by Natalie Ann
Believe In Me
Natalie Ann
Copyright 2021 Natalie Ann
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without a written consent.
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Contents
Author’s Note
Also by Natalie Ann
About the Author
Blurb
Prologue
1. Wakeup Call
2. Pleasant Conversation
3. Miserable Day
4. Small World
5. Little Interaction
6. Something Good
7. Many To Explore
8. Time For A Change
9. Fun And Happiness
10. A Mighty Pull
11. Work Through It
12. More Direct
13. Giving Right Back
14. Moving Fast
15. Testing The Waters
16. Worth It
17. His Own Thing
18. The Quiet Life
19. Give A Little
20. Jealous Fool
21. Just Surface
22. Facts And Proof
23. Perfect Guy
24. Earn Their Stripes
25. Progressing Along Nicely
26. Playing That Game
27. The Reason
Epilogue
Also by Natalie Ann
About the Author
Author’s Note
Author’s Note
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Also by Natalie Ann
The Road Series-See where it all started!!
Lucas and Brooke’s Story- Road to Recovery
Jack and Cori’s Story – Road to Redemption
Mac and Beth’s Story- Road to Reality
Ryan and Kaitlin’s Story- Road to Reason
The All Series
William and Isabel’s Story — All for Love
Ben and Presley’s Story – All or Nothing
Phil and Sophia’s Story – All of Me
Alec and Brynn’s Story – All the Way
Sean and Carly’s Story — All I Want
Drew and Jordyn’s Story— All My Love
Finn and Olivia’s Story—All About You
Landon Barber and Kristen Reid- All Of Us
The Lake Placid Series
Nick Buchanan and Mallory Denning – Second Chance
Max Hamilton and Quinn Baker – Give Me A Chance
Caleb Ryder and Celeste McGuire – Our Chance
Cole McGuire and Rene Buchanan – Take A Chance
Zach Monroe and Amber Deacon- Deserve A Chance
Trevor Miles and Riley Hamilton – Last Chance
Matt Winters and Dena Hall- Another Chance
Logan Taylor and Kennedy Miles- It’s My Chance
Justin Cambridge and Taryn Miles – One More Chance
The Fierce Five Series
Gavin Fierce and Jolene O’Malley- How Gavin Stole Christmas
Brody Fierce and Aimee Reed - Brody
Aiden Fierce and Nic Moretti- Aiden
Mason Fierce and Jessica Corning- Mason
Cade Fierce and Alex Marshall - Cade
Ella Fierce and Travis McKinley- Ella
Fierce Family
Sam Fierce and Dani Rhodes- Sam
Bryce Fierce and Payton Davies - Bryce
Drake Fierce and Kara Winslow – Drake
Noah Fierce and Paige Parker - Noah
Wyatt Fierce and Adriana Lopez – Wyatt
Jade Fierce and Brock James – Jade
Ryder Fierce and Marissa McMillan – Ryder
Fierce Matchmaking
Devin Andrews and Hope Hall- Devin
Love Collection
Vin Steele and Piper Fielding – Secret Love
Jared Hawk and Shelby McDonald – True Love
Erik McMann and Sheldon Case – Finding Love
Connor Landers and Melissa Mahoney- Beach Love
Ian Price and Cam Mason- Intense Love
Liam Sullivan and Ali Rogers - Autumn Love
Owen Taylor and Jill Duncan - Holiday Love
Chase Martin and Noelle Bennett - Christmas Love
Zeke Collins and Kendall Hendricks - Winter Love
Troy Walker and Meena Dawson – Chasing Love
Jace Stratton and Lauren Towne - First Love
Gabe Richards and Leah Morrison - Forever Love
Blake Wilson and Gemma Anderson – Simply Love
Brendan St. Nicholas and Holly Lane – Gifts of Love
Paradise Place
Josh Turner and Ruby Gentile – Cupid’s Quest
Harris Walker and Kaelyn Butler – Change Up
Philip Aire and Blair McKay- Starting Over
Nathan Randal and Brina Shepard – Eternal
Ryan Butler and Shannon Wilder – Falling Into Love
Brian Dawson and Robin Masters – Mistletoe Magic
Caden Finley and Sarah Walker- Believe In Me
Amore Island
Family Bonds- Hunter and Kayla
Family Bonds- Drew and Amanda
Family Bonds – Mac and Sidney
Family Bonds- Emily & Crew
Family Bonds- Ava & Seth
About the Author
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Blurb
Caden Finley was the success story that dreams are made of. A model in his teens, valedictorian of his class, graduated the top five from Carnegie Mellon and landed a job right on Wall Street where he continued to make a name for himself. Too bad all that work landed him in the hospital. Embarrassment over his health leads him to relocate to Upstate New York and a slower lifestyle. He’s out of his element and frustrated with it, but determined to keep his past mistakes where they belong...hidden.
