Love of a Lifetime: A Sweet Contemporary Romance (Finding Love Book 3)

by Delaney Cameron

  Love of a Lifetime:

  A Sweet Contemporary Romance

  (Finding Love, Book 3)

  by

  Delaney Cameron

  ©2016 Delaney Cameron

  Photo courtesy of: Elena Efimova

  Used under license from Shutterstock.com

  All rights reserved. No part of this e-book can be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted without the written permission of the author.

  This book is fiction and its characters are purely a manifestation of the imagination of the author. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, places, and events is entirely coincidental. (14)

  Other books by Delaney Cameron:

  Team Mom: A Sweet Contemporary Romance (Finding Love, Book 1)

  Stealing His Heart: A Sweet Contemporary Romance (Finding Love, Book 2)

  Dream of Me: A Sweet Contemporary Romance

  Finding Allie: A Sweet Regency Romance Novella

  For updates or to sign up for my newsletter, please go to:

  delaneycameron.weebly.com

  Dedication

  To Mom and Dad: thank you for always believing the best of me.

  Chapter One

  Faith woke up slowly, her eyes focusing on the beige shade covering the window. Her room didn’t have shades. She and Ian had spent an entire afternoon installing mini-blinds on every window of their house. Where was she? Her gaze shifted to the left. That was her blue duffle bag on the floor, but that wasn’t her man sleeping in the chair.

  Panic drove her upright, the shriek escaping her lungs loud enough to wake her companion. Sleepy blue eyes watched as she belatedly jerked the comforter to her chin.

  “Who are you, and what are you doing in here?” she asked shrilly.

  The man smiled lazily, turning a handsome face into something more. His blond hair was cut close to his head, the stubble of beard visible on his lean cheeks a shade or two darker.

  “When Trent told me he’d left something to perk me up, I thought he meant a case of Red Bull and some peanut butter cups.”

  “You didn’t answer my questions.”

  He went on as if she hadn’t spoken. “Not that I’m complaining. You’re a pretty sight first thing in the morning. Or anytime at all, really.”

  He didn’t look dangerous, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t. His t-shirt and mesh shorts did little to hide the swell of powerful muscles in his legs, arms and chest. Based on the length of the former, Faith guessed him to be well over six foot. She started inching to the other side of the bed. “If you don’t tell me what you’re doing here, I’m going to call 911.”

  “I don’t see how that will help anything.”

  “I’m not kidding.” She grabbed her phone off the nightstand. “In case you’re wondering, I know how to defend myself.”

  “I wasn’t wondering, but thanks for telling me. That’s one less thing we have to worry about. The name’s Landris Thomas. Where did Trent find you?”

  Faith ignored the reference to Trent. “How did you get in here?”

  He waved a hand behind him. “The door was open.”

  “I meant in the house,” she quipped impatiently.

  “I used the key hidden in the second flower pot on the right.”

  He knew about the key. That made her feel a little better. “Why did you sleep in that chair? This isn’t the only bedroom.”

  “Are you a journalist? Because you sure ask a lot of questions.”

  “I’m waiting.”

  He sighed dramatically, his eyes rolling up to the ceiling. “You’re like a puppy with a new bone. I found you last night or more accurately this morning. I didn’t think three a.m. was a good time to discuss the little problem of us both being here. So I slept in one of the guestrooms. When I woke up, I wondered if I’d dreamed the whole thing. I came to find out and realized you weren’t a figment of my sleep-deprived brain. I debated on whether to wake you up and decided not to. Then I made myself comfortable in this chair. I guess I fell back asleep.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Why didn’t you call the police?”

  He laughed at that, a deep rumble that seemed to fill the room. “I didn’t think you posed a threat to my safety. Can I ask you something?”

  “I guess so.”

  “How do you know Trent?”

  “I don’t know him. I’m here because my friend Marly told me this place would be empty. She works for a property management company.”

  “Trent’s my brother, and this house belongs to him. That’s why I assumed he’d put you up to this. He was supposed to notify the agency not to rent the cabin this weekend. Either he forgot – which is entirely possible – or someone at the agency forgot. The question is: what are we going to do about it?”

  Faith didn’t answer at first. She’d just discovered the reason his gaze kept straying from her face; a good bit of her leg was uncovered. She quickly pulled it under the comforter. “That’s easy; I’m going to leave.”

  He leaned forward in the chair, his hands clasped loosely together. “With it being Memorial Day, I doubt you’ll find anything else around here.”

  “I know that. I’ll have to go home.”

  “Not necessarily,” he said slowly. “There are four bedrooms plus a bonus room over the garage.”

  That didn’t change the fact that she’d be alone with him. “The size of the house doesn’t matter. I can’t stay here with you. I don’t know anything about you or vice versa.”

  A faintly mocking smile passed over his face. “You wouldn’t be staying here with just me. A more than adequate chaperone will be here by this afternoon.”

