 by Mia Brody.jpg)
Total pages in book: 23
Estimated words: 20927 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 105(@200wpm)___ 84(@250wpm)___ 70(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 20927 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 105(@200wpm)___ 84(@250wpm)___ 70(@300wpm)
Piper
This is not how I imagined the start of my vacation. First, the rental car breaks down then a huge bear appears, and now this grumpy mountain man is rushing to rescue me. He’s scruffy, burly, and growls at me…and I’m not talking about the bear!
At least, I won’t have to see him again after today. Except he’s the tour guide that promised my friend he’d show me around town. Now I’m stuck with my grumpy mountain man for the week, but that’s OK. I’m starting to like the way he growls.
Gray
I run the Forever After Lodge in Sweetheart, North Carolina. I spend my days soothing frantic brides, calming nervous grooms, and officiating wedding ceremonies. This lodge has been in my family for decades and I make running it look easy.
Except I have a dirty little secret I’ve never told anyone: I don’t believe in love. It’s the stuff of fairytales. It doesn’t actually happen. At least, that’s what I thought. Then I meet Piper with her bubbly, sunshine personality. Now, there’s only one choice left for this grumpy mountain man—to claim the heart of my curvy woman!
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
1
PIPER
“Can you come here for a minute?” Brock asks as he stands in the doorway of his office. My big brother is the sheriff here in South Tahoe. He’s also my boss though I don’t think of him that way.
For years, my dad was the sheriff. He proudly served the people of South Tahoe. When Brock followed in his steps and went to the police academy, he couldn’t have been prouder. Except that Brock didn’t come home right away. He spent years as a homicide detective until my dad’s sudden passing brought him home. He assumed my father’s old post and life has continued on.
I step into the cream-colored office that I updated for my father about a year before he died. He encouraged me to go after my dreams, but I could never imagine working anywhere else. So, I went to school and became a dispatcher.
Even before that, I was spending every spare minute at the station. I loved being around my dad. He always doted on me and there are still moments when I can’t believe he’s gone. It seems like a dream that I keep waiting to wake up from.
“What’s up?” I spot the pastry on the desk. I bounce over to it. This one is my favorite, the cheesecake Danish with extra filling and glaze on top. I sniff the coffee, confirming that it’s a salted caramel mocha from Patty’s Cakes, a local bakery here in town.
“Big brother wants a favor.” I take a seat across from his desk. He doesn’t have to butter me up. He only has to ask, and I’ll do anything I can to help him. But that’s not going to stop me from eating my treat.
He takes his seat across from me and watches me bite into the pastry. I know that look on his face. It’s the one he gets when he’s about to tell me something I don’t want to hear. “The county has me personally reviewing the personnel records and making sure everything is updated.”
I nod along. Since Brock took over, the county is making us upgrade to digital records for everything. Dad fought them for years but with him no longer here, the task of dragging the station into the twenty-first century has fallen on my brother’s shoulders. “Do you need help with the personnel files?”
I might be a dispatcher, but I’ll do anything to keep my dad’s legacy running. From getting coffee to sweeping the floors, there’s never been a task I wouldn’t do here.
My dad always believed that the highest form of leadership was servanthood and he instilled in me from a young age that the police and other first responders are servants of the people. Maybe that’s why I’ve had such a hard time admitting that I’ve been dreaming a new dream. It’s quiet, tucked away in a corner of my heart.
“There’s a problem with your file,” he says.
“You mean with uploading it to the new system?” The salted caramel taste hits my tongue perfectly. Autumn is just around the corner, my favorite time of year.
“No, with your file. What I’m seeing says you’ve never taken a day off since you started as a volunteer at sixteen. You even came in on the day of dad’s funeral.”
“He would have wanted me to carry on,” I counter, keeping my voice even. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about working in an office full of men, it’s to keep my emotions in check. Getting angry or upset only feeds into the idea that women aren’t suited for some workplace environments. Fortunately, my brother doesn’t carry any of these sexist ideas.
Brock studies me as if he’s seeing me for the first time. Maybe he is. After all, we’re ten years apart in age. “The county owes you a lot of vacation days, and it’s time you took them.”
I finish the rest of the Danish and brush crumbs from my pants. “No, I’m good. I’m not going to crack up on you.”
My brother saw some gritty things as a homicide detective. He may not have said it all those years ago, but he was really struggling. It was why I got him into reading romance books. Something with a guaranteed happy ending can be a source of hope when life doesn’t make sense anymore. My brother even found a romance author and fell in love with her. It doesn’t get any cuter than that.
Because of his own struggles, Brock is pushing for more training and education about mental health for first responders. It’s slow going but he’s trying to raise the funding the county would need for his program.
There’s a knock on the door then Zoey pokes her head through. She’s Brock’s wife and the romance author I mentioned. She writes books about adorkable plus-size heroines who fall for strong alpha males. She’s pretty much my hero and the reason I’ve started writing my own books. They’re not very good but Zoey says to keep going. “Hey, Pipe! I’m glad you’re here! I wanted to talk to you about the lodge.”