Sarah Walker has always been second behind her professional baseball player brother, Harris. She was totally fine with it too. Until she realized that was the only reason half the men she dated wanted to be with her. Fed up with never being first in someone’s life, she’s decided it is time for a change. Time to put herself first and foremost and if she ends up single, then so be it. If she is happy, that is all that matters...or so she tries to convince herself.
Prologue
“This is going to be a record year for you, Caden,” Mike Chambers, one of the partners at their firm, said slapping him on the back as he took a seat at the table.
“It seems that way,” Caden said. He’d blown by last year’s earnings last quarter. With most of the month of December to go, he was closing in on the top earner.
“You’ve got the magic touch it seems. Knowing what to buy and when. What’s you’re secret?” Kyle Roberts asked, another partner at the firm. The two men he looked up to the most. The two that took him under their wing when he started.
He knew he was asked here to this dinner with the big guys because he was pulling in major revenue at just thirty-five years old. “Lack of sleep,” he said, grinning.
Mike and Kyle laughed and Caden decided to not tell them it was the truth.
He was working himself i
nto the ground just like he’d done most of his life from the day his mother brought him to a modeling agency. He hadn’t really thought much of it back then even though he knew he was good looking. It wasn’t as if he’d never looked in the mirror.
It hadn’t taken long for him to get signed, and the need to make more money and keep going to be the best filled his blood with adrenaline.
But he’d also been in the running for valedictorian and couldn’t let that slide. Protein, energy drinks, and exercise kept his body in good shape for the modeling, and his brain awake and alert for school.
Bad habits started young and they just carried over into adulthood, only worse. He hadn’t slowed down once.
“Keep up the good work, but don’t burn yourself out,” Mike said. “I’ve seen it happen to one too many.”
Too late, he wanted to say. The waiter came over and poured them all a glass of wine. He hadn’t eaten much more than a protein bar around noon and several cups of coffee that he’d exchanged for those energy drinks years ago. He reached for the glass and took a sip hoping it’d ease the burning he was feeling in his stomach from hunger.
When the wine didn’t work, he went for the water and hoped some bread was brought out soon. The lightheadedness was getting to him too.
“That’s why I do research when I’m working out,” he said. “Live and breathe it.” The TV was always playing tech news and trends when he was home. He never shut it off and never really tried either.
He was still grinning and his two bosses were shaking their heads at him, but continued to smile too. They probably didn’t care too much about his habits if he brought in the clients and kept them all flush.
“As long as you’re still breathing,” Mike said. “I’m starving. I’ve had a big steak on my mind all day.”
Caden picked the menu up. Steak sounded good. Protein always helped him. But when he was looking over the menu, his eyes started to glaze over and his heart was pounding so hard it was almost as if he could hear every beat. Not good at all.
He picked up his ice water and took another sip and realized his hand was shaking.
“Are you all right?” Kyle asked him. “Your face is flush.”
“Just a little warm,” he said. “I haven’t eaten much today.”
Mike lifted his arm and pointed to the breadbasket the waitress was bringing to another table. “Can we get one here too?”
“Sure can,” the waitress said, moving over to grab one and bring it back. She knew she’d get tipped well in a place like this with big spenders. Not only that, Mike and Kyle were regulars.
“Here,” Kyle said. “Get some food in you, then we can talk shop.”
He picked up a piece of bread and took a bite, chewed and swallowed. It tasted good. Almost too good for just bread, telling him he had to stop doing this to himself. There was no reason he couldn’t take fifteen minutes a few times a day to eat a damn meal.
When the bread was gone, he drank some more water. “So, what did you two want to talk to me about?” he asked, hoping for a big promotion.
That’s what all this work was for. He kept telling himself that once he got that corner office he could slow down.
Of course he’d been doing that his whole life. Saying once he’d met his goal he’d cut back. But another goal would pop up and another.
Infinite achiever was a good description of him.
“Let’s get dinner out of the way first,” Kyle said. “We’ve got plenty of time.”
“Sure,” Caden said, resisting the urge to look at his watch. He could be researching stocks right now and reading up on trends. Then he reminded himself this was still work and all part of it.