  Notwithstanding the fact that she was still getting over the shock of finding a stranger in her room, she wasn’t as unsettled by the situation as she probably should have been. Faith considered herself a good judge of character. As a teacher, she was used to sizing up students quickly. This man’s demeanor and body language told her she didn’t have anything to worry about. If she was wrong; well, he’d find out that she hadn’t been joking about being able to defend herself. Ian had made sure of that before he left for Iraq.

  “Who might this chaperone be? Your wife?”

  A half smile appeared along with the suggestion of a dimple. “Definitely not my wife.”

  Faith did something she hadn’t done in a long time; she blushed. “Forget I asked that. It doesn’t matter who it is.”

  “Maybe not to you, but Olivia will definitely want to know who you are.”

  “You and Olivia don’t have to worry; I’ll be gone long before she arrives.”

  “Even if I offer to sleep outside on the deck?” he asked with a cocked eyebrow and a boyish grin.

  She bit her lip to keep from laughing. “Olivia might not care for that.”

  “She’ll love it. We’ve slept under the stars before.”

  It sounded romantic. Especially in a setting such as this. Faith felt a spark of envy for the absent Olivia. The clearing of her companion’s throat brought her musing to an end. “Why are you doing this? It can’t matter to you whether I stay or go.”

  “I’ll plead guilty to invading your space this morning, but I’m not totally without conscience. I don’t want to be the reason your weekend got ruined. This cabin is large enough for ten people; there should be a way we can work this out.” He stood up and took a few steps toward the door. Then he turned around to face her again. “You didn’t tell me your name.”

  “Faith Peters.”

  “Do you like children, Faith?”

  A reluctant laugh escaped
her. “Yes.”

  “That’s good. If you do decide to stay, there’ll be a child here. Olivia is my four-year-old daughter.” With a casual wave of his hand, he disappeared through the door.

  His daughter? Why hadn’t he said so from the beginning? Not that it mattered, but he’d let her think that Olivia was an adult. And speaking of adult women, where was his wife?

  Flipping the comforter out of the way, she padded over to the door and closed it. She’d had enough surprises for one morning. She wasn’t going to be caught unprepared again.

  The view that she’d been so interested in seeing the night before drew her to the window. Pine trees swayed in the early morning breeze. Rising above the tree line, their tops still wreathed in heavy fog, stood the Smoky Mountains. Too bad she wouldn’t get the chance to enjoy this. No matter what Landris said, she couldn’t possibly stay here.

  As she drifted into the bathroom, she had to laugh. So much for that ‘sign’ she thought she received. It appeared she’d have to do her soul-searching about the situation with Connor on the drive home.

  * * * * *

  Landris shook his head at the reflection in the mirror. “You’re pathetic. All that talk last night of sending the little intruder on her way. That didn’t last long, did it? You felt sorry for her. You never were any good at self-preservation. And what was staring at her leg about? I know it’s been a long time, but get a grip, man.” With another shake of his head, he opened the glass door and reached in to turn the handle of the faucet. The plumbing in this place wasn’t the best. It took forever for the water to get hot.

  Even in the shower, he couldn’t escape Faith Peters. It wouldn’t be easy to forget waking up to find a pair of lovely blueish-green eyes glaring at him. Or all that long, dark hair tumbling loosely over her slim shoulders and framing her heart-shaped face. It was a sight any man would have found appealing, even one whose heart had long since ceased to feel much of anything.

  Why was someone who looked like that spending the weekend alone?

  A trickle of soap slid down his forehead into his eye. Muttering under his breath, he grabbed the towel hanging over the door and wiped his face. All this speculation wasn’t getting him anywhere. As bad as he felt about messing up her potential plans, it would be better if she left. Her presence would complicate things not the least of which was something he’d so far ignored. Landris might be able to fool everyone else, but he couldn’t fool himself. He hadn’t been this affected by a woman since Bristol offered him a bag of peanuts and a soda on the red-eye back to Georgia. Knowing the result of that encounter was reason enough to hope that Faith would be gone by the time he got downstairs.

  To delay finding out what his guest had decided to do about his invitation, he stayed in his room and returned the missed calls that had piled up on his phone. The last one was to his builder to check the progress on his house. It appeared everything was still on schedule for a move-in date two weeks from now.

  Leaving the place he’d lived in with Bristol wasn’t a problem. What bothered him was removing Olivia from the only environment she’d ever known. He disliked taking her away from her friends in Augusta and putting her in a new preschool. At least they’d be closer to his parents. Since his territory now extended well into Florida, moving to St. Marys would make it possible for him to be home more often and reduce the number of nights he needed to be away.

  Landris had been fortunate to be able to stay close to the game he loved. He’d been drafted out of college and spent a year in the minors before receiving the coveted call to the majors. During that time he met the woman he would marry. When his daughter was born, he figured he was the happiest man on earth. Few people achieve everything on their wish list at thirty years old. It was all the more ironic that a year later he was signing divorce papers.

  He might have been able to get over the shock and pain of being replaced by a man his wife met online, but Bristol hadn’t been content with breaking his heart. In her desire to distance herself from anything to do with him, she destroyed what remained of his love for her. In every sense, her revelations ripped the scales from his eyes leaving behind a disillusioned man who wasn’t sure love - at least the way he envisioned it - even existed.

