Falling for you, p.1
Falling for You, page 1
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2022 by Barbara Curtis
Cover design by Daniela Medina. Cover images © Shutterstock. Cover copyright © 2022 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Hachette Book Group supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
Forever
Hachette Book Group
1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104
Read-Forever.com
twitter.com/readforeverpub
First Edition: March 2022
Forever is an imprint of Grand Central Publishing. The Forever name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
The Hachette Speakers Bureau provides a wide range of authors for speaking events. To find out more, go to www.hachettespeakersbureau.com or call (866) 376-6591.
ISBNs 978-1-5387-0313-7 (mass market), 978-1-5387-0314-4 (ebook)
E3-20211022-DA-NF-ORI
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Discover More
About the Author
Also by Barb Curtis
Can’t get enough of that small-town charm? Forever has you covered with these heartwarming contemporary romances!
For my parents
For their never-ending support
Explore book giveaways, sneak peeks, deals, and more.
Tap here to learn more.
Acknowledgments
It’s such a strange feeling to be at the end of this series. These characters have been in my head so long that I’ve begun to think of them as friends or family. I still can’t wrap my mind around the fact that they are immortalized now in the pages of these books. So I’ll start by thanking the woman who saw something in my words from that very first submission. Junessa Vilora, this dream would not have come true (at least when it did) had you not taken a chance on me. You’re such a joy to work with, and you know exactly how to make my stories shine. I’m so glad you loved Rob and Faith’s story as much as the first two books!
To my agent, Stacey Graham: Thank you for everything you do in steering this small-town Canadian girl through the turbulent world of publishing. Your pep talks work every time, and your advice is always spot on. Thank you to the rest of the team at Forever for bringing my books to life: Leah Hultenschmidt, Lori Paximadis, Daniela Medina, Bob Castillo, and Estelle Hallick. Estelle, you’re amazing! I can’t thank you enough for everything you do!
A big shout-out to my critique partners—Tara Martin, Janet Walden-West, and Kat Turner—and to my fellow 2020 debut authors for all their support and encouragement. We writers would be lost without our tribes.
To all the readers, bloggers, and bookstagrammers: Your support amazes me every day, and it’s what keeps this ship sailing! A big thank-you to Kathleen at Mill Cove Coffee for promoting so many locals, and my local community for singing my praises. Your support means the world.
To my parents and my family: Thank you for your encouragement and for listening to me go on about ideas, sometimes into the early morning hours. ;)
And, of course, thank you to Chris and Keira. I’d be completely swallowed up by all of this without you guys in my corner to keep me grounded and remind me of the things that really matter at the end of the day. I couldn’t do this without the two of you by my side.
Chapter One
Two months was a long time to be off the grid.
An eviction notice clung to Faith Rotolo’s apartment door by a grimy piece of Scotch tape, and her key no longer fit the lock.
Her heart rate surged as she dug around her purse for her cell so she could call Nick—the friend of a friend whose apartment she’d been staying at before she went to Fiji. Her fingers clasped around the phone. She pulled it out and pressed a button.
Dead.
“Ugh.” Just great. She spun on her heel to race back downstairs, where her car took up the better part of two parking spots.
Settling behind the wheel, she plugged her phone into the charger, patiently waiting for it to come to life while the air-conditioning washed over her, a respite from the mid-August heat. To her horror, it vibrated with notifications and incoming messages for what seemed like eternity.
A hundred and three emails? She glanced at the parking meter. The handful of coins she’d shoved into the slot before heading upstairs would only buy her another couple of minutes, and notifications were still pouring in.
She scrolled through her mailbox quickly. Junk mostly, save the occasional email from her father. And then lo and behold, she found the answer she’d been looking for: Nick had sent a brief message a month ago. He’d skipped out on the rent—took off to go on tour with his band. She’d need to find a new place to stay when she got back.
“Ugh, Nick, you flake.” Faith glared upward past the lush elm tree toward the bare second-level windows. Thank God everything she owned lived in a storage locker in North Buffalo. She drummed the pads of her fingers to her chin. It’d be impossible to find another apartment with the influx of students arriving to begin the fall semester in a couple of weeks. Either she moved into a hotel until she found a place, or she crashed at her father and stepmother’s house.
A hotel might be more welcoming.
She moved on to missed calls and voicemails. Some lady named Maureen Carver, a lawyer in Sapphire Springs, had left a message asking if Faith could please contact her. Then there were two more, the urgency factor escalating in each one.
Hmm. Faith tapped her foot and pinched her bottom lip. Her mom had grown up in Sapphire Springs, but other than that, she knew very little about the place. The town had barely been spoken of in the twenty-three years since the accident that claimed her mother’s life.
