She always knew this day would come
When her former boyfriend shows up at her Vermont home, Lilah Bantry is terrified that Owen Gage will take her child away. Four years ago, she sent him packing, dead certain that Owen couldnât be the father their unborn baby needed. Now heâs stirring up powerful emotions and vowing heâll never leave the son heâs determined to get to know. Lilah spent decades trying to overcome her own traumatic past. Is Owenâs warmly welcoming Tennessee hometown a place where she can finally stop running? First, she needs to be convinced that people really can changeâ¦
âYou have the life you stole from me.â
Lilah squeezed the towel in her hands. âI donât know you anymore, Owen, but I donât want you near Ben. Heâd be afraid of you if he saw you the way you used to get.â
He turned around to face her.
Suddenly she felt as if she were vibrating. Was this shock? She couldnât control her reaction to seeing Owen again. He was still handsome, rugged.
She saw shadows of the younger man sheâd loved.
She didnât want to see him, or remember how sheâd cared for him. Loved him as much as she was able. She must not have loved him the way sheâd thought if sheâd managed to excise him from her life.
She couldnât let him back in.
Dear Reader,
Owen Gage and Lilah Bantry knew each other at a time when they were both trying to live down the secrets that ruled their lives. When Lilah discovered she was pregnant, she decided the baby was one more secret she had to keep because Owen had problems he didnât want to fix, and she was determined their child would never suffer the fear both she and Owen knew as children.
When Owen discovers Ben was born, he wants only revengeâand a chance to get to know the son he would never harm. Except his revenge canât bring Ben happiness, and he finds himself beginning to understand why Lilah made the decision he hates. Itâs only when Lilah and Owen give up the defenses that kept them safe before and learn to be generous with each other that they also learn to love. They begin to wonder if they can be a familyâ¦
I hope their story brings you the joy they find in each other.
All the best,
Anna
ANNA ADAMS wrote her first romance on the beach in wet sand with a stick. These days she uses pens, software or napkins and a crayon to write the kinds of stories she loves bestâromance that involves everyone in the family and often the whole community. Love, like a stone tossed into a lake, causes ripples to spread and contract, bringing conflict and well-meaning âhelpâ from the people who care most.
PROLOGUE
âHERE, BUDDY. THIS is the place.â Owen Gage had to concentrate to make the words sound normal as he raised his hand awkwardly to tap on the taxiâs back passenger window.
âYou sure?â The driver pulled to the curb in front of Lilah Bantryâs apartment building on one of Manhattanâs long, narrow, building-bound streets. âThis your place? Do you want me to wait?â
âNo, why?â
âItâs none of my business, but Iâm not sure you belong here, and I feel bad just dropping a drunk guy on the street.â
âA cabbie with a conscience. Thanks.â The interior light almost blinded Owen. He might not have been in the best shape to see straight. âBut Iâm not drunk.â He shoved money at the driver and then fumbled with the door handle. He was in control. He just needed to concentrate.
The handle gave way, and he all but fell out of the car, onto the rain-splattered curb.
After the month heâd spent in a rehab center in the mountains, just being in this city cut through the friendly warmth of his buzz. Only a buzz. He could handle his liquor.
He headed toward the uniformed doorman who stood sentry beneath a wide awning that was green by day, but looked dark and damp tonight.
âKevin,â Owen said, âhow you doing, buddy?â There. Heâd strung those words together like a champ.
âIâm better than you. What are you doing here like this, Mr. Gage?â Kevin had stood his post for as long as Owen had known Lilah and her family. Since the first time Lilah had taken one of Owenâs carved wooden sculptures for her fancy gallery. Heâd thought his work was too rustic for the Bantry Galleries, but sheâd refused to give up on his sculptures, or him, for the past two years.
âI want to see Lilah. Is she home? I have news for her.â Not good news, but information he was sick to death of hiding. He was tired of trying to be a different man because he loved her. Time she found out who he was.
Kevin reached for Owen as he tried to open the doors. âWait.â
He shook the guy off, looking at him with an unspoken promise to make his point more plainly if he needed to.