Where I Belong

by Charlene Bright

  CHARLENE

  BRIGHT

  _________________

  Where I Belong

  A Brook Haven Romance Novella

  Where I Belong

  Copyright © 2017 by Charlene Bright

  All rights reserved. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, without the express written permission of the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Books by Charlene Bright

  Canton County Cowboys

  A Cowboy Worth Loving

  A Cowboy After Her Heart

  Dare to Love a Cowboy

  Captivated by a Cowboy

  Cowboys of Courage

  Courage to Follow

  Courage to Believe

  Courage to Fall

  Cherish Cowboys

  Cherished Love

  Cherished Moments

  Cherished Embrace

  Wild at Heart Cowboys

  Like a Cowboy

  The Cowboy in Me

  Cowboy Casanova

  Cowboy Nuptials

  To Have and Hold a Cowboy

  To Love and Honor a Cowboy

  To Cherish and Keep a Cowboy

  Christmas Romance

  I Saw Mommy Kissing a Cowboy

  Snowfall Kisses

  Where I Belong

  Sophie Michelson has always been serious. Even as a little girl, she knew what she wanted out of life. And unlike other little girls, that definitely wasn’t a husband and children. Sophie has a head for business and a burning desire for one thing: to own a bed and breakfast, just like the one she stayed at as a child. It will take everything she has, and she’s prepared to do anything to realize her dream.

  Now, after years of hard work, the time has finally come. With her brand new—okay, so maybe a little old—bed and breakfast in Brook Haven, Vermont, she is set to become the successful business owner she was always meant to be. There’s only one thing standing in her way: renovating the run-down B&B in time for Brook Haven’s annual Harvest Festival and the official start of the tourist season. Lucky for her, her mother is there to guide her through it and keep her life distraction free.

  Soon, though, the renovations get delayed, and Sophie starts to wonder if her B&B will ever be ready to open. The only solution is to call upon Brook Haven’s best carpenter to speed construction along. But as it turns out, Drake Tanner is exactly the kind of distraction she doesn’t need.

  Drake has spent his entire life in the quaint town of Brook Haven. Everyone there knows he’s the one you call when you need a hand. When he meets Sophie Michelson, he thinks his search for love might finally be over.

  As the two grow closer, Sophie learns that sometimes feelings can’t be denied no matter how hard you try, and she eventually has to admit to hers, just before a tragic accident threatens to tear them apart. Soon, she’s faced with a choice: follow her head, as she’s done all her life, or finally trust her heart.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Sophie stood outside in the crisp morning air and stared up at her dream. It felt almost surreal to her, like it had happened so fast. In reality, it had been a dream in the works for almost twenty years.

  When she was about eight years old, her parents took her on a trip to New England where they stayed in a bed and breakfast. The old house with the comfortable, warm furnishings and all of the kind people had made such an impression on her that it became her dream to own one of her own.

  When she got home from that trip, she’d set up her Barbie Dream Home to emulate the late 1800s house they’d stayed in as well as she could, and then she set about convincing all of her dolls and stuffed animals to come and have a stay. She became such a good hostess to all of her friends that there was rarely a weekend she didn’t have company.

  Just a few weeks before graduating high school, she saw a Help Wanted ad for a bed and breakfast off the coast of Maine. It had always been her intention to go to college but even at such a young age, she already knew that no amount of studying could rival experience. She applied for the job, got an offer, and, to her mother and her best friend’s chagrin, she took it. Her father was supportive—he always was—but it took him quite a few months to stop calling her every night and reminding her to lock her doors.

  She worked for a middle-aged couple with three children for three years. She loved it, and the family loved her back. She might have stayed there until she was able to afford a place of her own, but tragedy struck her family. Her father had a heart attack and died unexpectedly.

  Sophie’s mother, Brenda, was devastated by the loss. They’d known each other their entire lives, and she liked to tell Sophie the story of her father proposing when they were only ten. He made her promise she’d only marry him. Though they had each dated different people in high school and in college, they found each other again when they both returned home from college to Carolina Beach. Brenda told her the first time she saw him in town, she knew she’d almost walked away from her destiny. They were married a year later and, as far as Sophie knew, were still just as happy after thirty years of marriage as they had been as newlyweds.

  She rushed home to be near her mother and spent months nursing her out of her deep depression. Her mother eventually came back around to being herself. Sophie suspected that it had been more for her daughter’s sake than anything. She’d told her in one of their late-night conversations that the loss of her one true love had left a hole not only in her heart, but in her very soul.

  Sophie had done a lot of soul-searching after that and decided that she was better off investing thirty years of her life in something that couldn’t die and leave her alone and wounded. She put the small amount of money her father left her into a mutual fund and got back to the business of working toward her dream.

  She got a job at a B&B right on Carolina Beach facing the ocean. She worked the front desk, did light housekeeping, and eventually became in charge of arranging activities for the guests like bike tours and clamming nights with bonfires on the beach. She worked there until she was twenty-six, and along the way she lived a pretty simple and—some might say—uneventful life. She still held on to the friendships she’d had since early childhood, but she didn’t go out much. She kept her focus on the endgame … being the proud owner of her own B&B someday.