What would a lawyer want with her?
Curiosity won out and had her clicking on the lawyer’s phone number instead of looking for a hotel. Her heart rate quickened with each ring.
Surely she wasn’t being sued for a yoga injury. She’d made people sign waivers.
Oh! She’d bumped that car a few months back. Nudged it, really—didn’t even leave a mark, and she’d left an apology note with her phone number so they could call her directly. Couldn’t be that.
“Maureen Carver.”
Spoken like a woman who meant business.
Faith drew in a deep breath before speaking. “Good morning, Ms. Carver. This is Faith Rotolo. My apologies for the delay in responding to your messages. I’ve been out of the country a couple of months.” That sounded half-assed professional, if she did say so herself.
The cheeky gerbera daisy on her dusty dashboard bobbed back and forth before Maureen broke into a hearty laugh that continued for several seconds.
“Faith Rotolo. Well I’ll be damned. I thought you flew the coop, girl.”
The friendly tone had Faith’s shoulders relaxing. “Sorry about that. I’ve been in Fiji teaching a yoga retreat. Cell phones weren’t permitted.”
“Two months without a cell phone? Sign me up.” Maureen spoke over shuffling papers and ringing phones. “In all seriousness, though, you’ve become a bit of a fixation for me. I placed bets with the girls at the office over whether you really existed. I even searched for you on social media.”
Seriously? A lawyer creeping her Instagram?
Maureen continued. “Even your father’s receptionist didn’t return my calls. My imagination went wild. Nobody in your life seemed alarmed over where you disappeared to. I actually debated filing a police report.”
Okay, if she was dead in a ditch, somebody would miss her, wouldn’t they? Her father probably would if he took time out of his busy schedule to notice.
Maybe.
Maureen gave a hearty laugh. “Anyway, all that to say that I’m relieved to hear a voice on the other end of the line. You’re probably busy catching up on personal business, so I’ll get right to the point. Would you be able to come to my office in Sapphire Springs for a meeting?”
Faith drew in a breath. Sapphire Springs had been all but off- limits since the accident. She’d never been back. Dad either, as far as she knew. The town held too much sadness.
Her eyes traveled past the blinking light on the expired meter and scaled the low-rise brick building. “I guess so…I mean—”
“I can come to you, if that’s easier,” Maureen persisted.
And meet where, exactly? The back alley where she’d soon be living among the pigeons and stray cats? A black car pulled up beside Faith’s lime-green Volkswagen Beetle. The driver laid on the horn and gestured to her parking. Before he sped off, he flipped her the finger.
She shrunk a little in her seat and eyed the meter reader turning the corner onto her street. What prevented her from meeting Maureen other than this prickling dread over visiting the town where her mom had grown up and being hit with painful memories? She didn’t have kids to think about or a boyfriend to check in with. Not even a cat, for crying out loud. “No, I guess I could come to Sapphire Springs. I can be there in about an hour.”
“Great. I’ll clear my schedule,” Maureen said. “This file has been sitting on my desk for weeks, and I really want it gone.”
With one eye on the approaching meter reader, Faith rummaged through the console until she came up with a parking ticket she’d forgotten about, and turned it over to jot down directions Maureen rattled off. She tossed the pen and ticket onto the passenger seat and pulled away from the curb as the meter reader retrieved his ticket book from his vest.
Spontaneous road trips normally sparked excitement, but Sapphire Springs registered pretty low on Faith’s list of desirable destinations. She’d make it a quick trip in and out of town to settle whatever business the lawyer was so intent on discussing. How bad could it be? Besides, everything she needed sat in the back seat of her car, and she quite literally had nowhere else to go.
In the five years since she and Nate divorced, Faith had used her yoga teacher training as a way to see the world. She’d taught on cruise ships and at posh resorts, and had scored some pretty sweet house-sitting gigs through some of her dad’s colleagues to fill the gaps in between. She really hadn’t had much of a home base.
The monotony of the forty-five-minute drive from Buffalo to Sapphire Springs did little to ease Faith’s anxiety, and the edginess only escalated by the time she navigated the narrow streets of the small town, past historic brick buildings and a park in town square. Her mom had taken her there for a picnic once, and they’d spent the afternoon cloud watching under the shade of a massive oak tree. She’d recognize that park anywhere.
Rather than sadden her, the memory of her mother’s red hair sweeping into her face as she rolled over on her side and propped her head up with her elbow made Faith’s lips turn upward in a smile. She hadn’t thought about that day with her mom in years.
By the time she parked her car in front of the law firm, Faith imagined being sued for everything imaginable. Still, she felt lighter somehow, than she had the entire drive. After showing ID and answering a few basic questions, a blond receptionist led her to Maureen’s office.
