Blurb:
Dr. Alex Campbell has
an agenda—finish his contract to provide medical services in Maine, pay off his
medical school debt, and head back to his real life in San Diego. But when he
meets Julia, all his carefully laid plans are put in jeopardy.
Julia Stewart, Lobster
Cove’s high school principal, swears she’ll never let another man drag her away
from the home she loves. Her aging parents need her, and the Cove is where she
wants to raise her daughter. When her mother’s illness brings her and the big
city doctor closer together, panic sets in. Her marriage taught her men don’t
stay.
Can she put aside the
heartaches of the past and trust Alex enough to accept the love he’s offering?
Or will her fear of abandonment mean she’ll send him away forever?
Excerpt:
“What did the x-ray
find?” she asked.
“A spiral fracture of
the right arm.” He paused for a moment and took a deep breath as if trying to
control his emotions. “I’ve seen this kind of injury before. A fracture like
this can be the result of a fall, but it can also be an indication of child
abuse. An arm as small as Ava’s will break like a twig if it’s twisted hard
enough. I’m obligated to contact the authorities if I suspect abuse.”
Julia stared at him in
mute shock, her brain struggling to process his words, as if trying to
translate some unintelligible language. The words child abuse rang in her ears. Finally she found her voice.
“You think someone
deliberately hurt her?”
“Her injuries are
consistent with abuse.”
“I don’t give a damn
what they’re consistent with. Ava has not been mistreated. My mother said she
fell down the stairs, and if that’s what she said, then that’s what happened.”
“I believe there’s
more to the story than a simple fall.”
“If it comes down to
believing you or believing my mother, I’m going with my mother.”
“Perhaps you don’t
know your mother as well as you think you do.”
Julia sucked in a
breath and stared into Dr. Campbell’s dark, accusing eyes. The idea that her
mother would hurt Ava was ridiculous. She adored Ava, would do anything for
her…
She blinked and looked
away, remembering an incident the other day. She’d heard her yelling at Ava
about the milk she’d spilled on the kitchen floor, making such a huge deal of
it that Ava had cried. It had struck her as strange, since she couldn’t
remember her mother yelling at anyone, ever. She wasn’t as patient as she used
to be. And how did she explain her strange phone call telling her Ava had been
hurt? Of course she’d been upset, but her mother had been nearly incoherent
with distress. Was something going on she wasn’t aware of? She was seventy-one
now. Maybe looking after a rambunctious five-year-old was too much for her.
No. She shook her head to reject the disloyal thought. Dr. Campbell was
the one who was wrong.
“I know my mother. She
didn’t do this. It was an accident.”
“We’ll soon find out.
Sharon is questioning Ava now.”
Julia stared at the
door. “She’ll be scared, all by herself.”
“Sharon’s very good at
what she does. She has a way of making kids feel comfortable.”
Julia turned on him,
the anger and despair she’d been holding inside spilling out. “And you? Do you
enjoy upsetting five-year-olds and turning families’ lives upside down? Does it
make you feel powerful to sic the authorities on us?”
“Look, Mrs. Stewart, I
take no pleasure in bringing in the authorities. But I’ve seen child abuse, up
close and personal, and I can tell you it’s damn ugly. The things parents and
caregivers are capable of doing to defenseless children…”
He stopped abruptly,
his chest heaving. Closing his eyes, he averted his face and took a deep
breath. When he turned back to her, his steely control was back in place. “So
yeah, if I have even the smallest suspicion that a child has been abused, I’m
going to ask questions. And I’m not going to apologize for it.”
About the Author:
When Jana Richards read her first romance
novel, she immediately knew two things: she had to commit the stories running
through her head to paper, and they had to end with a happily ever after. She
also knew she’d found what she was meant to do. Since then she’s never met a
romance genre she didn’t like. She writes contemporary romance, romantic
suspense, and historical romance set in World War Two, in lengths ranging from
short story to full length novel. Just for fun, she throws in generous helpings
of humor, and the occasional dash of the paranormal. Her paranormal romantic
suspense “Seeing Things” was a 2008 EPPIE finalist.
In her life away from writing, Jana is an accountant/admin
assistant, a mother to two grown daughters, and a wife to her husband Warren.
She enjoys golf, yoga, movies, concerts, travel and reading, not necessarily in
that order. She and her husband live in Winnipeg, Canada with their Pug/Terrier
cross Lou and several unnamed goldfish. She loves to hear from readers and can
be reached through her website at www.janarichards.com
Social Media Links:
Website: http://www.janarichards.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/JanaRichards_
Amazon Author
Page: http://www.amazon.com/author/janarichards
Newsletter Signup: http://www.eepurl.com/m3UnT
Google+ Profile: https://plus.google.com/100820406211390323245
Pre-order Buy Links:
The Wild Rose Press: http://www.wildrosepublishing.com/maincatalog_v151/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=195&products_id=6065
Kobo:
Chapters/Indigo:
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