too small for them both.

  Adam Carter, however, is not about to leave.

  Will he be able to resist her temptations?

  Can she withstand his prayers?