Dare to Dream
Gallery owner and artist Desiree Armstrong is lucky to be alive after a fire destroyed her SoHo studio. Since then, she's been unable to paint. With the pressure of an upcoming art exhibit looming, she's in a panic and getting nowhere fast…until her best friend and sorority sister, Rachel, steps in. Rachel insists Desiree take a vacation, and even makes the reservation herself. But her good intentions could backfire–the reservation just happens to be at the Sag Harbor bed-and-breakfast owned by Desiree's ex-fiancé, Lincoln Davenport. When Desiree walks back into his life, it will be up to Lincoln to extinguish lingering doubts from the past and gently rekindle her love for him.…
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Can love ignite from a spark of desire?
Gallery owner and artist Desiree Armstrong is lucky to be alive after a fire destroyed her SoHo studio. Since then, sheâs been unable to paint. With the pressure of an upcoming art exhibit looming, sheâs in a panic and getting nowhere fastâ¦until her best friend and sorority sister, Rachel, steps in. Rachel insists Desiree take a vacation, and even makes the reservation herself. But her good intentions could backfireâthe reservation just happens to be at the Sag Harbor bed-and-breakfast owned by Desireeâs ex-fiancé, Lincoln Davenport. When Desiree walks back into his life, it will be up to Lincoln to extinguish lingering doubts from the past and gently rekindle her love for him....
Acknowledgments
Many thanks to Andree Michelle
for her help with the background on Sag Harbor, but especially for introducing me to the incredible information on the Grenning Gallery.
Dear Reader,
Thank you for purchasing Dare to Dream, a love story that will hopefully sweep you away. I loved crafting my heroine Desiree, a strong-willed, creative young woman who is challenged on every level to regain her sense of self after losing everything. Of course, no love story would be complete without the perfect manâLincoln Davenportâwho fits the bill from head to toe. And he is determined to have Desireeâno matter what.
When I was writing this novel, I had the pleasure of spending time in the Hamptons in Sag Harbor, New York, doing âresearch.â Many of the scenes are peppered with real places, people and streets mixed in with a bit of my imagination. I had such a wonderful experience there that it led me to write Heartâs Reward in 2010, where I first introduced readers to Melanie Harte and her family and my edible hero Rafe Lawson, who of course is the to-die-for bachelor in my Lawsons of Louisiana series. Needless to say, I couldnât seem to shake my love of Sag Harbor, so much so that I will be introducing a new series, Sag Harbor Village, which debuts with a new novel this fall! Youâll see some of your favorite characters from my previous books and meet some new ones. Perhaps by that time, Rafe Lawson will have settled downâor maybe not! In the meantime, please enjoy Desiree and Lincolnâs wonderful story and let me know what you think.
You can always find me on Facebook, www.facebook.com/donnahillfans, or on Twitter, www.twitter.com/donnahill, and you can always send me an email at [email protected]. I promise to answer.
Until next time,
Donna
Contents
Chapter 1
âDesi, Carl Hampton is here to see you. He said he wanted to check on the progress of your paintings for the exhibit. I told him you were busy.â
Desiree Armstrong sighed loudly and mumbled a curse under her breath. With great reluctance she put her paintbrush down and turned to her assistant.
âThanks, Cynthia.â She wiped her hands on her once-upon-a-time white smock that was now mottled in an array of rainbow colors. âOne of these days Iâm going to make enough money to host my own exhibition. Sponsors seem to have this crazy notion that the artist has nothing better to do than be at their beck and call.â She stood and rolled her stiff shoulders. âHow does he ever expect me to finish my work for the show if he âdrops by to see my progressâ every fifteen minutes?â
They both laughed.
âTell him Iâll be right down. Let me get cleaned up and make myself semi-presentable.â
âHey, take your time. If he really wants to see you, heâll just have to wait, now, wonât he?â
âYou got that right.â
Cynthia turned to leave the studio, her waist-length, honey-blond hair swinging behind her.
Desiree smiled as she headed toward the industrial sink set off to the right side of the studio loft. She and Cynthia had hooked up and become fast friends when Desiree was teaching an art course at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Cynthia had a keen eye for what was good and what wasnât, but her artistic talents stopped cold right there. But rather than leave a profession she loved, she signed on as Desireeâs assistant and theyâd been together ever since. That was five years ago, a time when Desiree desperately needed a friend. A time when she was struggling with the reality that Lincoln Davenport, the man sheâd given her heart to, would never be hers. With her best friend and soror Rachel Givens heavily involved in her own life and love, Cynthia proved that she could be the ear and the shoulder Desiree needed.
Lincoln. Funny, she hadnât thought of him in at least a week, in some form or the other. She turned on the water full blast and grabbed a bar of brown soap. That was a good sign, she thought as she briskly washed her hands with the precision of a surgeon. Maybe soon she could say two weeks, then three, and finally never.