He picked his water up again, deciding to forgo the wine when his stomach started to burn. Guess the bread didn’t help much and he wished he had his bottle of antacids with him that he went through like candy at his desk like little kids did on Halloween night—only for him it was daily.
By the time the waitress came over, he was ready to order his dinner, but when he opened his mouth, nothing came out and all he saw was blackness.
1
Wakeup Call
Almost Four Months Later
“Let me know if you have any questions on the house,” Ryan Butler said when Caden shook his hand at the house closing. “I’m only a mile away and you’ve got my card.”
“Thanks,” he said. “I should be fine. The house is perfect for me.”
Four months ago if anyone had said he’d be buying a house in a development called Paradise Place in Upstate New York, he would have laughed them out of the room.
Born and raised right outside of Philly, he was used to the big city feel, the crowds, the noise, and the action. Now he felt like he was on some TV show where the houses were decent sized to large. Some older, a lot newer. He wasn’t in what was considered the newest section but darn close to it.
He supposed he lucked out that this house came on the market right when he finally decided to take Mike and Kyle up on their offer to relocate and oversee a satellite branch in Latham, just outside of Albany. It wasn’t what he’d always dreamed of in his life, but then again, he didn’t expect to embarrass himself and pass out in front of his bosses and a full restaurant either.
He still got his promotion, just not what he ever expected or had planned.
“It worked for me,” Ryan said. “I bought it when it was a few years old. Obviously our family built it. The only thing I changed was finishing part of the basement.”
“Which will come in handy for a gym,” Caden said. “This is more space than I’ve ever lived in.”
“I’m sure, if you lived in Manhattan,” Ryan said.
“Even my parents’ home outside of Philly wasn’t this big. And it was a lot older.”
He was just middle class growing up. His mother, a social worker and his father, a college professor. They weren’t loaded by any means and though they were ridiculously proud of him, they were also worried.
Getting that phone call that their son was in the ER and had passed out made them hop in the car and start driving. When they arrived, he was getting ready to be discharged.
It was bad enough he admitted that he had high blood pressure and an ulcer that had eaten darn near a quarter-sized hole in his stomach. He was better now but not a hundred percent and he wouldn’t be if he kept up the pace he was doing. Even with the changes he’d made, staying there wasn’t cutting it enough.
He couldn’t distance himself properly to get where he needed to be.
Having the doctor tell him he was a prime candidate for a heart attack before he was forty was a huge wakeup call.
“I’ve been here my whole life,” Ryan said. “Even lived in this development. Anyway, as I said, I’m not that far away. I moved into my fiancée’s house.”
“She lives here too?” he asked.
“Yeah. We built her a house over the summer when she relocated here,” Ryan said.
Fast engagement by the sound of it, but he kept that to himself. It wasn’t his business, but the guy seemed decent enough. Helpful too. They all were, even down to the realtor Ruby Turner. He’d seen the listing but couldn’t get to town to look it over, so she did a video walk-through with him first to see if he wanted to commit to the drive. He wasn’t sure of too many that would have gone out of their way quite like that.
The video tour was enough for him to actually put an offer on the house on the spot for fear of losing it. It’d looked huge to him but not nearly as big as it was in person when he’d driven up that following weekend to do an in-person walk-through. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do with all the space and knew furniture was the first thing on his list.
“I think I have everything covered. I don’t have a ton to move in. The movers should be there in an hour or so, so I should go figure it all out.”
“Have a good day,” Ryan said, and Caden left the lawyer’s office. Ruby had gone into another office for a closing a few minutes p
rior. Fast and easy in his book since he paid cash for the house. Hell, it was a steal in his eyes, considering what a house would cost right outside of New York City. And one this size, multiple millions easily.
It wasn’t that far to his house and when he pulled in he just felt this calm come over him that he wasn’t sure he’d ever experienced before.
Sure, it was quiet around here, but wasn’t that what he needed in his life? That he knew he’d never get better completely or stick to the new routine he’d developed if he remained in Manhattan? He just didn’t know how he felt about this other than he was positive he was going to be the fish on the grassy banks flopping around trying to figure out what to do next.
He’d start work full time on Monday, taking this week to get settled. Not that he felt he needed most of the week to do that. Then he reminded himself that it was thoughts like that that got him in this position to begin with.
When the last time he had a week off was...never. Even when he took a vacation, he was working.
And he’d be working this week too, but just remotely and checking in. He’d met the staff at this location and they all seemed nice enough.
