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One
More Second Chance
Lobster
Cove Series
The
Wild Rose Press
Jana
Richards
Genre:
Contemporary Romance
Publisher: The
Wild Rose Press
Date of
Publication: February 6, 2015
Number of pages:
331
Word Count:
82,083 words
Cover Artist: Tina
Lynn Stout
Book
Description:
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.
Author Links:
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ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the excerpt, thank you.
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