If Not For A Bee

You can’t always play it safe

With four sons dependent on her, Janie Everett needs to keep her life uncomplicated. Now famous scientist Aidan Hollings is disrupting her orderly world, starting with the rescue of a...bumblebee.

Aidan is only passing through her Alaska wilderness town, and wasn’t planning to bond with her two older boys. Or become so attracted to the widowed journalist. His globe-trotting days may be be over if he’s able to show Janie that they can share the adventure of a lifetime—together.

“I like you, Janie.”

“You... What?”

Aidan took her by the shoulders and leaned his head toward hers. One hand traveled up and slipped around the back of her neck. He paused for a few tension-filled seconds and she wondered if he was giving her an opportunity to back away. Yet there was no possible way that was happening. She inched closer so that they were chest to chest. She reached up and grasped the collar of his rumpled shirt.

When his lips covered hers, Janie knew she was in serious trouble, even as it occurred to her that this shouldn’t be happening for so many reasons. She was too...simple...in direct opposition to her life, which was too complicated. But then again, he wasn’t the man for her, either. He was too complicated while his life was too...simple. And yet it felt so...right.

Dear Reader,

After reading Mountains Apart, the first book in my Seasons of Alaska series, my oldest sister, Shelly, called me up to tell me how much she loved the book (sisters have to do this—it’s a sister requirement). After gushing appropriately and making her little sister feel awesome and talented and loved (also required), she asked me when Janie (the hero’s sister) was going to get her own story.

“Janie is a grieving widow,” she told me in a particularly heartfelt tone, “all alone and raising four children and suffering from postpartum depression. She needs to find someone—she deserves to find love!”

As a mother herself, I love how Shelly connected with Janie. Since then I’ve had more people “suggest” that I give Janie her own love story. I’m so thrilled to be doing just that.

Janie first meets Aidan Hollings in Mountains Apart, but it’s a brief encounter and she is in no condition to notice, much less appreciate, the brainy, seemingly self-absorbed scientist. Their first (second) meeting in If Not for a Bee does in fact involve a bee; although it doesn’t exactly set them off on the right foot, either. But the title reveals so much about this story because indeed, if not for a bee, these two would never have that first encounter that leads to many more... Literally, if not for a bee, they’d never get their happy ending.

And they do eventually (I’m talking to you here, Shelly). I promise!

All my best,

Carol

CarolRossAuthor.com

If Not for a Bee

Carol Ross

CAROL ROSS lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two dogs. She is a graduate of Washington State University. When not writing, or thinking about writing, she enjoys reading, running, hiking, skiing, traveling and making plans for the next adventure to subject her sometimes reluctant but always fun-loving family to.

For my favorite moms—Granny, Shelly and the two Tammys. Thanks so much for your seemingly endless supply of love and support. I’m truly the luckiest daughter, sister and stepmom in the world.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Dear Reader

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

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

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

“HOLD STILL. I’LL kill it.”

“Wait...”

“Don’t move.”

“Mom, Mom, Mo-o-om...” Gareth stared with wide-eyed terror at the box he held clutched in his hands. Janie could tell he was on the verge of losing it and she knew the precious cargo inside was the only thing keeping him from succumbing to the panic.

“Honey, please relax. I will get it.” Janie reached into her bag for some kind of weapon. “Do you want me to take the box?”

“No, Mom, I’ve got the box. Just get it...hurry.”

“Gareth, please don’t drop the box.”

“I’m trying not to,” he squeaked.

“I know, honey. And I’ll get it.” She began rolling the newspaper she’d retrieved from her bag.

The door to the bakery jingled as Lilah stepped out. “Janie, is everything okay?”

The monster crawled closer toward Gareth’s hand. He let out a whimper and Janie felt her own pulse of fear.

“We’re fine, Lilah. Or we will be soon—a bee landed on the cake box but I’m going to take care of it.”

“Take care of it?” a deep voice said from somewhere over her left shoulder. “What do you mean?”

“I mean,” she said, “that Mr. Bee is about to go to the great honeypot in the sky.”

“But that’s a bumblebee.”