  Sophie had one boyfriend during all of this that she might term “serious.” He was serious anyway, and he talked about marriage and children. Sophie had to admit to him that she wasn’t ready for any of that, and she wasn’t sure she ever would be. She didn’t want to hurt him, but she also didn’t want him wasting his time thinking he would convince her otherwise. Once she’d set her mind to doing something, she knew she would move heaven and earth to see that it happened.

  When Sophie wasn’t working, she started taking classes at the local junior college, eventually getting a degree in business with an emphasis on general management. She also took cooking and baking courses. Her mother had done a good job of teaching her how to cook, but she wanted to have special skills for her B&B. In her imagination, she’d always have baskets of home-baked goodies ready for the guests in their rooms to surprise them when they arrived.

  She learned how to make her own soaps, and she’d even taken a gardening class in case the place she bought had room for a backyard garden. She never lost sight of what she wanted, and one morning while having breakfast with her mother, she saw the ad tha
t would change her life:

  Bed and Breakfast in Brook Haven, Vermont. Family owned and operated for over eighty years. Home and five-acre property for sale. Pet-friendly inn with hardwood floors and wood-paneled ceilings. Bathrooms all have tiled showers and original fixtures.

  The Lounge & Tavern boasts a large open space for couches, televisions, and pool and video games. There is a large dining room and a beautiful outside wooden deck with killer views on a sunny morning. The kitchen is spacious and equipped with both commercial and residential equipment. Two rooms on the ground floor are perfect for a spa and storage, and the basement and garage can be used for storage and laundry as well.

  It’s located on a small farm that has been equipped for horses and chickens. There is also a small pond surrounded by a grassy knoll area that is an ideal spot for weddings. The owner’s quarters consist of an open multi-use living area and bath and extends the full length of the third floor. There are two smaller guest houses on the property that both sit about a mile from the main lodge, perfect for use as a mother-in-law house or employee quarters alike.

  “This is the one, Mom!” she’d said excitedly. “I can feel it! This is the one I’ve been waiting for!”

  Brenda looked at her like she’d lost her marbles until Sophie sat the paper down in front of her. She skimmed through the ad, and when she looked back at her daughter, she forced a smile and said, “This one does sound like it’s calling your name.”

  “You know it!” Sophie immediately knew this was what she’d scrimped and saved for over the past nine years. Two days before her twenty-seventh birthday, she signed the final paperwork. She was the proud new owner of a bed and breakfast. It had taken some doing, but she finally talked her mother into selling the house in Carolina Beach and going with her. Brenda would live in one of the guest houses and Sophie would take the top floor of the main house. It was perfect … almost.

  The first thing Sophie noticed when she arrived at her dream was that “original fixtures” actually meant original. They came with the house when it had been built almost a hundred years ago and were sorely in need of replacing. The “commercial” equipment in the kitchen had been replaced at least once—the last time in the 1950s. The gorgeous wooden banister that led to the upper two floors of the house was scratched, dinged, and missing barrier pieces, and there were two places on the stairs she’d nearly fallen through.

  The outside was overgrown and the fences all needed mending, but none of that discouraged her. If there was one thing Sophie wasn’t afraid of, it was hard work. She still had enough savings left after putting the down payment on the property to do the major repairs. The minor things could be tackled even after the place was up and running. The thought of all of that work didn’t dampen her excitement at all. She had done a lot of research into the quaint little town that she hoped to become a part of soon, and ultimately she’d decided that September 22nd—the day of the Harvest Festival—was the day. That gave her two months to get the inn ready for its grand opening.

  She’d seen the signs for the Harvest Festival as she drove through the picturesque little town for the first time. She passed the community bank and a cute little restaurant painted blue called “Huckleberry’s.” There was a small clothing store and a five-and-dime and what looked like a family-owned grocery store. There was a small bar with a wraparound porch that was surrounded by giant maple trees. The leaves were still green, but Sophie could already picture it when they turned the bold orange and crimson colors that New England was famous for in the fall.

  She was almost in love with the town before she had even made it out past the rows and rows of gorgeous apple orchards and up to the bed and breakfast, where she met with the realtor and toured the property. It was love at first sight when she saw the house, but one look at the breathtaking views of the Green Mountains cemented the deal.

  She knew that it would be a lot of work, but her heart told her she could take this old place and breathe new life into it. She made an offer that very day and then drove back home. For the next three weeks, she prayed a lot and kept her fingers crossed, and the day they called her to let her know her offer had been accepted had been the happiest of her life.

  “What are you looking at, honey?”

  “Oh, Mom! You startled me.” Her mother had stepped up behind her, jostling her out of her reverie. She was wearing a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt from 1990 with Van Halen on the front of it. Sophie couldn’t help but smile. Her mother’s true loves had been her father, her, and classic rock music—not necessarily in that order. “I was just thinking about how lucky I am,” she told her.

