London Pierce is a successful novelist who writes about the one thing she does not have—romance. That is until James Poe comes into her life.
James is the new veterinarian in town with a huge secret, Falling for London was a no-brainer for him, but the consequences could be deadly for both him and her.
By all accounts, she should’ve been happy. She was thirty-five, a successful romance novelist, she lived in one of the most beautiful places in the world, and had a second home, a cabin in the mountains. She had everything she could possibly want, yet, she felt like something was missing. To hear her mother tell it, she needed a man to share her life with. No thank you. She had one of those once and he left her for another woman.
London Pierce. With a name like that, she always thought she should become either a writer or an actress, but she couldn’t act her way out of a paper bag. Therefore, she put pen to paper, and fingers to keys, spending ten years of her life behind a screen pounding out her deepest fantasies, giving no thought to living any of them out. She never dreamed her life would turn into something she had only written about.
London carried a large box from her house to her Land Rover, trying desperately not to trip over her Kuvasz, Lou. She grunted as she dropped it into the back of the car. Looking down at her dog, she wiped the small beads of sweat from her forehead. “Well, Lou, I think that’s the last of it.” She glanced up when her mother stepped off the front porch.
“You’re sure you have everything?” her mother asked as she walked over, taking a moment to pet Lou’s head as she passed him.
“Yeah. That was it. Thanks again for watching the place while I’m gone, Mom. I really appreciate it.”
“No need for thanks. Who wouldn’t want to stay in this big house for a few weeks? All I need is a scantily clad butler and I’d be in seventh heaven.”
London chuckled and shook her head. “I’ll call you when I get there,” she said as she hugged her mother. Leaving wasn’t easy for her, but she did so faithfully once a year in order to write whatever book was niggling at her to be her next release. It wasn’t that she couldn’t do it in her own home, she just found more inspiration at her cabin. There was something about the quiet and the forest that made it more conducive for her to write.
“Maybe you’ll meet someone while you’re there this year,” her mother called out as she watched Lou jump into the back of the car. London closed the rear door, then got into the front seat, and started the car. She rolled down the window.
“Every year you have those high hopes for me, and every year you are sorely disappointed when all I come home with are the few hundred pages that are my next book.”
“I wouldn’t say I’m disappointed so much as I worry about you, sweetheart. I want you to be happy with someone and I do want grandchildren someday. You’re nearly forty and don’t have too much time left to have them.”
“Nearly forty! Mom, I am nowhere near forty. I still have plenty of time to have kids.” She grinned as her mother pouted.
“I’m getting older and you’d let me leave this world without knowing the love of grandchildren?”
London rolled her eyes. The conversation took the same turn it always did when it came to her love life, or lack thereof. “You’ll hardly be leaving this world in the next few decades. Look, I love you and I’ll call you when I get to the cabin.” She rolled her window up and waved to her mother as she began pulling out of the driveway and onto the quiet street.
The drive to her cabin was relaxing. Even though it was a little chilly, she cracked the windows to allow the crisp air and the faint scent of pine trees to fill the car. Her heart warmed when she saw deer occasionally peering out from the forest as she passed and she glanced in her rearview at Lou when he made soft barking noises at the skittish creatures.
As she pulled up to the cabin, she saw the caretaker, Silas, standing beside his old junker of a truck with a smile on his face, waving. She stopped the car and shut it off. Grabbing her laptop case, she and Lou got out and made their way to the elderly man. “Hey, Silas,” she greeted him. “How’re you doing?”
“Oh, I’m fine. How was the trip up for you and Lou there?” He patted his leg and knelt down to pet Lou as the dog ran up to him.
“Same as always. Where’s the Mrs?”
“She’s in town. One of Chris’ little ones is really sick and begging for grandma to take care of him,” Silas replied as he straightened up. “Told me to let you know she’ll be bringing you some of her special chicken soup like she always does when we open the cabin for you.”
“I can’t wait.”
“You need any help with your things?”
London turned toward her car and nibbled her lip as she thought for a moment. “Nah. I think I can get everything by myself. Besides, I would hate to keep you in case Ann needs you.”
“Well then, I best be going.” Silas opened his car door and stopped, leaning on it. “Before I forget, there’s a snowstorm fixin’ to come through here in the next couple of days, so I made sure you have enough firewood to last you until it passes. Bernie said he’d be bringing your groceries up around three this afternoon.”