“Faith, it’s nice to finally meet you.” Maureen rose from her desk to shake hands, her ebony corkscrew curls bouncing. “I know I sounded cryptic on the phone, but for confidentiality reasons, I needed to be able to confirm you are who you say you are and all that jazz. Now that you’re here, I’ll get right to the point. You might want to sit down for this,” she added, nodding toward an empty seat.
Okay, still being a little cryptic, lady. Faith lowered into the stiff office chair opposite Maureen.
“Does the name William Gray mean anything to you?”
Faith drummed her short fingernails against the padded armrest. “Yeah, he’s a relative. My late mother’s uncle, maybe?” Was it bad she wasn’t sure?
“My condolences,” Maureen began. “Mr. Gray passed away last month. You’re a beneficiary in his will.”
Faith laughed abruptly, the panic from earlier dissipating. “I’m sorry.” She waved her hand when Maureen looked at her curiously. “I was freaking out the entire drive here over what a lawyer could possibly want to discuss with me.” She relaxed into the back of the chair. “So what did the guy leave me, some crusty old lamp?”
Maureen opened a green folder on her desk and smoothed her hand across the thin stack of pages. “Actually, you’re the sole beneficiary.”
Faith blinked and sat up a little straighter.
“Don’t get too excited. The man didn’t have much to his name other than this.” Maureen slid a photo printed from the internet across the desk. “Are you familiar with this Victorian property on Sycamore Street? Grandiose old Queen Anne Revival, built around 1899?”
“Romano Estate?” Faith slid forward and glanced at the picture. “Sure, it’s the house where my mom grew up. Her mother died in childbirth, and she was raised by her father and her grandmother. I think after Mom met my dad and her father got sick, his brother William moved in to take over looking after his mother. We visited several times when I was a kid, but I only have a vague recollection of William. Why?”
“Because he left the estate to you.”
A couple of beats passed before the words sunk in and Faith found her voice. “Um…Sorry, what?”
“This comes as a surprise, I take it.” Maureen crossed her elegant arms.
Her mom’s house? Faith closed her dry mouth. “There must be a misunderstanding.” She passed the photo back to Maureen. “I don’t even know those people.”
Maureen placed the photo back in the file. “I can assure you, it’s not a misunderstanding.”
Faith chewed on her bottom lip. None of this made any sense. “Why would William Gray leave his house to me? I’m little more than a stranger. Did the man not have anybody? Kids?”
“No kids.” Maureen shook her head, sending her hoop earrings swaying back and forth. “Now I’m fairly new in town myself, but from what I gather, William was an eccentric sort. Apparently after his wife’s passing seven years ago he was moved to a nursing home against his wishes. Nobody has inhabited the place since, unless you count a few star-crossed lovers of the teenage variety. If you know what I mean,” she added with raised brows.
A love shack, then. Faith furrowed her brows while Maureen went on.
“Apparently William suffered from dementia, although no formal diagnosis supported that claim. Truth or not, he had enough wits about him to put the house in the care of a trust after his wife passed away. The place is a designated historical property, originally owned by businessman Rocky Romano, who would’ve been William Gray’s grandfather.” Maureen winked. “Bit of local legend there, if you’re into that sort of thing.”
Faith needed to talk to her father. This was too bizarre.
“We’ve got lots of paperwork to go through,” Maureen continued. “And I have a small army of keys to sign over to you as well.”
Actually, bizarre didn’t quite cut it, but if this was a dream, it was damn vivid. Maureen tossed her too much information at once. The taxes were paid up, something about the well and septic being in good working order, the pond and grounds had been maintained…A few broken windows required attention, with fall around the corner, and weeds and foliage were taking over the immediate area around the house.
Okay, some of that sounded decent, and the rest didn’t seem too daunting. Maybe this house could be the answer to all her problems. She could sell the place and travel. Win-win. Things were looking up already. Options were never a bad thing.
By the fourth or fifth time she heard the word hereinafter, Faith struggled to keep up. If even a shred of excitement managed to cut through the peculiarity of the situation, the legal mumbo jumbo killed her buzz.
Nonetheless, they fell into a rhythm, Maureen licking her thumb and flipping pages as she explained the documents, Faith speed-reading and scrawling signatures wherever the woman’s diamond-clad finger landed. Each time she signed her name her pulse increased.
Maureen rolled away from her desk and pushed off the chair. “Now for the keys. What we’ve got here could supply a small hotel.” She dropped them into an envelope and handed it to Faith. “I can’t tell you what they’re all for. Some are labeled, and others you’ll have to figure out as you go.”
Faith peered into the envelope and back at Maureen. “So that’s it? I officially own the place?”