  Her mother smiled and brushed a lock of Sophie’s dark hair back over her daughter’s shoulder. “This place has nothing to do with luck. This is all you, baby. You have worked so hard for this, and I’m so proud of you.”

  Sophie put her arm around her mother’s shoulders and gave her a squeeze. “Thank you, Mom. I’m proud of me too.” She couldn’t stop smiling.

  “What time is that carpenter coming by?” Sophie had contacted the only carpenter in town by phone about starting on some of the repairs. She immediately liked the sound of his voice. He was coming by today to have a look at what needed to be done and give her an estimate.

  “He should be here in half an hour or so.”

  Her mom nodded. “Okay, I’m going to head in and start scrubbing that kitchen.” The inn had been vacant for almost three years, so besides the repairs, it was going to take a lot of elbow grease to clean it up. She was grateful for her mother’s help, but she knew her mother was just as grateful to have something to do. She had been a hands-on mother and wife for thirty years, and even her active circle of friends couldn’t seem to fill the void that her daughter leaving home and then her husband dying had caused.

  Sophie was heading back inside the house when she heard the sound of a pickup approaching. She stepped up on the front porch, which was also in need of repairs, and watched the old green Ford come toward her up the rutted dirt road. The driver parked in the small lot, and as he stepped out, Sophie’s breath was actually taken away for a few seconds. She was glad it would take him a minute to reach her so that she could put her composure back together. She rarely lost control and even more rarely over a man, but this one … she was openly gaping before she caught herself.

  He was all hard angles and sharp lines with the most beautiful, long-lashed brown eyes that she’d ever seen. He had on a ball cap with the words The Fix-It Man, and warm chocolate waves of thick hair peeked out from underneath it. His work shirt molded to his broad chest, and his biceps swelled out of the short sleeves. He had long, jean-clad legs, and as he strode toward her, his handsome face broke into a wide grin.

  His teeth were white, but not exactly perfect, which made him even sexier in Sophie’s eyes. Perfect people are boring people, she’d always thought. Imperfect ones had much more character. He had full lips and they looked soft. She shivered a little as her mind went to a place it rarely did the first time she met a man: What would they taste like?

  When she was about three feet away from him, she told herself to get a grip, sucked in a shaky breath, and forced what she hoped passed for a non-lecherous smile.

  “Hi, I’m Drake Tanner,” he said in a silky, masculine voice. He held out his hand and Sophie took it. It was big and warm and she felt jolts of lightning shoot all the way up her arm.

  She held the smile and was grateful when her voice didn’t come out shaky. “Hi, I’m Sophie Michelson. Thank you so much for coming so quickly, Mr. Tanner—”

  “It’s Drake,” he said, “And it’s not a problem.” He looked up at the house and said, “I used to come here a lot when I was a boy.”

  “Really? You grew up in Brook Haven?”

  “Born and raised,” he said. “My best friend’s parents ran this place for a while. The owners lived in Rhode Island, and they paid them to live here and take care of the place.”

  “Oh, how nice. I think I fe
ll in love the first time I saw it.” She was staring up at the house again and caught herself. She probably had that goofy smile she got on her face every time she thought about being the owner. She checked herself and glanced over at Drake. His chocolate-brown eyes were on her face, and she suddenly felt warm all over.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Drake woke up to the sound of Hooter barking his fool head off … again. He looked at the lit-up numbers on the clock radio next to the bed: 3:22. He mumbled a curse under his breath. Hooter had the worst timing. Drake had been immersed in a dream about a dark-haired angel with ice-blue eyes. Her name was Sophie, and he hadn’t been able to get her out of his head since he’d met with her the afternoon before.

  This was the third night this week the dog had woken him in the middle of the night. The other two times, he was tired but only mildly annoyed. Tonight, he’d been just about to kiss the angel in his dream when the shrill sound of the dog’s barking pierced the night. He and Hooter had been together since they were both kids and he loved the old dog, but after tonight, he wasn’t sure the relationship could recover.

  He waited a few minutes to see if Hooter would stop barking on his own and when he didn’t, he forced his tired body up out of the bed and slipped into his boots. Grabbing his hat and a light jacket off the hook next to the door and a flashlight that sat up on the shelf in the kitchen, he stepped outside onto the porch. He shone the light around and caught the glint of yellow off Hooter’s shiny coat, then held the light steady and saw his canine friend standing at the end of the driveway facing away from him.

  Drake put his fingers in the sides of his mouth and whistled. Hooter gave him a cursory over-the-shoulder glance and then went back to his incessant barking. For a few seconds Drake considered going back inside, popping in a pair of ear plugs that he used for target shooting, and going back to sleep. However, he could see out of the corner of his eye that the light in his Uncle Mac’s little house up the road had come on and he knew there’d be no going back to sleep for him. With a grumble and a curse, he set off down the long dirt road to where Hooter stood, expecting to find him with a snake or a possum cornered against the mailbox.