  Managing his major league career and being a single parent hadn’t left much room for anything or anyone else. That state of affairs suited Landris just fine. He had no intention of putting his happiness into a woman’s hands again. This decision wasn’t a result of painting all women with the same brush. He wasn’t foolish enough to think every female was as unfaithful as Bristol. There were plenty of examples in his family and in the lives of his friends to prove otherwise. It was more an admission of poor judgment on his part.

  Whenever he got lonely and tired of waking up alone, he remembered the last conversation with Bristol. The one that revealed how easily he’d been maneuvered into a situation where she held all the cards. That was all it took to harden his heart and strengthen his resolve. He’d only recently discovered how much his decision was affecting Olivia. A father could be many things, but he couldn’t be a mother.

  He was on his way downstairs when his sister called. Taryn was notorious in their family for running behind. His mother was always saying she’d be late for her own funeral. Landris was more realistic. He had a standing wager with his brother that Taryn would be late for her wedding. With a grin, he touched the screen and prepared himself for the inevitable.

  * * * * *

  Faith zipped up her bag and took a quick survey of the room to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything. It wasn’t really necessary since she hadn’t there long enough to spread out. The vaulted ceiling enhanced the already large dimensions. Pine furniture and pinecone themed furnishings completed the woodsy atmosphere. A smile flitted across her lips. Her little house would probably fit inside this room.

  When Marly offered her an opportunity to spend the weekend in the mountains, it had seemed like a sign. Of what, she wasn’t sure, but she hadn’t questioned it. She’d been looking forward to some time away so she could figure out what she was going to do. That plan had just gone up in smoke.

  Her mind winged back to Thursday night. Connor had talked her into going to a late movie. After the hectic activities leading to the end of spring term, it had been a nice change to do something relaxing and fun. They’d sat in the last row of the almost empty theater, stuffing themselves with popcorn like a couple of teenagers. Later when they stood outside her front door, she’d hoped things would be different. She’d wanted things to be different. But when his arms went around her and his lips touched hers, she hadn’t felt anything. There hadn’t been any anticipation or excitement. Worse than her own guilt was the knowledge that Connor was becoming aware of her less-than-eager responses.

  Was there something wrong with her? Was she expecting too much?

  Dating as a widow was a world away from doing so as a carefree teenager. Her head was no longer in the clouds; the sometimes cruel hand of experience had shaped and molded her into someone less fanciful and more realistic. Ian was the man she hoped to grow old with. Losing him had left an empty place in her life that she wasn’t sure anyone else could fill. She didn’t want to move on if it meant leaving him behind. He would always be alive in her memories and forever in her heart.

  Connor was the third guy she’d gone out with since Ian’s death. Like Faith, he was a professor in the English department at Coastal Georgia. He was nice looking in a geeky sort of way, intelligent to the point of being slightly intimidating, soft-spoken, and serious-minded. Her acquaintance with him might never have ventured past seeing each other in the hallway and attending the same meetings if it hadn’t been for the literacy project. Working together on an almost daily basis had revealed many mutual interests.

  Before long they were seeing each other away from campus. As a boyfriend, Connor did all the right things. He brought her flowers, was affectionate without being pushy, and valued her opinion. Her family and
friends were thrilled that she’d found someone. There was only one problem: Faith wasn’t falling in love with him, and she didn’t think she ever would.

  Her glance went to the chair where Landris had so recently sat. This wasn’t the first time she’d found herself staring in that direction. It must be some sort of delayed reaction. After all, it wasn’t every day she woke up to find a man in her room. A man with baby blue eyes and a smile that could melt butter.

  She was debating on whether she had time to squeeze in a quick walk to the lake when her phone rang.

  “Hey, Marly. I was going to call you later.”

  “Faith, I’m glad I caught you. I’ve got bad news. You’re not going to be able to stay at the cabin. One of the owner’s relatives will be there later on today.”

  “Not later on. He’s already here.”

  “Oh, no! Was he very upset? Apparently, he’s some kind of VIP. I could really get in trouble for this.”

  “A VIP? He didn’t seem like it. Anyway, I’m in the process of leaving.”

  “I wonder who he is.”

  “His name is Landris Thomas. It didn’t mean anything to me.”

  “Landris? What kind of name is that? I’ve got my laptop here. I’ll google him.”

  Faith sank down on the bed. “I’m not sure I want to know who he is. What if he’s some important person I failed to recognize? This is what I get for avoiding social media. I’m so out of the loop on everything.”

  “It says he’s a professional baseball player. Former, I should say. He retired last year. Divorced with one child. Hey, he’s not bad looking. I never could resist a guy with blue eyes. Sure you don’t want to stick around?”

  “He told me I could stay.”

  “But you refused like the nicely-brought-up girl you are.”

  “Of course I refused. How would he explain me to his daughter?”

  Marly snort of derision was easy to hear. “Unless he’s different from every other sports figure, this situation has probably come up before. There are always women buzzing around these guys like bees to honey.”